Charles Lane 



Our trip to Washington, D. C. was one of the highlights of my life. It was probably W 

 most educational and enjoyable trips I have ever taken. To be In the Capitol when Congress 

 Is In session as we were, one can almost feel the power and Intensity of the problems that 

 are there. I believe all of us, Pete, Carl, Frank, Slim, Elmer and I had the same feeling. 



The reason for our trip was to let the people In Washington know that there are some 

 people out here In Montana that know about conservation problems, and we are working to try 

 to solve some of them. We wanted to tell them we appreciate what help we have received and 

 would like some more In the future. 



We tried to stress tli all agency people that we are all after the same thing and to cut 

 down on duplication of effort. There Is too much to do and too little time to waste time 

 doing things twice. We asked for more cooperation In overall planning of natural resources. 

 We on the land and the agency people must work together; we must combine the best Ideas and 

 efforts of both to get the Job done. 



One thing that Impressed us was that most of the people we talked to understood quite 

 a bit of our program. They appeared as concerned as we are. This Is good. Now I feel vf 

 should follow this trip up with another one at least once a year. We seen to have people 

 on our side and In order to keep them Informed first-hand, we must conraunlcate with them 

 first-hand. With the ground work w? laid on this flr-^t trip, we must follow It up. 



The people we met with Included: Senator Mike Mansfield; Representative James Battln; 

 Representative Arnold Olsen; Vic Relnemer; Ray Dockstetter; Representative James Whltten; 

 Alfred L. Edwards, Deputy Assistant Secretary, USDA; Kermeth Grant, Associate Administrator, 

 SCS; George McCarthy, Office of Economic Opportunity; Charles W. McDougal, Assistant Admin- 

 istrator, USDA; Edward Cliff, Chief of Forest Service, DSDA; Boyd Rasmussen, Director, ELM; 

 and Gil Stamm, Acting Comnlssloner, Bureau of Reclamation. A 



You can see we had a busy three days meeting with the above people. It was a privi- 

 lege to be one of the representatives of the MASWCD, and I feel we did ourselves some good. 

 Thank you, 



********** 

 Frank Thompson 



The success and effectiveness of our trip In behalf of Soil and Water Conservation Is 

 hard to evaluate as yet. It may take considerable length of time before any real and tan- 

 gible results come to light. 



The following left on March 16th and returned on the 20th: Carl Johnson, A. G. 

 Slattery, Elmer Lund, Charles Lane, Frank Thompson, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Jackson, and Mr. and 

 Mrs. A. B. Llnford. If the manner In which we were received by those with whom we had 

 appointments Is any measure of our success, I would say we did very well. The discussion 

 and question sessions took much more time than we had planned to ask for. 



We had appointments with the following Congressmen: the Honorable James Whltten, 

 Representatives James Battln and Arnold Olsen, Senators Mike Mansfield and Lee Metcalf . We 

 told them the facts as we see them from the grassroots standpoint. We explored the possi- 

 bility of getting funds restored for the ASCS, which have been cut from the budget and an 

 Increase in Conservation Operation Funds for the SCS and urged support for other legislation 

 of interest to Conservation Districts. 



Sessions were held with the following agency personnel. We met with Mr. Gil 

 Assistant Administrator of the Bureau of Reclamation and talked on small watershed project^ 

 and the 160 acre limitation. There seems to be some action to amend the law to change thlj 



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