408 NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 



tools, ideas, and institutions (which had been fashioned for the forested, well- 

 watered environment) did not work successfully at first. For approximately 45 

 years (from 1840 to 1885 and approximately along the 98° meridian of longitude), 

 the settlement halted close to the edge of the forested area while the new 

 weapons, tools ideas, and institutions required to conquer and make useful the 

 new arid environment were developed. 



As a matter of fact the settlement movement made a 2,000-mile jump across 

 the arid area by way of the Oregon Trail to the forested, well-watered environ- 

 ment of the Oregon Teri-itory and, having settled that familiar environment at 

 last, worked back from the West as well as forward from the East when the new 

 weapons, tools, ideas, and institutions required for the conquest of the arid, 

 imforested environment Avere developed. 



There were four major problems that had to be solved before the people could 

 settle and use the arid Great Plains : (1) Transportation, (2) fencing, (3) water, 

 and (4) farming. The transportation problem was breached by the railroads, 

 built with massive subsidy from the Federal Government. The fencing problem 

 was solved by the invention of barbed vsdre. The water problem called into being 

 great effort by the Federal Government which grew into the Bureau of Reclama- 

 tion and finally the Depai*tment of Interior among other things, and is still with 

 us. The farming problem was attacked in a major way by the Federal Govern- 

 ment through subsidies of the land-grant colleges with which to develop new 

 farming methods and for the formation of the Department of Agriculture (Webb, 

 "The Great Plains," 1931 ) . 



These movements (and other major developments such as the invention and 

 successful introduction of the Colt six-shooter, agricultural machinery suited 

 to the Great Plains, etc., were initiated during this 45-year pause at the edge 

 of the old environment. Only after these things were successfully initiated did 

 the tide of settlement move forward again into the new environment. 



The point is made that subsidy and great exertion by the Federal Government 

 was necessary to make this settlement and use of the new environment possible, 

 and that once the new weapons, tools, ideas, and institutions were developed 

 the conquest and use of the new environment made this Nation the most wealthy 

 and powerful on earth. Basically this was because for the first time in history 

 a numerous people could provide ever-increasing volumes of food with ever- 

 decreasing effort, and food for the Nation and a large part of the rest of the 

 world became no longer the crushing problem of survival. 



The development of the heavier-than-air flying machine, first as a weapon of 

 war in World War I, gives another example of this sort. The airplane waa 

 the tool which made possible the conquest and use of another new environment, 

 the lower atmosphere. INIassive subsidies and assistance were once again given 

 by the Federal Government for approximately a 30-year period (from 1920 to 

 1950) and by these means a great civilian air industry was formed that has 

 become a major sinew of our economy and a powerful backup force for our 

 defense, the Ukes of which no other nation has or is close to developing. 



The point is made, again, that this revolutionary conquest of a new environ- 

 ment was not likely to have been made without massive governmental aids, or 

 at least not in one lifetime. The point is also made again that, once the en- 

 vironment was conquered, the new industry in the new environment was not 

 only able to pay its own way. but became a major strength of the economy to 

 the extent that President Johnson in his budget message for fiscal 1906 an- 

 noxmced, with no great industrial cry. that special user taxes now would be 

 employed so that the civilian industry would itself pay for the services Gov- 

 ernment still renders to it. 



A third example of this sort, the conquest for use of a new environment, is 

 now being conducted almost exclusively by financing from the Federal Govern- 

 ment — the conquest for use of nearby space, and the beginning of exploratory 

 probes throughout our planetary system. I say "almost exclusively," because 

 the Comsat worldwide communication system, using satellites, is already being 

 developed as a commercial enterprise of considerable magnitude with major 

 investment of funds in it from the private sector of the economy. In spite of 

 the major costs to Government, now running in excess of $5 billion per year, 

 of this massive attack on the environment of nearby space in order to render it 

 useful to the Nation and to man, there is very little criticism of the cost and 

 there is enormous public support for the idea of reducing nearby space to our 

 xise. Very few doubt that this will be accomplished in the reasonably near 

 future. 



