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Works of Franklin D. Roosevelt

Source: The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt With a Special Introduction and Explanatory Notes by President Roosevelt, Volume 2, The Year of Crisis, 1933. New York, Random House, 1938, 122-29.

To the Congress:

The continued idleness of a great national investment in the Tennessee Valley leads me to ask the Congress for legislation necessary to enlist this project in the service of the people.

It is clear that the Muscle Shoals development is but a small part of the potential public usefulness of the entire Tennessee River. Such use, if envisioned in its entirely, transcends mere power development; it enters the wide fields of flood control, soil erosion, reforestation, elimination from agricultural use of marginal lands, and distribution and diversification of industry. In short, this power development of war days leads logically to national planning for a complete river watershed involving many States and the future lives and welfare of millions. It touches and gives life to all forms of human concerns.

I, therefore, suggest to the Congress legislation to create a Tennessee Valley Authority, a cooperation clothed with the power of Government but possessed of the flexibility and initiative of a private enterprise. It should be charged with the broadest duty of planning for the proper use, conservation and development of the natural resources of the Tennessee River drainage basin and its adjoining territory for the general social and economic welfare of the Nation. The Authority should also be clothed with the necessary power to carry these plans into effect. Its duty should be the rehabilitation of the Muscle Shoals development and the coordination of it with the wider plan.

Many hard lessons have taught us the human waste that results from lack of planning. Here and there a few wise cities and counties have looked ahead and planned. But our Nation has "just grown." It is time to extend planning to a wider field, in this instance comprehending in one great project many States directly concerned with the basin of one or our greatest rivers.

This in a true sense is a return to the spirit and vision of the pioneer. If we are successful here we can march on, step by step, in a like development of other great natural territorial units within our borders.

President Roosevelt's Notes
Added to the Published Congressional Message

. . . Pursuant to the foregoing message, the Congress passed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933.

The Tennessee Valley Authority created by this Act was established, in the words of the document, ". . . for the purpose of maintaining and operating the properties now owned by the United States in the vicinity of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, in the interest of the national defense and for agricultural and industrial development, and to improve navigation in the Tennessee River and to control the destructive flood waters in the Tennessee River and Mississippi River Basins. . . ."

The program aiming at the control and proper use of the water resources of the Tennessee River Basin began with the issuance of my Executive Order No. 6162 of June 8, 1933, starting the construction of the Cove Creek Dam (Norris Dam) on the Clinch River, the first of a system of publicly owned dams on the principal tributaries and on the Tennessee itself.

Unified operation of these storage and main-river dams is leveling off the seasonal fluctuations of the river, thereby reducing destructive floods and maintaining a channel suitable for nine-foot navigational from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Paducah, Kentucky. At the same time a valuable by-product in the form of hydro-electric power is released from the storage dams and as it passes the run-of-river plants on the Tennessee River.

. . . Erosion control and reforestation on steeper land in the Tennessee watershed are being carried forward by CCC labor from over a score of camps that have been placed under the direction of the Authority. . . .

. . . In reforestation work, 35,600,000 trees have been planted, and about 20,000,000 more are ready for planting during the winter of 1937. To further this forestry work, TVA has established three nurseries having a combined ultimate annual output of 42,000,000 young trees. Experiments looking to the improvement and use of crop-bearing trees such as honey locust, persimmon, and chestnut, in connection with erosion control and inexpensive stock-feeding practices, are well under way.

Basic in the readjustment of farm life to bring about natural storage of water on the land is the wider use of electric energy. The Congress, in adopting the TVA Act of 1933, laid down a definite policy to govern the Authority in disposing of this surplus power. To secure the widest use of this surplus power, especially in homes and on farms, Congress provided that in the sale of electricity, public agencies, States, counties, municipalities, and cooperate organizations were to be given priority.

Electric energy is being generated by the Authority at Wilson, Wheeler and Norris Dams. The energy produced is being used in the construction of new dams, operation of navigation locks, and in the operation of electric furnaces at Nitrate Plant No. 2. The surplus power is being sold at wholesale to seventeen municipalities, fifteen cooperative power associations, and nine industrial plants. A small portion is being sold directly by TVA temporarily to four rural power districts and to employees living on Government properties. . . .

The Authority's right to sell surplus power from Wilson Dam was upheld by the United States Supreme Court on February 17, 1936.

The Tennessee Valley Authority Act requires that Nitrate Plant No. 2 at Muscle Shoals be maintained in stand-by condition in event of national emergency. This is being done. At this plant experiments are being conducted with phosphorus for military purposes. . . .

The Tennessee Valley Authority has adopted a definite policy of collaboration and cooperation with the various State and local governments in the Tennessee Valley areas. This policy has been based upon the realization of the advantages of preserving and encouraging local initiative. The Authority—in its programs in the fields of water control, land conservation, utilization of surplus power, and regional planning—has been guided by desire to avoid creating a feeling of dependence upon the Federal Government by the local community. . . .

Cooperation has been particularly important in the following fields:

In plant food experimentation and development, there has been cooperation with the State land-grant colleges in the Valley and with the agricultural extensive services and county agencies.

In the local health activities, the Authority had given financial aid to county health departments where they already existed, and had stimulated the formation of such departments where there had been none.

In the field of education, the Authority had taken a leading part in the formation of the Tennessee Valley Council on Education and Public Administration which is devoted to a study of the educational problems and techniques for handling them. It had employed existing facilities of county and municipal agencies in furnishing education for the children of its employees and in the adult education of its employees. Where projects have been so located that the Authority had had to build its own schools, the facilities have been made available to the local authorities for other students.

In conservation of fish and game, it has furnished facilities to the local authorities; but has left the administration of a propagation and protective program to the local State departments and appropriate Federal bureaus.

It has made available certain of its reservoir areas for park development and has assisted in State and county planning.

By cooperation of this type with the existing educational, agricultural, conservation, public works, and planning agencies of the Tennessee Valley, the Authority has been able to prosecute its program more effectively and to move toward its goal of strengthening, rather than weakening, local institutions and initiative.

. . .The detail of the activities and accomplishments of TVA have been so fully set forth to indicate the immediate and permanent benefits which may come from the proper use of land and water based upon intelligent large-scale planning. Some of the things that have been and will be done in the Tennessee Valley can be repeated in many other regions of the United States. The Tennessee Valley development can serve as an example and as incentive for similar developments. It will be a laboratory for the Nation to learn how to make the most out of its vast resources for the lasting benefit of the average man and woman.