By John C. Page, Commissioner of Reclamation, 1942

Power, Water and Food production Geared to the War Effort Throughout 16 Western States

MEETING ITS SHARE of the challenge hurled in the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Bureau of Reclamation has mobilized to make full contribution to the national war production effort laid down by the President in terms of planes, guns and tanks.

Girded for defense since the inception of the emergency, the Bureau's organization in 16 Western States was immediately thrown into higher gear to achieve effectively through its program of multiple-purpose projects certain major objectives, summarized as follows:

First: Power to overcome the supremacy of the Axis nations in electrical energy for the production of airplanes, warships, and munitions and for other vital services.

Second: Water for military centers, industrial and municipal purposes.

Third: Food, feed, and forage to meet the goals set by the Secretary of Agriculture in the Mountain and Pacific States, through assurance of irrigation water for established producing areas and for new land which can quickly be brought into production.

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The Bureau is concentrating on these imperative objectives for the duration of the war. Simultaneously, it has constantly in mind and is pressing investigations for the development of a post-war program of feasible projects which can promptly be launched to provide employment and settlement opportunities for returning servicemen and industrial workers and to provide an outlet for the products of the industrial plants now being created to wage war.

Source: The Reclamation Era, February 1942

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