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Vanderbilt Law Review

Authors

Gordon R. Clapp

First Page

183

Abstract

The world is searching for better and more efficient ways to use natural resources without loss of individual freedom or the destruction or negation of the initiative and energies of individuals. The Tennessee Valley is demonstrating that this can be done; that the people--farmers, workers, businessmen and citizens generally-- can mobilize their energies around the use of a great river and the more productive development of the forests and the minerals and the soil. The people of this Valley have proved that as they do these things agriculture and industry thrive and diversify and the individual finds greater freedom of opportunity for his talents. The Tennessee Valley region has a long way to go before it comes into its TVA own. But a deep frustration has been dispelled and a discouraging trend has been arrested. And in the process to date perhaps we have learned a little bit more about self-government. Perhaps we have found ways by which the state in serving the individual can help him to achieve voluntarily a better balance between his desire to take and his desire to give. Prosperity from our great physical resources the world over will be as nothing unless we can resolve this conflict within us as individuals. Dollars for methods and works that move us along a little in this direction are good investments. But their real values are beyond the reach of the standard tests of the market place.

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