Dear Mr. Paley:
Your Commission's report is a landmark in its field. I do not believe there has ever been attempted before such a broad and farsighted appraisal of the material needs and resources of the United States in relation to the needs and resources of the whole free world. Nor, in my judgment, has the conclusion ever been so forcefully stated and documented that international cooperation in resource development and international trade in raw materials is imperative to world peace and prosperity.
Your report likewise makes clear exactly where and how we need to conserve and strengthen our natural resources here at home, and to maintain our dynamic progress in science and technology. The conviction you have expressed that this Nation, despite its serious materials problem, can continue to raise its living standards and strengthen its security in partnership with other freedom loving nations should be heartening to people everywhere.
I have not yet had an opportunity to study in detail each of your specific recommendations but I am sure they merit careful consideration, not only by the Congress and the executive branch of the Federal Government, but by state governments, the general public and especially by farm, labor, industry and other private groups most closely related to the problem. It is my hope that your report will stimulate further study and discussion, both in and out of Government, of all aspects of this vital problem.
I extend to your Commission and its staff my thanks and congratulations for the public service you have rendered. Your study, I feel sure, will be appreciated not only in our own country but by people of other nations with which the United States is cooperating toward the preservation of freedom and peace, and the enrichment of human life.
Sincerely yours,
HARRY S. TRUMAN
[Honorable William S. Paley, Chairman, Presidents Materials Policy Commission, Washington, D.C.]
Note: The Commission's report was in five volumes: Volume I, "foundations for Growth and Security" (184 pp.), Volume II, "The Outlook for Key Commodities" (210 pp.), Volume III, "The Outlook for Energy Sources" (43 pp.), Volume IV, "The Promise of Technology" (228 pp.), and Volume V, "Selected Reports to the Commission" (154 pp.). All five volumes were published by the Government Printing Office in 1952.
For the President's letter to Mr. Paley on the creation of the Commission, dated January 22, 1951, see 1951 volume, this series, Item 19.
See also Items 191, 192, this volume.
Harry S Truman, Letter in Response to Report of the President's Materials Policy Commission. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/231033