Statement by the President Upon Appointing the Members of the Missouri Basin Survey Commission.

I HAVE today appointed James E. Lawrence, editor of the Lincoln Star, Lincoln, Nebr., to be Chairman of the Missouri Basin Survey Commission, and Senator Thomas C. Hennings, Jr., of Missouri, to be Vice Chairman. In addition, I have appointed the following Members of Congress and private citizens to be members of the Commission:

Senator James E. Murray of Montana

Senator Milton R. Young of North Dakota

Representative Wayne N. Aspinall of Colorado

Representative Clifford R. Hope of Kansas

Representative James W. Trimble of Arkansas

Fred V. Heinkel, president, Missouri Farmers Association, Columbia, Mo.

Kenneth Holum, farmer and member of the State legislature, Groton, S. Dak.

C. T. Person, dean, School of Engineering, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyo.

Harry J. Peterson, executive secretary, Minnesota Association of Cooperatives, St. Paul, Minn.

I am very glad to have been able to appoint this group of distinguished citizens, each of whom will bring to the Commission special competence and experience which should be of great value in the Commission's work. In appointing the congressional Members, I have been aided by the advice of the Speaker, the Vice President, and the chairmen of the three committees in each House most directly concerned with the work of the Commission--the Committees on Public Works, Interior and Insular Affairs, and Agriculture. In appointing the members of the Commission from private life, I have sought men from the basin area who have an understanding of the problems the Commission will study, and who have not prejudged the issues the Commission will face.

I am told there has been some objection made to the establishment of this Survey Commission by those who have a vested interest in the status quo. The occurrence of devastating floods in Kansas and Missouri last year is a sufficient answer to such shortsighted objections. Quite obviously, we need a thoroughgoing and impartial review of the plans for the Missouri basin, which will take account of the valuable work done in recent years by Federal, State, and local agencies, by private groups, and by such expert bodies as the President's Water Resources Policy Commission.

The men I have appointed will, I know, approach their task with the sole purpose of carrying out the important objective I stated when I established the Commission: to give the country their advice as to the best way to proceed to achieve an orderly, businesslike development of the resources of the Missouri basin--a development that places first things first and provides for the greatest resulting benefits for all the people of the basin and the Nation.