Water Resources People and Issues
way things had been treated or whatever, to convince Kennedy that that
document was necessary at that particular time, and I
Well, I wasn't in a position to know why he sent it up at that time. Remember,
I was in the legislative branch then, back at the Library of Congress. But I feel
sure that Senate Document 97 was presented to Kennedy for his signature-and
I haven't looked at this document for probably a decade or more-in response
to his decision to implement the Kerr Committee report. I think the real reason
was that he needed Kerr's vote on other things, and he saw promoting the Kerr
report as one way to butter him up.
Don't forget, he also, shortly after he became President, sent a special message
to
A: Yes, that's what I referred to a few minutes ago, and in that message he told
them to do what was needed. That was the basis for the Geological Survey's
attempting to have a Water Resources Research Institute. But whether this
group within the Interior Department that was pushing for a Department of
Natural Resources was using the message, hoping to take over the whole water
resources area had anything to do with the President's message, I don't know.
I was not in a position to know how it came about, and so I can't trace the
history of it the way Henry Caulfield probably would. But Henry was in the
Interior Department; he would see things as a part of Interior policy whereas
if you went to Gene Weber, he would probably have seen things differently
from the viewpoint of the Corps. I don't really know who in Agriculture was
involved in this.
Agriculture was more or less left in a shambles, as far as water policy was
concerned, after Secretary Benson disbanded the
of Land Utilization.
The way it looked to me, there was no real overall coordination in the
department, so I don't know what they were doing in the beginning of the
Kennedy administration. I can't even remember who was the Secretary of
Agriculture then. There was an assistant secretary who served on the ICWR,
but I can't remember his name either.
So, I don't think I can help you in getting the rationale for Kennedy's actions.
Q .. Well, let's go back to you and what you were doing specifically. How long
were you actually working for Senator Kerr then?
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