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Show Dept. oi Interior Plans Jobs for iy2 Million Vets More tlian 1,500,000 of our fighting men, as they head home from Berlin Ber-lin and Tokio, can find at least a year's employment on postwar projects proj-ects already tentatively outlined for congressional approval by the department de-partment of the interior. In addition, addi-tion, if congress approves, the program pro-gram would offer settlement and other opportunities affecting the lives of millions of Americans in every part of the country. Interior's proposed projects include in-clude the opening up of a vast new Irrigated farming empire, hydroelectric hydroelec-tric power development, flood control, con-trol, forest protection, new mining techniques, fish and wildlife conservation con-servation and many other economically economi-cally desirable developments. New and fertile farmland aggregating aggre-gating as much territory as the state of Maryland would be brought into cultivation as one of the many projects of the bureau of reclamation. reclama-tion. If congress approves, the bureau will be ready to proceed with 230 projects in 17 western states. A major portion of the building would cover a four-year period. Actual construction would provide 553,000 man-years of employment, and the manufacture of contributory contribu-tory materials would require another 698,000 man-years of labor. Construction costs are estimated at $2,952,613,000, all of which except ex-cept that portion dealing with flood control and navigation would be reimbursable under the reclamation reclama-tion laws. Most of the program has to do with Irrigation projects which would provide water for 6,707,639 acres of never-used but potentially - fertile soil, and supplemental water to 9,365,295 acres on which farming is a precarious gamble due to inadequate inade-quate and uncertain rainfall. Settlement on the newly-irrigated land alone is possible for at least 85,000 farm families, in addition to 50,000 on the semi-arid land to be furnished with supplemented water. For every additional farm family settled on the fully irrigated land another family can find a good livelihood live-lihood in new or enlarged villages and cities resulting from the development. de-velopment. The program should go a long way toward solving the postwar economic eco-nomic problem of the throngs of war workers who have migrated to the West to build ships and airplanes air-planes and other war weapons. Hydroelectric power at Grand Coulee, Bonneville and other sites, has been the lodestone attracting these hordes of war workers. And -tfheap hydroelectric power will play a arge part in keeping them there. The West, having tasted industrial blood during the war years, is not likely to be satisfied with less sub-' sub-' stantial fare when peace comes. Grazing Service. Improvement of 142,000,000 acres of federal range lands in 10 western states to provide a more stable and dependable source of livestock products prod-ucts is contemplated in the postwar plans of the grazing service. It will be ready with plans for the construction of thousands of small range - improvement projects, grouped into 14 major types such as water development, fencing, revege-tation, revege-tation, erosion control, stock trails, bridges, truck trails, Are protection and the control of rodents and other predatory animals. Heretofore the lack of such facili-. ties has resulted every year in losses estimated in the millions of dollars, greatly overshadowing in the long-run long-run the $226,000,000 estimated cost of the whole improvement program. Thousands of head of livestock, for instance, die of hunger and thirst in this expanse of semi-arid territory. Besides, the losses from uncontrolled uncon-trolled depredations of predatory animals, floods, forest fires and other oth-er damage from nature on the rampage ram-page are almost incalculable. Fish and Wildlife Service. Protection of the nation's billion-dollar billion-dollar game and fur assets and construction con-struction of facilities to furnish scientific sci-entific assistance in attaining a potential po-tential annual production of seven billion pounds of fishery products are featured in the postwar plans of the fish and wildlife service. Anticipating a resurgence of both industrial fishing and an intensified urge of the amateur Isaak Waltons and Nimrods, it has a program, costing cost-ing about $115,000,000, that could provide approximately 55,000 man-years man-years of employment spread over three years, if congress approves. Much of the work can be performed by unskilled labor, since it involves such things as the construction and development of wildlife refuges, fish hatcheries and rearing ponds, stream and lake improvement, sew- other tourist-attracting facilities calls for an annual expenditure of $21,500,000 over a decade, requiring annually 8,600 man-years of labor, mostly of a seasonal and intermittent intermit-tent nature. National park service officials estimate esti-mate that its annual outlay for improvements im-provements would average about one dollar per visitor at the 1941 rate of tourists to national park areas, containing many of nature's finest masterpieces. Since the parks are scattered throughout the country, such an expenditure ex-penditure would benefit all sections. In addition to the aesthetic value of keeping our parks in tip-top condition, condi-tion, park officials believe that the investment in the tourist trade will be decidedly good business. Into the interior department's list of postwar proposals has gone much painstaking study by experts in their respective fields. They are convinced con-vinced that the projects which they have worked out are forward-looking but in no way visionary. Congress, of course, will have the last word. To translate the program into reality will cost perhaps three and three-quarters billions of dollars,: about as much as it costs to carry' on the war for two weeks. age and ' industrial waste disposal, reforestation and improvement of wildlife habitats. ; Scientific assistance to the fishing industry calls for such facilities as experimental stations and research laboratories, vessels for the development develop-ment and exploration of fishing grounds and fact-finding surveys to provide comprehensive inventories of the status of the industry. An important im-portant part of its program also is the control of predatory animals. War conditions have so seriously disrupted this work, that rodents and other predatory animals are seriously interfering with sheep and poultry growing in many parts of the country. National Park Service. In the expectation of again playing play-ing host to millions of American vacationists, va-cationists, the national park service is getting ready to play its part in the nation's resurgent tourist business, busi-ness, which before the war accounted ac-counted for expenditures equal to that of the steel industry. Normal expenditures will require an outlay of about $11,000,000 immediately imme-diately following the war, providing approximately 4,300 man-years of part-time labor. The long-range program pro-gram for parkways, secondary roads and trails, administrative, utility and residential buildings and |