Rent control has done a great deal to prevent the housing shortage from having had worse effects during this postwar period of adjustment.  Rent control is still necessary to prevent widespread hardship and sharp curtailment of the buying power of millions of consumers in metropolitan areas.  I recommend, therefore, that rent control be continued for another year.

If we are to achieve a better life for all, the natural resources of the country must be regarded as a public trust.  We must use our precious assets of soil, water, and forest, and grassland in such a way that they become constantly more productive and more valuable.  Government investment in the conservation and development of our resources is necessary to the future economic expansion of the country.

We need to enlarge the production and transmission of public power.  That is true not only in those regions which have already received great benefits from Federal power projects, but also in regions such as New England where the benefits of large-scale public power development have not yet been experienced.

In our hydroelectric and irrigation undertakings, as well as in our other resource programs, we must continue policies to assure that their benefits will be spread among the many and not restricted to the favored few.

Important resource legislation which should be passed at this session includes the authorization of the St. Lawrence seaway and power project and the establishment of the Columbia Valley Administration—­the establishment of the Columbia Valley Administration, I don’t want you to miss that.

Through wise Government policies and Government expenditures for the conservation and development of our natural resources, we can be sure of transmitting to our children and our children’s children a country far richer and more productive than the one we know today.

The value of our natural resources is constantly being increased by the progress of science.  Research is finding new ways of using such natural assets as minerals, sea water, and plant life.  In the peaceful development of atomic energy, particularly, we stand on the threshold of new wonders.  The first experimental machines for producing useful power from atomic energy are now under construction.  We have made only the first beginnings in this field, but in the perspective of history they may loom larger than the first airplane, or even the first tools that started man on the road to civilization.

To take full advantage of the increasing possibilities of nature we must equip ourselves with increasing knowledge.  Government has a responsibility to see that our country maintains its position in the advance of science.  As a step toward this end, the Congress should complete action on the measure to create a National Science Foundation.

Another duty of the Government is to promote the economic security, the health, and the education of its citizens.  By so doing, we strengthen both our economy and the structure of our society.  In a nation as rich as ours, all citizens should be able to live in decency and health.