There is more involved here than realigning the wheels and smoothing the gears of administrative machinery.  The Congress rightfully-expects the Executive to take the initiative in discovering and removing outmoded functions and eliminating duplication.

One agency, for example, whose head has promised early and vigorous action to provide greater efficiency is the Post Office.  One of the oldest institutions of our Federal Government, its service should be of the best.  Its employees should merit and receive the high regard and esteem of the citizens of the Nation.  There are today in some areas of the postal service, both waste and incompetence to be corrected.  With the cooperation of the Congress, and taking advantage of its accumulated experience in postal affairs, the Postmaster General will institute a program directed at improving service while at the same time reducing costs and decreasing deficits.

In all departments, dedication to these basic precepts of security and efficiency, integrity, and economy can and will produce an administration deserving of the trust the people have placed in it.

Our people have demanded nothing less than good, efficient government.  They shall get nothing less.

VII.

Vitally important are the water and minerals, public lands and standing timber, forage and wild-life of this country.  A fast-growing population will have vast future needs in these resources.  We must more than match the substantial achievements in the half-century since President Theodore Roosevelt awakened the Nation to the problem of conservation.

This calls for a strong Federal program in the field of resource development.  Its major projects should be timed, where possible to assist in leveling off peaks and valleys in our economic life.  Soundly planned projects already initiated should be carried out.  New ones will be planned for the future.

The best natural resources program for America will not result from exclusive dependence on Federal bureaucracy.  It will involve a partnership of the States and local communities, private citizens, and the Federal Government, all working together.  This combined effort will advance the development of the great river valleys of our Nation and the power that they can generate.  Likewise, such a partnership can be effective in the expansion throughout the Nation of upstream storage; the sound use of public lands; the wise conservation of minerals; and the sustained yield of our forests.

There has been much criticism, some of it apparently justified, of the confusion resulting from overlapping Federal activities in the entire field of resource-conservation.  This matter is being exhaustively studied and appropriate reorganization plans will be developed.

Most of these particular resource problems pertain to the Department of the Interior.  Another of its major concerns is our country’s island possessions.  Here, one matter deserves attention.  The platforms of both political parties promised immediate statehood to Hawaii.  The people of that Territory have earned that status.  Statehood should be granted promptly with the first election scheduled for 1954.