 It's time for the Lawn Gene Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour, brought to you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, a presentation of the Lawn Gene Wettner Watch Company, maker of Lawn Gene, the world's most honored watch, and Wettner, distinguished companion to the world-honored Lawn Gene. Good evening, this is Frank Knight. May I introduce our co-editors for this edition of the Lawn Gene Chronoscope? Larry Lusser of the CBS television news staff and Thomas Hamilton, Chief United Nations reporter for the New York Times. Our distinguished guest for this evening is Dr. Walter C. Lawner-Milk, noted soil conservationist and author of the Jordan River Development Plan. Dr. Lawner-Milk, you've just spent two and a half years in Israel, I understand, as a chief consultant in soil conservation and land reclamation. Could you tell us exactly what was the nature of your work out there? Well, we were trying to put the Bible lands on the contour, to cultivate the lands on the contour, because this part of the world has suffered a great deal of damage from soil erosion through the ages, and now this great influx of immigrants into the country calls for building up the productive capacity of these old lands. Actually, my work was carrying out of the third part of our scheme of the Jordan Valley Authority, which Dr. Lawner-Milk just mentioned. Well, may I ask her, what is the greatest need of the Holy Land at this time? Well, I would say that one of the greatest needs, besides peace, of course, is the full use of the land, with conservation of the soils and the rains that fall on them. And to bring this about, we need trained technicians who drive the stakes, indicating where these measures are to be put in, designing them and driving the stakes for them, and supervising the construction of such measures. Well, the United States, Dr., has just drawn up its own plan for the development of the Jordan River. And Mr. Eric Johnston just went out a few weeks ago to Israel and the Arab states. Could you tell us what you think about it? Well, I haven't really, I haven't seen this plan as it has the verbatim report of it, because we were pretty busy in Israel and those things didn't come to us. But as I gather from the reports of it, that it has in some of its features, or similar to our original plan, but I wasn't aware that the plan, as develops the full capacity of the water resources or of the power resources of the area. Dr., could you give us an outline of your original plan for the Jordan River development? Well, when I was out there for the Department of Agriculture to see what we could learn from the use of old lands through the centuries that might be of benefit to our farmers and stockmen here in the United States, I ran on to this situation, which seemed to me to offer a possibility of developing that part of the world to a much greater capacity to support people. The idea was very simple that the waters, the fresh waters, the sweet waters of the Jordan and the tributaries, be diverted for irrigation. These waters now, as you know, flow into the Dead Sea and are lost entirely by evaporation. And when such waters would be fully used, then the flow into the Dead Sea would be very low. As a consequence, the Dead Sea would begin to fall in level. And that would make possible, then, the second part of the plan of introducing Mediterranean sea water through separate canal system, of course, so that the salt water would not get mixed up with the freshwater or damage the land. This separate canal system then would drop the sea water through a fall of 1,300 feet to the level of the Dead Sea, through turbines, of course, hydroelectric power plants to produce a considerable amount of power. These were the two features of the scheme that seemed to me very possible on the basis of my examination of the countries. And so I recommended that it be engineered. And it was by James B. Hayes and by a consulting board consisting of John L. Savage, one of our greatest engineers who built the Boulder Dam and the Grand Coulee Dam, and the chief engineer of the Tennessee Valley Authority and others. Now, actually, the engineers were more optimistic in their findings than I was in my original estimates. This is called the TVA on the Jordan, and it's published as a book which you may know. Dr. Lara, will you think it would be possible to put back the Holy Land and the surrounding area to the state of abundance in which it was in biblical days? Well, I think in many ways it would be possible. In some ways it cannot be because the soils have been washed off the hills, in many cases to bedrock. These soils have been spread out on the flood plains and out on the coastal plains. Covering up good land of former times, the soil is deeper than necessary. In other words, there has been a movement of the soil from one place to another. But there is much good soil in these lower areas. Now, in that way, the productive capacity has been damaged and reduced. But other possibilities such as the bringing in water for irrigation, which was not done in ancient times, and the development of power potentials of the area would enable us to develop there, I think, a productive capacity that would probably exceed that of ancient times. You mean that modern technology has given you other tools that might make the parts of the Holy Land even more productive than they were in the days of the Bible? Yes, and of course there are technological institutes. There's only one really technological institute in that country. In Haifa, which is what we call the Technion of Haifa, is one of the foremost institutions of that kind, training young men which are needed for doing this technical work in the development and making full use of the resources of the area. Dr. Lottelman, how many people do you think that the Holy Land could really support if your plans for its development were carried out? Well, I made an estimate on the basis of the Jordan Valley scheme, which if you recall from my little book on Palestine Land of Promise, included the original mandate area to the Jewish National Home, which included what is now known as Trent's Jordan, as well as Palestine. And I estimated that on the basis of full use and development of the area, the total population might reach as much as six million people in those two areas. I've read your book, Dr. and I've also read the plan of the United States that Mr. Johnson had been presenting, and I think that there's only one important difference that I've been able to spot. And that is that under your plan, I believe the water taken from the Jordan would be used mainly for the coastal plain of Israel and as far as it would go, at least, to the Negev. Whereas under the plan of Mr. Johnson has been explaining to the governments, most of the water would be used for the Jordan Valley itself. I was wondering what would you recommend now? Mr. Johnson has taken this plan around. He's presented to the United Nations too. Can you see any way to reconcile any differences between your plan as elaborated and the American United States plan? How would you go about it? Well, we would go about it this way. We would take an inventory of the land. Not all land is suitable for irrigation. And topography, it may be too steep or cut up with gullies and canyons and so on. We have just finished an inventory of the lands of Israel, by the way, which now Israel is able to say. And this was done by the assistance of the FAO of the United Nations in supplying field experts in various phases of study of lands. This would be one of our first steps to find out by field examination of the soils what areas would be suitable for irrigation. Now, we suspect from all the examinations that we made that there is not enough land in the Jordan Valley itself to use all the water of the Jordan and the Yarmouk. If you'll notice from our studies, or Mr. Hayes' study, that the lands on the east of the Jordan, which are the best lands in the Jordan Valley, by the way, and most extensive, would need and use the waters of the Yarmouk. Whereas the lands on the west of the Jordan, below the Basin Plain, are unsuited or very poorly suited for any irrigation. Was the final question, Dr. Lottemann. I'd like to ask you, does your plan demand the collaboration of other countries, or what do you think the function of the United Nations is in the Middle East? Well, it calls for collaboration. Without collaboration in the development of these resources, I don't think we're going to get very far. That's why I think the United Nations must take the lead in bringing about collaboration. Collaboration rather than conflict is a solution. To permit conflict to arise in such an area would be, I think, a great misfortune. Because the rights of, water rights of both sides should be fully protected. And those can be protected by a full examination of the potentialities and the past uses of water and of the rights that have been established. So that the United Nations, it seems to me, has the key to this situation. Well, thank you very much, Dr. Lottemann. It's been very interesting to have you here tonight. The opinions you've heard our speakers express tonight have been entirely their own. The editorial board for this edition of the Laun Jean Chronoscope was Larry Leser and Thomas Hamilton. Our distinguished guest was Dr. Walter C. Laudermilk, noted soil conservationist and author of the Jordan River Development Plan. As the child of today can't imagine a world without television, so we all wonder how the Pilgrim Fathers ran their affairs without a single timepiece worthy of the name. The pendulum clock had not then been invented. In 1621, the first accurate timepiece was still a century away. As a matter of fact, the history of the Laun Jean watch is virtually the history of modern watchmaking. And we at Laun Jean give thanks daily that the founding fathers of our company elected to make watches of the highest character exclusively and that successive generations have rigidly adhered to this single ideal. 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We invite you to join us every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening at this same time for the Laun Jean Chronoscope, the television journal of the important issues of the hour, broadcast on behalf of Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Witner, distinguished companion to the world-honored Laun Jean. This is Frank Knight reminding you that Laun Jean and Witner watches are sold and serviced from coast to coast by more than 4,000 leading jewelers who proudly display this emblem. Agency for Laun Jean Witner watches. See the... This is the CBS television network.