david lillianthal administrator and champion of legislation for cooperative electric power george norris of great american statesman who long had dreamed of regional planning of setting up a national experiment in one region, which could serve as a yardstick for every region? this was the plan to change the river through a series of giant dams checking the floods. to open it to navigation from its mouth to its head wars. the farmers the benefit of modern science and research to help them control the water on their land and restore the fertility of the soil. to reforest millions of acres on the ravaged to exploit the mineral resources of the area to use the electric power generated by the dams to develop and rehabilitate industry in the cities. to electrify the farms through rural cooperatives above all to prove that human problems can be solved by reason science and education the tennessee valley was to be pioneered again this time to be developed not plundered. this time not for the benefit of a fuel but for the many who lived in it. these were the new pioneers. the architects the resea