Such a plan must consider every use to which our rivers can be put, and
every means available for their control. It must deal with such great
questions as the relation of the States and the Nation in the
construction and control of the work, and with terminals and the
coordination of rail and river transportation. The engineering
difficulties may be larger than any we have yet solved. The adjustment
of opposite demands between conflicting interests and localities, and
other questions of large reach and often of great legal complexity will
tax the powers of the best men we have. No part of the work will require
greater temperance, wisdom, and foresight than certain questions of
policy and law.
I have observed in the course of some experience that difficulties
originating with the law are peculiarly apt to foster misconceptions. It
happens that the Forest Service has recently supplied a typical example.
Certain men and certain papers have said that the Forest Service has
gone beyond the law in carrying out its work. This assertion has been
repeated so persistently that there is danger that it may be believed.
The friends of conservation must not be led to think that before the
Forest Service can proceed legally with its present work all the hazards
and compromises of new legislation must be faced.
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