Fortunately, the charge of illegal action is absolutely false. The
Forest Service has had ample legal authority for everything it has done.
Not once since it was created has any charge of illegality, despite the
most searching investigation and the bitterest attack, ever led to
reversal or reproof by either House of Congress or by any Congressional
Committee. Since the creation of the Forest Service the expenditure of
nearly $15,000,000 has passed successfully the scrutiny of the Treasury
of the United States. Most significant of all, not once has the Forest
Service been defeated as to any vital legal principle underlying its
work in any Court or administrative tribunal of last resort. Thus those
who make the law and those who interpret it seem to agree that the work
has been legal.
But it is not enough to say that the Forest Service has kept within the
law. Other qualifications go to make efficiency in a Government bureau.
A bureau may keep within the law and yet fail to get results.
When action is needed for the public good there are two opposite points
of view regarding the duty of an administrative officer in enforcing the
law.
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