Because it did these things the Forest Service has made enemies, of some
of whom it is justly proud. It has been easy for these enemies to raise
the cry of illegality, novelty, and excess of zeal. But in every
instance the Service has been fortified either by express statutes, or
by decisions of the Supreme Court and other courts, of the Secretary of
the Interior, of the Comptroller, or the Attorney-General, or by
general principles of law which are beyond dispute. If there is novelty,
it consists simply in the way these statutes, decisions, and principles
have been used to protect the public. The law officers of the Forest
Service have had the Nation for their client, and they are proud to work
as zealously for the public as they would in private practice for a fee.
So I think the ghost of illegality in the Forest Service may fairly be
laid at rest. But it is not the only one which is clouding the issues of
conservation in the public mind. Another misconception is that the
friends of conservation are trying to prevent the development of water
power by private capital. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The
friends of conservation were the first to call public attention to the
enormous saving to the Nation which follows the substitution of the
power of falling water, which is constantly renewed, for our coal, which
can never be renewed.
Pages:
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58