A favorite one is to assert
that the Forest Service, in its zeal for the public welfare, has played
ducks and drakes with the Acts of Congress. The fact is, on the
contrary, that the Service has had warrant of law 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. Not once has the Forest Service been defeated
or reversed as to any vital legal principle underlying its work in any
court or administrative tribunal of last resort. It is the first duty of
a public officer to obey the law. But it is his second duty, and a close
second, to do everything the law will let him do for the public good,
and not merely what the law directs or compels him to do. Unless the
public service is alive enough to serve the people with enthusiasm,
there is very little to be said for it.
Another, and unusually plausible, form of attack, is to demand that all
land not now bearing trees shall be thrown out of the National Forests.
For centuries forest fires have burned through the Western mountains,
and much land thus deforested is scattered throughout the National
Forests awaiting reforestation.
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