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Show head or reclamation" service degraded! 06 A J8 t38 & & SERVICE VETERAN DROPPED FRO1 PAYROLL TjlATHEIt of reclamation service, man who reduces him, his successor and one of his greatest achiovemonts. Prom i loft to right Franklin K. Lane, secretary of the Interior; Frederick Haynes Newell, whom he has dismissed from the office of director of the reclamation service and put on day wages, and Arthur P. Davis, the new director of the reclamation service. Below is pictured the great Roosevelt dam in Arizona. It is 284 feet high, 1080 feet Ions, and so wide that thero is a roadway along the top. It supplies with water 180,000 acres of the richest land in the world. From the power plant scon in tho foreground four cities receive electricity. It " i " - - 1 is X, j - i t s J ."t' I V a t If' , J & Xl X, Kfr t'l i s;r ivil Ajx tsi In'lJl i& x'il JLfa'ltti'JJ if X - f : i - rr ' ' il X - SK, ' V-?5r s k li ir ' r -x , r 4. ( ;tx" II n w "l ,-f - x,r- , k II i ,t" , 4 v; K' ' ' I It v i i H oft ' -t. , ,, t 1 f r' - w , -r-. .H V' '"V ' I ' I ti. r v , t ' . t , ? - ; Secretary of Interior Replaces Re-places Efficient Engineer With New Commission. By HERBEET TEMPLE. ! By International News Service. WASHINGTON, Feb. 6.On March 1 next the distinguished engi- t neer, Frederick Haynea Newell, who for thirteen years has directed the $90,000,000 irrigation irri-gation projects of the United States without a suspicion of graft or inefficiency ineffi-ciency beljug breathed by either friend or foe, will leave hia $7500-a-year office at the Instance of Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane and become a "consulting "con-sulting engineer" at vagea of ??5 per day when employed. The "father of tho reclamation service serv-ice is to be degraded. The Washington officials and far-sighted far-sighted national politicians are far more agitated over this Newell case than is the general public. The Democrats will have to answer for it in 1916, ia the common com-mon comment. "Mr. Ne well's removal is a blow not only to the efficiency of the reclamation service. but to good administration throughout the government aervice, and especially to the morale of the govern- : ment servants themselves," said Gifford i Pinchot, While politicians from now on will argue the Newell case pro and con, Mr. Newell himself is not a politician. He is slmplv a hard-working executive. He has made no statement for publication nor given an indication of the humiliation . he naturally must feel over his rcduc- I tion from rank after more than a dozen years of consistent service. "Republics are ungrateful." Had No Quarrel. The analogv to the removal of Gifford Pinchot as chief forester by President Taft, which is being drawn here, is most imperfect. Mr. Pfnchofs policies led him to an open rupture with the president. I ?o far as is known, Mr. Newell has had i no controversy or differences with either Secretary Lane or President Wilson. j This analogy would not have been sug- i gested were It not that Mr. Pinchot has , come etrongly to Mr. Newell's defense ! and that they were both active in spreading spread-ing the gospel of reclamation when congress con-gress was being induced to commit the nation to Its great policy. Mr. Pinchot. a Roosevelt appointee, lute Mr. Newell, waa removed by President Taft after a newspaper controversy over the differences of the Taft and Roosevelt Roose-velt conservation policies. The result waa the celebrated Ballinirer-PInchot investigation. investi-gation. In these doinca Mr. Newell was only very Indirectlv involved. In curtailing the authority of Mr. Newell, Secretay Lane has appointed a commission to do much of his work. This new bodv will consist of two officials offi-cials of the service. Including the directory direct-ory and three outsiders. The latter are all Democrats and their salaries are very I good. Mr. Newell Is asked to become one of the four consulting engineers of the reclamation recla-mation service. These men are called upon to givo advice on construction prob-1 prob-1 lems as they arise. They are paid by j the dav. In 1013 they worked about i half tim Mr. Newell takes the place of j one of the consulting engineers who has s just resigned. No Corruption. Mr. Lane and his friends declare thnt, although there has never boen any t.iint or t-orrint!nn in t.!u- reclaimUion service. th- exiM--;.diTi,re of ? 1 .n.in.-i'iu a month !s 1M 'or ";ni to a tiard th;:n to mi Individual, in Mr. Newell's place as di rector of the service, secretary Lane Is installing Arthur P. Davis, who has been chief engineer under Mr. .Newell. Mr. Davis Ib a friend of Mr. Newell. He Is recognized for his ability as an engineer throughout the world and has been associated as-sociated with the service aa long as Mr. Newell. Mr. Davis now receives $7000 a year. Under the reorganization scheme the offices of-fices of director and chief engineer are combined and after March 1 Air. Davia will receive $7500 a year for filling both positions. No economy Is effected by this change, however, for Mr. Lane has created a new office, chief of construction. To this post S. B. Williams, one of the Panama canal engineers, has been appointed, at the salary of $6500 a year. The three Democrats Demo-crats appointed to membership on the new commission are Will R. King of Oregon, Ore-gon, chief counsel, at $6000 a year; W. A. Ryan, who was an associate of Mr. Lane on the interstate commerce commission, com-mission, comptroller, at $4000 a year, and J. D. O'Donnell of Montana, supervisor of irrigation, at $20 a day, to be paid out of an allowance of SfioOO, which is asked in the present estimates to congress. In a letter to Edward Breck, a close friend and relative of Mr. Newell, Theodore Roosevelt compares his service to that of Colonel George W. Goethala In building build-ing the Panama waterway. Roosevelt Comments. Mr. Roosevelt says in part: For fourteen years I have followed at first hand the work of Mr. Frederick Freder-ick H. Newell. During the eight years I was president he was one of my right-hand men. It is too often the ca3e In the United States that the men who are most prominent prom-inent who attract the most attention atten-tion are Inefficient or even vicious public servants, whereas the men who do the best work work, I think, rather better than the work done by the public servants of any other na-I na-I tion pass almost unnoticed and without with-out any adequate reward. 1 Mr. Newell belongs to that small group of invaluable public servants of whom the most prominent representative repre-sentative Is Colonel Goethals. Public attention has been attracted to Colonel Colo-nel Goethals, although it is extremelv unlikely that he will ever get any material reward, such as his services, if rendered to a nation like Germany or England, would Infallibly bring; but public attention has not been attracted at-tracted to Mr. Newell. He has rendered the kind of invaluable service that Sir William Gosslln rendered ren-dered to the British empire in connection con-nection with the utilization of the waters of the Nile, and his work has been even more difficult. He is a public servant of whom it ia the bald and literal truth to say that by his service he has made all good American citizens his debtors. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. ' Pinchot Makes Statement. However concealed under the name of administration changes. Mr, Newell's removal re-moval is inexcusable Gtfford Pfnchot writes to Mr. Breck. Here Is Mr. Plnchot'a letter to Mr. Breck in part: Frederick Haynea Newell, who hajs recently been removed from his position po-sition as director of the XTnited States reclamation service, is, in mv judgment, judg-ment, one of the two or three most useful public servants of his generation. genera-tion. Mr. Newell not only created the United States reclamation service after aft-er the passage of the reclamation bill in 1S02. but, by years of patient Investigation In-vestigation 'beforehand, he laid the foundations of exact knowledge, upon which tiie reclamation service was i built and aroused the pulilio senti- : mnt which made it possible. Mr. Newell has not succeeded In being be-ing popular with that portion of ti.e people of the wosi who want moi from the go enpv.eut th:m thv uu.ch; to trot, and tills is to his ere lit. No efficient guardian of the public wel fare can he popular with the gTab- bers or the crooks. ; Mr. Newell's removal is a blow not j only to the efficiency of the reclamation reclama-tion service, but to good administia-! administia-! tion through the government service, I and especially to the morale of the j government servants themselves. If ! a man with Newell's record can be treated as Newell has been treated the incentive to unselfish public ser-! ser-! vants cannot but be lessened and i weakened, and the whole government machinery must suffer, and in this i case has suffered accordingly, i In conclusion, I repeat that Fred-j Fred-j erick Haynes Newell la one of the two or three most valuable and most ! effective public servants of his time, I and that his removal from office, however concealed under the name of administrative changes, is inexcusable, inexcus-able, and that it constitutes a serious seri-ous blow not only to the reclamation reclama-tion service, but to the efficiency and integrity of the government Bervlce everywhere. GIFFORD PINCHOT. Friend Is Successor. Mr. Newell is now 52 years old. After being graduated as a mining engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Boston, he became a member mem-ber of the United States geodetic survey sur-vey and went west. While working in the west he became intimate with Mr. Davis, who now succeeds him. They are such good friends that those close to Mr. Newell say it is much easier tor hlra to turn over his post to Mr. Davia than it would be to any other man. i One of the achievements of the rec-1 rec-1 lama t Ion service of which Mr. Newell Is proud, is the Shoshone dam in Wyoming. It Is the highest dam In the world, 328 feet from top to bottom and 300 feet across the top. It forms a lake of ten square miles of water 150 feet deep, which Irrigates 150,000 acres of desert. Under construction now Is the Arrow Rock dam in Idaho, which will be 351 feet high. Another one nearly finished Is a dam across the Rio Grande in New Mexico, which will make the largest reservoir res-ervoir in the world, holding enough water wa-ter to cover the state of Connecticut ten inches deep. Probably the most spectacular of Mr. Newell's achievements is the Roosevelt dam In Arizona, which Is ZSi feet high and 1000 feet long on top, supplying 1S0,-000 1S0,-000 acres of the richest land in the world with water to make it possible to till. This dam is so wide that there is a roadway road-way across the top. From a power plant operated there four cities are supplied with electricity. The water held in check would cover the state of Delaware a foot deep. |