OCR Text |
Show I KEEP THE FOREST SERVICE WHERE IT IS. There !s n row on In President Harding's cabinet (rowing out of the fact that Secretary of the Interior Fall is eager to have the forest serv ice transferred from the department of the interior to the agricultural de pan men?. A dispatch from Washington says Secretary Wallace and Forester Gree-ly Gree-ly have vigorously opposed the reor ganizatlon sponsored by Mr. Fall, wh also has been attacked by Gifford Pinchot and other conservationists on the ground that the proposed legisla . uon would open the way to selfish e j ploitation of the forests and other re sources. Reports have been current for some time that Mr. Fall is becoming becom-ing dissatisfied with his position in Lhe administration and contemplates resigning shortly. That such is his in tention he denied It was in a letter to a congressman that Mr. Fall disclosed he had appealed ap-pealed to (he president against de Iparxnienr oi agriculture propaganda which was being circulated by the American Forestry association, together to-gether with criticism of the secretary hy the latter organization. Declaring he is aware that his ideas of develop Ing national resources 'do not meet with the approval of certain narrow minded and biased bureaucratic government gov-ernment officials and their followers." Secretary Fall asserts that because of this he is being held up to "execration, "execra-tion, public abuse and private calum Secretary Fall is a man of deep likes and dislikes. He also is vindlc live and once in a fight, will go to extremes ex-tremes to gain his point So we may look for a bitter controversy over the forest service. This row is a reminder of the Bal-linger Bal-linger affair which wrecked the Taft administration. Ballinger sought to turn over the timber and coal resources re-sources of Alaska to a big syndicate of exploiters. But Gifford Plnchot proiested and finally appealed to Theodore Roosevelt on the return of the explorer from Africa It was this conflict that sent the Republican party par-ty out of power for eight of the most historic years in world reconstruction. reconstruc-tion. Will this Fall-Wallace conflict again bring up the Alaska scandal and will President Harding make the mistake of Taft? The forest service should be kept free from the hands of the despoller For many years it has served the country to the great good of the people. peo-ple. It has conserved the rich resources, re-sources, b saving rich grazing areas and timber belts which were being destroyed de-stroyed by individual selfishness. It has justified itself and should be retained re-tained in the hands of those who have built to such good purpose. : i 0 0 |