The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1908-06-05
Wilson, Efficient sccrc,,rv.

culture, during which time the eff.
cheney of the department has been
elevated triple fold-that is the
record of James Wilson. And nov
it is reported from Washington that
Mr.. Wilson is going to lay down the
office and seek a quiet life. The
strenuousness of his life has won
him plaudits from the entire agri-
cultural community. Mr.. Wilson has
been a t~ireless worker in the cause
OF agriculture. When he entered
the department which has subse-
quently brought to the highest state
of efficiency it was not keeping step
with, the progress of agriculture.
Since then it has been the pacemaker
of agricultural advancement.
Mr.. Wilson has not brought pros
perity to the farmer in a direct way
but his work as SECRETARY of the de-
partment of agriculture has done
much to put the farmer in a way to
become better fixed financially. The
live stock grower as we'll as the crop
raising farmer has been benefited
by his work. He had the keen
Judgment which enables a man to
choose capable assistants and under
his direction the department has
worked we'll.
Mr.. Wilson has often been spoken
of as 'the best secretary ever in
Office That reputation is one Of
which he might justly be proud. His
constant efforts to merit has brought
the department up to a much higher
standard than when he began his
labors eleven years ago. When MI.
Wilson quits the department, per-
haps not-until next March, he will
be sorely missed by the agriculture
lists to whom he has given eleven
years of hard, faithful and success
full work.
Two lnfirm Old Men In Washington.
Discussion of the possible retire
ment of Chief Justice Fuller di-
reefs public attention to two infirm
old men in Washington.
OF course no one can believe for
a moment the newspaper story that
the president is considering the APP
pointment Of Secretary Root to sue
ceed the chief justice. He has said
that no man is fit to sit on the Fed
eral bench after he is sixty and Mr..
Root is past sixty-three.
We do not understand why he is
allowed to remain in the state de-
partment, with the daily spectacle Of
Assistant Secretary Bacon's youth
full agility displayed before the de-
lighted eyes of the president on the
tennis field. There is no mystery
of Justice Fuller's remaining on the
supreme bench, because the presi-
dent has no power to order his re-
tirement, or even to impose a rid
ing or walking test.
Chief Justice Fuller is seventy
five years old. He has been eligible
for voluntary retirement for five
"a He has been thought to have
it in his mind to equal the record of
Justice Field, who remained on the
bench nearly ten years after he was
eligible for retirement.
Yet the history of the United
States will be incomplete without
the record of many things these two
infirm old men have done since they
passed what the president thinks
the term Of usefulness. Mr.. Root
has no tennis record, but he has
lifted the state department even
above the high level established by
the infirm old man who preceded
him.
Chief Justice Fuller cannot walk
fifty miles in three days with the
fat Colonies Of the artillery, but
his decisions in the last fifteen years
are a vital part of the solid and en-
during body of the American law.
Like Justice Field, at even greater
age, his mental and legal powers
show no trace Of decline.
By the analogy of these two
great judges, Secretary Root would
have FIFTEEN years of the best of his
life before him at the head of the
supreme bench.
State Conservation o. Resources.
The several states have done some
thing in the direction of conserv,
ing natural resources, even withou
the special impetus given by the
strenuous energy Of the president.
Doubtless they will do more as {
result Of the late national confer
ence of the governors, but it is onl.
Just to recognize what has been dom
by legislative initiative action.
Most of the artificial waterway
in the country are the result of stat
energy. Much has been done j,
New England by private enterpris'
to preserve forests. In New Yorl
this influence has been secondary L
state action. There is a great AM
admirably administered forest re.
serve in the Adriondacks. Some
thing has been done in the Middl,
states by private enterprise and stat
energy in anticipation of the grea
step of an Appalachian forest re
serve.
Most OF the wooded states in tn
west have well developed forestr
service, and most of the prairi
states encourage tree planting. !
the arid regions private and state il
rigation works are still in advanc
Of national, in number and eficieEc
if not in magnitude.
Speaking of what is under d!