The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1910-08-17
ENEMIES OF CONSERVATION
PREPARE FOR HARD FIGHT
Seek by Sitting the Press to
Work More Effectively Against
the People-Would Close Lips
of Foresters Except ION Re-
quest"

| WASHINGTON, Aug. 16-During
the coming session of congress the
| country is promised n fight on the
| conservation movement by a strong
cotere of men from the public land
states, who expect to kill the popular
interest in conservation by putting a
| check on the publicity work indulge
in by various bureaus in several of
! the departments which are concerned
with the study of utilization of natur-
al resources.
First Come. First Served"
| A number of senators and members
of the house have insisted for some
time that they will not stand for this
conservation hysteria." as they call
| it. that the natural resources of the
west must be exploited along the
first come. first served" plan, the
same as in the past. They claim that
| there has not been much land grab
bling. and that the occasional frauds
unearthed, and even the startling dis
closures concerning conditions in
Alaska. are not so serious after all.
1t all means "development" they say,
even if a monopoly or two are created
in the process.
Those who will be behind the com
ing fight have figured that the princi-
pal reason for the country applauding
both the progressive republicans and
the democrats who are making the
conservation movement an issue, is
because the newspapers and maya
zines have had the task of getting in
formation from the departments
made too easy.
Tawney Would MuZZle Press.
The first skirmish in the fight which
will begin in earnest next winter was
opened by Representative Tawney of
Minnesota, during the last session,
while the Agricultural Appropriation
bill was up Tawney is about as warm
towards conservation as Uncle Joe
| Cannon is, and as soon as he got the
opportunity he attempted to clap on
an amendment to the bill, a proviso
which would have made it impossible
for the forest service of the depart
ment of agriculture, except "on re-
quest" to give out anv information
to newspapers or to magazines.
The attempt to stifle publicity on
studies to save the timber supply,
wood pulp investigation, timber
| frauds and prevention of forest fires,
was immediately discovered Repre-
sentatives Cooper and Morse, of Wis
consin, and Keifer, of Ohio. offered
strenuous objections and showed that
the amendment would mean that the
public would get very little or no in
| formation under its provisions for
not many people would be likely to
request something which they did
not know existed. The amendment
was defeated and an opportunity to
/ prevent conservation publicity before
this coming session was lost.
Conservation is not popuar with
many members of congress whose
| friends and constituents are inter
ested in water power development
and other resources on the public
lands of the west and Alaska, and it
seems that the one best hope of
checking the movement is to put an
end to the press agent" as the news
paper men handling publicity in the
bureaus have been contem ptuously
called. The plan for the attack is
unique but simple, the idea being to
remove the cause of public support
and close the channels OF publicity
through which the requirement of in
formation by newspapers and maya
zines is made possible.
Several of the bureaus have had in
their employ for years trained news
| moi yr-h ri Il to
popularize the results of scientific in
vestigations carried on by the govern
ment that is to condense and throw
into understandable English scientific
reports which in the old days were
lost to the general public because they
We're weighed down with technical
expressions often known only to
! learned members of scientific So
| cieties
The congressman who have looked
and who are expected to lead the fight
down upon publicity work in the past.
against it next year are loud in dis
claiming that they wish to limit the
| public's knowledge of the public bust
ness They maintain that the public
| can find out what the government is
doing from the official printed docu-
ments, many of which. as Lew Fields
says, can be obtained free gratis. for
nothing" The DIRECTORS add that
when specific information is wanted
person can write for it. and that it
| is unnecessary to employ former
newspaper men or others to condense
and popularize the information col
! lected by Uncle Sam.
Opposition VIII Work Hard.
In his fight against any publicity
other than that given by the old style
government document or information
furnished when requested" Tawney
will be supported by Representative
MOndell, chairman of the House pub
lie lands committee, and by Senator
Hepburn of Idaho, and Clark OF
| Wyoming. All OF these men from the
public land states have been outspoll-
en- against the work of popularizinl
scientific information and making +
! available to the newspapers, or pres,
bureau activity, as they call it. Tn:
opposition has never been organized
1uJ next year it is hoped to push tho
fight in both the house and in tn
SOM te, in the committee and on thu
/ floor And all that is necessary to in
t sure their success is to get into th
b wording of the appropriation bill tw'
| little words, ION request"