The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1911-03-24
NEW SECRETARY INVITED TO
ATTEND CHICAGO CONGRESS

Chicago, ILL.,, Mar 20.-One of the
first delegations to wait upon Walter
L. Fisher, new secretary of the inter
ior and the third member of Presi-
dents Taft's official family to be chos-
en- from Chicago, Immediately he as
sumes active charge of his new office
probably will be a commission of sew
eral of his Chicago friends of years
acquaintanceship who will formally in-
yite him to address one or more of the
sessions of the Nineteenth National
Irrigation Congress, which are to be
held here late this year
Plans to have Secretary Fisher as
a guest of the congress were outlined
by members of the Chicago board of
control Immediately after the news
was flashed from Washington early in
the week with the sudden message that
Secretary Ballinger's successor was
to be the Chicagoan of conservation
and traction fame.
That Mr.. Fisher will appear on the
speakers platform of the congress is
practically certainty, and it is not
improbable that his address will be
made on the closing day, December 8,
at which time the president himself is
to speak. Aside from his natural in
terest in all things pertaining to Chi
cago, the new secretary has vast
knowledge of conservation matters,
having for years made study of con.
servation in all its phases, and is un.
usually well posted in federal and state
laws governing the control of water
powers and waterways. These matters
always have been of vital Importance
to irrigation interests and few other
subjects have stirred up more discus
sion at the congress sessions in past
years.
Having been invited already by var
ious boards of trade and other com
munity organizations of the west tc
visit that portion of the nation which
his office is more directly concerned
with, especially at this time, it is not
unlikely that Secretary Fisher will ar
range early for the personal tour Of
inspection throughout the west, north
west and southwest. On conservation
Mr.. Fisher swings far from the con
tentions of his predecessor, but he is
not, like his friend of years, Clifford
Pinchot, former United States forester
of the crusading type.
Mr.. Fisher has never been known
as visionary, but as a lawyer who
as his settlement of Chicagos famous
traction questions demonstrated, takes
the dreams of other men and reduces
them to something definite and of prac
tical use in everyday life. Conse
quently, if the new secretary does
make tour throughout the western
portion of the country it will be solely
for the purpose of gathering hard facts
for his use in whatever plans he may
formulate to logically best promote
the interests of the rapidly develop
ing west.
Secretary Fisher, who becomes il
his new Office an emphasized nationa
| figure because of the Ballinger-Pin
chot controversy, which placed the
former secretary so much in the lime
light during the last year, first be
came a character of general import
ance outside Chicago when he wa!
made a member Of the railway securi
ties commission, to which Office ht
also was appointed by President Taft
This commission recently sat in Chi
cago and is now in session in New
York. At one time Mr.. Fisher wa'
mentioned as a possible appointee t.
the bench of the United States su
preme court.
That the new secretary will find ex
President Roosevelt ever with him il
his work is a certainty for more rea
sons than one Chief among these
however, is that fact that Mr.. Fishe
is the father of seven children