The Sentinel=record., 1911-03-19
NEW SECRETARY
 Of INTERIOR
WILL BE URGED TO TAKE sPE' GAL INTEREST IN NATIONAL
 IRRIGATION CONGRESS.
Chicago Friends of the New Cabinet Head Get Busy to Influence His
 Aid in Big Campaign.

| CnlcagO, ILL, March lS.--One Of the first delegations to wait upon Walter l. Fisher, new secretary of the in lterior and the third member of Presi- dent Talft's official family to be chosen from Chicago, immediately he assumes active charge of his new of flee probably will be commission oi several of his Chicago friends vf years' acquaintanceship who will for mally invite him to address one sor more of the sessions of the nineteens sh 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 conserva- ton and traction fame.
 That MT. 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 3, at which time the president himself is to speak.
 Aside from his natural interest in all things pertaining to Chicago, the new secretary has a vast knowledge of conservation matters. having for years made a study of conservation in all it's phases, and is unusually well-posted in federal and state laws governing the control of water pow CTS and waterways. These matters al ways have been of vital importance U irrigation interests and few other sub jects have stirred up more discussion at the congress sessions in past years. Having been invited already by various Board of Trade and othtr community organizations of the test to visit that portion of the nation which his office is more directly con cerned with, especially at this time, 1t is not unlikely that Secretary Fisher will arrange early for a per tsonal tour of inspection throughout the west. northwest and southwest. On conservation MT. Fisher swings Jar from the contentious of his pre- decessor, but he is not like his friend of years, Clifford Pinchot, former United States forester, of the crusad ing type.
 Mir. Fisher has never been known as visionary, but as a lawyer wao, as his settlement of Chicago's famous traction questions demonstrated, takes the dreams of other men and reduces them to something definite and of practical use in everyday life. Con sequently, if the new secretary does make tour throughout the western portion of the country it will be sole ly for the purpose of gathering hard facts flor his use in whatever plans he may formulate to logically best promote the interests of the rapidly developing west.
 | Secretary Fisher, who becomes iT his new office an emphasized national figure because of the Ballinger Pin chot controversy, which placed tho former secretary so much Vn the
 limelight during the last year, frs
 became character of general i'm portance outside Chicago when he was made member of the Railway Secu
 rites Commission, to which office h' also was appointed by President Taft This commission recently sat in Chi
 cago and is now in session in Nev
 York At one time MT. 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 I
 his work is certainty for more req sons than one. Chief among these ] however, is that fact that MT. Fishe ? is the father of seven children.