East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1911-03-20
THE NEW Secretary
OF THE interior.
WON FAME AS "A TRACTION
LAWYER AND CoNSERVATIONIST
Will Probably Tour the West at An
Early Day and Address National
Irrigation Congress In Chicago in
December.

One of the first delegations to wait
upon Walter L. Fisher, new secretary
of the interior and the third MEM
ber of President Taft's official fam
| lily to be chosen from Chicago, i'm
mediately he assumes active charge
Of his new office probably will be
com mission of several of his Chicago
friends of years acquaintanceship
who will formally invite him to adress
one or more of the sessions Of the
Nineteenth National Irrigation Con-
gress, which are to be held there late
this year.
| Plans to have Secretary Fisher as
guest of the congress were outlined
by members of the Chicago board of
| control Immediately after the news
was flashed from Washington with
! the sudden message that Secretary
"a. .inscr's successor was to be the
Chicagoan of conservation and trac-
ton 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 him.
self is to speak. Aside from his nat
ural interest in all things pertaining
to Chicago, the new secretary has
vast knowledge of conservation mat
ters, having for years made a stuoy
of conservation in all its phases, and
is unusually well-posted in federal
and state laws governing the control
t..rx
These matters always have been of
vital Importance to irrigation inter-
ests and few other subjects have
stirred up more discussion at the
congress sessions in past years.
; Having been invited already by va.
rious 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 no
: unlikely that Secretary Fisher will ar
range early for a personal tour of in
] spection throughout the west, north
{ west and southwest. on conservation
g Mr.. Fisher swings far from the con
: tentions of his precedessor, but he L
, not, like his friend of years, Giffort
: Pinchot, former United States forest
= er, of the crusading type.
= Mr.. Fisher has never been know
as a visionary, but as a lawyer who
. as his settlement of Chicago's famou
: traction questions demonstrated, take
i the dreams of other men and reduce
= them to something definite and O
Q practical use in everyday life. Con
i sequently, If the new secretary doe
= make a tour throughout the wester
d portion of the country it will be sole
d ly for the purpose of gathering har
Y facts for his use in whatever plans h
r may formulate to logically best pro
!, mote the interests of the rapidly-de
e veloping west.
p Secretary Fisher, who becomes /
It his new office an emphasized nation
I. al figure because of the Ballirger
Pinchot controversy, which placed tn
former secretary so much in the lime
right during the last year, first be
came character of general import
: arce outside Chicago when he wa
d 1, member of the Railway Securtie
Y Commission, 70 which office ne wa
= appointed by President Taft Thi
n commission recently sat in Chicag
y and is now in session in New Yorf
At one time Mr.. Fisher was mention
Il ed as a possible appointee to tn
= bench of the United States suprem
= court. r.......r
e That the new secretary will fin
3 eX. President Roosevelt ever with iiii
t in his work is a certainty for NOR
r reasons than one. Chief anon
these, however. is the fact that Nj
p Fisher is the father of seven chilGrer
q -- =