Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-01-24
By FREDERICK
]. HASKW

| they express that pioneer attitude to-
ward nature in all it's simplicity.
MAN cannot exhaust the resources
Of Nature and never WILL" he FRO
claimed in an interview published IN
the Colorado Springs Gazette, Sep
TENDER 20, 1921. And this promise he
followed with several logical conclu-
sions from it.
"All natural resources should be
made as easy Of access as possible to
the present generation" was another
of his expressions, and he also an
nounced that there is enough timber
rotting every year to supply the nor
NAL demand"
Can Resources Be Exhausted2
Now the friends of the Roosevelt
policy of conservation in all parts OF
the country have seized upon such ex-
pressions as these and made Roman
holiday. It scarcely seems necessary
to set forth their rebuttal, which the
intelligent American newspaper reader
will easily imagine. With regard to
the secretary's great major premise
that natural resources are inexhaust-
ible, the conseryationists have pointed
out that this, as q matter OF fact, ap-
plies only to air and water, and they
20 III 10 give Iuo 1OuB lSL VI A"euA -
resources that have been exhausted or
impaired in this country. If the Sec
rotary is right in saying that natural
resources should be made as easily ac-
cessible as possible, then they urge.
the whole science of conservation, as
practiced all over the civilized world,
is a mistake. This science which has
| enabled the French and the Germans
! to perpetuate their forests and game
| down through the centuries, the lack
Of which has left so much of China
a barren waste torn by floods, IS
really all unnecessary. In fact, the
secretary seems to have taken, in his
Colorado Springs interview, high and
lonely position where the conserva-
Zionist snipers can crack away at him
from several different directions, and
| they have not neglected the oppor-
tunity.
This, then, is the real issue behind
the transfer project. The only osten-
sible reason brought forward for it is
that the interior department is the
official real estate office Of the nation
and should have charge of all land
deals to prevent duplication. The for
est service has certain grazing rights
to lease and a limited and diminish
ing number of homesteads to give
away along streams. The interior de-
partment, it is claimed, should exer-
else these functions. But it also
| wants the forests themselves. This,
the conservationists say, is a case Of
demanding the hide because you de-
serve the tail and the two cannot be
separated. But this whole contention
| is q minor one, smoke screen to
| hide the real issue.
At first it looked as though the
| transfer might be rushed through as a
part of general reorganization
scheme without much attention being
focused on it. But it has been en-
| bodied in several other measures and
so brought out into the open. where
its enemies have a better chance to
attack it, and it's friends to defend it:
The Alaska forests are special
phase of the question, which will be
taken up in a future Haskin letter.
The main fact, which this. article aims
| to set forth impartially, is that the
| transfer is intended to be, and Will
| be to some extent il it takes place, a
change of policy toward the national
| forests from that Of scientific con-
seryation in the Roosevelt tradition in
| the direction of ''free use" i'll the pio-
! neer sense. The fact that Secretary
Fall would have charge of the forests,
| in view of his expressed policy with
| regard to all natural resources, seems
sufficient proof Of this.