Evening star., 1923-04-13
Introducing a New
Member of Congress

OF the second Montana district, a past
president and honorary life member
Of the Great Falls (Mont.) Advertis-
ing Club. veteran OF two great wars
and exceptionally we'll acquainted
with the national domain through
rugged experiences.
Scott left high. school with patriotic
urge in May, 1898, to enlist in Com
pany I. 33d Michigan Infantry. This
company had the unique distinction
of being made up of sons of veterans
of the civil war, who came into Island
Lake camp, two or three from place,
from all over Michigan. To hurry
this unacquainted and unframed out
f1t into shape for muster into the
$50, Capt. Carl T. Wagner, later attor-
youngsters an hour or so the first
day and then called upon all men
. with previous military training to
step out. The rest were dogged
around by these for perhaps a half
hour or more. and then, back In COM
pany formation, the captain asked:
is there any one else In this COM
pany who will take a squad and drill
1t?' Scott Leavitt had Just had his
total military experience during the
preceding hour and a half, but he had
learned to salute and step out.
Capt. Wagner gave him the first set
or tours, the eight biggest men in the
company. He got them out of hearing
and repeated what he had just been
given. There were some trained men in
the squad and they set him right when
he made mistake. So that when
the captain signaled Scott was lucky
enough to get them back on the line
The rush was on to get into the
33d and because of 1t two more men
than could be mustered in had been
accepted. The mastering officer set
about arbitrarily to weed two of US
out, explains Representative Leavitt.
He and the captain stopped in front
OF me. ] was only eighteen and
pretty slender. The Regular Army
officer asked me how old I was I
swallowed my heart and told him.
His pencil was poised to mark me
off when the captain spoke to him
and they passed on. Twenty minutes
later the roll was called for muster
In and L was designated as Corporal
Leavitt. Later I asked the captain
and found out that my chance to go
to Cuba was saved because had
taken that squad to drill. The cap
tain said he was trying to find out
who in the company, nearly all
strangers to him. would accept re-
sponsibility and show confidence"
OF the eight men who drilled him
that day as much as he did them two
were killed and three wounded be-
fore Aguadores, on the left line at
Santiago. on the 1st of July, only six
weeks later.
Two years after the Spanish war
the wanderlust had got Leavitt COM
pletely. He had taken up a squatter
claim in the Coast Range mountains
of Oregon, twenty miles from set
tlement and at the back door of the
Grand Ronde Indian reservation. His
cabin was built of shakes split from
giant fir tree, and winter and sum-
mer for more than three years he
packed grub" on his back from a
foothill settlement. TT was great
with one or two companions, in the
mountains where ferns grew to your
shoulders and frs reached aloft a
hundred feet TO the first limbs" he
recalls with wistful tone in his
voice.
Young Leavitt's first job In the foot
hills was in a sawmill. where by
main strength he wrestled boards
and edgings for s25 a month. time
out without paying any breakdown.
Ultimately he had done about every
thing in mill except run the big
saw and the engine.
Representative Leavitt tells grip
ping stories, with a vigorous out-in-
the-open atmosphere. of the long trail
back and forth from his claim
stories of nights in the snow and
days in company with the trees; but
the real climax of those days. he says,
was that in the foothill town where
| he worked in the sawmill, and later
taught school between trips into the
mountains, where he found his wife,
the granddaughter of pioneers who
had come to that same section in OK
wagons over the Oregon trail in 1s44
1t was this experience which predis-
posed him a little later, in the COW
| country north of Goose lake. to be-
come forest ranger and begin the
work with saddle horse and pack
outfit, which only ended in Montana
in the days of the great war.
He entered the United States forest
service in the old days when the
conservation idea was in the making
He was forest ranger, working with
saddle and pack horse in the noun
| tains of southeastern Oregon first
There was no ranger station on his
district. the forest being just put
under Administration; so he and his
wife lived the first summer in a
cabin which had been used by a cow
man for storing stock salt. He had
the usual experience, of locating and
fighting forest fires; handling the
grazing allotments of cattle, horses
and sheep; building roads and trails
and handling sales of timber.
In about two years he was sent to
help put new national forest in the
Minnesota woods. against the Cana
dian line, under administration
There travel was by canoes over
waterways Of lakes and rivers, with
giant moose often in sight. In a years
time he was back in the west in
Montana, becoming superintendent of
the Lewis and Clark national forest
which occupies hundred-mile
stretch of the Rocky mountains south
of Glacier Park. and later Of the
Jefferson national forest. which po-
sition he held until after the United
States got into the world war.
After raising a volunteer company
of infantry he was made federal d.
| rector for Montana of both the United
States public service reserve and the
United States employment service and
served throughout the war.
He has been president of the Mon
tana Good Roads Association, state
commander of the United Spanish
War Veterans and president Of the
National Park-to-Park Highway AS
sociation, circling the eleven western
states, as well as of it's Montana line
the Y-G Bee line. He has been
identified with irrigation and agri-
| cultural movements in Montana.
w. PIX.