Evening star., 1937-11-05
FORESTERS HIT
REORGANIZATION
Promise Campaign to Defeat
Bill and Take Wallace
to Task.

Ihe Government reorganization
bill, before Congress since last January
and an item on the agenda of the
special session which meets November
is, was condemned today by Society
of American Foresters and the Ameri-
can Forestry Association, which said
it has the active cooperation of sc
conservation groups, representing agri-
culture, forestry and wildlife, in its
antipathy toward the legislation.
Promising an active campaign tt
bring about the defeat of the bill, the
Forestry Association explained that the
provision for the esta ablishment of a
department of conservation represent,
"a reversal of those administrative
principles which have been the foun-
dation of forestry and conservation
progress since the days Of Theodore
Roosevelt"
assume all the duties of the present
Interior Department. the President
could blanket any conservation agency
of the Government except the Army
engineers. The Forestry Association
commented:
I'VE will fight to the bitter end any
effort to transfer the forest service
the Biological Survey or the soil con-
servation service from the Department
OF Agriculture, where 1t is held
agencies dealing with plant, animal
and soil conservation naturally belong
In fact, agriculture itself Is the greatest
conservation problem"
Takes Wallace TO Task.
At the same time, the Society OF
American Foresters made public q
letter from its president, H. H. Chap
man, to Secretary Wallace taking him
to task for not defending his depart
ment's right to retain the bureaus now
in its domain, but in danger of being
moved to the proposed conservation
department. Chapman wrote:
'It would appear, in the absence
of other evidence, that the Depart
ment of Agriculture is complacent and
willing to be shorn of this large and
indispensable element in its program,
and content to permit its future
activities to be confined to the farmer
alone.
The responsibility for such an out
come will again rest solely on the
shoulders of its secretary. Conserva-
ton of organic resources is no longer
confined, if it ever was, to the farm.
nor are farmers alone by any means
majority of those interested in con-
servation of these resources"
Clifford Pinchot, first chief forester
OF the United States; Henry S. Graves
dean Of the Yale Forestry School and
former chief forester; Jay N. DarI-
ing, president of the General Wildlife
Federation and former chief of the
Biological Survey; Arthur Newton
Pack, president OF the American Nature
Association; George w. Wood, presi.
dent OF the Izaak Walton League OF
America; L. j. Taber, master of the
National Grange, and Wilson Conn.
ton, secretary-manager of the National
Lumber Manufacturers Association
are among the men the American
Forestry Association quotes in opposi.
ton to the reorganization bill.
Grange Is Opposed.
Taber said:
The National Grange, representins
100000 farmers, is unalterably opposed
to the creation Of q department OF
conservation. Among agricultural
people the Grange does not stand alone
in its position. The last farm con-
ference, representing more than g.
100000 rural people, voted unani-
mously against this proposal"