Evening star., 1953-01-14


stable for him. He wears single
breasted suits of conservative
weave and cut, soft-collared
white shirts and dark ties.
AS Governor, he said, he was
very interested in the Indian
population of Oregon and in the
program of changing them from
wards of the Government into
self-supporting citizens. The Bu-
reau of Indian Affairs will be one
of his responsibilities in his new
job.
He was unreserved in talking
about his life story but did not
want to say anything about his
ideas of what the new Secretary
of the Interior should do. AS to
one of the most important prob
lens of the Office, the develop
ment of the water resources of
the Northwest, he referred the
interviewer to his testimony be-
fore committees of Congress in
1949 on the proposed Columbia
Valley Authority.
One thing he made clear.
Il was in the Tennessee Valley
and the people there seem to like
the Tennessee Valley Authority" :"
he said. That's all right with
me. If they like it they are en-
titled to have it. But we don't
want authorities in the West"
Gets Fill In on Job.
He spent a Wednesday af-
ternoon with the man he is to
Secretary Of the Interior
Oscar Chapman, going over the
short and long term problems of
the big job he is to undertake
Mr.. Chapman gave him a quick
fill in on the size of the estab-
lishment he will head. He will
have $4,000 employees and be re-
sponsible for the expenditure of
5000 million year.
The Department of the In
terror is big business in other
ways than expenditures. The
revenue paid into the United
State Treasury from the lease of
oil, coal and metal mining lands
totals more than 5000 million a
year. 1t is the largest whole
saler of electric power in the
world.
The Secretary of the Interior
becomes the great white father
Of most of the 100000 Indians
living in the continental United
States. He becomes the head of
scientific work in
in the Bureau of Mines
and the Geological Survey.
He is responsible for the
maintenance of 179 national
parks and national monuments
visited by more than 40 million
people each year. They include
the Statute of Liberty, the Pet
rified Forest and a volcano in
Hawaii.
He has charge of $50 million
acres of land, about three times
the area of Texas. He is re-
sponsible for the seals of the
9ribilof Islands whose popula-
lion has grown from $4,000 to
IS million in 40 years of the
departments administration al
owing an annual kill of 100000
% 400. 900 to avoid overcrowding.
But more important politically,
le is responsible for the num-
Der of wild ducks and geese that
make the annual flight from the
;undras of the Northwest quar-
ter of the continent. Fortu-
nately the focks of wild water
'owl making the migration this
year were very big, to the great
of hundreds of
thousands of sportsmen.
Directs Island Work.
He is responsible for the man
dated islands of the Pacific,
which Germany lost in World
War I, for Samoa and must
make recommendations to the
for the appointment
If governors of Guam, Alaska,
Hawaii and the Virgin Islands
and be responsible for their civil
administration.
The new Secretary Of the In
5erior will have great RESPONSE
oility concerning the number of
stars in the American flag. He
will have to take a position be-
fore the Congress on the reap
plication of Alaska and Hawaii
for statehood. Predictions are
that Hawaii will make it in the
next six months. Despite his
narrowing experience at Wal
kiki, Mr.. Mckay is for it.
He will have the Bureau Of
Reclamation which built the
Hoover (Boulder Dam and the
Grand Coulee and Shasta Dams.
And he will inherit its compe-
tition with the Corps of Engi-
neers which built the Fort Peck
and Bonneville Dams and is
now building the McNary Dam
On the Columbia River.
The Hoover report recon-
mended that the Bureau of Rec
lamation and the civil functions
Of the Corps of Engineers be
1t is doubtful that any
of the Interior or any
will be able to accom-
plish that, such is the power of
the Corps Of Engineers with
Congress.
All of the many agencies in
the Interior Department men,
Toned have been in operation for
years. They are stated by men
Of long experience devoted to
the work. What will probably
take up most of the new secre-
tary's time are the defense ad-
ministrations in the department,
set up after the Korea crisis
broke, the Defense Minerals, the
Defense Electric Power, the De-
tense Solid Fuels and the Defense
Petroleum Administrations.
OniniOn nm Authority.