The people's voice., 1959-08-28
"The Conservation Fight" By Judson King
A Great Book---By A Great Man

"The Conservation Fight-fron
Theodore Roosevelt to the Tennessee
Valley Authority" by the late Judsor
King. one of the nations first anc
most dedicated conservation crusa
ders. is now available, published by
his wife. Bertha Hale King, to whom
it is dedicated, and who worked with
her husband throughout the long fight
and the recording of its greatest bat
ties in this volume.
In this book, King, who died in his
seth year on July A, 1858, just two
weeks after completing the final chap
ter. brings to life many of the crucial
moments and dramatic episodes that
were so abundant in the 60-year cam
paign to establish and develop the
gigantic IVA project.
Besides working throughout the
years at the side of his close friend,
Senator George Norris of Nebraska,
largely in the role of "the man who
passed the ammunition, King also
served as director of the National
Il
lished by Norris and Clifford Pinchot
in 1913.
In his preface, King sets forth the
four basic concepts with which the
scientists and statesmen whe founded
the conservation movement in Amer
lea were concerned, and which he said
are co-ordinated in the IVA project.
First, he said, was their belief in
the necessity for federal control, sup
plemented by state control, "to halt
the frightful waste of all natural re-
sources and thwart private monop-
oly."
He listed as the second of these
fundamental concepts, the national
character of such comprehensive, uni
fled projects as IVA; third, the fact
that water running downhill has no
regard for municipal, county or state
boundaries; and fourth, the fact that
private operators of public utilities
are not engaged in "free enterprise"
no matter how loudly they claim to be.
In his final chapter, Retrospect and
Prospect, written in the final days of
his life, he said in part:
Fundamentally, our 60 year
story has been one of the inevitable
resistance of unregulated private
exploiters to the new situation; of
the individual battles between the
old and the new; and of the devel-
opment of ideas and policies for the
new era. The evolution is not COM
plete. The struggle is still going on
in Congress over bills to facilitate
Cor paralyze) the IVA and federal
resource programs on the Column
bia, the Missouri, and other rivers,
and on many natural resource
fronts. We will see the battle con-
tinuing in the 1860 elections and
for generations to come"
He then set forth and discussed IA
POINTS or ideas, "some basic and some
# limited scope" the knowledge of
which he suggested is as important as
of physical structures and
inancial considerations. His list fol-
Ows:
1. Jurisdiction: That the federal ;
overnment has jurisdiction over the
evelopment Nof hydroelectric power
esources.
2. Ownership: That the potential
-ater power in navigable rivers of
ne United States belongs to the
-merican people.
3. Federal Leadership: That develop
lent of great river systems was a job
Or the national government since the
.ates could not or would not under
IKE it and private capital openly de-
Jared it was beyond its financial
apacity or functions.
a. Independent Management: That s
lie planning, construction and opera
on of such comprehensive projects
lould be placed in the hands of new, q
regional federal agencies,
nd not under existing agencies. I
5 Decentralization: That an enter
rise of the size and complexity of
Y L l. L L l.