638 



CONSERVATION 



These facts, it is understood, were 

 not before Attorney General Wicker- 

 sham when he made his decision. 



The news of this decision was re- 

 ceived at the Capitol last summer, Con- 

 gress then being in session, with any- 

 thing but enthusiasm. 



Senators and Representatives from 

 the West knew how vital was the plan 

 to the interests of settlers and commu- 

 nities, and how slender was the founda- 

 tion for the Attorney General's decision. 



They knew, as was brought out at the 

 hearing above referred to (S. Doc. No. 

 507, page 8), that the Supreme Court 

 of the United States had clearly enun- 

 ciated the principles underlying such a 

 case in the following language : 



A practical knowledge of the action of any 

 one of the great departments of the Govern- 

 ment must convince every person that the 

 head of a department, in the distribution of its 

 duties and responsibilities, is often com- 

 pelled to exercise his discretion. He is lim- 

 ited in the exercise of his powers by the 

 law; but it does not follow that he must 

 show a statutory provision for everything 

 he does. No government could be admin- 

 istered on such principles. To attempt to 

 regulate by law the minute movements of 

 every part of the complicated machinery of 

 government would evince a most unpardon- 

 able ignorance on the subject. Whilst the 

 great outlines of its movements may be 

 marked out, and limitations imposed on the 

 exercise of its powers, there are numberless 

 things which must be done that can neither 

 be anticipated nor defined, and which are 

 essential to the proper action of the Govern- 

 ment." (U. S. vs. MacDaniel, 7 Peters, 380.) 



So vital was the matter felt to be 

 that the Senate Committee on Irrigation 

 sought a conference with the Attorney 

 General. He was invited to meet with 

 the Committee ; to this he agreed, and 

 a date was set. 



The committee met, but the Attorney 

 General failed to appear. Conversa- 

 tion by telephone developed the fact 

 that he had an important engagement 

 with the President which he had for- 

 gotten. 



By agreement, the meeting was 

 thereupon postponed to another date 

 when the Attorney General could be 

 present. 



Again the Committee met. but again 

 the Attorney General failed to arrive, 



and again came the word from him of 

 a conflicting engagement. 



The Committee's attempts to confer 

 with the Attorney General were there- 

 upon abandoned. His opinion, how- 

 ever, stands to-day as the law of the 

 land. 



In consequence, important irrigation 

 plans have been set aside and settlers 

 have been left in despair. But strict 

 construction has scored a triumph. 



J^' «i i^ 

 Where the West Lags 



Senator Gore, of Oklahoma, re- 

 cently said : 



Up around Beverly, in that land of petri- 

 fied conservatism, that's a poor place to get 

 the atmosphere of the country. Up in Massa- 

 chusetts they believe all progress is radi- 

 calism. It's a pity there's not more inter- 

 course between the East and the West. They 

 believe we're a bunch of radicals out here ; 

 the great unwashed ; bulls in a china shop, 

 and all that kind of thing. 



What an awakening they are coming to, 

 with the theater of operations in this coun- 

 try shifting to the Mississippi Valley. It's 

 the Mississippi Basin that's really the throne 

 of the country. And when this power comes 

 to the West — as it will in a decade — -it will 

 not be misused to the prejudice of the East 

 as the power of the East has been mis- 

 used to the prejudice of the West. It will be 

 used for the country's good. 



On this the Kansas City Star com- 

 ments editorally, and with marked ap- 

 proval ; saying, among other things : 



Within a few years, when the Mississippi 

 Valley is united in Congress, it will make 

 such a demonstration of its power and its 

 sanity as to bring the eastern privilege users 

 and their allies in public places to their 

 senses. 



Conservation unquestionably appre- 

 ciates the progressiveness of the West. 

 It becomes, however, the painful duty 

 of this publication to point out that 

 there are respects in which even the 

 West is not unanimously progressive. 



Of all the great progressive measures 

 that have appeared before Congress in 

 recent vears few, if any, are more 

 fundamental, more essential to the gen- 

 eral good and to the conservation of 

 the foundations of our prosperity than 

 the bill for the establishment of Na- 



1 



