WORK IN A NATIONAL FOREST 

 Cutting Area, Showing Cordwood Cut from Tops and Limbs. Gila (S) National Forest 



power whose authority is as wide as 

 our country, and that is the Federal 

 Government. In the future, but small 

 place in the development and control of 

 water-power and waterways will be 

 given either to the state or to private 

 corporations." 



F. H. Newell Chief Engineer of the 

 United States Reclamation Service, 

 states, "The matter of the development 

 of the West is not a state question. We 

 must conserve forests in Wyoming to 

 benefit the arid plains of Idaho. In 

 western Kansas there is the greatest in- 

 terest in irrigation, and although there 

 are no forests, the rivers that come into 

 Kansas, as the Arkansas, depend for the 

 continuity of their flow on the proper 

 treatment of the woodlands on the 

 mountains in the central part of Colo- 

 rado," and so forth, "ad infinitum." 



The foregoing is sufficient to prove 

 to the unbiased mind that a national 

 agency is absolutely essential to carry 

 on the work of conservation in this 



country. If we agree on this, the ques- 

 tion naturally arises, what national 

 agency is better qualified to take up and 

 carry on the work than the National 

 Government ? 



In view of this, then, I advocate that 

 all national resources owned by the 

 states as such should be merged with 

 those owned by the United States ; that 

 the National Congress create a new de- 

 partment to be called the Department of 

 National Resources and Public Works, 

 whose head shall be a cabinet minister 

 with the title of Director of National 

 Resources and Public Works ; that in 

 this department shall be merged the 

 Forestry Bureau, ]\Iines and Minerals 

 Bureau, Reclamation Service, Naviga- 

 tion Bureau, Geological Survey, etc. 

 This department shall control the de- 

 velopment of all natural resources, such 

 as lands, forests, minerals, water-power, 

 and the improvement of waterways ; 

 shall also direct such work as irriga- 

 tion, forestation, reclamation of swamp 



421 



