FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



servation idea was due to Pinchot, and that his own interest 

 had been aroused by his friend's efforts. One day in the summer, 

 meeting Pinchot and James Garfield (then Secretary of the 

 Interior) over in the White Lot at a departmental ball game, 

 Pinchot asked me to go home and dine with them informally. 

 I did so. Secretary Wilson was at the table and so were two or 

 three other men. The weather was hot, and everything was of 

 the most informal character, although the dinner was excellent 

 and the service what one would expect in such a well-appointed 

 house. Toward the end of the dinner Pinchot said, "I must tell 

 you what happened yesterday. Robert Bacon has just been ap- 

 pointed Assistant Secretary of State and made his first formal 

 call on the President yesterday afternoon. The President looked 

 him over and asked him if he would like to take a walk. He 

 said that he would. And then the President telephoned me to 

 come over to the White House for a tramp. I knew what that 

 meant. I opened the door of a closet in my office and put on a 

 suit of old clothes that I always keep there, then started post 

 haste for the White House. When Bacon saw me he said, 'Why, 

 Mr. President, I am not dressed for such a tramp as Pinchot and 

 you are going on.' But the President said, 'Never mind, come 

 along.' And Bacon, like the good sport he proved to be, came 

 along. We went down south of the White House until we got 

 into some waste land covered with high weeds and found our- 

 selves on the bank of an old canal. We looked around for a boat, 

 but there was none, and the President said, 'Come on, let's 

 swim across.' Bacon took his watch and his pocket book out 

 and put them in his tall hat and plunged in with the President 

 and myself. On the other side, the President said, 'Come on, let's 

 walk fast, boys, and get dry.' And so we tramped over through 

 Georgetown, up over the hills into the Rock Creek valley, the 

 President choosing a trail which he knew, and which is as stiff 



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