REVIEWS 55 



one. ... in which his contributions were most effective. . . . His 

 relation to the National Irrigation Congress during the latter years of his 

 life was hardly less decisive. . . . He was one of the two men upon 

 whom rested the arrangements for the great Conference of Governors held 

 at the White House in May, 1908. Many of the utterances which attracted 

 most attention at that conference were prepared by him or with his assis- 

 tance. . . . Out of the Conference of Governors grew the National Con- 

 servation Commission. Officially McGee was merely secretary of one of its 

 four divisions, that which dealt with the waters of the continent. Practically, 

 in every branch of the Commission's work he was the trusted and effective 

 adviser, a very fountain of knowledge, without whom the material for its 

 historical report, the first inventory of the natural resources of any nation, 

 could not have been brought together." 



Of this man Professor Ely merely says in his text : 



"Dr. W. J. (sic) ^TcGee's name is one which must not be entirelj^ 

 omitted." ^ 



He appends this footnote : 



"W. J. McGee — anthropologist, geologist, and hydrologist (1853-1912), was 

 the author of The Agricultural Duty of Water, 191 1, but probably is chiefly to be 

 remembered with conservation as the recording secretary of the Conference of 

 Governors referred to above." 



It is not for the purpose of vindicating Dr. McGee's rightful claims 

 to recognition as one of the foremost figures in the conservation move- 

 ment that the slighting mention made of him is brought out. His 

 reputation needs no vindicating in the Journal OF Forestry. What 

 we are concerned with now is the apparent bias displayed by Professor 

 Ely, and the reasons for it. Other passages than those already quoted 

 show, though guardedly, the same spirit. Reference is made, for ex- 

 ample, to "the indiscretions, exaggerations, and other mistakes of cer- 

 tain conservationists whose wisdom was not equal to their zeal." Evi- 

 dently Professor Ely wishes to have it understood that he is a safe- 

 and-sane, middle-of-the-road conservationist. He is no wild-eyed bol- 

 shevist, but a student of economics applying in the alembic of his mind 

 the acid test of logic and sound method to loose conceptions and half- 

 baked proposals. 



Along with this must be taken into account that he starts out with 

 a thesis to maintain. In his view, the scientists have had a dispropor- 

 tionate prominence in conservation matters. When we reflect seri- 

 ously on the subject, he tells us, we see that we have here to do with 



^ Dr. ^IcGee invariablj'^ wrote and printed his name without periods after 

 the two initials. 



