EDITORIAI, COMMENT 947 



The Interior Department is not fitted and was never designed to 

 manage lands as a means of production. In its primary functions it is 

 the Government's real estate agent and abstractor of titles. Its whole 

 tradition is based on passing title to the public lands into private hands. 

 At the only place where it creatively touches agriculture — namely, in 

 the Reclamation Service — its function is an engineering one. It is no 

 detraction from the usefulness or the reputation of the Department to 

 say that it is not fitted, either by tradition, by outlook, or by logical 

 function, to manage a great and highly complex agricultural enterprise. 



The American people should demand and receive honest, unequivocal 

 answers to the following questions : 



In what way would the National Forests be benefited by the proposed 

 transfer ? 



In what way would the American people be benefited by it? 



What changes in the present administration and development of the 

 National Forests would be made in the event of the transfer? What 

 would be the purpose of those changes? 



Men of influence should make the necessary personal sacrifice to pro- 

 test at the public hearings on these bills, and individuals and associations 

 interested in any phase of conservation — whether of forests, game, 

 water power, or other resources — should bring their full weight to bear 

 against these mischievous measures. Now is the time for such decisive 

 action, such overwhelming protest, that the foes of conservation will 

 not lift their heads for another decade. 



The two Alaskan bills— S. 2382 and S. 2203— were referred to the 

 Senate Committee on Territories and Insular Possessions. The King 

 bill, S. 2740, was referred to the Senate Committee on Public Lands 

 and Surveys, of which Senator Smoot is chairman. 



