THE FIGHT FOR ALASKA S FORESTS 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR FALL, exer- 

 cised over the widespread and vigorous opposition to 

 his plan for transferring the National Forests in Alaska 

 from the Department of Agriculture to his department, 

 issued a statement on March 4 setting forth his views. 

 The newspapers gave considerable space to his declara- 

 tions and to others which followed, including denials 

 that the Department of Agriculture was conducting 

 propaganda against Secretary Fall. All of this, follow- 

 ing the very wide publication of articles opposing the 

 proposed transfer distributed on news sheets of the 

 American Forestry Association has resulted in the public 

 becoming unusually well informed regarding this very 

 important matter. 



As a result of this widespread information the opposi- 

 tion to taking the National Forests from the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, where they have been very satisfac- 

 torily administered, has become most pronounced. The 

 newspapers are practically a unit in protesting against 

 the proposal and scores of influential organizations have 

 condemned it. 



Secretary Fall's statement of March 4 is, in part, as 

 follows : 



"I appeared before the Committee on Territories of the 

 House and later the Committee on Territories of the Sen- 

 ate, and made statements before each concerning the 

 proposed pending legislation known, first, as the Curry 

 Bill, which proposed, in short, the establishment of a 

 commission form of Government in Alaska ; second, 

 of a bill along the line of the Overman Bill, authorizing 

 the President to allocate and coordinate the duties of the 

 different bureaus now having jurisdiction over activi- 

 ties and property of the national government in Alaska ; 

 and third, a bill of a similar character, vesting in the 

 Secretary of the Interior the authority over most of 

 such activities, by transferring to the Interior Depart- 

 ment of the United States, offices of such bureaus oper- 

 ating in Alaska and the control over the property ad- 

 ministered under the laws enacted by the Congress. 



"(1 ) I opposed the Curry Bill. 



"(2) I approved the passage of either the bill au- 

 thorizing the President to allocate and coordinate, or 

 the bill vesting the authority directly in the Interior 

 Department. 



"Among these activities was the administration of the 

 forests in Alaska, to the end that the work of the In- 

 terior Department might be coordinated, by transfer of 

 the forests to the Interior, the administration of the 

 mining laws, the agricultural entry laws, the construc- 

 tion of roads and other methods of transportation, etc. 



"This at once brought down upon my devoted head 

 the wrath of Mr. Gifford Pinchot and his followers, 

 and immediately there was issued a press sheet in glar- 

 ing l)lack headlines, purporting to be sent out by the 



American Forestry Association. This sheet urged each 

 j>erson receiving the sheet to take it to the editor of his 

 newspaper and to impress upon him its importance. 

 In the first column appears an interview quoting from 

 Colonel Greeley, Chief of the United States Forest Serv- 

 ice. In the second column is a picture of this very 

 efficient official, and under the picture the explanation 

 in headlines : 'Colonel W. B. Greeley, Chief of the United 

 States Forest Service, who challenges plan to get con- 

 trol over Alaska's forests.' 



"Below this appears a prominent sub-head : 'Raps 

 Fall in public's war for forests,' followed by a quota- 

 tion apparently emanating from the American Foresters 

 or someone else (He means the Society of American 

 Foresters. Editor) to the effect : 



"The purposes back of this attempt can be surmised, though 

 they are not accurately known. Secretary of the Interior A. 

 B. Fall is apparently chief sponsor of this movement, as he 

 was the chief sponsor for the so-called Curry Bill, still tech- 

 nically before Congress but probably now dead. This bill 

 was directed against continued public control of the great natu- 

 ral resources of Alaska ***** A more daring piece of 

 legislation has not been attempted in our time. The vast 

 wealth of the great Empire of Alaska was to be turned over to 

 an absolutely irresponsible body, from which the people of 

 Alaska and the people of the United States would have no appeal 

 whatsoever," etc., etc. 



"I was absent upon official business when this sheet 

 was sent out, but immediately received a telegram from 

 my office describing it and quoting from it. The chiefs 

 of several of the bureaus of this department whose 

 efforts to administer the public laws are so frequently 

 hampered by activities of the Forestry Bureau and of 

 Mr. Pinchot, were outraged at this vicious and unwar- 

 ranted attack upon the head of a coordinate department 

 of the Government, and appearing with a related ar- 

 ticle of his own, by the chief forester of a bureau in the 

 Department of Agriculture. I was urged to take the 

 matter up directly with the President and to call his 

 attention to the impropriety, to say the least, of such 

 practice. I replied by wire to the assistant and admin- 

 istrative secretaries of this department on December 

 30, that it was all right to call the attention of the Presi- 

 dent to the matter, but if they did so, to hand him my 

 telegram in which I directed that if any pul)Iic state- 

 ment was given out it should be simply along these lines : 



"That the question of Alaskan and other matters would in 

 our judgment be commented on upon official responsibility di- 

 rect to Congress where legislation is pending, and for the 

 Interior Department officers and employees thus dealing with 

 official business not to bias or prejudice or influence legislation 

 by propaganda and untruthful statements." 



"This telegram was called to the attention of the 

 President and a ijublic statement contained in a few 

 lines given out to the press as directed by myself." 



Secretary Fall also refers to statements of W. A. 

 Babbitt, an article by Prof. H. H. Chapman, in the 



