204 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Please,' and similar expressions from the Christian 

 Science Monitor, the Louisville Courier- Journal, the New 

 York Evening Mail, and dozens of other newspapers is 

 propaganda, then the American Forestry Association 

 sends out propaganda. 



"The American Forestry Association, with thousands 

 of members who are citizens of every state in the Union. 

 represents the public and is quite willing to rest the 

 propaganda question with the editors of the country and 

 with the public. It at no time has consulted Secretary 

 Wallace as to its policies nor did he know what it was 

 doing unless he saw it in the newspapers. 



"President Warren G. Harding, in welcoming the Farm 

 Conference to Washington, closed his address by im- 

 pressing upon the delegates the importance of forestry to 

 the fanner. That was the best kind of propaganda, in 

 the opinion of the American Forestry Association, and it 

 has collected comments on the President's statement all 

 over the country and is printing these editorial comments 

 in the next issue of its magazine. 



"The Association's magazine printed an article by Sec- 

 retary Fall on the recreational value of our National 

 Parks and what they mean to the country. It then sent 

 that article all over the country and it was widely print- 

 ed. That is the kind of useful information which the As- 

 sociation sends out in its news service regularly. 



"As President Harding well pointed out, forestry is of 

 prime importance to the farmer. The Association stands 

 against transferring the Forest Service because the in- 

 terests of forestry are inseparable from those of agricul- 

 ture. More than sixty per cent of the forests in the 

 long run will be in small ownership either attached to 

 farms are interspersed among farms. The development 

 of forests and agriculture must go hand in hand and are 

 interdependent. 



"The Association opposes the proposed transfer l:)e- 

 cause such a step would lead to the division of the 

 federal work of forestry among two or more departments 

 with a consequent duplication of work weakening the 

 leadership and lessening the effectiveness of that work in 

 many directions. 



"As a result of the stand taken by the American For- 

 estry Association hundreds of organizations throughout 

 the country are voicing their protest against the proposal 

 to transfer the Forest Service to the Interior Department. 



"It will be of interest to some perhaps to know that 

 the article by Col. William R. Greeley, Chief of the United 

 States Forest Service, to which Secretary Fall takes ex- 

 ception as 'vicious pro])aganda' against him, was writ- 

 ten before President Harding announced the make-up ot 

 his cabinet. 



"There the case lies. We have yet to find an editorial 

 expression favoring the transfer. The public, it seems, 

 has its mind made U]) on the proposition." 

 GREELEY'S STATEMENT 



Col. W. R. Greeley, commenting on Secretary Fall's 

 statement, said : 



"Ihc idea that the Forest Service is conducting a pro- 

 paganda against the Secretarv of Interior is absurd. 



"Following a personal inspection of the National For- 

 ests in Alaska in 1920 I wrote an article on the situa- 

 tion in Alaska, which took issue with the proposal to turn 

 the natural resources of the Territory over to a develop 

 ment board. This proposal was an old one, having ap- 

 peared and reappeared a number of different times \n 

 discussion of Alaskan affairs. The article in question 

 was given the American Forestry Magazine for publi- 

 cation several months before Secretary Fall assumed his 

 present duties. My position regarding the National For- 

 ests in Alaska was restated plainly in the official hear- 

 ings held subsequently by the committees on territories 

 of the House and Senate. Everything I have had to say 

 on this subject has dealt solely with the principles of 

 Federal administration in Alaska, and included no criti- 

 cism or attack upon anyone. 



"Whatever the American Forestry Association has to 

 say about the National Forests in Alaska, or any other 

 subject has been said without any suggestion or par- 

 ticipation on my part. The American Forestry Maga- 

 zine has occasionally quoted from my published state- 

 ments or testimony before Congressional committees, but 

 that is the extent of my connection with material used 

 by the Association. 



"The idea that the Forest Service is conducting propa- 

 ganda against the Secretary of Interior is absurd. The 

 question as to which department should administer the 

 forests should be settled on its merits. Secretary Fall 

 is misinformed if he thinks the Forest Service is mak- 

 ing any fight on him." 



SECRETARY WALLACE REPLIES 



Referring to the declaration by Secretary Fall that he 

 has been the object of "a vicious and unwarranted attack" 

 in propaganda emanating from the Department of Agri- 

 culture, Secretary Wallace, in a letter to Senator Capper, 

 said: 



"There is absolutely no foundation for such a charge. 

 Neither the Department of Agriculture nor anyone con- 

 nected with it has been guilty of issuing propaganda of 

 this kind." 



Declaring that Secretary Fall's charges are unjust 

 and are based on misunderstandings, the letter states: 



"The charge seems to rest on a paragraph in an article 

 written by Colonel Greeley and published in the Ameri- 

 can Forestry Magazine of April, 192L The injustice 

 of this charge is at once evident when it is known that 

 the article in question was prepared by Colonel Greeley 

 in the fall of 1920, some months before the present ad- 

 ministration came into power. 



"Even if the article had been published later," Secre- 

 tary Wallace declared, "I find nothing in it which can 

 ]50ssibly be interpreted as vicious propaganda or as 

 criticism of the head of any other department." 



"Colonel Greeley, head of the Forest Service, is a man 

 of the finest character, with a very high sense of pro- 

 prieties and of public duties. He is quite incapable of 

 lending himself to inijjroper criticism of the heads of 

 other government departments." 



