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FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



November, 



HON. ETHAN ALI^EN HITCHCOCK, 

 SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. 



IN Februar}-, 1899, Mr. Hitchcock entered upon the duties of Secretary of the Interior, 

 becoming a member of President McKinley's Cabinet. In this position he has given 



personal attention to matters of forestry and irrigation, one of the duties of his office being 

 the care and protection of the forest reserves. The passage of the Reclamation Act of June 17, 

 1902, puts at his disposal the control of the reclamation fund, now amounting to over ^S, 000,000. 

 Upon him is dependent the inauguration of a new svstem, which, if wisely administered, means 

 a rapid progress in the development of the arid region and indirectly of the whole United States. 



Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Secretary of the Interior since February 20, 1899, was born at 

 Mobile, Ala., September 19, 1835. He attended private schools at Nashville, Tenn., and 

 completed his course at a military academy in New Haven, Conn., in 1855. Mr. Hitchcock 

 settled in vSt. Louis, and engaged in the mercantile business until i860, when he went to China 

 to enter the commercial house of Olyphant & Co., of which firm he became a partner in 1866. 

 He retired from business in 1872, and spent two years in Europe. He returned to the United 

 States in 1874, and was engaged as president of several manufacturing, mining, and railway 

 companies until 1897, when he became United States Minister to Russia, and in 1898 was 

 appointed an ambassador. 



