6 3 6 CONSERVATION 



And there we are. Secretary Lamar Construction-Strict To-day and Free 



and First Assistant Secretary Chandler 



held that the law meant what it said, \ FTER all, is not the question of 



and Secretary Lamar's knowledge of /\ construction one less of schools 



law was deemed sufficient to warrant t j ian o f mooc i s anc i tenses ? 



his promotion to the bench of United Upon this question light is thrown by 



States Supreme Court. ^ our national constitutional history. 



"But Secretary Smith reversed him." The father of strict construction in 

 In a sense, yes ; yet the Smith decision America found it necessary, when in 

 would not help Ballinger. power, to "stretch the Constitution un- 

 Secretary Smith's decision was based t jj j t crac ked" to cover an important ad- 

 on the theory that a claim for public ministration measure, 

 land was not a "claim against the Qn t i le ot i ier h an d, the free con- 

 United States." structionists, when out of power, have 

 From his standpoint, public land was sou ght aid and comfort from the strict 

 of no value to the United States. In- construction philosophy, 

 stead, it was but so much old junk, to The fact seems to be that people are 

 be gotten rid of as fast as practicable. f ree CO nstructionists when they want to 

 Whatever basis this astounding do things, and strict obstructionists 

 theory may have had in the practise of w h e n they want to prevent things from 

 the Interior Department, it does not being done. 



apply to claims for United States coal ^y e are now j n t ^ e m id s t, apparently, 



lands in Alaska or anywhere else. o ano ther era of strict construction. 



For the scandalous practise of sell- yet, as noted in another connection, the 



ing Government coal lands for a song. Secretary of the Interior forgot all 



President Roosevelt substituted the a b ou t his strict construction principles 



present plan of selling such lands for when Section 190 of the Revised Stat- 



a price approximating their market utes g Ot in his roa( j. 



value. Furthermore, when it was found de- 



And he did this before Commissioner s i ra bl e for the Government at Wash- 



BaUinger left the Land Office. ington to aid American financiers in 



Since this change in practise it has secur i n g a share of the $25,000,000 loan 



been and is the pride and boast of f or t h e construction of certain Chinese 



the Interior Department and Geolog- railways, a way was promptly found 



ical Survey that the Government^ is to do so g ut nas any one pointed to 



treating the people's coal as a thing the c i ause o f the Constitution or the 



of value, not be dumped like rubbish art i c le of the Revised Statutes authoriz- 



upon the first applicant. j n g sucn a id? 



A claim for Government coal lands 5^ wnen j t was discovered that 



means to the Government to-day as users o f j rr ig a t e d land were paying in 



much as a claim for the money value part f or t h e j r wa t e r rights by their 



placed by the Geological Survey upon i a bor, or that trained Government for- 



such lands. esters were applying approved methods 



Yet Secretary Ballinger overlooks to the handling of Government forests 



all this ; and he ignores the masterly on the j n di an Reservations, immediately 

 decision of Secretary Lamar, the un- j ega i ij ons blocked the path, 

 quoted parts of which simply add to 'Wonderful, indeed, is law, and more 

 its strength. wonderful still the legal mind ! 



Nevertheless, Secretary Ballinger is ^ ^ 



a champion of "strict construction"- 



Legal Last Year But Not This 



when it suits. 



Was it not a lawyer who, on an '-p HAT the plan whereby Forest Serv- 

 earlier occasion, found his judgment in- 1 ice men cared for the forests on 

 fluenced by the question as to whose ox the Indian Reservations was eminently 

 was gored? wise, practicable and helpful is con- 



