I 



THE PERIOD OF CONSERVATION 153 



priation for the National Conservation Commission, and Senator 

 Knute Nelson of Minnesota introduced an amendment to the Sundry 

 Civil Bill, appropriating $25,000 for the expenses of tKe commission.^* 

 This amendment went to the Senate Committee on Appropriations 

 and was lost there. Senator Eugene Hale of Maine was chairman of 

 that committee, and he has been blamed for the failure of the amend- 

 ment.^^ 



The failure of Nelson's amendment was unfortunate enough for the 



onservation Commission, but it would not have been fatal had the 



ommission still retained the authority to ask the scientific bureaus 



o do such work as was appropriate and proper for them to under- 



ake. In the House of Representatives, however, a clause was attached 



o the Sundry Civil Bill, prohibiting all bureaus from doing work for 



any commission, board or similar body appointed by the President 



without legislative sanction. ^^ James A. Tawney of Minnesota, who 



had generally opposed conservation, was responsible for this amend- 



ment.'« 



Congress having thus strangled the National Conservation Com- 

 mission, the organization of the conservation movement was carried 

 forward by the Joint Committee on Conservation, an official body 

 established at the Second Conference of Governors, and in the fall of 

 1909, the National Conservation Association was organized. This 

 association was supported largely by personal contributions of 

 Pinchot. 



Toward the close of the sixtieth Congress, President-elect Taft 

 suggested to Mr. Nelson, chairman of the Committee on Public Lands, 



26 Cong. Rec, Feb. 17, 1909, 2561. 



2T In earlier years. Senator Hale had evinced an apparent interest in forest 

 conservation. (S. 1476, S. 1779; 50 Cong. 1 sess.) 



28 Stat. 35, 1027. 



29 Cong. Rec, Feb. 25, 1909, 3118. Dr. Van Hise, president of the University of 

 Wisconsin, wrote an article in the World's Work, denouncing Tawney for his anti- 

 conservation activity; but Tawney claimed, in justification of his amendment, 

 that Roosevelt had appointed a great number of commissions of various kinds 

 without any sanction from Congress, and that this was turning the work of some 

 of the bureaus into channels other than those intended by Congress. It is easy to 

 believe that there was some truth in this, for Roosevelt was inclined to do things 

 without specific authorization from Congress. That is about the best way for a 

 President to get things done. {Cong. Rec, July 27, 1909, 4614: World's Work, 

 June, 1909, 11718, 11719.) 



