WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 23 



acutely and with the finest intellectual honesty, but also with the 

 broadest comprehension of relations of every kind. For many years 

 I was in effect his pupil. I have never met a man whose imagina- 

 tive suggestiveness in scientific work and in the application of scien- 

 tific results to human problems could be compared with his. It was 

 always the application of knowledge which appealed to him. His 

 mind passed easily across the details of a scientific problem to its appli- 

 cation in matters that would count for the welfare of the people. 



I have never forgotten how he first suggested to me that the saving 

 of the natural resources for the benefit of the people, through the Con- 

 servation movement, involved as one of its main problems the whole 

 monopoly question. At first the idea seemed to me fantastic. 

 Gradually I came to see with him that the use of the resources is 

 fully as important as the saving of them, and that one of the great 

 phases of Conservation is the problem of the concentration of natural 

 wealth in the hands of monopolists. 



The breadth and reach of Doctor McGee's interests may be indi- 

 cated by a partial list of the subjects in which his helpful influence was 

 strongly and effectively exerted. Of geology and anthropology I 

 must leave others to speak. His work in Conservation dealt with 

 navigable streams, waterpower, irrigation, potable waters from wells, 

 and springs, and streams, the laws of streamflow, the whole subject 

 of erosion, including as a single example the methods of avoiding 

 erosion by contour plowing on hilly land, the protection of coal and 

 oil lands from misappropriation, the saving of the phosphate lands for 

 the people, forestry, with particular emphasis on the Appalachian 

 National Forest, the public lands, the whole question of country life, 

 etc. His interest in humanity made him a radical in politics, to 

 which he gave much philosophic attention both as a branch of applied 

 anthropology, and as an instrument for human progress. This in- 

 terest led to his quiet but exceedingly practical participation in law 

 making to such an extent that many laws with whose passage he had, 

 ostensibly at least, little to do, in fact bore the impress of his forceful 

 influence or were originated by it. 



McGee's capacity to see and judge himself and his affairs without 

 selfish bias was as remarkable as his mental achievements. Only a 

 man of flawless courage and complete unselfishness could have reached 



