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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 743 



connection with the pure food law and scores of 

 others, none of which were first authorized by 

 Congress, but all of which were called together 

 by the Executive for the purpose of public service; 

 for the purpose of rendering to our people sorely 

 needed service which could not and would not 

 otherwise have been rendered. So far as the vari- 

 ous army and navy boards are concerned, the 

 attempt is fortunately futile, and represents 

 merely failure in an effort to subordinate purely 

 military and national considerations to small per- 

 sonal or political considerations. The President 

 has under the Constitution the sole power to 

 direct the use of the officers of th,e army and navy, 

 always provided he acts within the limits set by 

 the Constitution. The Congress can no more 

 forbid the President to use the services of officers 

 or employees when they act in concert as a board 

 or council than it can forbid him to use their 

 services when they act as individuals. 



The chief object of this provision, however, is 

 to prevent the Executive repeating what it has 

 done within the last year in connection with the 

 Conservation Commission and the Country Life 

 Commission. It is for the people of this country 

 to decide whether or not they believe in the work 

 done by the Conservation Commission and by the 

 Country Life Commission. If the people of this 

 country do not believe in the conservation of our 

 natural resources; if they do not believe in devel- 

 oping our waterways and protecting our forests; 

 if they do not believe in the betterment of life on 

 the farm, and in upholding the interests of the 

 farmers; if they are willing to go on in the old 

 course of squandering the effects of our children's 

 children ; then they will uphold the action of those 

 in Congress who are responsible for this provision. 

 If they believe in improving our waterways, in 

 preventing the waste of soil, in preserving the 

 forests, in thrifty use of the mineral resources of 

 the country for the nation as a whole rather than 

 merely for private monopolies, in working for the 

 betterment of the condition of the men and women 

 who live on the farms, then they will unstintedly 

 condemn the action of every man who is in any 

 way responsible for inserting this provision, and 

 will support those members of the legislative 

 branch who opposed its adoption. I would not 

 sign the bill at all if I thought the provision 

 entirely effective. But the Congress can not pre- 

 vent the President from seeking advice. Any 

 future President can do as I have done, and ask 

 disinterested men who desire to serve the people 

 to give this service free to the people through 



these commissions. This action taken by the Con- 

 gress hampers and renders more difficult the work 

 of such commissions, and entails a greater sacri- 

 fice in time and money upon the public-spirited 

 men who disinterestedly and without any recom- 

 pense have served or may serve on these commis- 

 sions. But the Congress can only hamper and 

 render more difficult, it can not stop this work. 

 The Executive can continue to appoint these com- 

 missions and can make exactly the use of them 

 that I have made in the past, although, owing to 

 the Congress, a greater burden will be put upon 

 them. 



The republican platform last year said : " We 

 endorse the movement inaugurated by the admin- 

 istration for the conservation of natural resources. 

 . . . No obligation of the future is more insistent 

 and none will result in greater blessings to pos- 

 terity." The democratic platform said : " We re- 

 peat the demand for internal development and for 

 the conservation of our natural resources, the 

 enforcement of which Mr. Roosevelt has . . . 

 sought." 



My successor, the President-elect, in a letter to 

 the Senate Committee on Appropriations, asked 

 for the continuance and support of the Conserva- 

 tion Commission. The Conservation Commission 

 was appointed at the request of the governors of 

 over forty states, and almost all of these states 

 have since appointed commissions to cooperate 

 with the national commission. Nearly all the 

 great national organizations concerned with nat- 

 ural resources have been heartily .cooperating with 

 the commission. 



With all these facts before it, the Congress has 

 refused to pass a law to continue and provide for 

 the commission; and it now passes a law with 

 the purpose of preventing the Executive from 

 continuing the commission at all. The Executive, 

 therefore, must now either abandon the work and 

 reject the cooperation of the states, or else must 

 continue the work personally and through ex- 

 ecutive officers whom he may select for that pur- 

 pose. 



When I speak of the Congress I, of course, mean 

 those members of the Congress who are responsible 

 for this provision of the bill, and I emphatically 

 do not mean those public-spirited members who 

 have striven to prevent the incorporation in the 

 bill of this provision. To the Congressmen who 

 in this and similar matters have stood by the 

 interests of the public, the interests of those whom 

 Abraham Lincoln called " the plain people," the 

 heartiest support is owing. But I call the atten- 



