STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 121 



"The theory of stewardship in the interest of 

 the public was well illustrated by the establishment 

 of a water-power policy. Until the Forest Service 

 changed the plan, water-powers on the navigable 

 streams, on the public domain, and in the National 

 Forests were given away for nothing, and substan- 

 tially without question, to whoever asked for them. 

 At last, under the principle that public property 

 should be paid for and should not be permanently 

 granted away when such permanent grant is avoid- 

 able, the Forest Service established the policy of reg- 

 ulating the use of power in the National Forests in 

 the public interest and making a charge for value 

 received. This was the beginning of the water- 

 power policy now substantially accepted by the pub- 

 lic, and doubtless soon to be enacted into law. But 

 there was at the outset violent opposition to it on the 

 part of the water-power companies, and such repre- 

 sentatives of their views in Congress as Messrs. 

 Tawney and Bede. 



"Many bills were introduced in Congress aimed, 

 in one way or another, at relieving the power com- 

 panies of control and payment. When these bills 

 reached me I refused to sign them; and the injury to 

 the public interest which would follow their passage 

 was brought sharply to public attention in my mes- 

 sage of February 26, 1908. The bills made no fur- 

 ther progress. 



"Under the same principle of stewardship, rail- 

 roads and other corporations, which applied for and 



