MR. HOOVER AND CONSERVATION

Certain factions in the West are opposing, apparently with much success, the appointment of Herbert Hoover to the Secretaryship of the Interior, a move, which once seemed very possible, according to those who are closest to Mr. Harding. This factional objection is based on a desire to swell personal fortunes at the expense of the present and future welfare of the country as a whole.

Since the days of President Roosevelt, when Mr. Pinchot was Secretary of the Interior, the policy of the Federal government in regard to our natural resources has been one of conservation; particularly in so far as our timberland is concerned. Mr. Roosevelt perceived, with his accustomed far-sightedness, that the day was coming when it would be no longer possible to misuse our natural products with the carelessness and wastefulness which then held sway. The bills put through under his administration have been practically the only check on the destruction of our forests.

With the recent opposition to Mr. Hoover's appointment comes a recurrence of the threat against the nation's future welfare that was felt fifteen years ago. The lumber and water-power interests have been chafing under the restraint that has held them back from a rapid road to fortune at the public's expense. They want the timber and latent power now kept from them in the National Parks and Reservations, and they want a Secretary of the Interior who will back their interests.

It is a great pity that Mr. Harding seems to be falling in line with these ideas. Appearances seem ominously to indicate that he wishes to reward his backers in the West by laying open the national reservations to depredation. Weak men or puppets in the Departments of the Interior and of Agriculture, could do irreparable harm to the nation's reserve supply of timber; to say nothing of the concurrent destruction of the few spots of primeval beauty that remain in the country. Herbert Hoover is one of the few men who is fit by previous experience to hold this position and who can be relied upon to preserve the integrity of the nation's resources.