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<br />00J2D5 <br /> <br />''':." '-.;,'" <br />,\ ~;~~~}:-.<~-~r~~~:~~ I <br />{<'.~ 1<~~" .', -I <br /> <br />. -~. <br /> <br />" <br /> <br />':.J:;.,. <br /> <br />...'(. <br /> <br />GRASS, CREAKING WAGONS, TRAILING LONGHORNS 33 <br /> <br />~;]~~~~ <br /> <br /> <br />..;.;.... <br />....; ."" . ...., <br /> <br />:;:<:>';{:":.::.:<':~;'I <br /> <br />dore Roosevelt withdrew sixteen million acres from the public <br />domain and placed them in National Forests. <br /> <br />Gifford Pinchot served as head of the Forest Service, of the <br />Department of Agriculture, from 1898 to 1910. Many consider <br />Pinchot as the founder of the conservation movement in the <br />United States. He was also president of the National Conserva- <br />tion Association and was always active in public land boards. <br />Mr. Pinchot is remembered as a martyr to conservation as his <br />enemies crowded him from his high Washington position soon <br />after his exposure of a public lumber fraud, <br /> <br />In 1908, on call of President Theodore Roosevelt, a group <br />of scientists, the representatives of sixty-eight national societies, <br />and the governors from thirty-six states and territories attended <br />a conservation conftJrence. <br /> <br />, " <br /> <br />:". . .~~\:':<~;~::':~:;~:':~ /.::'~:~:' I <br />';:')':;:;:,,:,.;,:,:':"1 <br /> <br />" . <br /> <br />In 1008 and 1900 the National Conservation Commission <br />was formed, composed of an equal number of men from politics, <br />industry and scientific work. This commission presented an in- <br />ventory of our national resources to all the governors in 1908 <br />and to the president early in 1909. <br /> <br />Congress in 1911 passed a bill giving authority, authority <br />that was bitterly contested by debate, for the purchase of mar- <br />ginalland to be restored by the Forest Service. <br /> <br />Thus government land policy was never stationary, there <br />were too many public forces at work; the politician and his <br />client, the renter, and the local newspaper who recognized the <br />claim acreage as too small for the family support. There was <br />always the land speculator and mining opportunist and those <br />who believed that the public land should be exploited. On the <br />other hand was a growing band of far-seeing statesmen, econo- <br />,mists, and scientists, backed by spirited newspapers, who had <br />definite conservation in mind and heart. <br />H is regrettable that the government land policy was not <br />a composite picture of all these forces. In actuality conservation <br />