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Show ADMINISTRATION OF THE PUBLIC FOREST LANDS 577 Administration of the forest reserves by the General Land Office under Commissioner Binger Hermann, with his sensitivity toward the views of western economic groups and disinclination to push forward along conservation lines, was making little progress. In contrast, Gifford Pinchot was conducting a "vigorous campaign to transfer the Forest Reserves to the Department of Agriculture" where they would come under his direction. True, at the request of Secretary Hitchcock, Pinchot was asked to provide technical advice for the management of the reserves but there is little or no evidence that Hermann was prepared to act upon it. In fact, almost from the hour of his appointment as head of the Division of Forestry, Pinchot had as his goal the transfer of the forest reserves to Agriculture. To that end he lobbied tirelessly night and day with Representatives, Senators, lumber companies, and publicists, won the support of the National Board of Trade, of the American Forestry Association, and of Secretary Hitchcock, as well as that of President Roosevelt. By November 1901, Hitchcock was so convinced that he did an unheard of thing for a bureaucrat: he suggested the desirability of having the forest reserves transferred to the Department of Agriculture upon whose trained foresters he had already leaned for a report on management of the reserves. Hitchcock was ready, but Binger Hermann of the General Land Office was not. In his report of 1901 Hermann devoted considerable space to information about went into private ownership through allotments to the Indians and then was sold to whites under conditions that again brought dishonor to the Indian Office. Folwell traces the sad story of the loss of the White Earth Reservation with its valuable timber to unscrupulous whites and adds, "It is painful to add that no member of the Minnesota delegation in Congress in all these years entered protest or recorded a vote against the vicious legislation and ... no Minnesota public man raised his voice in behalf of the plundered Indian." Pp. 295-96. the reforestation work he was doing in the mountains of Southern California. The work of the office was systematized, men were being trained in the handling of the many problems coming before them, intrusions were being limited, protection from fire was well established. There is no hint in Hermann's report of any need for reliance upon the professional foresters in the Bureau of Forestry. Although professional forestry skill and training were still concentrated in the Department of Agriculture, that Department had no responsibility for forest management of public lands except in Minnesota. It was giving the best of its advice and experience to private and state owners of timberlands while Interior was giving little more than some protection from fire to the 53 forest reserves under its control.38 In maneuvering to bring government administration and research in forestry together Pinchot tried a number of plans before he was finally successful in 1905. One such plan was to have Pinchot appointed as head of Division "R" in Interior where he would have responsibility for the administration of the reserves, under Binger Hermann, while carrying on his work as head of the Division of Forestry in Agriculture. Actually he had provided Hitchcock with aid, personnel, and ideas for management of the reserves and there seemed good reason to make the appointment. But to be chief of two divisions in separate departments seemed impossible to carry out because of bureaucratic red tape. The plan was abandoned. In lieu of this Hitchcock was persuaded to bring Roth back from Cornell and to place him in charge of Division "R." This was done and with other men drawn from Pinchot's Division steps were taken to introduce into the 38#. Doc, 58th Cong., 2d sess., Vol. 18, No. 5 (Serial No. 4644), p. 567. |