OCR Text |
Show ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC GRAZING LANDS 615 tions between the governing authorities and those whose grazing practices were to be regulated. In all the discussions stress was laid on the part the advisory boards, elected by the users of the range, were to have in drafting the rules and regulations, and every effort was made to cooperate with the stockmen, win their confidence and support, and convince them that the controls were theirs and solely for their benefit, without minimizing conservation.17 The selection of a local stockman as chief administrator, the establishment of the local advisory boards, which were given legal status in an Act of 1939, the establishment of national and state advisory boards, the modest fees that were charged (5tf per month for cattle, ltf for sheep, modest when compared with the 16tf and 44 charged in the national forests, and the even higher commercial rates), and the extreme care in determining preferential grazing privileges (if the ranges were to be improved some former users would have to be cut back) all seemed likely to make the new conservation agency acceptable, if not actually popular. Indeed in 1939, Congressman Edward Taylor, in a speech applauding the Division of Grazing and the Department of the Interior, especially the Secretary, could speak of the "amazing change" that had come to the public range-lands and the "renewed confidence to the entire social and economic structure of the West" that had resulted from the adoption of the Grazing Act. The administration had fostered the principle of home rule and local autonomy and had developed "Robert R. McCormick, "Capital Cowboy," Collier's, 101 ff. (March 5, 1938), 38 ff. The Diary of Harold Ickes, the reports of the Secretary of the Interior and the Director of Grazing, and the tesit-mony at various hearings of Senate and House committees on measures affecting the grazing program all justify the generalization concerning efforts to appease the livestockmen through continued emphasis upon local self-rule. policies that reflected a "harmony of purpose." Taylor cited some of the concrete results that came from it and from the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps- the building of flood control structures to impound waters and fencing to break up the tendency of stock to concentrate around a few waterholes, which had meant failure to utilize valuable forage where water was lacking. More specifically he enumerated the building of 358 spring developments, 143 wells and storage facilities, 780 earth reservoirs, 1,950 miles of range fences, 225 corrals, 1,750 miles of stock trails, 4,950 miles of truck trails, 185 bridges, 245 cattle guards, the treatment of 7,300,000 acres for rodent control and 330,000 for the eradication of poisonous plants. He rejoiced in the elimination of the tramp sheep outfits for which there seemed to be little favor. Animal Users in the Grazing Districts, 1938* Districts_______ 50 Goats 96,455 Licensees_______ 19,342 Deer 302,070 Cattle_________1,605,566 Antelope 85,000 Horses_________ 108,925 Elk 6,970 Sheep_________9,221,696 ¦ Cong. Record, App., 76th Cong., 1st sess., June 28, 1939, pp. 2930-34. Transfer of Forest Service Resisted Despite Congressman Taylor's bland words all was not harmony. Warfare had been going on since 1935 between Harold Ickes and the Department of Agriculture over the final lodgment of the Forest Service. Ickes was an extraordinarily able administrative officer-some would say the ablest of the new breed that came into office in 1933-an old-line Bull Moose Progressive of 1912 and an ardent conservationist. Almost from his first day as Secretary of the Interior, he began to dream of recovering administrative control of the na- |