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Show 622 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT the livestock industry were in agreement that fees should be kept to the minimum and should be unrelated to the actual value of the service the districts offered.32 Under Jed Johnson's prodding in behalf of economy and owing to the feeling that the Grazing Service should be virtually self-supporting, the appropriation for its maintenance in 1947 was cut to $212,500 but not before other staunch advocates of economy from the range states woke up to the realization that the deep cut would virtually wreck the program that had been developing during the past decade. Then, though most of the speakers were hostile to Harold Ickes, who by this time had been replaced as Secretary of the Interior by Julius Krug, they deplored the reduction of appropriations. Speaker after speaker from Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Nevada, and New Mexico took a strong stand against the cut, upholding the Grazing Service and showing marked confidence in its management. This must have been balm for officers who had been so generally condemned for mismanagement, inefficiency, and power grabbing. However, a combination of eastern and middle western support for the reduced appropriation proved irresistible.33 In the Senate, where the range states had greater proportionate strength, members were not willing to cut as deeply as was the majority in the House, though Senator McCarran was anxious to reduce the staff of the Grazing Service to 100. The appropriation was increased to $802,500, though this was still far below the Budget estimate. Senator McCarran was sufficiently troubled by the size of the cut to fear that the Grazing Service would take reprisals against him and Nevada by dismissing all its staff in that state. To prevent such action, he » Cong. Record, 79th Cong., 2d sess., May 9, 1946, pp. 4690-94. "Cong. Record, 79th Cong., 2d sess., May 10, 1946, pp. 4833-39. Rooney of New York, and Jensen of Iowa argued for the defense of the deep cut. urged the Senate unsuccessfully to adopt an amendment that would prevent the dismissal of members with Civil Service rating.34 The drop in appropriations, which forced the dismissal of nearly two-thirds of the staff of the Grazing Service, and congressional harassment of its officials produced a rapid overturn of its employees so that by 1948 there was an almost completely new staff at the top. Grazing supervision and trespass control were "limited"; only through the aid of funds provided by the advisory boards from fees was it possible to maintain the essential services. Work on the improvement of the range had to be halted, though an effort was made to maintain previously installed improvements. As a result of a staff inadequate to enforce the regulations some stockmen "willfully grazed excess numbers" of cattle or sheep, knowing that they were safe in so doing. A year later further increases in trespasses were reported with only the most flagrant cases receiving attention. Secretary of the Interior Krug exhorted the President and Congress in his annual report for 1947 to realize that effective conservation measures required the expenditure of public funds, that at least 115 million acres of the public rangelands needed remedial attention, and that 46 million acres were in critical condition because of overgrazing and erosion.35 Elimination of Federal Ownership Sought Having seriously weakened the Grazing Service both as a political instrument and as an effective management agency ( thereby freeing the livestock interests of higher fees or reduction in the number of animal units allowed in the districts) and cast reflection on the advisory boards for their loyalty to 3iCong. Record, 79th Cong., 2d sess., June 19, 1946, pp. 7, 151. 36 Secretary of the Interior, Annual Report, 1947, pp. 3, 7, 283-87. Annual Report, 1948, p. 269. |