F.D.R., Countryman
Stoddard, Charles H.
F.D.R., Countryman Franklin D. Roosevelt and Conservation—1911-1945, Volumes 1 and II. Compiled by Edgar B. Nixon. Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y. 700 pp. $9.50. Reviewed...
...These papers clearly reveal that many of the basic ideas in the New Deal conservation programs were those of the President himself and that he inspired others to give them the detail needed to bring them into fruition...
...and the Norris-Doxey Farm Forestry Act...
...Only a man who had reforested his own acres with tree species he himself had carefully chosen, and who had watched them grow, would have the vision needed to create and stoutly defend a national reforestation program so that unemployed city boys might have similar experiences in the Civilian Conservation Corps...
...There is much evidence in these papers, however, to indicate that he was primarily interested in integrated management of resources—particularly river basin and regional resource planning...
...the Plains Shelterbelt...
...the Duck Stamp, Pittman-Robertson and Wildlife Coordination Acts (all landmarks in wildlife conservation...
...This is true despite the organized efforts of many prominent conservationists to help him do so...
...sought out and used some of Pinchot's advice on forestry matters...
...There are many other major forward steps in existing programs which had received no forward push for years...
...These two volumes open up many new insights into Roosevelt the man, the political leader, and the conservationist, which will be instructive to both professional and lay conservationists...
...Nor did the Democratic candidate, Adlai Stevenson, exploit the opportunity to drive home in a single major speech the many undeniable transgressions of the Administration in conservation...
...He had what the late Aldo Leopold called "an ecological conscience...
...Reviewed by Charles H. Stoddard It is almost trite to say that the public and private papers of a leading public figure often reveal insights into his personal interests and significant accomplishments which too frequently escape issue-oriented historians...
...camp during college years, I felt I had a reasonably detailed knowledge of conservation in the New Deal...
...As a participant in several New Deal conservation programs beginning with a job as a forestry foreman in a C.C.C...
...were planning a World Conference on Conservation shortly before the latter's death...
...And it is of interest that Pinchot and F.D.R...
...It was approved by a large majority of voters...
...While organized citizen conservationists were able to stem the tide, the White House has not only shown no awareness of what was going on, but has lent prestige to those who would turn back the conservation clock...
...Furthermore, I venture to predict that among the most enduring and tangible monuments to Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, his far-reaching accomplishments in conservation will rank close to the top...
...Students of public policy have often noted that the only two great forward strides in conservation took place under the two Roosevelts—both countrymen with a personal interest in the outdoors...
...On many occasions during his career F.D.R...
...expansion of the national forests by 13 million acres...
...Only a man who knew his American land and was both an idealist and a political realist with imagination could have translated this knowledge into a vast body of solid accomplishment...
...This is a matter of concern because fewer, and fewer of our future political leaders will be drawn from those who have had direct contact with resource problems...
...the first national water pollution control act...
...There is an underlying reason for Roosevelt's broad interest in natural resource problems: he was a countryman at heart...
...Roosevelt's personal interest in conservation was fertile ground for early leadership in conservation policy when, as state senator in Albany, he sponsored the Roosevelt-Jones Wildlife Protection Bill...
...That this is particularly true of Franklin D. Roosevelt has been thumpingly demonstrated in this 1300-page collection of his papers on forestry, soil, water and wildlife, park conservation, and natural resource planning...
...the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934...
...No historian of the 1930's henceforth can afford to overlook this dynamic and lasting chapter of our history...
...Many pages of his letters, conference reports as well as written speeches, reveal a man with an earthly awareness of trees, wild things, and a "feel" for the land—not as a sentimentalist, but as a practical realist...
...It should be a matter of some concern to the conservation movement of the United States that Presidential leadership of a special quality has been needed to make progress—men whose backgrounds include a personal interest in problems of the land...
...But whereas the first Roosevelt had the interest and political drive to put over new programs, the ideas behind them were largely those of Pinchot and others...
...The TVA and the National Resources Planning Board were pioneering efforts in this respect...
...His first real scrape with Al Smith came in 1931 over the Reforestation Amendment (designed to retire and reforest submarginal New York State lands) when the latter opposed it as being unnecessary...
...but the impact of their sheer numbers cannot be appreciated without a listing of the highlights: establishment of the Soil Conservation Service, establishment of 159 new national wildlife refuges, establishment of King's Canyon, Great Smokies, and Isle Royale national parks and a number of national monuments...
...These early experiences were fostered and encouraged by his personal friendship with Gifford Pinchot as early as 1911...
...This dilemma has made itself painfully apparent during the last five years when attempt after attempt has been made to turn back and turn over many painfully-won conservation gains...
...F.D.R.'s conservation programs were established largely during his first and second Administrations before World War II...
...To review them all would require more space than should decently be allotted to any reviewer...
...Presumably, papers on TVA, REA, and other water developments will be included in another collection...
...These volumes do not include any of Roosevelt's papers on public power or reclamation except insofar as they were related to the general field of resource planning...
Vol. 22 • March 1958 • No. 3
