Past, Present, and Future

Past, Present, and FutureA History of the Public Land Policies by Benjamin Horace Hibbard; The Federal Lands: TheirUse and Management by Marion Clawson; Burnell Held; Alaska: A Challenge in Conservationby Richard A. CooleyReview by: Lawrence RakestrawForest History, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Oct., 1966), pp. 34-35+39Published by: Forest History Society and American Society for Environmental HistoryStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3982760 .

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Book Reviews I

Past, Present, and Future

By Lawrence Rakestraw

The Nebraska and Wisconsin Uni- versity presses are doing those in- terested in forest history a real service by publishing new books on land policy and republishing conservation classics. Three of their recent publications by resource economists writing on land policy deserve attention.

Benjamin Hibbard's A History of the Public Land Policies was first published in 1924. A pioneer work, it traced the growth, disposal, and reservation of the public domain from colonial times to 1924, giving a detailed account of

A History of the Public Land Policies. By Benjamin Horace Hibbard. With a foreword by Paul W. Gates. (Madi- son: University of Wisconsin Press, 1965. Reprinted from the 1994 edition by Macmillan Co. 579 pp. Charts, maps, index. Cloth, $7.50; paper, $2.95.)

The Federal Lands: Their Use and Management. By Marion Clawson and Burnell Held. (Lincoln: University of Ne- braska Press, 1965. Bison Books, 318. Reproduced from the 1957 edition by arrangement with Resources for the Future, Inc. and The Johns Hopkins Press. 500 pp. Illustrations, charts, maps, index. $1.95.)

Alaska: A Challenge in Conser- vation. By Richard A. Cooley. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1966. 170 pp. Illustrations, tables, maps, index. $5.50.)

each land law and its effect. The book has inspired many specialized and regional studies and has been widely used both in its original edition and an earlier reprint edition by the Peter Smith Company.

The virtue of this new reprinting is a foreword by Paul W. Gates that

brings out the scholarly and intel- lectural forces which influenced Hib- bard. These included the Wisconsin historians and land economists who were his associates, Frederick Jackson Turner-to whom the book was dedi- cated-Frederick Paxon, and Richard Ely. A second influence was the Prog- ressive movement, with its emphasis on science and reform in land policy, and a third was his own love of the land. Hibbard's book is in the same intellectual tradition as Van Hise's Conservation of Natural Resources, Paxon's History of the American Fron- tier, and John Ise's United States Forest Policy.

Most scholars are probably familiar with this book, but it is worth re- reading. Hibbard had real narrative power. He used local newspapers and legislative memorials effectively to dramatize issues and he stressed the role of individuals in shaping land policy. The book is full of themes that later became the subjects of specialized studies-the clashes between frontiers- men and speculators, freeholders and plantation owners; the problem of adapting land policy to the sub-humid region; and the ineptitude of Congress in adopting rational land policies. He considered the conservation movement to be scientific in its origin and re- garded Bernhard E. Fernow, rather than Gifford Pinchot, as its most im- portant figure.

Hibbard represents the older, traditional view of land policy. Marion Clawson and Burnell Held's The Federal Lands, first published by Re- sources for the Future in 1957, differs in approach, interpretation, and time period. Clawson, the senior author, is an economist and resource administra- tor. He brought to his book experience as head of the Bureau of Land Man- agement, as economic advisor to the government of Israel, and as program director at Resources for the Future. This background and the different viewpoint it provides are revealing of how specialized the study of land policy

has become. Working in the 1920's, Hibbard could not write about much else than federal land acquisition and disposal. Clawson and Held must analyze the complex changes brought about by subsequent federal land management policies.

Their first chapter succinctly relates the history of federal land ownership, dividing it into five overlapping periods: acquisition, disposal, reservation, custodial management, and, since about 1950, intensive management. All the present-day, multiple uses of federal lands are described in chapter two, all the aspects of "Policy Formation and Decision Making" in chapter three. This latter section covers public par- ticipation in federal land management, the legislative process, budgeting in the public land agencies, and decision making, from the local to the federal level.

These three chapters, largely the work of the senior author, have much of value to the historian. Historians have usually avoided the language of land economists, and their writing has often been diffuse and overly general- ized as a result. They could profit from Clawson's classification of interest groups, his distinction between "pre- ventive" and "manipulative" management of watersheds, and his description of single, multiple, and dominant uses of land. The material on decision making is of particular value to historians working on public administration.

Clawson subscribes to the thesis of James Madison, and many later political scientists, that the very number and diversity of interest groups tends to prevent any one group from getting too much or acting contrary to the public interest. Unlike Hibbard, he does not deal with persons or personalities. He emphasizes the professional, bureau- cratic side of federal land management, and the organized, institutional ex- pression of public opinion. Though the index mentions the two Roosevelts, Ickes, Powell, Pinchot and Carl Schurz, there is no mention of Fernow, Gree- ley, Stephen Mather, Lyle Watts, or Douglas McKay. Senator Wayne Morse is listed, but not Senators McNary or McCarran. From the historian's point of view this is a weakness. The imper- sonal tone gives a bland flavor to the narrative and conceals the human drama that accompanied the development of land policy.

The next two chapters relate policy

34 FOREST HISTORY



formation to the specific problems of "Pricing Processes and Investments on Federal Land" and to the level of "Revenues and Expenditures." An authoritative discussion of administra- tive complexities, this section is of less general interest than the provocative final chapter, "What of the Future?" From the assumption, on which the entire study is based, that the acreage of federal land ownership will not sig- nificantly increase or decrease in the forseeable future, the authors here look at the needs of the federal lands in this "new era" of intensive management. Revenues from the public lands have vastly increased in recent years (a ten- fold expansion between 1945 and 1955.) The authors feel that proper management of the federal lands suffers because the traditional budget allocation process is too cumbersome and inflexible and the legislative process too slow. Among the alternatives to the present system, they consider setting up a federal land corporation for managing the federal lands-which they regard as businesslike but likely to slight non-economic uses of lands - reorganization of existing agencies and departments, and the establishment of a land law review board.

The Federal Lands is well written with an impressive and useful ap- paratus of charts and tables. It is the type of study that will continue to provoke thought and discussion about land management.

Clawson and Held, quite properly, did not take the Alaskan federal lands into consideration in their book. There are many reasons for this. Alaskan land management is in a state of extensive rather than intensive management. Also Alaskan land policy sets the Claw- son and Held chronology on its head. Reservation of land and extensive management began before a policy of disposal was adopted, and at the present time much of the federal land is going into the hands of the state.

Richard Cooley, head of the Arctic Research Center, deals with Alaskan lands in his book Alaska: A Challenge to Conservation, a Conservation Foun- dation study. In the first part of this brief book, Cooley gives a lucidly written and straightforward account of the Alaskan land system. Historically, the newer states have profited by the

(Continuedl on Page 39J

Bennett's Crusade

R. Burnell Held and Marion Claw- son, of the land use and management division of Resources for the Future, have collaborated on two previous books, The Federal Lands: Their Use and Management and Land for the Future. In terms of conceptualization and execution, Soil Conservation in Perspective is their best effort. It nicely complements Robert J. Morgan's Gov- erning Soil Conservation, published in 1966 by Resources for the Future.

The overriding interpretation that emerges from this book is a paradoxical one. H. H. Bennett, the father of the Soil Conservation Service, who ap-

Soil Conservation in Perspective. By R. Burnell Held and Marion Clawson. (Baltimore: Published for Resources for the Future by the Johns Hopkins Press, 1965. 344 pp. Mlaps, graphs, tables, notes, index. $7.50.)

proached his job with the missionary zeal of a pulpit-pounding evangelist, launched a "crusade" in the early 1930's to save America's topsoil. After 30 years of relentless effort, the crusade has aroused a high degree of "soil conservation consciousness" in the United States, and the -decision-makers in Washington generally support the proposition that the nation's topsoil should be saved. Paradoxically, how- ever, in the midst of unprecedented awareness of the potential dangers of soil erosion, the economic justification for expensive soil conservation programs is rapidly disappearing.

This situation has arisen not because of any sudden and complete eradica- tion of the soil erosion problem, although the Soil Conservation Service and other Department of Agriculture programs have made substantial prog- ress since the 1930's. It has occurred, in short, because of the revolutionary changes now taking place in the Ameri- can economy. The nation is over- whelmingly urban and industrial. The new technology has sparked a startling increase in productive capacity in nearly every sector of the economy, in-

cluding agriculture. By the year 2000, according to the latest authoritative projections, only about a million farms will still be in operation in the United States. And yet, they will produce far more food and fiber than ever before. Unquestionably, Held and Clawson contend, the main agricultural problem over the next generation will be chronic overproduction, a condition quite the reverse of what Bennett would have predicted. Under these cir- cumstances, they ask, can the enormous expenditures for soil conservation still be justified? Is it reasonable to expect that the vast majority of taxpayers, who reside in urban areas, will continue to support a resource program rooted in agricultural fundamentalism? Does it make sense for the government to maintain conflicting programs to increase agricultural productivity, on the one hand, and to control crop sur- pluses, on the other? As the authors carefully point out, soil conservation practices frequently enhance the productivity of the soil, thus com- pounding the problem of overproduction.

If Held and Clawson have their way, the era of uncritical popular support for soil conservation is over. "We do not accept soil conservation as an overriding goal," they state; "it costs money, or requires giving up other alternatives, and has to compete with many other desirable ends, both public and private." They suggest, cautiously but firmly, that the program of the Soil Conservation Service, which focuses al- most exclusively on croplands and farmers, needs to be modified to meet the new requirements and changing values of an increasingly urban-oriented, non-agricultural economy. They never suggest that the SCS should be en- tirely eliminated. Their views will be at- tacked as shortsighted by many conser- vationists, who consider 35 years a relatively short span of time, but they will spark a long overdue debate about the validity of the present soil conservation program. This, I suspect, was exactly what Held and Clawson had in mind.

The first part of this book will be of particular interest to historians. Here the authors discuss the background and

OCTOBER 1966 35



we read: "This is the best stand we have seen, in design." Often, he would improve on the original: "The turn- ings are good. . . . it would have been better with a knob of wood." When provoked he can write: "There seems to be a fatuous dependence by joiners upon the reliability of glue." And, as with all critics, he has the final word: "it is wholly impossible to state that any [rush] seat is original. By this state- ment, so manifestly reasonable, we should like to nail this discussion once for all."

These personal expressions are an added bonus, a browser's delight. By any standard, Nutting's scholarship rates the attention of all who are in- terested in the development of Ameri- can furniture. Greater attention should be forthcoming with the publication of this low-priced paperback reprint.

The Lord and Foley and Nutting books seem primarily oriented toward collectors (some would say worshippers) of antiques; the object itself occupies the center of attention. This results in a certain static quality noticeably absent from Mary E. Gould's The Early American Houtse, where arts and crafts blend into their everyday surroundings.

Miss Gould is a well-known collector of early Americana who has supple- mented her collecting with serious research into domestic life before 1850. Three books have resulted: Early American Woodenware (1942), An- tique Tin & Tole Ware (1958), and the present volume, originally published in 1949.

New England is again dominant in the pages of The Early American House, though there are occasional glances toward New York, Pennsyl- vania, and the South. The book begins with "Early One Room Houses and How They Grew," a chapter tracing design and style changes generally between 1620 and 1850. Four other chapters successively discuss chimneys and fireplaces; antique kitchenware; food and drink; and everyday life.

The great virtue of Miss Gould's work lies in its full, precise, and even flow of description, effectively illustrated with 166 photographs. Singling out any one section for special mention becomes difficult, but we will suggest these. The chapter on chimneys and fireplaces, "Heart of the Home," dis- plays ingenious research into surviving

Past, Present, and Future (Continued from Page 35)

mistakes of older states in the management of their lands. Thus the Dakotas protected school lands through constitutional provisions, and Arizona made cooperative agreements with the Forest Service to protect University lands. With half a century of conservation legislation to observe and reflect on, Alaska adopted, both in its state con- stitution and through legislation, wise and modern plans for managing the state public domain, totaling about 150 million acres. These constitutional provisions admirably provide for both development and conservation. Cooley summarizes subsequent land laws, in- cluding the organization of the Division of Lands in the state's Department of Natural Resources, and describes the selection of state lands.

The second part of the book covers the problems of managing this land. The pattern that has emerged is that of cooperative federalism involving state, federal, and local units of government. It is reminiscent of the cooperative federalism that developed in the "lower 48" between 1920 and 1940, of which Senator Charles McNary was a chief architect and exponent. As in any such complex relationship, there are areas of conflict and controversy. These include such matters as balanc- ing development and need for state revenues against conservation and research; clashes in policy between the

Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, and State Land Office; the problem of native lands; and the tech- nical problems of managing wildlands. Cooley recommends that the University become a center for continuous scientific research in multiple purpose land management. He sees the need for research by private foundations "trans- cending the partisanship of party and special interest group."

Although Cooley writes authorita- tively, and his judgments are sound, this portion of the book suffers from its brevity. In 67 pages he deals with vir- tually every problem of conservation within the state; but in covering such broad areas and complex problems in so little space he gives a satisfactory account of only a few of the problems. For a fuller account one must go to the books and monographs listed in his bibliography.

The book is beautifully and appro- priately illustrated, and 23 pages of maps and tables document the narrative. It is chiefly valuable for giving an organizational picture of the resource agencies and for indicating future areas for research.

LAWRENCE. .RAKESTRAW

Mr. Rakestraw is professor of history and political science and lecturer in Forestry at Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan.

buildings and abandoned ruins. The chapters on kitchenware and food and drink dispel certain notions of the simple life of early days. Accessories in wood, iron, and tin needed to make an early American home function included sausage bakers, trivets, bannock boards, rabbit roasters, dangle-spits, kettle-tilters, trammel-bars, goufering irons, dolly pins, toddy sticks, flip dogs, corn shellers, nutmeg graters, lemon squeezers, and fruit crushers. After learning about the use of these articles, and many others, it is easy to under- stand that "life in the kitchen was one of ceaseless activity." Finally, in the

last chapter on everyday life, Miss Gould presents a very successful recon- struction of household operations in their yearly cycle, from maple sugaring in the spring to marketing in the winter.

Few pages in her book are without some reference to the use of forests and wood in early America. This is a popular theme in forest history, the age of wood, but substantial writings on it are few in number. By getting at the small details, the author tells us what we want to know about early domestic uses of wood and does so with skill and good taste.

OCTOBER 1966 39



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Past, Present, and Future