The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 20

T-HJfc BKUOKLViN DAILY KAULK. iNKu luhiv. SUiMJAY. AUGUST 10, 1913. 1LAM13S JH AS SECRET AMY OF TEE MTEmom is opposed to any federal leasing system.

They assert that such leasing would deprive the State of its legitimate sources of revenue and of Its regulative authority, placing matters of purely domestic concern in the hands of a bureau In far-distant Washington. Advocates of the leasing system, on the other hand, charge that such arguments are advanced in the interests of selfish aggregations of capital that covet the resources and think they could get them easier from the State than from the nation. It Is also urged that the lands and resources are the property, of all the people and must be used for tho great-eat national, not State, good. The President wanted someone not (foliated with any railroad inteivsts; who was aggressive, fearless. Intelligent, neither a wild-eyed radical, nor a hidebound conservative.

"Frank Lane is such a man; he a 'Democrat," said the university professor, grinning. 'Mr. Lane was appointed. Soon after he came to Washington began to bo a figure in the big news. He leaped Into prominence as a wonderful cross-examiner In the great hearings then being conducted.

He It was who extracted from E. H. Harriman the Har-riman view as to railroad ownership. Mr. Harriman admitted that he would like to acquire the ownership and control of all the railroads In the country, and that he would start right in getting them if the Interstate Commerce Commission would let him.

"How could we help it?" asked Mr. Lane. "How could you heln it?" reneated Mr. 1 SKIPSfflPSISf if vm. is scattered widely.

For eiample, there are. more than 100,000 acres of the public domain in Alabama that no one has taken up. Then, too. one must consider the reservations. Uncle Sam has soma 66,000,000 acres of oil land held in reservations, about 5,000.000 acres In oil land withdrawals, 17,000,000 In coal land withdrawals, more than 3.000,000 in phosphate laud withdrawals and 2,000,000 in power-site withdrawals.

All of this la under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior. Primarily, Congress is responsible for the method of its handling, but It Is the duty of the Secretary to execute the laws on the subject enacted by the law-making body. In national forests there are some 166,000,000 acres, but they are under the Department of Agriculture. In the years past Congress has been liberal with public lands. For example, it gave 80,000,000 acres to the railroads of the country to encourage them to build.

The Northern Pacific got the biggest individual slice of this 33,000,000 acres. Forty million acres were given to twelve States in the early days to help them build wagon roads. Seventy million acres have been given to the States for common school purposes, and more for agricultural college and other purposes. About one hundred and fifty million acres only have gone to homesteaders. Indian reservations have not been taken Into account in the above recapitu lation.

Though they are under the Ju risdiction of the Secretary of the Interior, they are held as a trust for the Indians. It will be seen that there are upward of 793.000,000 acres of public lands of the United States In the hands of the Secretary of the Interior, leaving out of consideration the national forest and the Indian lunds. What do all these lands contain of value? While the work of classifying them has been going on several years, alter a fashion, there is no comprehensive scheme of such classification author ized, although the last two Secretaries of the Interior have urged such a law. Uncle Sam does not know what is in the greater portion of his estate. Existing public land laws are based on a policy of sale, broadly speaking that is, they contemplate the passage of the absolute title to the land to the purchaser or claimant.

And they do not provide for sale on classification or save as to coal land on appraisement. For example, land valuable as a water-power site cannot be sold as such. Legally It can be acquired as timber land or stone land, or even as a homestead, but a power site 13 not recognized in the law. Oil laud can be acquired legally only as mineral land, but under the mineral land laws one cannot get title until he has made a discovery, and In the oil business one cannot make a discovery until he has possession of the land and has bored on it. Advocates of national conservation have urged for several years a revision of the public land laws, and have pro-tested against title to such natural re sources as water-power sites passing Into private hands absolutely.

Congress has not acted. So the Department of the Interior has withdrawn from the operation of the general laws such parts of the domain as the department thinks might contain natural resources of value It will not give title under old, loose laws, and Congress has not provided new oneB. But, as Secretary Fisher pointed out in his last annual report, "oil, gas, asphalt, potash, nitrate and phosphate lands, once withdrawn, must remain SHE, iys PMSTo 6 tjlftfttt LANE, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. HE hardest Job in the United States. That is what Franklin K.

Lane. Secretary of the Interior, in the Cabinet of President Wilson, calls his position. Months ago, when the personnel of the Cabinet was in doubt, some Democratic statesmen went to Senator W. E. Borah of Idaho, Progressive Republican, for a word of advice regarding the sort of man to be appointed Secretary of the Interior.

They did this because Senator Borah takes a deep Interest in the problems of the department, and frequently is heard In debate on them. "Whatever you do," Senator Borah Is reported to have told his Democratic friends, "you are going to get Into trouble. If you appoint a Western man, from ene of the public land States, a lot of the ultra-convervatlonlsts of the East are going to Jump on you. If you appoint an Easterner In sympathy with the radical conservation programme of federal landlordism the Westerners are going to Jump on you hard, and am going to be one of the first to do the Jumping. So don't ask me for advice.

You are going to get In bad, anyhow. In the present state of public opinion, no man you can appoint to that position is going to be safe from attack. It is an office full of trouble!" The graveyard of political ambition Is another designation that has been applied to the office. Hoke Smith of Georgia ia about the only one who has held it and has then "come back" politically, and he came back as United States Senator two years ago, fifteen years after he left the department. Henry M.

Teller of Colorado was Secretary of the Interior in the Arthur Cabinet, but got himself elected United States Senator while in office, and so resigned. Other secretaries have retired to greater or less obscurity. Being Secretary of the Interior does not make for much except criticism and enmity. But, oddly enough, the Borah and other predictions regarding President Wilson's possible selection haven't come true. It is not because the new Secretary was unknown, for he was a national figure before bis appointment.

Further, he conies from a public land State California. Still not a voice has been raised In criticism of him. Rather, radicals and conservatives have applauded the selection. Chances are that had Mr. Lane known much in advance that he was considered for Cabinet office, and had an opportunity to pick out the portfolio he most wanted, he would have put In a bid for Secretary of the N'avy.

It Is the Irony of fate that this Prince Edward Islander, born with the salt sea breezes in his nostrils, with a line of nautical forbears behind him, never has had an opportun-. ity to be associated as much as he would like with the ocean. His public career has confined him to shore matters entirely. Even as a recreation he has not had much of it, because he is one of those absorbed individuals to whom the taking of a vacation is a rare thing. Last year, for the first time in a decade, he really took a vacation and established a summer home In Nova Scotia, where he rioted in the He got him a yawl-rigged yacht, a chum of like tastes, and went out and bucked the Atlantic Ocean over a considerable section of the northern map.

"It was the most fun I have had in years," he told a friend. He intended to go again this year, but this new position has changed bis plans. Indications are now that his vacation will be spnt in the West listening to the troubles of irate Westerners. He has many a big problem to solve. His navigation is to be to find a course between opposing of thought, each of which is absolutely certain it has the only remedy for obtaining from the remaining public domain the greatest good for the greatest number of the people.

He brings to these problems years of experience in public life, vigorous health, a great capacity for work and a shrewd, hard-headed common-sense that won him fame in the office of Commissioner of Interstate Commerce. His department needs all of these qualities. For years Congress has had the habit of making that department the catch-all for governmental activities that were hard to classify. The Department of Agriculture, the Department of Labor, the Forest Service, the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the Census Bureau all trace a common ancestry to this pafent. Back before 1849, when the Department of the Interior was created, Indian affairs and the Patent Office were in the War Department, the General Land Office and the Census Bureau under-the Treasury, and Pensions under the Joint control of the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy.

Congress dumped all these on the new department, under "An act to establish the home department" later changed to Department of the Interior and added a few little things like supervising the accounts of United States marshals, clerks and other officers of the United States courts; also Jurisdiction over the commissioner of public buildings in the District of Columbia and over the lead and other mines, which then were operated under a leasing and royalty system, the Government then declining grant absolute title to mineral lands. In 1885 the department acquired Jurisdiction over the Government Hospital for the Insane; in lr-I-7 it vsus given supervisory Jurisdiction over the Columbia Institute for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind; in 1S51 it was given the duty of suppressing the slave trade; in 1887 it took under its wing the newly created bureau of education. Freedmen's Hospital was added in 1S74. Howard University, in Washington, me next, and then a flood of new bureaus. Much has been added; a little taken away.

Kow the department la made up of the following; General land office, office of Indian affairs, pen-tion office, patent office, geological survey, bureau of education, reclamation service, bureau of mines, supervision of the territories of Alaska and Hawaii, national parks, the preservation of American antiquities. Government Hospital for the Insane, Freedmen's Hospital, Howard University, the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and some minor duties in regard to governmental properly in the District of-Columbia. So far as the difficulties of the Secretary's position arc concerned the general land office bulks biggest. It is a popular belief that there isn't much of the public domain left. Our public lands are supposed to be pretty well all gone.

This Isn't true. The latest statistics show that there are remaining, unreserved and unappropriated, something more than 71,11. ai res. This is an are more than five times as great as the total urea of the German Empire In Europe. Three hundred and sixty-eight millions ft lhii it in Altuka, but the remainder To this the States reply that population and development In the final analysis ara of greater benefit to the nation than hoarded property that Is not used, taking the position that Government control and leasing would be so cumbersome and expensive and' hampering that a minimum or use ana utvnuiimtm would ensue under Government leasing.

And there the problem lies. It Is the hlg one which Secretary Lane has on his hands. Here are some of the questions that were asked him the other day: "Do you favor a Federal leaBing system? Or do you favor a revision of the laws bringing them in accord with modern conditions, but retaining the sale feature, giving absolute titls to the property?" "That," said he, smiling, in response to each, "is what I am not going to tell you now. See me in six months and maybe then I ean tell you more about what my policy will be. I am learning now." He is a sturdy, happy-locking man, Is this Secretary, with round, mobile face, clean shaven, that can break into an expansive smile one moment and drop the next into grave lines that emphasise a rugged Jaw.

Lighting the face are a pair of trlght eyes that dance witn humor or tjecome piercing steel points as the occasion requires. His voice Is tbst of the born orator, rich, musical, attractive, sympathetic. "This Job of mine," he went on, "is an administrative Job more than anything else Just now. I am making this desk a bureau of complaints. I assemble about it the men who are at tbe head of the several bureaus really a sort of a cabinetand I take up the complaints affecting their bureaus and try to get at the reasons.

I want to know what Justice there is in the complaints. "Then, too, considerable of my time has been taken up seeing Senators and Representatives in regard to matters of patronage. I have enjoyed this, for I like to meet people. They are the most interesting things in the world. And these Senators and Representatives in coming to see me about appointments for their constituents are but doing their duty.

It is right that they should come. "I ask each If the man he recommends Is one he himself would appoint were he the appointing officer. Most of them declare they would, and give me reasons. Some frankly say they would not. One Aiv imnlv said: 'I think I have discharged my obligation when I submitted the recommendation, ana 1 understood.

"My business Is to find the right men for the positions. And some of them are great positions. There, for example, the office of Commissioner of Indian Affairs. He is charged with looking after 300.000 persons In their most Intimate affairs, domestic and financial. He Is guardian of their worth of property.

The actual wealth he has under his control would build a railroad from Portland, to Portland, and double track it. No railroad president In the country has as big a job as he has. And yet we pay for that position only $5,000 a year. "That is the compensation of bureau chiefs generally. What I am trying to do is to find J50.000 men for these $5,000 Jobs.

"But before any man is appointed to an important position I want to see him I want to talk to him personally. Thus I asked all the candidates for Governor of Hawaii and of Alaska to come here for personal interviews. "Acquiring information about the business of the department Is what I am trying most to do. I want to get every angle on all the matters that are coming up. But, with the limited resources we have and the limited appropriation, it is difficult to get everything in the way of Information that 1 need.

I am trying, for one thing, to secure all the facts about Alaska. That territory certainly should be opened up. That it Is closed now to a greater or less extent Is admitted. It is a country capable of supporting a population of 10,000,000. Its agricultural resources and lands are greater In extent than tbe combined resources and lands of like character in all the Scandinavian countries.

"I want to know about the coal landi of Alaska; to consider whether It is best to sell them; how best they can lie made useful to tho people. In pursuit of information I expect to spend the summer In the field, going probably through to the Pacific coast. I doubt that I shall be able to get to Alaska this year, although I should like to go there for a personal examination. "On my Western trip I expect to hear at first hand many of the complaints about the work of the department that have been voiced in various channels. Some of these manifestly are unjustifiable, but I am going to look Into them all." Cautious though he wns in avoiding committing himself to any policy, the Secretary in the foregoing did indicate Just what he is now doing; getting information.

The day before his appointment was announced he happened to meet a man from Alaska, who has a mass of statistical facts about the territory at his tongue's end. From him the prospective Secretary pumped out much material. "And I never knew until tho next day why he was so keen on tho subject," laughed the Alaskan In telling about It." Secretary Lane has an Idea that Information and common sense are the chief requisites in the conduct of an executive position Information to secure the proper stating of the problem, common senfe to be exercised In solving It. Common sense has been the chief characteristic of his brilliant service on the Interstate Commerce Commission. It was in 1906 that he was called by President Roosevelt to Washington from bis San Francisco home to be a member of the interstate Commerce Commission.

Tn Fresldent wanted a man from the Pacific Coast for the position. One day he asked benjamin Ide Wheeler, president of the University of California, If there w.isn't the sort ot a man ha wanted out there. BROWNSVILLE LEADS WAY FOR PLAYGROUNDS Harriman. "I think you would bring out your power to eaforce the conditions of the Sherman anti-trust act pretty quick. If you will let us, I will go and taks the Santa Fe tomorrow." As a result of this investigation and the report which Mr.

Lane wrote, the Government Instituted the suit for the dissolution of the merger of the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific. Railroad rate regulation is rather a dull subject unless one finds himself directly affected by the, cbargea made by the companies. But to those who are interested it is Intensely alive. It means often the difference between poverty and comfort, between the ruin of one'i business, be that business merchandising or manufacturing, fruit growing or farming, and Its success. Naturally, controversies on the subject are, fierce and bitter.

It is to the credit of Mr. Lane that he has the respect and admiration of both shippers and carriers for his long line of crisply written, closely thought-out decisions, in which the animating principle Is ene good or the whole public. He has not regarded merely the individual interests of the litigants before, the commission, for more is involved in all these rate questions than that, but has taken the public view. Newspaper men who "cover" the Interstate Commerce Commission are among his great admirers. He, while serving on the commission, had the faculty of humanizing the news.

He clothed his decisions and statements in terse, clear English cutting away all extraneous and legal phraseology, and making the prominent facts stand out in their proper proportions. lY Lane'8 CarIy tralnlnS "ad something to do with this. Born on 1864, the, son of Dr. and Mrs. C.

S. Lane he moved with his family to California when a boy, and was graduated from the University of California in 1886. After being admitted to the practice of law and practising for a time he took up news-Paper work as a reporter on the San Francisco Chronicle. That newspaper sent him to New York as correspondent, and there for time politan newspapers. i lm he and publisher of the Tacoma Evening crT'.

a mlUtant edltor- a Democrat In the main, but a municipal reformer first of all, and what he did to some municipal evils and the men respon-sible for them in Tacoma is talked about with bated breath in the Pacific northwestern city to this day From Tacoma Mr. Lane removed, In 1894. to San Francisco, where he again entered the practice of law. Presently he was In municipal polities up to the neck, always as a reformer. Presently ho was elected City Attorney which position he held several years.

In 1902, op posing the Southern Pacific and other largo interests, he ran for Governor, but was defeated, narrowly. Then a year later, at the behest of his loyal supporters, he ran for Mayor of San Francisco, but was again defeated. His defeats he regarded as incidents, and went on with his work of agitating for a reform in the political conditions then existing in his city and State. When on April 18, 1906, San Francisco was practically destroyed by the earthquake and fire, Franklin Lane assumed a natural leadership in the work of ehecklng the fire and later of rendering relief. He was chief of the dynamite squad that headed off the fire by de- stroylng buildings which standing, would have aided the flames to sweejj farther.

This, his friends say, furnishes a keynote to his attitude toward a public position which he occupies. He does not hesitate, an instant to destroy tradition, preconceived notions, wrong ideas, to protect the larger good. There Is a lack of the hypocrisy and pose about Secretary Lane that Is not uncommon In public men. Someone asked him In the early days of the administration if, in line with some notions of Democratic simplicity, he was going to refuse to use the carriage provided by the Department for him. "Why should he asked.

"Of course, I am going to use the carriage." But the use ot the carriage and the other comforts provided for the Secretary by the Government do not furnish him all the time he finds the work requires. During his first three weeks on the inh he bad to work late into the night every night. His family says his hours of sleep averaged only four and a half out of the twenty-four during that time. Secretary Lane, was married In Tacoma, In 1893, to Miss Anne Wintermute, who, for several years Just past has been a figure In Washington society. In fact.

Secretary and Mrs. Lane, by reason of long residence at the capital, have perhaps the most extensive acquaintance of all the Cabinet families. They have two children, Franklin aged 16, and Nancy, aged 10, both of whom are in school in Washington. The, Secretary's wide acquaintance Is not merely social, but political as well. Of all the Cabinet he has had the longest public service In national employ.

Political wiseacres predict that presently ho will be found to be a large power in the cabinet, for, though essentially a man oj action, he has a reputation for being strong in council. It Is a curious fact that he, had no personal acquaintance with President Wilson prior to his appointment, and was appointed purely on lils record. But since appointment, a strong friendship has formed between him and his chief. think alike, on many things, but whllii the President has been viewing national problems from the outside. Secretary Lane has been viewing them frum Ut'i lnelde.

That helps. FRANKLIN K. locked up unless opened to exploitation under the general mining laws applicable to and Intended for metalliferous minerals or placer deposits." Secretary Fisher declared "the enlarged application of the leasing principle to the public domain generally would more effectively promote development and protect tbe publio interests than the present system." This in general is the conservationist's view. Western States assert that the "lock luncheon rooms at all hours. The ciubroouis offer headquarters for neighborhood clubs that wish to organize and carry on club work, and directors ure always ready to assist and advise those wishing to use the halls for club or social purposes.

In the Field House there are reading 100ms aud branch stations of the public library. Ilottled nillk for babies is furnished by the Chicago Slilk Commission and the Visiting Nurse Association lias members ready to reudei help. "The swimming pools are open from June 1 to October 1, and bathing suits and towels are furnished free. There are indoor gymnasium classes for boys and girls and men and women, and these classes are conducted dally from October to May, dressing quarters and Instruction being furnished free. An all-year shower bath system is available for all ages and both sexes, and the towels and soap are free.

The playgrounds' and outdoor gymnasiums, Continued From Page 1. neighborhood troubles have been overcome by the cstablisuiueiit of the pluy- round, and that after It Is estab lished order, cleanliness and decency have noticeably improved in a short time. Mr. Drcseher, who, as a guest of the Public Recreation Commission of the of Xev York, studied the play-jrrouuds of Chicago, said: "I was greatly impressed with what Chicago has done in the way of establishing recreation facilities for the people. They have in their playgrounds assembly halls which are used for dances, dramatics, musicalcs, civic welfare meetings, lectures and a variety of social gatherings.

Itespon- slble chaperones accompany all groups of giWs and boys under 16 years of age. The Tark Commissioners furnish, without charge, a lantern for stereopticun views, and banquets may lie arranged for in these halls and re-fresluneuts may be served in the State government activities requires an expansion of revenue. In some quarters a demand has arisen that the remaining public domain be turned over to the States In which It lies, It being asserted that the history of Federal Government Administration has been one originally of prodigal waste succeeded 'by one of hampering indifference. Tho Western vlw, as presented by resolutions of various legislative bodies, l'ublic Itecreation Commission, consisting of 187,000, ill be expended on the buildings, swimming pool and other equipments. The city will maintain the playground from year to yeat and will provide for supervision and attendants.

The locution of the grounds are between lumont avenue, Livonia avenue, Douglass street aud Hopkinsou avenue, and a smaller parcel of laud between Duuiout avenue, Blake avenue, llopkiuson avenue and Bristol street. AVlillc the actual plans have not been prepared yet It has been decided to model them ufter Armour Square, Chicago, a diagram of which accompanies this article. The playground will include the following features: Children's playground. One block set aside for the use of the younger beiys and girls and to contain sand piles, swings, awnings for mothers with little children, and other apparatus necessary for the comfort of the little ones. Three blocks will Include a large runnlug track and a Held for athletics, baseball, football aud tennis.

There ill lie an outdoor gymnasium for young men Hnd young women. A Held house will be erected which wilt contain an assembly hall for lectures, entertainments, dances and concerts, and meeting rooms for clubs. This Held house will also have a young men's aud young women's gymnasium and shower baths. There will be nn outdoor swimming pool, a wading pool with sandy shores und scats for mothers around it. Provision will be made for flooding certain areas for skating.

The grounds will also contain drink- jing fountains, shrubbery and flowers, and be lighted at night by electric lights. The cost of equipping the piny-gnu. ml has been based on the expenditure in Armour Square, a typical recreation park of Chicago, which amounted to 170,645, but it is believed that the increase in the cost of material and labor since that playground was established, in will exhaust tbe entire Betsy Head fund. Overheard at the Party Ted Why do you think Miss Cutlowe la clear gold? Ned By the way she withstands the aeld test, when some of the other women look at her. Judfa.

ing up" of which Secretary Fisher complained has suspended development. It la charged by the legislatures and public bodies of those States that the Government delay is artificially checking the pi'tural growth and expansion of the region and the use of Its resources, and, further, that by retaining such large areas of public land in federal ownership the Government is keeping this property off the State tax rolls at the very time when a demand for Increasing which are under the charge of trained instructors, are operated from May to October. Sow, this is just what we have planned for the playgrounds in Brownsville, and I hope that by next summer we shall not only have the grounds in full operation, but that they will be suirouiuied by Uowc.n and shrubs, that we shall have our swimming pool and that the buildings will be completed. Plan to Make Brownsville Playground One of the Finest In the World The Chicago idea Is to be carried out in making the Urowusville playground, and while it will be modeled along the plans of the best recreation resorts in the Western city, many new improvements will be inaugurated. The Board of Estimate aud Apportionment has authorized the expenditure of for the laud, by special assessment, making available 20(1 city lots, and the Betsy Head fund of the on this style.

'-f A If pr Xs 1 a' 1 VA Am 'is fekV m. I Vn at Vi ARMOUR SQUARE, CHICAGO The Brownsvillt Playground is to be planned.