mmon. At the time of the eruption of Mt. Pelee, when among others
the American Consul was killed, a man who had long been seeking an
appointment promptly applied for the vacancy. He was a good man, of
persistent nature, who felt I had been somewhat blind to his merits. The
morning after the catastrophe he wrote, saying that as the consul was
dead he would like his place, and that I could surely give it to him,
because "even the office seekers could not have applied for it yet!"

The method of public service involved in the appointment and the work of
the two commissions just described was applied also in the establishment
of four other commissions, each of which performed its task without
salary or expense for its members, and wholly without cost to the
Government. The other four commissions were:

Commission on Public Lands;

Commission on Inland Waterways;

Commission on Country Life; and

Commission on National Conservation.

All of these commissions were suggested to me by Gifford Pinchot, who
served upon them all. The work of the last four will be touched upon in
connection with the chapter on Conservation. These commissions by their
reports and findings directly interfered with many place-holders who
were doing inefficient work, and their reports and the action
taken thereon by the Administration strengthened the hands of those
administrative officers who in the various departments, and especially
in the Secret Service, were proceeding against land thieves and other
corrupt wrong-doers. Moreover, the mere fact that they did efficient
work for the public along lines new to veteran and cynical politicians
of the old type created vehement hostility to them. Senators like Mr.
Hale and Congressmen like Mr. Tawney were especially bitter against
these commissions; and towards the end of my term they were followed
by the majority of their fellows in both houses, who had gradually been
sundered from me by the open or covert hostility of the financial or
Wall Street leaders, and of the newspaper editors and politicians who
did their bidding in the interest of privilege. These Senators and
Congressmen asserted that they had a right to forbid the President
profiting by the unpaid advice of disinterested experts. Of course I
declined to admit the existence of any such right, and continued the
Commissions. My successor acknowledged the right, upheld the view of the
politicians in question, and abandoned the commissions, t