“I’ll see him,” said Enoch.  “It you can, let us have fifteen minutes.”

Abbott sighed.  “It’s impossible, Mr. Secretary.  I’ll bring Reeves in now.”

The delegate from Idaho shook hands effusively.

“The rain is a great relief, Mr. Secretary.”

“Yes, it is.  Washington is difficult to endure, in the summer, isn’t it?  Well, did you bring in the proofs, Mr. Reeves?” Enoch seated himself and his caller sank into the neighboring chair.

“Mr. Secretary,” he began, with a smile, “has it ever occurred to you that we have been stupid in the number and kind of Bureaus we have accumulated in Department of the Interior?”

“Yes,” replied Enoch.  “I suppose you are thinking of Patents, Pensions, Parks, Geological Survey, Land, Indians and Education.  Do you know that beside these we have, American Antiquities, the Superintendent of Capitol Buildings, the Government Hospital for the Insane, Freedman’s Hospital, Howard University, and the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb?”

Reeves laughed.

“No, I didn’t.  But it only goes to prove what I say.  It’s impossible for the Secretary of the Interior to find time to understand local conditions.  Why not let the states manage the water and land problems?”

“It would be illegal,” replied Enoch briefly.

“Oh, illegal!  You’re too good a lawyer, Mr. Secretary, to let that thought hamper your acts!”

“On the contrary,” returned Enoch, succinctly, “I was a poor lawyer.  In some ways of course it is impossible for me to understand local conditions in Idaho.  I am told, though, that your present state administration is corrupt as Tammany understands corruption.”

Reeves cleared his throat and would have spoken, but Enoch pushed on.

“I have found, as the head of this complex Department that I must limit myself as much as possible to formulating simple, basic policies and putting these policies into the hands of men who will carry them out.  In general, my most important work is to administer the public domain.  That is, I must discover how best the natural resources that the Federal Government still controls can be put into public service and public service that is the highest and best.  I believe that the water, the land, the mines, ought to be given to the use of the average citizen.  I do not think that a corrupt politician nor a favor-seeking business man has the best good of the plain citizen at heart.”

“That is very interesting from the dreamer’s point of view,” said Reeves.  “But a government to be successful must be practical.  Who’s going to develop the water power in our Idaho streams?”

“The people of Idaho, if they show a desire to make a fair interest on their investment.  The government of the United States, if the people of Idaho fail to show the proper spirit.”

“And who is to be the judge in the matter?” demanded Reeves.