It has been easy for these enemies to raise the cry of illegality, novelty, and excess of zeal.

But in every instance the Service has been fortified either by express statutes, or by decisions of the Supreme Court and other courts, of the Secretary of the Interior, of the Comptroller, or the Attorney-General, or by general principles of law which are beyond dispute.

If there is novelty, it consists simply in the way these statutes, decisions, and principles have been used to protect the public.

The law officers of the Forest Service have had the Nation for their client, and they are proud to work as zealously for the public as they would in private practice for a fee.
So I think the ghost of illegality in the Forest Service may fairly be laid at rest.

But it is not the only one which is clouding the issues of conservation in the public mind.