Environmental Engineering Reference
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ducks and geese. Congress tried to protect them by passing the Migratory
Bird Act in 1913, but the Supreme Court declared it was unconstitutional
because the national government did not have specific authority to regu-
late hunting. The Constitution left that to the states. The creative solution
was to negotiate a treaty with Canada, under the rationale that the birds
migrated across the border. The Constitution clearly gave the national
government the authority to agree to treaties, and to pass laws to imple-
ment them. Because the birds migrated into Mexico as well, that country
was added, and because in Alaska some migrated to Russia and Japan,
those countries were added.
The Conservation Movement eventually declined. With the beginning
of World War I in Europe and the United States entry 2 years later, protect-
ing nature seemed less urgent. When the Republican Warren G. Harding
won election as president in 1920, the situation got worse. The Secretary of
the Interior, Albert Fall, transferred oil lands in Wyoming and California
to a petroleum company owner in exchange for a bribe. The scandal dis-
credited the Harding Administration, and Fall went to prison. The next
president, Calvin Coolidge, had little interest in protecting nature, and is
famous for saying “the business of America is business.” The third in the
line of Republican presidents, Herbert Hoover, took a strong interest in
water resources. In 1922 while serving in Harding's cabinet, he had encour-
aged the western states along the Colorado River to sign an interstate com-
pact regulating its flow. An early result was to start construction of a giant
dam at Boulder Canyon, later named Hoover Dam. Unfortunately, the
Great Depression, beginning with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, meant
that people were mostly concerned with survival rather than protecting
nature. Ironically, one benefit was that with factories closed, there was less
air pollution. Hoover believed that there was little the government could
do to help.
The Democratic candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt won the 1932 election
by promising to try to get the country out of the Great Depression. His
willingness to experiment boldly was the opposite of the three previous
Republican presidents. Giant hydroelectric dams were one of his chief
means. He immediately persuaded Congress to build several dams on the
Tennessee River. The region had been about the most impoverished in the
entire nation. The dams were to generate electricity and improve naviga-
tion. The Tennessee Valley Authority also manufactured fertilizer with
the electricity, instructed farmers how to prevent soil erosion, and pro-
vided schools for their children. The New Deal, as the Roosevelt program
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