Teapot Dome Revisited: Reed Smoot and Conservation in the 1920s BY T H O M A S G. ALEXANDER
A
V O T E
FOR
DAVIS BRYAN 1/ A V O T E
A6AIN/T iPEUAL PRIVILEGE-REMEMBER
L.
TEA-POT DOME
Unusual campaign placard for the 1924 election played up the Teapot Dome affair. Nevertheless, Calvin Coolidge defeated Democratic challenger John W. Davis. Utah State Historical Society collections.
V v ITH T H E CREATION OF THE National Park Service in 1916, and the passage of the Smoot General Leasing Act and the Federal Power Commission Act in 1920, the general body of progressive conservation and land legislation was completed. The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 was basically the application to the remainder of the public domain of the principles which had already been applied to forest reserves, and the Boulder Canyon Act simply enlarged work already being done under Thomas G. Alexander is professor of history and associate director of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University. The author expresses appreciation to the late Ariel F. Cardon for permission to consult a manuscript on Senator Smoot's role in conservation and to the Smoot family lor permission to use the diaries.
