His book’s sitting over there. I haven’t started it yet.
Oh, George’s book. I just ordered it. Yeah.
Jean: Have you read (Garrison’s) book?
I’m behind on my reading
Jean: We’ve got it, it’s a good one. (W. Howe agrees)
Yeah, I’ve got this [Hartzog’s book] ordered. I ordered it last week. I told them I wanted to get it inscribed. George is a by, we hated that guy, a whole lot of times. I mean almost literally. And I’ve seem him lose his cool, if he ever had any, with people for no reason at all. But when you sit again, ten, fifteen years afterwards you see what he was doing, and the way he played politics, and the way he was able to play politics, which you would have to do in a position like that, I think he was a master. Course the three or four we had right after him, Walker was a, he was a wimp, real nice wimp, but a wimp.
So there is a real change between the long term directors and the political directors.
Oh, yeah sure, sure. Now Russ is a good friend of mine, Russ Dickenson, and I have every confidence in the world, I think he did a great job. But I think he was pinned in so much by the political situation that he found himself in. He was there when Watt was there, and I have no sympathy for Watt at all. I think he would be the ruination of Park Service if he had stayed much longer. But I think George Hartzog, probably presided over a lot of things that were wrong, but I think that he presided over more things that were right. And he probably caused more ulcers than anybody else could possibly give. But he did an awful lot of things that were just exactly the way they should be.
Was he much different in style than Wirth?
Oh, yes, now here again I’m very emphatic at saying “Oh yes.” I shouldn’t say that because I didn’t know Wirth that well, but what I know of Wirth, Wirth is a much calmer individual. He was not George, he was not an explosive type. He wouldn’t blow his stack, at least I never saw him do it, and I never heard of him doing it. Now again, I wasn’t always around there, either. I mean, I saw him out in the field. Course he would probably, if you put it that way, he would probably be on his best behavior. But George would not be on his best behavior any time of the day.
Part Three and Four
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