In Search of Republican Environmentalists

The last couple of years have seen a number of new histories focusing on the politics of environmentalism. Much of this scholarship has recognized the central role of Congress in environmental policymaking; see, for example, Paul Milazzo, Unlikely Environmentalists: Congress and Clean Water, 1945–1972 (2006); Bill Christofferson, The Man From Clear Lake: Earth Day Founder Senator Gaylord Nelson (2004); and Byron Pearson, Still the River Runs Wild: Congress, the Sierra Club and the Fight to Save Grand Canyon (2002). A second trend might very well be the recovery of a past in which environmentalism is not a one-party issue.

While it might be difficult for us to imagine, there was a time when environmental policies enjoyed broad bi-partisan support. So it should not surprise us that as historians more closely examine the history of mid-twentieth-century environmentalism, they should find that which appears all too rare today: Republicans. Two recent biographies of Republican environmentalists depicting two very different people demonstrate that, for a time, it was possible to construct a political identity that was both environmental and Republican.

While Thomas G. Smith's, Green Republican: John Saylor and the Preservation of America's Wilderness, does not present a well-defined argument, it is an important contribution to both political and environmental history because this biography examines perhaps the most important, and least well-known, mid-twentieth-century environmental legislator.

As the ranking minority member on the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee from 1959 to 1973, Saylor bitterly fought the Bureau of Reclamation over a series of controversial western dams; he was an ardent supporter of stricter air and water standards, but his greatest impact was in the field of land preservation. John Saylor (1908–1973) was the principle House author of the Wilderness Act, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Outdoor Resource Recreation Review Commission, and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Saylor co-sponsored (and fought for) legislation establishing Redwood National Park, the C&O Canal National Historic Park, Piscataway National Historic Park, and the National Trails System. He also championed the establishment of Canyonlands, North Cascades, and Voyageurs national parks as well as national lakeshores, seashores, recreation areas, and historic sites, and he was a vigorous defender of the sanctity of the national park system. He had worked so hard and for so long to set aside millions of acres of untouched wilderness, that David Brower (executive director of the Sierra Club) felt that the country's wilderness system should be named after Saylor.

Yet in many respects Saylor, representing western Pennsylvania, appeared to be a conservative Republican. Entering Congress in 1949, Saylor was an enthusiastic supporter of Joseph McCarthy and the anti-communist crusade of that era. Saylor was a firm supporter of both the Korean and Vietnam Wars. He supported restricting the spread of pornography, reducing foreign aid, repealing restrictions on gun ownership, and curbing the activism of the Supreme Court. He opposed federal aid for education, the Miranda decision, and the New Left. Antiwar protests in Washington, D.C. literally "made him weep, and he repeatedly referred to dissenters as 'degenerates,' 'loathsome derelicts,' and 'rebellious filth'" (p. 223).

However, Saylor distinguished himself from many Republicans in Congress by his strong support for unions. Many of his constituents were coal miners and Saylor crafted a highly successful image as a tireless fighter for their economic well-being. And yet this was a losing fight. Over the course of Saylor's political career the coal industry in western Pennsylvania experienced a long, slow decline to the point where unemployment in Saylor's district was routinely higher than the national average. In an effort to alleviate this suffering Saylor fought to raise the personal income tax deduction; he consistently...