"Behind the scenes government will no longer work," former Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel said here last night. His own goal, he said, had been to "get the fight out in the open where the public could see it."

He applauded yesterday's Senate vote to refuse further Federal funds for the SST.

Hickel called on government officials to "risk the pressure of some of the special interests and accept the challenge of defending the public interest." Speaking in Lowell Lecture Hall as the guest of the Law School Forum, Hickel discussed a wide range of general and specific problems which concern the Federal government.

Supports Mass Transit

"If you're talking about putting money into the movement of people, there are a lot better places you can spend it than on the SST," he said. Hickel called for strong government support for public, rapid-speed, mass transit. "The technology is there," he said, to solve the transportation problem.

Once quoted as opposing "conservation for conservation's sake," Hickel surprised those who thought he would make a weak Secretary of the Interior by taking a hard line against off-shore oil polluters and other environmental threats. Last November, President Nixon fired Hickel from the Cabinet.

Hickel said last night that his expireence was "the perfect example of why the system will work. We made it work for 22 months," he said. "If you're disappointed with the system, don't change the system, change the man," Hickel advised his audience.

Hickel criticized ecologists for seeing the environment in terms of "great forest lands and mountain streams" and "writing off the urban environment," adding, "No wonder certain minority groups say they can't be bothered with the environmental movement,"

Hickel defended his program of "Parks to the People" several times as one step toward improving the urban environment. The plan provides Federal money to create "pocket parks" and pedestrian malls in urban downtown.

Hickel called on the law students in his audience last night to "clean up the language of the law so that the poor and uneducated can understand it and so that they won't be exploited by it."