712 



CONSERVATION 



are as squarely within its sphere as fran- 

 chises for water-power. It apphes to the 

 subject of good roads as well as to water- 

 ways, and the training of our people in ef- 

 fective citizenship is as germane to it as 

 an increase in the productiveness of our soils. 



"President Roosevelt himself said that the 

 policy of conservation is the most typical 

 example of the policies which will bear his 

 mark. Fruitful, vital, and beneficent, these 

 policies are both deeply needed and widely 

 cherished by our people. . 



"As a Nation, we are fortunate at this 

 time, as I said in my recent speech at Spo- 

 kane, in this fact above all others, that the 

 great man who gave his name to these poli- 

 cies has for his successor another great 

 President, whose administration is most sol- 

 emly pledged to support them." 



«? '^ «? 



Pinchoi's Conservation Ideas and Municipal 

 Franchises 



One of the strongest pleas for conservation 

 of the country's resources was that deliv- 

 ered before the National Conservation Con- 

 gress, in Seattle, by Gififord Pinchot, United 

 .States Forester. Joseph N. Teal, of Oregon, 

 one of the most active workers of the Na- 

 tional Municipal League in the Northwest, 

 presided over the session. Speaking of the 

 principles of conservation, Mr. Pinchot said : 

 "The principles of conservation have a gen- 

 eral application, the breadth and value of 

 which are very remarkable. The develop- 

 ment of resources and opportunities, and 

 prevention of waste and loss, the protection 

 of the public interests by foresight, pru- 

 dence, thrift, and intelligence— all these ap- 

 ply with clear and undeniable force to the 

 conservation of natural resources. They ap- 

 ply just as clearly and undeniably to every 

 interest and necessity of the people. The 

 conservation point of view is as valuable 

 in education as it is in forestry. It applies 

 to the body politic as it does to the earth 

 and its minerals. 



"Municipal franchises are as properly 

 within this sphere as franchises for water- 

 power. It is as applicable to the subject of 

 good roads as to that of waterways, and the 

 training of our people in effective citizenship 

 is as germane to it as the increase of pro- 

 ductiveness in our soils. 



"Conservation, the application of common 

 sense to the common problems for the com- 

 mon good, will lead directly to efficiency 

 wherever it gets control The outcome of 

 conservation is national efficiency." — National 

 Municipal Leagvie Clippings. 



«? it' "^ 



Hawaii Wide Awake 



Mr. Ralph S. Hosmer, chairman of the 

 Territorial Conservation Commission of Ha- 

 waii, sends clippings from a number of Ha- 

 waiian newspapers showing the alertness of 



the press of the island to the conservation 

 situation here, and its appreciation of the 

 merits of the present controversy. 



Mr. Hosmer says: "Here in Hawan the 

 relation between the continued prosperity of 

 the territory and the right use of the nat- 

 ural resources is so intimate that it is per- 

 haps more clearly appreciated than on many 

 parts on the mainland. This has led to the 

 formation of the strong public sentiment in 

 favor of conservation, which recent events 

 only tend to broaden and strengthen." 



Speaking of the tendency of newspaper 

 men to emphasize the personal element in 

 the Ballinger-Pinchot controversy, the Sun- 

 day Advertiser for September 19 says edi- 

 torially: "But the real question at issue — 

 the vital point— is not of difference be- 

 tween men. It is whether the remaining nat- 

 ural resources belonging to the Nation, nec- 

 essary as they are to the health and life of 

 the common people, shall be legitimately de 

 veloped, and exploited in the interest of all 

 the people, or whether they shall be so dis- 

 posed of to-day that, sooner or later, they 

 could fall into the ownership of great cor- 

 porations that, controlling the situation, could 

 in the end exact a crushing tribute from all 

 except the favored few in control." 



To put the situation more clearly in the 

 same number of words would be difficult. 



The Pacific Commercial Advertiser of Sep- 

 tember 23 says editorially : 



"That Roosevelt should have found oppo- 

 sition is but natural ; that Pinchot should 

 have been blackguarded by those whose de- 

 structive enterprise he had stopped was to 

 be expected. That those vitally interested 

 in the exploitation of the great natural re- 

 sources of the country for their own private 

 gain should object to having the excellent 

 source of revenue cut off was a foregone 

 conclusion. But abuse and threats have not 

 dissuaded Pinchot and his lieutenants from 

 the course which they have mapped out for 

 themselves. The effort to befog the real is- 

 sue in a mist of political sculduggery will 

 not blind the people to the necessity for 

 conserving the natural wealth of the land, 

 not only for the future generations, but for 

 the enjoyment of the present." 



It was understood at the beginning of the 

 controversy that Mr. Pinchot's audience was 

 large. These Hawaiian papers make it clear 

 that this audience is well represented in that 

 remote island, and that the people there 

 have ears to hear and minds to understand. 



Jt' ^ «^ 



The Changing Sentiment 



Certain masters of industry, not long ago 

 regarded as models of enterprise because of 

 their rapid accumulation of wealth through 

 the exploitation of forests, coal, oil, and gas, 

 phosphates or water resources, now to their 

 great bewilderment, find themselves looked 

 upon with serious suspicion. \t is no longer 

 regarded as good citizenship to sacrifice ruth- 

 lessly the interests of future generations, in 



