122 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



job everybody that had dealings with the 

 Forest Service had to play the game square 

 or get in trouble, and it is a matter of his- 

 tory that a good many of them were in 

 trouble all the time. So much for the Forest 

 Service as it was created and conducted by 

 Giflford Pinchot; what it will be in the 

 future is likely to be another story, especi- 

 ally if one Richard Achilles Ballinger has 

 anything to say about it. 



The Forest Service is deprived of the man 

 who is really responsible for its existence, 

 who planned and built it up little by little 

 and made it the most effective force in the 

 Nation to-day for the preservation of an im- 

 portant share of our National wealth, the 

 man who also originated and worked out 

 the chief monument of the Roosevelt ad- 

 ministration, the conservation idea. Rightly 

 or wrongly, his removal from office is con- 

 strued as the severance by Mr. Taft of the 

 last cord that binds the present' administra- 

 tion to its predecessor. — Colorado Springs 

 (Col.) Gazette. 



5i' «? !^ 



Informing the Senate 



There is a point in the affair of Pinchot 

 against Taft which I have not seen touched 

 on by the press. His letter was not ad- 

 dressed to a newspaper, but to an Iowa 

 senator seeking information. The Senate 

 is a branch of the National Government 

 co-ordinate with the President, and, in fact, 

 prior to him, for there was a Senate, pre- 

 sided over by John Langdon, before there 

 was a President Washington or a Vice- 

 President Adams. Now, Pinchot does not 

 seem to be charged with falsehood in his 

 letter to Dolliver. The point, therefore, is 

 that an officer appointed by the President and 

 Senate has been swiftly removed for com- 

 municating true facts to a member of the 

 Senate, from which he received confirmation 

 of his right to hold office. Is that an oflfense 

 under our constitution of checks and bal- 

 ances? The question is coming up in the 

 Navy Department, when the Senate, 

 through its committee, asks questions of an 

 admiral who has been ordered not to give 

 answers. The power of the Senate to 

 compel answers in a matter bearing on its 

 regular duties, is unquestioned, I think. My 

 refusal to answer in a matter where the 

 Senate was acting outside of its jurisdiction 

 had a diflferent basis. Cannot, then, an in- 

 dividual senator ask a question and receive 

 an answer in matters of fact without sub- 

 jecting the official to removal for that 

 answer? I apprehend that the Senate, if it 

 made that point against the President, — as it 

 virtually did against Johnson when Presi- 

 dent, would be supported by the constitu- 

 tional lawyers and by public opinion. The 

 country is always in more danger from the 



usurpations of a President than from those 

 of the Senate, which has so little power 

 to enforce its orders. — Correspondence in 

 Springfield (j\Iass.) Republican. 



Turn on the Light 



But from now on the thing for all right- 

 minded men to insist upon steadily is the 

 duty of sticking to the real point. That does 

 not concern itself with personal consequences 

 or political effects, but with the great Gov- 

 ernmental policy which lies behind the whole 

 controversy. Chief Foresters and Secre- 

 taries and even Presidents may come and 

 go ; parties may be split and beaten ; but what 

 the people will demand is that the public 

 resources be kept for public uses, and not 

 permitted to be filched away by designing 

 and tricky men. To this end, the congres- 

 sional inquiry must be searching and fear- 

 less. There is redoubled reason now for lay- 

 ing the whole truth bare. Anything like a 

 halting or whitewashing investigation would 

 be certain to rouse popular suspicion and 

 wrath. Hence we can but hail the action 

 of the House yesterday in taking from 

 Speaker Cannon the right to appoint _ the 

 representatives who are to serve on the joint 

 committee of inquiry. It is no time for 

 a packed committee. Its members should be 

 the most untrammeled and uncompromising 

 men to be found, who will tear out the very 

 heart of the business. Nothing should be 

 allowed to hinder or prejudice that resuU. 

 Although Mr. Pinchot has grievously erred, 

 he will still be in a position to set forth the 

 great cause and to champion the people's 

 rights; and the investigating committee will 

 be bound to afford him and every other 

 honest man the fullest opportunity both to 

 meet his enemies and to vindicate the vital 

 and imperiled policy. — Nczi) York Post. 



«? «? iW 



The Irrepressible Conflict 



There is something more vital in this so- 

 called Ballinger-Pinchot controversy than a 

 mere matter of difference of opinion as to 

 the proper way to run the office of the Secre- 

 tary of the Interior and that of the Forestry 

 Bureau, or of official etiquette, the basis of 

 Pinchot's dismissal. It is a pha^e of the irre- 

 pressible conflict between the people and 

 monopoly, and for the nonce the champion 

 of the people is Mr. Pinchot. It is not at all 

 likely that any violation of law on Mr. Bal- 

 linger's part will be discovered in the in- 

 vestigation, and it would be quite possible 

 for the committee to "vindicate" him, as did 

 the President, of any illegal wrongdoing. 



The real charge against Mr. Ballinger is 

 that he is administering his office — under the 

 forms of law, to be sure — in the interest of 

 those who desire to secure monopoly con- 

 trol of the country's natural resources, and 



