582 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Capt, I. B. White of Kansas City 



but best protected from inarauclers by 

 the home people who are most deei)ly 

 interested and who are just as honest, 

 just as patriotic and infinitely better in- 

 formed on local conditions than the na- 

 tional government can possibly be." He 

 closed with a statement of the moral is- 

 sue involved in the principle of conser- 

 vation. 



The discussion of Mr. Hill's paper 

 by Henry Wallace, of Iowa, the editor 

 of Wallace's Farmer, was spicy and 

 effective. Mr. Wallace asserted the na- 

 tional character of the possessions which 

 the nation is now trying to conserve and 

 which he declared it may justly refuse 

 to sell. He questioned the correctness 

 of Mr. Hill's deductions as to the cost 

 of the reclamation service, calling at- 

 tention to the fact that the government 

 operations afford no opportunity for 

 speculation in land while other proposi- 

 tions afford it abundantly. He spoke 

 as follows of the possibility of the fu- 

 ture : 



"If our government is to continue as it 

 has for some years past — a government by 



great corporations for the benefit of great 

 corporations — it matters little whether our 

 resources are managed Iw Congress or l)y 

 the several states. In either case thev will 

 be stolen and used to oppress our children 

 and our children's children. But if in time 

 to come it is to be really a government of 

 the people b\- the people for the people, then 

 the representatives of the people in Congress 

 are the proper persons to prescribe the 

 method by which our resources are to be 

 conserved and utilized in the future. To 

 say that this cannot be done as the nations 

 of Europe do it, as Canada does it, as Aus- 

 tralia does it, is to say that republican insti- 

 tutions are a failure. To even doubt that it 

 can be done is infidelity to democracy, or 

 government by the people, as distinct from 

 an oligarchy or plutocracy, or government by 

 great combinations of capital. 



"It is not a little significant that the heads 

 and representatives of all great corporations, 

 so far as I have noticed, are in favor of the 

 development of our remaining resources bv 

 the state governments. They are shrewd 

 enough to see that the time is near at hand 

 when those high in corporations will not sit 

 as representatives of these corporations \n 

 the seats of the mighty, whether in the Sen- 

 ate or the House. In other words, they see 

 that a political crisis is commg, in fact is 

 already here, which will determine for all 

 time to come whether the United States 

 sha'l be governed Iw a plutocracy or by the 

 people. They prefer the control of these 

 great undeveloped resources by the state, for 

 the simple reason that it is easier to control 

 the state in which the resources arc located 

 than the United States. Whenever in all 

 this broad land you find great resources, 

 whether private or public, there will be 

 found tendencies to plutocracy, fnr 'where 

 the carcass is, there are the ^■^lltures 

 gathered together.' " 



He discussed at some length the 

 problem of country life and its import- 

 ance to the nation, closing with this 

 declaration : 



■'It will not do tor either city or country 

 to sit idly bv while great combinations of 

 capital stretch out greedy and predatory 

 hands to grasp from future generations oui' 

 great national resources in the shape of coal, 

 phosphates, water power and timber. Nor 

 will it do for the great railroad corporations 

 to build up cities by preferred rates to either 

 places or persons while treating the farm 

 lands as a back pasture from which cverv- 

 thing is to be taken and nothing to be re- 

 turned, nor for a few great combinations to 

 compel Congress to enhance bv legislation 

 the cost of the necessaries of life." 



Mr. Wallace's address abounded in 

 shrewd points and keen criticisms of the 

 preceding speaker, and in sound sense 

 in its discussion of existing conditions. 



