446 



THE IERIGATION AGE. 



despicable political intrigue, benefiting neither them- 

 selves nor the assemblage, should be rigidly excluded 

 from participation. The break in the ranks is already 

 wide preparations for the Pueblo congress will be 

 watched with interest and if a certain discredited gov- 

 ernment employe is allowed a place on next year's pro- 

 gram it may be predicted that the congress as a gather- 

 ing for the exchange of ideas relating to irrigation must 

 be permanently destroyed. 



Seizing upon the alarming news from 

 Water Spokane that Forester Pinchot has de- 



Power clared a "water power trust" to be in 



Trust process of formation, numerous newspa- 



Bogey. pers and periodicals hitherto conservative 



and sagacious, yielded to the excitement 

 of the moment and hurried their editorial pens into 

 tragic attacks upon this new found peril. 



Even while President Taft was dictating the letter 

 in complete vindication of his Secretary of the Interior 

 from the charge against him in connection with the 

 alleged operations of the water power trust, Collier's 

 Weekly as well as a score of other publications were 

 using frenzied terms in attack of Secretary Ballinger 

 and in proclaiming Forester Pinchot as the savior of 

 the nation's resources. 



It is comical to watch the editorial cannon belch forth 

 its flame and shot and to know that great tracts of at- 

 mosphere have been torn to shreds. But it is equally 

 enjoyable to note that the big noise is harmless. 



And now that these warlike editors know that their 

 guns have exploded without cause, may they be ex- 

 pected to retract, to censure Pinchot the Magnifier, or 

 commend Secretary Ballinger? The Forester's pub- 

 licity bureau must exert itself to soften the effect of the 

 returning boomerang. 



Toward Forester Pinchot this paper must 

 Charge continue its attitude of hostility. To be 



Refuted: sure, his conservative utterances and his 

 Pinchot somewhat circumspect mention of the 



Disgraced. water power trust, of which he is the sole 



creator and sponsor, leave no avenue for 

 condemnation. Yet every delegate to the irrigation con- 

 gree is fully aware that it was Gifford Pinchot and no 

 other who incited less intelligent members of the body 

 to open an despicable attack upon his superior, Secre- 

 tary Ballinger. 



By law the commonwealth often inflicts greater 

 punishment upon the inciter of a crime than upon the 

 actual perpetrator. Were that law applied to the attack 

 upon the Secretary of the Interior, Gifford Pinchot 

 would today be the object of the President's excoriation, 

 and ex-Governor Pardee would not be the "goat." 



But for the seriousness of the offense, Mr. Pinchot 

 might be commended for the smoothness with which his 

 intrigue was executed. A well organized press bureau, 

 similar to that conducted by the Forester for the ex- 

 ploitation primarily of his personal achievement and, 

 secondarily, for the spread of the doctrine of forestry 

 conservation, might easily produce a grossly exaggerated 

 press dispatch from Bozeman, Mont. If this dispatch 

 flashed over the wires at a moment when the Forester 

 was uttering veiled charges against his superior, the 

 incident might still awaken no suspicion. 



But if there is added to this mixture a known 

 enmity on the part of the Forester against his chief, 

 and a desire to inflate a third term boom for a former 

 patron, then the coincidents become matters of calcula- 

 tion and the motive for the full intrigue stands clearly 

 revealed. 



Forester Pinchot is guilty of a puerile attempt to 

 promote a third term boom for his former chief. For 

 the motive he may not be criticised ; but for the method 

 he merits naught but condemnation. The exposure has 

 come and instead of casting discredit upon his superior 

 and upon the present administration he has promoted 

 public confidence and respect in both. Yet he appears 

 to be still basking in the confidence of the President. 

 And Pardee suffers. 



With every engineer in charge of a gov- 

 Counsels eminent reclamation project clamoring 

 Heavy for additional funds with which to bring 



Bond his work to speedy conclusion, and with 



Issue. only half enough money with which to 



satisfy these requests, the position of Sec- 

 retary Ballinger as chief of the reclamation bureau is 

 not to be envied. 



Whether the service attempted to prosecute work 

 faster than moneys became available, or whether esti- 

 mates of cost must be largely increased over the orig- 

 inal figures, it is certain that one dollar cannot be made 

 to do the work of two and the secretary is in a quan- 

 dary. 



Senator Borah, of Idaho, is authority for the state- 

 ment that the secretary is looking with growing favor 

 upon the plan to ask Congress for the issuance of bonds 

 to the sum of $10,000,000, to be expended in hurrying 

 engineering work. The stringency in funds has resulted 

 to a large extent from the recent ruling to allow the 

 issuance of no more scrip for labor performed by set- 

 tlers, and it is foreseen that the bond issue will solve 

 the trouble. 



Owners of land in these government projects are 

 devoutly praying for favorable action. Many have now 

 worried through several lean years waiting for the com- 

 pletion of the government's work and the turning of 



