NEWS AND NOTES 





Mr, Pinchot's Latest Shot 



Following are extracts from Mr. Gifford 

 Pinchot's speech of Monday, December 27, 

 before the University Club of New York 



City: 



"The conservation issue is a moral one. 

 When a few men get possession of one ot 

 the necessaries of life, either through owner- 

 ship of a natural resource or through un- 

 fair business methods, and use that control 

 to extort undue profits * * they injure 

 the average man without good reason, and 

 they are guilty of a moral wrong. 



"The income of the average family in the 

 United States is less than $600 a year, 

 increase the cost of living to such a family, 

 beyond the reasonable profits of legitimate 

 business is wrong. : 



"I believe in our form of government, and 

 I believe in the Golden Rule. But we must 

 face the truth that monopoly of the sources 

 of production makes it impossible for vast 

 numbers of men and women to earn a fair 

 living. * * * 



"Thousands of daughters of the poor fail 

 into the hands of the white-slave traders be- 

 cause their poverty leaves them without pro- 

 tection. Thousands of families, as the Pitts- 

 burg Survey has shown us, lead lives of 

 brutalizing overwork in return for the barest 

 living. 



"Is it fair that these thousands of families 

 should have less than they need in order 

 that a few families should have swollen for- 

 tunes at their expense? 



'The people of this country have lost vastly 

 more than they can ever regain by its gifts of 

 public property, forever and without charge, 

 to men who gave nothing in return. * * 



"The people of the United States have 

 been complacent victims of a system of 

 * * * 



"President Hadley well said that 'the fun- 

 damental division of powers in the Consti- 

 tution of the United States is between voters, 

 on die one hand, and property owners on the 

 other.' 



"When property gets possession of the 

 voting power also, little is left for the peo- 

 ple. That is why the unholy alliance between 

 business and politics is the most dangerous 

 factor in our political life. 



58 



"I believe the American people are tired of 

 that alliance. They are weary of politics 

 for revenue only. It is time to take busi- 

 ness out of politics, and keep it out time for 

 the political activity of this Nation to be aimed 

 squarely at the welfare of all of us, and 

 squarely away from the excessive profits of 

 a few of us. * * 



"We have allowed the great corporation - 

 to occupy with their own men the strategic 

 points in business, in social and in political 

 life. * * * 



"There are many men who believe, and 

 who will always believe, in the divine right 

 of money to rule. With such men argument, 

 compromise, our conciliation is useless, or 

 worse. 



"The only thing to do with them is to 

 fight them and beat them. It has been done, 

 and it can be done again. 



''It is the honorable distinction of the 

 Forest Service that it has been more con- 

 stantly, more violently, and more bitterly 

 attacked by the representatives of the special 

 interests than any other Government bureau. 

 ''These attacks have increased in violence 

 and bitterness just in proportion as the 

 Service has offered effective opposition to 

 predatory wealth. * * * 



"We hold it to be the first duty of a 

 public officer to obey the law. But we hold 

 it to be his second duty, and a close second, 

 to do everything the law will let him do 

 for the public good, and not merely what 

 the law directs or compels him to do. : 



"Still another attack, nearly successful two 

 years ago, was an attempt to prevent the 

 Forest Service from telling the people. 

 through the press, what it is accomplishing 

 for them, and how much this Nation needs 

 the forest. 



"If we cannot tell what we are doing, th- 

 time will come when there will be nothing 

 to tell. * * * 



"Since the Forest Service called public a'- 

 tention to the rapid absorption of the water- 

 power sites and the threatening growth of 

 a great water-power monopoly, the attacks 

 upon it have increased with marked rapidity. 

 "I anticipate that they will continue to do 

 so. Still greater opposition is promised in 

 the near future. There is but one protection 

 an awakened and determined public opin- 

 ion. That is why I give you the facts." 



