NEWS AND NOTES 



59 



Mr. Garfield Speaks at Last 



Mr. James R. Garfield, Secretary of the 

 Interior under President Roosevelt, from 

 whom an expression on the conservation 

 question has long been expected, has at last 

 spoken in an address at the University of 

 Wisconsin and before the Merchants' and 

 Manufacturers' Association of Milwaukee. 

 This address is published in full in La Fol- 

 lette's for December 18. Though worded with 

 studied care and self-restraint, it has al- 

 ready created a flutter in the flock of opponents 

 of conservation. Following are some extracts 

 from Mr. Garfield's address : 



"Conservation is preeminently a move 

 ment for the public welfare. The public 

 welfare demands equality of opportunity for 

 all citizens in the use of natural re- 

 sources. * * * 



"In opposition to public welfare is that 

 kind of private interest which selfishly seeks 

 to control natural resources solely for its 

 own benefit. * * * 



"Exactly as the railroads are regulated be- 

 cause they are public utilities, so must the 

 interests that develop natural resources be 

 regulated -because they deal with public ne- 

 cessities. Unfair use or monopolization of 

 either is intolerable. * * 



"The enormous increase in the use of water 

 for power and irrigation, and domestic con- 

 sumption, has induced great activity on the 

 part of big interests to acquire as many 

 available reservoir and power sites as pos- 

 sible there was imminent danger that such 

 sites left on the public domain would be 

 filed "pon and obtained under conditions that 

 would in no wise protect the public, but 

 wou'd make monopoly possible in the near 

 future. 



"No more intolerable monopoly can be 

 imagined than that which would control the 

 water supply of any great section of our 

 country. * * * 



"The people properly consider the execu- 

 tive as their particular advocate, their spe- 

 cial representative. His stewardship carries 

 with it grave responsibilities and affords 

 splendid opportunities to serve the people 

 well. * * * 



"President Roosevelt : was willing to 



take action for the public welfare unless there 

 was some prohibition under the constitution 

 or in law to prevent such action. 



"The danger to the conservation movement 

 now is inaction. The public welfare de- 

 mands action. No condition is so satisfac- 

 tory to aggressive private interest as inac- 

 tion on the part of the public authorities. * * * 



"The fight for conservation is now in the 

 halls of Congress. * * * It_is not an easy 

 task to obtain legislation which is opposed 

 by great vested interests. We may be sure 

 that all the men and corporations who have 

 in years gone by acquired ownership or con- 

 trol of land, timber, coal, oil, phosphates, and 

 water, free from regulation or condition and 

 without just compensation to the public, will 

 not voluntarily acquiesce in the proposed 



changes. There is no danger that the rights 

 and demands of such interests will be neg 

 lected; the danger is that the public interest 

 may be forgotten. 



"The people must see to it that their side 

 of these great questions is as keenly watched, 

 as capably presented as is the side of pri 

 vate interest. * * * 



"It is easier to prevent legislation than to 

 obtain it, hence the people will have the more 

 difficult task in the pending struggle, but 

 they can win if their leaders are true to their 

 trust. * 



"We pride ourselves upon our freedom, out- 

 individual liberty of action yet this is an 

 idle boast, a sham, unless we ensure equality 

 of opportunity to every citizen, and use every 

 effort to increase his vital, intellectual, and 

 moral efficiency." 



Another Bombshell for Ballinger 



Collier's for December 18 fires another 

 bombshell into the Ballinger camp. Senator 

 Heyburn, furthermore, for years one of the 

 most relentless and irreconcilable foes of the 

 Forest Service, finds himself in a position 

 strikingly suggestive of that of the onetime 

 Senator Mitchell, from Oregon. 



Of the article referred to, Collier's says 

 editorially : 



"In the opinion of the most intelligent 

 and disinterested class of men now in public- 

 life, no achievement in President Roosevelt's 

 administration compared in importance with 

 the successful turning of the tide against 

 the robber barons, and in favor of the peo- 

 ple, in that immensely valuable area known 

 as our natural resources. Can the people pre- 

 vent the present administration from chloro- 

 forming the movement and bringing us back 

 to the grand old days of McKinley's first 

 administration, when everything was smooth 

 and orderly, and Robin Hood was in the 

 saddle? If the administration had shown any 

 desire to do more than fix up plausible wh te- 

 washes and virtuous annual reports, Collier's 

 would not be worrying itself with the task of 

 ferreting out and arranging the vast amouni 

 of evidence. If we were sure that Congress 

 would furnish a full investigation, by a fair- 

 minded committee, our own role would end. 

 We are not convinced, however, and there- 

 fore are forced by incalculably large public 

 interests to remain ourselves upon the firing 

 line now, and perhaps for many months to 

 come. 



"The article * * * will interest the pub- 

 lic. Whether it will influence Congress, we 

 do not know. That it will appeal to the At- 

 torney General or the President, we in no 

 wise think. 



"It demonstrates : 



"i. That Glavis's article in Collier's merely 

 tapped one vein. What is given here is more 

 farreaching. From the point of view both 

 of politics and of criminal law, it is more 

 serious. 



