NEWS AND NOTES 



123 



is not si-eking to preserve to the people their 

 interest in them now and for the future. 

 This is nothing new. Mr. Ballinger has 

 discovered no new way of separating the 

 people from their property. His predecessors 

 have accomplished much in the same direc- 

 tion, though it is possibly true that none of 

 them entered office to pass administratively 

 upon the claims of those for whom he acted 

 as an attorney prior to taking the office. 

 This alone is sufficient indictment of Mr. 

 Hal linger as an unfit person to control the 

 handling of the public domain. Tt is the wide 

 administrative discretion the law gives to the 

 Secretary of the Interior which enables him, 

 strictly in compliance with it, to make the 

 administration of the law hostile to the pub- 

 lic interest and favorable to private interests. 

 It is this which Pinchot is fighting, and he 

 will not cease to fight so long as the people 

 give him support. 



Mr. Ballinger is a western man, and he is 

 imbued with the grab-it-all-now spirit which 

 pervades the West with relation to the public 

 domain and the natural resources of the 

 country. The West particularly the western 

 city wants to grow. It wants to grow rap- 

 idly. It wants every dollar that can be 

 taken out of the country's natural resources 

 taken as soon as possible, in order to pro- 

 mote this rapid growth. Perhaps no better 

 exposition of this purely selfish attitude, 

 this desire for temporary advantage from 

 the consumption of the country's resources 

 regardless of the future or of their monop- 

 olization in private hands, has been given 

 than the editorial treatment of the subject in 

 the Portland Oregonian, under the head of 

 "The People's Heritage," put in quotation 

 marks in the heading to show its use sar- 

 castically. 



The theme of the article is that the re- 

 sources of the West belong to the western 

 people and they should be given free access 

 to them. "The West desires development," 

 it says. "It insists that the natural re- 

 sources shall be used." 



Its whole argument is the sophistical one 

 that because in the past the public domain 

 and resources have been permitted to pass 

 easily into private hands and come under 

 monopoly control and are in the East thus 

 largely owned, the policy should be run 

 tinned and the remainder be squandered in 

 the same way as a matter of equity and 

 justice to the West and to aid in its de- 

 velopment. 



This argument is no better than the one 

 that because in the past municipalities gave 

 away their franchises without compensation 

 and with monopoly provisions which have 

 left citizens in the grip of public-service cor- 

 porations, they should now continue to do 

 so; yet the Orcgoiiiun has long been an 

 earnest advocate of municipal reform in the 

 matter of franchise granting. That it does 

 not also advocate reform in the matter of 

 giving away the public patrimony, what it 

 sarcastically calls "the people's heritage," is 



solely due to this mania for growth that 

 obsesses the entire West and blinds it to the 

 public welfare in future years. 



Because he ably represents this grab-it- 

 all-now spirit, Mr. Ballinger finds his chief 

 support in the extreme West, and Mr. Pin- 

 chot, who contests it, finds there his chief 

 criticism. The people of the United States 

 should make no mistake in this matter. In 

 so far as the Taft administration makes it- 

 self responsible for Ballinger and his western 

 ideas of passing the public property as 

 speedily as possible into private hands, it is 

 on the side of monopoly and what is broadly 

 called "the interests," and against the masses 

 and the real welfare of the people in future 

 years. This is but one phase of the everlast- 

 ing fight of the people for their own protec- 

 tion, and the people ought to know and to 

 show where they stand in it. St. Loiiis 

 (Mo.) Star. 



Pinchot Speeches to be Compiled 



All the literature available on the con- 

 servation of natural resources, including the 

 speeches of Gifford Pinchot and [former 

 President Roosevelt, will be printed and 

 bound together for the use of members of 

 Congress when the fight for conservation 

 legislation comes up on the floor of the 

 House. This was ordered by the House 

 Committee on Interstate and Foreign Com- 

 merce today, and it was decided to push 

 conservation legislation this winter. 



Representative Mann, chairman of the 

 committee, who is the author of a con- 

 servation bill, has stated that his com- 

 mittee has about decided upon the main 

 features of the water-power law, and that 

 it will be reported as soon as President 

 Taft's message on conservation comes from 

 the White House. 



Pinchot Chosen President 



The election of Gifford Pinchot to suc- 

 ceed Dr. Charles W. Eliot as President of 

 the National Conservation Association was 

 announced to-night. Doctor Eliot, at whnsv 

 suggestion Mr. Pinchot was elected, retains 

 the honorary presidency. Mr. Pinchot will 

 take active charge of the association to- 

 morrow. Headquarters will be in Washing- 

 ton. * * * 



Two weeks ago Doctor Eliot wrote to the 

 executive committee of the association ex- 

 pressing his opinion that Mr. Pinchot, as 

 the recognized head of the conservation 

 movement, should take the active leader- 

 ship of the Conservation Association. He 

 also wrote Mr. Pinchot a personal letter sug- 

 gesting that he accept the presidency. At 

 Doctor Eliot's direction, a meeting of the 

 executive committee of the association was 

 held and Mr. Pinchot was formally elected 



The National Conservation Association 

 was formed last July at a meeting with Doc- 



