5 8o 



CONSERVATION 



in accordance with the comprehensive plan 

 beginning with the fourteen-foot waterway 

 through the Illinois and Mississippi rivers 

 from the Great Lakes to the Gulf as the 

 main artery of our inland waterway system, 

 and we urgently recommend to the Congress 

 of the United States prompt action toward 

 carrying out this and other great projects 

 for the promotion of commerce. 



We hold that there is no more important 

 subject now before the American people 

 than that of irrigation by private enterprise 

 in the several states of the Union ; that the in- 

 dustries connected therewith have risen to the 

 first importance among the class of industries 

 recognized by statisticians, statesmen, and 

 the people generally; that definite informa- 

 tion, at once comprehensive and detailed, 

 is not now available in any state or branch 

 of the Federal Government ; and we urgently 

 request that the Census Office be directed to 

 take account of the industries connected with 

 private irrigation, in order that the people 

 may fully profit by our growing experience. 



We reiterate the declaration of the Irri- 

 gation Congress of 1907 and 1908 in favor of 

 establishing national forests in the southern 

 Appalachian and White mountains, and urge 

 legislation for that purpose, preferably 

 through the Weeks bill in the amended form 

 as it now stands before the Sixty-first 

 Congress. 



We recommend to the legislatures of the 

 several states and to the Congress of the 

 United States appropriate legislation to se- 

 cure forest planting and the reforestation of 

 lands denuded of timber. 



We commend the work of the Audubon 

 Society; and, recognizing the value and 

 utility of birds and wild animals, we rec- 

 ommend their careful and adequate pro- 

 tection. 



Roosevelt Policies Concerned 



There has always been a small but very 

 busy band of opponents to the Forest Service, 

 headed by a man named Eddy, and in the 

 last year, since water-power on the public 

 domain became an issue encouraged by the 

 big power companies, subsidary to the water- 

 power trust. These forces have opposed Mr. 

 Pinchot in every way possible but without 

 success. Indeed, they apparently had no hope 

 of success until a few months ago when 

 Mr. Garfield was succeeded as Secretary of 

 the Interior by Mr. Ballinger, whose ideas 

 with regard to the administration of the pub- 

 lic domain appear to differ widely from those 

 of his predecessor. Colorado Springs (Colo.) 

 Gazette, August 15, 1909. 



Roosevelt Policies at Stake 



Until a decade or so ago, national resources 

 that are now seen to be limited and rapidly 

 disappearing were looked upon as unlimited 

 and inexhaustible. 



Under old conditions the Government's 

 easy policy of disposing of the forests, the 

 water-power, the coal and oil lands and ir- 

 rigable areas had a merit that no longer ex- 

 ists. The Nation seemed to have these re- 

 sources in riotous abundance, enough and 

 more for the corporations and the individuals 

 too, and could afford to encourage their con- 

 version into wealth by giving them over to 

 private enterprise. 



But now the country is confronted by radi- 

 cally different conditions. These resources 

 have dwindled to relatively small proportions, 

 and the old free-handed policy becomes now 

 a grievous wrong to the Government and the 

 people, and if permitted to continue would 

 soon be made a means of public oppression 

 by corporate greed. 



President Roosevelt, with admirable patriot- 

 ism and courage, inaugurated his broad 

 policy of conservation of these resources for 

 the public benefit, and had the support among 

 other zealous assistants of Director Newell 

 of the Reclamation Service, and Gifford Pin- 

 chot, chief forester, over all the national re- 

 servations. President Roosevelt vigorously 

 applied the policy of doing everything for 

 the public benefit and the Government's wel- 

 fare that was legal and not prohibited by 

 law. That policy Mr. Newell and Mr. Pin- 

 chot are now attempting to perpetuate. 



But Secretary Ballinger, of the Interior 

 Department, has unfortunately manifested 

 strong reactionary tendencies that were 

 thought to be foreign to his character when 

 he was pressed for appointment to the Taft 

 cabinet. He appears not to have grasped 

 the fact that the old easy-going policies, meri- 

 torious in their day, have now become posi- 

 tively vicious. He is twenty years or more 

 behind the times. 



Mr. Ballinger's reactionary inclination be- 

 came so apparent that President Taft found 

 it necessary to pull him up with a short rein, 

 and since he cannot well direct his chagrin 

 and anger against the President, it appears 

 that he has turned upon Director Newell 

 and Chief Forester Pinchot, evidently sus- 

 pecting that they had entered a remonstrance 

 against his course. 



(The Spokesman-Review here recites that 

 Secretary Ballinger made wholesale cancella- 

 tions of ex-Secretary Garfield's withdrawals 

 of public lands, and continues:) 



Apparently he acted without consultation 

 with President Taft, who declined to ap- 

 prove the act of his secretary and directed 

 him to return to the policies of President 

 Roosevelt and Secretary Garfield. 



Smarting under this rebuke, Secretary 

 Ballinger would like to take the scalps of 

 Mr. Newell and Mr. Pinchot, but these offi- 

 cers are backed by public sentiment and ap- 

 parently have the support of President Taft, 

 and the outcome may be that Mr. Ballinger 

 will lose his own official scalp. 



East and west the public is awakening to 

 the magnitude of this conflict and the nature 

 of the principles at stake. The Spokesman- 

 Review, Spokane. 



