NEWS AND NOTES 



647 



got back home they found that Mr. Garfield's 

 fine Italian hand had effectively tied them 

 up to the stated amount, and they also had 

 strong reasons to suspect that Gifford Pin- 

 chot was not far away when the restrictions 

 were made. Since then the Cunningham 

 crowd has sought to be permitted to file their 

 claims under the old law, on the ground that 

 their applications were in when it was in 

 force. It is understood, however, that Sec- 

 retary Garfield never considered a land claim 

 had reached the dignity of having the laws 

 finally applied to it until it had been investi- 

 gated, and it is further understood, owing 

 to the suspicion that the Cunningham claims 

 had behind them somebody, not yet visible, 

 intent on consolidating what was then be- 

 lieved to be about $100,000,000 worth of coal 

 into one concern, never regarded the claims 

 as more than mere clouds on the title of 

 somebody else who might get them in the 

 future. It is now being covertly intimated 

 that these same claims are worth in the neigh- 

 borhood of $500,000,000, and that the Gug- 

 genheim-Standard Oil crowd are beind them. 



McHarg for Exploitation 



Mr. McHarg's request that the "red- 

 blooded men" of the West be permitted to 

 do as they please, in exploiting and absorb- 

 ing and confiscating the Nation's resources, 

 just as they have taken care of the buffalo, 

 so offnds all decent sentiment as to make 

 the Ballinger cause now more than ever dif- 

 ficult for President Taft to sustain. It is 

 a peculiar habit of speech which some west- 

 ern men have in using "red-blooded" when 

 they make an appeal for a bad cause, or a 

 defense of anything that is inhumane. The 

 theory that real strength is not possessed by 

 persons like Pinchot and Newell, who pre- 

 fer to see things done with decent regard 

 for the larger rights of man, future as well 

 as present, will not stand analysis. North 

 Adams (Mass.) Transcript. 



The people have little faith in the law and 

 have come to put their trust in the Executive 

 instead. And while the President may re- 

 establish law in its proper place, it is equally 

 important, but more difficult, to reestablish 

 public confidence in the law. In order to do 

 that he will be obliged to go to Congress 

 and ask for legislation closing some of the 

 evident loopholes that now exist. 



This is certain to be a prominent topic of 

 discussion through the Northwest, into which 

 the President is going. If he finds time to 

 read the papers, he will learn that the people 

 are very much in earnest in the matter; that 

 they have more faith in Mr. Pinchot than 

 they have in the law, and that if they are 

 directed to the law as their final and su- 

 preme safeguard and relief, they will de- 

 mand that the enforcement of the law pro- 

 duce results. Boston Herald. 



La Follette's on the Controversy 



La Follette's Weekly, speaking of the Bal- 

 Hnger-Pinchot question, says : 



"It involves an issue of tremendous im- 

 portance. Its outcome will determine to a 

 great extent whether or not this generation 

 and future generations will have saddled 

 upon them another monopoly, more powerful 

 than any of our present trusts a gigantic 

 water-power combination. 



"The people must take sides in this fight, 

 for at bottom it is the people's fight. This 

 fact must not be forgotten. Pinchot and 

 Ballinger now occupy the center of the arena. 

 For the moment they are the principal figures 

 in the struggle. But back of them are two 

 great opposing forces. On the one side is 

 an army of citizens who are determined upon 

 the wise conservation of our natural re- 

 sources and the protection of the rights of 

 the public in these resources. On the other 

 side are the hosts of privilege, bent upon se- 

 curing, at any cost, for private exploitation, 

 the natural -resources that still remain in the 

 hands of the public." 



Results Wanted 



This decision of the President does not 

 close the incident by any means, nor does 

 it touch the vital issue which is involved. 

 The point of view and the purpose of the 

 Pinchotites deserve as careful consideration 

 as is given to that of the President and the 

 Secretary of the Interior. Mr. Pinchot rep- 

 resents and is backed by a very strong 

 public sentiment, particularly in the West, 

 which believes that there is an effort on the 

 part of large associated interests to obtain 

 monopolistic possession of the most valuable 

 of remaining public lands. Past experience 

 justifies that fear, and incidents of the pres- 

 ent day confirm it. There is a belief that 

 the letter of the law contains such loopholes 

 that its spirit will be violated with impunity. 



"Search Their Pockets" 



Every community has its group of highly 

 respectable citizens who deplore the lawless 

 methods of the Roosevelt regime. They 

 tremble for the Constitution, the courts, and 

 the people, and in their mind's eye foresee the 

 doom of the Republic unless the too zealous 

 partisans of Roosevelt reforms can be curbed 

 and disciplined. 



It is betraying no secret to say that these 

 men, when they are not harmless or eccentric 

 idealists, are those whose private interests 

 have been in some way menaced by the 

 Roosevelt reforms. * * * 



It will probably be a safe rule to search 

 the pockets of every man found weeping 

 over the fall of the Constitution and the 



