650 



CONSERVATION 



that the right thing will be done because it 

 has been demanded and promised will not 

 get anywhere. Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftain. 



The People with Him 



The President realizes that the head For- 

 ester is a power in conservation and cannot 

 profitably be disturbed. Mr. Ballinger will 

 be wise if he takes the same view. He can- 

 not crowd Pinchot out. Eight-tenths of a 

 hundred millions of citizens would rise as 

 one man and object. Woonsocket (R. I.) 

 Call. 



Let Pinchot Alone 



Secretary Ballinger should think twice be- 

 fore he falls out with Pinchot. If the public 

 had to choose between the two on the 

 strength of their past records, so far as 

 they are known, it would favor Pinchot 

 rather than Ballinger. 



It is well understood that most if not 

 all of the unfriendly critics of the Chief 

 Forester in public and private life are men 

 whose personal interests have been interfered 

 with by forest-conservation work which has 

 benefited the Nation. They have been 

 snarling at him for years, but have not 

 changed the popular opinion of him. It is 

 that he is capable, honest, and unselfish, and 

 that whatever mistakes he may have made 

 grew out of his passionate devotion to the 

 cause he has at heart. Chicago (111.) 

 Tribune. 



The People's Country 



"I hold very strongly that all the country, 

 in every power, every faculty it possesses, 

 belongs, first of all, indefeasibly and inalien- 

 ably, to the plain American citizen. 



"Public-service corporations exist to serve 

 the people. They must be conducted not sim- 

 ply for the people who own them, but for 

 the people they serve and for whom, rightly 

 considered, they exist. * * * 



"The withdrawal of water-power lands 

 that has taken place under President Taft 

 will be submitted to Congress, and it must 

 then be decided whether water-powers shall 

 be given in perpetuity or for a limited time. 

 No decision more important than this has 

 come before Congress in years. It is a 

 question whether the means of lighting, heat- 

 ing, power, and transportation shall forever 

 be transferred to private hands, or shall be 

 kept under the control of the people, from 

 whom originallv it came. 



"After vested rights once attach, it is more 

 difficult to remove them in this country than 

 in any country on the globe." Gifford 

 Pinchot in Portland, Oreg., as reported in 

 Portland (Oreg.) Journal. 



Mr, Pinchot at Los Angeles 



Mr. Gifford Pinchot was at Los Angele* 

 on September 3. From the press, the fol 

 lowing reports are clipped : 



"Los Angeles, Sept. 3. 'The hardest and 

 perhaps the most momentous fight the public 

 has engaged in for years,' said Chief Forester 

 Gifford Pinchot to-day, when he arrived here,, 

 'will be before Congress at the next session 

 on the question of preserving for the people 

 water-power rights on navigable streams on 

 the public domain and in the forest reserves. 

 ' 'Action one way or the other must be 

 had at the next session. If it goes the way 

 of private interests the possession of the 

 water-power and that means the possession 

 of the most valuable public asset left will 

 be lost to the people. 



' 'Our contention is that these rights should 

 not be granted in perpetuity. We, and by we 

 I mean all those interested in conservation 

 and keeping for the people what is the peo- 

 ple's, hold that a limit of, say, fifty years 

 should be affixed to the conveyance of each 

 right and that a reasonable rent should be 

 paid the Government. 



'You can have an idea of the influences 

 that will be brought against this idea when I 

 tell you they will include the General Electric 

 Company, the Morgan interests, the Standard 

 Oil, and the Transcontinental railways, who 

 intend to use electric power for trans - 

 mountain traffic.'' San Francisco (Cal.) 

 Examiner. 



In an address before the City Club, Mr. 

 Pinchot said : 



"The lines in this country are being pretty 

 closely drawn between those who stand for 

 good government and those who stand for 

 special privileges. 



"The square deal is what we seek in the 

 controversy between the people and the 

 money interests. I feel that the time has come 

 for men to stand up and be counted. * * * 



"Suppose the present tendency should go 

 on. We have seen great trusts building up. 

 Suppose the utilities fall into the same cate- 

 gory as the railroads. It is a pretty picture 

 to suppose that all these resources will fall 

 into the hands of a little group of men to 

 decide what part of the country should be de- 

 veloped. I am an optimist, and do not be- 

 lieve we ever shall reach that condition, but 

 unless our people take the action I think 

 they will take, we shall reach it very soon."- 

 Washington (D. C.) Star. 



"The men who control the natural re- 

 sources of the country should be controlled 

 by the whole people. The same point of 

 view which made it appear that the forests 

 should be preserved also makes it clear that 

 coal waste should be stopped, water-power 

 developed, and lands irrigated this same 

 point of view goes straight on and applies 

 to the great total of national efficiency." 

 Seattle (Wash.) Times. 



