202 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



forests, which he pushed vigorously during the following years, with 

 the assistance of several of his colleagues, particularly Johnson. 

 Several of the Washington delegation were particularly hostile about 

 this time; and the numerous references to Pinchot's candidacy for 

 the senatorship from Pennsylvania in 1914, to the Ballinger con- 

 troversy, and to the Progressive party, indicate that their attitude 

 was one aspect of a party squabble. To some extent, the forest reserve 

 question during the last ten years or more has been a question of party 

 politics. The split in the Republican party in 1912 was due to Roose- 

 velt's disapproval of President Taft's stand on conservation. Roose- 

 velt was the man who, with Pinchot, had really created the Forest 

 Service, and had done more than anyone else to create the system of 

 forest reserves ; and he was of course very anxious that his successor 

 should carry that policy on with vigor. President Taft, however, 

 soon fell somewhat under the influence of the reactionary wing of 

 his party, and evinced what Roosevelt considered a lack of enthusiasm 

 for conservation. In the Ballinger controversy, he took sides with 

 Ballinger, and against Pinchot and Glavis, who were trying to pre- 

 vent the patenting of a number of fraudulent coal claims in Alaska. 

 Taft even dismissed Pinchot from the Forest Service. 



Taft's stand in these matters was such that Roosevelt could not 

 possibly forget or forgive. The dismissal of Pinchot, who had been 

 Roosevelt's most trusted assistant, was the "last straw." How keenly 

 Roosevelt felt this is indicated, almost pathetically, by the following 

 excerpt from his autobiography: "I believe it is but just to say that 

 among the many, many public officials who under my administration 

 rendered literally invaluable service to the people of the United 

 States, he [Pinchot] on the whole, stood first. A few months after I 

 left the Presidency he was removed from office by President Taft."^' 

 Perhaps Roosevelt did not know at that time that President Taft 

 had gone so far as to antedate public records in his effort to shield 

 Ballinger; but he knew enough to distrust Taft's stand on conser- 

 vation. The truth of the matter probably is, not that Taft was under 

 any improper influences, although he was somewhat under the sway 

 of the reactionaries of the party, but rather that he had a very dif- 

 ferent point of view from that of Roosevelt. Roosevelt was aggressive 



97 Roosevelt, "Autobiography," 429. 



