204 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



Progressive party, had been conceived in iniquity, reared in dishonor, 

 and should now be cast into the outer darkness of political desuetude. 

 Also, some of the reactionaries in the Republican party saw in the 

 conservation policy a menace to their own interests. Timber interests, 

 coal interests, oil interests, water power interests, to some extent 

 grazing, and even railroad interests, saw that the conservation move- 

 ment was destined to reduce the opportunities for private exploita- 

 tion. Thus the Republican party became to a certain extent hostile 

 to the Forest Service and to conservation generally, the Republican 

 leaders lining up with the western anti-conservationists and "states 

 righters." Representative Bryan of Washington pointed out that 

 Humphrey's attack in 1913 was essentially an attack upon Roose- 

 velt and the Progressive policies, although Humphrey had earlier been 

 an enthusiastic supporter of Roosevelt. 



Bryan spoke of Humphrey's "never failing allegiance to the inter- 

 ests of men of great wealth, and those who during the decades past, 

 through the men who were the leaders of the Republican party, 

 obtained so many privileges for the few against the interest of the 

 people." Representative Murdock, a Progressive leader from Kansas, 

 in replying to Humphrey's attack, openly accused the Republican 

 party of hostility to the reserves : "These are the charges, then, that 

 the gentleman brings against the Bureau of Forestry. They would not 

 be of moment if the gentleman did not couple with his resolution the 

 assertion — made as one of the Republican members of this body, and 

 speaking for a considerable part of the membership of this body, and 

 representing really, as I believe, the sentiments of the leaders of the 

 Republican party-:-that the policy of national conservation should 

 be abandoned." This was not denied by anyone on the floor.®^ 



The attacks on Pinchot and on the Forest Service were also to 

 some extent connected with Pinchot's candidacy for the senatorship 

 in Pennsylvania. Progressives everywhere boomed his candidacy, even 

 in Congress, while Republicans found it expedient to attack not only 

 his record in the Forest Service, but even the general conservation 

 movement, with which he had so long been identified. Humphrey made 



99 H. R. 28283; 62 Cong. 3 sess., 2945 et seq.: H. R. 13679; 63 Cong. 2 sess., 4614 

 et seq.: Cong. Rec, 63 Cong. 1 sess., 1862: Cong. Bee, Mar. 1, 1909, 3534; Jan. 5, 

 1910, 325. 



