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CONSERVATION  AND  THE  LAW . 
No  inconsiderable  space  in  newspapers  and  magazines  on  the 
mainland  is  at  present  being  devoted  to  the  consideration  of  the 
methods  of  which  the  natural  resources  remaining  in  the  control 
of  the  nation  shall  be  developed  and  used.  Differences  of  opinion 
and  varying  points  of  view  have  made  it  appear  that  a fight  is  on,, 
and  so  there  is.  But  it  is  not,  as  some  of  the  dispatches  would 
seem  to  indicate,  a dispute  between  individuals.  It  is  rather  a 
trying  out  of  whether  the  rights  of  the  people  shall  prevail  against 
corporate  greed.  This  is  the  real  issue,  and  the  one  that  must  not 
be  lost  sight  of. 
It  is  only  natural  that  with  the  interest  centering  on  men  of 
strong  personality  like  Mr.  Pinchot,  Secretary  Ballinger,  ex- 
Secretary  Garfield,  and  Mr.  Newell,  newspaper  men,  recognizing 
the  dramatic  value  of  the  situation,  should  magnify  the  personal 
element  in  the  controversy,  the  more  so  as  the  leading  figures  may 
well  serve  as  embodiments  of  the  ideas  for  which  they  stand.  It 
is  not  surprising,  too,  that  the  main  question  should  at  times  be 
obscured  by  local  differences  of  opinion  of  minor  importance. 
But  the  real  question  at  issue — the  vital  point — is  not  of  differ- 
ences between  men.  It  is  whether  the  remaining  natural  re- 
sources belonging  to  the  nation,  necessary  as  they  are  to  the  health 
and  life  of  the  common  people,  shall  be  legitimately  developed 
and  exploited  in  the  interest  of  all  the  people,  or  whether  they 
shall  be  so  disposed  of  today  that,  sooner  or  later,  they  could  fall 
into  the  ownership  of  great  corporations  that,  controlling  the  situa- 
tion, could  in  the  end  exact  a crushing  tribute  from  all  except  the 
favored  few  in  control. 
Whatever  may  be  claimed,  it  is  the  truth — to  take  but  one  in- 
stance— that  if  the  absorption  of  water  powers  by  private  owners 
is  allowed  to  go  on  unchecked,  the  time  will  come,  sooner  or  later,, 
when  there  will  be  made  possible  a combine  that  could  levy 
tribute  on  the  people  to  a degree  beside  which  the  exactions  of 
the  Standard  Oil  Company  would  pale  into  insignificance.  It  is 
this  possibility  rather  than  any  provable  certainty  that  animates 
the  underlying  principles  of  what  have  come  to  be  known  as  the 
“Roosevelt  conservation  policies.” 
At  the  Seventeenth  National  Irrigation  Congress,  held  a few 
weeks  since  at  Spokane,  Washington,  Mr.  Pinchot  clearly  out- 
lined the  position  of  the  conservationists  in  a carefully-prepared 
speech  that  embodies  the  policies  that  for  a number  of  years  he 
has  consistently  advocated. 
The  essence  of  conservation  has  recently  been  summed  up, 
through  the  addition  to  a time-honored  phrase  of  a few  new  and 
illuminating  words,  to  be  “the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  num- 
ber for  the  longest  time.”  The  underlying  principles  which  con- 
servationists believe  will  bring  this  about,  are  that  the  natural 
resources  still  owned  by  the  people  should  be  exploited  without 
