Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1909-08-19

WASHINGTON LETTER
by John j. Hannah

Washington, August 16. To those IN
close touch with affairs in the Capitol
the battle between Clifford Pinchot,
chief forester, and Secretary of the
Interior Ballinger has not been unex-
pected and the outcome will be Of the
greatest moment to the American peo-
ple 1t is also of great moment to
| President Taft. If the President lines
up with Mr.. Ballinger in this contest
it means that one of the most import
| ant of the Roosevelt policies the con-
servation of the natural resources OF
the country-is to be crushed, in so far
as this administration can do so those
who would exploit these resources for
their own benefit are to be given free
reign.
The rumblings of the conflict which
broke out at the Irrigation Congress
during the past week have been heard
here for some time and the open break
between the Forest Service and the
Secretary of the Interior would have
come long ago but for the fact that
public attention was rivited upon the
tariff.
| One of the last official acts of Presl-
dent Roosevelt was to withdraw from
entry and sale large areas of land ad-
iacent to the water powers in the far
west.
The first official act of Ballinger,
when he became Secretary of the In
| terror was to remove from the protec-
tive shelter of the government 1000
| 900 acres of land which had been with
drawn from entry by President Roose-
welt to prevent the water power com
panies, now becoming known as the
water-power trust, from grabbing val
liable water power in half dozen
western states.
BalIinger declared that the with
drawal of this property was illegal. SO
he cast it loose, as it were, to be seized
| by the waiting cormorants of the water
! power trust, and after the trust had
thus had an opportunity to grab every
thing of value, Ballinger proceeded to
withdraw the property from entry once
more, except such portions of it as had
been taken up during the interval be-
tween his first action and the with
draWal.
The agents of the trusts filed upon
the property they wanted on June IL,
and such property as they left was
withdrawn by Ballinger June 20. II
was declared that, with respect tt
these particular instances of surrender.
ing to the corporations exactly what
they wanted, Forester Pinchot had tolC
President Taft that the water power
sites in Montana would be grabbed up
and the President had warned Balling
err to be on his guard.
So far as the general public is con
cerned, it can have no knowledge o.
where these water-power sites are 10
Gated or what was their value whe1
Ballinger restored them to general en-
try. 1t is safe to assume, however,
that the water-power companies knew
exactly their location and everything els'
about them, and were prepared to take
them up the minute they were made
available by Ballinger's first order.
1t is >Ver this disputed question as tc
whether Ballinger did permit the water
power companies to grab valuable
rights, which they could not possibly
have obtained had he permitted the
Roosevelt order to stand, that the fight
will range.
1t is declared that Pinchot, who
knows the west as a man knows the
streets of his own town, has positive
evidence to show that the interest OF
the public was sacrificed, and that il
was apparently done for the purpose Of
benefiting the water power trust. Ball
niger declares everything he has done
has been legal.
Even taking his view of it, that
President Roosevelt had no right tC
withdraw all the territory containing
water-power sites, certainly no harm
could happen to the public or to anyone
by continuing the Roosevelt order and
permitting some one else to go into
court and question it's validity. But
this course would not suit Ballinger.
This question of water-power sites
is but part, however, of the general
conservation policy which Ballinger is
trying to break down. He has hamper
ed the forestry service in every manner
possible, and is to curtail the opera
tions of the reclamation service so that
no new enterprise that may be under
taken by the government shall inter-
fere in any way with the opportunities
of irrigating corporations.
He spoke of corporation rights in his
speech at Spokane as the rights of in
dividuals, and said the government
should not be permitted to interfere
with opportunities for private enter
prise.
1t can be recalled that this argument
has been used against every PROPOSE
ton advanced by President Roosevelt
looking to government regulation Of
corporations, or the safeguarding of
the public against corporation exac-
tions. 1t is simply the cry of the cor
porations to be let alone.