The San Francisco call., 1909-10-02
.PINCHOT WORKS
TO AID PUBLIC
Asserts People Own Forests
While Lumber Combines
Desire Monopoly
By w. S. COUCH
(Of Cleveland Plain Desler-l

NE doesn't know whether to d.
| scribe clifford Pinchot as the First
Forester or The Last of the Mohi-
cans He invented the Roosevelt con-
servation game and wrote the book
OF rules-at his own expense. At the
same time he is the only chief OF the
Roosevelt tribe left on the Taft reser-
vatfon-and there is plot against his
scalp.
Pinehot and George washington are
the only American Office holders who
have served for nothing. The forestry
expert has something on George, at
that The father of his country per-
mitted the continental congress to pay
his expenses. and he drew a salary as
president. PInchot distributes his sal
airy through his STAFF and pays his own
expenses during his extensive touring
of the country. Moreover. when Mig
gardly appropriations for the forestry
service give out little short OF the
goal. Pinchot has been known to sup
ply the deficiency.
Politicians. to whom public Office
means livelihood. regard Pinchot as
mild Iunatic. They say il he would
only take the millions that are his out
of Washington in pursuit OF such SEN
sible hobbies as steam yachts. race
horses. backing comic opera companies
and Monte Carlo his of1ce would fur
nish some deserving one of "the boys
with good job. and his big forest
service Of trained men could take care
of any number of henchmen. This is
one OF the motives in the hunt for the
Pinchot scalp.
Pinehot breaches that the forests
belong to the small citizen. while lum-
Der trusts. land barons and water
power corporations believe they have
an inherent right to add these valuable
public tracts to the general monopoly
they hold OF the rest OF the country's
resources. This is another and the
strongest motive which animates that
scalp hunt.
Finally. while Pinchot stays on the
job, the chief forester is constant re-
minder OF Roosevelt days and policies
under a Pharaoh who don't care how
soon he can forget Joseph If Joseph's
chief assistant In the grain purchasing
business had lived over into the sue
ceeding administration he'd probably
have been buried alive in q pyramid. At
least il he had advocated the Joseph y
conservation policies. Times havel
changed They don't dare do more than
fire Pinchot and they don't know yet
whether they dare do that.
The hobby of the elder Pinchot was
forestry. Pinchot money endowed at
Yale the first chair for the study OF
forestry established in any American
college. The younger Pinchot. finish
ing course In Yale. went abroad 10
study the thing in lands where they
have made it a business for century
and more.
Pinchot. returning to the United
States, found just one possible en-
ployer for an expert forester. the Van
derbilt estate at Biltmore. " c.. Even
a millionaire forester must seek an en-
rloyer with forest to work upon The
great American forest tracts none OF
them worked for much more than a
century, and most OF them but a few
years. were dwindling like winter
snow before the spring sun.
Pinchot was graduated from Yale
in. 1889. He was at Bntmore in 1892.
For four years he kept open ONCE in
New York as a consulting forester.
but nobody bothered him much with
consultations. In 1896 he was ap-
pointed a member OF one OF those
commissions which the government is
always creating and which make volu-
minous reports TO be buried in pigeon
holes. This commission did have the
result of making clifford Pinchot head
OF the forestry bureau in 1SsS.
At this time the government had
4o.sss.1s4 acres reserved. The bureau
force consisted of II men. OF whom
six were Office clerks charged with the
duty OF winding red tape around ths
others. There were two foresters. The
bureau cost was s9s.520 and the re-
turns not a dollar. The forest reserves
were all the name implied You
couldn't even go into them.
At the end OF the fiscal year 1s07-oS
the American forest reservations COW
cred 162.02s,1s0 acres. In that year
the bureau spent ss.ssS5s3 and re-
ceipts from the forests amounted to
an even s2,O0O.O0O. Pinchot had an
organization which a congressional
committee declared TO be the only
thing in the government service oper-
ating under the up TO date methods
of outside. modern. American bust
ness houses At the same time there
had been one noticeable reduction in
the original stan. The six red tape
fellows had gone. There Is no red
tape in the forestry service. It's men,
bers are too busy to bother with IT,