Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-09-14
WATER POWER TRUST.
Clifford Pinchot Tells of It's Peril at
Irrigation Congress.


rotest is very short and the W"
power trust will show but little con-
sideration to the common people II
once the power of the country is GEN.
tralized. In power there is life, and
the water power trust will eventually
control all other trusts"
Equality of Opportunity For All.
Mr.. Pinchot named one power cor
poration which, he charged, was after
the control of water power. His
speech was in part as follows:
1.-The first thing we need In thii
country, as President Roosevelt SO
well set forth in that great message
which told what he had been trying
to do for the American people, is
equality Of opportunity for every cit
izen. No man should have less and
no man ought to ask for any more
Equality Of opportunity is the real
object Of our laws and institutions.
"It goes without saying that the
law is supreme and must be obeyed
Our civilization rests on obedience to
law. But the law is not absolute. II
requires to be construed. Right con-
struction of the law works and must
work in the vast majority Of cases for
the benefit Of the men who can hire
the best lawyers and who have the
sources of influence in lawmaking at
their command Strict construction
necessarily favors the great interests
as against the people and in the long
run cannot do otherwise. Wise execu-
tors Of the law must consider what
the law ought to accomplish for the
general good. The great oppressive
trusts exist because of subserNent
lawmakers and adroit legal construc-
tions. Here is the central stronghold
Of the money power in the everlasting
conflict of the few to grab and the
many to keep or win the rights they
were born with. Legal technicalities
seldom help the people. The people,
not the law, should have the benefit of
every doubt.
Water Power Trust Now Forming.
There could be no better illustra-
ton of the eager, rapid, unwearied abb
sorption by capital Of the rights which
belong to all the people than the water
power trust, not yet formed, but in
rapid process of formation. This
statement Is true, but not unchallensed.
We are met at every turn by the in
dignant denial of the water power in
terests. They tell us that there Is no
community Of interest among them,
and yet they appear year after year at
these congresses by their paid attor-
neys asking for your influence to help
them remove the few remaining OBJ
stacles to their perpetual and COM
plete absorption of the remaining wa
ter powers.
"They tell us 1t has no significance
that the General Electric interests are
acquiring great groups Of water pow
ers in various parts Of the United
States and dominating the power mar
ket in the region Of each group. And
whoever dominates power dominates
all industry Have you ever seen a
few drops Of oil scattered on the wa
ter spreading until they formed con-
tinuous film, which put an end at once
to all agitation of the surface? The
time for us to agitate this question is
now, before the separate circles Of
centralized control spread into the
uniform, unbroken, nation wide cover
ing of a single gigantic trust. There
will be little chance for mere agita-
ton after that. No man at all IA
miliar with the situation can doubt
that the time for effective protest Is
very short. II we do not use 1t to
protect ourselves now, we may be
very sure that the trust will give
hereafter small consideration to the
welfare Of the average citizen when in
conflict with its own.
1.-THE man who really counts Is the
plain American citizen. This is the
man for whom the Roosevelt policies
were created, and his welfare Is the
end to which the Roosevelt policies
lead AS a nation we are fortunate at
this time in this fact above all others
that the great man who gave his name
to these policies has for his successor
another great president whose admin
istration is most solemnly pledged to
the support Of them"
1t is on account Of this speech that
the belief is expressed in Washington
that Mr.. Pinchot has imperiled his
chances Of long remaining in the gov
ernment service.