The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1909-12-30
PINCH01 BLAMES
PREDATORY RICH
CHIEF FORESTER IN SPEECH GIVES
HIS VERSION OF PRESENT CON-
SERvATION CONTROVERSY.
PEOPLES MINDS ARE MADE UP
Natural Resources Must Be Protected,
but Not for Benefit of the
Vested Interests.
STANDS FOR ROOSEVELT POLICIES.

NEW YORK, Dec. 27.-Cifford Pin
chot, chief forester of the United States,
declared in Il speech here today before
a number Of prominent publishers at the
University club that special interests
have made repeated attacks on the
United States forest service and that
these attacks have increased in violence
just in proportion rs the service has Of
lered effective opposition to predatory
wealth. Mr., pinchot said
The American people have evidently
made up their minds that our NATURAL re
sources must be conserved. That Is good,
but il settles only half the question. FOR
whose benefit shall they be conserved
for the benefit Of the many or for the
use and profit of the few! The great
conflict now being fought Will decide
There is no other question before us thht
begins to be 50 important, or that Will
be so difficult to straddle, as the great
question between special interest and
equal opportunity: between the priv
IegcS Of The few and the rights Of the
many between government 10y men for
human welfare and government by
money for profit, between the men who
stand for the Roosevelt policies and tht
men who stand against them. This is
the essence of the conservation problem,
today.
Conservation a Moral Issue.
"rhe conservation issue is moral is
sue. When a few men get possession OF
one of the neceSsaries of life, either
through ownership of Il natural resource
or through unfair business methods, ana
use that control to eNtort undue protts,
as in the recent cases of the sugar trust
and the beef packers, they injure the NV
erage man without good reason, ana they
are guilty Of Il moral wrong.
Il believe in one form of government
and | believe IN the golden rule But
we must face the truth that monopoly
of the sources of production makes It
impossible for vast numbers of men and
women to earn a fair living. Right here
the conservation question touches the
daily life of the great body OF our peo-
pie who pay the cost of special privilege.
And the price is heavy, That price
may be the chance To save the boys
from the saloons and the corner gang,
and the girls from worse, and to. make
good citizens Of them instead OF bad;
for an appalling proportion If the TRACE
dies of life spring directly from the
lack of a little money. Thousands of
daughters of the poor fell into the hands
of the white slave traders because thcf
poverty leaves them without protection.
Thousands Of families, as tue Plttsburg
survey has shown us, lead lives Of bru-
TALKING oyerwOrk in return for the bar
est living.
The people of the United States have
been the complaCent victims of system
of plumber often pcrpetrated 10y men VINO
would have been surprised beyond meas.
urc to he accused of wrongdoing, ana
many of whom in their private lives
were model citizens. But they have SUI
fered from Il curious moral perversion by
which it becomes praiseworthy to do for
corporation things which they would
refuse with the loftiest scorn to do for
themselves. Fortunately for us all that
deluson is passing rapidly away.
Forest Service Attacked.
1T is the honorable distinction of the
forest service that il has been more con
stautly, more violently, and more bitterly
attacked by the representatives Of the
special interests in recent years than any
other government bureau. These attacks
have increased in violence and bitterness
Just in proportion rs the service has Of
fcrcd effective opposition to predatory
wealth. The more successful we have
been in preventing land grabbing and the
absorption of water power by the special
interests, the more ingenious. the more
devious and the more dangerous these