New-York tribune., 1909-12-28
ADVICE BY PlNCHOT
At UNIVERSITY CLUB.
Says Forest Service Has Been
Marx for Special Interests.

Clifford Pinchot. Chief Forester of the
United States. said in a speech here yester-
day before a number OF publishers at the
University Club that special interests had
made repeated attacks on the United States
Forest Service, and these attacks had in
creased in violence just in proportion as
The service had offered effective opposition
TO predatory wealth. He said:
Ihe American people have evidently
Hiaue up their minds that our natural re-
sources mast be conserved. That Is good
out IT settles only half the question. For
whose penefit shall they be conserved
and profit OF the few? The great conflict
row being fought Will decide. There is no
OF other question before us that begins to be
so iinpoItant-or that will be so difficult
20 straddle-as the great question between
special interest and equal opportunity, be-
twsen the privileges of the few and the
rights or the many, between government
oy men for human welfare and govern
ment by money for profit, between the
men VINO stand for the Roosevelt policies
ana the meh who stand against them
MS is the essence OF the conservation
problem to-day.
The conservation issue is moral issue
or the necessaries of life. either through
ownership OF natural resource or through
uhtair business methods and that con-
troI 10 eXtort undue profits. as in the re-
cent cases of the Sugar Trust and the
beef packers. they injure the average man
without good reason, and they are guilty
OF a moral wrong.
After dwelling upon the tolls levied upon
the cost of living by special privileges and
pointing out how the former involved the
welfare and happiness or the misery and
degradation OF the plain people, the speaker
continued:
believe in one form of government. and
believe in the Golden Rule. But we must
lace the truth that monopoly OF the
Ior vast numbers of men and women TO
earn a fair living. Right here the conser-
Nation question touches the daily life of
the great body Of our people. who pay the
cost OF especial privilege. And the price
Is heavy. That price may De the chance to
corner gang and the girls from worse. and
TO make good citizens OF them instead of
PAD Tor an appalling proportion of the
itregedles OF life spring directly from the
lack OF little money: Thousands OF
daughters of the poor fall into the hands
of the white slave" traders because their
poverty leaves them without protection.
Thousands OF families, as the Pittsburg
survey has shown US, lead lives of brutal
izing overwork in return for the barest
living.
The people of this country have lost
vastly more than they can ever regain by
gifts OF public property forever and with
out charge TO men who give nothing in
return IL is true that we have made su-
perb material progress under this system
freely in the slices the special interests
nave given US from the great loaf of the
property of all the people.
The people of the United states have
been the complacent victims OF a system
of grab often perpetrated by men who
would be surprised beyond measure to be
accused of wrongdoing. and many of wnom
in their private lives were model citizens
But they have suffered from a curious
moral perversion by which it becomes
which they would refuse with the loftiest
scOrn TO do for themselves Fortunately
for US. all the delusion is passing rapidly
away.
Mr.. PinchOt then pointed out how, when
property got possession of the voting pow
er. little was left for the people, and urged
a sharp separation of business and poll
tics. Continuing, he said:
1t is the honorable distinction of the For
est Service that it has been more constant
ly, more violently and moIe bitterly at
tackled by the representatives of the special
interests In recent years than any other
government bureau These attacks have
Increased in violence and bitterness inst
IN proportion as the service has offered eff
fectiVe opposition 10 predatory wealth. The
more successful We have been in D. event
ing land grabbing and the absorption of
water power by the special interests the
more ingenious the more devious and the
more dangerous these attacks have be-
come. favOrite one is 10 assert that the
Forest Service, in its zeal for the public
welfare, has played ducks and brakes with
the acts Of Congress
The fact is, on the contrary, that the
service has had warrant OF law for every
thing it has done. Not once since it was
created has any charge OF ilegality de
spite the most searching investigation and
the bitterest attack, ever led to reversal
or reproof by either house OF Congress
or by any Congressional committee.
Another, and unusually plausible. form
of attack. is to demand that all land not
now bearing trees shall be thrown out of
the national forests.
Still another attack. nearly successful
two years ago, was an attempt to pre-
vent the Forest Service from telling the
people through the press what IL was ac-
complshing for them and how much this
nation needed the forests
Since the Forest Service called public at
tention to the rapid absorption OF the
water power sites and the threatening
growth of great water power monopoly
the attacks upon it have increased with
marked rapidity. l anticipate that they
win continue TO do SO. Still greater oppo-
sition is promised in the near future. There
is but one protection-an awakened public
opinion. That is why l give you the facts.