The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-10-22

to the administration OF his bureau
without any worries regarding his Of
fetal future.
The ultra Rooseveltians hoped to
make the issue between Pinchot and
Ballinger the means of breaking up the
Presidents cabinet, before it had
served year. In that they seem to
have been disappointed. 1t probably
does not please Secretary Ballinger i'm
mensely to have Forester Pinehot come
off so handsomely, even though he
(Ballinger) has the President letter
absolutely justifying him in every par
ticular for his course. There will be
! no shaking of the foundations if Pin
chot and Ballinger still refuse to
speak as they pass or look up into the
skv, as thew did at Salt Lake City,
| when they happen in proximity. What
ever business the bureau of forestry
has with the department of the inte-
rior need not take Mr.. Pinchot over
to the secretary's Office. The business
in any event has finally to be trans
acted through the office of Secretary of
Agriculture Wilson. The latter has
sided with his subordinate during the
controversy that has filed the summer
with cflUi1ndtiOuS anu
| But "Tama jim" Wilson has kept on
| friendly terms with Mr.. Ballinger.
They sit Immediately opposite each
other at the President IS cabinet table,
! and should be able to get along ami
cably during the winter.
Whether there will be any further
developments of Importance in the
controversy, however, can not be told.
Apparently, the President has found a
satisfactory course of paciication.
There viii be many men on both sides
willing to continue the quarrel for their
own ends. Some conservation enthusl-
asts were beginning to bristle up and
their attitude was menacing for the
President In few weeks it will be
come plain whether most of them are
satisfied.
Congress has been wrestling for two
or three sessions with questions at
fecting the federal control of water
powers on public lands. Those ques
tons are closely related to the Pinehot
controversy Many bills, apart from
any affecting the right to withhold
public lands from entry where water
power sites are involved, viii be press
ed upon committees In senate and
house. The conservation of water pow
ers on the national forests alone has
brought up troublesome points, on
which congress has been asked to leg
islate There are matters of taxation,
especially when the power on a ma
tional forest is transmitted to distant
towns and cities With the develop
ment of electric transmission, many
,,ou-arc in fho XToS+ ,1tilizaJ for
as 200 miles away.
Up to date congress has taken prac
tically no action, although the repre-
sentatives of big power concerns have
come down to Washington for two or
three winters and there have been hot
contentious before committees about
the framing of legislation. These will
! recur. In view of the contentious of
the past summer, the public interest in
this prospective legislation will be aug
mented. Chief Pinchot will push his
/ claims for adequate protection to the
government S interests and to prevent
/ corporations from getting advantage
| through any general enactments
| The strife centers in properties
throughout the Rocky Mountains and
neighboring ranges. There most of the
! national forests are located and there
/ capitalists are showing very great ae-
tivity in getting control of power sites.
| The wealth of water powers in the
Sierra Mountains, for example. is said
! to surpass many fold the wealth of
minerals there. The possibilities for
developing Pacific Coast towns and
cities through those powers are almost
beyond comprehension. Electricity has
| become most merchantable commodity
for driving factories and mills and for
making Pacific Coast towns grow into
| prosperous cities. One can not easily
measure what the water powers of the
/ Rockies over large part of the region
! from Colorado to the Coast will do in
! the course of fifty or a hundred years
/ toward making great industrial and
manufacturing States. The prospects of
| trade with the Orient have stimulated
/ the efforts to gain possession of sites.
! because that section of the West is
, rich in raw materials. Once make man
nfacturing there cheaper than it is TO
t the East, and there will be a tremend-
! Gus advantage in making goods both
for local consumption and for export to
countries on the other side of the Pa
cific.
/ For which reasons, as long as the gov
/ eminent owns so many valuable water
! power sits in that section, the questions
appertaining thereto are likely to come
prominently before administrations at
] Washington for many years. Chief
/ Pinchot claims big trust is already
actively at work getting hold of these
sites. and many people believe he knows
! what he is talking about.
/ With the President out of town and
all but one or two of his cabinet Of
feers here Washington is as quiet as
midsummer. The autumnal return has
! hardly set in. Clerks are at their desks
but officials are still at large and show
ing few signs of getting down to bust
ness. The field operations Of several
/ departments. which are extensive in
/ these modern summer times are being
continued later than usual this autumn.
The big linen covers are still on the
big desks and the departmental eorri-
/ doris do not resound with the tread of
many people. The acting secretaries
; Il