The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1909-10-06
CON SCRANTON AT THE FAIR
John l.. Matthews i'm Visiting the
Exposition Was Struck by the Way
States We're Exploiting Conscrva-
ton of Timber and Water.

John l.. Matthews, the magazine
writer. whose articles on conservation
and the water power trust have had
no little part in the policies of the past
two national administrations, has
written the conservation idea into the
Alaska Y ukon-Pacific exposition so
neatly that it is perhaps one of the
most interesting sdelights on the fair
that has yet appeared. In the cur
rent issue of the Boston Transcript
Matthews tells the following story of
his visit to the Seattle show:
This conservation is all rot" said
the secretary of the interior one day
last May. "Out in the west we have
thrown it aside. 1t is nonsense. You
fellows want to take all this govern
ment property and tie it up and leave
it idle.
You don't know what you're talk
ing about. The west needs this prop
erty developed. 1t needs the circula-
ton. 1t needs the land. We have I'M
limited timber and we must cut it Off"
That was about the attitude of Bal
linger a few months ago when he was
just plunging into his Inflated and I'M
upon
and the other heads of the conserva-
ton movement He changed positions
later--as he is always changing his
position. During the Spokane con-
gress he told me that he was thor
oughly and heartily for conservation,
and that he believed in big bond is
sues to help along reclamation of the
desert. But that was the evening of
the day when Governor Pardee twist
ed his tail in open meeting. Ballinger
is "agin" conservation and strong for
the "old gang which wants to secure
all there is uncovered on the public
domain.
So when the Seattle fair, the Alaska
Yukon-Pacific exposition, opened the
last thing one would have expected in
it was a PRONUNCIATION of the hated
doctrine. If Ballinger was right the
west would not listen to it; and it was
not difficult to remember the days, but
few years ago, when the lumbermen
of every western state were hot on
Pinchot's trail. Yet as the result has
turned out l believe there has been no
other influence, unless it is Roose-
velt's words, so powerful in extending
the new faith as the Seattle fair.
1t is an old saying among newspaper
men that every fair is but an echo of
the last and that there is nothing new
to write about any of them. 1t was
with some such notion in my head that
1 entered the attractive gateway of
the latest show one afternoon in late
summer and gave up the first of long
strip of coupons which an obliging
press agent had provided for me. The
buildings lay at some distance from
the entrance, by a long walk which
went down under a railroad and up
again, and which then came up be-
tween them beside a fine open music
hall into a court decorated with a
cascade. The buildings were small,
neat, and of the usual show type. A
little more bizarre perhaps than usual,
but not remarkably novel in any way
except for the forestry building in
it's dark fir colors. l wandered along
the line for a few minutes and then
turned, for lack of better direction,
into the state building of Idaho.
Inside the entrance an usher caught
me and led me into darkened room.
lecturer was on the platform, beside
screen on which was shown re-
markable view of a new Carey-act ir-
rigation project in the Snake river
valley. The hall was crowded, the
people listening with close attention,
and the lecturer was lecturing not on
irrigation at all, but on the conserva-
ton of water.
Picture after picture flashed upon
the screen, showing the water powers,
the desert lands, the new canals, the
great reservoir which was to conserve
the flow, and the growing orchards
and gardens on the reclaimed land.
They We're as handsome views as l
have ever seen thrown by a lantern,
and they made a tremendous appeal
to this audience, most of which to
reach Seattle had travelled many miles
through just such desert.
The lecture in the Idaho hall ended
with a series of moving pictures illus
trating the workmen and their tasks
in preparing the water, the farmers
ploughing and narrowing before and
after irrigation and other features of
the work. When it was over | went
across the way and tried the California
building
There it was the same story-a lee
| ture on conservation. This time
happened to come upon forest lee
turer. With the same magnificent
slides, some of them wonderfully col
ored, he showed the big trees of the
famous California groves, the gigantic
frs and redwoods of the mountain
! forests, and the work of numbering
| The destruction wrought by the old
methods, the wasteful stumps. the
! Slashings ready for fire, and last OF
| all a great fire in progress sweeping
across a magnificent forest, gave the
audience a clear idea of the past days
| of the numbering.
Then systematically he showed the
| forest service. The rangers were
shown going out with their equipment
cutting away trees and brush and ma
king trails for the fire patrols. Then