The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1909-11-09
M'HARG DENIES
EX|STANCE Of
POWER TRUST
Declares Chief Forester Pin.
chot is q Trimmer-Has
Endorsed McHarg
SETTLERS MUST DESTROY
TIMBER TO BU|LD HOME
Conditions in the West Are the Same
as They We're in the Western Re.
serve Fifty Years Ago When Timber
Was Burned,

was burned.
Washington, Nov. 9,--Having retir-
ed from the office of assistant sec
retary of commerce and labor to ac-
cept a flattering offer to join law
firm in New York, Ormsby McHarg
was in Washington yesterday on pri-
vate business. and in an interview
he did not hesitate to do what he
avoided doing as long as he remained
in public office-talk about his diff
ferences with Chief Forester Pinchot.
He suggested that Pinchot, in the
statement he recently gave out to the
press. concurred in the views origi-
nally expressed by McHarg to tho
effect that there was no water power
trust. 1t was on account of this ex-
pressed belief that a subordinate of
Pinchot's in the department of agri-
culture called McHarg a liar; yet the
chief forester has since denied that
he had any evidence that there was
trust.
In the opinion of Ormsby McHarg
the ultra radical conservationalists
are simply immoral. And yet McHarg
claims to be a conversationalist him.
self.
In report by Herbert Knox Smith,
chief of the bureau of corporations,
| that official says that there are pow
erful economic reasons" for the COM
bination Of interests owning water
power. AS to Smiths statement about
this tendency. McHarg said: "The
man who works against powerful
economic reasons. is immoral. An
economic law is one of Gods laws.
and when you find one of Gods laws.
it's a moral law"
There is lamentable lack of fig
ures. says McHarg, to back up the
scattered broadcast through the agen-
cy of the government publicity bureau.
Sees Little Difference.
He says that he is unable to see
much difference between the condi-
tions confronting the settlers in
Washington and Oregon and even AL
aska at the present time and the set
tiers in the great western reserve
fifty or sixty years ago. The latter
had to clear their rich lands of trees
which were burned because there was
no other way to dispose of them.
"It is practically the same." says
McHarg, lin Washington and Oregon
now Must the settler be estopped
from chopping down forest trees in
order that he may have room to build
a house and plant corn merely be-
cause the forests have been cut off
in Ohio, New York. and Pennsylvania? :?
The lumbermen in Washington say
that their difficulty lies in getting Jim
Hill to make them rate which will
enable them to supply their lumber
to the treeless regions of the Dakotas.
| There is lumber enough; the trouble
lies in transportating it.
And as to the coal lands in Alaska.
why talk about conserving Alaska
when Nome is 5000 miles from Seattle
and it is 1000 miles. to the nearest
coal? There should never be the
slightest restraint on the mining of
coal in Alaska because it is too far
from transportation to be used ex-
tensively other than locally. The coal
supply is as local as the water sup
ply, and that is very local. For the
first time in the history of the world
we are told that men who go into
these new regions must not touch the
resources which have been the in
ducement for them to go into these
places.
"It is absurd to talk about the
monopoly of water-power sites. On
the Snake river alone there is enough
power to supply all of the western
country II it could be transmitted
beyond the present limit of 200 miles
In the United States there are $780,
900 900 horsepower available and only
$500 900 horsepower are now in pri-
vate use. About ten per cent of that
is under the control of any one COM
bination. 1t has been assumed that
more of this power. up to 80 per cent
of the whole amount in private use,
but there is nothing to prove that the
assumption is correct.
Cheaper to Use Coal.
"If the conservationists are sincere.
why do they not plant trees here.
where the lumber is needed? Why
do they not use the immense force
going to waste at Great Falls on the
Potomac? The answer is simple. be-
cause it is cheaper to use coal in a
coal country than even free water
power, when the cost of installing the
necessary plant is taken into consid-
Grafton.
"It cannot be disputed by any one
who will give the matter even lit
tie thought that there are two sides
to the conservation question, and
that mere abuse does not answer ar