New-York tribune., 1910-03-07
WICKERsHAM HERE MANYHEAR PINCHOT
ON FORESTRY. WORK.
Says Gouernors' Conference
VII Lite Long an Historu

/ Clifford Pinchot spoke TO about twenty
FIVE hundred people in Carnegie Hail yes
terday morning. when he told the Society
for Ethical culture about the conservation
movement There was no applause either
in the course Of his remarks or at the end
| for Or. Felix Adler. president of the soci-
ETY., who presided, asked beforehand that.
in accordance with the rules of the society.
the audience refrain from applamding.
4 have always considered hand clap
ping" said he. a pueriie and barbaric Gus
I tom
You all know that saying Of Mr.. Lincoln
which we like so much TO refer to-" he con-
tinued: You can fool all the people some Of
the time. and some OF the people all the
time, but lot all the people all the time.
Unfortunately. in the period when all the
people are being fooled a yoke may be
fastened upon them which they Will have
difficulty in throwing of. The conservation
movement is to prevent the settling of such
a yoke, and there is no no Ter representa-
tive of the movement than Clifford Pinchot.'
Mr. Pinchot outlined the history Of the
conservation movement and explained its
/ significance.
/ 1t began said he. with those prophets
versed in forestry who predicted that at
! the rate the forests were being devastated.
this country would be stripped of timber in
a very few Years. In 1891 3 law was passed
giving the President authority 10 create
national forest preserves. AS time went on
n section larger than New England and
the Middle States was SET aside by the fed
eral government in forests for all the peo-
pie.
Then came the conservation of streams,
. the need for which was pointed out by the
Forest Reclamation Service. A revision
Of the land laws was the next step, and
then came the creation Of the Inland
Waterways Commission. 1t was to this
commission that the first public statement
on the conservation of the national re-
( sources as a whole was made in 1908 by
! President Roosevelt.
He first expressed to them what is of
necessity the conception of conservation
that each stream shall be so treated by
/ effecting q compromise Of its different
/ uses that the best total service may be
obtained from il. first. for the people who
/ are alive to-day, and. second, for future
generations. This is a simple conception,
and vet no one stream had ever been
+ treated in accordance with il, and we hal
spent half billion Of dollars on river
and harbor improvements without acting
upon il
This led 10 the next step-the confer
ence of governors in May, 1865. It is
( hard 70 compare in Importance any docu-
ment with the Declaration OF Indepen-
dence, but the declaration of the gov
/ ernors contains certain statements and
points of view which. if carried out, will
/ give that document place III history that
viii cause II 10 be remembered for many
! centuries. No movement since the gov
ernment was founded has received such an
impetus from a single conference as in this
case"
AIr Pinchot then read the declaration Of
the governors. and went cn 10 speak of
the work Of the National Conservation
Commission in making an inventory Of the
capital and resources of the nation. lie
read some sentences from the report or
that commission introducing its inventory,
in which the issue between conservation
for the benefit Of the people as q whole
and. exploitation for special interests was
plainly defined.
we come nov 70 the end of 1905, he
continued. and the beginning of the battle
:. llich is being waged to-day. Il vas shown
that al the rate and in the manner in which
our atural resources we're being exploited
our timber would last only twenty-five
years, our coal supply perhaps q century
longer and our oil half a century. A
second conference of governors. attended by
the state conservation commissions, met in
Washington in December, 1908, and adopt
90 unanimously the report Of the National
Conservation Commission. The movement
became as never before 4 greaC national
movement.
Then Canada. Mexico and Newfoundland
we're invited 70 3 couservst ton conference.
and tha resultant meeting brought these
nations into harnonT in a. conlron cause.
Following this congress of the nations
most significant recommendat ton Vas made
by President Roosevelt-that the Conserva-
ton Of natural resources should he adopted
as course BIZ the entire world for the
common benefit of all mankind. There is
bound to be 2 meeting Of representatives
Of all tho nations OF the world to discuss
conservation.
1Ir Finchot pointed out that opposition
TO the national progra u7n1e Of conservation
arose whenever a special application Of IL
was made which always induced a sharply
defined conflict between special privilege
on the one side and equal opportunity ON
the other He said il was the bitterest fight
in this country to-day, and growing bitterer