The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1910-06-13
P|NCHOT FLAYS
BOTH PARTIES.
y
Delivers Address Before Roose-
] Welt Club In St. Paul.
CONGRESS FAVORS TRUSTS"
1T Is u Greater Thing to Be- q Good
Citizen Than to Be Good Rspub.
iioan or a Good Democrat" Former
Forest Chief Declares.

iioan or a Good Democrat" Former
Forest Chief Declares.
st. Paul, June 11.-Gifford Pinchot
delivered the following address before
the Roosevelt club here:
Conservation has captured the ma
tlon. Its progress during the last
twelve months is amazing. Official
opposition to the conservation move
ment, whatever damage it has done
or still threatens to the public in
terest, has vastly strengthened the
grasp Of conservation upon the minds
and consciences Of our people. Efforts
to obscure or belittle the issue have
served only to make it larger and
clearer in the public estimation. The
conservation movement cannot be
checked by the baseless charge that II
will prevent development or that every
man who tells the plain truth is either
a muckraker or demagogue. 1t has
taken firm hold on our national moral
sense. and when an issue does that it
has won.
The conservation issue is moral is.
sue, and the heart of it is this: Fol
whose benefit shall our natural re-
sources be conservation the benefit
of us all or for the use and profit of
the few? This truth is so obvious and
the question itself so simple that the
attitude toward conservation Of any
man in public or private life indicates
his stand in the fight for public rights
All monopoly rests on the unregulat-
ed control of natural resources and
natural advantages, and such control
by the special interests Is impossible
without the help of politics. The ALI.
ance between business and politics Is
the most dangerous thing in our polit-
ical life. 1t is the snake that we must
kill. The special interests must get out
of politics or the American people will
put them out Of business. There Is no
third course.
Because the special interests are in
politics we as nation have lost conf
dence In congress. This Is serious
statement to make, but It is true. 1t
does not apply, of course, to the men
who really represent their constituents
and who are making so fine fight for
the conservation Of self government
As soon as these men have won their
battle and consolidated their victory
confidence in congress will return.
Work For the Few.
But in the meantime the people Of
the United States believe that as a
whole the senate and the house no
longer represent the voters by whom
they were elected, but the special in
terests by whom they are controlled.
They believe so because they have so
often seen congress reject what the
people desire and do instead what the
interests demand. And Of this there
could be no better illustration than the
tariff.
The tariff under the policy of protec-
ton was originally means to raise
the rate of wages. 1t has been made a
tool to increase the cost of living. The
wool schedule, protesting to protect
the wool grower, is found to result in
sacrificing grower and consumer alike
to one Of the most rapacious of trusts.
The cotton cloth schedule was in
creased in the face of the uncontra-
dicted public testimony Of the manu-
facturers themselves that it ought to
remain unchanged.
The steel trust demanded and by a
trick secured an indefensible increase
In the tariff Oh structural steel.
The sugar trust stole from the gov
eminent like petty thief, yet con-
gress by means of dishonest sched-
ule continues to protect it in bleeding
the public.
At the very time the duties on man
ufactured rubber were raised the lead
er Of the senate, in company with the
Guggenheim syndicate, was organizing
an international rubber trust whose
charter made it also a holding COM
pany for the coal and copper deposits
Of the whole world.
For a dozen years the demand of the
nation for the pure food and drug bill
was outweighed in congress by the in
terests which asserted their right to
poison the people for profit.
Congress refused to authorize the
preparation of a great plan of water
way development in the general inter
est and for ten years has declined to
pass the Appalachian and White noun
tain national forest bill, although the
people are practically unanimous for
both.
The whole nation is in favor of pro-
tecttng the coal and other natural re-
sources in Alaska, yet the withdrawal
bill, under the circumstances the one
conservation bill most needed for the
purpose. is still in danger. And. as for
the general conservation movement,
congress not only refused to help it on,
but tried to forbid any progress with
out Its help. Fortunately for us all.
In this attempt it has utterly failed.
Lose Confidence In Congress-.
This loss Of confidence in congress is
a matter for deep concern to every
thinking American. It has not come
quickly or without good reason. Every
man who knows congress we'll knows
the names of senator's and members
who betray the people they were elect
ed to represent and knows also the
names Of the masters whom they obey.
A representative of the people who
wears the collar of the special interests
has touched bottom. He can sink no
further.
Who IS to blame because representa-.
nj hn