The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1910-02-14
The Conservation Issue

Mr.. Taft's opponents, regarding
conservation bills are headed by
Hepburn and Mondell. The insolence
of this leadership is too much for our
faltering and academic pen. You
know who Hepburn is, no doubt. His
political intimacy with Ballinger we
have pointed out but Ballinger has
been struck by cyclone and turned
into conservationist and Hepburn,
as yet, has not. This gentleman, in
flight of July oratory the other
day, eager to insult Virginia and
Robert T.. Lee was delivered thus:
DO you think that those men in
Congress on the End of July, 1864
ever contemplated for a moment that
any state, under any condition, at
any time, would place the statue of
Benedict Arnold in that hall"
This delicate, considerate and pro
found analogy reminds us of that
Grand Old Man, Cannon, who few
days earlier had found himself unable
to describe the insurgent rebels"
without piece of inexcusable and
needless insult. Cannon, prize obsta-
Gle to conservation as to many other
human forward steps, retains Mondell
as chairman of the Public Lands com
mittee of the House. If the country
will allow Hepburn, Mondell and
Cannon to prevent the passage of
proper conservation bills, why then
perhaps the country deserves nothing
better than it gets. AS to Uncle Joe
Mr.. Mccall in his recent eulogy, in
cluded hint that the widespread
hostility to that old rooster was
largely the outcome of the Speakers
opposition of two years ago to free
wood plup. Regarding our own part
| for those of our readers who keep
this weekly, forever bound In gilt, we
need merely refer to the issue of Feb
A. 1905, when we began an attack on
the Speaker, which has not subsidized
to this day, There is baby talk gal
ore about making scapegoats" OF
such men as Ballinger and Cannon.
Who raises the talk of scapegoat
when some unknown because he
steals to keep his family from starva
ton, is sent to Jail, or some suffering
woman, because misfortune has driv
en- her from her standards? Retri
button is cruel, and would it were no
needed In this world; but II you
heart is to bleed, let the drops dec
crate the tenements of the ignorant
or the sorely tempted poor. rattle
than the palaces of those who, chare
ed with mighty powers, use them, no
for the hard-pressed many, but 70
themselves, and the well lined pocb
cts Of their friends. II humor /
needed to tighten this heavy topic
seek ii in the reports from Seattl
that the Chamber of Commerce @
that town hopes to send Ballinger t
the Senate after his expected retire
ment from his present Office.
To return to our subject, however
That few such men as Heyburr
Mondell and Cannon should be abb
to block the most beneficial meas
ures is uncomfortable. The president
conservation bills in their better fei
lures, should be passed. The friend
of the cause have proposed variou
necessary amendments but the a
tacks of it's enemies should be watcl
ed closely by the public. Whateve
bills are passed, we must not forge
that one Of the most important LEI
sons to drive home to the countr
during this investigation is, that pull
lie officials are to do for the genera
welfare all that the law allows, nc
merely what under the law they ar
literally forced to do,
That there are faults in these bill
is natural, since In conservation ma
ters Mr. Taft is relying for guidanc
upon recent convert-by.force VIII
is at the same time third-rate MIND
legally as well as in other ways. TIL