New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-02-10
PlNCHOT HTS OUT
DINNER IN HIS HONOR.
Former Forester C7ticises
Course Touard Rangers.

Little mr. trees. fresh from the nursery
spreading their stubby branches out over
plates, cups and wine glasses. gave mute
evidence last night where voluble testi-
mony was not wanting 70 the spirit OF
conservation brooding over the dinner TOT
Clifford Ptnchot at the National Arts CUB
Ihey grew in pots these little witnesses
and were saved the humility OF competins
in ornamentation with cut flowers, out OF
respect no doubt, to the guest OF the
evening, who told why the present was
the critical period in the national conSeFEa-
ton movement
AS 10 the BaIlinger-Pinchot controversy.
which has cost Mr.. Pinchot his government
Office of Chief of the Forestry Bureau WI
Pinchot said
Whatever else we may or may not get
out Of it. this thing is perfectly apparent
that it has moved the conservation pro
gramme ahead, as nothing but nghI
could possibly do"
Mr. Pinchot dweIt on the necessity Of
training rangers for the Forest service
He emphasized their value and said it was
impossible to get such men ready made
that the regular forest schools did not
train men for this particular duty and
that they must be trained after entering
the service or the service would have to
do without trained men lie continued:
The facts are these: The Forest Ser
vice has never spent a cent for the train
ing of any young man who was not al
ready in the service It has never sent
any student 10 college But 1t has ordered
picked men already in the service. one or
two from each forest, TO go for eight, ten
or twelve weeks TO four state universities
in order to learn things necessary for their
regular work for the government These
men were ordered to take courses pre-
scribed by the Forest Service, partly
taught by its officers, and organized and
arranged specially to meet its needs And
what the service thus did was well done"
Suddenly, Mr. Pinchot said, the law was
invoked TO stop the training of the rangers
in spite of the fact that II cost the gov
eminent less TO send these men TO the
state universities than to train them in
camp He blamed Solicitor McCabe. Of the
Department Of Agriculture, for this step,
saying:
Upon my dismissal the solicitor of the
Department of Agriculture, pending the ar
rival of another officer from the field, was
made acting Forester for three or four
days It appears that he learned then Of
the ranger schools at the four state uni
versities and sent kilograms to the dis
bursting officers in the field to pay no eX-
penses connected with them. These tele-
grams were kept secret from every member
OF the service in Washington except the
stenosrapher who wrote them. With equal
conceaInlent from all the men in the For
est Service a letter was prepared and sent
TO the Controller Of Currency asking for "a
speedy advance decision" az to the legality
of the ranger schools. This letter was
! clearly intended, and was so framed, IS
| i secure decision against the schools.
! and II was successful in doing so.
This letter was & misrepresentation. be-
! cause it omitted to state the central. essen
/ tiaI and incontrovertibIe facts-frst. that
/ the Forest Service must have trained ran
/ gers and, second. that it can get them only
! by training them after they enter the ser
/ vice. II follows that the training Of the
! rangers by the service is necessary, clearly
/ and undeniably. for the administration,
protection and improvement of the national
| forests Being necessary for that purpose
| it falls we'll within the terms Of the agri-
cultural appropriation bill. and is therefore
/ lawful
The speaker said that Solicitor McCabe
| was in honor and duty bound to forward
| the work of the Forest Service by every
! lawful means az his command" but that
/ instead he had led, the secret attack upon
/ 1t and had seen to it that the men of the
| service did not get opportunity 10 de
| fend their course This he called the
prostitution OF the law" and he said it was
/ the method so effectively used by the spe-
cial interests against the people.
The whole proceeding is not seen in its
! true light" said he, until we realize its
! effect on nearly two hundred of the best
young men in the Forest Service who were
! officially ordered to those schools for in
struction. The rangers are poor men, work
{ ing for from $500 to 1900 year and they
need their pay. Yet they will lose not only
! their pay for the time they attend these
schools but the money already advanced
] out OF their own pockets for travelling and
/ other expenses. But the fine loyalty of
these rangers to their work is shown by the
| fact that about half Of them have stayed
on at the ranger schools at their own ex-
pense in oruer the better to learn their
/ public duties.
Mr.. Pinchot mentioned the various bills
introduced in the interest of conservation
| by Secretary BalIinger, calling three of
/ them bad But he said bill introduced in
the Senate by Senator Nelson, which had
/ been reported ont by the committee if
/ passed would do much 10 save the situa-
ton until proper egisla ton could be
framed to insure the permanent preserva-
/ ton OF the nations natural resources for
the benefit Of the whole people.
In introducing Clifford Pinchot Walter H.
Page, who was the POSTMASTER, said that
he had been the greatest awakener of a
! people to their fundamental duties that
We have seen in lifetime"
Other speakers were Dr. Lyman Abbott,
Frank NJ Chapman. James Spencer Whip
pie State Fish Commissioner, and Bernard
NJ Baker, Of Baltimore, vice-president of
! the National Arts Club and member of
! the National Conservation Association, of
/ which Mr.. Pinchot is president
Mr.. MC4BE'S DENIAL.