Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1910-07-01
TELLING THINGS ON THEM
Clifford Pinchot Delivers q Re-
markable Address.


President Roosevelt, brandsihed
the E'big stick" over the special
Interests castigated Congress,
roasted machine politics, applaud
ed insurgency and preached a SER
mon on ROoseveltian principles be
fore the Roosevelt Club of st. Paul
recently.
Mr.. PinchOt began with a de-
fance to those who sought to be-
little conservation and ended with
a philippe against unclean poll
ties for revenue only.
F'But In the meantime the peO-
pie Of the United States believe
that as a whole the Senate and
House no longer represent the vot
ers by whom they are elected, but
the special interests by whom the.
are controlled. They believe so
because they have so often seen
Congress reject what the people
desire and do instead what the in.
tereSts demand. And of this there
could be no better illustration than
the tariff"
Conservation has captured the
Nation. Its progress during the
last twelve months is amazing. Of
flcial opposition to the cOnserva-
ton movement whatever damage
It has done or still threatens to
the public interests has vastly
strengthened the grasp Of cOnser-
vation upon the minds and con.
sciences Of our people. Efforts
toObscure or belittle the issue have
only served to make it larger and
clearer in the public estimation.
The conservation movement can
not be checked by the baseless
charge that it will prevent devel-
opment, Or that every man who
tells the plain truth is either a
muck-raker or a demagague. 1t
has taken firm hold on our ma
6Onal moral sense, and when an
issue does that it has won.
The conservation issue is a
moral issue, and the heart of it is
this: For whose benefit shall our
natural resources be conserved
fOrthe benefit of us all, or for the
use and profit of a few. This
truth is so obvious and the queS-
ton itself so simple that the atti-
tude toward conservation of any
man in public or private life in
dicateS his stand in the fight for
public rights.
All monopoly rests on the un-
regulated control of natural re-
sources and natural advantages,
and such control by the special
interests is impossible without the
help Of pOnucs. The alliance be-
tween business and politics is the
most dangerous thing in our poll
teal life. 1t is the snake that we
must kill. The special interests
must get out of politics or the Am
erican people will put them out
Of business. There is no third
course.
Because the special interests
are In politics, we, as a nation have
lost confidence in Congress. This
Is a serious statement to make, but
It IS true. It does not apply, 1T
q true, to the men who really
represent their constituents and
who are making so fine a fight
for the conservation Of self-gov.
ernment. As soon as these men
have won their battle and consOl.
idAted their victory, confidence n
Congress will return.
fsThe tariff, under the policy
of protection, was originally q
means to raise the rate of wages
IthaS been made a tool to increase
the cost of living. The wool sched
uIe, protesting to protect the WOO
grower, is found to result in sac
rif1cing grower and consumer
alike to one of the most rapaciOu
of trusts.
"The cotton cloth schedule wa,
increased in the face of the un
contradicted public testimony o.
the manufacturers themselves ths
st ought to remain unchanged.
'sThe steel interests, by a trick
secured an indefensible increas,
the tariff on structural steel.
s'The sugar trust stole from
the governemnt like petty thiei
yet Congress, by means of a dis
honest schedule, continues to pro
tect it IN bleeding the pukhS.
cat the very time the Quite
on manufactured rubber wer
raised the leader of the Senate