The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-29
P|NCHOT LAYS DOWN
 POLITICAL CREED.
Former Chief Forester Speaks
 to Detorit Business Men
OLD PARTIES DYING OUT
nonism and All They Represent. He Says Government Should
 He for All the People

Detroit, October 2S.-Gifford Pinchot, former head of the United States bureau of forestry, delivered an address this aft ernoon at a luncheon given by tN De- troit Board of Commerce. As originally planned the address was to have been given at a banquet this evening, but changes in Mir. Pinchot's itinerary neces- sitated his early departure for Indianap- oils and the luncheon was substituted part as follows:
 .Since early in June I have been trav- cling almost continuously, and have nac a fair chance to come in contact with and estimate public sentiment in all the great divisions of our country. Using the information just secured from con- tact with men of many occupations and varieties of political belief in many To- calities, l have tried to write an esti- mate of the composite opinion of the voters of all parties in the east, the south, the Mississippi valley and the Pa cific coast on certain public questions. What I have written makes no pretense to be complete. And the task is not without difficulty. Opinions fiercely held in some parts of the country, in other have not yet risen to the surface as pub lie issues. The underlying fact, as I found 1t everywhere, was deep-seated, powerful indignation over the inequality of opportunity everywhere Known to ex- ist and the firm determination to put an end to it somehow, and that soon.
 If we could hear the voice of all the roOpIa would, I think, declare itself in sub- stance as follows;
 'T believe the people should directly nominate, elect, control and recall their own legislative representatives.
 "I believe that the most pressing pa triotic duty of today is to revive popu- lar, government by driving the special interests out of politics, and that com .plete publicity of all the affairs of every Interstate and public service corporation is necessary to that end.
 q believe that corporations have cer- tain rights that should be respected but they have no political rights. powers or duties. and they should have no repre- sentatives In Congress, in the cabinet, or on the bench.
 '1 believe that the special interests through their control of politics and bus mess, and principally by means of the tariff, are responsible for the exorbitant cost of living.
 q believe that the Payne-Aldrich tariff was made by the servants of special privilege for the benefit and according to the orders of their masters, and that when Congress and the President en- acted and approved it, over the just pro- test of the progressives, they broke faith with the people.
 T believe that the credit for good laws recently passed in Congress belongs to the progressives of both parties, who amended bad bills in the public interest, rather than to the administration, which drafted and advocated the bad bills.
 T believe that the old party ties are slipping off; that the progressives in both parties are the true representatives of their parties and of the people, and that the public welfare has become a stronger motive with the people than partisan sue cess.
 "I believe that the people have lost confidence in Congress because Congress as a whole no longer represents the people who elect it, but the special i'm terests who control it.
 q believe that Cannon and Aldrich, and all they represent, are passing rap idly away, and that better time is coming when the people will control.
 q believe that this should be a gov
 
 not government by money for profit; and that 1t is better to help a poor man make living than to help a rich man make more money.
 "rhe foregoing statement is not my own confession of belief. concur in 1t but it does not cover all the ground of my political creed. For example, I be- lieve in the principle of the initiative and referendum, but in my Judgment the people of the United States have not yet reached a conclusion upon that point. So with the short ballot; the commission form of government for cities, and many. other questions I have not attempted to state my own platform, but rather the position which I believe the largest number of voters throughout the country hold today"