The citizen., 1910-01-14
WASHINGTON.
Legislative and Gen
eral Topics from
the Capital.
January s, 1910.

Pretty much every body in the coun-
try, or at least every reader of the news
papers, knows that the Chief of the
Forestry Bureau is, or rather was Mr..
Clifford Pinchot Mr.. Pinchot began
with two or three clerks and now has
two or three hundred employees look
ing after the preservation of the national
forests. He is warm personal friend
, OF Ex President Roosevelt, and in fact,
IN certain sense he is the alter ego of
| MIR. Roosevelt and no more certain
representative of his policies and ideals
lives. When the great conservation
! convention of the Governors of States.
with the invited guests met in the East
Room of the White House, the then
President emphasized the fact that if it
had not been for Pinchots initiative and
his enthusiasm for the protection of the
national natural resources, that unique
| convention would not have been held.
Mr.. Pinchot has lost his official head,
but this little calamity will not cause him
the least inconvenience, for it cannot
affect his unofficial heart and will only
increase his unofficial influence 1t is
extremely propable that the country is
with Mr.. Pinchot and that in the discus
sion between him and the Cabinet Min
lister Ballinger, who was the late Com
missioner of the Land Office, no mere
question of official etiquette is of mo-
ment. The country will still continue to
look upon Mr.. Ballinger as the ex-attor-
ney OF Cunningham, and as the repre-
sentative of millionaires interested in the
absorption and monopoly of the public
lands. and it will continue to look upon
MIR. PinChot as the determined antago-
mist of these schemes and the advocate
of the interests of the whole people.
This is what the people of the country
understand as the Rooseveltian policy
and what Mr.. Roosevelt has emphasized
as the Pinchotian policy.
President Taft has at length sent to
Congress his long anticipated special
message, urging additional legislation for
the management of railroads and all
common carriers. The message was
heard in the House of Representatives
on the afternoon of Friday but the
Senate having adjourned until Monday,
it will not be officially before that body
until the first of next week. 1t will
doubtless, however, be read by all of the
interested Senators who can find time
from their social and other engagements
to peruse it. The message is the most
important one that the President has
placed before Congress. 1t embodies
ideas which have been evolved after
many conferences with his cabinet con-
corning the further control of common
carriers and corporations. 1t is said that
the President expects the approval of
Congress and of the country, inasmuch
as he holds that he is carrying out his
promise to maintain The Roosevelt poll
cies. 1t will be remembered that last
week the President had a conference
with some of the railroad presidents of
the country, in which it was said, he
was besought to modify his railroad pro-
gram. The President it seems, has not
thought it expedient to make material
alterations in his proposals and if the
recommendations which he has made
shall be enacted into laws the powers of
the Interstate Commission in relation
to common carriers will be much wild
ened. 1t can be seen from a perusal of
the Presidents message that the legisla-
ton that has been asked for by him is
much farther reaching than that obtained
under the Roosevelt administration and
should the Interstate Commerce Laws
be amended as recommended by PreSi-
dent Taft, the commission will have a
measure for the complete control of COIN
mon carriers engaged in Interstate
Commerce.
There is much discussion in the cloak
rooms of the capitol and in the lobbies
of the hotels with reference to the rela-
tive attitudes of the administration and
the so-called insurgents. 1t is said that
the latter will not take anV Manned ac-
ton in the matter OF official patronage
until they have had an interview with
President Taft upon the subject. Up to
the present time, none of the insurgents,
it is said, have been able to see Mr.. Taft.
That gentleman, erstwhile, the most ac-
cessibe of public men. has wrapped him.
selfin a solitude inconsistent with his.
former accessibility, and is mighty hard
to get at, at least by certain people, but
sooner or later, it is expected that one
or phalanx of these insurgents may
pierce the solitude and see the President,
and then possibly they will know what
to expect and what to do. They talk of
appealing to the nation, and claim that
they have a powerful backing especially
in the Middle West. Meanwhile, the
Democrats are looking on at the Kill
kenny cat proceeding between the regu-
lars, such as Cannon, Aldrich, Hale and
their "Me-too" following on the one
side, and the aggressive Cummins, Dolli-
yer, La Toilette, Beveridge and others
among the insurgents. Just now the in
surgents are much encouraged by having
overcome the regulars in the House by
slight majority