Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-01-01
TIMBER THIEVES
ARE ASSAILED
CHIEF FORESTER PlNcHoT DE
cLAREs PEOPLE HAVE BEEN
PLuNDERED.

New York, Dec. 29-That the people
OF the United States have been the
| complacent victims of a system of
piunder OF the public forests-crimes
often perpetrated by men of high sta.
ton In commercial and social life
was the open declaration of Chief
United States Forester Clifford Pinchot
In an address before a number Of
prominent publishers at the University
club yesterday afternoon Condemn.
ing the methods of these erich Grim.
mails" he said:
But they have suffered from a cur
lous moral perversion by which it be-
comes praiseworthy to do for corpor-
alton things which they would refuse
with the loftiest scorn to do for them.
selves. Fortunately for us all, that de.
fusion is rapidly passing away.
Target for the Interests.
1T is the honorable distinction OF
the forest service that it has been
more constantly more violently and
more bitterly attacked by the repre-
sentatives of the special interests in
recent years than any other govern
ment bureau. These attacks have in
creased in violence and bitterness just
in proportion as the service has offer.
ed effective opposition to predatory
wealth The more successful we have
been in preventing land grabbing and
the absorption of water power by the
special interests, the more ingenious.
the more devious and the more danger
Gus these attacks have become A fav-
orite one is to assert that the forest
service, in its zeal for the public well
fare, has played ducks and brakes
with the acts of congress.
Prosecutions Are Legal.
The fact is, on the contrary, that
the service has had warrant of law
for everything 1t has done lot once
since it was created has any charge of
illegality, despite the most searching
investigation and the bitterest attack,
ever led to reversal or reproof by eth
er house of congress or by any con-
gressional committee.
Another and unusually plausible
form Of attack is to demand that all
land not now bearing trees shall be
thrown out of the national forests.
Methods of Attack.
Still another attack, nearly success.
full two years ago, was an attempt to
prevent the forest service from telling
the people through the press what It
is accomplishing icr them ana how
much this nation needs the forest.
"Since the forest service called pub,
lie attention to the rapid absorption OF
the water power cites and the threat.
ening growth of a greater water power
monopoly. the attacks upon 1t have in
creased with great -apidity. I anfici-
pate that they will continue to do So.
Still greater opposition is promised in
The near future. There is only one
protection, an awakened public opin-
ion. That is why give you the facts.
Like Beef and Sugar War.
1.-THE conservation issue Is a. moral
issue. When few men get possess
sion of one of the necessaries of life,
either through ownership or through
unfair business methods. and use that
control to extort undue profits, as in
the recent cases Of the sugar trust and
the beef packers, they injure the aver
age man without good reason and they
are guilty of moral wrong.
Right here the conservation ques-
ton touches the daily life of the great
body Of our people, who pay the cost
Of the special privilege. And the price
is heavy. IudI piiSS Iudy pS liz
chance to save the boys from the sa-
looms and the corner gang, and the
girls from worse, and make good citi-
zens Of them instead of bad. for an
appalling proportion Of the tragedies
of life spring directly from the lack
Of little money.
Girls Are Endangered.
Thousands Of daughters Of the poor
fall into the hands of the white-slave
traders because their poverty leaves
them without protection. Thousands Of
families as the Pittsburg survey has
shown us, lead lives of brutalizing
overwork in return for the barest liv-
ing"
Mrs. S. Joyce, Claremont. N. H..
| writes: "About year ago I bought