The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-06-12
PinchOt's Address


Conservation has captured the ma
ton. Its progress during the last L
months is amazing. Official opposition
to the conservation movement, whatever
damage II has done or still threatens to
the public interest, has vastly strength
ened the grasp of conservation upon the
minds and consciences Of our people. Eff
| forts to obscure or belittle the issue
| have only served to make 1t larger and
clearer in the public estimation. The
conservation movement cannot be
! checked by the baselel barge that II
| will prevent development, Or that every
man who tells the plain truth is either
| a muck-raker or a demagogue. 1t has
taken Arm hold on our national moral
sense. and when an issue does that II
| has won.
| The conservation issue is a moral issue.
| and the heart of 1t Is this: For whose
| benefit shall our natural resources De
| conservation the benefit of us all, or for
the use and profit of the few? This
| truth Is SO obvious and the question
itself so simple that the attitude toward
conservation of any man In public OF
private life indicates his stand In the
fight for public rights.
All monopoly rests on the unregulated
| control of natural resources and natural
advantages, and such control by the spe-
cial interests is impossible without the
help of politics. The alliance between
business and politics Is the most dan
| serous thing in our political life. 1t Is
the snake that we must Ill. The special
interests must get out Of politics. or the
American people will put them out OF
| business. There is no third course.
Because the special interests are in pol
itics we as a nation have lost conf.
dence in Congress. This is a serious
| statement to make, but 1t Is true. 1t does
not apply, of course, to the men who
| really represent their constituents ant
who are making so fine fight for the
conservation OF self government. AS soor
as these men have won their battle ant
consolidated their victory, confidence II
Congress will return.
But in the meantime the people of thu
United States believe that ,as whole, thu
Senate and the House no longer repre-
sent the voters by whom they were elect
ed, but the special interests by whom
they are controlled. They believe SO be
cause they have so often seen Congress
reject what the people desire, and do in
stead what the interests demand. And o
this there could be no better illustra
| ton than the tariff.
What Tariff In For
The tariff, under the policy of protec
ton, was originally Q means to raise tn
rate of wages. 1t has been made toe
: to increase the cost of living. The voc
, schedule, processing to protect the wool
T grower, is found to result In sacrificin
, grower and consumer alike to one of tn
most rapicious of trusts.
p The cotton cloth schedule was increase
in the face OF the uncontradicted publ
,. testimony of the manufacturers them
selves that 1t ought to remain unchanged
The Steel trust demanded and by trio
q secured an indefensible increase In tn
2 tariff on structural steel.
: The sugar trust stole from the govern
o ment like petty thief, yet Congress, b
: means of q dishonest schedule, continue
to protect it in bleeding the public.
Q At the very time the duties on man
4 ufactured rubber were raised, the leade
b of the Senate, In company with tn
Guggenhe elm syndicate, was organizin
: an International rubber trust, who's
= charter made it also holding com
pany for the coal and copper deposit
y of the whole world
Q For a dozen years the demand {
u the nation for the pure food and dru
Q bill was outwcighed In Congress by tn
. interests which asserted their right I
= poison the people for profit.
Congress refused to authorize tn
= preparation of a great plan of water
II way development In the general II
|terest. and for 10 years has decline
to pass the Appalachian and Whit
: mountain national forest bill, althous
= the people are practically unnnimo,
IL for both.
J. Protesting Alaskan Resources
The whole nation Is in favor of pr,
- tecting the coal and other natural r.
sources in Alaska. yet the withdraw
bill, under the circumstances the OF
conservation bill most needed for II