Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1910-09-26
WE ARE NOT RoBB1NG.
tcontinued from page l.)

around the standards OF Pinchot and
Ballinger. Both are no doubt hon
est, and each means best, but preju-
dice and partisanship have clouded
the issues between them-their con-
troyersy has taken on the color of a
personal and political ruction. When
we think of these two statesmen,
'Tafty' or 'Roosevelty,' rather than
conservation springs to our mind.
So confused has public knowledge
become that I question whether half
the people Of the country have any
clear conception of the difference be-
tween Pinchotism' and 'Ballinger-
ism
Great as may be the need of con-
seTvation, there is no cal flor hysteria
or despair. Neither this generation
nor many generations to come will be
cold for want of coal or wood for fuel,
the springs will not run dry or the
rivers cease to fow-man will never
go without shelter for want of timber
to build. Forests will never disap-
pear, SO years Of scientific reforestra-
tion will give the United States more
available timber than stood when Co
lumbus first touched this continent.
when we cut tree to warm our
hearth or to build a home, we are
not robbing posterity. There is no
excuse for waste, but 20 weep over
probable woes of thousand years
hence puts us in line with Mark
Twain's grief at the tomb of his an
cestor, Adam.
1--WE have been reckless with the
coal and oil and gas, but the dark
ages are not coming, they are in the
past We have prodigal forests, but
our children will have shade and
beauty and timber The best use we
can make of coal and iron is to build
merchant ships to run new lines of
railroads, make plows and all the
tools of intelligent industry.
Make it easy, and not difficult, for
families to get a footing upon the
public land. The government should |
be more interested in locating citi-
zens upon the soil, than in collecting |
rent from the public domain. Within |
Colorado there are 25,00,000 acres
upon which to press a foot, range a
calf or cut a whip stock would make
citizen a trespasser. This is the
new Pinchot dispensation. 1t is no
doubt legal; perhaps necessary, If the
government is to derive the maximum
revenue from it's tax-exempt estate,
but it does seem more or less re-
strictive, If not oppressive, to old
pioneers, who have in freedom ridden
those reserves and who in risk hard
ship and danger, brought in civiliza
tion and gave value to the wilderness.
"Why do they seal up millions of
acres? Open lands in the United
States; fade the trails to Canada The
corporations will gobble it, cry those
who would keep the domain fenced
and dead and useless. Today there is
no need to fear the corporations; they
or their agents are too busy trying to
keep out of the pen to plan new in
vasions upon the property of the peo-
pie. The people are stronger than
any corporation, trust or combina-
tion.
'Some emotional conservationists
chance an appopletic fit when they
talk on the question of water power.
l do not know that these enterprises
have any strange endowment by
which the people can be enslaved.
do know that to install them requires
sums of money far beyond the capac-
ity of individuals. There is danger
in trying in trying to eliminate cor
porations from any system of con-
servation. Injury may be worked
against the cause as well as the COR
porations. Under state regulation
and control we must depend upon cor
porate wealth to conserve and develop
our waters. Individuals canont build
great reservoirs and long canals.
II is conceded that all waters not
navigable belong to the state. Gov
assistance in conserving
water for irrigation is recognized and
welded as a sort of benevolent Or
paternal Inference in local affairs
AS to the control of these waters and
the regulation Of their distribution
md of power plants, the states can be
more efficient than the general gov
arnment The time has come when
he national government should go
lut of the land business, The ad-
OF widely scattered pub