Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-22
TAFT AND PINCHoT
mHE HERALD sometime ago t,

IaCt that about the most 1mpof
tant net result of the first ten month
of President Taft's administration wa
the ousting from his official position
of Clifford Pinchot whose earnest, pa
.triotic and intelligent labors as the chic
of the forestry division of tie govern
ment were, according to Mr.. Roose
velt's testimony. the foundation of thu
most important of what have come Il
be known as the Roosevelt policies, tc
wit The policy of the conservation o.
natural resources.
That our people may more clearly
understand just what kind of a mar
the public service has lost as result
of less than a year of President Taft'S
craftsmanship, we quote from a recent
address delivered by Mr.. Pinchot be-
fore a group of publishers at the Uni
versity club of New York. He said:
There is no other question before us
that begins to be so important, or that
will be so difficult to straddle, as the
great question between special inter-
est and equal opportunity, between the
privileges of the few and the rights of
the many. between government by men
for human welfare and government by
money for profit, between the men who
stand for the Roosevelt policies and
the men who stand against them This
is the essence of the conservation prob
lem today.
1.-THE conservation issue is a moral
issue. When a few men get posses
sion of the necessaries of life, either
through ownership of a natural re-
source or through unfair business
methods, and use that control to ex-
tort undue profits, as in the recent
cases of the sugar trust and the beef
packers, they injure the average man
without good reason, and they are
guilty of a moral wrong.
Il believe in our form of govern
ment, and I believe in the golden rule.
But we must face the truth that mo-
nopoly of the sources of production
makes it impossible for vast numbers
of men and women to earn a fair liv-
ing. Right here the conservation ques-
ton touches the daily life of the great
body of our people, who pay the cost
Of special privilege. And the price is
heavy. That price may be the chance
to save the boys from the saloons and
the corner gang. and the girls from
worse, and to make good citizens OF
them instead of bad; for an appalling
of the tragedies of life
spring directly from the lack of lit
tie money.
Thousand of daughters of the poor
fall into the hands of the white slave
traders because their poverty leaves
them without protection. Thousands
IF families, as the Plttsburg survey has
shown us, lead lives of brutalizing
)verwork in return for the barest liv-
ng.
THE people of this country have lost
vastly more than they can ever regain
by gifts of public property, forever
and without charge, to men who gave
nothing in return. It is true that we
have made superb material progress
uLder this system, but it Is not well
for US to rejoice too freely in the
slices the special interests have given
is from the great loaf of the property
If all the people,
We would ask our readers to COM
1are the strong, trenchant, direct state
nent of the case of the people against
he interests, contained in Mr.. Pin
,hot's speech, with the message upon
he conservation Of natural resources
'ecently delivered by President Taft
% congress. The presidents message
contains much of interest
and Importance, and in it he makes
/ number of valuable suggestions as
to the action necessary for congress
% take in order to protect the natural
resources Of the country against spolia-
ion by interests whose strength is
,nly exceeded by their selfishness and
litter disregard of the peoples rights.
Yet as compared with Mr.. Pinchot's
speech, and indeed as compared with
he sort of message which President
rafts predecessor was wont to trans
nit TO congress, there is throughout
lis whole message weakness of tone,
L fabbiness of character lack of di-
'ectness, and an absence of that sort
If convincing strength which leads to
md, in fact, impels, action on the part
If the congressman to whom it is di-
'ected.
After reading the speech of Mr.. Pin
hot and the message of President Taft,
me cannot help wishing that the for
ner could have written the latter's mes
iage, and that the president had not
permitted his administration to drift
nto such an attitude toward the pred
ltory interests and their efforts to prey
lpon the common property of all the
people as made it impossible for the
to longer command the SER
,ices of one of the most valuable pub
ic servants that it has known in it's
Whole history. President Taft will
have to make a better record in pro-
Lecting the rights and serving the in
terests Of the people than he has done,
either in the matter of securing prop
IT tariff legislation or in inducing con-
yressional action upon any other vital
question, in order to prevent the people
ceiling that his presidential term, pur-
chased at the expense of Mr., Pin
,hots dismissal, has been a dearly
bought bargain for the American peo-
Pile.