The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-03-07
CLIFFORD
PINCHOT'S
ADDRESS
At Banquet of Progressive
Republicans Of Ohio,
March 9th
Had Rather Be Right Than
Regular = r epu b lie a n
Party Cannot Live Half
Reactionary and Half
Progressive.

Generations have their character
istfcs as we'll as men. During the
last third Of the nineteenth century
.he American people gave their erier-
gy and their intelligence mainly TO
the great task of material develop
ment. Under the power and drive Of
their concentration upon material
success they developed this continent
with thorough going effectiveness
without parallel in history. New in
dustrial devices, both mechanical and
legal, were needed, and appeared, and
they were as effective as they were
new. These new devices were applied
to our vast natural resources, ana
made the Nation rich, But in the
their masters, and the political pow
er of corporations created by the peo-
pie became the dominant factor IN
government.
When the great combinations Of
capital found that nonopolistic con-
troll of the natural sources of wealth
could be secured more easily through
politics than in any other way. they
went into politics. Using corrupt
commercial methods with the tireless
efficiency they had learned in their
legitimate operations, they set out to
get political power, and they succeed
ed. Political power opened an easy
way to use money to get more money,
and they chung to it till they wore
their welcome out. The Payne-Aldr1ch
Tariff was the last straw.
During the first third of the TWEEN
tieth century the political ideals
which underlie our government are
likely to have development compar-
able to the development of our ma
terial resources since the Civil War.
This political development is already
well begun 1t rests on the fact that
our people possess dormant resources
of political power as yet not put to
use. but ready to be employed for the
public welfare as soon as the neces-
sary devices are available. Pol1t cal
civilization, or government for the
welfare of the average man, is like
~ to develop as rapidly under the
impulse of this fact as material CIV
ilization developed through the appli-
cation of electricity to the arts.
From the point of view of material
civilization, the most important event
OF recent years is the conversion OF
this Nation to the Conservation idea.
The American people are fully per-
suaded today that so far as the ma
turaI resources are concerned our
prosperity now and hereafter depends
On looking ahead. Having acquired,
at least in part. the habit of fore
sight in this one great field, we are
beginning to carry it into the field
of politics. and to demand that the
machinery of government shall In the
future be more responsive to the pop
ular Will than it has been in the past.
The sign and promise of all this is
the political unrest of the present
day. As / have had occasion to say
more than once the fundamental fact
today in politics is the profound in
dignation Of the voters against the
political power of the special inter-
ests- AS citizens we are beginning
TO see that If We are to govern our
selves in the future with less dicta-
ton from the special interests than
we have had in the past, the machin-
cry of government must be so adjust
ed as to make it easier for the popu-
lar will to produce results. 1t must
be made easier for the people to
secure. continuously the honest en-
forcement of their will than it is for
the business and political bosses to
secure continuously the defeat of the
popular viii in their own interest. We
cannot always work along under
political organization such that un-
besrable abuses are the only slim
pie demand and get their rights. Good
government in spurts is not good
enough. What we need is machinery
under which the hardest work will
atwsyD have to be done by the men
who are trying to defeat the popu-
lar viii. and not by the men who are
trying to get it enforced.
The demand for better things is
working out in many State Legisla-
lures through the passage of progress
eive laws for popular government.
Under these laws. which are by no
means revolutionary. the people will
take better control of their own af-
fairs. There is no movement in poll |
tics today more vital than this, and |
IT is for this reason that the organi- |
ration of the National Progressive |
League was a thoroughly good thing. !
In the field of National politics the |
situation b less clear. Here the CEN