Arizona republican., 1913-03-17
Clifford Pinchot Shows How Men Who Grew Rich ill Looting Public Domain Would Welcome the Pro- posed Change
SHOULD NEVER
 BE DIVIDED
Vast Tracts Controlled by States Would Soon Be Depleted While National Control Would Reta in Them Quite Intact
By CLIFFORD PlNcHoT

tempt is being made to turn the ma tional forests, which now belong to tne whole people, over to the west ori: states. This attempt was started because most of the openings through which the public lands and their re- sources used to be stolen have been closed. The men who have grown rich or who desire to grow rich, by footing the public domain are now facing hard times. These men regard any change from national control as Q change for the better. for to them the present situation could not well b. Woise. Although a certain number Of honest but mistaken men are be- hind the effort to destroy the na- tional forests, still in somewhat extensive experience with land grab bers, I cannot recall a single one who was not an ardent friend of this policy.
 Some of the men most interested deny that any such movement exists a: all A partial answer is that provision to give the national forests and public lands to the western states
 was introduced and defeated at the last session of congress, that many western governors advocate if, and that more than a dozen bills to pro-
 mote CT carry it out are actually be- fore congress now.
 The national forests, like the tim her, the waterpower, the grass where the forest is open, and the minerals they contain do not stop. and the use of them does not stop, at state lines. They can be protected and used with i success only under a policy that is j! alive to the interests of the whole
 people and not merely to the interests | Of any one section or state.
 l Th.' heart of the conservation po- i Hey is development and use. The 1 United States forest service. now bit
 terly attacked by those whom it has prevented from grabbing public re-
 sources has always stood for prompt t, development of the national forests.
 and the use of them by the small
 man first
 Six hundred thousand people use | tie rational forests every year. The i sheep and cattle which graZe within
 their boundaries supply sixth of /, the American people with meat. Every
 man. woman and child in the United ] States owns six thousand feet of lum- 1 Der in the national forests. Much of
 the timber in them is still too remote
 and difficult of access to be saleable
 now; but as rapidly as it can be sold without loss and without injury to ] the forest. it is cut and used. The | service has built more than eleven ! thousand miles of telephone lines, ! sixteen hundred miles of road and 1 over thirteen thousand miles of trails { Forty thousand permits for the use of
 timber free by settlers are issued
 every year. Forty-five thousand
 miners operate in national forests
 and the forests conserve the water
 supply of 1175 towns and cities, and 324 water power projects which fur , nish light and power for industries of
 every kind
 Four-fifths of the standing timber
 in the United States is in private
 hands Thirty private owners | absolutely control about as much l timber as the other ninety four mill
 lions of use have in the national for 1 ests. What the nation has left must l be protected for the use of us all
 against the coming time of need. and
 only national government can do that. | The forest service is clean and | efficient organization almost entirely made up of western men. IL has all ways been and is today wholly free 1 from politics. Why should the American people run the risk of pO- | litical mismanagement and private
 monopoly by splitting up the national forests between fifteen or twenty | separate states. most of which have no forest services to take charge of | them? It is bad business to multiply organizations when one will do the | work. especially when that one is
 doing it well already
 1 If this movement were to succeed two billion dollars worth of public property in the national forests would be in danger of passing by way of
 state ownership into private hands
 But the greatest danger lies in the
 mOnopolies of coal. waterpower, tim Der and other natural resources t. which such private ownership in
 evitably leads. The proof of this statement is the story of how the western states have squandered the lands already granted to them. and the monopolies which have resulted therefrom. There is a similar record | in many of the eastern states as well l If this attack succeeds the public lands and other public resources vii | be endangered in turn.