Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1916-09-29
ASSAILS WILSON POLICY
PINCHOT SAYS ADMINISTRA-
TION NEGLECTS PROMISE.
Shields and Meyers Waterpower Bills
and Phelan Oil Bill Blow
at Conservation.

uCPel thIoHt VI tHe luJtf1OE ululHS IL
administrations of Roosevelt an
Taft, has written The Observer hi
opinion of the conservation polio
which the present administration ha
pursued, and has given his views o
the Shields and Myers waterpowe
bills and the Phelan oil bills whic
will be decided at the coming ses
sion of congress. The letter is give
below in full:
The conservation of natural re
sources has become one of the larges
issues of our time. In the campaign
of 1912, it formed one of the chic
planks in the Democratic platform
and was often endorsed in Mr.. VIII
sons speeches. His inaugural ad
dress committed him fully to support
it.
For these reasons it is important
to know what the Wilson administra-
tion has done. As one man deeply
interested in conservation and famil-
lar with the record, | am writing to
lay it briefly before you.
When he took office, Mr.. Wilson
ceased to say much on conservation,
preferring to let the members of his
cabinet speak for him. After his in
auguration, the friends of conserva-
tion, regardless of partisanship, of
fered him their help in putting the
conservation policies through. The op-
portunity invited action. The fight
to save Alaska from the Guggenheims
had created living body of public
opinion which lacked only official
leadership to save what resources
still remained in public hands. It
seemed at first that President Wilson
would lead
At the outset the work of the Will
son administration in conservation
was good. Congress passed, and Mr.. |
Wilson signed the Alaska railroad bill
and the bill which assured govern
ment control of coal lands in Alaska.
These measures were excellent and |
President Wilson deserves praise for
their enactment. So he does for his
veto Of bill to give away national
forests lands.
Unfortunately these creditable in
stances form but little of the record.
n
Politics came into control. Thus a
bill seeking to turn the natural re-
sources of Alaska over to a political
COMMISSION was repeatedly recon-
mended by the administration through
the mouth of the secretary of the in
Ierior. Ii passed it would have thrown
Alaska into the hands of the special
interests and established a policy al
most certain to destroy the national I
control of natural resources every-
where else as well. This measure we {
we're fortunately able to stop. !;
When Wilson became president, the u
Exclamation service, in its great work =
t irrigating the arid lands of the =, III
rest, was wholly free from politics. Id
y the mouth of his secretary of the ''
lterior Wilson advocated, and later !" "
gned a bill which leaves the choice ~
lands to be reclaimed to a commit =.
'e OF congress, and so makes politics VI
1minate the service. ut
Director Newell was the man who al
eated the reclamation service. He va
ade and kept it one of the most eff VI
1ent bureaus under the government Pi T,
ne secretary of the interior forced -
m out, and replaced him by a com pi' r,
ssion in which politicians control. Til
The Newlands bill is conservation -
'asure which proposes to develop Il
the resources of our inland water
lys-w -waterpower, navigation, irri- E.
tion, and domestic supply-for the
bile benefit. Although Wilson
ongly endorsed it during his cam hr,
ign, as president he let it drop, 70
/ instead has signed two waterway to
Is of the old pork-barrel type, Viz
ich are everything the Newlands nat
is not. 1o1
Vaterpower is the most valuable of
ource still in public hands. There 4
undeveloped waterpower in our ear
igable streams equal to twice the ing
yer of every kind now used in the frie
ted States. 1t is a huge prize. ter
years the waterpower interests tabl
e been fighting to seize it, and the whe
to save it for the "a
pie. kno,
waterpower measure, the Adam vers
bill, came before the house in Anne
t 1t favored monopoly, and gave Uni,
special interests, for nothing, the Mia,
&c water power on navlgable thle,
Ams. NevertheleSs wilson endors- Jam,
was
! its way through the house, the "7
parts of the Adamson bill were versi
ken out. and the public rights COVE,
secured. Thereupon Wilson re- eondl
d has previous stand. and en- Amer
d the amended bill. This good nest
hen went to the Senate, where ent.
IS shelved. and the indefensible at