The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1916-03-02
CLIFFORD PINCHOT.
Sees a New Danger to Conservation in
Shields Bill Now Pending IN
COnSresS

| SOHRTtSS.
! Clifford Pinchot, the pioneer of Ma
| tional Conservation, sees a new danger
to water power of the country IN a
measure now pending before Congress
and he is calling loudly to the people
through the press Of the country for a
united effort to secure its defeat. In a
letter to The Republican Mr. Pinchot
saws:
l write to ask your help to defeat a
most serious attack on our public re-
sources. Since the fight over the
Alaska resources was won there has
not been so pressing a threat against
the Conservation policy as the present
effort in Congress to give our public
water powers for nothing into monop-
olistic control.
The Shields Bill. now before the Sen
ate, gives to the power interests with
out compensation the use of water
power on navigable streams. The
amount of water power these streams
will supply is larger by far than all the
power of every kind now in use IN the
United States. 1t pretends to, but does
not, enable the people to take back their
own property at the end of fifty years,
for in order to do so under the bill, the
Government would have to pay the I'M
earned increment, and to take over
whole lighting systems of cities and
whole manufacturing plants. Private
corporations are authorized to seize up
on any land, private or public, they
choose to condemn.
Bills which gave away public water
powers without due,compensation were
vetoed by President Roosevelt and
President Taft. The Shields Bill would
DO precisely the same thing today.
Another water power bill, the Ferris
Bill, relating TO the public lands and
National Forests, was in the main a
good bill as it PASSED the House. AS
reported to the Senate, it encourages
monopoly by permitting a corporation
to take as many public water power
sites as it may please. Under it the
corporations could not even be kept
from fastening upon the Grand Canyon,
the greatest natural wonder on this
continent. This bill takes the care of
water powers on National Forests from
the experienced and competent Forest
Service. and gives it to the Interior
Department, thus entailing duplication
and needless expense.
In my opinion, there is undue care
lessness as to the disposal of public re-
sources at present in Washington. The
water power legislation now before the
Senate is too favorable to the men who.
as Secretary Houston's admirable re-
cent report shows, control through IS
corporations more than one-halt of the
total water power used in public SER
vice throughout the United States
The water power men charge that Con-
servation hampers development. The
Houston report shows, on the contrary,
that the most rapid development is in
the National Forests, where conserya-
ton is best inforced. On the other
hand, 100 public service corporations
own and are holding undeveloped and
out of use an amount of water power
equal to four ifths of all there is devel-
oped and in use by all the public service
corporations in the whole United States.
AS | said in an open letter of January
% to the President:
Natural resources lie at the founda-
ton of all preparedness. whether for
peace or war. No plan for national de-
Tense can be effective unless it provides
for adequate public control of all the
raw materials out of which the de-
fenslve strength of nation is made.
Of these raw materials water power is
the most essential. because without
electricity generated from water power
we can not manufacture nitrates, and
nitrates are the basis of gunpowder.
There are no great natural deposits of
mtrates IN the United States as there
are in Chilli 1t would be folly to allow
the public water power, which can
supply this indispensable basis of ma
tional defense. to pass out of effective
public CONTROL.
A concerted movement is on foot to
break down the Conservation policy.
Feeble resistance or none at all is being
made by official Washington. Unless
the press and the people come to the
rescue, the power interests are likely to
win. This is a public matter wholly re.
moved from political partnership. Your
help is needed. and that of your paper.
For nearly ten years this fight for the
public water power has gone on. We
ought not to lose it now.
Sincerely yours,
CLIFFORD PINCHoT.