THE PRESENT BATTLE
Conservation has captured the Nation. Its progress during the last
twelve months is amazing. Official opposition to the conservation
movement, whatever damage it has done or still threatens to the public
interest, has vastly strengthened the grasp of conservation upon the
minds and consciences of our people. Efforts to obscure or belittle the
issue have only served to make it larger and clearer in the public
estimation. The conservation movement cannot be checked by the baseless
charge that it will prevent development, or that every man who tells the
plain truth is either a muck-raker or a demagogue. It has taken firm
hold on our national moral sense, and when an issue does that it has
won.
The conservation issue is a moral issue, and the heart of it is this:
For whose benefit shall our natural resources be conserved--for the
benefit of us all, or for the use and profit of the few? This truth is
so obvious and the question itself so simple that the attitude toward
conservation of any man in public or private life indicates his stand in
the fight for public rights.
All monopoly rests on the unregulated control of natural resources and
natural advantages, and such control by the special interests is
impossible without the help of politics. The alliance between business
and politics is the most dangerous thing in our political life. It is
the snake that we must kill. The special interests must get out of
politics, or the American people will put them out of business. There is
no third course.
Because the special interests are in politics, we as a Nation have lost
confidence in Congress. This is a serious statement to make, but it is
true. It does not apply, of course, to the men who really represent
their constituents and who are making so fine a fight for the
conservation of self-government. As soon as these men have won their
battle and consolidated their victory, confidence in Congress will
return.
But in the meantime the people of the United States believe that, as a
whole, the Senate and the House no longer represent the voters by whom
they were elected, but the special interests by whom they are
controlled. They believe so because they have so often seen Congress
reject what the people desire, and do instead what the interests demand.
And of this there could be no better illustration than the tariff.
The tariff, under the policy of protection, was originally a means to
raise the rate of wages. It has been made a tool to increase the cost of
living. The wool schedule, professing to protect the wool-grower, is
found to result in sacrificing grower and consumer alike to one of the
most rapacious of trusts.
The cotton cloth schedule was increased in the face of the
uncontradicted public testimony of the manufacturers themselves that it
ought to remain unchanged.
The Steel interests by a trick secured an indefensible increase in the
tariff on structural steel.
The Sugar Trust stole from the Government like a petty thief, yet
Congress, by means of a dishonest schedule, continues to protect it in
bleeding the public.
At the very time the duties on manufactured rubber were being raised,
the leader of the Senate, in company with the Guggenheim Syndicate, was
organizing an international rubber trust, whose charter made it also a
holding company for the coal and copper deposits of the whole world.
For a dozen years the demand of the Nation for the Pure Food and Drug
bill was outweighed in Congress by the interests which asserted their
right to poison the people for a profit.
Congress refused to authorize the preparation of a great plan of
waterway development in the general interest, and for ten years has
declined to pass the Appalachian and White Mountain National Forest
bill, although the people are practically unanimous for both.
The whole Nation is in favor of protecting the coal and other natural
resources in Alaska, yet they are still in grave danger of being
absorbed by the special interests. And as for the general conservation
movement, Congress not only refused to help it on, but tried to forbid
any progress without its help. Fortunately for us all, in this attempt
it has utterly failed.
This loss of confidence in Congress is a matter for deep concern to
every thinking American. It has not come quickly or without good
reason. Every man who knows Congress well knows the names of Senators
and members who betray the people they were elected to represent, and
knows also the names of the masters whom they obey. A representative of
the people who wears the collar of the special interests has touched
bottom. He can sink no farther.
Who is to blame because representatives of the people are so commonly
led to betray their trust? We all are--we who have not taken the trouble
to resent and put an end to the knavery we knew was going on. The brand
of politics served out to us by the professional politician has long
been composed largely of hot meals for the interests and hot air for the
people, and we have all known it.
Political platforms are not sincere statements of what the leaders of a
party really believe, but rather forms of words which those leaders
think they can get others to believe they believe. The realities of the
regular political game lie at present far beneath the surface; many of
the issues advanced are mere empty sound; while the issues really at
stake must be sought deep down in the politics of business--in politics
for revenue only. All this the people realize as they never did before,
and, what is more, they are ready to act on their knowledge.
Some of the men who are responsible for the union of business and
politics may be profoundly dishonest, but more of them are not. They
were trained in a wrong school, and they cannot forget their training.
Clay hardens by immobility--men's minds by standing pat. Both lose the
power to take new impressions. Many of the old-style leaders regard the
political truths which alone insure the progress of the Nation, and will
hereafter completely dominate it, as the mere meaningless babble of
political infants. They have grown old in the belief that money has the
right to rule, and they can never understand the point of view of the
men who recognize in the corrupt political activity of a railroad or a
trust a most dangerous kind of treason to government by the people.
When party leaders go wrong, it requires a high sense of public duty,
true courage, and a strong belief in the people for a man in politics to
take his future in his hands and stand against them.
The black shadow of party regularity as the supreme test in public
affairs has passed away from the public mind. It is a great deliverance.
The man in the street no longer asks about a measure or a policy merely
whether it is good Republican or good Democratic doctrine. Now he asks
whether it is honest, and means what it says, whether it will promote
the public interest, weaken special privilege, and help to give every
man a fair chance. If it will, it is good, no matter who proposed it. If
it will not, it is bad, no matter who defends it.
It is a greater thing to be a good citizen than to be a good Republican
or a good Democrat.
The protest against politics for revenue only is as strong in one party
as in the other, for the servants of the interests are plentiful in
both. In that respect there is little to choose between them.
Differences of purpose and belief between political parties to-day are
vastly less than the differences within the parties. The great gulf of
division which strikes across our whole people pays little heed to
fading party lines, or to any distinction in name only. The vital
separation is between the partisans of government by money for profit
and the believers in government by men for human welfare.
When political parties come to be badly led, when their leaders lose
touch with the people, when their object ceases to be everybody's
welfare and becomes somebody's profit, it is time to change the leaders.
One of the most significant facts of the time is that the professional
politicians appear to be wholly unaware of the great moral change which
has come over political thinking in the last decade. They fail to see
that the political dogmas, the political slogans, and the political
methods of the past generation have lost their power, and that our
people have come at last to judge of politics by the eternal rules of
right and wrong.
A new life is stirring among the dry bones of formal platforms and
artificial issues. Morality has broken into politics. Political leaders,
Trust-bred and Trust-fed, find it harder and harder to conceal their
actual character. The brass-bound collar of privilege has become plain
upon their necks for all men to see. They are known for what they are,
and their time is short. But when they come to be retired it will be of
little use to replace an unfaithful public servant who wears the collar
by another public servant with the same collar around his neck. Above
all, what we need in every office is free men representing a free
people.
The motto in every primary--in every election--should be this: No
watch-dogs of the Interests need apply.
The old order, standing pat in dull failure to sense the great forward
sweep of a nation determined on honesty and publicity in public affairs,
is already wearing thin under the ceaseless hammering of the progressive
onset. The demand of the people for political progress will not be
denied. Does any man, not blinded by personal interest or by the dust of
political dry rot, suppose that the bulk of our people are anything else
but progressive? If such there be, let him ask the young men, in whose
minds the policies of to-morrow first see the light.
The people of the United States demand a new deal and a square deal.
They have grasped the fact that the special interests are now in control
of public affairs. They have decided once more to take control of their
own business. For the last ten years the determination to do so has been
swelling like a river. They insist that the special interests shall go
out of politics or out of business--one or the other. And the choice
will lie with the interests themselves. If they resist, both the
interests and the people will suffer. If wisely they accept the
inevitable, the adjustment will not be hard. It will do their business
no manner of harm to make it conform to the general welfare. But one way
or the other, conform it must.
The overshadowing question before the American people to-day is this:
Shall the Nation govern itself or shall the interests run this country?
The one great political demand, underlying all others, giving meaning to
all others, is this: The special interests must get out of politics. The
old-style leaders, seeking to switch public attention away from this one
absorbing and overwhelming issue are pitifully ridiculous and out of
date. To try to divert the march of an aroused public conscience from
this righteous inevitable conflict by means of obsolete political
catchwords is like trying to dam the Mississippi with dead leaves.
To drive the special interests out of politics is a vast undertaking,
for in politics lies their strength. If they resist, as doubtless they
will, it will call for nerve, endurance, and sacrifice on the part of
the people. It will be no child's play, for the power of privilege is
great. But the power of our people is greater still, and their
steadfastness is equal to the need. The task is a tremendous one, both
in the demands it will make and the rewards it will bring. It must be
undertaken soberly, carried out firmly and justly, and relentlessly
followed to the very end. Two things alone can bring success. The first
is honesty in public men, without which no popular government can long
succeed. The second is complete publicity of all the affairs in which
the public has an interest, such as the business of corporations and
political expenses during campaigns and between them. To these ends,
many unfaithful public servants must be retired, much wise legislation
must be framed and passed, and the struggle will be bitter and long. But
it will be well worth all it will cost, for self-government is at stake.
There can be no legislative cure-all for great political evils, but
legislation can make easier the effective expression and execution of
the popular will. One step in this direction, which I personally believe
should be taken without delay, is a law forbidding any Senator or Member
of Congress or other public servant to perform any services for any
corporation engaged in interstate commerce, or to accept any valuable
consideration, directly or indirectly, from any such corporation, while
he is a representative of the people, and for a reasonable time
thereafter. If such a law would be good for the Nation in its affairs, a
similar law should be good for the States and the cities in their
affairs. And I see no reason why Members and Senators and State
Legislators should not keep the people informed of their pecuniary
interest in interstate or public service corporations, if they have any.
It is certain such publicity would do the public no harm.
This Nation has decided to do away with government by money for profit
and return to the government our forefathers died for and gave to
us--government by men for human welfare and human progress.
Opposition to progress has produced its natural results. There is
profound dissatisfaction and unrest, and profound cause for both. Yet
the result is good, for at last the country is awake. For a generation
at least there has not been a situation so promising for the ultimate
public welfare as that of to-day. Our people are like a hive of bees,
full of agitation before taking flight to a better place. Also they are
ready to sting. Out of the whole situation shines the confident hope of
better things. If any man is discouraged, let him consider the rise of
cleaner standards in this country within the last ten years.
The task of translating these new standards into action lies before us.
From sea to sea the people are taking a fresh grip on their own affairs.
The conservation of political liberty will take its proper place
alongside the conservation of the means of living, and in both we shall
look to the permanent welfare by the plain people as the supreme end.
The way out lies in direct interest by the people in their own affairs
and direct action in the few great things that really count.
What is the conclusion of the whole matter? The special interests must
be put out of politics. I believe the young men will do it.
INDEX
AMERICAN REVOLUTION, Economic Results of,
Daughters of,
BETTER TIMES ON THE FARM,
BUSINESS AND POLITICS, Unholy Alliance,
BUSINESS PROBLEM, A,
CHILDREN AND PATRIOTISM,
CITIZENSHIP AND PUBLIC SPIRIT,
CIVILIZATION, Essentials of,
COAL, Resources,
Waste in Mining,
Necessity of Civilization,
Control of,
CONGRESS, Loss of Confidence in,
CONSERVATION, Means Prosperity,
of Public Lands,
Nation's first duty,
Principles of,
Misconceptions about,
and the Future,
First Principle of,
Covers Wide Field,
and Common Sense,
of Waterways,
President Roosevelt's Views,
a Business Problem,
Key-note of,
Foresight,
Welfare of Average Man,
a Democratic Movement,
Danger to,
Woman's Work for,
and Patriotism,
Economic Side of,
CORPORATIONS, Strategy of
COST OF LIVING, Increase of,
COUNTRY LIFE, Problem of,
DAUGHTERS OF AMERICAN REVOLUTION,
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Scope of,
DESTRUCTION, Period of,
DIVIDENDS FOR THE PEOPLE,
EDUCATION, Object of,
EFFICIENCY, National,
Lack of Tradition of,
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY, The Real Issue,
EROSION, Losses from,
Soil,
FARMER, Backbone of the Nation,
Organization and Coöperation,
FARMS, Abandonment of,
FORESIGHT, A Conservation Principle,
FORESTRY, Beginning of Conservation,
Leads Conservation Fight,
Pennsylvania Association,
FORESTS, Duration of Supply,
Perils of Exhaustion,
Fires, Control of,
and Rivers,
Minnesota National,
FOREST SERVICE, Value to the West,
and the Law,
Powers of,
Attacks on,
and Publicity,
FRANCHISES, Limits on,
FUTURE, Disregard of,
and Conservation,
GOLDEN RULE AND POLITICS,
GOVERNORS, Convention of,
GRAZING, Evils of Overgrazing,
HOME-BUILDING FOR THE NATION,
IRELAND, Agricultural Coöperation in,
IRON ORE,
IRRIGATION, Value of,
Better Times on the Farm,
LAND HUNGER,
LAW, Not Absolute,
Forest Service and the,
MARSHALL, Chief Justice, Opinion,
MINERAL FUELS, Waste of,
MINING, Wastes in,
MINNESOTA NATIONAL FORESTS,
MISSISSIPPI, Plan for Development of,
MONOPOLY, of Water Power,
of Natural Resources,
MORAL ISSUES INVOLVED,
NATION, Preservation of,
Conservation first duty of,
Home-building for the,
NATURAL RESOURCES, Development of,
Water,
Monopolization of, Moral Wrong,
Belong to the People,
Pillage of,
OVERGRAZING, Evils of,
PATRIOTISM AND CONSERVATION,
Children and,
A New,
PENNSYLVANIA FORESTRY ASSOCIATION,
PITTSBURG SURVEY,
POLITICS, Golden Rule and,
Protest Against for Revenue only,
POPULATION, Forecast of,
PRIVATE INTERESTS, Water Power and,
PROPERTY AND VOTING POWER,
PROSPERITY, The Basis of,
Destruction of,
PUBLICITY, Forest Service and,
PUBLIC LANDS, Conservation of,
Evils of Present System,
Menace of Tenantry,
PUBLIC MORALITY, New Standard,
PUBLIC SPIRIT, Fostering of,
Roosevelt and,
and the "Bosses,"
and Citizenship,
RESOURCES, Not Inexhaustible,
RIVERS AND FORESTS,
Unit from Source to Mouth,
ROOSEVELT, President, Home-making Policy,
Message,
The Common People,
and Conservation,
Thanks due to,
and Young Men,
Policies, The,
and Public Spirit,
SOIL EROSION,
SPECIAL PRIVILEGES, Danger of,
Victims of Grab System,
Must be Driven out of Politics,
SQUARE DEAL, Doctrine of,
SUCCESS, Conditions of,
TARIFF, a Tool to Increase Cost of Living,
TENANTRY _vs._ FREEHOLD, Menace to Public Lands,
UNITED STATES, Destiny of,
Crisis and History of,
VOTING POWER, Property and,
WASTE, Prevention of,
in Mining Coal,
Period of Destruction,
WATER-POWER TRUST,
Monopoly,
and Private Capital,
Grants in Perpetuity,
and Private Interests,
Control of,
Sites,
WATER RESOURCES,
WATERWAYS, Development of,
Conservation of,
WOMAN'S WORK FOR CONSERVATION,
End of Project Gutenberg's The Fight For Conservation, by Gifford Pinchot