NEWS WORTH REMEMBERING
News Worth Remembering BOUNTEOUS harvests are now promised unreservedly by the government crop experts. Their August reports show a condition of the wheat crop far better than was indicated in...
...Chicago Dispute Near End More favorable are the reports of the Chicago car men's controversy with the city railways, with an increase in wages at stake...
...Labor and Capital in Conflict This "new era of prosperity," however, has opened up with strikes, arbitrations, and other things incident to disputes between labor and capital...
...Pardee, in the course of which he charged that Mr...
...Mr...
...His observations lead him to the conclusion that "industrialism seems to be destroying a part of the old-time America of Franklin and Washington and creating an America less American than that of the past...
...that the general electric interests are acquiring great groups of water power in our part of the United States and dominating the power market in the region of each group...
...Since Ballinger has taken hold of the interior department, however, attempts have been made to discredit Mr...
...Along with this information come trade reports that indicate a most prosperous outlook for business and industry...
...This attempted defense brought forth another attack from Mr...
...He startled the delegates by saying that the average tract of irrigated land is no place for the poor man...
...Reports dated the 10th have it that Stockholm is now enjoying perfect order, food is plentiful, and little signs are visible of the industrial disorder, except the forces that the government has constantly on hand to prevent possible outbreaks...
...To Walter L. Fisher is given a large measure of the credit for bringing about this peaceful conclusion...
...America Like Rome...
...These conferences resulted in an agreement to a new wage scale, which is a substantial increase over the old one...
...The trouble at McKees Rocks, Pa., where thousands of workmen left the shops of the Pressed Steel Car Company, is still unsettled...
...Ballinger's assistants at Washington issued press notices denying that any filings of the lands in Montana attributed to the water power combine had been made...
...Senator G. E. Chamberlain of Oregon, in a speech at Chicago, said Pinchot and F. H. Newell, chief of the reclamation service, were in his opinion servants of the people, and he did not believe President Taft would remove either...
...And whoever dominates power, dominates all industry...
...The dispatches of the 15th have it that the state troops are being used to assist the company in bringing strike-breakers within the works...
...He said it was the policy of his administration to encourage the development of these tracts by private capital...
...Reports of this conflict are too meagre to warrant any prediction as to the outcome...
...I am informed, as credibly as Mr...
...Ballinger surprised the convention on the following day when he declared that no further funds would be appropriated by the government for irrigation-projects...
...The decision is binding upon the men and the company for one year...
...The press of the country reflects the keenest popular interest in the President's course in the matter...
...We are met at every turn by the indignant denial of the water power interests...
...He said: "There could be no better illustration of the eager, rapid, unwearied absorption by capital of the rights which belong to all the people than the water power trust, not yet formed but in rapid process of formation...
...At the national irrigation congress, on the 10th Mr...
...Their August reports show a condition of the wheat crop far better than was indicated in their reports of a month ago...
...Smith has been informed that certain of those power sites were taken up...
...the wage scale is raised on an average of 4 cents an hour...
...Deep Waterway Endorsed Before adjourning, the national irrigation congress went on record as favoring the construction of the Lakes-to-the-Gulf Deep Waterway...
...He finds here a condition not unlike that which caused the downfall of old Rome...
...Ballinger's direction preparing his speech...
...He concluded by saying that "Secretary Garfield did withdraw land from entry on which lands there were power sites...
...Ferrero it will be remembered, was a recent visitor to America...
...Another conference was reported as being set for the 16th, at which the men were expected to ratify the agreement, and thus bring an end to the dispute...
...Through its correspondents, a Chicago bank has received data from which it draws the following conclusion: "All of the signs that denote rising prosperity and all the conditions precedent are at hand...
...On Sunday evening a mob of 3,000 strikers gathered to prevent the boats from unloading the workmen imported from Philadelphia, Chester and Newark to break the strike, but after a short conflict with the militia many of them were driven into the Ohio river and the crowd was dispersed...
...Pinchot and Ballinger in Controversy The controversy in Sweden, serious as it may be, however, is rivalled in this country by the conflict between private water power concerns and allied business interests, and government officials who are determined to conserve the water power resources of the country in the interests of the public...
...Ballinger did not attempt to defend his acts in person, but his policy was defended by George Otis Smith, director of the United States Geological Survey, who, according to news despatches, "sat up all night at Mr...
...Swedish Strike Under Control The strike in Sweden, reports of which sent a shock of apprehension around the world, seems to be under control, and to be of less magnitude than the first despatches announced...
...but the strikers assert that there are only about 400 men actually at work...
...Pinchot delivered an address in which he defended the Roosevelt policies and pointed out that unless something is done immediately to protect public rights, the country will be in the grasp of another huge monopoly, controlling all the waterpowers...
...If we do not realize it is vital to protect ourselves now we may be very sure that the trust will hereafter give small consideration to the welfare of the average citizen when it conflicts with his own...
...This fight reached a climax last week in Spokane, at the seventeenth annual convention of the National Irrigation Congress, and centered around Chief Forester of the United States Gifford Pinchot and the new Secretary of the Interior Richard A. Ballinger...
...This announcement came in "the face of many resolutions calling upon the government for the expenditure of millions of dollars to complete irrigation works, and to build new ones...
...The wreckage of the panic has been cleared away...
...Ballinger's action in restoring lands to entry had enabled the water power trust to grab up some of them...
...This statement is true, but not unchallenged...
...Several conferences between the labor leaders and the officials of the street railway companies were held during the week, with Walter L. Fisher, special traction attorney for the city, acting as mediator...
...shorter hours are provided and better toilet accomodations for the men are required...
...Pinchot, as was pointed out in these columns several weeks ago...
...In fact, if the predictions are fulfilled, the crop of 1909 will be the largest ever gathered, with the exception of the years 1901 and 1906...
...The company says it now has 1,200 men at work in the shops and will begin turning out cars again on Wednesday...
...It is not the policy of the national government," he said, "to hinder or to interfere with eht investment of private capital in the construction of irrigation works, but rather to lend it encouragement...
...Secretary Ballinger restored these lands, power sites and agricultural sites,—and all to public entry...
...Mr...
...Other, boats are reported to be loaded with strikebreakers, ready to be landed at the car works, and it is said that company officials are prepared to make use of Gatling guns mounted on the boats, in case the strikers seek to prevent the landing of these men...
...He declared that Mr...
...The time for us to agitate this question is now, before the separate circles of centralized control spread into the uniform, unbroken, nation-wide covering of a single gigantic trust...
...Mr...
...They tell us that there is no community of interest among them and yet they appear year after year at these congresses through their paid attorneys, asking for your influence to help them remove the few remaining obstacles to their perpetual and complete absorption of the remaining water powers...
...the apprehensions which it aroused havt disappeared and we are facing the future with an optimism and courage born of the knowledge of the wonderful resources of this country...
...I see one charming and urbane gentleman who is here now looking out for the interests of these people...
...Since the recent strike, the dispute has been in the hands of the state arbitration board, and the decision of this board, made public on the 10th, gives the victory to the union in every point...
...The grievance committee will be all union men...
...urged drainage of swamp lands by the federal government and recommended changes in the present laws that would be of benefit to the homesteaders and irrigators of the West...
...With these incidents in the industrial life of the country fresh in mind, the reports of a series of addresses on America by Fer-rero, the Italian historian, come with added interest...
...Ballinger's policy would place the country in the grasp of a great water power trust...
...Ballinger's official acts came in for a severe denunciation from ex-Governor George C. Pardee of California, who said Ballinger had favored the land grabbing corporations by restoring to entry millions of acres of government lands, containing valuable water power sites, that had been withdrawn in the public interest during the Roosevelt administration...
...His action will likely involve a full investigation...
...La Crosse Union Wins A settlement has also been brought about in La Crosse, Wis., where employees of the city railway have been at odds with the officials...
...These reports have brought rejoicing to the farmers and have had a good effect upon business activity throughout the country...
...There will be little chance for mere agitation after that...
...Pinchot is an ardent supporter of the Roosevelt policy of conservation and during the last administration had the hearty backing of the President and the then Secretary of the Interior, Garfield, in his efforts to stop the waste of our natural resources...
...No man at all familiar with the situation can doubt that the time for effective protest is very short...
...They tell us it has no significance...
...The controversy will probably not be ended without the intervention of President Taft...
Vol. 1 • August 1909 • No. 33
