WILL MORGANHEIMS CONTROL?
Baker, Ray Stannard
Will Morganheims Control? Conservation Congress to be Forum of Titanic Struggle By RAY STANNARD BAKER THE Conservation Congress to be held in St. Paul beginning September 5 has suddenly become...
...Hill, himself, has been blatently and personally hostile, even going to the point of attacking Mr...
...but this is to be a very different affair—if money and preparation can make it so...
...As soon as the presence of the Congress in St...
...The old selfish theory of states' rights is to be injected into this question as it was injected into the political discussions previous to the Civil War for the defense of the privileged class of slave-holders...
...The real governor of Minnesota is not Eberhart but Louis W. Hill, President of the Great Northern Railroad...
...Taft and Mr...
...Taft will here open his campaign for the presidency in 1912...
...All of which will clear the atmosphere, and tend to array the real progressives of the country more firmly than ever behind the developing progressive leadership...
...The anti-conservationists will uc given the first chance: the western governors will speak...
...Paul beginning September 5 has suddenly become charged with large meanings...
...In any event the issues are likely to be vigorously stated and the gage of battle thrown down...
...After that the national conservationists will appear: Roosevelt, Pinchot, Garfield, several insurgent senators and many others...
...Will this scheme prove successful...
...Every effort is to be made to show that Taft has recovered his popularity with the country...
...Since the foret/ouig teas written by him, the governors of far western states met in Salt Lake City and adopted the very policy lie predicted they would adopt...
...There will be a labor parade (it being labor day) besides a reception and a dinner...
...Roosevelt...
...Paul where they had greater powers of control than they would have in Missouri...
...What will Taft say...
...they wanted it in St...
...BAKER v:as right...
...In order to understand the reasons for this peculiar action, certain underlying causes must be made plain...
...This the interests did not want...
...Interests Against Conservation NOW, the railroad interests of the Northwest, and Louis W. Hill in particular, are against conservation, against people's government, against the Progressive group of leaders...
...By pressure exerted in high places they succeeded in getting the names of Senators Cummins and Clapp removed from the program, and of adding the names of a number of westen governors known to be hostile to the national conservation of our resources...
...Will he take his stand with those who believe in the national conservation of our resources, or will he take his stand with those who would defeat the nation with a plea of states' rights...
...In no case formerly has a local board ever had anything to do with the arrangement of the program, the appointment of speakers or officers, or with matters of publicity...
...Where will he take his stand...
...Here is a momentous question to be answered at the Congress.—Editor's Note...
...The old states' rights theory is to be brought forward by the opponents of conservation as a means of disorganizing the movement...
...So Eberhart's committee began to interfere at once with the plans of the Conservation Congress...
...Paul than the Interests began to move upon it— either to destroy it utterly or to dominate it...
...What will he say...
...Originally designed to consider the somewhat limited problem of the public land policies of the nation, it now promises to be the forum for a titanic struggle between the supporters of the people's rights on the one hand —the Progressives or Insurgents— and the defenders of special interests—t h e Standpatters—on the other hand...
...The policy which will probably be adopted will be to demand, not national, but state control of public lands—which would utterly defeat the Conservation Movement...
...No sooner had the Congress been announced for St...
...It was found that the Governor was in constant communication with President Hill, and that every effort was being made to change the Congress from a conservation meeting into an anti-conservation meeting...
...There you have it...
...As customary in such cases, a local board of management was appointed to make the necessary local arrangements, including the choice of an auditorium and the raising of money for the immediate expenses...
...A conference of western governors called together at Salt Lake City will plan a definite campaign and appear in the Congress with a full quota of delegates...
...When he was in St...
...Governor Eberhart's committee of the railroad interests are making th^ most prodigious efforts to give Taft a great reception...
...As reported in the newspapers of the 19tht one of the "demands" to be presented by the West at the Conservation Congress is "that national and state governments should cooperate and within a reasonable time the state governments should be conceded complete administration of conservatioji laivs...
...A Blow at Conservation MR...
...Will President Taft lend his assistance to the men who bring it forward...
...PRESIDENT TAFT will speak on the first day...
...Paul on the last fateful trip west he was coldly received...
...With most of the notable political leaders of the country in attendance, the Congress cannot fail t? have a profound political significance...
...So they quieted down, but they did not for a moment stop their underground work...
...Exercising, also, his great influence upon politics in the far West, where his railroad runs, President Hill has been most active in his efforts...
...Pinchot and his associates threatened to remove the Congress to Kansas City...
...and there are those who see here a final parting of the ways between Mr...
...As it now stands the program of the Congress is divided into two parts...
...Eberhart, now nominated to succeed himself as the Standpat candidate for Governor, is really nothing more than a railroad errand boy...
...There are those who believe that Mr...
...For a time its reign was threatened and it has had to accept a man like Senator Clapp in the United States Senate, but its hand upon the State government in Minnesota ever since Governor Johnson's death has been heavy indeed...
...Paul was assured, they began again to work for a change of the program...
...They have refused to give reduced railroad fares to delegates, knowing that this will tend to cut down the attendance of delegates from the East...
...It will be an epoch-making moment for him...
...The soldiers from Fort Snelling will be there, the militia are ordered out...
...What Will Taft Say...
...They objected to certain speakers, notably Louis D. Brandeis of Boston, and they interfered so activeiy that Mr...
...But no sooner had this particular board been appointed, with Governor Eberhart of Minnesota at its head, than it began to move secretly but with determination toward the control of the Congress itself...
...T. R. Shipp, the executive secretary of the movement, in the most violent language...
...For years the Republican party machine in Minnesota has been the creature of the Great Northern Railroad Company...
Vol. 2 • September 1910 • No. 35
