On Friday week Mr. Gifford Pinchot, Chief Forester of the
United States, was dismissed by Mr. Taft after a dispute which has disturbed Mr. Taft's Administration from the beginning. Mr. Gifford Pinchot was the originator of the policy of conserving American natural resources, and an intimate friend and adviser of Mr. Roosevelt, who made this policy one of the features of his programme. In violation of the President's regulation, Mr. Pinchot wrote a letter to Senator Dolliver supporting charges against Mr. Ballinger, the Secretary of the Interior. The charges against Mr. Ballinger, of which a good deal has already been heard, were to the effect that he has favoured private attempts to " corner" the water-power of the country and the coal lands of Alaska, and has thus stood in the way of the realisation of what is perhaps the most popular of the Roosevelt policies. Mr. Taft has himself guaranteed that the charges against Mr. Ballinger are unfounded, but a Committee of Congress has been appointed to investigate them, and it is possible that it might disagree with the President. There are evidently the elements here of a very considerable conflict; but we trust that Mr. Taft will emerge successfully from the threatened troubles. As the New York correspondent of the Times says, he differs from Mr. Roosevelt in method rather than in purpose.
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