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Gifford Pinchot



In 1898, Pinchot was appointed chief of the Division of Forestry (later the Bureau) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a recognition of his advanced training in forestry and the need to protect American forests. In 1905, the bureau was given control of the national forest reserves, and was renamed the Forest Service. President Roosevelt, a fellow Republican whom Pinchot greatly admired, allowed him considerable independence in the administration of the service. Pinchot in turn imparted to his staff a spirit of diligence and a sense of mission.





Mrs. Pinchot waves after addressing an assembly of miners in Uniontown, April 1934After his campaign, Pinchot promoted American involvement in the European war and opposed President Wilson's neutrality. The Progressives had returned to their old parties, and Pinchot, who was in opposition to the president, reluctantly rejoined the Republicans. Upon Wilson's re-election in 1916, Pinchot turned from national to state politics.

In 1920, Governor Sproul appointed him Commissioner of Forestry, in which position he initiated administrative changes and refused to grant political patronage. His goal, however, was the governorship, where he believed he would have greater opportunity to bring about the reforms he proposed. His campaign for that office, in 1922, concentrated on reforms that could arouse the greatest popular support-government reorganization and economy, enforcement of prohibition, and regulation of public utilities. To achieve a broader electoral base and gain the support of Joseph Grundy, president of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association and a political power in the state, he played down some of his earlier proposals for reform. Aiding him too was the fact that Republican leaders were divided over a replacement for party chief Boies Penrose, who had recently died.

Pinchot won a close election. The new governor, however, had no intention of being absorbed by the bosses, through what he termed the "amoeba treatment," and stubbornly persisted with his reforms, often annoying his supporters as well as hardening his opponents. He began his administration by tightening state spending. Typically, he took but a portion of his salary. He persuaded the Assembly to pass an administrative code. This standardized salaries and gave the Governor power to reorganize the executive branch of government and reduce duplication by combining 139 agencies into fifteen departments and three commissions. A pension system was also introduced, to be financed by the employees and the state.

Gathering public support through the adoption of these measures, the governor made further proposals. Governor Pinchot swings a pick to begin the paving of twenty thousand miles of Pinchot roads.He asked the General Assembly to pass legislation to enforce the federal prohibition of alcoholic beverages. Only one bill passed, however, and money for enforcement had to be obtained from the Women's Christian Temperance Union, since the legislature would not appropriate the funds.

Always a strong adversary of the public utilities, he proposed now that the Assembly connect electric companies into a tightly regulated state-wide system with combined facilities. This would forestall the creation of private monopolies, lessen the cost of electricity for the user, and extend service to all, particularly to farmers. The governor's plans were dashed when utility lobbyists defeated nineteen of his bills in Assembly.


The governor retired from office at the end of his term, having improved the efficiency and economy of state government. His enthusiasm had affected his subordinates, creating an esprit de corps among them.



The Depression hit Pennsylvania severely, and by 1931 there were almost a million unemployed. The governor took a personal concern for the needy. Before taking office he founded a committee on unemployment. He gave more immediate assistance also, such as to a woman who was jailed and fined $17.90 for killing a woodpecker to feed her children.




With Pinchot's approval, a special session of the Assembly ratified the Twenty-first Amendment to the federal Constitution, which repealed the prohibition amendment. The Assembly also established the Liquor Control Board, a state monopoly for the sale of liquor.

During his last year as governor, Pinchot, for the third time, ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for election to the U.S. Senate. As usual, he received little assistance from the leaders of his party, whom he had greatly annoyed by supporting the economic recovery programs of Democrat Franklin Roosevelt. During the last three months of his term, the governor was confined to a New York City hospital and Mrs. Pinchot in effect became the acting governor, but the Republican voters overwhelmingly defeated him. He was seventy-two.

In his remaining years, the ex-governor gave advice to the president, wrote a book about his life as a forester, and devised a fishing kit to be used in lifeboats during World War II. On October 4, 1946, he died, age eighty-one, of leukemia. The Pinchots' mansion, Grey Towers, in Milford, has been given to the U.S. Forest Service to serve as a museum and training center for foresters.

Patricia E. Bixler, "Gifford Pinchot" Historic Pennsylvania Leaflet No. 39 (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1976).