The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1901-12-04


railroads work for their terminal
poiuta. shipping lines, if established to
the principal countries with which We
have dealings would be- of political as
well as commercial benefit From ev-
cry standpoint it is unwise for the
United States TO continue to rely upon
the ships Of competing nations for the
distribution Of our goods 1t should be
made advantageous TO carry American
goods I'm American built ships.
At present American shipping is un-
DER certain great disadvantages when
put In competition with the shipping
Of foreign countries. Many of the fast
foreign steamships, AT a speed Of four
teen knots or above, are subsidized,
and all our ships. sailing vessels and
steamers alike, cargo carriers Of slow
| speed and mail carriers Of high speed,
have TO meet the fact that the original
! cost of building American ships Is
| greater than is the case abroad: that the
| wages paid American officers and sea
men are very much higher than those
] IslAAl Allt blilNtls anu 0tllllfi VI lbltllh
competing countries, and tina: the
| standard Of living on our ships is far
superior to the standard of living on
| the ships Of our commercial rivals. Our
| government should take such action as
will remedy these inequalities. The
American merchant marine should be
| restored to the ocean.
Financial.
The passage Of the act establishing
| gold as the standard money has. it is
! declared. been shown to he timely and
| judlcious. The president adds:
In many respects the national bank.
ing law furnishes sufficient liberty for
! the proper exercise of the banking
| function. but there seems to be need
Of better safeguards against the de.
| ranging influence of commercial crises
and financial panics. Moreover the
| currency Of the country should be
made responsive to the demands of our
domestic trade and commerce.
Economy in expenditures is urged.
Amendment Of the interstate commerce
act is advised to insure the cardinal
provisions of that act. The work car.
ried on by the department of agricul.
ture is next considered and praised
highly. The president then turns to
forest preservation and irrigation of
arid lands. saying that both are highly
necessary. He would put all the work
in connection with the forest reserves
in charge of the bureau Of forestry
Irrigation.
The president continues by tracing
the connection between the forest re-
serves and the water supply. He says
The forests are natural reservoirs.
BY restraining the streams in food
and rcplenishing them in drought they
make possible the use Of waters other
wise wasted. They prevent the soil
from washing and so protect the stor-
age reservoirs from filling up with
silt. Forest conservation is, therefore,
an essential condition of water conser-
vatiOn.
The forests alone cannot. however,
fully regulate and conserve the waters
of the arid region. Great storage works
are necessary TO equaliZe the flow Of
streams and to save the food waters.
Their construction mas been conclu.
sively shown to he an undertaking
too vast for private effort. Nor can il
be best accomplished by the individual
states acting alone. The government
Oh
reservoirs as il does other public works.
Where their purpose is to regulate the
flow Of streams, the water should be |
turned freely into the channels in the |
dry season to take the same course
under the same laws as the natural |
flow.
The reclamation Of the unsettled arid |
public lands presents II different prob |
lem. Here it is not enough to regulate |
the flow Of streams The object of the |
government is to dispose of the land
to settlers who will build homes upon
it. TO accomplish this object water
must be brought within their reach.
The pioneer settlers on the arid pub
lie domain chose their homes along
streams from which they could them
selves divert the water to reclaim their
holdings. Such opportunities are prac-
tically gone. There remain. however,
vast areas Of public land which can be
made available for homestead settle
ment. but only by reservoirs and main
line canals impracticable for private
~
should be built by the national govern
ment. The lands reclaimed by them
should be reserved by the government
for actual settlers. and the cost of con-
should, so far as possible. be
repaid by the land reclaimed. The dis
tribution Of the water, the division Of
the streams among irrigators, should
be left to the settlers themselves in
with state laws and with
out Interference with those laws or
with vested rights.
The declaration is made that in the
arid states the only right to water
which should be recognized is that OF
use. The president says that the doc
trinc of private ownership of water
apart from land cannot prevail without
wrong
insuIar Problems.
lnsular questions are next treated
I'm Hawaii our aim must be to devclop
the territory on the traditional Amer
lean lines. Porto Rico is declared to be
as never before. The atten.
tion Of congress is called to the need Of
legislation concerning the islands pub
lie lands. I'm Cuba IL is stated that
much progress has been made toward
putting the independent government Of