Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1901-12-05
Ia connection with the forest reserves
In charge Of the bureau OF forestry.

Ia connection with the forest reserves
Ia 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 repleniShing 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 illing 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 re"iOn. Great storage works
are necessary to equaliZp the flow Of
streams and TO save the flood waters.
sively shown to he an undertaking
too vast for private effort. Nor can it
be best accomplished by the individual
states acting alone. The government
should construct and maintain these
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 10 take the same course
under the same laws as the natural
flow.
The reclamation Of the unsettled arid
public lands presents a 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
10 settlers who will build homes upon
II. 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 lmpracticable for private
enterprise. These irrigation works
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-
struCtion should. so far as possible. be
repaid by the land reclaimed. The dis
tributiOu of the water. the division OF
the streams among irrigatorS. should
be left to the settlers themselves In
conformity 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
trine of private ownership of water
apart from land cannot prevail without
causing wrong.
InsuIar Problems.
Insular questions are next treated.
In Hawaii our aim must be TO develop
the territory on the traditional Amer
lean lines. Porto Rico is declared to be
thriving as never before The atten-
ti0n of congress Is called TO the need of
legislation concerning the islands pub.
lie lands. In Cuba il is stated that
much progress has been made toward
putting the independent government of
the island upon a firm footing and il Is
declared that independence will be an
accomplished fact. The president
adds:
Elsewhere / have discussed the ques-
ton Of reciprocity. In the case of Gu
ba, however. there are weighty reasons
OF morality and Of national interest
why the policy should be held 10 have
a peculiar application. and most ear
nestly ask your attention to the wis
dom, indeed to the vital need Of pro-
yidIng for u substantial reduction In
the tariff duties on Cuban imports into
the United States.
In dealing with the Philippine peo-
pie We must show both patience and
strength, forbearanCe and steadfaSt res
olution Our aim Is high. We do not
desire TO do for the islanders merely
what has elsewhere been done for trop-
&c peoples by even the best foreign
governments. We hope to do for them
what has never before been done for
any people Of the tropics-to make
them lit for self government after the
fashion Of the really free nations.
The only fear is lest in our overan1-
iety we give them a degree of inde-
peudcnce for which they are unit,
thereby inviting reaction and disaster.
As fast as there is any reasonable hope
that in a given district the people can
govern themselves self government
bas been given in that district There
Is not a locality fitted for self govern
ment which has not received it. But IL
may well be that in certain cases II
win have to be withdrawn because the
inhabitants show themselves unfit TO
exercise Il, such instances have already
occurred In other words, there is not
the slightest chance Of our failing TO
show a sufficiently humanitarian spirit
The danger comes Ia the opposite dIrec.
Een,