Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1901-12-03

are genuine.
INTERSTATE COMMERCE.
In 1887 a measure was enacted fol
the regulation of interstate railways
commonly known as the Interstate
| Commerce Act The cardinal provis
ions of that act were that railwa!
rates should be just and reasonable
and that all shippers, localities, ant
commodities should be accorded equa
treatment. A commission was created
and endowed with what were supposed
| to be the necessary powers to execute
the provisions Of this act.
That law was, largely an experiment
| Experience has shown the wisdom Of
it's purposes, but has also shown, pos
sibly that some of it's requirements are
wrong, certainly that the means de.
vised for the enforcement of it's pro-
visions are defective. Those who COM
ways allege that established rates are
not maintained, that rebates and SIM
liar devices are habitually resorted to;
that these preferences are usually in
favor of the large shipper; that they
drive out of business the smaller COM
petitor; that while many rates are toe
low, many others are excessive, and
that gross preferences are made, af-
fecting both localities and commodi-
ties. Upon the other hand, the rail-
ways assert that the law by its very
terms tends to produce many of these
illegal practices by depriving carriers
of that right of concerted action which
they claim Is necessary to establish and
maintain n-discriminating rates.
The act should be amended. The rail-
way is a public servant. Its rates
should be just to and open to all ship
pers alike. The government should
this is so and should provide a speedy
inexpensive and effective remedy to
that end. At the same time it must
not be forgotten that our railways are
the arteries through which the COM
mercial lifebloood of this nation flows.
Nothing could be more foolish than
the enactment of legislation which
would unnecessarily interfere with the
development and operation of these
commercial agencies.
FOREST RESERVES.
We have come to see clearly that
whatever destroys the forest, except
to make way for agriculture, threatens
our well-being.
The practical usefulness d the ma
tional forest reserves to the mining,
grazing, irrigation, and other interests
of the regions in which the reserves lie
has led to a widespread demand by
the people of the west for their pro-
lection and extension. The forest re-
serves will inevitably be of still great
er use in the future than in the past.
Additions should be made to them
whenever practicable, and their USE
fulness should be increased by a thor
oughly business-like management.
AT present the protection of the IT..
est reserves rests with the Leaeral
IAI1llO CIiCS, lIlC IliupplllG lllu uGoIllP
ton of their timber with the United
States Geological Survey, and the prep
aration of plans for their conservative
use with the Bureau of Forestry,
which is also charged with the general
advancement of practical forestry in
the United States. These various
functions should be united in the Bu-
reau of Forestry, to which they prop
erly belong.
The wise administration of forest re-
serves will be not less helpful to the
interests which depend on water than
to those which depend on wood and
grass. The water supply itself depends
upon the forest. In the arid region 1t
is water, not land, which measures
production. The western half of the
United States would sustain a popula-
ton greater than that of our whole
country today if the waters that now
run to waste were saved and used for
irrigation. The forest and water prob
lens are perhaps the most vital in
ternal questions of the United States.
Certain of the forest reserves should
also be made preserves for the wild
forest creatures. All of the reserves
should be better protected from fires.
Many of them need special protection
because of the great injury done by
livestock, above all by sheep.
The forests are natural reservoirs.
BY restraining the streams in flood 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 filing up with silt.
IRRIGATION.
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 flood
waters. Their construction has been
conclusively shown to be an undertake
ing too vast for private effort. Nor
can it be best accomplished by the in
dividual states acting alone. Far
reaching interstate problems are in
volved; and the resources of single
states would often be inadequate. 1t
is properly national function, at least
in some of it's features. 1t is as right
for the national government to make
the streams and rivers of the arid re-
gion useful by engineering works for
water storage as to make useful the
by engineering works of another kind.
the storing of the floods in reservoirs
at the headwaters of our rivers Is but
an enlargement of our present policy of
river control, under which levees are