The National tribune., 1902-12-04

strength. The Monroe Doctrine should b
treated as the cardinal feature of Ameri-
| can foreign policy; but it would be worse
than idle to assert it unless we intended
to back il up. and it can be backed up
only by thoroughly good navy. A good
navy is not 4 provocative of war. 1t is
the surest guaranty of peace
1t is particularly necessary that in adj
ditiOn to ships we should have sufficieney
of properly trained officers and men to
man them, and permanent enlargement
of the force should be made. beginning
with 1000 additional officers and a great
! enlargement of the classes at Annapolis.
There has been most gratifying in
crease in the revenues OF the Post Office
Department. assregatins over S10,216.-
SI:;.S, for the year. or about $1,000
600 more than the entire postal receipts
for 1860. Rural Free Mail Delivery has
become a pronounced success. and it is
hoped that Congress will provide liberal
ly for an a large increase in the routes.
Thorough and scientific forest protection
and game protection should be provided.
! and a good continuation OF the start which
has been made in the system of National
irrigation:
so far as they are available for agr;-
culture, and to whatever extent they may
| be reclaimed under the National irriga-
| tion law, the remaining public lands should
be held .rigidly for the home builder, the
settler who lives on his land, and for no
one else. In their actual use the desert
| land law, the timber and stone law, and
ha mn fat I'M Of no hnrn nd
law have been so perverted from the in
! tentiOn with which they were enacted as
| TO permit the acquisition of large areas
| cf the public domain for other than ac-
tual settlers and the consequent preven-
| ton of settlement. Moreover, the ap-
| preaching exhaustion of the public ranges
! has of late led TO much discussion as to
| the best manner of using these public
| lands in the West which are suitable chief
| iy or only for grazing. The sound and
| steady development of the West depends
| upon the building up of homes therein.
| Much of our prosperity as nation has
been due to the operation of the home
| stead law. On the other hand, we should
| recognize the fact that in the grazing
region the man who corresponds to the
homesteader may be unable to settle per-
manently if only allowed 10 use the same
amount of pasture land that his brother,
the hOmesteader, is allowed to use OF
dIdUfe idUu. Oue anu sixty
of fairly rich and well-watered soil, or a
much smaller amount of irrigated land,
may keep a family in plenty, whereas no
one could get "A living from 16O acres of
dry pasture land capable of supporting at
the outside only one head of cattle to ev-
cry ten acres. In the past great tracts of
the public domain have been fenced in
by persons having no title thereto. in direct
defiance of the law forbidding the MAIN
tenance or construction of any such I'M
lawful Enclosure of public land. For var
ious reasons there has been little interfer-
ence with such Enclosures in the past, but
ample notice has now been given the tres
passers, and all the resources at the COM
mand of the Government will hereafter
be used to put a stop to such treSpass-
ing.
I'm view of the capital importance Of
these matters, 1 commend them to the
earnest consideration of the Congress, and
if the Congress finds difficulty in dealing
with them from lack of thorough knOwl-
edge of the subject, 1 recommend that
provision be made for commission of ex-
perts specially to investigate and report
| upon the complicated questions involved
Wise legislation is needed for Alaska
to induce settlement by homesteaders; the
forests should be protected; the salmon
fisheries should be placed under the con-
troll of the Fish Commission; and Alaska
should have Delegate in Congress.
OF the Indians the President speaks in
no uncertain way. He believes that their
ultimate absorption into the body of the
people should be our aim, but he also be-
lieves that this absorption must be ac-
complished slowly. The backward tribes
must not be forced too rapidly into civil
lization for which they are not fitted, while
every effort should be put forth, in his
opinion, to educate those who take natural
ly to the civilizins methods. He speaks
with pride of the immense Importance of
the work accomplished by the large In
dian Schools remote from reservations,
and believes that they do a special and
peculiar work, that could not be accom-
plished otherwise. He also believes that
reservation schools should be fOstered, and
that the way to civilize the Indian is to
teach him to earn his living, and his edu-
cation should be the kind that develops
him along the lines of natural aptitude.