The Elbert County tribune., 1907-06-13

live with an eye single to the present.
and have permitted the reckless waste
and destruction of much of our natural
wealth
Conservation of Natural Desources.
The conservation of our natural re-
sources and their proper use consti-
tute the fundamental problem which
underlies almost every other problem
OF our national life. Unless we main
tain an adequate material basis for
our civilization we cannot maintain
the institutions in which we take so
great and SO Just a pride; and to
waste and destroy our natural re
sources means to undermine this ma
terial basis.
During the last five years efforts
nave been made in several new direc-
tons in the government service to get
our people to look ahead. TO exercise
foresight, and 10 substitute a planned
and orderly development of our re-
sources in the place of a haphazar,I
striving for immediate profit. The ef-
fort has been made through several
agencies.
In 1902 the reclamation service be
gan to develop the larger opportunities
of the western half of our country for
irrigation The work includes all the
states from the great plains through
the Rocky mountains to the Pacific
slope. 1t has been conducted with the
clear and definite purpose of using the
valuable water resources of the public
land for the greatest good for the
greatest number in the long run: in
other words for the purpose of putting
upon the land permanent homescekerS
who Will use and develop It for them
selves and for their children and chill
dren's children. There has been oppo.
sition, of course, to the work of this
reclamation service; for we have been
Obliged to antagonize certain men
whose interest it was to exhaust for
their own temporary personal profit
natural resources which ought to be
developed through use. so as to be con
served for the permanent common ad-
vantage of the people as whole
But there will be no halt in the
work of preserving the waters which
head in the Rocky mountain region 80
as to make them of most use to the
people as whole; for the policy is es-
sential to our national welfare.
The public lands of the United
States should be utilized in similar
fashion. Our present public lands laws
were passed when there was a vast
surplus of vacant public land The
chief desire was to secure settlers
thereon, and comparatively slight al
tention Yas paid as to exactly how the
lands were disposed of in detail In
consequence. lax execution of the laws
became the rule both in the land of
fee and in the public mind, and land
frauds were common and little noted.
This nh
tenn originally designed for the fertile
and well-watered regions of the Mid
die West was applied TO the dryer re
gions of the great plains and to the
mountains and the Pacific coast. In
these regions the system lent itself to
fraud, and much land passed out of the
hands of the government without pass
ing into The hands of the homemaker.
The Department of the Interior and
the Department of Justice Joined in
prosecuting the offenders against the
law; but both the law and its admins
tration were defective and needed to
be changed
Three years ago the public lands
commission was appointed to scruti-
nize the law and the facts and to rec
ommend a remedy. Their examination
specifically showed the existence OF
great frauds upon the public domain.
and their recommendations for
changes in the law were made with tn
design of conserving the natural re.
sources of every part of the public land
by putting it to its best use. Attention
was especially called to the prevention
of settlement by the passage of great
areas of public lands into the hands of
few men and to the enormous waste
caused by unrestricted grazing on the
open range; q system of using the nat
ural forage on the public domain which
amounts to putting a premium on its
destruction.
Commission Sound.
"The recommendations of the public
lands commission were sound for they
were especially in the interest of the
actual homemaker; and where the
small home maker could not utilize the
land. it was provided that the govern
ment should keep control of it so that
1t could not be monopolized by few
wealthy men. Congress has not yet
acted upon these recommendations, ex-
cept for the repeal of the inquitous
lieu-land law. But the recommenda-
tons are so just and proper, so essen
tial to our national welfare, that | be-
lieve they will surely ultimately be
adopted.
I'm 1891 Congress authorized the
President 10 create national forests In
the public domain. These forest re
serves remained for a long time in
charge of the General Land Office.
which had no men properly trained in
forestry. But another department, that
of agriculture, possessed trained men.
In other words, the government forests
were without foresters and the govern
foresters were without forests. Waste
of effort and waste of forests newt
ably followed. Finally the situation
was ended in 1905 by the creation of
the United States forest service, which
has stopped the waste, conserved the
resources of the national forests, and
made them useful, so that our forests
arc now being managed on coherent