The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-12-03

| llOl great ana easily 1OretOIQ. But
there must be the look ahead. there
must be a realization of the fact that
10 waste, to destroy, our natural re-
sources, TO skin and exhaust the land
instead of using it SO as to increase
its usefulness, will result in undermine
ing in the days of our children the
very prosperity which we ought by
right to hand down to them amplified
and developed. For the last few
years, through several agencies, the
government has been endeavoring to
get our people to look ahead and to
substitute a planned and orderly de-
Velopment of our resources in place
of a haphazard striving for i'm
mediate profit. Our great river sys-
TENS should be developed as national
J water highways; the Mississippi, with
its tributaries. standing first in i'm
portance, and the Columbia second,
although there are many others of
Importance on the Pacific. the At
lantic and the Gulf slopes. The ma
! tfonal government should undertake
this work, and 1 hope a beginning will
| be made in the present congress; and
the greatest of all our rivers, the Mis-
| sissippi, should receive special atten-
! ton. From the Great Lakes to the
mouth of the Mississippi there should.
be deep waterway, with deep water
| ways leading from it to the east and
| the west. Such a waterway would
practically mean the extension of our
coast line itno the very heart of our
| country. 1t would be of incalculable
| benefit to our people If begun at
| once it can be carried through in time
| appreciably to relieve the congestion
! of our great freight-carrying lines of
| railroads. The work should be sys-
tematically and continuously carried
forward in accordance with some
well-conceived plan. The main
streams should be improved to the
highest point of efficiency before the
improvement of the branches is at
l
kept free from every faint of reckless
ness or jobbery. The inland water |
ways which lie just back of the whole
eastern and southern coasts should
likewise be developed. Moreover. the
development of our waterways in
wolves many other important water
problems, all of which should be con-
sidered as part of the same general
scheme. the government dams should
be used to produce hundreds of thou |
sands of horsepower as an incident to |
improving navigation; for the annual |
value of the unused water-power of |
the United States perhaps exceeds the |
annual value of the products of all our
mines. AS an incident to creating the |
deep waterway down the Mississippi !
the government should build along it's |
whole lower length 1evees which !
taken together with the control of |
the headwaters. will at once and for
ever put a complete stop to all threat |
of floods in the immensely fertile |
Delta region. The territory lying |
adjacent to the Mississippi along its !
lower course will thereby become one |
of the most prosperous and populous, /
it already is one of the most fer
tile, farming regions in all the world.
1 have appointed an inland waterways
commission to study and outline a
comprehensive scheme of develop
ment along all the lines indicated.
Later 1 shall lay its report before the
congress.
Reclamation Work.
Irrigation should be far more ex-
tensively developed than at present,
not only in the states of the Great
Plains and the Rocky Mountains, but
in many others. as for. instance, in
large portions of the South Atlantic
and Gulf states. where it should go
hand in hand with the reclamation of
swamp land. The federal government
should seriously devote itself to this
task, realizing that utilization of
waterways and water-power, forestry
irrigation, and the reclamation of
interdependent parts of the same
problem. The work of the reclama-
ton service in developing the larger
opportunities of the western half of
portant than almost any other move
ment. The constant purpose of the
government in connection with the
reclamation service has been to use
:
for the ultimate greatest good of the
greatest number: in other words, to
put upon the land permanent home
makers. to use and develop it for ,
and for their children and
childrcn's children. There has been,
Of course. opposition to this work;
opposition from soma interested men
who desire to exhaust the land for
their own immediate profit without .
regard to the welfare of the next
generation and oDDOSitiOn from hon
est and well-meaning men who did
not fully understand the subject or
who did not look far enough ahead.
This opposition is, 1, think, dying away,
and our people are understanding that
it would be utterly wrong to allow
few individuals to exhaust for their
own temporary personal profit the re-
sources which ought to be developed {
through use so as to be conserved for :
the permanent common advantage of
the people as whole.
Public Lands )
The effort of the government to I
1eal with the public land has been '
based upon the same principle as
hat of the reclamation service. The 7
and law system which was designed t
% meet the needs of the fertile and L
WE'LL watered regions of the Middle [
applied to the dryer regions of the +
Great Plains. the mountains, and much v
If the Pacific slope, where a farm of
so acres is inadequate for self-sup- +
bort. In these regions the system lent t
tself to fraud. and much land passed C
nut of the hands of the government d
Without passing into the hands of the t
The department. of the n
interior and the department of justice p
oined in prosecuting the offenders
Lgainst the law; and they have accom- e
,lished much while where the admins o
ration of the law has been defective p