Albuquerque citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1907-1909, 1907-10-04

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the @ on the higher mountain
sloI he national forest policy,
inau ! primarily to avert or
mltia timber famine which is
erect I6; in securing securing partial ,ss con-
and c ing the erosion of the
| higher slopes within the national for
ests. Still the loss from soil wash Is
enormous. 1t is computed that one
fifth of a cubic mile in volume, or
one billion tons in weight of the
richest soil matter of the United
States, is annually gathered in storm
| rivulets, washed into the rivers, and
| borne into the sea. The loss to the
| farmer is in effect a tax greater than
all other land taxes combined, and
one yielding absolutely no return.
| The department of agriculture is
now devising and testing means TO
| check this enormous waste through
| improved methods of agriculture and
| forest management.
Resources Failing.
| MANY of the resources which we
have been in the habit of calling in
exhaustible are being rapidly ex-
| hausted, or in certain regions have
| actually disappeared. Coal mines,
! oil and gas fields, and iron mines in
| important numbers are already
| worked out. The coal and oil meas
ures which remain are passing rap
| idly, or have actually passed, into
the possession of great corporations,
| who acquire ominous power through
| an unchecked control of these prime
necessities of modern life; a control
| without supervision of any kind. We
| are consuming our forests three
| times faster than they are being re-
| produced. Some of the richest tim
ber lands of this continent have al
ready been destroyed, and not re-
| placed, and other vast areas are on
| the verge of destruction. Yet forests,
| unlike mines, can be so handled as
to yield the best results of use, with
| out exhaustion, just like grain fielus.
Public Lands.
"Our public lands. whose highest |
use is to supply homes for our peo-
pie, have been and are still being |
taken in great quantities by large !
private owners, to whom home |
making is at the best best but a |
secondary motive subordinate to the |
desire for profit To allow the pub |
lie lands to be worked by the ten |
ants of rich men for the profit of |
the landlords, instead of by free |
holders for the livelihood of their |
wives and children, is little less than |
a crime against our people and our |
Institutions.
Must Add TO Navy.
Remember, gentlemen, that any |
WOTh IKE lillS grave ltSpph-
sibiHtes. The one intolerable posi-
ton for a sef-respecting nation, as
for a self-reSpecting man, Is to bluff |
and then not be able to make good.
We have accepted the Monroe doc
trine as a cardinal feature of our
foreign policy. We have undertaken
not only to build but to police and
to guard the Panama canal. This
means, unless we are willing to ac-
cept the humiliation Of being treated
some time by some strong nation as
a vain and weak braggart, that we
must build and maintain our navy
at the highest point of efficiency.
When the canal is finished our navy
can move from one ocean to the oth-
er at will; for, remember that our
doors open on both oceans. Until
then our battle fleet, which should
always be kept and maneuvered as
unit, ought now to appear in our
home waters in one ocean and now
to appear in our home waters in
the other.
such questions as the upbuilding
and maintenance of the United
States navy, the completion of the
Panama canal in accordance with
the plans now being carried out, and
the improvement of the Mississippi
river, are not party questions. L am
striving to accomplish what 1 can in
such matters as these because the
welfare of the nation imperiously
demands the action that l am TAX
ing. 1t is action in the interest of .
the people, and the need for 1t will
be as great long after / have pass
ed out of public life as it is now.
on these great points that have
mentioned, as on others L could
mention, from the standpoint OF the
nation the policy is everything
while it is of little Importance who
cares it out so long as it actually
is carried out. Therefore, l hope you {
will see to it., according to your best I
endeavor, that the policy is accept
be persevered in because of the in ;
terest of the whole people, and with
out regard to any possible political
changes.
Regulation of Railways.
Before closing let me say a word :
upon the subject of the regulation
of the railways by congress under
the constitution. In my judgment
the old days of happy -go-lucky in
difference on the part Of the public
to the conduct of the corporations
have passed. The American people
has made up its mind that the con-
dItions of modern industrialism are
such as imperauve1y to demand su-
perYision in the interest of the peo-
pie as a whole over these great cor
porations Most emphatically we
she uld do full justice to them; but
in return we should exact justice
from them to the public. Some of
them have become so habituated to
everything but their
own wishes and interests that the
effont to establish a proper supervis-
ion over them has aroused on their
part a curiously unreasonable an
tagonism. We can no more tolerate :
injustice to the railroads than in
justice by them; one course is as i'm
moral and as fundamentally mis-
chievous and injurious to the people
as the other.
Supervision of Corporations.
I'm the matter of supervision of ;
the great railway corporations We
are acting as all civilized govern Z
ments have already acted or are on
the nninL of acting The mnresI riot