The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-10-05


 land navigation is a vital problem,
 there are other questions of no less | conseQuence connected with our water ways. One of these relates to the purf- ty of waters used for the supply of
 towns and cities. to the prevention of | pollution by manufacturing and other industries. and to the protection of drainage areas from soil wash through forest covering or .judicious cultivation.
 With our constantly increasing popula.. l ton this question becomes more and more pressing. because the health and safety of great hodies of citizens are directly involved.
 l Another Important group of aues- tions concerns the irrigation of arid landss the prevention of floods. and the reclamation of swamps. Already many thousands of homes have been estab- lished on the arid regions. and the population and wealth of sew ateen- States and Territories have been large ly increased through irri,a.ion. Yet this means of national development is | still in it's infancy. and 1t will doubt less long continuep to multiply homes and increase the productiveness and of overflow lands and marshes. both I in the Interior and along the coasts
 has already been carried on with ad- mirable results, but in this field, too, scarcely more than good beginning has yet been made. Still another Fundamentally important question Is that of water power. It's significance | In the future development of our whole cnnntrv and especially of the West, Is but just beginning to be un- derstood. The plan of the city of Los Angeles. for example, to bring water | for its use a, distance of nearly 25s miles--perhaps the boldest project of the kind in modern times-promises not only to achieve its purpose. but in ad- dition to produce water power suf- f.ciently valuable to pay large interest | on the investment of over s23,o00, 900. Country's Water Power. Hitherto such opportunities for us- ing water to double purpose have not always been seized. Thus 1t has recently been shown that water enough is flowing un-used over government dams, built to improve navigation, to I produce many hundreds of thousands of horsepower. It is computed that the annual value of the available but unused water power in the United l States exceeds the annual value of the products of all our mines. Rur- thermore, 1t is calculated that under judicious handling the power of our works required for the complete I development and control of our inland l waterways.
 Forests are the most effective pre-
 wenters of Hoods. especially when they | The national forest policy inagurated I primarily to avert or mitigate the tim
 per famine which is now beginning to | be felt, has been effective also in se- | curing partial control of floods by re-
 tarding the run-om and checking the
 sho sosI1n ra,,o1a, g, Sa,s mIEIer sI0Res 0Res Within I from soil wash Is enormous. It is l computed that one-fifth of cubic mile i 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
 darmer asi nt IS in erect @ a ,s tax greater than l yielding absolutely no return. The l Department of Agriculture Is now de- l yising and testing means to check this | enormous waste through improved
 methods of agriculture and forest man. I agement.
 Citizens of all portions of the coun- | ever Important the Improvement of l navigation may be, it Is only one of many ends to be kept In view. The I demand for navigation is hardly more I pressing than the demands for reclaim ing lands by irrigation In the arid regions. and by drainage in the humid l lowlands. or for utilizing the water
 power now running to waste. or for purifying the waters so as to reduce | or remove the tax Of soil waste. to | promote manufactures and safeguard | life. It Is the part of wisdom to adopt l not 8 tumble of unrelated plans. but l single comprehensive scheme for meet l ing all the demands so far as possible I at the same time and by the same l This is the reason why the Inland Waterways Commission was created
 petitiona m from rom citizens % of the inass Interior IT. I including many of the members of this Congress. Broad instructions | were given to the Commission in ac- l no plan should be prepared for the use Of any stream for q single purpose
 without carefully considering. and so | for the use of that stream for every other purpose. Plans for navigation and power should provide with spe- only for the immediate present but also for the future. It is because of
 my conviction in these matters that
 Task of Commission.
 The Inland Waterways Commission has task broader than the consider ation of waterways alone. There is an and the development and eonservstion sources of wsalth. s e is not ReI%safhs possibie other. No study of the problem of the waterways could hope to be successful which failed to consider also the re- maining factors in the great problem Of conserving all our resources. Ac- cordingly, l have asked the Water ways Commission to take account of lne Ofuerly development and cOnSerVa- tton, not alone of the waters, but also of the soil, the forests. the mines, and all the other natural resources of our county.
 Many of these resources which we have been in the habit of calling in- exhaustible are being rapidly exhaust ed, or in certain regions have actually fields. and iron mines In important numbers are already worked out. The coal and oil measures which remain are passing rapidly, or have actually passed, into the possession of great corporations, who acquire ominous of these prime necessities of modern life; a control without supervision of any kind. We are consuming our for ests three times, faster than they are being reproduced. Some of the richest timber lands of this continent have 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. without exhaustion, just like grain fields.
 Our public lands, whose highest use been and are still being taken in great quantities by large private owners. to whom home making is at the very best but secondary motive subordinate to the desire for profit To allow the public lands to be worked by the ten ants of rich men for the profit of the landlords, instead of by freeholders, for the livelihood of their wives and children, Is little less than a crime against our people and our institu- tions.
 The great central fact of the public land situation. as the Public Lands Commission well said, is that the amount of public land patented by the