Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-10-05
ROOSEVELT
CONTINUED from Page IL

MSHt5 - SILL It's Infancy, ana II Will
doubtless long continue to multiply
homes and Increase the productive
ness and power Of the nation. The
reclamation of overflow lands and
marshes, both In the interior and
along the coasts, has already been
carried on with admirable results,
but in this field too, SCARCELY more
than a good beginning has yet been
made. Still another fundamentally
important question is that of water
power. Its significance in the future
development of our whole country,
and especially of the west is but just
beginning to be understood. The
plan of the city of Los Angeles, for
example. to bring water for its use a
distance of nearly $50 miles perhaps
the boldest project Of the kind in
modern times onlises not only to
achieve Its purpose but in. addition
to- produce (. water power sufficiently
valuable to pay large interest on the
Investment Of over $4,000 200.
Hitherto such opp ortunities for us
ing water tosdouble purpose have not
always been seized Thus 1t has re-
Gently been shown that water enough
is flowing ,laused over government
dams, built to iii eve navigation,
to produce many husdrads Of thous-
santlsands Of horsepower III is COM
sputed that the annual value of the
available but unused water power il,
the United States excee Is the annual
value of the product Of all our mines.
Furthermore, it is calculated that un-
der judicious handling the power Of
our streams may be made to pay for
all the works required for the COM
plete development and control of our
inland waterways.
Forests are the most effective pre-
Venters of floods, especially when
they grow on the higher mountain
slopes. The national forest policy,
inaugurated primarily to avert or
mitigate the timber famine which is
now beginning to be felt, has been eff
5fectiye also In securing partial COM
troll of floods by retarding the run-off
and checking the erosion of the high
er slopes within the national forests.
Still the loss from soil wash is enor-
nous. IT Is computed that one-fifth
of cubic mile in volume, or one bill
lion tons in weight of the richest soil
matter of the United States, is an
nuaHy gathered in storm riyulets,
washed into the rivers, and borne
into the sea. The loss to the farmer
is in effect a tax greater than all 9TH
er land taxes combined, and one
yielding absolutely no returns. The
department of agriculture is now de-
vising and testing means to check
this enormous waste through improV-
ed methods of agriculture and forest
management. as
Citizens of all portions of the coun-
try are coming to realize that, how
ever important the improvement of
navigation may be, it is only one Of
many ends to be kept in view. The
demand for navigation is hardly more
pressing than the demands for re
claiming lands by irrigation in the
arid regions and by drainage IN the
humid low lands or for utilizing the
water power now running to waste,
or for purifying the waters SO as to
promote manufactures and safeguard
life. st is the part OF isdon1 to adopt
not tumble of unrelated plans, but
| a single comprehensive scheme fol
meeting all the demands SO far as
possible at the same time and by thu
! same means. This is the reason VIII.
| the Inland waterways commission
! was created IN March last, largely il
response to petitions from citizen
of the interior, including many q
the members Of this congress. Broa.
instructions were given to the com
mission III accordance to the gen
eral policy that no plan should u
4 prepared for the use Of any strear
for d single purpose without care
/ fully consid ering and so far as pras
lticable actually providing for the us
OF that stream for every other pul
pose. Plans for navigation and poy
er should provide with special car
for sites and terminals not emily e
the Immediate present but also a
the flture. 1t Is because of my cor
vietion iii these matters that al
here. The Inland Waterways con
Almission has a tack broader than ~
confederation of waterways aIon
There is an intimate relation betWee
our streams and Che development at
conservation Of all the Other ere
& | permanent sources Of wealth ItS
not possible rightly to consider q
one without the other. No study
& the pro bIen of the waterways cosi