Arizona republican., 1907-12-04

swamp land The Federal Govern
 ment should seriously devote itself to
 this task realizing that utilization of
 waterways and water-power, forestry. irrigation. and the reclamation of lands threatened with overflow, are all in-
 te erdependent parts of the same prob- lem The work of the Reclamation
 Service in developing the larger op- portunities Of the western half of our lcOuntry for irrigation is more import The constant purpose of the Govern
 ment Tn connection with the Reclana- | tion Service has been to use the water
 resources of the public lands 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 themselves and for their children and childrens chill dren There has been, of course, op- position 60 this work; opposition from
 some interested men who desire to ex- haust the land for their own immedi-
 ate profit without regard to the well fare of the next generation. and oppo- sition from honest and well-meaning men who did not full.' understand the subject or who did not look far enough ahead. This opposition is. l think. dy ing away. and our people are under standing that it would be utterly wrong to allow a few individuals to exhaust for their own temporary personal pro- fit the resources which ought to be de- veloped through use SO as to be con- served for the permanent common ad- vantage of the people as whole
 The Public Domain.
 "The effort of the Government to deal with the public land has been
 based upon the same principle as that of the Reclamation Service. The land law sxstem which was designed to
 meet the needs of the fertile and we'll
 watered regions Of the Middle West
 has largely broken down when applied
 to the dryer regions of the Great Plains. tEe mountains. and much of
 the Pacific slope. where a farm of 160 acres is inadequate for self-support
 In these regions the system lent it. self to fraud. and much land passed
 out of the hands of the Government without passing into the hands of the | home e-maker The Department of the Interior and the Department of Jus | tice joined in prosecuting the offend
 CTS against the law; and they have accomplished much, while where the administration of the law has been
 defective it has been changed. But the l laws themselves are defective. Three years ago a public lands commission was appointed to scrutiniZe the law and its defects, and recommend a remedy. Their examination specifically showed
 the existence of great fraud upon the public domain, and their recommenda-
 tions for changes in the law were made
 with the design of conserving the nat ural resources of every part of the public lands by putting it to its best use. Especial attention was called to the prevention of settlement by the
 passage of great areas of public land into the hands of a few men, and to the enormous waste caused by unre- stricted grazing upon the open range. The recommendations of the Public Lands Commission are sound. for they are especially in the interest of the ac- tual home-maker; and where the small
 home maker can not at present utilize the land they provide that the Gov ernment shall keep control of 1t so that it may not be monOpolized by a few
 men. The Congress has not yet act
 ed upon these recommendations: but they are so just and proper so essen
 tial to our national welfare. that feel confident, If the Congress will take time to consider them. they will
 ultimately be adopted.
 Some such legislation as that pro- posed is essential in order to preserve the great stretches of public grazing land which are unfit for cultivation
 under present methods and are valu- able only for the forage which they supply. These stretches amount in all to some 300. .000, 900 acres. and are open to the free grazing of cattle. sheep,
 horses and goats. without restriction. Such q system, or rather lack of sys- tenn, means that the range is not 90 much used as wasted by abuse. As the | West settles the range becomes more
 and more over-graZed. Much of it
 can not be used to advantage unless it is fenced, for fencing is the only way
 by which to keep in check the owners
 of nomad flocks which roam hither and thither, utterly destroying the
 pastures and leaving a waste behind
 so that their presence is incompatible
 with the presence of home makers.
 The existing fences are all illegal
 Some of them represent the improper
 exclusion of actual settlers. actual
 me-makers, from territory which is
 usurped by great cattle companies
 Some of them represent what is in it.
 self a proper effort to use the range
 for those upon the land. and to prevent
 its use by nomadic outsiders. All these
 fences those that are hurtful and those
 that are beneficial. are alike illegal
 and must come down. But it is an
 outrage that the law should necessitate
 such action on the part of the Admin
 istration. The unlawful fencing of
 public lands for private grazing must
 be stopped. but the necessity which
 occasioned it must be provided for.
 The Federal Government should have control of the range, whether by per
 init or lease, as local necessities may
 determine. Such control could secure
 the great benefit of legitimate fencing.
 while at the same time securing and
 promoting the settlement of the coun-
 try. In some places 1t may be that
 the tracts of range adjacent to the
 homesteads of actual settlers should
 be allotted to them severally or in
 common for the summer grazing of
 their stock. Elsewhere it may be that