Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-10

| class are always unsafe and are sometimes
| very dangerous, leaders Distrust equally
| the man who is never able to discover any
| vices of rich men to attack and the man
| who confines himself to attacking the sins
| and shortcomings Of rich men. 1t is
| sure sign of moral and mental dishonesty
| In any man If in his public assaults upon
| 1n1Quity he is never able to iniquity
| save that of a particular Glass; and this
| whether he is able only to see the crimes
| OF arrogance and oppression in the rich or
| the crimes of envy and violence in the
| poor. He is no true American If he is
| respecter of persons where right and wrong
| are concerned and If he fails to denounce
| ufle demagogue no less than the corruption
list. to denounce alike crimes Of organized
| greed and crimes of brutal violence. There
| Is equal need to denounce the wealthy man
| VINO sWlndles investors or buys legislatures
| or Expresses wageworkers, and the needy
man who infiames class hatred or incites
| mop violence We need to hold the scales
| OF justice even, and to weigh them down
| on one side IS as bad as to weigh them
down on the other
| System Of Taxation.
So much for what 1 have to say to Won
| IN your capacity of molders and guides of
| public thought. In addition 1 want to speak
| 10 you on two great movements in our
public life which l feel must necessarily o.
! cupy no inconsiderable part of the time
OF our pubic men in the near future. One
| VI these is tHe question or, in certain ways,
| reshaping our system of taxation so as to
make 1t bear most heavily on those most
capable of supporting the strain The
| other Is the question of utilizing the nat
ufal resources of the nation in the way that
Will be of most benefit to the nation as a
| whole
| In utilizing and conserving the natural re-
sources of the nation the one characte ristic
| more essential than any other is foresight
| unfortunately, foresight is not usually
| characteristic OF a young and vigorous peo
pie and 1t is obviously not marked char
acterisuc of us In the United States. Yet
assuredly 1t should be the growing nation
with future which takes the long look
ahead; and no other nation is growing SO
rapidly as ours or has future so full of
promise. No other nation enjoys so Won
| derful a measure of present prosperity
which can of right be treated as an ear
| nest or future success and for other are
| the rewards of foresight so great so GER
| tain and so easily foretold. Yet hitherto
as nation we have tended to live with
| an eye single to the present, and have per-
| mitted the reckless waste and destruction
OF much OF our natural wealth.
Public Land Laws.
The conservation of our natural resources
| and their proper constitute the funda-
| mental problem which underlies almost
| every other problem of our national life
Unless we maintain adequate material
| basis for our civilization, we cannot main
| tain the institutions in which we take so
great and so just a pride; and to waste
| and destroy our natural resources means to
| undermine this material basis. During the
| last five years efforts have been made in
several new directions in the government
srvlce to get our people to look ahead, to
| planned and orderly development of our
| resources in the place of haphazard striv-
| Ing for immediate profit The effort has
| been made through several agencies.
| q ppl a mat TO
| develop the larger opportunities of the west
ern half of our country for irrigation. The
work includes all the states from the great
| plains through the Rocky mountains to the
| Pacific slope. 1t has been conducted with
| the clear and definite purpose of using the
| valuable water resources of the public land
| for the greatest good for the greatest num-
Der In the long run; in other words, for
| the purpose of putting upon the land per-
| manent home-makers who will use and de-
| velop 1t for themselves and for their chill
| dren and chidren's children. There has
| been opposition, of course, to this work of
| the reclamation SERVICE for we have been
| obliged to antagonize certain men whose
| interest it was to exhaust for their own
| temporary personal profit natural resources
which ought to be developed through use,
| SO as to be conserved for the permanent
| common advantage of the people a
whole. But there will be no halt in the
| work of preserving the waters which head
| in the Rocky mountain region SO as to
make them of most to the people as a
| whole; for the policy is essential to our ma
| tional welfare.
Basis for Civilization.
| The public lands of the United States
| should be utilized in similar fashion. Our
| present public land laws were passed when
| there was vast surplus of vacant public
| land. The chief desire was to secure set
| tiers thereon, and comparatively slight at
tention was paid to exactly how the
| 1r,,
quence, lax execution Of the laws became
| the rule both in the land office and in the
public mind, and land frauds were COM
mon and little noted. This was especially
| true when a system originally designed for
! the fertile and well-watered regions of the
middle west was applied to the dryer re-
| g1ons of the great plains and to the noun
| tains and the Pacific coast. In these regions
the system lent itself to fraud, and much
| land passed out of the hands of the govern
| ment without passing into the hands of the
| home-maker. The Department of the In
! terror and the Department of Justice Joined
| in prosecuting the offenders against the
| law; but both the law and its adminstra-
| ton defective and needed to be
changed. Three years ago a public lands
| commission was appointed to scrutinize the
| law and the facts and to recommend
remedy. Their examination specifically
| showed the existence of great frauds upon
the public domain, and their recommended
| tons for changes in the law were made
| with the design of conserving the natural
resources of every part of the public land
| by putting it to its best use. Attention was
especially called to the prevention of settle
ment by the passage of great areas of pub
| lie lands into the hands of few men, and
| to the enormous waste caused by unre-
| stricted grazing on the open range; sys-
| tenn of using the natural forage on the
| public domain which amounts to putting a
premium it's destruction. The recon-
| mendations of the public lands commission
! We're sound for they were especially in the
| interest of the actual home-maker; and
| where the small home-maker could not util-
ize the land, 1t provided that the gov
| eminent should keep control of it SO that 1t
| could not be monopolized by a few wealthy
men. Congress has not yet acted upon
| these recommendations, except for the re-
peal of the Ubiquitous leu-land law But
| the recommendations are so just and prop
| er, essential to national welfare,
that I believe they will surely ultimately
| be adopted.
National Forestry.
In 1891 Congress authorized the President
to create national forests in the public
domain. These forest reserves remained
for a long time in charge of the general