The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-06-21
nENvER's PACKED CONVENTION

DENVER's PACKED CONVENTION.
The public lands convention now in
session at Denver offers a perfect il
lustration of the national administra-
tion's system as applied to the land
question. Ostensibly a conference of
representative western men called To
discuss the presidents policy as affect
ing the national domain, the first move
showed that the friends of the admin
istration. led by its appOintees intend
ed to pack the convention with figure
head delegates and push through an ex-
preston approving the Roosevelt
scheme for forest reserves, leasing the
range and other paternalistic projects.
When the credentials committee be-
gan passing on the credentials it was
found that federal office holder, one
of the forest reserve men in Colorado
had very carefully distributed dele
gates tickets to enough Of his friends
to control the whole convention. Not
only had he loaded the dice, but he
had overloaded them. since he had pro-
vided Colorado with more delegates
than were present from all the other
states combined
Most naturally the outside states OBJ
jected strenuously to being buncOed in
such outrageous fashion. and the first
step in the proceedings was a row over
the question of representation. Event
ually il was found necessary to start
all over, have a new set of credentials
and apportion the vote so that some
semblance Of fairness could be pre-
served and the final declarations of
the convention bear some stamp of au-
thority other than the administration 5
O. X
Why should a convention of this sort
be required TO find out the sentiment
of the west. anyway? Congress used
to represent the people. east and west,
and the people this side of the Mis-
souri, have already expressed in con-
gress their hostility TO Roosevelt
whole lands program so far as it has
resulted in the illegal withdrawal of
lands from entry. the sequestration of
sarily and the humiliation of the
statutes wherever and whenever it has
pleased the president to believe that
the law could be ignored.
Under the present program of the ad-
ministration and its pet bureaucracy
the land office nearly all the public
domain open to entry would be with
drawn and the government act as a
landlord. granting grazing and other
rights to the favored ones and deny
ing such rights To those who happened
10 be at variance with the land Of
ficials. The tremendous power that
would center in the administration of
this one job can scarcely be realized
even by those who are familiar with
the possibilities OF public lands control.
To reward adherents and punish op-
ponents unrestrained by laws or by
public sentiment; to build up a politi-
cal machine through such faVors; to
centralize the command of millions of
acres Of land in one government de-
partment-all these are only part of the
program tidl Noult AoiloN the dubp-
tor of the Roosevelt idea.
Vicious as the old regime i'm the in
terror department was. and scandalous
as the land frauds We're. they We're
child's play compared with the era of
graft and fraud and coercive influence
that could be established under the new
plan.
Back of the objections to the presi-
dents theory is a broader ground of
opposition than the fear of political
power. great as that fear is. The peo-
pie of the west do not like the in
dividual control of immense areas that
has been the curse Of the great cat
tie and sheep ranges; but they fear
even more the control of an empire by
political appOintees. most of whom are
unfamiliar with local conditions. all of
whom would be directed and controlled
by small number of department heads
in Washington, who in turn would take
orders from the privileged few in touch
with the national administration.
Eventually such a regime would
mean the determination of the indie
pendent cattleman or sheepman. the
enthronement of the syndicate with a
pull" at Washington. 1t would mean
the cessation OF small entries by men
bent on establishing homes and farms