The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1907-12-04

But there must oe the look aneao. there
must be realization of the fact that
to waste, to destroy. our natural re-
sources to skin and exhaust the land
instead of using 1t so as to increase its
usefulness, will result in undermining
in the days of our children the very
prosperity which we ought by right to
hand down to them amplified and deVel-
oped. For the last few years, through
several agencies, the government has
been endeavoring to get our people to
look ahead and to substitute planned
and orderly development of our re-
sources in place of a haphazard striv-
ing for immediate profit. Our great
river systems should be developed as
national water highways; the Missis-
sppi. with it's tributaries. standing first
in Importance, and the Columbia sec
ond. although there are many others of
Importance on the Pacific, the Atlantic
and the gulf slopes. The national gov
eminent should undertake this work.
and / hope a beginning will be made
in the present congress-; and the great
est of all our rivers. the Mississippi
should receive especial attention. From
the Great Lakes to the mouth of the
Mississippi there should be a deep wa
terway. with deep waterways leading
from it to the east and the west Such
a waterway would practically mean
very heart of our country. 1t would be
of incalculable benefit to our people If
begun at once it can be carried through
in time appreciably to relieve the con-
gestion of our great freight carrying
lines of railroads. The work should be
Systematically and continuously carried
forward in accordance with some we'll
conceived plan. The main streams
should be improved to the highest
point of efficiency before the improve
ment of the branches is attempted: and
the work should be kept free from
every faint of recklessness or jobbery.
The inland waterways which lie lust
back of the whole eastern and southern
coasts should likewise be developed.
Moreover, the development of our wa
terways involves many other important
water problems, all of which should be
considered as part of the same general
scheme. The government dams should
be used to produce hundreds of thou
sands of horse power incident to
improving navigation; for the annual
value of the unused water power of the
United States perhaps exceeds the an
nual value of the products of all our
mines. AS an incident to creating the
deep waterway down the Mississippi,
the government should build along it's
whole lower length levees which, taken
together with the control of the head
complete stop to all threat of floods in
the immensely fertile Delta region. The
territory lying adjacent to the Missis-
sippi along it's lower course will there
by become one of the most prosperous
and populous, as it already is one of
the most fertile, farming regions in all
the world. / have appointed an inland
waterways commission to study and
outline a comprehensive scheme of de-
velopment along all the lines indicated
Later / shall lay it's report before the
congress.
Reclamation Work Is an
Most Important Movement.
Irrigation should be far more extern
sively developed than at present not
only in the states of the great plains
and the Rocky mountains but i'm MANY
others, as, for instance in large por-
tons of the South Atlantic and Gulf
states, where it should go hand in
hand with the reclamation of swamp
Ind. ! he federal government should
= seriously devote itself to this task
| realizing that utilization of waterways
ana water power. forestry. irrigation
and the reclamation of lands threat
ened with overflow. are all interde-
pendent parts of the same problem.
lhe work of the reclamation service
in developing the larger opportunities
irrigation is more important than all
most any other movement. The con-
slant purpose of the government in
connection with the reclamation service
mas been to use the water resources of
the public lands for the ultimate good
OF the greatest number; in other words
TO put upon the land permanent home
makers, to use and develop it for them
selves and for their children and chill
drens children. There has been of
course, opposition to this work; oppo-
sltlon from some interested men who
desire to exhaust the land for their own
immediate profit without regard to the
welfare of the next generation, and OPP
posltlon from honest and well-meaning
men who did not fully understand the
subject or who did not look far enough
ahead. This opposition is. l think dying
away, and our people are understand
ing that 1T would be utterly wrong to
ALLOW few individuals to exhaust for
their own temporary personal profit
the resources which ought to be devel-
oped through use SO as to be conserved
Tor the permanent common advantage
of the people as whole
Public Land Laws Are
In Need Of Revision.
The effort of the government to deal
with the public land has been based upon
49, SNN'sN
ton service. The land law system which
was designed to meet the needs of the
fertile and well-watered regions of the
middle west has largely broken down
when applied to the dryer regions of the
great plains, the mountains, and much of
the Pacific SLOPE where farm of 100
acres Is inadequate for self-support. In
these regions the system lent itself to
fraud, and much land passed out of the
hands Of the government without passing
into the hands of the home-maker The
department of the interior and the de-
partment of justice joined in prosecuting
the Offenders against the law; and they
have accomplished much, while where the
administration of the law has been de-
fectiVe 1T has been changed But the laws
themselves are defective. Three years
ago public lands commission was an
pointed to scrutinize the law, and de-
fects, and recommend remedy Their
examination specifically showed the ex-
istence of great fraud upon the public
domain. and their recommendations for
= changes in the law We're made with the
design of conserving the natural re-
sources of every part of the public lands
/ by putting it to its best use. Especial
| attention was called to the prevention of