The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-03-06
RESERVES BY WHIM.

Within every reasonable limitation
the policy of the administration at
Washin gton, to conserve the forest re-
gions of the far West, is entirely In
! line with the advancing knowledge and
experience of men in this part of the
Republic, and is entirely within the
proper exercise of executive power. In
deed, this administration is but fol
lowing in the footsteps of the lamented
Mckinley and Mr.. Cleveland.
But there comes time when zeal
devoted to one special purpose may
carry irresponsible power far beyond
the limits of safety or propriety. If any
men in this country should be qualified
to Judge of the needs for forest reser
vations, such men are the Senators and
Representatives from Western States
in which the reservations are to be ere"
ated. Without forest reservations there
was danger of denudation Of mountain
sides and a serious loss of water flow.
But with forest reservations established
from mere whim, and whenever and
wherever some faddist may suggest,
there is danger of turning back to or
retaining as wilderness large tracts of
public domain which should be open for
settlement by American citizens. To
exceed what wisdom and experience
and the needs of tho country demand
is to destroy the object for which the
forest reserve policy was originally de-
signed-the making and the maintain
ing of homes for the people in the
Western half of the country,
Like all policies: which are good if
intelligently pursued, this when abused
becomes the more powerful for evil.
II is noticeable that faddists in the
East are extremely free in the estab-
lishmept of reserves indiscriminately.
People in the States of the East which
States have had the benefit of their
own domain, conceive sudden anxiety
about public lands in the West; and
in this respect their attitude is very
much like that which they hold toward
the lndians-after killing off all their
own tribes they become superlatively
anxious about tho treatment Of Indians
iii the West. Some of this solicitude
is open to question, since it only awak-
ems after it has glutted itself in free
dom within It's own domain. and when
1t proposes to glut itself again by
creating unfreedom for other people.
Western Senators and Representa-
tt,r,g Ill 4, Ia.
all connected with land frauds and land
grabbers. 1t would seem to be con-
servativc suggestion that the Prcsi
dent might we'll have consulted with
these and with Congress. His arbi-
trary reservation of over seventeen mil.
lion acres of forest lands, after Con
grcss had sent to him bill whose very
purpose and intent was to prevent such
extraordinary action on his part. is
only a demonstration that he deems
himself to be better qualified to Judge
of the feelings and the needs of the
West than Is the combined intelligence
in Congress from such States and Terri
tories, and even better qualified than
is the entirety Of Congress.
The people Of the West expect to
dwell IN the West throughout thcir /
lives, and to pc succeeded by their own |
generations. Naturally, therefore they |
are alert TO the permanent welfare of /
this region. 1t is true that short /
sighted policy has been pursued here in
the past in this matter as elsewhere in
other affairs: but in the present public
temper upon this question there is no
longer danger of extravaganza and dc.
III the Western policy
Experience has taught the necessity for
conservation for definite purpose:
and experience has also taught that the
'reation of reserves, solely because
hero are vast tracts out Of which to
'reate them, may destroy the entire
purpose OF the reserve idea-which is
% facilitate the making of MANY
homes, and prosperous homes, for peo-
Die who seek to establish themselves
Independently upon the public domain
The resentment Of Western Senators
md Representative at the act of the