The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-12-04

hope . beginning will be made in the
 present Congress: and the greatest of
 sil Snvs our s.n rivers the Mississippi, should Great Lakes to the mouth of the Ms
 sisssippf there should be deep water
 way with deep waterways leading
 from 1t toi the East and West. Such
 waterwat would practically inesn the
 extension of our coast line into the very heart of the country. It would
 be of tncalculable bnnnft to .,,ir peo-
 ried through in time to aoprociably re- | lieye the congestion os our great
 freight carrying line ot railrpais. Tie
 t;ono,,.l W0rn shouia be syste,natica'ly and cen ance with some well c,n ..aiv"d I.Ic n The main streams should be improy sd
 10 the higest point of eficiency before
 tempted: and the work should be kept
 tree from every taint of recklessnfss
 or or robbery. The inland waterways
 ern and southern coasts should like
 wise be developed. Moreover. the de- | velopment of our waterways involves
 all of which should be considered as part of the general scheme. The Gov
 srnment dam should be used to pro- power as an incident to improving nav [ 1gation: for the, annual value of the
 unused water power of the United
 of fSe psodnsts of 'as ail aar our mime. ns As an incident to creating the deep wa
 terway down the Mississippi the Govern
 men ment should build along It's whole
 with the. control of the headwaters.
 u1et Milt at s,o0 once s ana foSever put q con, territory lying adjacent to the Mississ- ippi along it's lower course will there- by become one of the most fertile farm pointed an Inland M e Waterways aS 1sSs commiD. a sion to study and outlipe a comprehen-
 ivs. sivs scheme M for development, along the ! report before Congress.
 Reclamation Work.
 Irrigation should be far more ex-
 tensively developed than at present. not only in the States of the Great Plains
 and the Rocky Mountains, but in many tions of the South Atlantic and Gulf States, where 1t should go hand in hand with the reclamation of swamp land. oasly devote itseif ' to this S task. reai- real fzing that utilization of waterways and water power, forestry. irrigation and
 the reclamation Of lands threatened parts of the same problem. The work of the reclamation service in develop
 ing the larger quantities of the west
 ern half of our country for irrigation
 IS more important than almost any
 other movement. The constant purpose
 of the government in connection with
 the reclamation service has been to use
 the water resources of the public lands
 Tor the ultimate greatest good of the
 greatest number; in other words. to
 makers. to use and develop it for them-
 selves and for tn cir children and chil-
 dren's children. There has been, of
 sition from some interested men wne
 desire to exhaust the land for heir own
 immediate profit without regard to the
 opposition from honest and well mean
 ing men who did not fully understand
 the subject or who did not look far enough ahead. This opposition is, I think, dying away, and oar people are understanding that 1t would be utterly
 wrong to allow a few individuals to exhaust for their own temporary per sonal profit the resources which ought to be developed through use so as to be conserved for the permanent com mon advantage of the people as a whole.
 Public Lands.
 The effort ofithe government to deal with the public land has been based upon the same principle as that of the tenn which was designed to meet the needs of the fertile and well watered | regions of the Middle West has large- | dryer regions of the Great Plains. the | mountains, and much of the Pacific | slope, where farm of 160 acres is | Ahd0SqudLS TUT SCH support. Tn these | regions the system lent itself to fraud, | and much land passed out of the hands | or the government without passing into | the hands of the home-maker. The | Department of the Interior and the | Department of Justice joined in prose- cutting the offenders against the law; ana they have accomplished much, while where the administration of the | law has been defective 1t has been changed. But the laws themselves are defective. Three years ago a public scrutinize the law, and defects, and recommend remedy. Their exami- nation specifically showed the existence Of great fraud upon the public domain, and their recommendations for changes in the law were made with the design or conserving the natural resources of ting it to its best use Especial atten- tton 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 unrestricted grazing upon the open range. The recommendations of the public lands commission are sound. for they are especially in the interest of the actual home maker; and there the small home maker can not at that the government shall keep control by few men. The Congress has not yet acted upon these recommendations: but they are so just and proper so essential to our national welfare, that reel conHuent, IT the Congress VIII l take time to consider them, that 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 un- der present methods and are valuable only for the forage which they supply These stretches amount in all to some SOO,OOOoOO acres, and are open to the free grazing of cattle, sheen horses and goats without restriction. Such a system, or rather such lack of sys- tenn, means that the range Is not so much used as wasted by abuse. As the West settles the ranges becomes more and more over -grazed. Much of lt can not be used to advantage un- less It Is fenced, for fencing is the only way by which to keep In check the owners of nomad flocks which roam nlther and thither, utterly destroying the pastures and leaving a waste be- hind so that their presence is incom- patlole With the presence of home makers. The existing fences are all il- legal. Some of them represent the inn Lual home-makers, from territory which IS usurped by great cattle companies. some or them represent what is in Itself B proper effort to use the range for those upon the land, and to prevent its use by nomadic outsiders. All these that are beneficial, are alike Illegal and must come down. But it is an out rage that the law sh ould necessitate Such action on the part of the admin stratlon. The unlawful fencing of pupllc lands for private grazing must casioned it must be provided for. The tederaI government should have con | -rol Of the range. whether by permit or ease, as local necessities may deter