Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1907-06-20

Jamestown, Va.-The following Is the
address OF President Roosevelt before
the National Editorial association at the
exposition here:
1t is of course a mere trulsm to say that
no other body Of our c~ountrymen WELD as
extensive an influence as those who write
for the daily press and for the periodi-
Gals. 1t is also a truism to say that
such power implies the gravest respon-
sibiltty, and the mar exercising it should
mold himself accountable, and should be
held by others accountable, precisely as
II he occupied any other position of pub
lie trust. l do not intend to dwell upon
your duties to-day, save that l shall
permit myself to point out one matter
where 1t seems to me that the need of
our people is vital. J. Is essential that
the man in public life and the mar who
writes in the public press shall both of
them. IL they are really good servants
or the people, be prompt to assail wrong
doing and wickedness. But in thus assail-
ing w~rongdoing and w~ickedness, there
are two conditions to be fulfilled, because
II unfulilled, harm and not good will
result. In the first place, be sure Of
your facts n avoid everything like
hysteria or exaggeration; for to assail
a decent man for something of which he
- hACNNhN 70 w blNG dlu anu COIllOTL 10
every scoundrel, while indulgence in hys-
terical eX~aggeration serves to weaken,
not strengthen, the statement of truth.
In the second place, be sure that you
base your judgment on conduct and not
on the social or economic position of the
individual with whom you are dealing.
So much for what / have to say to
you in your capacity of molders and
guides of public thought. In addition
Unn - aNAaIg - -4
movements in our public life which I
feel must necessarily occupy no incon-
siderable part of the time of our public
men in the near future. One of these is
the question of, in certain ways re-
shaping 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
natural resources of the nation in the
way thai will be of most benefit to the
nation as a whole.
Need of Foresight.
In utilizing and conserving the natural
resources of the nation the one charac-
teristic more essential thar any other is
foresight. Unfortunately, foresight is
not usually characteristic of a young and
vigorous people, nj 1t is obviously not
a marked characteristic of us In the
United States. Yet assuredly it should be
the growing nation with a future which
k the long look ahead; and no other
nation is growing so rapidly as ours or
has a future so full of promise. No other
nation enjoys so wonderful a measure OF
present prosperity which can of right
be treated as an earnest of future sue
cess, and for no other are the rewards
or foresight so great, so certain, and so
easily foretold.
The conservation of our natural re-
sources n their proper use constitute
the fundamental problem which underlies
almost every other problem of our ma
tional life. Unless we maintain an ade-
equate materlal basis for our civilization,
we can not maintain the institutions in
which we take so great and just a pride;
and to waste and destroy our natural
means to undermine this ma
terial basis. During the last five years
efforts have been made in several new
directions in the government service to
get our people to look ahead, to exercise
foresight. and to substitute a planned and
orderly development of our resources in
the place of a haphazard striving for
Immediate profit. The effort has been
made through several agencies.
In 1902 the reclamation s~ervice began
to develop the larger opportunities of the
western half of our country for irriga-
LlOI. 1H0 WpIh luCluuSS oil llS 5ldLco
from the great plains through the Rocky
mountains to the Pacific slope. 1t has
been conducted with the clear and def
mite purpose of using the valuable water
resources of the public Ian for the
greatest good for the greatest number in
the long run; in other words, for the
purpose of putting upon the land perma-
}nent home makers who will use and
develop 1t for themselves and for their
children and children's children. There
has been opposition, of course, to this
work of the reclamation service; for we
nave been obliged to ~antagonize certain
men whose interest It was to exhaust for
their own temporary personal profit nat
ural resources which ought to be devel-
oped through use, SO as to be conserved
for the permanent common advantage Of
the people as a whole. But there will be
no halt in the work of preserving the
waters which head In the Rocky noun
tain region so as to make them of most
use to the people as a whole; for the
policy Is essential to our national well
fare.
Operations Of Land Laws.
The public lands of the United States
should be utilized in similar fashion. Our
present public land laws were passed
when there was a vast surplus of vacant
public land. The chief desire was to
secure settlers thereon, and comparative
ly slight attention was paid as to exactly
how the lands we're disposed of in de-
tall. In consequence, lax execution OF
the laws became the rule both in the land
office and in the public mind, and lane
frauds we're ommon and little noted
This was especially true when a system
originally designed for the fertile ant
well-watered regions of the middle ives
was applied to the dryer regions of thu
great plains and to the mountains ant
the Pacific coast. In these regions TIL
system lent itself to fraud, and mucl
Hand passed out Of the hands Of the gov
eminent without passing into the hand
of the home maker. The department o
the interior and the department of justic
Joined in prosecuting the offender
against the law; but both the law an
Its administration were defective an
needed to be changed. Three years ag
a public lands commission was appoint
ed to scrutinize the law and the fact
and to recommend a remedy. Their ex