Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-12-03


 should be kept free from every tsirt Of reckiessneEs or jobbery. The inland
 waterways which lie just back Of the
 whole eastern and southern coasts should likewise be developed More over, the development of our water-
 ways 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 horsepower as an incident to improving navigation, for the annual value of the unused water powersof the United States perhaps exceeds the annual 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, talk en together with the control of the headwaters, will at once and forever put a complete stop to all threat of floods in the immensely fertile delta region. The territory lying adjacent to the Mississippi along it's lower course will thereby become one of the most prosperous and populous as it all ready is one of the most fertile farm- ing regions in all the world. have appointed an inland waterways com mission to study and outline a compre- hensive scheme of development along all the lines indicated. Later shall lay its report before the congress.
 .s Reclamation Work.
 Irrigation should be far more exten. sively developed than at present, not only in the states of the great plains and the Rocky mountains, but in many others-as. for instance, in large DOT tions of the south Atlantic and gulf states, where it should go hand in hand with the reclamation of swamp land. The federal government should seriously devote itself to this task, realizing that utilization of waterways and water power, forestry, irrigation and the reclamation of lands threat ened with overflow are all interde- pendent parts of the same problem. The work of the reclamation service in developing the larger opportunities of the western half of our country for irrigation is more important than all most any other movement. The con stant purpose of the government in connection with the reclamation serv- ice has been to use the water resources of the public lands for the ultimate greatest good of the greatest number in other words, to put upon the land permanent homemakers, to use and develop it for themselves and for their children and children's children. There work-opposition from some interested men who desire to exhaust the land for their own immediate profit without regard to the welfare of the next gen eration and opposition from honest and well meaning men who did not fully understand the subject or who did not look far enough ahead. This opposi- tion is, I think, dying away. and our people are understanding that it would be utterly wrong to allow a few in- diyiduals to exhaust for their own temporary personal profit the resources which ought to be developed through use so as to be conserved for the per manent common advantage of the peo- pie as whole. a@
 Public Lands. t1
 The effort of the government to deal with the public land has been based upon the same principle as that of the reclamation service. The land law sys- tenn 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 drier regions of the great plains, the noun tains and much of the Pacific slope, where a farm of 160 acres is made quate for self support. In these re- gions, the system lent itself to fraud, and much land passed out of the hands of the government without passing into the hands of the homemaker. The de- pertinent of the interior and the de- partment of justice joined in prosecut- ing the offenders against the law, and thSs haNt dSSolupiiohcu Hutu, Nhiic where the administration of the law has been defective 1t has been changed. But the laws themselves are defective. Three years ago public lands com mission was appointed to scrutinize the law and defects and recommend remedy. Their examination specific ally showed the existence of great fraud upon the public domain, al their recommendations for changes ii the law were made with the design of the natural resources of every part of the public lands by put ting 1t to its best use. Especial atten ton was called to the prevention oi settlement by the passage of grea areas of public land into the hands of few men and to the enormous wastd caused by unrestricted grazing upoi the open range. The recommendation of the public lands commission ar sound, for they are especially in the fin terest of the actual homemaker. and where the small homemaker cannot a present utilize the land they provid that the government shall keep contrc of 1t so that 1t may not be monopolls cd by a few men. The congress ha not yet acted upon these recommende tions. but they are so just and prope' so essential to our national welfar that I feel confident if the eongres will take time to consider them the