The Huttig news., 1907-12-07

oNer-worklnB or women as the fail-
 ure to protect employees from loss of life or limb, can be effectively reached.
 any more than the evils of rebates and stock watering can be reached without good laws. To fail to stop these prac- ttces by Legislation means to force honest men into them. because other wise the dishonest who surely will 1 take advantage of them will have everything their own way. If the states | will correct these evils well and good; but the nation must stand ready to aid | them.
 Inland Waterway Systems
 Should Be Developed.
 'The conservation of our national re- | sources and their proper use constitute | the fundamental problem which under | lies almost every other problem of our | national life. We must maintain for | our civilization the adequate material | basis without which that civilization | cannot exist We must show foresight, we must look ahead. As a nation we 1 not only enjoy a wonderful measure of | present prosperity but if this prosper | ity is used alright 1t is an earnest of | future success such as no other nation | will have. The reward of foresight fol
 this nation is great and easily foretold. | But there must be the look ahead, | there must be a realization of the fact I resources, to skin and exhaust the land | instead of using 1t so as to increase it's | 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 l been endeayoring to get our people to | look ahead and to substitute a planned
 and orderly development of our re- | sources n place of a haphazard striv- | ing for immediate profit Our great | river systems should be developed as | national water highways; the Missis- | sippt with it's tributaries, standing first | in importance, and the Columbia sec l ond, although there are many others of | importance on the Pacific and Atlantic
 and the gulf slopes. The national gov | ernment should undertake this work, | and I hope a beginning will be made | in the present congress; and the great | est of all our rivers, the Mississippi, l should receive especial attention. From
 the Great Lakes to the mouth of the | Mississippi there should be a deep wa l terway, with deep waterways leading l from it to the east and the west. Such
 a waterway would practically mean | the extension of our coast line into the | very heart of our country. It 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 1 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 taint of recklessness or jobbery."
 Attention is called to the work of ir-
 rgation and reclamation of govern
 ment lands. In the same connection he
 asks for revision of the public land
 laws along the lines proposed by the | public lands commission. Believes the government should increase its efforts | to conserve our forests and should in | crease by purchase the existing forest | preserves On the subject of the natural
 resources of the nation he says:
 'In the eastern United States the
 mineral fuels have already passed into
 the hands of large private owners, and
 those of the west are rapidly following.
 It Is obvious that these fuels should be | conserved and not wasted, and it would l be well to protect the people against
 unjust and extortionate prices, so far
 as that can still be done. what has
 been accomplished in the great oil
 fields of the Indian Territory by the
 action of the administration offers a striking example of the good results
 of such policy. In my judgment the
 government should have the right to | keep the fee of the coal. oil and gas
 fields in it's own possession and to lease
 the rights to develop them under | proper regulations; or else, if the con-
 gross will not adopt this method the
 coal deposits should be sold under linn
 itations, to conserve them as public
 utilities, the right to mine coal being | separated from the title to the soil. | The regulations should permit coal ! lands to be worked in sufficient quan-
 tity by the several corporations. The
 present limitations have been absurd, | excessive, and serve no useful purpose, | and often render it necessary that
 there should be either fraud or else
 abandonment of the work of getting
 out the coal"
 Progress of the Work
 | On the Panama Canal.
 Work on the Panama canal Is pro-
 ceeding in a highly satisfactory man | ner. In March the total excavation in
 the Culebra Cut, where effort was | chiefly concentrated, was 815,270 cubic
 yards. In April this was increased to
 879.527 cubic yards. There was con- | siderable decrease in the output for
 May and June owing partly to the ad- l vent of the rainy season and partly to
 temporary trouble with the steam
 shovel men over the question of wages. | This trouble was settled satisfactorily | to all parties and in July the total ex- | cavation advanced materially and in
 August the grand total from all points
 in the canal prism by steam shovels | and dredges exceeded all previous | United States records, reaching 1,274,-
 404 cubic yards. In September this rec
 ord was eclipsed and a total of 1517,- | 412 cubic yards was removed. Of this
 amount 1,4S1, 307 cubic yards were from
 the canal prism and 36,105 cubic yards
 were from accessory works. These re-
 suits were achieved In the rainy sea-
 son with a rainfall in August of 11.89 | inches and in September of 11.65 inches. | Finally, in October, the record was | again eclipsed, the total excavation be-
 ing 1.S6S,729 cubic yards; a truly ex- traordinary record, especially in view
 of the heavy rainfall, which was I'll l inches. In fact experience during the | last two rainy seasons demonstrates | that the rains are a less serious ob- stacle to progress than has hitherto | been supposed.
 Work on the locks and dams at l Gatun, which began actively in March | last, has advanced so far that it is | thought that masonry work on the | locks can be begun within 15 months. |