Bismarck daily tribune., 1908-05-14
latter of natural resources.


, Any right thinking father earnestly |
desires and strives to leave his son
both an untarnished name and rea
sonable equipment for the struggle of
life. So this nation as a whole should
earnestly desire and strive to leave to
the next generation the national honor
unstained and the national resources
unexhausted.
The court says that there are two
reasons why the right of the public
to control and limit the use of private
property is peculiarly applicable to
property in land: First, such prop.
erty is not the result of productive la.
Dor, but is derived solely from the
state itself, the original owner; sec
ond, the amount of land being incapa
BILE of increase, if the owners of large
tracts can waste them at will without
state restriction, the state and its peo.
pie may be helplessly Impoverished
and one great purpose of government
defeated. We do not think
the proposed legislation would operate
to take private property within the
inhibition of the constitution. While
it might restrict the owner of wild and
uncultivated lands in his use of them
might delay his anticipated profits and
even thereby might cause him some
loss of profit, it would nevertheless
leave him his lands, their product and
increase, untouched, and without dimi-
| mutton of title, estate, or quantity. He
would still have large measure of con-
| troll and large opportunity to realize
values. --e might suffer delay but not
! deprivation. The proposed
| legislation would be within
the legislative power and would not
operate as taking of private prop.
erty for which compensation must be
made"
| The court of errors and appeals of
New Jersey has adopted similar
view, which has recently been sustain.
ed by the supreme court of the United
States. In delivering the opinion of
the court on April 6, 1908, Mr.. Justice
Holmes said: 'The state as Quasi-sov.
ereign and representative of the in
terests of the public, has a standing
in court to protect the atmosphere
the water, and the forests within its
territory, irrespective of the assent or
dissent of the private owners of the
land most Immediately concerned
1t appears to us that few
public interests are more obvious, in
disputable and Independent Of partic.
ular theory than the interests of the
public of a state to maintain the riv.
ers that are wholly within it substan-
TALLY undiminished, except by such
drafts upon them as the guardian of
the public welfare may permit for the
purpose of turning them to a more
perfect use. This public interest is
omnipresent wherever there is state
and grows more pressing as the popu.
lation grows. We are of
opinoin, further, that the constitution
al power of the state to insist that its
natural advantages shall remain unim
paired by it's citizens is not dependent
upon any nice estimate of the extent
of present use or speculation as to fu-
ture needs. The legal conception OF
the necessary is apt to be confined to
somewhat rudimentary wants, and
there are benefits from a great river
that might escape a lawyers view
But the state is not required to submit
i even to an aesthetic analysis Any
analysis may be inadequate 1t finds
itself in possession of what all admi
to be great public good, and what il
has may be kept and give no one a
reason for it's will"
These decisions reach the root of the
idea of conservation of our resources
in the interests of our pennle.
! Finally, let us remember that the
conservation of our natural resources
though the gravest problem of today
i is yet but part of another and create,
problem to which this nation is mo-
yet awake, but to which it will awake
in time, and with which it must here
after grapple if it is to live-the prob
LEM of national efficiency, the patri
otic duty of insuring the safety an6
continuance of the nation When the
people of the United States conscious
ly undertake to raise themselves a:
8 citizens, and the nation and the states
: in their several spheres, to the high
: est pitch of excellence in private
, state and national life, and to do this
| because 1t is the first of all the duties
of true patriotism, then-and not til
; then-the future of this nation ii
, quality and in time, will be assured.