Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-10-09
Question of Conservation is to be
Important One For Years to Come

for the deep channel stronger and
more plausible than ever before on the
basis OF arguments from German ex-
perience. Senator Burton is devotee
of the theory that If German com
merce can be carried on six feet or
less of water, nine feet ought to be
satisfactory for the Mississippi river
system. He has pointed out that many
thousands of miles of nine-foot chan
nels, uniform and available, could be
developed in the system of the Mis-
sissippi and it's tributaries; and 1t is
pretty well known that he Is going to
try to bring the waterways commits
sion to his way of thinking about the
matter. Burton has small patience
with the idea of making channel for
great ocean-going ships to steam up
to st. Louis and Chicago; the -four
teen-foot-th rough-the-valley" con tin
gent squarely takes issue with him
right there.
Whether there should be authorize
ton Of a great bond issue to do all
this work, is another question on
which division is certain to be sharp
The irrigation and reclamation
problem is likewise coming in for
more detailed consideration than 1T
has had since the passage of the re-
clamation act This involves intimately
the administration of this bureau I'M
der Garfield and under Ballinger. The
west has made perfectly plain in the
la5t few months that it is for the
Garfield system. This development has
come as surprise to many political
publicists. For years every session of
congress has brought an outburst
| from senators like Hepburn, Perkins,
| Carter and Others in violent criticism
of Garfield, the forest service, ETC.,
that many have been brought to sus-
pect that this administration was
hopelessly unpopular in the west
where the actual work was being
done. But the Ballinger-P inchot con
troversy brought crisis in which the
voice of western public opinion made
itself heard in no uncertain
fashion, and actual expressions
of press and public have
been compiled which indicate
that more than 85 per cent of the
west is firmly committed to the Gar
| field-N ell-Pinchot policies. This
has been a revelation to many eastern
people, who had supposed the anti
/ conservation senators and representa-
tives actually had their people behinG
them. The explanation now offered
and generally accepted Is that thess
congressional critics of, the conserva
ton work in general represent, no
the public sentiment Of their states
but the big and powerful interests
which find the conservation program
interfering with their plans for private
profits.
The irrigation question is critica
in several states, as there is need 0
money to complete projects which ar,
J under way, but cannot provide waite
for arid lands until more work i
J done. The funds are exhausted, and t.
. wait till they come in through tn
regular channels, from sales of lands
would impose long and grievous della
, to thousands Of people who have tax
en- up lands and are trying to hol
them till they shall become productiv
under irrigation. The expectation |
, that congress, by direct appropriate
( or by authorizing bond issue, wi
, make provision for completing thes
) works.
3 Director Frederick E. Newell of tn
! reclamation service, is one of tn
( most popular men in the inter-mour
. tain west where he has long been d
recting the reclamation works The b,
, lief that Secretary Ballinger is an.
! ious to displace him continues stron
! and 1t is felt that If he is saved,
3 will be only because of the determine
: ton of western people that he mu.
q not go while his work is half cor
i pleted.
e ]. C. Welliver.