Willmar tribune., 1909-08-25

lne Corporations were 8raOualty aD-
sorbing this land for the purpose of
monopolizing the power for the fu-
ture. They were employing men to
file on government land merely for
the purpose of getting title to it
and then selling it to the corpora
tions. Acting upon his own knowl-
edge and the advise of Pinchot, one
of Roosevelt's last official acts was
to withdraw from entry a large
part of the public lands of the
West, in order to leave these vast
resources in the hands of the gov
until such time as proper
arrangements could be made for
their use.
Exit Roosevelt. Enter Taft, the
man who was to continue the Roose-
welt policies; who by both direct
statements and silent acquiescence
in Roosevelt's claim that Taft was
the man of all Others fit to carry
out said policies, was pledged to do
so. He Immediately put into the
Department of the Interior an un-
known man named Ballinger. The
man was not, however, unknown to
the interests that were trying to
gobble up these resources, and he
evidently knew what he had been
put there for, for without waiting
to remove his hat and coat, he an
nulled the Roosevelt order and
placed the aforesaid resources with
in reach of the corporations once
more. Yes, sir, the Roosevelt poll
cies were "carried out" all right
carried out into the back yard and
dumped into the garbage barrel.
Pinchot has raised quite a dis
turbance about the matter. Ball.
niger insists that he is right in
what he has done; that he has the
letter on the law on his side; and
that, furthermore, the West. in
this particular case. is not a poor
mans country; that the poor man
cannot develop these resources, and
therefore must keep his hands off
while the rich man goes in and
gets a death grip on these resources
by which he and his heirs, and as
signs can levy toll on the industries
of the country forever.
Into which assertion Ballinger is
somewhat correct. But he has for
gotten an old. chin-whiskered, spry
party by the name of Uncle Sam.
who has a few dollars in his pockets
and the means Of raising more if
he needs it. This party has already
done considerable work in the West
in the line of developing the re.
sources of the West by building
immense irrigation reservoirs and
reclaiming arid lands. The poor
man could not do this work for
himself; corporations had done
a great deal of that kind of reclaim
alton work. and were reaping big
harvests from selling water rights.
Uncle Sam is now thier chief COM
petitor, and his work in this line
means a great deal to the people of
the near future. For the cheap la
bor of southern Europe upon
which there is no protective tariff
is gradually forcing the American
and the descendants of the northern
European immigrants out of the
field of labor. If they have not
the means and the skill Of rising
above that flood from southern Eu-
rope they must sink under it or get
out on the farms. Hence the great
American land hunger, and the i'm.
mense Importance of this work done
by our genial old Uncle Sam.
Now, why should not this same op.
ulent party take charge Of the de-
velopment Of the water power for
the benefit OF the nation. instead of
leaving it to become the property
of a few and a means of extortion
for all future time? If Uncle Sam
can 20 thousands of miles away
from home and spend a couple of
hundred million dollars to dig a
ditch across the 1sthmus of Panama,
for the benefit of the shipping in
dustry, why can't he develop his
own resources for the benefit of in
dustry and transportation? Ball.
inger's plea that these resources are
the natural prey of the rich because
the poor man cannot develop them
falls to the ground.
II
This contest between plutocracy
and the champions Of the common
people deserves more attention than
it has received hitherto. It means
more than the tariff for an unjust
tariff law can be changed whenever
the people get mad enough to de-
mand it in a tone that congress
knows means business. But these
vast resources, once lost, cannot