The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1909-11-30
CALLS FOR
A DIVISION
BaIIineer Makes Recon-
mendations of Import
ance on Public Lands

WASHINGTON, Nov. 29.-Secre-
tary Ballinger today forwarded his
report to President Taft. 1t deals
with public lands, water rights and
other matters of particular interest
to the west. In summarizing, Mr..
Ballinger says:
The proper use ant disposition of
the public lands have been questions
involving no little legislative as well
as administrative difficulty from the
beginning of their history. They
were, during the earliest administra-
tions treated as a national asset for
the liquidation of the public debt and
as source of reward for our soldiers
and sailors. Not until the discovery
of gold on the Pacific slope did the
policy change for one of exploitation,
by which our citizens were encourag-
ed to develop the mineral and agri-
cultural resources of the public do
main on condition of receiving limi-
ted areas at normal cost. For
similar reasons railway and wagon
road grants were literally donated
by congress in order to add facilities
for the opening up of these almost
inaccessible regions.
limited to non-mineral lands, except
such as contained coal and iron,
which latter miners were taken to
and operation. New states were,
when admitted, literally endowed
with public lands for school and
public domain in 1860 of 1,O55, 5,911,-
nrI1n fhon hall
ing to the United States,) we now
have only about 731,354,081 acres,
confined largely to the mountain
ranges and the arid and semiarid
plains, except lands within some In
dian reservations and the 36S, S,035,-
975 acres of undisposed of land in
Alaska.
All of the principal land statutes
were enacted over twenty-five years
ago; the homestead act, the preemp-
tion and the timber culture act, the
coal land, and the mining acts for
the aid of the Industrious prospector,
were among the earlier acts of this
nature.
The liberal and rapid disposition
of the public lands under these
statues and the lax methods of ad-
ministration which for long time
prevailed naturally provoked the
feeling that the public domain was
legitimate prey for INSCRIPTIONS and
that it was no crime to violate or
circumvent the land laws. 1t is to
be regretted that, we, as a nation,
were so tardy to realize the impor-
tance of preventing so large meas
ure of our natural resources passing
into the hands of land pirates and
spectators, with no view to devel-
opment looking to the national well
fare. 1t may be safely said that mil
lions of acres of timber and other
lands have been unlawfully obtained
and it is also true that actions to re-
cover such lands have In most in
stances long since been barred by the
statute of limitations. The principal
awakening to our wasteful course
came under your predecessors ad-
ministration. The bold and vigorous
prosecutions of lana frauds, through
Secretaries Hitchcock and Garfield,
have restored a salutary respect for
the law, and the public mind has
rapidly grasped the Importance of
safeguarding the further disposition
of our natural resources in the public
lands in the interest of the public
good as against private greed. Not
withstanding this, it is necessary to
continue with utmost vigor, through
all available sources, the securing Of
information of violations of the pub
lie land laws and to follow such
violations with rigid prosecutions.
In this present policy of conserv-
ing the natural resources of the pub
lie domain, while development is the