The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1909-08-14


the Key to Commercial liberation
of an island empire" Various plans
for the Improvement of the channels,
he said, had finally been reduced to
the project of a single canal for the
entire distance, to cost $4,000, 900.
Almost two and one half miles of
this had been completed, and en-
gineers estimated that the canal
might be in operation in three years
or less. This project, known as
Celile canal, the speaker character
lied as the stragtic point on the
river. He asserted that at moderate
cost, with the locks at two points
In British Columbia and four in the
United States with some improve
ments at a half dozen rapids, the
Columbia could be .navigated over
its whole course of 1,400 miles. fstl
or 100000 bushels of wheat
harvested in the inland empire this
season, it is likely that 35,OOO,O 900
will be shipped to tide water. With
an average of foul cents on 35,OOO.-
600 bushels, due to water competi-
tion a saving on wheat alone of ST.
100000 a year could be made, the
speaker said. s.
The necessity for classifying the
public lands is not a recent discovery
The earliest land legislation in this
country both Contemplated diff
f%rences in the quality and character
OF the public lands and planned for
descriptions based on field examina-
tion. Yet yer honest administration
OF land laws has ever been subject
to criticism arising from the tact
that no adequate provisions was
made for land classification.
A period OF national awakening
to the worth of the public domain
followed the close of the Civil War
and another epoch of realization by
the nation of the true source of its
wealth and prosperity has just OPEN
ed while both the legislative and ex-
ecutive branches of the Federal gov
eminent are awake to the fact that
exact knowledge is essential to the
proper utilization of our country's
great of land. The earlier
propaganda bore fruit in the CLASH
f~ication of the public land, but this
specific duty vas subordinated to- the
more general task of determining the
natural resources of the public do
main. The duty of classifying the
is not definitely.accepted by the Uni
remaining unentered public lands
ted States geological survey and the
opportunity earlier neglected has for
several years been vigorously i'm
proved. The survey is heartily CO.
operating with the general land office
to the end that the best disposition
of the land may be secured, and it
should be noted thai no small part
of the data utalized in this work rep
resents the fruitage of the surveys
earlier general Investigations.
Utilization is the keynote of the
present public land policy and by
utilization / mean not that kind of
local development that is promoted
by the land skinner" but rather a
development whose plan weighs ma
tional needs and calculates future
demands and whose accomplishments
will serve our country's development
in the lex century as well as in the
present decade. Utilization Is op-
posed to both non-use and waste.
A notable example of land classifi-
cation in aid of proposed legislation
is afforded by the acts of March and
October, 1888, wherein congress
directed that an irrigation survey
should be made by the geological sur
vey and that the reservoir site and
irrigable lands designated as a result
should be reserved pending further
legislation. The legislation of 1888
was itself the logical outcome of
Major Pewell's 1879 report on the
arid lands and his subsequent work
as director of the geological survey
and the law that eventually resulted
from the work thus authorized in
1888 was the reclamation act of
1902, through the operation of
! which the west is coming into its