The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1909-10-29

tne, meeIlng, announced mat Mr. lhlt
would SPEAK 'tHfse 1inutess Hetasked
the audience TO, keep quietA while the
President posed on the platf8rm7for a
picture.
Mr.. whitelaw at -11s25, introduced
Cow Herbert is. HadIaN,. who reeeived
another ovation when he nstepped to.
the 'front.'
e@ The Presidents sSpech.. raaa u
Gov. aHadley and SIR. Chairman,
and Ladies and Gentlemen: il, you
will give me "a little time, and q little
quiet l win bring that voice back from
Texas. II is a great pleasure TO me"
to meet people of st. Louis in this
magnifcant structure. T" W
81 feelpht home Here because I at.
tempted to address an audience here
before the, building had a roof on. n
as glad t9sbe hereto meet you and the
distinguished chief executive sof the
State of Missouri, and to congratulate
the State on having not only these
great qualities and resources which he
has described, but on also having such
q. Governor.
I'VE are on the eve Of q great jour
ney down the Mississippi river and
CuIbtu Uc ut WuO URLS IL " Juuhtt.
1t has reference, as the Governor says,
to the problem of transportation by
railway and waterway. But the prob
lem of transportation, of railway, of
waterway, is only a part of a stih
greater movement encouraged by
Theodore Roosevelt and called by him
properly the conservation of u n a
tional resources.
E7efers to Waterway.
"You In the Mississippi Valley are
especially interested in that part of
the conservation that looks to the In
land waterway; but you are not lack
ing In that broad national view that
takes in the necessities and the crying
necessities of other parts Of the I'm.
ion. 49,
1.-THE conservation includes first, and
you are directly interested in 1t, the
preservation of our forests because
their relation to navigable' streams
and. unnavigable streams has been di.
rectly traced by scientific men, the
prevention of flood, the prevention OF
drouth, the. prevention of the, erosion
of the soil, and the transportation by
your Father of. Waters, of the farm
products of the Ohio and Missouri and
Iowa to the Delta at the mouth of the
Mississippi River.
1.-The part that the United States as
a government a play in this con-
servation, of our u has not been
definitely settled, and it is not likely
to be settled until all the phases OF
the problem are presented for solu-
ton. ,.. ' ~
Right to Deal With Land. 10
ut is certainuthat the United States
has the right to deal with the land
which it owns gin such a. way as to
conduce to the general welfare; and
therefore that it owes a duty to the
people with reference, the forest land
that 1t owns, TO- preserve them and
develop them as. far as possible, to
make them useful with reference to
our water supply (applause).
But the United States owns only
about one-quarter of all the forest
lands of the United States. Those
other lands are in States, and we
must look to the State governments
to follow the example of the Federal
Government and use all the power
possible to preserve these forests from
fire and such denudation as shall en-
rich their water equalizing qualities
throughout the country. (Applause.)
"The United States has been most
obviously generous in the sale and
disposition of public lands, and we
could point out, If we were hypercrit-
ical, the waste and unuue generosity
with which these lands have been
parted with; but in doing so We are
apt to forget the generous policy, and
we are apt to ignore the enormous
progress that has been made in the
country by the carrying out of that
generous policy (applause.)
Time for New Policy.
Therefore, without any tears for
what has been done in the past, we
can take our stand now on the pres
ent conditions and say that a time has
come for the inauguration of a new
policy, with refernce to care in dis
posing of the lands that remain in the
United States. Agricultural lands
there would seem to, be no reasons
why we should change the mode of
~disposing of. But there are certain
kinds of lands that modern progress
show have an element in them that
requires us in their future disposition
to be most careful.
There are the mineral lands, of
which we have disposed of millions of
acres as agricultural lands, and yet
they have enriched their present own
ers by the treasures under the soil.
"There is no reason why we should
not separate the surface of the land
and its internal contents. its mineral
contents, in the dispositions, so that a
man may settle land as agricultural
land and cultivate it as such, and not
become the owner OF the coal or min
eral which lies below the surface, and
OF which no one has c~ognizance at
present,
THAT applies to coal lands, applies
to phosphate lands, which contain the
elements by which other soil can be
made productive.
"Tnen there has developed in the
last decade an enormous power avail
able for all sorts of manufacturers and