Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-02-08
Whatever Fault He Finds Is in a
Esprit of Constructive
Criticism"
RECLAMATION BILLS DEFEAT
II Opens Reclaimed Lands to Absentee
Landlords and Spccu-
lutors.


the necessity for tho passage at the
present session of Congress OF good
laws for the protection of the natural
resources OF the United states" Is the
keynote of report just made to the
National Conservation association by
Clifford Plnchot, recently dnosen
president OF the association.
Mr.. Pinchot takes up. in what he
calls "a spirit of constructive crlti-
clsm" nine bills relating to the con-
servation of natural resources. intro
duced into Congress Jan. Is, on behalf
of the secretary of the interior. one of
which has been reported from the pub
lie lands committee. the other eight
being still in the hands of the COM
mlttee.
MI Pinchot calls upon the members
OF the association to put forth strong
efforts to have enacted Into law the
bill on the withdrawal or public lands.
which has been reported in amended
form from the committee by Senator
Nelson following conferences between
the committee and officers of the con-
serVation association, This bill, Mr.
Pinchot thinks. should have the "un-
qualified support OF the members OF
the association"
OF the other eight bills. he believes
that some merely require amendment,
While others must be recast. The coal
bill and the phosphate. oil. asphaltum
and natural gas bills. he reports. are
fundamentally sound in principle, but
need some amendment
They wisely separate. he said, the
surface of the land from the under
lying minerals and provide for the
disposal of the minerals by lease and
not by sale.
But the coal bill. he asserts, Con
tains no sufficient anti-monopoly
clause. Tho clause that purposes to
regulate rates to be charged the pub
lie is so framed that 1t may be cvaded
with ease"
Another clause of the bills, he adds.
may reduce the standard of mining to
the wasteful level OF tho prevailing
commercial practise
In regard to the bill for survey of
railroad land grants. he expresses the
opinion that 1t Will enable the rail-
roads properly to perfect titles to their
lands. but II bverlooks tho long
pending understanding between GER
tain of the roads and the forest SER
Vice for the return of railroad lands
within the national forests to the
United States, in return for the right
to cut in one body an amount of tim
Der equal to that on the lands re-
turned
This understanding, he says. requires
only legislation to make II effective.
Speaking OF the water power bill. Mr.
Pinchot declared that '1t repcaIs In
silence the existing water power law
and curtails the already ample power
now exercised, with the approval of
former attornew general, by the de-
partment of agriculture.
Tho provision In the bill for COM
pensation to the government by tho
companies he holds. is good.
Water power sites should be protect
cd from private appropriation under tho
lana laws, he says. and 1t should be
made possible to Issue TO the oom-
panies permits good for. and definitely
terminating at the end OF so years.
The fault found by Mr Pinchot with
the reclamation bill is that it opens
RECLAIMED lands to absentee landlords
and to spectators.
a bad feature of the bill for the sale
or timber and timber lands, ho do
clares. Is that It replaces the obtec-
tionable features of the timber and
stone act, which was the inducement
TO speculation in government timbers
with provisions that promote specula-
tion and retard the development OF
agricultural and mineral lands far
more than did the act 1t repeals
In failing to separate the surface
from the underlying minerals. the bill
Tor the classification OF public lands
Is inconsistent with the coal bill. he
finds.
The withdrawal bill. as amended
and reported by Senator Nelson. makes
easy. said Mr. Pinchot. tho protection
OF an natural resources on tho public
domain until good laws con bo passed +"
INC whole influence of the conserya-
ton association. he declares, should
be thrown behind the bill.