Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1910-03-24
A Very Practical Question.


Are the resources of the West to
be developed? Are our water powers
to be used. our coal lands, mines and
timber to be available and turned to
account, as always heretofore? Or is
the government to change it's policy.
sell no more lands, sit as proprietor,
as in fendal times, and require every
citizen who desires to undertake de
velopment to pay perpetual tribute
to the overload?
There is no occasion for the gem
eral government to change the policy
it has pursued from the beginning.
1t is on this policy OF disposing of
its lands to citizen owners that the
country has been settled, built up,
and advanced to its present state of
prosperity. The clamor for con
/ servation" now means reversal of the
/ general policy of the country, pur-
sued from the beginning nothing
less. The policy will dwarf and
kill the energy of the West, where
the undeveloped resources lie. With
out sure tenure. men will not develop
lands and water powers and mines.
Tenure at the caprice of onicialdom
at Washington is a proposition that
will not commend itself to those who
do the work and take the risks Of
development of the country.
The states are competent to take
care OF this business. Hitherto the
lands have been sold by the United
States, and the property then has
passed under the regulation of the
state laws. This has been universal
Why should the policy be changed
There is no good reason. The people
of each of the states know for them
selves the local conditions; they
know what they want and what is
just No danger there will not be
taxation enough. But the property
ought to be held under the laws and
regulations of the state. not under
a new feudal system directed from
Washington, supporting a horde Of
officials, whose inspiration will be
how not to do il"
The strife of individuals over such
a matter is nothing They come and
so. But the policy is a matter OF
deep concern. Is the East, that ha.
proflted so largely by the liberia
policy of the governenmt now tc
force a restrictive policy on the West
check and hamper our development
and force payment of tribute from
our resources to those who for Sc
long period have had the profit from
development of their own?
Have the older states wasted the;i
resources? They will strenuously
deny IT, and their property. their adj
vance in population, industry anc
and wealth supports the denial. ThsI
are they afraid that ours. under tn,
same policy, will be wastedg Wha
are the natural resources Of coun
try for but to be usedg Haven't tn,
older states used them?
1t is almost a distressing subject
Here we are-we who have carrie,
the dominion of the United States t,
the shores of the Pacific. where w
have waited long years for the in
) dustrial Investment Of capital in tn
: natural resources of the country
But now at the moment when on
= region is beginning to obtain tn
attention we so long have sought
comes eranking in a bunch of theoi
izers. insisting that the United State
shall hold the proprietorship in pei
E petuity, as the feudal -denyin
B the right of ownership and propert
e TO those whose efforts are necessar
D to development of the natural r,
3 sources Of the country Few viii pu
s money into undertakings which the
g cannot control 1t is idle to expe,
k they Will. 1t is not in human natur,
% nor in the nature of business enor
o to do it,
o Is everything to be directed fro'
J. Washington? Are the states no MOI
G to be considered? If the states al
e allowed they can conserve the r,
g. sources" by regulation. by direction
3, by taxation. far more efhcientl
k than the bureaucratic system
2. Washington can OF will The stat,
e will desire utilization and improve
J. ment of the natural resources. the