Arizona republican., 1910-08-30
ROOSEVELT TALKS ID
 COLORADO GENTLEMEN
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Ohio, for instance, as to why Col orado and other Rocky mountain states should manage their own wa ter power sites. Now these men may be good citizens. according to their lights, but naturally enough their special interests obscure their sense of public need; and as their object is to escape an efficient control. eXer- cised in the interest of all the people of the country, they .clamor to be put under the state instead of under the nation If we are foolish enough to grant their requests, we shall have ourselves to blame when we wake up and find that we have permitted an- other privilege to intrench itself, and another portion of what should be kept for the public good to be turned over to individuals for purposes of private enrichment During the last session of congress bills were intro duced to transfer the water power sites in the national forests and the public domain to the control of the states. I cannot state too strongly my belief that these measures are unwise and that it would be disas- trous to enact them into law. In substance their effect would be to free these great special interests from all effective control. The passage of such a bill would be a victory for the special interests over the general welfare and a long backward step down the hill of progress we have of late been climbing.
 THE STATES MAY HELP.
 Our people have for many years proceeded upon the assumption that the nation should control the public land. It is to this assumption of national outlook that we owe our wis est land legislation, from the home stead law to the irrigation law The
 wise use of our public domain has always been conditioned upon na- tional action. The states can greatly help, but the nation must take the lead as regards the land, as regards the forests, and waters; and, perhaps peculiarly in the case of the waters, because almost all streams are really interstate streams.
 "The same principle applies with peculiar force to the coal lands, and especially to the coal lands in Alaska, whose protection and ownership by the federal government is so neces- sary, both for full and free industrial development in the west, and for the needs of our fleet in the Pacific. The coal mines should be leased, not sold and those who mine the coal should pay back a part at least of the profit to the people. It is the right and duty of the, people to de-. mand the most vigiIant trusteeship on that part of that branch of the fed eral government in charge of tine fuel
 esources of the United States.
 THE NEUTRAL GROUND.
 Remember, also. that many of the men who protest loudly against ef- fective national action would be the first to turn round and protest against state action if such action in its turn became effective, and would then unhesitatingly invoke the law to show that the state had no conStitu tional power to act. Long experience has shown that it is by no means impossible. in cases of constitutional doubt, to get one set of judicial de- cisions which render it difficult for the nation to act, and another set
 
 state to act. In each case the privi- legged beneficiaries of the decision in yoke the aid of those who treat the constitution not as a healthy aid to growth, but as a fetich to prevent growth; and they assail the advocates of wise and cautious progress as be- ing opponents of the constitution. As I have said before. l am a strong believer in efficient national action, where such action offers the best hope of securing and protecting the interests of the whole people as against the interests of a few. But I am emphatically in favor of state action, where state action can best serve this purpose; and l am no less emphaticaIly in favor of cordial and hearty co-operation between the na- ton and the states where their duties are identical or develop
 If there is one thing which is more unwise than another, it is the crea- ton by legislative, by executive, or by judicial action of a neutral ground in which neither the state nor the nation has power, and which can serve as a place of refuge for the lawless man, and especially for the lawless man of great wealth, who can hire the best legal counsel to advise him how to keep his abiding place equally distant from the un- certain frontiers of both state ana national power.
 THE OPEN RANGE.
 CT am here at the invitation of the Colorado Livestock association, and desire to express my appreciation of their steadfast stand for decency and progress in the handling of public lands and national forests. They have met and overcome the relentless opposition of some of the most in- fluential stockmen of the state. They have won because they have been right. I want to express also my appreciation of the work of the Amer ican Livestock Association. IL mas been one of the really important force sworking toward effective rall- way regulation. while its support of the policy of the federal range control has given it large place in national affairs. As an d-time stockman. l realize that the present order ol ! things on the open range cannot
 continue. and that the sure way 10 protect the range itself. prevent the increase of big outfits. promote the equitable use of the grazing lands and foster genuine homestead set tlement is to extend over the open