The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1910-09-09
President Taft'S Address Before
Congress at St. Paul.
DANGER IN CONTINUED WASTE
Chlof Executive Outlines Plans Which
He Believes Should BE Adopted
Statistics Make Speech Com
prehensive to Hearers.


stantially 1t was as follows:
Gentlemen of the National Conservation
Congress:
Conservation as an economic and po-
litical term has come to mean the preser-
walton of our natural resources for
economical USE so as to secure the great
est good to the greatest number,
The danger to the state and to the peo-
pie at large from the waste and dissipa-
ton of our national wealth Is not one
which quickly impresses Itself on the peo-
pie Of the older communities because its
most obvious instances do not occur in
their neighborhood, while in the newer
part of the country the sympathy with
expansion and development Is so strong
khat the danger is scoffed at or ignored.
Among scientific men and thoughtful OBJ
servers, however, the danger has always
been present; but 1t needed some one to
bring home the crying need for remedy
of this evil so as to impress itself on the
public mind and lead to the formation of
public opinion and action by the repre-
Sentatives of the people. Theodore Roose-
welt took up this task in the last two
years of his second administration, and
well did he perform it.
AS president of the United States I
have, as 1t were, inherited this policy,
and | rejoice in my heritage. l prize my
ecutive can do to help a great people
realize a great national ambition. For
conservation is national 1t affects every
imam of us. every woman, every child.
What ] can do in the cause l shall do,
mot as president of a party, but as presi-
dent Of the whole people. Conservation
is not a question of politics, or of fac
tions, or of persons. 1t is question that
affects the vital welfare Of all of us-of
four children and our childrens children.
II urge that no good can come from meet
rngs of this sort unless we ascribe to
ythose who take part in them. and who
iare apparently striving worthiy in the
cause, all proper motives, and unless we
l1udicially consider every measure or
method proposed with view to its effec-
tiveness In achieving our common pur-
pose and wholly without regard to who
proposes 1t or who will claim the credit
flor Its adoption. The problems are of
livery great difficulty and call for the
Calmest consideration and clearest fore
lsight Many of the questions presented
jhave phases that are new In this coun-
TRY, and it is possible that In their solu-
ttion we may have to attempt first one
way and then another. What l wish to
iemphasize, however, is that a satisfac-
tory conclusion can only be reached
promptly If we avoid acrimony imputa-
tions of bad faith, and political contro-
versy.
The public domain OF the government
of the United States, including all the
cessions from those of the thirteen states
that made cessions to the United States
and including Alaska. amounted in all to
about 1900, 900, 900 acres. or this there is
left as purely government property out
side of Alaska something like 700 900, 900 of
acres. OF this the national forest re-
serves in the United States proper en-
brace Ia, 00000 acres. The rest is largely
mountain or arid country offering some
opportunity for agriculture by dry farm
ing and by reclamation, and containing
metals as well as coal, phosphates, oils,
and natural gas, Then the government
owns many tracts of land lying along the
margins of streams that have water
power, the use of which is necessary in
the conversion of the power Into cleo
trcity and its transmission
I shall divide my discussion under the
heads of ~ agricultural lands; (2) min
eral lands-that is, lands containing
metallferous minerals; (S) forest lands;
a. coal lands; CO oil and gas lands; and
co. phosphate lands
Agricultural Lands.
Our land laws for the entry of agricul-
tural lands are now as follows:
The original homestead law, with the
requirements of residence and cultivation
for five years. much more strictly en-
forced than ever before.
The enlarged homestead act, applying
to nonrrigabe lands only requiring five
years residence and continuous cultiva-
hion of one-fourth of the area.
The desert-land act, which requires on
the part of the purchaser the ownership
of water right and thorough reclama-
tion of the land by irrigation. and the
payment of S125 per acre.
The donation or Carey act under which
the state selects the land and provides
for its reclamation, and the title vests in
the settler who resides upon the land and
Cultivates 1t and pays the cost of the
reclamation.
The national reclamation homestead
law, requiring five years residence and
cultivation by the settler on the land ir-
rigated by the government, and payment
by him to the government Of the cost of
the reclamation.
The present congress passed a bill OF
great Importance severing the ownership
Of coal by the government in the ground
from the surface and permitting home
stead entries upon the surface of the
land, which. when perfected, give the
settler the right to farm the surface,
while the coal beneath the surface is re-
tanned in ownership by the government
and may be disposed Of by 1t under other
laws.
There is no crying need for radical re-
form in the methods Of dlsposing Of what
are really agricultural lands. The pres
ent laws have worked well. The en-
larged homestead law has encouraged the
successful farming of lands In the semi
arid regions OF course the teachings of
the agricultural department as to how
these subarid lands may be treated and
the soil preserved for useful culture are
OF the very essence of conservation. Then
conservation of agricultural lands is
shown in the reclamation of arid lands
by irrigation and l should devote few
words to what the government has done
and is doing in this regard.
Reclamation.
BY the reclamation act a fund has been
,created OF the proceeds Of the public
hands of the United States with which to
construct works for storing great bodies
of water at proper attitudes from which,
Inv a suitable system of canals and ditch
,es the water is to be distributed over the
jarid and subarid lands Of the government
10 be sold to settlers at a price sufiicient
jto nav for the improvements. Primarily,
1.-THE projects are and must be for the I'M
1proyement of public lands. Incidentally
twbere private land is also within reach
lof the water supply, the furnishing at