Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1910-09-01

Believes Government Should Gen.
orally Be Leader in Con-
serVatl0n.
SAD EXPERIENCE IN EAST
Addressing Public Meeting in Denver,
Ex-President Discusses Water Pow
err, Coal Lands, Ranges and Forests
Powerful Plea for Conservation.


err, Coal Lands, Ranges and Forests
Powerful Plea for Conservation.
Denver, Colo, Aug. 29.-Colonel
Roosevelt arrived in Denver from
Cheyenne this morning, and after a
parade in which representatives of the
state and city, the Live Stock asso-
citation and the Spanish War Veterans
took part, was the guest of the Den
yer Press club at a cowboy luncheon
at Overland park. In the afternoon
he delivered a public address at the
Auditorium and later spoke to the
Spanish War Veterans, and then he
was the guest of honor at round
up dinner at Eliebel Temple.
Talks on Conservation.
Mr.. Roosevelt's main address was
On conservation, and was as follows:
This country has shown definite signs
OF waking up to the absolute necessity of
handling it's natural resources with fore
sight and common sense. The conserva-
ton question has three sides. In the first
place, the needless waste of the natural
resources must be stopped. It is rapidly
becoming well-settled policy of this peo-
pie that we of this generation hold the
land in part for the next generation, and
not exclusively for our own selfish enjoy
ment. Just as the farmer is a good citi-
zen if he leaves his farm improved and not
impaired for his children, and a bad citi-
zen if he skins the land in his own selfish
interest, so the Nation behaves well if it
treats the natural resources assets
which it must turn over to the next gen
Grafton increased and not impaired in
value, and behaves badly if it leaves the
land poorer to those who come after US.
In the second place, the natural re-
sources must be developed promptly,
completely, and in orderly fashion. 1t is
not conservation to leave the natural re-
sources undeveloped. Development is an
indispensable part of the conservation
plan. The forests. the mines, the water
powers, and the land itself, must all be
put to use. Those who assert that con-
servation proposes to tie them up, depriv-
ing this generation of their benefits In
order to hand them on untouched to the
next, miss the whole point of the con-
servation idea. Conservation does not
mean depriving the men of today Of their
natural rights in the natural resources of
the land. All it means is that we of this
generation shall so use our rights as not
to deprive those who come after us of
their natural rights in their turn.
In the third place, so far as possible
these resources must be kept for the
whole people and not handed over for
exploitation to single individuals. We do
not intend to discourage Individual enter
prise by unwisely diminishing the reward
for that enterprise On the contrary, we
believe that the men of exceptional abili-
ties should have exceptional rewards up
to point where the reward becomes dis
proportionate to the service, up to the
point where the abilities are used to the
detriment of the people a whole. We
are for the liberty of the individual up to
and not beyond the point where it be-
comes inconsistent with the welfare of
the community. Thus our consistent aim
Is to favor the actual settler-the man
who takes much Of the public domain
as he himself can cultivate, and there
makes permanent home for his children
who come after him; but we are against
the man, no matter what his ability, who
tries to monopolize large masses of public
land.
State and Federal Control.
Now, to preserve the general welfare
to see to it that the rights of the public
are protected, and the liberty of the indi-
Vidual secured and encouraged as long as
consistent with this welfare, and curbed
when 1t becomes inconsistent Herewith. It
is necessary to invoke the aid of the
government There are points in which
this governmental aid can best be rem
dered by the states that is where the
exercise of states rights helps to secure
popular rights: and rs to these I believe
in states rights But there are large
classes of cases where only authority
of the National government will secure
the rights of the people; and where this is
the case [ am convinced and a thor
ough-going believer in the rights of the
National government. Big business for
instance, is no longer an affair of any one
state; big business has become national
lied, and the only effective way of con-
trolling and directing it. and preventing
abuses in connection with it, is by having
the people nationalize this control in order
to prevent their being exploited by the in
dfviduals who have nationalized the bust
ness. All commerce on a scale sufficient
ly large to warrant any control over it by
the government is nowadays Interstate or
foreign commerce. and until this fact is
heartily acknowledged and acted upon by
both courts and legislative bodies Ma
tional and state alike. the interest of the
people will suffer
In the matter OF conservation 1 heart
lily approve of state action where under
our form of government the state and the
state only, has the power to act. I cor
daily join with those who desire to see
the state, within its own sphere take the
most advanced position in regard to the
whole matter of conservation. I have
state of New York. Where the state alone
had power to act. I have done all I could
to get II to act in the most advanced
manner; and where the Nation could act
have done all I could to get National
action in the same direction. Unfortun-
ately in the east we have in this matter
paid the penalty of not having our forest
land under National control; and the pen
atty has been severe. Most of the states
although they are old states-have not
protected their forests. each falling to
act by itself, because the action was real
ly the common concern of all; and where
action is the common concern of all. ex-
perience has shown that it can only be
profitably undertaken by the National
government.
AS result of the impossibility of get
ting such wise action by the several state
governments in the east, we are doing
our best to get National legislation under
which the National government at the
expense Of millions of dollars shall under
take to do as regards the Appalachians
and White Mountains of the east what it
is now doing in the Rock Mountains here
out wes"- It would De both a calamity
and an absurdity for the National govern
mept now to do in the west the very
thing that at a heavy pecuniary cost it is
trying to undo in the east. BY actual ex-
perienCe in the east we have found to
our cost that the Nation, and not the sew
eral states. can best guard the interests
of the people in the matter of the forests
Would Need Lightning.
"Pprha0S remarked the ooDaCo