The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1910-09-01

attempt this duty at the outset 1t VII
Iater on have 10 pay heavily "A o.cer :.
he allowed to take up the work, which
because it is done late, cannot be so
welI done as if it had been begun earlier
Water Power.
Take the question Of the control Of the
water power sites. The enormous impor-
lance of water power sites to the future
Industrial development of this country
has only been realized within a very few
years. unfortunately, the realization has
come too late as regards many of the
power sites: but many vet remain with
which our hands are free to deal We
should make it our duty to see that here
after the power sites are kept under the
control of the general government, for
the use Of the people as whole. The
fee should remain with the people as a
whole, while the use is leased on terms
which shall secure an ample reward to
I the lessees, which shall encourage the de-
velopment and use Of the water power.
but which shall not create a permanent
monopoly or permit the development to
! be anti social, to be in any respect hostile
to the public good. The Nation alone has
! the power to do this effectively and 1t is
! for this reason that you will find those
j corporations which wish to gain improper
advantage and to be freed from efficient
/ control on the part of the public. doing
I all that they can to secure the substitu-
There is something fairly comic in the
! appeal made by MANY of these men in
! favor of state control when you realize
/ that the great corporations seeking the
! privileges of developing the water power
/ in any given state are at least as apt to
he owned outside that state as within it.
! In this country, nowadays. capital has
| National and not a state use. The great
| corporations which are managed and
| largely owned in the older states are
/ those which are most in evidence in de-
| veloping and using the mines and water
! powers and forests of the new territories
and the new states, from Alaska to Ari-
IONA. 1 have been genuinely amused du-
! ring the past two months at having argu-
| mentS presented to me on behalf of GER
| tain rich men from New York and Ohio,
| for instance as to why Colorado and 9TH
! er Rocky Mountain states should manage
| their own water power sites. Now these
men may be good citizens according to
| their lights. but naturally enough their
special interest obscureS their sense of the
public need and as their object is to
| escape an efficient control, exercised in
| The interest of all the people of the coun-
| try. 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 to find that we have permitted
another privilege to intrench itself and
| another portion of what should be kept
! Tor the public good to be turned over to
| individuals for purposes of private en-
| richment. During the last session Of
| congress bills We're introduced 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 il would be disas-
! .rous to enact them into law. In sub
stance their effect would be to free these
great special interests from all effective
| control The passage of such a bill would
| De a victory of the special interests over
he general welfare, and a long backward
step down the hill of progress we have Of
late been climbing.
| Our people have for many years pro-
.eeded upon the assumption that the
| Nation should control the public land. 1t
s to this assumption of National outlook
that we owe our wisest land legislation,
rom the Homestead Law to the Irrigation
| Law. The wise use of our public domain
| has always been conditioned upon Ma
| tional action. The states can greatly help,
| but the Nation must take the lead, as re-
CARDS 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.
Coal Lands.
The same principle applies with pecu-
| liar force to the coal lands. and especially
to the coal lands in Alaska, whose pro-
| lection and ownership by the Federal
| government is so necessary, 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 of the profit to
the people. 1t is the right and duty of the
people to demand the most vigilant trus-
teeship on that part of that branch of
the Federal government in charge of the
fuel resources of the United States.
The Neutral Ground.
Remember also that many Of the men
who protest loudly against effective
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 unhesitatin
ly invoke the law to show that the
state had no constitutional 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 decisions which render it
difficult for the nation to act, and an
| other set which render it impossible
for the state to act In each case the
privileged beneficiaries of the decision
invoke the aid of those who treat the
| Constitution, not as a healthy aid tC
growth, but as fetish to prevent
growth; and they assail the advocates
of wise and cautious progress as being
opponents of the Constitution. AS
have said before, 1 am a strong believ.
er in efficient national action, where
such action offers the best hope of Sc
curing and protecting the interest Of
the whole people as against the inter.
est of few. But / am emphatically
in favor of state action, where state
action will best serve this purpose; anC
1 am no less emphatically in favor O.
cordial and hearty cooperation be
tween the nation and the states wher,
their duties are identical or overlap.
If there is one thing which is NOR,
unwiSe than another, it is the creation
by Legislative, by executive, or b.
judicial action of neutral ground il
which neither the state nor the nation
has power, and which can serve as
place of refuge for the lawless man
and especially for the lawless man o
great wealth, who can hire the bes
legal counsel to advise him how t
keep his abiding place equally distan
from the uncertain frontiers of boil
state and national power.
The Open Range.
| am here at the invitation of tn
Colorado Livestock association, and
desire to express nay appreciation o
their steadfast stand for decency an
progress in the handling of publi
lands and national forests They hav'
met and overcome the unrelenting or
poSition of some of the most Influential