The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-08-30
MUST Be STOPPED
The Needless Waste of the COun-
try's Natural Resources
Demands the Exercise of Fore
sight and Common Sense.
CONSERVATION TALK.
Delivered by Col. Theodore
Roosevelt at Denver.
Development Is an Indispensa-
CONSERVATION TALK.
Development Is an Indispensa-
BILE Part of His Plan.

UAO 6EG VI HIS HAIL.
Denver, Col, August So-Theodore
Roosevelt delivered the following
speech at the auditorium in this city:
This country has shown definite
signs OF waking up to the absolute
necessity of handling its natural re-
sources with foresight and common
sense The conservation question has
tnree sides In the first place the need
less waste Of the natural resources
must be stopped. 1t is rapidly becom-
ing well settled policy of this people
that We of this generation hold the
land in part for the next generation, and
not exclusively for our own selfish en-
Joyment. Just as the farmer is a good
citizen if he leaves his farm improved
and not impaired for his children, and
a bad citizens If he skins the land in his
own selfish interest, so the nation be-
HAYES well if it treats the natural re-
sources as assets which 1t must turn
and not impaired in value. and behaves
badly if it leaves the land poorer to
those who come after us.
I'm the second place, the natural re-
sources must be developed promptly,
completely. and in orderly fashion. 1t
is not conservation to leave the natural
resources undeveloped. Development is
an indispensable part of the conserva-
ton plan. The forests, the mines, the
water powers and the land itself, must
all be put to use. Those who assert
that conservation proposes to tie them
up, depriving this generation Of their
benefits IN order to hand them on I'M
touched to the next, miss the whole
point of the conservation idea Conser-
walton 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 de-
prive 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
enterprise by unwisely diminishing the
reward for that enterprise. On the
contrary, we believe that the men Of
exceptional abilities should have ex-
ceptional rewards up to point Where
the reward becomes disproportionate TO
the service, up to the point where the
abilities are used to the detriment OF
the people as a whole. We are for the
liberty of the individual up to and not
beyond the point where 1t becomes IN
consistent with the welfare of the com
munity. Thus our consistent aim is to
favor the actual settler-the man VINO
takes as much of the public domain as
he himself can cultivate. and there
makes a permanent home for his chill
dren who come after him; but we are
against the man, no matter what MS
ability, who tries to monopollze large
masses Of public land.
state and Federal Control.
ssNow, to preserve the general well
fare. to see to it that the rights of the
public are protected, and the liberty OF
the individual secured and encouraged
as long as consistent with his welfare,
and curbe6 when it becomes inconsist-
emit Herewith, it is necessary to invoke
the aid of the government. There are
points in which this governmental aid
can best be rendered by the states, that
is where the exercise of states rights
helps to secure popular rights; and as
to these believe in states rights But
there are large classes of cases where
only the authority of the national gov
eminent will secure the rights of the
reocIe: and where this is the case am
a convinced and a thorough going be-
lever i'll the rights of the national gov
eminent. Big business, for instance, is
no longer an affair Of any one state; big
business has become nationalized, and
the only effective way of controlling and
directing It, and preventing abuses in
connection with it, is by having the peo-
ule nationalist this control in order to
Prevent their being exploited by the in
.iividuals who have nationalized the
business. All commerce on a scale suf-
ficiently large to warrant any controi
over it by the government is nowadays
interstate or foreign commerce; ana
until this fact is heartily acknowledged
and acted upon by both courts and leg
islative bodies, national and state alike,
the interest of the people will suffer.
lin the matter of conservation, L
heartily approve of state action where
under our form of government the
state only, has the power to act. cor
daily Join with those who desire to see
the state, within it's own sphere, take
the most advanced position in regard
to the whole matter OF conservation.
I have taken exactly this attitude in
nv own state Of New York. Where the
state alone had power to act, 1 have
done all L could to get it to act in
the most advanced manner; and where
+he nation. act I have done all I
couid to get national action in the same
direction. Unfortunately, in the east
we rave ir this matter paid the penalty
of not having our forest land under
national control: and the penalty has
been severe. Most of the staees-al-
though they are old states-have not
protected their forests. each failing to
act by itself, because the action was
really the common concern of all; and
where action is the common concern of
all experience has Shown that it can
only be profit5bly undertaken by the ma
tional government.
aAs 8 result of the impossibility of
getting such wise action by the several
state governm ents 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 undertake to do as regards tho
AppalachianS and White mountains Of
the east what it is now doing in the
Rocky Mountains here out west. 1t
would be both a calamity and an alb
surdity for the national government
now to do in th~ west the very thing
that at a heavy pecuniary cost it is try
ing to undo in the east. By actual ex-
perience in the east we have found to
our cost that the nation, and not the
several states, can best guard the in
terests of the people in the matter Of
the forests and the waters, and that if
it fails t. attempt this duty at the
ouset it will later on have to pay heav-
lily in order to be allowed - take up
the work, which, because it is done so