The daily sentinel., 1910-01-14
MESSAGE TODAY, IMPORTANT 70
THIS VALLEY ~ ~
(Continued from First Page. !,

power sites. Mr. Taft declares that
these reforms have continued under
his administration. He then speaks
of the withdrawal of power sites, af-
ter which he makes the following
statements:
"The present statutes, except so
far as they dispose of the precious
metals and the purely agricultural
lands, are not adapted to carry out
the modern view of the best dispo-
sition of public lands to private own
ership, under conditions offering on
the one hand sufficient inducements
to private capital to take them over
for proper development with restrict
i've conditions on the other which
| shall secure to the public that char
acter of control which will prevent
| a monopoly or misuse of the lands Of
their products.
| The power of the secretary of the
| interior to withdraw from the opera
tion of existing statutes tracts of
land, the disposition of which under
such statutes would be detrimental TO
the public interest. is not clear or
| satisfactory. This power has been
exercised in the interest of the pub
lie, with the hope that congress
might affirm the action of the exeeu-
tive by ways adapted to the new con-
| ditions.
| UNFORTUNATELY congress has not
| thus far fully acted on the recon-
| mendations of the president, and the
question of what the executive is tn
do is, under the circumstances, full
of difficulties. Ii seems to me that
II is the duty of congress now. by
statute, to validate the Withdrawals
which have been made by the seere-
| tary of the interior and the presi-
dent, and to authorize the secretary
of the interior temporarily to with
J draw lands pending submission to
congress of recommendations as to
| Legislation to meet conditions or
emergencies as they arise.
"One of the most pressing needs in
the matter of public land reform is
| that lands should be classified ac-
cording to their principal value or
use. This ought to be done by that
department whose force is best adapt
ed to that work. 1t should be done
| by the interior department through
the geological survey. Much of the
confusion, fraud and contention
which has existed in. the past has
| arisen from the lack of an official
and determinative classification OF
the public lands and their contents.
1T is now proposed to dispose of
agricultural lands as such and at
the same time to reserve for other.
disposition the treasure of coal, oil,
asphaltum. natural gas and phos-
phate contained therein. This may
be best accomplished by separating
| the right to mine from the title to
the surface. giving the necessary use
of so much of the latter as may be
| required for the extraction OF the
deposits. sm
The surface might be disposed of
| as agricultural. land under the gener-
| al agricultural statutes, while the
coal or other mineral could be dis
posed of by lease on a royalty basis,
| with provisions requiring certain
amount of development each year,
and. in order to prevent the use and
cession of such lands with others of
similar character 30 as to constitute
| a monopoly forbidden by law. the
lease should contain suitable provis-
ion subjecting to forfeiture the inter-
est of persons participating in such
monopoly. Such law should apply to
Alaska as wen as to the United
States.
"It is exceedingly difficult to frame
a statute to retain government con-
troll over property to be developed
| by private capital in such manner
| as to secure the governmental pur-
pose and at the same time not fright
en- away the investment of the neces-
sary capital Hence, it may be neces-
sary by laws that are really only ex-
perimentaf to determine from their
practical operation what is the best
method of securing the result aimed
at
President Taft says; in part, con-
cerning water-power sites.
"There are valuable water-power
sites through all the public lands
states. The opinion is held that the
transfer of sovereignty from the fed
eral government to the territorial
governments as they become states
| included the water power in the riv-
| ers, except SO far as that owned by
riparian proprietors. | do not think
| it necessary to go into discussion
| of this somewhate mooted question of
law. 1t seems to me sufficient to say
| that the man who owns and controls
the land along the stream from which
| the power is to be converted and
transmitted owns land which is in
dispensable to the conversion and use
of that power. l cannot conceive
how the power in streams flowing
| through public lands can be made
| available at all except by using the
| land itself as the site for the con-
struction of the plant by which the
| power is generated and converted
and securing a right of way there
over for transmission lines. Under
these conditions, If the government
owns the adjacent lands-indeed, il
the government is the riparian own
er--it may control the use of the
water power by imposing proper con-
ditions on the disposition of the land
necessary in the creation and utiliza-
tion of the water power"
Further on the message reads:
I'm the disposition of the domain