Arizona republican., 1910-09-06

 AT q. PAUL Addressed Conservation Congress Last Night CONTROL 0F POWER SITES
Referred Question to Con gress For Settlement. In Address At Fair Grounds He Discussed Labor and Anti Trust Law

Minneapolis, Sept 5-After speak
 ing to the conservation congress in St.
 Paul todya and at the Minnesota state fair grounds outside this city this afternoon, President Taft left for Bev- erly tonight by way of Chicago.
 In his conservation address the presi- dent won quick response from thous- sands of hearers by his appeal to their practical common sense in dealing with conservation problems.
 In the opinion of many he also made answer to the recent agitation for a new natiOnalism" or federal centrali- zation power, by declaring that the only safe course to pursue was to hold fast to the limitations of the consti- tuition and regard it as the sacred pow CT of the states.
 Mir. Taft, amid applause, made ire quent references to the services of Theodore Roosevelt in the cause of conservation, but he declared that the time for glitterinS generalities had passed. He suggested to the congress that it should invite it's speakers to come down to specific details, specific evils, and specific remedies. MT. Taft did not attempt to solve the problem of water power site control, as between the states and the general government, but after stating the arguments ad
 vanced on both sides of the subject, he said he would submit the whole matter to the federal congress for determina tion.
 Concerning the subject of state or federal control. President Taft said in speaking of water power sites:
 There are those (and the director of the geological survey, Mir. Smith, who has given a great deal of attention to this matter, is one of them) who insist that this matter of transmitting water power into electricity. which can be conveyed all over the country and across state lines, is a matter that ought to be retained by the general government, and that it should avail itself of the ownership of these power sites for the very purpose of co-ordin-
 ating in one general plan the power generated from these government owned sites.
 "On the other hand. it is Contended
 that it would relieve a complicated i situation if the control of the water power site and the control of the water were vested in the same sovereignty and ownership, viz, the states. and | then disposed of for development to private lessees under the restrictions
 needed to preserve the interests of the public from the extortions and abuses
 of monopoly Therefore. bills have
 been introduced in congress providing
 Iaa | a water power site useful they may apply to the government of the United States for a grant to the state of the
 adjacent land for a water power site, and that this grant from the federal | government to the state shall contain
 a condition that the state shall never part with the title to the water power
 site or the water power, but shall lease | it only for a term of years not exceed | ing fifty, with provisions in the lease by which the rental and the rates for
 which the power is furnished to the
 public shall be readjusted at periods | less than the term of the lease, say, ev- cry ten years The argument is urged against this disposition of power sites | that legislators and state authorities
 are more subject to corporate influence and control than would be the central government; in reply it is claimed that a readiustment of the terms of lease | hold every ten years would secure to | the public and the state just and equit- l able terms. Then it is said that the | state authorities are better able to un- | derstand the local need and what is a | fair adjustment in the particular To- cality than would De the authorities at Washington. It has been argued that after the federal government parts with title to a power site it can not control the action of the state in full | filling the conditions of the deed, to | which it is answered that in the grant from the government there may be | easily inserted a condition specifying the terms upon which the state may part with the temporary control of the water power sites, and, indeed, the
 water power. and providing for for feiture of the title to the water power sites in case the condition is not per formed; and giving to the president, in case of such violation of conditions the power to declare forfeiture and to direct proceedings to restore the cen tral government to the ownership ol the power sites with all the improve ments thereon, and that these condi- tions may be promptly enforced and the land and plants forfeited to the general government by suit of tho United states against the state, which lis permissible under the constitution T do not express an opinion upor