New-York tribune., 1910-08-30

! have found TO our cost that the nation. and
not the several states. can best guard the
! interests of the people in the matter of the
! forests and the waters. and that II II
| falls 10 attempt this duty at the outset it
| will later on have TO pay heavily in order
| because il is done so late. cannot be so
wen done as If it had been begun earlier.
The Control of Water Power.
Take the question Of the control of the
water power sites. The enormous impor-
! tarce of water power sites TO the future
industrial :deyelopmert t. Of this country has has
years Unfortunately, the realization has
| come too late rs regards many OF the
power sites, but many. yet remain with
which our hands are free to deal. We
should make ii our iuty to see that here
after the power sites are kept under the
! should remain with the people as a whole,
while the use is based on terms which
shall secure an ample reward to the les
sees. which shall encourage the develop
ment and use of the water power, but
which shall not create a permanent mo-
anti-social. 10 be in any respect hostile
/ TO the public good The nation alone mas
| for this reason that you will md these
| corporations which wish 10 gain Improper
advantage and tl be freed from eftcient
control on the part of the public DONG az
that they can to secure the substitution of
state for national action.
In this country nowadays capital has
a national and not a state use. The great
! corporations which are managed and
largely owned in the older states are those
and using the mines and water powers and
| forests Of the new territories and the
new states, from Alaska to Arizona l
have been genuinely amused during the
last two months at having arguments pre-
sented to me on behalf Of certa In rich men
! from New York and Ohio for instance, as
! TO WHY Colorado nd other Rocky Mountain
states should marriage their own water
power sites. Now, these men may be good
urally enough their special interests OBJ
scure their sense of public need, and as
| their object is 10 escape an efficient con
people of the country, they clamor to be
put under the state instead Of under the
nation. II we are foolish enough to grant
tncir requests we shall have ourselves to
blame when we wake, up and ind that we
| have permitted another privilege to in
should be kept for the public good TO be
| turned over to individuals for purposes OF
private enrichment.
During the last session of Congress bills
were introduced to transfer the water
power sites in the national forests and the
public domain to the control Of the states
these measures are unwise and that it
would be disastrous to enact them into
Tree these great special interests from all
effective control. The passage of such a
bill would be a victory of the special in
terests over the general welfare and
long backward step down the hill of prog
resS We have of late been climbing.
ceeded d pTUp5T Hpon The the ASSUMPTION M % that the
nation should control the public land: It
Is TO this assumption of national outlook
from the homestead law TO the irrigation
law. The wise use of our public domain
has always been conditioned upon national
action. The states can greatly help, but
the nation must ke the lead as REGARDS
the land, as regards the forests and
waters; and perhaps peculiarly in, in the case
| OF the waters. because almost all streams
are really interstate streams.
Coal Lands.
| The same principle applies with peculiar
| the coal lands in Alaska, whose protection
! and ownership by the federal government
| is so necessary, both for full and free in
| dustrial- development in the West and for
! the needs of fleet in the Pacific. Tho
coal mines should be leased, not sold, and
those who mine the coal should pay back
the right and duty of the people to de-
mand the most vigilant trusteeship on
! government in charge Of the fuel re-
/ sources of the United States
| Remember also that many OF the men
/ who protest loudly against effective ma
tional action would be the first to turn
| round and protest against state action If
| such action in its turn became effective
I
! law TO show that the state had no con-
stituJional power 10 act. Long experience
has shown that it is by no means ,ia impos IS
get one set of judicial decisions which rem
der il difficult for the nation TO act, and
/ another set which render ii impossible for
| the state TO act In each case the privi-
| legged benefciaries Of the decision invoke
| the aid of those who treat the Consttu-
| ton not a healthy aid to growth but
as a fetch to prevent growth; and they
assail the advocates of wise and cautious
! progress as being opponents of the Con
If there is one thing which is more un-
wise than another it is the creation by
| legislative by executive by judicial
action of neutral ground in which
neither the state nor the nation has power,
and which cen serve as place of refuge
| the lawless man of great wealth, who can
| hire the best legal counsel TO advise him
how to keep his abiding place equally dis dis,
| tant from the uncertain frontiers OF both
state and national power
The Open Range.
After praising the work OF the Colorado
Livestock Association and the American
National Livestock Association Mr. Roose-
Welt continued:
/ AS an oidtime stocknan 1 realize that
| the present order of things on the open
| range cannot continue and that the sure
way TO protect the range Itself, pfeVent
! the increase of big outfits, promote the
| equitable use of the grazing lands and
| foster genuine homestead settlement is TO
| extend over the open range q system OF
range control somewhat similar TO that
! now in effect in the national forests.
/ Whatever system of range control may
! be adopted in detail, there are two things
It must not do. It must not handicap or
exclude the small man by recurring hin
! to spend more money for fences than he
can afford, and it must leave every acre
that can be settled by bona-hde home
| steaders freely open to such settlement.
! | do not believe that a single acre Of our
public lands should hereafter pass into
1 private ownership, except for the single
! purpose OF homestead settlement, and
! know that the stockInen stand with me
| in their desire to remove every obstacle
! from the path of the genuine homesteader
| and to put every possible obstacle in the
| lie lands by misrepresentation or fraud.
| This is absolutely necessary on the agrl-
| cultural lands. 1t is at least equally neces-
! sary on the mineral lands 1t would be
| calamity, whose baleful effect on the aver
! age citizen we can scarcely eXaggerate II
| the great stores of coal and other mineral
fuels still owned by the people IN Alaska
! and elsewhere should pass into the unregu-
lated ownership of monopoiistic corpora
| tons
TIE Forest Service.
| You progressive stockmen have stood
heartily by the conservation movement,
| and with you have stood many others
| Is due such as the lumbermen in Wash
! ington and Oregon. the irrgators in Cali
! fornia and the supporters of the country
( life movement in and around Spokane.