The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1910-09-15
STANDS STRONGLY
FOR CONSERVATION
President Taft's Address Before
Congress at St. Paul.
DANGER IN CONTINUED WASTE
Chief Executive Outlines Plans Which
He Believes Should Be Adopted
Statistics Make Speech Com
prehensive to Hearers.

Taft delivered his long-expected
speech before the National Con-
servation congress here today. Sub
stantially it was as follows:
Gentlemen of the National Conservation
Congress:
Conservation as an economic and po-
litical term has come to mean the preser-
walton of our natural resources for
economical use, so as to secure the great
est good to the greatest number.
The danger to the state and to the peo-
pie at large from the waste and dissipa-
ton of our national wealth Is not one
which quickly impresses itself on the peo-
pie of the older communities, because Its
most obvious instances do not occur in
their neighborhood while in the newer
part of the country the sympathy with
expansion and development is so strong
that the danger is scoffed at or ignored.
Among scientific men and thoughtful OBJ
servers, however, the danger has always
been present; but il needed some one to
bring home the crying need for remedy
Of this evil so as to impress itself on the
public mind and lead to the formation OF
public opinion and action by the repre-
sentatives of the people Theodore Roose-
welt took up this task in the last two
years of his second administration, and
we'll did he perform it. .
As president of the United States /
have, as it were, inherited this policy,
and rejoice in my heritage. I prize my
high opportunity to do all that an ex-
ecutive can do to help a great people
realize great national ambition. For
conservation is national. 1t affects every
man of us, every woman, every child.
What 1 can do in the cause I shall do,
not as president of party, but as presi-
af he xxyho ion,
is not a question of politics, or of fac
lions, or Of persons. 1t is question that
affects the vital welfare Of all of us-of
our children and our children's children.
I urge that no good can come from meet
ings of this sort unless we ascribe to
those who take part in them, and who
are apparently striving worthily in the
cause, all proper motives, and unless we
judicially consider every measure or
method proposed with view to its ehec-
tiveness in achieving our common pur-
pose, and wholly without regard to who
proposes 1t or who will claim the credit
for its adoption. The problems are Of
very great difficulty and call for the
calmest consideration and clearest fore
sight Many Of the questions presented
have phases that are new in this coun-
try, and it is possible that in their solu-
ton we may have to attempt first one
l
emphasize, however, Is that a satisfac-
tory conclusion can only be reached
promptly if we avoid acrimony, imputa-
tons of bad faith, and political contro-
versy.
The public domain Of the government
of the United States, including all the
cessions from those of the thirteen states
that made cessions to the United States
and including Alaska amounted in all to
n IL l.
left as purely government property out
side of Alaska something like 700, O0O, 900 Of
acres. OF this the national forest re-
serves in the United States proper en-
brace IA, 600 acres. The rest is largely
mountain or arid country, offering some
opportunity for agriculture by dry farm
ing and by reclamation, and containing
metals as well as coal, phosphates, oils,
and natural gas. Then the government
owns many tracts of land lying along the
margins of streams that have water
power, the use of which is necessary in
the conversion Of the power into cleo
tricity and its transmission.
l shall divide my discussion under the
heads of % agricultural lands; (2) min
eral lands-that is, lands containing
metalliferous minerals; (3) forest lands;
4 coal lands; Co oil and gas lands; and
co. phosphate lands
IdHUS.
Our land laws for the entry of agricul-
tural lands are now as follows:
The original homestead law, with the
requirements of residence and cultivation
for five years, much more strictly en-
forced than ever before.
The enlarged homestead act, applying
to nonirrigable lands only, requiring five
years residence and continuous cultiva-
ton of one-fourth of the area.
The desert-land act, which requires on
the part of the purchaser the ownership
Of water right and thorough reclama-
ton of the land by irrigation, and the
payment of $1.25 per acre.
The donation or Carey act, under which
the state selects the land and provides
for its reclamation, and the title vests in
the settler who resides upon the land and
cultivates it and pays the cost of the
reclamation.
The national reclamation homestead
law, requiring five years residence and
cultivation by the settler on the land ir-
rigated by the government, and payment
by him to the government of the cost of
the reclamation.
The present congress passed a bill of
great Importance, severing the ownership
Of coal by the government in the ground
from the surface and permitting home
stead entries upon the surface of the
land, which, when perfected, give the
settler the right to farm the surface,
while the coal beneath the surface is re-
tained in ownership by the government
and may be disposed of by it under other
laws.
There is no crying need for radical re-
form in the methods of disposing of what
are really agricultural lands The pres
ent laws have worked WELL The en-
larged homestead law has encouraged the
successful farming of lands in the semi
arid regions. OF course the teachings Of
the agricultural department as to how
these subarid lands may be treated and
the soil preserved for useful culture are
Of the very essence of conservation. Then
conservation of agricultural lands is
shown in the reclamation Of arid lands
by irrigation and should devote a few
words to what the government has done
and is doing in this regard.
Reclamation.
BY the reclamation act a fund has been
created of the proceeds of the public
lands of the United States with which to
construct works for storing great bodies
of water at proper attitudes from which,
by suitable system of canals and ditch
es, the water is to be distributed over the
arid and subarid lands Of the government
to be sold to settlers at a price sufficient
to pay for the improvements. Primarily,
the projects are and must be for the i'm
provement of public lands. InSfden tally,
where private land is also within reach
OF the water supply. the furnishing at