The Green Forest tribune., 1910-12-09

ginning ot this administration there were withdrawn from entry for pur- poses of classification 17,S67000 acres. Since that time there have been with drawn by my order from entry for classification 78,977745 acres, making total withdrawal of 96,S4I,745 acres. Meantime of the acres thus with drawn 1.O61 .SS9 have been classified and found not to contain coal and have been restored to agricultural en- try. and 4,726091 acres have been classified as coal lands while 7993,2 acres remain withdrawn from entry and await classification. n addition 337 .O00 acres have been classified as coal lands without prior withdrawal, thus increasing the classified coal lands to 1O,429,372 acres.
 Under the laws providing for the disposal of coal lands in the United States, the minimum price at which lands are permitted to be sold is $1O an acre; but the secretary of the in- terior has the power to fix maximum price and to sell at that price.
 AS one-third of all the coal supply is held by the government, it seems wise that it should retain such con trol over the mining and the sale as the relation of lessor to lessee fur nishes.
 "The secretary of the interior thinks there are difficulties in the way of leasing public coal lands, which ob- jections he has set forth in his re- port, the force of which I freely con cede. entirely approve his stating at length in his report of the objec, lions iii order that the whole subject may be presented to congress, but after a full consideration, for the req sons l have given above, l favor
 Water Power Sites.
 Prior to March f. 1909, there had been, on the recommendation of the reclamation service. withdrawn from agricultural entry, because they were regarded as useful for power sites which ought not to be disposed of as agricultural lands, tracts amounting to about 100000 acres The with drawals were hastily made and in- cluded a great deal of land that was not useful for power sites. They were intended to include the power sites , on 29 rivers in states. Since that time 3,475,442 acres have been re- stored for settlement of the original 4,000,000 because they do not con- tain power sites; and meantime, new withdrawals have been made which, with other restorations based upon field examination, result in withdraw als at present effective of 1,21S, 1856 acres on vacant public land and 262,- 197 acres on entered public land, or a total of 1,420,553 acres. These with drawals made from time to time cover all the power sites included in the first withdrawals and many more, on 151 rivers and in 12 states. The dis position of these power sites involves one of the most difficult questions pre- sented in carrying out practical con servation.
 The subject is one that calls for new legislation. It has been thought that there was danger of combination to obtain possession of all the power sites and to unite them under one control Whatever the evidence of this, or lack of it, at present we have had enough experience to know that combination would be profitable, and the control of great number of pow |
 However this may be, it is the plain duty of the government to see to it that in the utilization and deyel- opment of all this immense amount of water power, conditions shall be imposed that will prevent eXtortion- ate charges, which are the usual ac- compartment of monopoly.
 "The question of conservation is not a partisan one, and 1 sincerely hope that even in the short time of the present session consideration may be given to those questions which have now been much discussed, and that action may be taken upon them" "
 Alaska.
 With reference to the government of Alaska, l have nothing to add to the recommendations I made in my last message on the subject. l am convinced that the migratory charac- ter of the population, it's unequal dis tribution, and it's smallness of num- Der, which the new census shows to be about 50,000, in relation to the enormous eXpanse of the territory make it altogether impracticable to give to those people who are in Alaska today and may not be there year hence, the power to elect a leg islature to govern an immense ter ritory to which they have relation so little permanent"
 Bureau of Corporations. Referring to the report of the con- missioner of corporations, the presi- dent says:
 The commissioner finds a condi- tion in the ownership of the standing timber of the United States other than the government timber that calls for serious attention. The direct in- vestigation made by the commissioner CONtIGu etH dACl COAldlLS GU per cent of the privately y-owned tim Der of the country.
 His report shows that one half of the timber in this area is owned by 200 individuals and corporations; that 14 per cent. is owned by these corporations, and that there is very extensive inter-ownership of stock as well as other circumstances, all pointing to friendly relations among those who own a majority of this tim Der, relationship which might lead to a combination for the maintenance