The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1910-09-02

encouraged as long as consistent
with this welfare. and curbed when
it becomes inconsistent Herewith, 1t
1T is necessary to invoke the aid OF
the government. There are points
in which this government aid
best be rendered by the states, that
is, where the exercise of states
rights help to secure popular rights;
and as to these l believe In states
rights. But there are large classes
of cases where only the authority OF
the national government will secure
the rights of the people; and where
this Is the case / am convinced and a
thoroughgoing believer in the rights
of the national government. Big
business, for for instance. is no
longer an affair of any one state; big
business has become nationalized,
and the only effective way of con
trolling and directing it. and pre-
| venting abuses in connection with it,
is by having the people na%tionalize
the control in order to prevent their
being exploited by the individuals
who have nationalized the business.
All commerce on a scale sufficiently
large to warrant any control over it
by the government is nowadays inter.
state or foreign commerce.; and until
. this fact is heartily acknowledged
and acted upon by both courts and
legislative bodies. national and state
alike, the interest of the people will
suffer.
lin the matter or conservation, I
heartily approve of state action
where under our form Of govern
ment the state, and the state only,
has the power to act. cordially join
with those who desire to see the
state, within its own sphere, take the
whole matter of conservation.
"By actual experience in the east
We 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 if it fails to
attempt this duty at the outset it will
later on have to pay heavily in order
to be allowed - take up the work,
which, because j: is done so late,
cannot be so we'll done as if it had
been earlier.
Water Power.
Take the question of the control
of the water power sites. The enorm-
Gus Importance of water power sites
to the future industrial development
of this country has only been real
lied within a very few years. I'm
fortunately, the realization has come
too late as regards many of the pow
which Il hands are free to deal. We
should make it our duty to see that
hereafter the power sites are KEEP,
under the control Of the general
government. for the use Of the peo-
pie as a whole.
"There is something fairly comic ;
in the appeal made by many of these
men in favor of State control when
you realize that the great corpora
tons seeking the privileges of deve!-
oplng the water power in any given
State are at least as apt to he owned
outside that State as within it.. III
this country, nowadays, capital has a
National and not a State use. The
great corporations which are man.
aged and largely owned in the older
States are those which are most in
evidence in developing and useing
the mines and water powers and for
ests of the new Territories and the
new States, from Alaska to Arizona.
During the last session of Cor.
gress bills were introduced to trans
fer the water power sites in the Na-
tional Forests and the Public Domain
to the control of the states. l cannot
state too strongly my belief that
these measures are unwise, and that
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