The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-08-30

SAeAJ ms oAiiy DSen realized within
a very few years. Unfortunately the
realization has come too Iate as reea NJ 9
many or the power sites; but r,anv vet
remain with which our hands ara free
10 deal. We should make it our dutv
to see that hereafter the mower sitas q =.
kept under the control of the renar.I
government, for the use of tha naoTIa
as whole. The fee should remain wifi,
the people as a whole. while the 1,sa 10
leased on tennis which shall secure an
shall encourage the DEVELOPMENT and
use OF the waterpower, but which shall
not create permanent rnononol1, ~
permit the development to he snt;-
social to be in any respect hostile TO
Inc PUBIC good The nation alone has
the power to do this effectively. and II
is Tor this reason that Won will find
these corporations which wish to gain
improper advantage and to he fraad
from efficient control on the part of the
puDiic' oolllg an tnat they can to Sc
cure the substitution of state for ma
tional action. ~ ~
;, mere is something fairly comic in
the appear made by many Of these men
In favor of state control when VOL, raoI-
re tnat the great corporations seeking
the privileges OF developing the water
power in any given state are at least as
apt 10 De owned outside the state as
WITHIN 1t. In this country. NOWADAYS.
capital has national and state nse
The great corporations which are man
aged and largely owned in the older
states are those which are most in evi-
dence in developing and using the
mines and water powers and forests of
the new territories and the new states
from Alaska to Arizona 1 have been
genuinely amused the past two months
at having arguments presented to me
on behalf of certain rich men from
New York and Ohio, for instance. as to
Why Colorado and othr Rocky noun
tain states should manage their own
water power sites. Now these men may
be good citizens according to their
lights. but naturally enough their spe-
cial interests obscure their sense of
public need; and as their object is TO
escape an efficient control exercised in
the interest of all the people of the
country, they claunor to be put under
the state instead of under the nation.
If we are foolish enough to grant their
requests, we shall have ourselves 10
blame when we wake up and find that
we have permitted another privilege TO
intrench itself and another portion of
what should be kept for the public good
to be turned over to individuals for
purposes of private enrichment. Dur
ing 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. I cannot state too strongly my
belief that these measures are unwise
and that it would be disastrous to en-
act them into law. In substance their
effect would be to force these great
special interests from all effective con-
troll. The passage of such a bill would
be a victory of the special interests
over the general welfare, and a long
backward step down the hill of pro-
gress we have of late been climbing.
Our people have for many years
proceeded up the assumption that the
nation should control the public land
1t is to this assumption of national
outlook that we owe our wisest land
legislation from the homestead law to
the Irrigation law. The wise use of our
public domain has always been condi-
toned upon national action. The states
can greatly help. but the nation must
take the lead as regards the land, as
regards the forests and waters; and
perhaps peculiarly in the case of the
waters, because almost all streams are
really interstate streams.
Coal Lands.
'The same principle applies with
peculiar force to the coal lands, and
especially to the coal lands in Alaska
whose protection and ownership by the
federal government is SO necessary,
both for full and free Industrial de-
velopment in the west, and for the
needs of our fleet in the Pacific The
coal mines should be leased, not sold.
and those who mine the coal should
paw back a part of the profit to the
people. 1t is the right and duty of the
people to demand the most vigilant
trusteeship on that part of that branch
of the federal government in charge of
the fuel resources of the United States.
The Neutral Ground.
Remember also that many of the
men who protest loudly against ef-
fective national action would be the
first to turn round and protest against
state action if such action in its turn
became effective, and would then un-
hesitatingly invoke the law to show
that the state had no constitutional
power to act. Long experience has
shown that it is by no means impossi-
BILE, in cases of constitutional doubt, to
get one set of judicial decisions which
render it difficult for the nation to act,
and another set which render it impos-
sible for the state to act. In each case
the privileged beneficiaries Of the de-
cision invoke the aid of those who
treat the constitution not as a healthy
aid to growth. but as fetish to pre-
vent growth; and they assail the adj
vocates of wise and cautious progress
as being opponents of the constitution.
AS I have said before, I am a strong
believer in efficient national action,
where such action offers the
best hope of securing and protecting
the interests of the whole people as
against the interests of few But 1
am emphatically in favor of state ac-