The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1910-09-01
CONSERVATION IS TOPIC
OF ROOSEVELT IN DENVER
He Argues That Federal Control Of the Coun-
try's Natural Resources Is Generally Best,
but Favors State Action Where Ii
Will Serve Purpose.

our cost that the Nation. and not the sew
eral states, can best guard the interests
OF the people In the matter OF the forests
and the waters, and that II It fails to
attempt this duty at the outset II Will
later on have to pay heavily In order TO
be allowed to take up the work, which
because 1t is done so late, cannot be so
well done as II IL had been begun earlier.
Water Power.
Take the question Of the control of the
water power sites. The enormous impor-
lance OF water power sites to the future
industrial development OF this country
has only been realized within q very few
years. unfortunately. the realization has
como too late as regards many OF the
power sites; but many yet remain with
which our hands are free to deal We
should make 1t our duty to see that here
after the power sites are kept under the
control of the general government, for
the use of the people as a whole. The
fee should remain with the people as
whole, while the use Is leased on terms
which shall secure an ample reward to
the lessees, which shall encourage the de-
velopment and use of the water power,
but which shall not create a permanent
monopoly or permit the development to
be anti social, to be in any respect hostile
to the public good. The Nation alone has
the power to do this effectively, and II is
for this reason that you will find those
corporations which wish to gain improper
advantage and to be freed from efficient
control on the part Of the public, doing
all that they can to secure the substitu-
ton of state for National action.
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 corporations seeking the
privileges of developing the water power
in any given state are at least as apt to
be owned outside that state as within 1t.
In this country, nowadays, capital has a
National and not state use. The great
corporations which are managed and
largely owned in the older states are
those which are most in evidence in de-
veloping and using the mines and water
powers and forests OF the new territories
and the new states, from Alaska to Arr
xona. I have been genuinely amused du-
ring the past two months at having argu-
ments presented to me on behalf of GER
tain rich men from New York and Ohio,
for instance, as to why Colorado and 9TH
er Rocky Mountain states should manage
their own water power sites. Now these
men may be good citizens according to
their lights, but naturally enough their
special interest obscures their sense Of the
public need; and as their object is to
escape an efficient control, exercised in
the interest Of all the people of the coun-
try, they clamor to be put under the state
instead of under the Nation. If we are
foolish enough to grant their requests, we
shall have ourselves to blame when we
wake up to 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 en-
richment. During the last session Of
lie fv,fV 70 %v-ovr ufo
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 disas-
trous to enact them into law. In sub
stance their effect would be to free these
great special interests from all effective
control. The passage of such bill would
be victory Of the special interests over
the general welfare and a long backward
step down the hill of progress we have of
late been climbing.
Our people have for many years pro-
ceeded upon the assumption that the
Nation should control the public land. 1t
is to this assumption of National outlook
that we owe wisest land legislation.
from the Homestead Law to the Irrigation
Law The wise use OF our public domain
has always been conditioned upon Ma
tional action The states can greatly help.
but the Nation must take the lead as re-
CARDS 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 pecu-
liar force to the coal lands, and especially
to the coal lands in Alaska, whose pro-
lection and ownership by the Federal
government is so necessary, both for full
and free Industrial development in the
west, and for the needs of our feet in the
Pacific. The coal mines should be leased,
not sold, and those who mine the coal
should pay back part of the profit to
the people. 1t is the right and duty of the
people to demand the most vigilant trus-
teeship 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 effective
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 unhesitating-
ly invoke the law to show that the
state had no constitutional power to
act. Long experience has shown that
1T is by no means impossible in cases
of constitutional doubt, to get one set
of judicial decisions which render 1t
difficult for the nation to act, and an
other set which render 1t impossible
for the state to act In each case the
privileged bene1ciaries OF the decision
invoke the aid of those who treat the
Constitution, not as q healthy aid to
growth, but as fetish to prevent
growth; and they assail the advocates
of wise and cautious progress as being
opponents Of the Constitution. AS I
have said before, am a strong believ-
er in efficient national actien, where
such action offers the best hope OF Sc
curing and protecting the interest OF
the whole people as against the inter-
est of few. But I am emphatically
in favor of state action, where state
action will best serve this purpose and
/ am no less emphatically in favor Of
cordial and hearty cooperation be-
tween the nation and the states where
their duties are Identical or overlap
If there Is one thing which Is more
unwise than another. it is the creation
by legislative, by executive, or by
judicial action Of neutral ground in
which neither the state nor the nation
I a