The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-04-03
NEW LAWS NEEDED
 ON CONSERVATION House and Senate Are Strug- gling With Question
MANY BILLS ARE FRAMED
the Fight Because He Has Some Ideas of His Owon on
 Conservation

Washington. April 2.-Members of both the House and Senate are struggling with the question of framing laws to further the cause of conservation. Up to within the last two or three days both houses of Congress have been so occupied that little attention has been paid to the sub ject Since Friday, however, efforts have been made to get some of the administra- ton measures dealing with conservation into shape for presentation.
 The public lands committee of the House has gone to pieces onathe proposed law to authorize the President to make withdrawals and classifications of public lands and the members are now divided into several, gronps, each pulling in dif- ferent direction. 3f-
 The chief question the legislators will have to deal with in connection with con- servation are embodied in bills on the fol- lowing subjects: .es.,,s ,e.sst. ..se Withdrawal and classif1cations of pub lie lands: conservation of coal lands; conservation of waterpawer; conservation of oil lands; conservation of phosphate lands. -eH.ss
 The first four will receive serious con- sideration. while bills on the last named one are likely to be lost in the general fight on the others. There are any num- Der of bills pending in Cor s upon all of these subjects and how best to harmonize them and arrive at some smu- tual basis h the question. '-s,. .ss.s
 President Taft will be. drawn into the fight and today he informed some of tho members of the committee he desired to talk with them next week in the inter ests of harmony. ssS
 In the committee the republican mem bers are split up on the question of whetn- ar to validate all past withdrawals or public lands, about which there1is doubt of legality, or to leave that to future de- termination by the courts.
 The democratic members of the com mittee say the republican members who want to qualify the validation are not for real conservation at all, but are merely aiming at white washing" of the ad- nlinistration on this question. They have introduced a bill of their own on the sub ject. r
 Senator Smoot last night called meet ing to discuss the question of oil lands. The meeting resulted in no definite agree ment.
 The details of bill to provide for the boring for oil on public lands was fully discussed disclosing widely divergent views. The length of lease, the pay
 
 proved subjects of disagreement.
 Tho question of water power in the pub- lie domain is also full of possible ele- nents of dispute, and it is sure to cause plenty of trouble A proposition to turn over to the states the matter of the reg ulation of granting rights of ways for power companies operating on the public dc1nai1 is said to- be meeting with general favor but there is still much opposition to tile federal government relinquishins any part of the control 1t may have over the water power sites.
 Altogether the conservation question is said to be rocky road for the legisla- tors to travel. There Is great misunder- standing of conditions. 1t Is stated. and few of the members are fully acquainted with the vast detail of the subject. East ern members are unfamiliar with condI- tens in the west, and the representative from the latter section encounter great difficulty in explaining the actual mean ing Of conservation as it relates to the people of their districts. Nobody appears to be opposing conservation, but the ques- tion Is how to conserve.