The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1910-08-31
HITS STATE CONSERVATION.
Does Not Mean the Deprivation of
The Present Generations.

DENVER, Colo, Aug 29-Theo-
dore Roosevelt delivered the follow
| ing speech in this city today.
This country has shown definite
signs of waking up to the absolute
necessity ofhandling its natural re-
sources with foresight and com mon
sense The conservation question has
three sides In the first place the
needless waste of the natural re-
sources must be stopped. 1t is rap
/ idly becoming well-settled policy
of this people that we of this genera
ton hold the land in part for the
next generation, and not exclusively
for our own selfish endowment. Just
as the farmer is a good citizen if he
leaves his farm improved and not i'm
paired for his children, and a bad
citizen IL he skins the land in his
own selfish interests, so the nation
behaves well If it treats the natural
resources as assets which it must
turn over to the next generation in
creased and not impaired in value,
and behaves badly if it leaves the
landpoorer to those who come after
US.
Develops Resources.
I'm the second place, the natural
resources must be developed prompt
ly, completely, and in orderly fash
ion. 1t is not conservation to leave
the natural resources undeveloped.
Development is an indispensable
part of the conservation plan. The
forests, the mines, the water powers
oil 1Na y,,,t
to use. Those who assert that con-
servation proposes to tie them up
deprving this generation of their
benefits in order to hand them on I'M
touched to the next, miss the whole
point OF the conservation idea. Con-
servation does not mean depriving
the men of today of their natural
rights in the natural resources of the
land. All it means is that we of
this generation shall SO use our
rights as not to deprive those who
come after US of their natural rights
in their turn.
Be Owned by People
"In the third place, so far as pos
sible these resources must be kept
for the whole people and not handed
vduals. We do not intend to dis
courage individual enterprise by I'M
wisely diminishing the reward for
that enterprise. on the contrary,
we believe that the men of exception
al abilities should have exceptional
rewards up to point where the re-
ward becomes disproportionate to
the service, up to the point where
the abilities are used to the detri-
ment of the people as a whole. We
are for the liberty of the individual
up to and not beyond the point where
it becomes inconsistent with the well
fare of the community. Thus our
consistent aim is to favor the actual
settler-the man who takes as much
of the public domain as he himself
can cultivate, and there makes a
permanent home for his children
who come after him; but we are
against the man, no matter what his
ability, who tries to monopolize large
masses of public land.
State and Federal Control.
"Now, to preserve the general well
fare. to see to it that the rights of
the public are protected, and the
liberty of the individual secured and
encouraged as long as consistent with
his welfare, and curbed when it be-
comes inconsistent Herewith. it Is
necessary to invoke the aid of the
government There are points in
which this governmental aid can best
be rendered by the states that IS,
where the exercise of states rights
helps 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 ma
tional government will secure the
rights OF the people; and where this
is the case l am a convinced and a
thorough going believer in the rights
of the national government. Big
business. for instance, is no longer an
affair of any one state; big business
has become nationalized, and the
only effective way of controlling and
directing it. and preventing abuses
in connection with it, is by having
the people nauonalZe this control
in order to prevent their being ex-
plotted by the individuals who have
nationalized the business. All COM
merce 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 legis-
lative bodies, national and state
alike, the interest Of the people will
suffer.
State Conservation.
I'm the matter of conservation, I
heartily approve of state action
where under our form of governm ent
the state only, has the power to act.
I cordially join with those who de-
sire to see the state, within it's own
sphere, take the most advanced po-
sition in regard to the whole matter
of conservation. l have taken exact
ly this attitude in my own state of
New York. Where the state alone
had power to act, I have done all l
could to get it TO act in the most
advanced manner; and where the ma
ton could act have done all I could
to get national action in the same
direction. Unfortunately, In the east
we have in this matter paid the pen
atty of not having our forest land
under national control; and the pen
atty has been severe. Most of the
states-although they are old states
have not protected their forests,
each failing to act by itself, because