Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1910-01-20
Message Transmitted to Con.
greSS by President Taft
PLEA FOR SCIENTIFIC FARMING
Urges Better Treatment of Sol!
< to Assure Larger Crops.

Washington, Jan. 15.-Complications
brought about by the Pinchot-Ballinger
affair are ignored by President Taft
in the special conservation message
which he submitted to congress.
The president urges that congress
proceed Immediately to dispose of the
Taft-Ballinger conservation programme
without awaiting the outcome of the
congressional investigation of the Bal.
linger-Pinchot dispute.
In a plea for better treatment of the
soil, so as to assure larger crops and
lasting productivity, the president
places scientific farming at the head Of
the list of conservation aids.
The president recommends legisla-
ton providing for the conservation Of
the public lands; the safeguarding Of
power sites along rivers in the public
domain; the validating of the with
drawals from entry made by the sec
rotary of the interior or under the dis
puted Supervisory poWer;;" a detailed
classification of public lands accord
ing to their use; the disposition of the
agricultural and mineral of
the same portions of the public lands
separately; the rapid completion of
the reclamation projects now under
way and a S30,000,000 bond issue to
finish and extend these projects; the
extension Of the activities Of the for
est service and the carrying out of
terWay improvement.
All Of these matters, with the eX
ception of the forest and inland water
ways recommendations, the president
says, have been embodied in a series
of bills prepared by Secretary of the
Interior Ballinger. The bills are now
awaiting Introduction in congress-.
In considering the general question
Of public land, the president says:
Public Domain Depleted.
GIN 1860 we had a public domain OF
055,911,2SS acres. We now have 731,
354 ,OS1 acres, confined largely to the
mountain ranges and the arid anC
semi-arid plains. We have, in addi
ton, 36S, O35,475 acres of land il
Alaska.
"The principal land statutes were
enacted more than a quarter of a cen
tury ago.. The homestead act, the pre-
emption and timber culture act, the
coal land and the mining acts were
among these. The rapid disposition
of the public lands under the early
statutes, and the lax methods of dis.
tribution prevailing, due, 1 think, to
the belief that these lands should
rapidly pass into private ownership
gave rise to the impression that the
public domain was legitimate property
for the INSCRIPTIONS and that it was
not contrary to good morals to cir
cumvent the land laws. This prodigal
name of disposition resulted in the
passage of large areas of valuable land
and many Of our national resources in
to the hands of persons who felt little
or no responsibility for promoting the
national welfare through their develop
ment.
THE truth is that title to millions
of acres of public lands was fraud
ulently obtained, and that the right
to recover a large part of such lands
for the government long since ceased
by reason of statutes Of Imitation"
A significant statement in the mes
sage is: Since March 4, 1909, TEN
porary Withdrawals Of power site:
have been made on 102 streams, ant
these Withdrawals, therefore cover %!
per CEN more streams than were GOV
cred by the Withdrawals made prior tt
that date