The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-08-30

| children who come after him; but We
are against the man, no matter what
his ability, who tries to monopollze
large masses of public land.
state md Federal Control
Now to preserve the general welfare,
to Sc to 1t that the rights of the public
are protected, and the liberty of the in
dividual secured and encouraged as long
as consistent with his welfare, and
curbed when 1t becomes inconsistent
Herewith, it is necessary to invoke the
aid of the government. There are points
in which this governmental aid can be
best 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 national govern
ment will secure the rights of the peo-
pie. and where this is the case I am
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 nation
alize their control in order to prevent
their being exploited by the individuals
who have Mathematical the business. All
commerce on a scale sufficiently large
to warrant any control over 1t by the
government is nowadays interstate or
foreign commerce; and until this fact is
heartily acknowledged, and acted upon
by both courts and Legislative bodies,
national and state alike, the interest of
the people will suffer.
State Action Approved
IN the matter of conservation I heart
lily approve of state action, where under
our form of government the state only
has the power to act. I cordially join
with those who desire to SO the state,
within its own sphere, take the advanced
position in regard to the whole matter
of conservation. I have taken exactly
this attitude In my home state of New
York. Where the state alone had power
to act have done all I could to get 1t
to act in the most advanced manner
and where the nation could act I have
done all I could to get national action IN
the same direction. Unfortunately in the
east we have in this matter paid the
penalty of not having forest land under
national control: and the penalty has
been severe. Most of the states-al-
though they are old states-have not
protected their forests, each falling to
act by itself, because the action was
really the common concern Of all; and
where action is the common concern OF
only be profltably undertaken by the ma
tional government.
LAS a result of the impoSsibility of get
ting such wise action by the several state
governments in the east we are doing
our best to get national legislation under
which the national government, at the
expense of millions of dollars, shall un-
dertake to do as regards the Appalachian
and White mountains of the east what it
is now doing in the Rocky mountains here
out west It would be both a calamity
and an absurdity for the national govern
ment now to do in the west the very
thing at a heavy pecuniary cost 1t is
trying TO undo In the east. By actual
experience in the east we have found to
our cost that the nation, and not the
several states can best guard the inter-
ests of the people in the matter of the
forests and the waters, and that II II
fails to attempt this duty at the outset
1t will later on have to pay heavily IN
order to be allowed to take up the work,
which, because it is done so late. can
not be so we'll done as II 1t had been
begun earlier.
Water Power
Take the question of the control of
the water power sites. The enormous
Importance of water power sites to the
future industrial development or tnls
country has only been realized within
very few years. Unfortunately, the real
ization has come too late as regards many
of the power sites; but many yet re-
main with which our hands are free 10
deal We should make it our duty &c
see that hereafter the power sites are
kept under the control of the central
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 development and use
of the water power but which shall not
create a permanent monopoly or permit
the development to be anti-social, TO De
in any respect hostile to the public good
The nation alone has the power to 90
this effectively, and 1t is for this reason
that you will find these 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 substitution OF
state for national action.
"Our people have for many years pro-
ceeded upon the assumption that the ma
ton should control the public land 1t
is TO this assumption Of national outlook