The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-09-10
all we shall be able to afford is pho
tograph of it.
THE CONSERVATION PLATFORM,

There is no mistake about it, The st.
Paul Conservation Congress was one
man affair, and Pinchot was the man
who owned it. Even Roosevelt failed
to get the tumultuous and long'lasting
applause that Pinchot drew when he
appeared Pinchot S friends browbeat
and bulldozcd everybody who even hint
ed at any independent view Of con
servatiou. 1t must be Pinchot, and Pin
chot alone, and Pinchot all the time,
Inevitably. the resolutions adopted
carry the Pinchot idea throughout; not
only that the people be barred out from
acquiring coal and water rights, but
they must be limited in their occupa.
tion OF the public domain. The recla-
nation work is approved in way,
but after all. the main thing is to exalt
Pinchot and his ideas, and never fail
TO put a spoke in the wheel. of prog
ress wherever IL can be done.
The people are to be allowed, it
seems, to acquire water rights, but not
absolutely. They can by combination
OF the enlisting Of capital, take n water
right for while by paying TO the Gov
erDment royalty; but no matter how
much they may expend; no matter
how extensive the improvements they
put in; they will not only have to be
taxed locally on the value they thus
L., 30
bonus to the United States. perhaps in
creasing in amount each year by viz
tue Of the very expenditure and I'M
provemcnts that they themselves mqke
The mining of coal is TO be on the
same basis; and so on all through the
lists,
Naturally. nobody would enter the
competition of the industrial and COM
mercial world under such leash No
one is going 10 put in immense sums
of money to develop water power and
make it available commercially unless
he sees q chance TO make something
out of il for himself. If the profit is
all TO go to the public and after
again for his own property or let some
body else TAKE it at public award,
he will invest his money in something
else rather than under yoke of that
kind. The whole idea Is very clevcrly
designed to keep people from investing
their money in this Western country,
and to keep available money all for
Eastern investments and speculation.
There are no such restrictions any
where in the East as is sought to be
capital will refrain from coming to the
West and will take hold of enterprises
in the East. even at reduced profit,
rather than come West and be subject
to crushing impositions from the start
and TO forfeit later on.
Mr.. Roosevelt, in his talk at st, Paul,
declared expressly for the utilization by
the settlers of the resources of the coun-
try in which they settle. This conserva
tion platform is opposed to that. 1t is,
in fact, necessary for the incomers in a
new region to use the resources at hand
to form their settlements and open the
country to civilization; but Mr. Pin
chot in his st. Paul declaration says
that this must not be allowed. If there
is water power at hand that the set
tiers need, they must not use it unless
they are willing to pay rental to the
United States, which will hold the re-
in perpetuity and rent to the
people only at price. If there is coal
at hand, they must not mine 1T as other
settlers have done IN the occupation of
the country, but must wait for leave
from the United States to dig it, and
then must pay to the Government a
price for the digging, aside from the
cost of mining it.
All this will inevitably retard the de-
of all this Western region, If
it can be enacted into law, and will
draw back the use of money and the
exercise OF the activities of the people
20 the Eastern States. where no such
prevail. 1t will be certain,
also, that radical changes in the law
will be necessary before any such pro-
gramme as that can be put into effect.
Under the laws, rs they stand, the peo-
pie have 4 right to the natural resources
of the region in which they settle. They
have right TO use the water power;
TO dig the coal, to cut the timber, under
provisions of the Federal statutes.
But these rights are denied under the
Pinchot resolutions of that Conserva-
tlon Congress. They are denied, that
is, until the last, when apparently it oc
Cured to somebody that there was such
Il thing rs law in this country. and that
the criticism could Justly be made that
there was not a single declaration in
that set of resolutions but what direct
" cont!avened the laws. And so, as a
flyer, right Mt the end. little resolution
was put on which says: Nothing in
these resolutions to be construed as
questioning the rights of the States or
the people of the United States guaran
tosd under the Federal Constitution -