The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1910-09-10

udy Ou IidCIACdl CONSERVATION, sal
in part:
Belief in a comprehensive system o
conservation of all esource has nov
taken possession of the public mind
What remains to be done is that mos
difficult of all the tasks of statesman
ship-the application of an accepte,
principle and making it conform in al
its general outlines to the common
good.
To pack the fact into a single state
ment, the need of the hour and the enc
to which this congress should devote it
self is to conserve conservation. 1t ha.
ccme into that peril which no great
truth eseapes-the danger that turks in
the house of its friends. 1t has been
used TO forward that serious error of
policy, the extension OF the powers and
activities of the national government at
the expense of those of the states. The
time is ripe and this occasion is most
fitting for distinguishing between real
and fanciful conservation, and for es.
tablishing a sound relation of means to
ends.
We should first exclude certain activi-
ties that come only indirectly under the
term, Conservation The reclamation
service is one. It's work is not preser-
walton, but utilization. The arid lands
of this country have been where they
now are, the streams have flowed past
them uselessly ever since Adam and Eve
were in the Garden of Eden. Irrigation
was practiced in prehistoric time. What
have to do is to bring modern meth
DDS to the aid of one of the oldest agri-
cultural arts. 1t is mentioned here be-
cause its progress illustrates the dan
gers that beset conservation projects
proper.
They are dangers inseparable from
national control and conduct of affairs.
The machine is too big and too distant;
its operation is slow, cumbrous and cost
ly. SO slow is it that settlers are
waiting in distress for water promised
long ago. So faulty has been the dust
ment of time and money that congress
has had to authorize the issue of $780,
O00, 900 of national obligations to COM
plete projects still hanging in the air.
So expensive is it that estimates nave
been exceeded again and again. The
has had either to pay more than
the cost figure he relied on or seek
heaper land in Canada. 1t costs the gov
from so per cent more to twice
as much as it would private enterprise
to put water On the land Under the
Lower Yellowstone project the charge
s $42.50 per acre, and one dollar per
acre annually for maintenance. Inc
Sunnyside project carries a charge OF
$52 per acre, and 95 cents maintenance.
w.
Under the North Platte project the
charge is $45 per acre, plus a NAM
tenance charge not announced. These
projects, in widely separated localities,
entail a land charge prohibitive to the
frontier settlers to provide homes for
hose for whom this work was believed
have been undertaken The pioneer
who can pay, even in ten an
nual instruments, from $500 to $4,000
for eighty acres of land, in addition to
Inc yearly fee per acre, must have some
other resources to aid him. The work
of irrigation would have been more
done if turned over to private
enterprise or committed to the several
states within which lie the lands to be
reclaimed. This is not a criticism upon
any individual. 1t is merely one more
proof of the excessive cost of govern
.ent work.
Toward the conservation of our MN
eral resources little cad ce done by feo-
eral action. The output is determined
not by the mine owner, but by the con-
SINNER. The withdrawal of vast areas
of supposed coal lands rends to increase
price by restricting the area OF possible
supply. 1t is foolish to talk OF leasing
coal lands in small quantities in order 70
prevent monopoly. Mining must be car
ried on upon a large enough scale 10 De
commercially possible. The people 81
the West see little practical difference
between a resource withheld entirety
from nse and a resource dissipated or
exhausted. They understand by con-
the most economical Develop
mant and best care or resources.
The prairie states are more Interested
than any other in the question OF cheap
f,el We do not depend upon Alaska
-. TIo.o IE 4nnn-