Omaha daily bee., 1910-09-08
BIZ OVATION FOR PlNCHOT
CONTINUED from First pageJ

action The people Of the west see little
practical difference between resource
withheld entirely from use and a resource
dissipated or exhausted. They understand
by conservation the most economical de-
velopment and best care OF resources.
The prairie states are more Interested
than any other in the question of cheap
fuel We 90 not depend upon Alaska for
our future supply. There Is abundant coal
on the Pacific coast nearer to our seaports
and commercial centers. While we lament
the exhaustion of our coal supply, we main
tain tariff that compels us to draw upon
it continuously. 1t would be well to cast
out this beam before we worry too much
over the conservation mote.
Against some forestry theories the west
enters an even stronger plea. What the
United states needs is neither reckless de-
struction nor an embargo upon our splendid
western commonwealths by locking up a
considerable portion of their available area
There were, by the last report of the for
estry service, over 19E5OOOOO acres with
drawn from use in our forest reserves on
June 30, 1909. OF this, nearly IS per cent,
over H., 600 acres, or $4,000 square miles,
lies in six western states That is an area
six-sevenths the size Of Germany or France.
1t is 80 per cent Of the size of the I'M
appropriated and unreserved land in those
six states.
THE west believes in forest preservation.
| But 1t believes practically and not theoret-
/ ically. 1t realizes that 4 good thing may
cost too much, and is not ignorant of the
extravaganza financial tendency of eve"y
| federal department and bureau. 1t wants
an good agricultural land open to the set
tier, wherever 1t may be situated. 1t wants
! timber resources .conservatively utilized and
not wasted OF destroyed.
In connection with forestry interests
! there is just now much question of the
! conservation of water power sites The
demand is that federal lands forming such
sites should be withdrawn and leased for
! the profit and at the pleasure of the fed
| eral government. Against this the whole
vest rightly protests, The water power
differs from the coal deposits in that it is
not destroyed by use. 1t will. do is un-
diminished work as long as the rains fall
and the SHOWS melt. Not the resource, but
the use of it is a proper subject for con-
| servaton and regulation. To withdraw
these sources Of potential wealth from pres
ent utilization is 70 take just so much
from the industrial capital Of the states IN
which they are situated.
THE attempted federal control of water
powers is Illegal, because the use of the
waters within a state is the property Of
the state and cannot be taken from it, and
that the state may and actually does, in
the case of Idaho. for example, perfectly
safeguard its water powers from monopoly
and make them useful without extortion,
has been shown acOpclusively by Senator
Borah in a speech in the United States SEN
ate in which this whole subject Is admir-
ably covered. Ought the public domain be
administered by me government and dis
posed of for it's profit, or opened to the
people and shared with the states? Let
experience determine. Which was the better
guardian. The Worst Scandals OF state land
misappropriatoh. and there were many, are
insignificant when, compared. with the
racord. OF the Iiation.o
There remains an opportunity and a
need OF conservation transcendins in
value all others combined. The soil Is
the ultimate employer of all industry and
the greatest source of all wealth. 1t is the
universal banker. Upon the maintenance
unimpaired in quantity and quality of the
tillable area of the country its whole
| future is conditioned,
interest already awakened in agricultural
improvement; an interest which it should
be the first object of this congress to
deepen and preserve At out present rate
of production and consumption we may
cease to be a wheat exporting nation
within the next ten or fifteen years,
perhaps earlier. Is there any other field
where conservation could produce results
lee
I'VE must stand for conservation every
where; in the tedious as we'll as in the In
teresting applicauoni where it cuts into
our pleasures and habits and jostles our
comfortable easy-going ways of thought
just as firmly as where 1t is hand in
glove with elf-interest.
THE tariff in some respects is a great
enemy OF conservation. t>AWnatever we may
think of it as a general Industrial policy,
} every one can see that, by excluding the
raw products of other countries it throws
the entire burden OF their consumption
upon our own resources and thus exhausts
them unnecessarily The tariff on forest
products cuts down our own forests. a
tariff on coal depletes our mines. a tariff
on any raw material forbids the conserva-
ton of similar natural resources here.
| "
what extent a given resource should be
utilized and how far reserved for the
future is an intensely practical, individual,
; and above all It is a local question, 1t
should be carefully considered in all its as
!, poets by both nation and state, and shoJId
4 finally rest within lines determined b.
proper legislation, as far as may be undel
the control of local authorities. Experience
proves that resources are not only best ad-
ministered but best protected from
, marauders by the home people who are
most deeply interested and who are just
as honest, just as patriotic and infinitely
better informed on local conditions thar
the national government can possibly be
1t Is clear that every one of the many
problems all over the country can be bet
} ter understood where they are questions
of the lives and happiness of those directly