Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-08-29

Unfortunately in the east we have in
this matter paid the penalty of not
having our forest land under national
control, and the penalty has been Sc
we're. Most of the states, although
they are old states. have not protected
| their forests, each failing to act by
itself, because the action was really
the common concern of all, and where
action Is the common concern of all
| experience has shown that it can only
be probably undertaken by the ma
tional government
AS result of the impossibility of
getting such wise action by the sew
eral state governments in the east we
are doing our best to get national leg
islation under which the national gov
eminent, at the expense of millions of
dollars, shall undertake to do as re-
CARDS the Appalachians and White
mountains of the east what it is now
doing in the Rocky mountains here
out west.
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 of
this country has only been realized
within very few years. Unfortunate
~ the realization has come too late as
regards many of the power sites, but
many yet remain with which our
hands are free to deal. We should
the power sites are kept under the con-
troll Of the general government for the
use of the people as a whole.
The fee should remain with the peo-
pie as a whole, while the use is leased
on terms which shall secure an ample
reward to the lessees, which shall en-
courage the development and use of
the water power, but which shall not
create a permanent monopoly or per-
NIT the development to be anti-social,
to be in any respect hostile to the pub
lie good.
The nation alone has the power to
do this effectively, and it is for this
reason that you will find those corpo-
rations which wish to gain improper
advantage and to be freed from eff
cient control on the part of the public
doing all that they can to secure the
substitution of state for national ac-
ton.
There is something fairly comic in
the appeal made by many of these
men in favor of state control when
you realize that the great corporations
seeking the privileges of developing
the water power in any given state are
at least as apt to be owned outside
that state as within it. In this coun-
try nowadays capital has a national
and not a state use.
The great corporations which are
managed and largely owned in the
older states are those which are most
in evidence in developing and using
the mines and water powers and for
ests of the new territories and the new
states from Alaska to Arizona.
1 have been genuinely amused dur
ing the past two months at having ar
guments presented to me on behalf of
certain rich men from New York and
Ohio, for instance, as to why Colorado
and other Rocky mountain states
should manage their own water power
sites. Now, these men may be good
citizens according to their lights, but
obscures their sense of the public need,
and as their object is to escape an eff
cient control. exercised in the interest
of all the people of the country, they
clamor to be put under the state in
stead of under the nation.
If we are foolish enough to grant
their requests we shall have ourselves
to blame when we wake up to find that
we have permitted another privilege
to intrench itself and another portion
of what should be kept for the public
good to be turned over to individuals
for purposes of private enrichment
During the last session of congress
bills were introduced to transfer the
water power sites in the national for
ests and the public domain to the con-
troll of the states l cannot state too
strongly my belief that these measures
are unwise and that it would be disas-
trouS to enact them into law
In substance their effect would be to
free these great special interests from
all effective control. The passage of
such a bill would be a victory of the
special interests over the general wei
fare and a long backward step down
VI piOSIcSS we nave VI ldlC
been climbing.
Coal Lands.
The same pr.ID4li.> applies with pc
culiar force to the coal lands. and es-
pecially to the coal lands in Alaska.
whose protection and ownership by
the federal government are so neces-
sary both for full and free industrial
development in the west and for the |
needs of our feet in the Pacific.
The coal mines should be leased. not |
sold, and those who mine the coal |
should pay back part of the profit to |
the people. 1t is the right and duty |
of the people to demand the most Wig |
liant trusteeship on that part of that |
branch of the federal government in |
charge of the fuel resources of the |
United States.
The Neutral Ground.
RememO,. ..4so tlat many OF the |
men who protest loudly against effec-