Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1910-09-02

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| later on have to pay heavily in order to
| be allowed to take up the work, which
| because it is done so late, cannot be so
well done as if it had been begun earlier.
Water Power.
| Take the question Of the control of the
| water power sites The enormous impor-
| tance of water power sites to the future
| industrial development of this country
! has only been realized within very few
| years. unfortunately; the realization has
| come too late regards many of the
| power Sites but many vet remain with
| which our hands are free to deal. We
| should make it our duty to see that here
| after the power sites are kept under the
| control of the general government, for
| the use of the people as a whole The
| fee should remain with the people
| whole, while the use is leased on terms
| which shall secure an ample reward to
| the lessees, which shall encourage the de-
| velopment and use of the water power.
| but which shall not create a permanent
monopoly or permit the development to
| be anti social, to be IN any respect hostile
to the public good. The Nation alone has
| the power to do this effectively, and 1t Is
| for this reason that you will find those
| 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 substitu
| uOn OF state Tor NdJOna1 dCtlOn.
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
| he owned outside that state as within it.
| In this country. 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 de-
| veloping and using the mines and water
| powers and forests of the new territories
| and the new states from Alaska to Ari
| Zona. I have been genuinely amused du-
| ring the past two months at having argu-
ments presented to me on behalf Of Ger
| tain rich men from New York and Ohio,
| for instance. as to why Colorado and 9TH
| er Rocky Mountain states should manage
| their own water power sites. Now these
men may be good citizens according to
their lights, but naturally enough their
special interest obscures their sense of the
public need; and as their object is to
escape an efficient control. exercised in
the interest of all the people of the coun-
try. they clamor to be put under the state
instead 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
dIOIiIeT privilege 10 InITSIlCn IISell anu
another portion of what should be kept
for the public good to be turned over to
individuals for purposes of private en-
richment During the last session Of
congress bills were introduced to transfer
the water power sites in the National
Forests and the Public Domain to the
control of the states. I cannot state too
strongly my belief that these measures
are unwise, and that it would be disas-
trOus to enact them into law. In sub
stance 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 welfare, and a long backward
step down the hill of progress we have of
late been climbing.
Our people have for many years pro-
ceeded upon the assumption that the
Nation should control the public land 1t
is to this assumption of National outlook
that we owe our wisest land legislation
from the Homestead Law to the Irrigation
Law, The wise use OF our public domain
has always been conditioned upon Ma
ttonal action. The states can greatly help,
but the Nation must take the lead, as re-
CARDS the land, as regards the forests and
waters and perhaps peculiarly in the case
of the waters, because almost all streams
are really interstate streams
Coal Lands.
The same principle applies with pecu-
liar force to the coal lands and especially
to the coal lands in Alaska, whose pro-
lection and ownership by the Federal
government is SO necessary, both for full
and free industrial development in the
west and for the needs of our fleet in the
Pacific. The coal mines should be leased
not sold, and those who mine the coal
should pay back a part of the profit to
the people 1t is the right and duty of the
people 10 demand the most vigilant trus-
teeship on that part of that branch of
the Federal government In charge of the
fuel resources of the United States
The Neutral Ground.
Remember also that many of the men
who protest loudly against effective
national action would be the first to
turn round and protest against state
action If such action in it's turn became
effective, and would then unhesitating-
ly invoke the law to show that the
state had no constitutional power to
act. Long experience has shown that
1T is by no means impossible in cases
of constitutional doubt to get one set
of judicial decisions which render 1t
difficult for the nation to act, and an
other set which render it impossible
for the state to act. In each case the
privileged benefcIaries of the decision
invoke the aid of those who treat the
Constitution, not as a healthy aid to
growth, but as a fetish to prevent
growth; and they assail the advocates
of wise and cautious progress as being
opponents of the Constitution. AS
have said before, I am strong believ-
er in efficient national action, where
such action offers the best hope of Sc
curing and protecting the interest of
the whole people as against the inter
est of a few. But 1 am emphatically
in favor of state action, where state
action will best serve this purpose; and
l am no less emphatically in favor of
cordial and hearty cooperation be-
tween the nation and the states where
their duties are identical or overlap
If there is one thing which is more
unwise than another, it is the creation
| by legislative, by executive, or by
| judicial action of neutral ground in
| which neither the state nor the nation
has power, and which can serve as
| place of refuge for the lawless man
| and especially for the lawless man of
! great wealth, who can hire the best
| legal counsel to advise him how to
keep his abiding place equally distant
| from the uncertain frontiers of both
| state and national power.
The Open Range.
I am here at the invitation of the
al