Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-02-08
CONSERVATION,

Washington, Feb. THE necessity
for the passage the present session Of
Congress of good laws for the protec-
ton of the natural resources of the
, United States is the keynote of a re-
! port just made TO the National Con-
servation Association by Clifford Pin
chot. the recently chosen president of
the association. Mr.. Pinchot takes up
, III what he calls "A spirit of construc-
tive criticism" the nine bills relating
to the conservation of natural re-
sources introduced into Congress on
Jan. IS on behalf of the secretary OF
the interior. One Q. these has been
reported from the Senate public lands
committee while the other eight are
still in the hands Of the committee.
Mr. Pinchot calls upon the members
Of the association to put forth strong
effors to have enacted into law the bill
on the withdrawal of public lands
which has been reported from the com
mit;ce by Senator Nelson after it had
been amended as a result in part at
least of conferences between the COM
mittee and officers of the conservation
association. This bill Mr. Pinchot
thinks, should have the "Unqualified
support of the members of the asso-
citation"
OF he other eight bills he believes
that some merely require amendment
while others must be re-cast altogether.
The coal bill and the phosphate, oil
aspheltum and natural gas bill, he re-
ports, are fundamentally sound in prin-
ciple but needs amendment. The coal
hill no Hhjontc line H,,ia M
monopoly clause. The clause
which purports to regulate rates to be
charged the public, is so framed that it
may be evaded with ease
In regard to the bill for the survey Of
railroad land grants, he expresses thu
properly to perfect titles to their lands
But it overlooks the long pending under
standing between certain of the roads and
the forest survey for the return of rail-
road lands within the national forests to
the United States in return for the right
to cut in one body an amount of timber
equal to that on the lands returned. y
This understanding, he says, requires only
legislation to make it effective.
Speaking on the water power bill, Mr.
Pinchot declares that ut repels in silence
the existing water power law and curtails
the already ample power now exercised
which the approval of a former attorney
general by the department of agriculture.
The provision in the bill for the compen-
sation to the government by the compa-
MES, he holds is good. Water power
sites should be protected from private
appropriation under the land laws, he
says, and it should be made possible to
issue to the companies permits good for
and definitely terminating at the end of
so years.
The fault found by Mr. Pinchot with
the reclamation bill is that 1t opens re-
claimed lands to absentee landlords and
to spectators. The worst feature of the
bill for the sale of timber and timber
lands. he declares, is that it replaces the
Objectionable feature of the timber and
stone act, which was the inducement to
speculation in government timber, with
provisions which promote speculation and
retard the development of agricultural
and mineral lands far beyond the act 1t
repeats.
In falling to separate the surface from
the underlying mineral. the bill for the
classification of public lands is inconsist-
ent with the coal bill, he finds.
THE withdrawal bill as amended and
reported by Senator Nelson makes easy"
says Mr. Pinchot, 'the protection of all
natural resources on the public domain
until good laws can be passed"
The whole influence of the conservation
association he declares should be behind
this bill.