The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1910-09-02

or fraud. This is absolutely neces-
sary OF the agricultural lands. 1t is
at least equally necessary on the
mineral lands. 1t would be a calam-
ity, whose baleful effect on the aver
age citizen we can scarcely exagger-
ate. If the great stores Of coal and
other mineral fuels still owned BY
the people in Alaska and elsewhere
should pass into the uuregulated
ownership of monopolistic corpora
tons.
The Forest Service.
You progressive stockmen have
stood heartily by the conservation
movement, and with you have stood
many others throughout the west, to
whom large credit is due, such as the
lumbermen in Washington and Ore
gon, the irrigators in California, aud
the supporters Of the country lite
movement in and around Spokane.
l want to make my Acknowledgements
in particular to the Colorado ForeS-
try Association, which has Supported
the forest work of the government
18th such unselish zeal. The fores.
service has enemies because it Is ef-
f~ective. Some OF it's best work has
been met with the bitterest opposi-
ton. For example, it has done a
real service by blocking the road
against the %grabbers of water power,
and again by standing like a rock
against the demands of bogus mining
concerns TO exploit the national for
ests. l have always done my best
to help the genuine miner. l believe
that OF the first duties of the gov.
eminent is to encourage honest min
ing on the public lands. But it Is
equally important to enforce the law
firmly against that particularly dan
gerous class which makes it's living
off the public through fraudulent
mining schemes.
There is no more eIective instru-
ment for the making of homes than
the United States reclamation SER
vice, and no government bureau
while l was president had reached
a higher standard Of efficiency, in
taorif1. and l.rrt;o- to %l,> o,h1:,
welfare.
Like the forest service, the
reclamation service has c,ashed with
certain private interests, and has had
to pay the penalty OF its service to
the public in the form O. Dltter op-
position from those with wtose profit
it has interfered.
II don't think that there is one
among you who is a better and more
thorough-going westerner than 1
am. There has been no support Civ
en- to the conservation policies so
welcome as that which came from
the west, and none in the west more
welcome than that which came from
Colorado.
From the standpoint Of c%onserva-
ton the east has wasted much of it's
own superb endowment; and as an
American, as a lover of the west. |
hope thai the West will profit by the
casts bitter lesson, and will not re-.
peat the mistakes of the east. The
east has wasted its resources, it suf-
fers from the effects of the waste.
which now puts it at a disadvantage
compared to the west, and it is
sorry. Most of the capital and yerv
many of the men now attempting to
monopolize your western
are from the east. The west should
learn the lesson of the casts mis-
takes, and it should remember that
conservation in the west will help
the west first and most, and that
the movement for conservation ia
most earnest, most vigorous and
most effective in the west and among
western men. That is one strong
reason why the conservation policy
has come to stay"