The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-09-29
BUREAUCRATIC GOVERNMENT IN
AMERICA. '...ADDRESS BY bAL[|NGER

/ trines OF initiative, referendum, recall
and other popuistic psnaceas. Per
haps on the theory that distance
lends enchantment.' etc, the bureau
head, exploited at government ex-
. pense, possesses nobler attributes and
greater ability than our neighbor who
/ represent us in congress, but OF whom
We get closer and more accurate
/ view.
The extent to which bureaucratic
ambition may be carr ed can perhaps
/ be- illustrated best by the scheme, at
one time seriously considered by GER
tain bureau heads, 70 iismember the
interior de- artment by taking from -
all those bureaus that had anything 70
do with the public domain and. to-
gether with the forestry bureau, con
centrate them in another department,
where their combined strength could
be utilized to promote the propa.
ganda designed TO operate the public
domain as a national estate for the
conservation of certain bureau chiefs.
The interior department was to be
! left with the patent office, the pen.
sion office and the eleemOsynary in
slitutions. Even the national parks
were to be taken from it and patroll-
ed by men in green uniforms; the
grazing lands We're to be leased TO
the influential and more powerful
! stockmen; the forests held or dis
/ Posed of in conjunction with the tim
Der barons; the mineral lands mined
on lease or royalty to those who would
contribute their support to this polit-
( ico-bureautcal combination, and the
water powers and rights of way dis
| tributed on a permit basis so as to
hold the permittee as a yassal TO the
service. Finally agricultural lands,
at least in reserves, We're TO be held
on equally subservient and perilous
tenure.
mo more gigantic political Scheme
has ever been attempted in the his
tory of the republic It's greatest dan
ger has been in its appeal to senti-
mentality and the deliberate and per-
sistent Misrepresentation of facts;
as, for instance, that the coal would
be consumed in fifty years, the timber
in an equal period. the water powers
monopolized, the watersheds denuded,
and posterity left naked and unpro-
tected. The good intentions We're
all placed in the headlines-the mo-
tiyes were masked in patitudes.
All of this had left the public in
the same condition as the man who
has been on a protracted drunk, with
his head swelled, his mind uncertain
and his purposes confused.
no country except Russia. which
adheres to the bureau idea, has under
taken to treat the forests as national.
I Germany, cited as a guide in forestry,
does nV adhere to the national forest
idea. Her forests are held and man
aged by and the revenue turned into
the several states; there are no i'm
perial forests. We all know the for
ests in our rocky mountain states are
greatly dissimlar in character. Be
cause of this fact the people of the
states in which the forests stand know
best how they can he made to con
tribute to the welfare of that state. |
| am not unmindful that any such
suggestion viii be met with a TRADE
OF abuse from those who are inter !
ested in promoting the bureaucratic |
idea of national conservation, and the
individual Who has the temerity to
make the suggestion will at once be
heralded as the aget of the Interests: |.
possibly of the Guggenheims, as they
have been made the convenient targe, /.
for all such assaults. and the sugges |.
tion will probably be attacked on the 1
ground that the states have failed TO .
show proper appreciation and aOll- /
fly to handle their own public lands /
The very isolation of Alaska and |
her lhosptable climate should move .
the government 20 give her greater .
freedom of development in respeC' .
to her natural resources. She should .
least of all territories be burdened .
with bureaucracy Government opera
tion of her railways, her mines and
her other resources means continu-
e1 decimation OF her population AMI
the Withholding of capital for invest
ment i'm any part of that region. The
frelzied attitude Of The doctrinarieS
has already destroyed her markets
Tor capital and her natural wealth is
n n r