The Colorado statesman., 1911-10-07
President Taft viSitSDenver
ADDRESSES
GROUNDS MEETS SOCIETY LADIES.
He FOUND AN IDEAL COLORADO DAY
DISAGREED WITH RESOLUTIONS PASSED BY
LANDS CONVENTION REGARDING STATE CONTROL.

from the man as is the case with GER
tain other chief executives who might
be mentioned, but there is plenty of
wholesome, kindly attraction. He
did not seek to startle his audience,
but to argue with it. He was plain,
deliberate in action, clear of thought.
His very attitude appealed for calm
ness and that judicial consideration to
which he so frequently refers. He
spoke without the use of gestures or
dramatic vocal climaXes.
President Taft was introduced by
Congressman Frank w. Mondell,
Wyoming, chairman of the Public
Lands Congress, as the holder of the
greatest executive office on earth. "
! On the platform were: Former Unit
ed States Senator Henry M. Teller,
Gov. John F. Shafroth, former United
States Senator T. NJ. Patterson, Con-
gressmen A. w. Rucker and r. T. Tay-
lor, j. Arthur Eddy. the members of
the governors staff in uniform and
members of the committee on perma-
nent organization of the Public Lands
Congress.
President Taft spoke as follows:
"Mr. Chairman, Governor Shafroth,
Ladies and Gentlemen, My Fellow
Citizens of Colorado and Many Other
Western States:
ut is a great privilege to be here
in the presence of this magnificent
audience.
This, | understand to be a meeting
of the Public Lands convention and l
assume that you desire to hear me on
the subject that title indicates.
For several years there has come
over the country, urged on by scien-
tific statisticians, a desire to take
stock of our national resources and
they have been able to state a good
many things that have given the whole
country alarm lestthose resources were
either being exhausted or were coming
under the control of monopolistic COM
binations that did not, in the opinion
of the public, work for the ultimate
good of the public.
For a time it seemed that if any
one wished to understand the severest
rules with respect to conservation, he
was inspired either by the devil or by
corporations.
Now | think that that attitude OF
public sensitiveness in respect to con-
servation, in which the very word be-
came a fetish, was but very little un-
derstood and that we are prepared,
throughout the country, to settle down
to calm consideration of what ought
to be done in the preservation of our
natural and national resources.
while l recognize the extremes to
which advocates of conservation have
gone, nevertheless you must admit
that mistakes were made in the early
days of this republic and that corpora
tions and others did acquire an undue
proportion of the natural resources
of the country and that it would be
wise, for us, in the future, to take
such a course that there may be
public control of the distribution of
what remains of the natural resources,
so that we shall not have so much
concentration in the power and con-
troll of individuals and that, If we had
taken the proper course, would still
be under ultimate government or state
control.
"And while you have registered your
verdict, from which, in many respects,
I disagree, l., nevertheless do not
despair of making an appeal to you
to be reasonable and to view this
thing from the standpoint not OF
case settled, but of one in which there
is to be an appeal to higher court.
We may kick-if may use that Anglo
Saxon and colloquial, but very forcible
expression, against the situation as 1t
is but you are philosophers enough to
know out here, as we do in the East,
that If you kick against the pricks, it
does not help.
Now, for instance. you say that you
are utterly opposed to the leasing
policy of coal lands and mineral.
want to make a distinction. There is
no proposition, so far as 1 know, that
there shall be any leasing of agricul-
tural lands.
81 have heard a good deal of discus
sion with reference to the ineffective
and unjust operation of the rules OF
the Department of the Interior in the
construction of the laws affecting the
ACQUISITION of title under our home
stead laws. Now, with relation to
that, if there is room for remedy,
I am quite sure that Congress and
everybody else will be glad to adopt
| methods to secure such remedies.