Valdez daily prospector., 1911-10-06
world moves on, and the mistakes

that 1t will be better place for your children to live than it is for you.
 A word about this coal situa- ti0n. The coal withdrawals were made for two reasons. was con- suited in that particular matter, and 1 know about it. The idea first started when the great thrfts of coal land in the coal fields of Colorado and elsewhere became known. They called the attention of the president t0 the necessity for prnI"ciin" som" of the coal.
 th" idea Was turned into action b" tn" Knowledge that similar :I"ftS were being attempted in Alaska. have no apology what ever for any share l had in the Withdrawals. They were rightly made, but they ought to have been followed at once by legislation. Every effort was made by the RnOSrvrlt administration in have them followed by legislation. l d"pr"catr profoundly the cheap talk made tonight as to ThcOdnrr Roosevelt by Mr. Ritchir, and the cheap miSinfnrmat ion you heard from him about what RnuSrNrli d'd or tried to dn. In three special nrSSaY"S and two regular mes Sag"S iu Congress, President Roosevelt called the aiirutiOn of Congress lo inc absolute necessity enc" to the coal lands of Alaska. It Was very remarkable for the prrSItltnt lu give so much altrn- tlun to any single Sub, b,jrci. In addiIi ion to that, tu my personal Knowledge, h. used his personal efforts. and he directed officers of his administration tu use their personal efforts, and not only to get bills drawn but to push them through Congress. He tried to get laws through that would pre- vent fraud and monopoly. The same men who had been trying to get DOssesisOn of the coal lands checked his efforts over and over again. The reason why we could get no legislation at that time was that the men who preferred to
 take their chance on beating the
 law were unwilling to have the
 law amended 50 as iO give every man fair chance.
 At the last session of Congress,
 he MOndell and Nelson bills were reported from the House and Sen- ate. committees on public lands.
 Both these bills contained jOkrrs
 so raw that the House bill was simply showed under. while the Senate bill, when it was pointed out in the public press what some of it's provisions meant, was npV- CT even reported from the com mitter.
 You begin tn SC" how impnSsi- blr it is to make good the charge against the cunSrrvatiOniSt> that hey were r"SponSiblr for locking up the coal. That the withdraw alS were made was, in my .iudg-
 m"nt, fair and right. We rrfus- rd tO stand for he sort of steal
 lhat was going on. am in no
 sens" responsible for the delay in opening the coal lands. regret
 II as much as you do. The men
 who were responsible were the
 men who were trying to grab what they should not have. Pub ne agitation is now so strong that
 Ines" men can no longer hold the
 movement back. But 1 venture
 to predict that if by any chance
 good Legislation should fail to
 rass at this next session, the
 hIauI" for it will be found to lie at tb" doors of those very same
 men, and not at the doors of men
 like Roosevelt and the other con- SerNationists, who have tried con Sistrntly tO get remedial lcgisla-
 tion pushed through Congress as soon as the withdrawals were made. speak with some cOnl- d"ncc, because l was in that fight Just word or two about the
 national forests. II is curious
 how difficult il is tO got the facts before any body of men. The Act or Jun" 1T, ioOG, specifically op- "n"d all agriculIuraI land in cv- cry national forest lO homestead entry. and thousands of such en- tries llav" been made. All agri- cultural land in any national for- csi in Alaska is open IO entry now and has been for five years.
 liaN" heard ihr story that the