The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-06-24
CLARK ON AMERICAS LOSS.

Speaker Champ Clark is deploring
tho loss of American citizens who emi-
CRATE to Canada The loss is as Sc.
we're as be states it in every respect,
including the loss of the families and
their productive energies, the loss of
the money which they take out of the
country. and the lessened productivity
which this country suffers by reason Of
that loss.
Speaker Clark, in deploring this,
speaks of the more liberal homestead
laws in Canada and the great attrac-
tion which the liberality of these laws
has for homeseeking Americans. He is
right also in this. But the chief fault
is not in the illiberality of our laws,
but Of the encroachment of the hureau,
cratic administration upon the rights
of the people in the generosity Of the
laws. This encroachment proceeded
until it actually became dangerous for
an American citizen to undertake to
appropriate any part of the public do
main under the laws, on penalty of be-
ing considered Il perjmer and thief,
The Pinchot idea, which prevailed for
so many years in this country, and
which yet has a tenacity among Off
cials which is amazing, put any one
who wished to appropriate any part
of the public domain in the distinctly
undesirable class, and the advocates of
this policy seemed to think it an ad-
vantage to the country to get rid Of
every one who wished to appropriate
to his own use any portion Of the pub
lie lands. The conservationists acted
as though they were clearly Of the
opinion that it was to the advantage
of the United States to have as many
of its citizens go to Canada, to Aus
tralia, or to the Isle of Pines, as pos
sible. Anywhere, except to appropri-
ate and settle upon the public domain
in this country.
The most of that faddism was pur-
sued in defiance of law and under the
Roosevelt administration. Although the
right of the people to appropriate and
settle upon the public domain, to open
mines, to utilize the forests and water
power, could not be questioned under
the law, the bureaucratic officials set
the law aside and made it so hot for
every one who undertook to develop
the natural resources Of the country
in the new regions, that they were
glad to quit and go where they could
get more liberty, and use public lands
for homesteads and other economic
purposes. More recently, however, Con-
gress has given explicit authority for
the withdrawal of public lands from
public utility, but there is such sur
vival Of Piuchot faddism in admins
trative quarters, even now, that any
one who undertakes To- appropriate
public lands, does so at his peril and
under the prima facie assumption that
he is robber.
II Speaker Clark wishes to cure the
faults, which he so logically and prop
erly complains Of, let him influence the
managers Of his party to open the pub.
lie lands to the use Of citizens under
the laws, as they have prevailed in this
country since the passage Of the home
stead law. That law promoted the de-
velopment Of this country at a rate
never before approached in the devcl-
opment of any country. But as soon
as the laws were set aside by the bu-
reaucrats, and the use of the public
domain was denied to the people, home.
seekers began to look elsewhere, and
found Canada their nearest and most
valuable recourse. And so Americans
have gone to Canada by the hundreds
of thousands, since our conservation
faddlsm began, simply because it was
impossible for them to make homes in
the United States, to utilize water pow
er, to open mines, or to appropriate
any part of the forests for any econ
omic or commercial purpose.
Now that Speaker Clark's ewes have
been opened to the true state of af-
fairs, it is to be hoped that he VIII
put himself at the head Of a propa-
ganda that will again open the public
domain Of the United States to the
use of its citizens, as in former times.
when the country was speeded in it's
development as no other country has
ever been in the history of the human
race