The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-06-06
GOVERNORS SHOULD BE FIRM.

II is well that President Wilson ha:
personal representation in the conven
tion of Governors which met in this
city Yesterday. Undoubtedly this per
sonal representation is desired in order
that the President may be fully in
formed not only as to the feeling OF
the Governors personally, but also Off
cially, as well as that which may be de
velOped in their addresses and in what
ever general action they may take.
1t is, therefore, of the highest i'm
portance that the Governors should be
outspoken and frank in expressing their
views, both publicly and privately, rs
to all things affecting their States and
the relations of those States with the
Federal Government.
Undoubtedly one OF the most i'm
portant things to be considered is the
question of the leasing of public lands
either for water power or for mining
or other purposes. The leasing Of pub
! lie lands is clearly disadvantageous to
| the States, in that it would withdraw
and keep indefinitely from the assess
ment roll the land so withdrawn It is
important TO every State that the lands
in use should be available for taxation,
But under leasing proposition every
State may be deprived Of large valua-
tions that ought to help support the
public administration.
The forestry reserves comprise an
other just cause Of complaint. for they
are not laid out with any regard to
forestry whatever. but more with re-
gard to grazing areas where there have
never been any forests, and where the
forestry officials themselves would be
the last to desire any planting Of trees.
The keeping up Of the fiction that these
grazing areas are forest reserves is one
of the shams that ought to be exposed.
These grazing areas should be released
for the benefit of the States, and the
interests that want to utilize them
should pay the States for the land or
for the grazing privileges.
The withdrawal of coal lands is an
other substantial grievance. This with
drawal deprives the citizens of the
United States of their legal right to
take coal lands, and it also tends TO
confirm monopolies already established
for the supplying of the people with
coal. 1t Will be impossible to break up
any monopolies. or any understanding
among them with regard to the keeping
up of the prices Of coal, as long as the
untakcn coal lands are reserved to the
Federal Government.
It may Justly be said that forestry
reserves are necessary for the conserva
tion of the water supplies at the head
of streams. To this the natural reply
is that brush is great deal better
than trees for this purpose. But the
great thing to be considered i'll this
connection is that the forestry reserves
often bear no relation whatever TO the
conservation Of water. There have been
no Typographical or other surveys to in
dicate what land should be reserved for
forestry purposes. Ii is time to correct
this, and to reserve only for forestry
purposes such lands at the heads of
streams as are in fact forestry lands
and useful chiefly for the purpose in
dicated. All the other lands should be
released for occupation, so that the
States may receive the benefits OF the
taxes which ought to accrue from the
values which they contain.
The conservation idea is excellent un.
til it is pushed beyond practical limits
and beyond reason, as it has often been
done in recent years. We believe in
10 the fullest extent that
is practical, but to get up
a theoretical idea about conservation
and push the proposition on that line,
without regard to practical facts and
actual conditions, is harmful to the
States. and is a denial to American citi~ |
zens of their rights upon the public do
main and for the appropriation thereof.
In all these matters, and on any other
question that the Governors may wish
to express themselves, we trust that |
they will be entirely frank and
speaking for the interests |
Of their States and Of the inhabitants |
therein, without reserve and without |
any undue timidity with respect to any
point that may conflict with the ideas |
of the President or his advisers, They |
should present the case for their States |
boldly and without reserve; and should |
make plain TO the President that the |
faddism that has been too |
much in evidence in past years is an
obstructive, academic theory rather than
a desirable condition or fact
THE sMNUTEGS, cpT r1Junr