The Ronan pioneer. [volume] (Ronan, Mont.) 1910-1970, 1913-11-28

The government conservation
policy, in so far as it relates tt
water power, must be materially
altered, or else development Of
the one inexhaustible natural re.
source will be brought to a stand.
still, and industry, like homeseek.
ers, will drift to Canada. This
situation was clearly developed
at the sessions of the National
Conservation congress at Wash
ington last week. Of course the
conservation congress has no
power to change the policies of
the government. The federal
congress and federal administra-
tion alone can change from a poll
cy of stagnation to one which will
lead to vast industrial develop
ment.
The weeks sessions of the con-
servation congress were enliven-
ed by a fiery but intelligent dis
cussion of the water power prob
lem, and the opponents of Mr..
Pinchot and his extreme ideas
have had the best of the argu-
ment. Now the arguments made
at the conservation congress must
be repeated before the committee
of the senate and the house of
representatives, and before Presi-
dent Wilson and his cabinet, be-
fore any actual change can be
brought about. And of course
Mr.. Pinchot and those who side
with him will not be idle while
practical men are endeavoring to
bring about a change of policy.
What the ultimate outcome will
be cannot be forecasted.
1t has been said that conserva-
tion, in it's broader aspect, looks
to the prevention of waste, and
perpetuation of resources upon
which the people are dependent.
But conservation naturally di-
vides into three classes. First,
there is conservation of resources
which, once used, are destroyed,
such as coal, phosphates and 9TH
er mineral deposits. Then there
is conservation of resources
which, under proper care, will re-
produce themselves, or can be
made to reproduce, as timber.
The third class of conservation
deals with the inexhaustible, and
that is water power.
Conservation of coal and timber
entails restricted use; conserva-
tion of water power, on the other
hand, means the most liberal use;
and the greater, the more effect
i've the policy under which such
use is brought about. Water pow
er is perpetual, and conservation
applies to it only to prevent it's
unwise use, or it's development in
a way detrimental to the public.
If regulated in a practical way,
the more that water power is de-
veloped and used, the greater the
benefit to the public. And not
only that, the greater the devel-
opment of water power, the less
the drain both on coal and oil and
even timber, which are now used
for power production. Roughly
speaking, half the coal used an
nually in the United States today
for power development could be
saved if water power develop
ment were encouraged.
But the tendency Of recent
times has been to retard, rather
than encourage water power de-
velopment, until the time has
come when such development,
under federal control, has prac-
tically ceased, and capital has re-
fused to invest. There is the
market; there is an abundance of
power; there is opportunity, but
the policy Of the government isl
wrong, and there is no way to
compel private capital to invest in
water power developmentif if capi-
tai regards the investment as
doubtful. Anaconda Standard.
One of the speakers at the con-
servation congress said:
"A private corporation having
S., O0O,00 to erect a building
would never think of investing
its money on land it did not own,