Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1914-05-13
THE COAL STRIKE AND THE COM
sERvATloN POLICY.
(Philip P. Wells in The Publicly

C<aup0, says lilo "ooAAA6tOA 4Oos'
"Women and children are being killed
without an opportunity to defend
themselves" He told the President
=. that the situation in Colorado
was growing worse, and that Federal
assistance was needed Immediately"
The request for Federal troops is
made by Governor Ammons, by the
Colorado delegation in Congress, by
the coal mine owners, and by the
strikers. This is interesting news
to conservationists. Be it remember
ed that neatly all coal land in Colo
RADIO belonged to the Federal govern
ment not so very long ago, and that
the nation, as owner, then had I'M
questionable power to lease the
mines and prescribe every detail of
the relations between the capitalists
and laborers working them. Instead
of doing so we recklessly sold much
of the coal lands at SO or $40 per
acre, and carelessly allowed ourselves
to be robbed of even more by fraud
and perjury without any payment
whatever. The money loss matters
little, but in losing title the Federal
government lost jurisdiction. For
pitiful mess Of pottage, or none at all,
we gave away the birthright of free
people, our power to do justice, and
are now asked to protect by force the
private monopoly of natural resourc-
es thus created.
Here is the heart of the national
conservation question. The right Of
the nation to control, to enforce fair
treatment of laborers and consumers,
rests on Federal land ownership. The
Constitution gives to Congress exclus-
i've authority to dispose Of and make
all needful rules and regulations con-
corning the territory and other public
property of the United States. So
long as coal lands, timber lands, wat
er power sites and other natural re-
sources whose development requires
large operations with great masses
of capital and labor, remain Federal
property, the nation can do whatever
is needful to insure justice in their
working and use. So long and no
longer. Therefore these resources
| should be held forever in Federal
ownership and disposed of only by
| lease. This we have done with the
remnant of the timber lands by the
creation of national forests. This we
have begun to do with water power
sites by the more recent system OF
withdrawals" and permits. This we
have for eight years been trying to
do with the mineral fuels and fertil
izers.
And what has the State of Colorado
done in this matter? She has fought
bitterly every step in this reform, and
she is fighting it now, in the very mo
ment of her call for Federal troops tt
quell the instruction bred by her owl
recklessness and folly. For the past
eight years every one of her Senators
and Representatives of both parties
has Joined the outcry against the ma
tional conservation policy. Governor
Ammons emerged from obscurity by
outdoing his fellows as the champion
of private greed miscalled Estate
rights"-in the disposal of natural re
sources. Last week he spoke for two
days against the coal-leasing bill
This week he calls for Federal bay
onets to pin down the Zee simple titles
to the coal fields that we have granted
to the Rockefellers. In Colorado
alone has there been a genuine wide
spread popular opposition to nationa
conservation measures. Mr.. Thomas
himself yielded to it, and won a Sen
atorship thereby, after giving promise
of better things. At the Public Lands
Convention of 1907 in Denver, the no
tel lobbies swarmed with fire-eaters
cursing the national government with
a zeal and bitterness that would have
done credit to the secessiOnists al
Charleston in 1861. When the FEEDER
al Supreme Court decided that, I'm
der certain circumstances, false
swearing to obtain title to public
lands could not be punished, howl Of
joyous triumph went up from the
press Of the State and was echoed by
those who spoke for the State in Con
gress. They demanded that the State
be "let alone" Private greed haC
developed the East; was it fair te
deny greedy Westerners equal chance
for public plumber? Was not Colo
RADIO better able to control it's natura
resources than any Federal Officer
could be? Who made Federal officials
more wise, more strong, more just
more efficient than those of the State
Well, Colorado has had her way fol
the most part. She has for eight years
blocked every effort at leasing the re
naming public coal lands. She has
procured prohibition of the exten
sion of national forests within hel
borders. She has CRASHED on Pincho1
and the conservationists with mel
teeth whenever the Forest Service
appropriation came up for annual de
bate in Congress since the session o.
1906-1907. She has been let alone il
coal mining, and she has, of course
let private greed alone to enrich it
self from the national domain. Be
hold the fruits of her folly. Civil wal
in the coal fields, wholesale massacre
that spares neither age nor sex, pub
lie meetings in Denver denouncins
the greedy absentee landlords, Il
whose tender mercies the State ha.
been delivered by her leaders. Thorn