The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1916-01-27
oPPOSED TO LEASING BILLS--REPORT OF
MINORITY DEFINES POSITION OF THE WEST

III congress passes the water power
Dill and the general leasing bin. his
tory VIII repeat itself and these laws
VIII sooner or later be Indignantly re-
pudiated and repealed. But it will be
after hundreds of millions of dollars
nave been wrung from the pockets of
the common people and consumed in
undeserved salaries. needless expenses
ana useless waste of our substance. 1t
VIII be after our resources have been
wantonly exploited and the federal
treasury ruthlessly looted for many
years by an army of utterly unneces-
sary government employees"
Thus concludes the minority report
OF the house public lands committee
on the Ferris bill and on the general
leasing bill, which comprise the con-
servation program of the admiristra-
ton. The report is signed by Repre-
sentatives Edward T. Taylor and
Charles B. Undertake of Colorado.
Addison T. Smith of Idaho and James
H. Mays of Utah. 1t is far and away
the ablest argument presented on
either side of the conservation cues
ton during the present session and
fully presents to congress the western
view of conservation, especially inso-
far as these two measures are con-
cerned
Thousands of New Jobs.
This leasing policy, if carried out,
will ultimately bring about the crea-
ton of $4,000 new federal positions
and the receipts and much more will
be dissipated in salaries and admins
tration," says the report 1t adds:
1T is the most gigantic scheme for
the increase of federal employees and
enormously augmenting the power
and influence of these bureaus in
Washington that this nation has ever
witnessed.
THE boldness of it is astounding
and the complacency with which it is
received is an evil omen for our coun-
try.
Bureaucracy Run Mad.
ITO us these paternalstic and CEN
tendencies appear little short
Of national bureaucracy run mad. Con-
servation has become a mania. This
policy looks like a bold trampling up
on the principles which lie at the
of our republican form of
government. 1t appears to us as a
brazen denial of the equal footing
upon which the western states entered !
the union.
American citizens do not take kind |
ly to absentee landlordism. We do not |
like the idea of perpetual bureaucratic |
rule. We prefer to be governed by the
law and by our own people instead of
oy rules and regulations promulgated
lines by people who have no personal
Of our local conditions. We
believe these measures forever fasten
Upon the people of the west and the
'esources within our states the bu-
grasp of the federal govern
nent. We know that bureaucracy
grows on what it feeds upon. We
want the laws intelligently framed in
he light of the welfare of the govern
I'd as well as the governing bodies. Let
is western people develop the re-
sources in our states under whatever
restrictions you may deem
proper and we will soon become a
storehouse of wealth to this nation.
"Any system which prevents lands
'r resources from going into private
ownership prevents their becoming
subject to state and local taxation and
relieves them from their just proper
ton of the maintenance Of the state
government.
Blow to the West
'If this general leasing policy is in
nicted upon the west we predict that