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Show u THE NEW IDEA OF CONSERVATISM Franklin K. Lane, secretary of the Interior, recently addressed a letter to the chairman of the senate committee on public lands which is well worth quoting here : "In view of the general realization that it is time to make plans for national defense, I take the liberty of suggesting sug-gesting that you consult with the chairman of the committee com-mittee on military and naval affairs to see if it is not practicable prac-ticable to have the lands which are at present locked up, containing oil, phosphate and potash, released under a leasing system. We have some 6,000,000 acres of possible oil lands so withdrawn that no wells can be bored upon them. Only the lands now held in private ownership are producing. We should be about the business of discovering discover-ing what these withdrawn lands contain. Gasoline is invaluable in-valuable to the army and to the navy, as well as to every automobile owner and to the owner of every other gasoline-driven engine in the country. The largest deposit of potash in this country, which is fundamental in the manufacture manu-facture of explosives, is also out of use because withdrawn, with-drawn, and wTe have some 3,000,000 acres of phosphate deposit de-posit in the same situation. The development of these resources re-sources can be made effective by the passage of a leasing bill." The old idea of conservatism, the idea preached and practiced by Roosevelt and Pinchot, says the Helena Independent, Inde-pendent, was to lock up all unused natural resources and sit before the door with a shotgun. The new idea, which Secretary Lane has put into practice whenever congress would give him a chance to do so, is to permit the use of all natural resources in such manner as to prevent waste and to get full value for the public. In times like these, the quicker the new way is adopted, throughout, the better. |