Show BENEFITS OF conservation george H patrick writing for a conter contemporary fir contributes the following presentation of views concerning the conservation question the coal and oil lands east of the mississippi sis sippi are and always have been held in private ownership for the profit primarily of the owner but next and to a far greater extent bene fitting the states in which located through the use of the mined product in manufactures and other industries and the tax revenues derived directly and indirectly without which the governments of those states could not be supported in the whole west the title to the coal and oil lands with a few exceptions passed to patent remained in the government supporting no industry producing no revenue to state or county a hindrance rather than a help to the development of the states made out of these same lands and because of them no reason exists why these western lands should contribute to support the eastern states any more than that the eastern coal and oil lands should pay all their net revenues into the federal treasury to lessen the expenses of western state governments ern ments although one is as fair as the other but the east is not satisfied with enforcing this tribute it insists that no western mineral lands shall be privately owned or operated and that none of the natural resources of the west shall be used at all by or for the people of the states in which located although the east is exhausting and selling at its own price all its own mineral deposits of every character the east Is getting away with it too and singularly enough masquerading as a conserver of the resources of the nation the casual onlooker is unable to discover why a ton of coal or a barrel of oil taken from eastern lands does not to that extent exhaust the national resources as much as if taken from western lands but no one says anything about that it seems to me that this is the bests fault and that it is time to sit up and take notice the west had no trouble to elect the president of its choice and generally its legislators not always of the same party by a little very simple team work playing without signals signa Js it made a touchdown touch down at whichever goal it aimed why does not the west play the game all the time as well as one day in every four years why does it not say to its representatives remember that whoso choso provi deth not for his own household is worse than an infidel and demand the team work that will stop this costly discrimination with a jolt |