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Show I A GOVERNOR'S WISDOM. Wbilo on his visit to Utah, Governor Amnions of Colorado paid many inter- cstinr; and instructive thinps from tho western viewpoint. "ot the lcaat valuable val-uable of'liia suggestions was ono made in his speech at tho lirst dinner of tho Bonneville club. He said; "Heretofore the Rocky mountain ; states, have not acted in harmony. In I lie liousc our representation has been so small that wc could not hope to do much. Our strength is in tho senate, i hnt in the past wc have not. been agreed on questions affecting the vital j welfaro of our intermountain county and we liavo not presented a solid front in pchinc the benefits which all our ! Mat ft should share." ' After pointing out the pood that would come from the recent convention ' of governors in Salt Lake City, ho in-j in-j dicaled thai senators of the intcrmoun-lain intcrmoun-lain states soon would hold a similar j' meeting for the purpose of unifying j western policy and action in the United I. States senate. These conventions of governors and senators mark tho beginning be-ginning of a western solidarity and cooperation co-operation which arc destined to be of lasting benefit to the mountain states ' and to check the disastrous effects of a guardianship established over this section sec-tion of the country by the east. Tho adoption of a western policy . need not bo antagonistic to the national ' policy. Indeed, tho idea would be to I make the western policy part of tho national na-tional policy. The enstern policy is now and ha3 been for many years a .'. pari of the government's policy: but it was conceived in ignorance and carried 'I' out for the most part by men who had not the faintest knowledge of western uceds. The keynote of the intcrmoun' is tain policy was suggested by Governor Amnions whon he said:-"We said:-"We ask the right to use the water within (Uir states, the right to use tho laud and the right to tax the properly. ; These rights which belong to us may bn secured onlv through unity of effort." One-fourth of Colorado is national do-:;nain do-:;nain which' may not bo taxed by the '.state for the support of state institu- lion. A vast portion of Utah is owned bv the government and may not be put to usi's which would develop and cn-The cn-The west orn policy doos not mean that tho peoplo of this region will oppose op-pose tho expenditure of government : money to advance eastern interests. Tt. does not mean that wo shall oppose ap- propriations for enstorn rivora and harbors, har-bors, although millions havo been wasted wast-ed in that, direction. Tho eastern pco-' pie havo been lavish in the expenditure of government funds for their own benefit ben-efit and very penurious when it came ., to spending moue' for the west. When the irrigation policy was established tin" government provided and it was a - mtv proper aud just provieion that . tho' settlors should repay tho government govern-ment for reclamation. In the outlay of . monry for rivers and harbors it never ;' has boon thought necessary that tho gmrrnmcnt should be repaid, nor oven that the states and the localities should permanently benefit, but merely that federal money should bo used to supply " contractors and laborers with work to help build fence for congressmen and t This is not said in a spirit of an-ipatbv an-ipatbv to the cant, but merely to point out that, the west dow not need cast-. cast-. rn guardianship. The; oast wasted itfi own heritage and in its old age has be- onio such an austere moralist that it doos not want it children of tho west to use their resources liberally. They a. e afraid that wo will become spendthrifts spend-thrifts just as the eastern peoplo were in their youth. The solid front proposed by Governor , Ammons is e&ou(ial to western dcvol-? dcvol-? opmont. Tho western peoplo should bo united, at least on tho great issues that effort iheir welfare Petty interests can Unity of sentiment and policy among tho governors is important, but inasmuch inas-much Jks the senators romc in ieritat with and influence tho national policy, an agreement among the senators i? even more vital. |