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Show wedgwooo mm wsie bill Sets Forth Argument in Paper Distributed to American Amer-ican Mining Congress. PHOENIX, Ariz., Dec. 9. Strong objections ob-jections to the provisions of the bin passed by the house of representatives at the last session of congress and now before the senate committee on public lands, "to provide for the development of water-power and the use of lands In relation re-lation thereto and other purposes." were set forth by E. A. Wedgwood of Salt Lake In a paper on "Conservation of Western Water-power Resources," which was distributed today anionp members and delegates to the seventeenth annual session of the American Mining congress. con-gress. ; The bill Is impracticable from a bust-j bust-j ness standpoint, Mr. Wedgwood declares, and Insufficient assurance of co-operatloti la given btates and private investors by the federal government in the provisions of the bill. lie asserts: Conservation of natural resources demands Immediate development of available water power. Three factors control the development develop-ment of western water-power resources: re-sources: The right to the perpetual use of flowing waters; the right to occupy the necessary public lands for dams, power- houses, water conduits and pole lines: money sufficient to construct con-struct dams, water conduits, powerhouses power-houses and transmission lines. By reason of the ownership of large bodies of land, valueless for other useful use-ful purposes, the speaker argues, development develop-ment of western states and the Investment Invest-ment of capital If being retarded by the federal government, which "apparently assumes to control water-power development develop-ment and, therefore, the progress ana material ma-terial welfare of these states." In his conclusion he says: Ought the mere ownership of a few acres of desert land give this power? AM the lands in private ownership are subject to the law of eminent domain. If federal ownership does carry such power and the law of eminent domain does not apply to such lands, ought federal power over these lands bo used to retard the progress of a state and prevent the conservation of its natural resources? It is believed the congress, in Its v.'isdom, should at once provide that the respective stated, through their citizens, may have on practical terms aiid conditions, just and fair to all ln-teresiy. ln-teresiy. nation;, stale a nd private, the use of the public lands to the extent ex-tent nces?ary, whereby to wrest the power from the falling waters and thereby upbuild the state and advance the good of huniu n kind during the present and future generations. |