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Show Taking a Gander , Johnson land grab remains unjust By Michael S. Robinson President Lyndon B. Johnson's last-minute usurpation of Utah lands was an outright intrusion on Utah's privacy. I cannot help but believe that a state has some rights, especially the disposition of the land within her boundaries. This issue is now old news, but the blackness of President Johnson's deed still hangs as a spectre of injustice over my state and me. Under an antinuated Antiquities Act of 1906, the outgoing President donated over 250,000 acres of Utah land to two existing national monuments. This act was originally intended as a protective device to save areas of exceptional natural or historical characteristics from imminent ruin; and it has been useful several times in saving natural and historical wonders from being despoiled at the hands of industry, agriculture and vandalism. constitutes a' flagrant misuse of nower Antiquities Act. ' Und the What Mr. Johnson did, without even c i Utah or the Congress of the United Stat deprive Utah of useful land. Commerical im k that area mining and grazing will hav sit phased-out, and the land will be placed in 6 ' stagnant permanence. It stands to reason thY'3' 0t productive use than being a picture for a fe ' passers-by can be found for this land. toi"is Citizens Rename Town ' It is not surprising that citizens threatens rename it Johnson's Folly, and I suspect th t ' more may be named the same-all over th n"-1 States-when their citizens realize i,!t 'lei1 botched-up the Big Texan left things. This last-minute follv of PnUoni i, Flagrant Misuse But in the case of President Johnson's land grab, acres of Utah wilderness could hardly have been in danger of ruination. And there could not have been so many natural wonders and historic sites to justify an acreage swipe of this enormous size. This grab -j,ucii uonnson m somehow be voided. A good solution tn n problems like the Great Grab is that no state la ! confiscated for use in national parks or mon without the express sanction of Congress n from this policy must only be where there isT" and present danger to natural and historical nJ,?' interest. mm |
