| Show AGAINST POPULAR INTEREST we have endeavored to give an adequate idea of the tremendous sweep of the bothwell water scheme to say that the people in the vicinity of the lake and streams in idaho whose alleged surplus has been filed upon by the company are hostile to it is putting the question mildly they see danger in the project and the curtailment of local progress in redeeming the lands that are now they perceive that they will he be at the mercy of a grasping atone at one stroke would seize possession of the most vital resource of the region when its band is placed upon the means of reclamation of the desert the settlers can only advance in material progress at the dictum of what might properly be described as a foreign power represented by the manipulators of english capital the proposed grip of the both bothwell monopoly is opposed to the gemus gedius if not the very letter of federal legislation the law in relation to the designating of lakes suitable for the purpose as public reservoirs its an instance in point 1 if we understand u the nature of the enactment it is for the purpose of preventing that which the bothwell men mein are seeking to bring about that statute is intended to protect the people from the designs of land tend water sharks who have created as much class trouble in the country as any other section of the population having contributed largely by the grasping and exclusive character of their schemes to the manufacture of anarchists the people are willing to trust to the laws and the government combined in the distribution of the natural resources of the country but they cannot safely confide in greedy monopolists who have but one end in view their own enrichment further he people justly question the right odthe government to place them at the mercy of private corporations by turning over to them its own prerogatives in relation to the distribution and ownership of land and it is probable however that the bothwell people may meet with a few thorns in their path it at appears likely that the government has already set apart bear lake as a national reservoir As evidence of this a short time since a settler in bear lake valley made application through the idaho land office for a patent to a trait tract of land in that section the applicant received a noti notification B cation from the registrar at blackfoot to the effect that I 1 information had bad been received from the secretary of the interior at washington that no government titles would be issued for land within a distance of two miles from bear lake that body of water having been reserved as a national reservoir in conformity to the law in relation to the reclamation of arid lands the T be tract in question appeared to the department to be within the specified distance from the lake it is not improbable however that the bothwell capitalists imagine that they can retain their hold by establishing a personal cla imby the acton filing prior to that of the go v ern ment if so they may be egregiously mistaken even although their filings may have been done prior to the act of the department in set bog the lake apart according to the genius and letter of a beneficent law the statute itself notified all parties whomsoever to keep their hands hand handloff off the personal claim had no existence at the time ot of the passage of odthe the act the scheme in question is against the spirit of other laws as well as the special one regarding the reclamation cla of arid and lands in fact it Is ie against the genius of republicanism being a species of centralization of natural resources under the color of law A statute in point is what is known as the timber act made with a view to the priority of right of each territory to its own resources that they may be used for its own development hence the exportation over its borders border of timber cut in anyone any one of them is forbidden were it otherwise outside capitalists could step into any territory cut down its forests ship its timber to distant parts and ultimately produce the impoverishing condition that would be induced by the people being forced to import an indispensable product that was once plentiful within their own domain if this principle has force in relation to timber liow how much more potency does it have regard regarding ing water which is second only in importance to air water is therefore a vital resource of a territory much more so than timber consequently the right of one territory to step into another either by the act of outside interested parties or otherwise and convey into its own domain a valuable resource needed by the people residing in the country where the source of supply is and where the water is needed is open to serious question much as utah may require water and much as we desire to see her supply ample for every purpose the rightfulness of taking it from the people of another territory is by no means cleara clear but even should the water be thus conveyed by a private corporation from idaho to utah the benefits that would accrue to this territory would be largely mixed with evil the initial tax of six dollars an acre upon all land receiving benefits from the scheme would be a heavy drain to begin with the annual stipend of one dollar and fifty cents an acre crickets or no erick crickets ets would not only be an exhaustive tribute to a foreign power but would endanger the proprietorship of the lands goj going rig into the hands of the moneyed monopoly the proposition for those unable to pay the initial six dollars per acre to the corporation po ration to deed to it a proportion of land is in the same land grabbing direction hence the danger of the establishment of a power inimical to the well being of the commonwealth mon wealth for in all countries the owners of df the soil are the a republic that ownership awl ante sequent power ought to bw b in tt people 1 |
