OCR Text |
Show CONSERVATION. The preliminary report of the national water- i ways commission was transmitted to Congress last week, in which the commission recommends a plan for the conservation of water power in the light of future needs rather than an extended improvement improve-ment of the channels of navigable streams with the intention to force a reduction of freight transportation transporta-tion rates by rail. The findings of the commission cover a wide field, and deal especially with the problems connected with the development of electric elec-tric power from the rivers of the land. While many difficulties will have to be met before be-fore federal control of streams of water will be granted, if it is finally decided that constitutional authority exists for such control, an adequate development de-velopment of the water power now running to waste may be looked for. If constitutional disabilities intervene, the work will have to be taken up by the several states, or by private enterprise, or it will have to remain undone unless the constitution be amended. Conservation so far has done little with the development de-velopment of the water power of the nation, the greatest development along this line having been accomplished by private enterprise. The objection urged against a continuance of privav e development of the power resources of the country is that the promoters grow inordinately rich at the expense of the many. The problem opens up a new trend to paternalism in 1 the government, which, had it been extended from the beginning, would have placed the coal, the oil, all the metalliferous mines, the forests and the land under the control of the federal government, to be conserved for the benefit ben-efit of the people rather than the benefit of those who developed the resources. Just now it is urged that the undeveloped coal fields of Alaska belong to the people and should be ' -Id by the government for their benefit. If that .a. : 30, the gold taken from the hills is likewise the property of the people; the wealth garnered from I the destruction of the seals is theirs; the ooal tk-Ms ? of the United States are theirs; the wealth pro. duced by the development of the oil industry f theirs. I Are we attempting to lock the door after tin ! horse i3 stolen, or are we chasing atVr Strang gods I |