OCR Text |
Show Diti,:ii milled Oil ; bid:-. yJJtiL Ui I CONTROL OF VAST TRACTS IS MATTER j OF PUBLIC CONCERN T.OS AXGKLKS. May S William Bailey of Ncphi, .Utah, ox-president of the National Tax association, has write en an interest";; article on the public domain for the Tax Digest, official of-ficial pu'iiiciition of Califcu-nia Tax-, pay-i's association. ' Mr. Bailey points out that, in the ekw-n western states, the public do-i main embraces over 195,000,000 acres, of land. ITe discusses four possibilities possibili-ties of what to do with this public domain: do-main: First, he considers whether the ' government should turn these lands! over to the states; second, whether the government should sell them in large tracts at whatever price they will brine; third, whether the govern-j ment should lease the lands in large' tracts; or fourth, whether the government gov-ernment should set them aside, im-; prove them, and handle them much ' the same as the national forests are ' handled at the present time. j Says Mr. Bailey : "The public lands j must be controlled, and that at once, ! if they are to 'be saved from absolute ruin, but the best method to control them is still a problem that might well be further considered. The pub-1 lie is thinking deeply upon this ques- j tion and, when the American people ; think about a problem, it is not long-before long-before they have solved it." |