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Show !' WHY THE STATE OF UTAH , WANTS MORE LAND, I We have a letter from Hlfford Pin- j ehot, former head of the forcBf ser - j ice of the lTnited States, urging op- Ij position tn the attempt that Is now being made to break down the con- I servation policy of the government. I Mr Plnchot says: "Editor Standard Both in and out H i i Ol congress, an attempt Is being made to turn the national forests, which I now belong to the whole people, over tn the western states. This attempt wai started because most of the I openings, through which the public j lands and their resources used to be ; Btoler, have been closed. The men who h.?ve grown rich, or who desire to gTOW rich, by looting the public do main are now fa-m hard times I These men regard any chanpe from national control as a chanpe for the better; for to them the present sttua- I tlon could not well be worse Although i a certain number of honest, but rols-j rols-j taken, men are behind the effort to I destroy the national forests, et 111, in a Bomewhat extensive experience with land RTabhers, I cannot recall a sln-I sln-I gle one who was not an ardent friend I "Some of the men most Interested jj deny that any such movement exists I at all. A partial answer is that a II provision to give the national forests I and public lands to the western states ,. was introduced and defeated at the I laat session of congress, that many I weBtern governors advocate It, and that more than a dozen bills to pro-I pro-I mote 01 carry It out are actually be- B fore congress now. I "The national forests, like the tim- ber, the waterpower, the grass where the forest Is open, and the minerals , I they contain, do not stop, and the use 1 of them does not stop, at 6tate llm?3. ' They can be protected and used with success only under a policy that Is alive to the interests of the whole j people, and not merely to the Inter- I; ets of any one section or state. 'The heart of the conservation pol- Icy la development and use The i United States forest service, now bit terly attacked by those whom It has prevented from grabbing public resources re-sources has alwavs stood for prompt development of the national forests, j and the use of them by the small man "Six hundred thousand people use H. the national forests ever year. The sheep and cattle which grac- within j fhelr boundaries supply one-sixth of the American people with meat. Every Ev-ery man, woman, and child In tho United States owns six thousand feet ' of lumber In the national forests I Much cf the timber in them Is still too i remote and difficult of access to be saleable now hut as rapidly as It can be sold without loss and without injury to the forest, it is cut and used The Bervicc has built more than eleven elev-en thousand miles of telephone lines, sixteen hundred mllea of road and over thirteen thousand miles of trails Fortv thousand permits for the use of timber free by settlers are issued every year. Forty -five thousand miners min-ers operate in national forests, and the forests conserve the water supply of 1175 towns and cities, and 324 water wa-ter power projects which furnish ' l'gbt pnd power for industries of every ev-ery kind. "Four-fifths of the standing timber in the United States is In private hands. Thirty-seven private owners absolutely control about as much timber tim-ber as tho other ninety-four millions of us have In the national forests. What the nation has left must be pro. tected for tho use of us all against the coming time of need, and only the national government can do that "The forest service is a clean and efficient organlz-ation, almost entire, ly made up of western men. It always al-ways has been, and is today, wholly free from politics. Why should the American people run the risk of political po-litical mismanagement and private monof-olv by splitting up the national forest-, between fifteen or twenty separate states, most of which have no forest services to take charge of them It is had business to multiply organizations when one will do the work, especially when that one Is doing do-ing It well. If this movement were lo succeed, two billion dollars worth of public property in tho national forests would be in dancer of passing by way of state ownership into private hands But tho greatest danger lies in the monopolies of coal, water power, timber, tim-ber, and other natural resources to which such private ownership inevitably inevit-ably leads. The proof of this state-I state-I ment in the story of how the western states have squandered the lands al-'rcad al-'rcad granted to them, and the monopolies mon-opolies which have resulted Iherefrora. There i a ."imilar record In many of the eastern states as well "If this attack succeeds the public j lands and other pnblie resources will 1 be endangered in turn I have taken ! the liberty of putting the facts in your I hands because I hope for your help in this fight (Signed l "GIFFORD PINCHOT." The Standard has been an untiring friend of the forest service, because it has believed In wise federal con-laervation con-laervation as established by Mr Pin-chot. Pin-chot. and this paper will continue to support that national policy The land board of the state of Utah has been urginc the necessity of the state obtaining possession of more land from the federal govern ment The records of our land board are not such as to warrant the change of control. Utah's land grants have been squandered in much tho same manner that Neada's wealth of national na-tional land bount has been dissipat ed. Rona fide settlers have been brushed aside to accommodate land grabbers in many of our western states. In Nexada the cattle barons got possession of two-thirds of the available lands in that state and held back the development of the agricultural agricul-tural possibilities of the arable areas until Nevada became little more than a cattle ranee We have more confidence in the men at the head of the foreBt service lhan In those who. high in the political politi-cal machines of the slate, become commissioners of the land boards, xvlth friends tn reward and powerful cliques to satisfy. The very fact that the forest service has made powerful enemies is proof of the honesty of purpose aud high integrity of the men In control. There is danger to our sheepmen in I thl6 6tate control of large areas of range land A few of the woolgrow era. through polltlcul pulls, might pro fit by the transfer of onwershlp, but the gTeat majority would be at tho mercy of the laud-grabbers and 6oon there wonld be no reserve open to them aud no public domain capable of sustaining a fraction of the bands now ranging In this region This vigorous lobbying to place in the possession of the different states government lands is evidence of a well organized movement which promises prom-ises great profit to those who are sup-I sup-I plying the funds for the campaign. 00 |
