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The Commoner.
VOLUME 8, NUMBER 20
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tics sot forth In his address on land and its
cultivation. Few of us, probably, wore conscious
of tlio Impairment of tho crop valuo of our soil.
1 am suro that a clear understanding of this
subject will load to a still further enlargement
of the work of tho department of agriculture
and to still closor co-oporution botwoon tho de
partment of agriculture and tho states In teach
ing economical mothods of agriculture. Already
tho rapid growth of tho agricultural college
offers oncouragomont and I am glad to express
my appreciation of tho valuablo work dono by
Secretary Wilson and his associates in bringing
to our country fruits, plants and grasses suited
to tho different parts of our country. As tho
farmer pays more than his sharo of tho taxes
and receives less than his sharo of tho direct
bonoflts which flow from national appropriations,
it is only justico to him that wo shall bo liberal
In tho support of ovory offort put forth for tho
improvement of agriculture.
Irrigation has justified tho arguments which
led to tho inauguration of tho work. No ono
who has wltnossod tho transformation of tho
desert into flold and garden can doubt the wis
dom of tho stops that have boon taken. Hero,
as clsowhoro, both tho nation and tho state can
find a flold for legitimate activity, and I am
sure that there will be a continuation of this
work until all of tho wators which can be
utilized for that purposo have been appropriated.
Tho samo princlplo which was invoked in
support of irrigation can bo invoked in support
of drainage. Tho question is not whether tho
water should bo brought upon the land or taken
off tho land; It is whether the land shall bo
mado tillable and its wealth producing qualities
utilized. Drainago of tho swamps is, therefore,
as legitimate a work as tho reclamation of arid
wastos.
No subject has been brought out more
prominently at this conforonco than the subjoct
of forestry, and it justifies tho time devoted to
it, for our timbor lands touch our national in
terests at sovoral points. Our use of lumbor
Is enormous, but immonse as would be tho in
convenience and loss caused by tho absence of
lumber, tho consequence of tho destruction of
our forests would bo still moro disastrous to
the nation. As has been shown, the timber on
ouv mountain ranges protects oiirjiXfttaf-aTjpiy "
Not to speak of J!meY climate which
mignt-QfioV tap denuding of our mountains,
theloBS to the irrigatod country could not be
remedied and tho damage to the streams could
not bo calculated. And if this Is not enough
to arouse tho interest of all, I may add that
the destruction of the forests on the mountain
ranges would in timo impair the undorflow upon
which we rely for our well water.
Tho good effects of this conforonco aro
already apparent in tho determination expressed
by several governors to at once appoint forestry
commissions and begin such work as the state
can do. In this case action is so urgent and
the flold to he covered so large that both the
nation and the several states can exorcise them
boIvos to tho full without danger of doing too
much. Tho national reservations already made
In. the west and the new reservations that ought
to ho mado, and are likely to be made, in the
White mountains and in tho Appalachian range
can doubtless bo bo administered as to protect
national interests without unduly burdening the
Btates in which the reservations aro located, or
needlessly interfering with tho development of
tho states. No national policy need retard tho
development o tho western states and their
own interests would restrain them from sac
rificing future wealth and protection for tem
porary advantage.
Lastly, I come to our interior waterways
I shall not defend the improvement of these
waterways on the ground that such improve
ment would holp to regulate the railroad rates
although it would aid regulation, whenever
the people aro ready to exercise the power
which they have. But water traffic is less ex
pensive than trafflc by rail and there aro manv
commodities which can ho transported much
more cheaply by water than they possibly could
bo carried on land. I believe it has been esti
mated that an expenditure of $500,000 000 on
interior waterways would result in a savine of
noarly $200,000,000 annually. g 0t
If this saving wore equally divided between
the producers and tho consumers it would be
an enormous profit to both, and Mr. Carnegie
has pointed out that water transportation, by
requiring less iron and loss coal in proportion
to tho freight carried, would enable us to post"
pone the exhaustion of our iron mines and our
coal beds. uur
TlG development of water transportation is
essentially a national project because tho water
courses run by and through many states. And
yot, as has been pointed out, it would bo pos
sible for tho states to do a certain amount of
dovoloplng along this lino if they were per
mitted to avail themselves of tho use of tho
water power that could bo developed.
Just a word in conclusion about an invest
ment in permanent improvements. Money
spent in care for the life and health of the
people, in protecting the soil from erosion and
from exhaustion, in preventing waste in the
use of minerals of limited supply, in tho re
clamation of deserts and of swamps, and in the
preservation of forests still remaining and the
replanting of denuded tracts money invested
in these and in tho development of waterways
and in tho deepening of harbors is an invest
ment yielding an annual return. If any of these
expenditures fail to bring a return at once the
money expended is like a bequest to those who
come after it. And as tho parent lives for his
child as well as for himself, so the citizen pro
vides for tho future as well as for the present.
This gathoring will bo remembered by future
generations, because they as well as ourselves
will bo tho recipients of the benefits which will
flow from this conference. We have all been
strengthened by communion together; our
vision has been enlarged, and the enthusiasm
here aroused will permeate every state and
every community.
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NO PERPETUAL FRANCHISES
Mr. Pinchot, of the forestry department,
has been making a fight and thus far a suc
cessful one against the granting of perpetual
franchises to water power companies which are
seeking to utilize tho streams in the forest re
serves. He is right; a perpetual franchise is an
unspeakable menace. No ono can see far
enough into the future to define the terms and
conditions of a perpetual franchise. No one can
estimate tho value of such a franchise a thousand
years hence, or even a hundred years" hence.
No franchise should be granjted-'fof more than
twenty or twenty-flyey-GarS and then the gov
ernment shouldr-eserve the right to regulate
pricos.chjW!ged for power and should also re--SSfWtlie
right to take over tho plant at any
time upon payment of actual value, EXCLUSIVE
OF THE VALUE OF THE FRANCHISES.
The. government is not supposed to give
away anything valuable and it ought never to
have to. buy back a franchise. A power com
pany which wants to do an honest business will
not object to strict regulations or to surrender
to the government at the will of the govern
ment, and corporations which seek to get some
thing for nothing and then employ the public
grant to exploit the public have no claim to
consideration.
Mr. Pinchot is right in insisting that there
should be a TIME LIMIT on franchises he
ought to go a step farther and insist upon the
government's right to protect the public by
taking over tho plant whenever public interest
demands it. Each generation should be left free
to make such use of the earth as times and
conditions require. No generation has a right
to fetter the future with perpetual franchises.
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PENNSYLVANIA'S OBJECT LESSON
The democratic state convention recently
held in Pennsylvania is heralded as a victory for
the "conservative" element of the party and
yet it will only prove anew the old saying that
"whom the gods would destroy they first make
mad.' Nothing but an insane contempt for
every democratic principle could have led to the
brazen disregard of the will of the rank and
file of party unmistakably expressed at tho polls
manifested at Harrisburg.
The convention was an excellent illustra
tion of the difference between conventions and
the primary method of olection, and just such
conventions led to the adoption of the primary
system. At the primary, where the voters had
a chance to express themselves, more than two
thirds of tho district delegates were instructed,
and yet in the state convention the delegates
elected at the same primaries joined in with a
political boss to defeat Instructions
Take Philadelphia, for instance. Forty-one
delegates, who were elected at the primaries
where district delegates to Denver were instruct
ed, voted in tho state cenvention against in
structions, and the forty-one votes from Phila
delphia wore enough to change the result in the
state convention. There were a number of dele
gates from other counties who voted contrarv
to the wishes of voters as those wishes were
expressed at the primaries. Democrats may
differ on economic questions and- on platform
utterances, but democrats can not differ as to
tho duty of representatives' to represent their
constituents. A delegate has no moro right to
turn to his private advantage the authority con
ferred upon him by voters than a trustee has
to convert to his own use money deposited with
him.
The action of the state convention was, in
effect, an embezzlement of power and- can be
dofended only by those who are ignorant of, or
indifferent to, tho democratic . principle that
conventions derive their just powers from the
consent of the voters. The question as to what
candidate the democrats of Pennsylvania favor
is of little importance compared with the ques
tion, "Have the democrats of Pennsylvania a
right to a voice in the selection of candidates?"
It seems that they have not, according to
the opinion of those in charge of the Harris
burg convention. The fact that it was necessary
to turn down men like Representative Creasey
and ex-Treasurer Berry shows how desperate
the men in control were. The action of the
convention will have but little influence on the
general result, because the convention only
selected four delegates at large (sixty-four hav
ing been previously selected at primaries) but
the object lesson which the convention furnished
in boss rule carried to the extreme will he val
uable to the state, for it will hasten the regen
eration of democratic politics in Pennsylvania,
and regeneration is necessary, if the democratic
party is to bo more than an adjunct of the re
publican party. As it is now, the main purposo
seems to be to prevent the democrats from tak
ing advantage of the widespread opposition" to
republican corruption.
ONLY BY INSTRUCTING CAN THE VOT
'ERS CONTROL; the uninstructed delegate is a
guardian without bond..
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THE TWILIGHT ZONE
At the governors' conference, called by the
president, Mr. Bryan referred to the discussion
about tho relative spheres of the nation and
the state and said that there is "np twilight
zone between the nation and the state in which
exploiting interests can take refuge from both."
He had in mind the constant attempts of preda
tory corporations to avoid national laws by an
appeal to states rights and to avoid state laws
by an appeal to national supremacy. Every one
who has tried to protect the' public from the
plundering that has been carried on by monopo
lies knows how the big corporations have played
fast and. loose with both nation and state. It
was for this reason that the phrase, "twilight
zone," struck such a responsive chord. The
president immediately seized upon it and used
it to explain his position. The president said:
"Just a word of what has been called the 'twi
light land' between the powers of the federal
and state governments. My primary aim in
the legislation that I have advocated for the
regulation of the great corporations has been
to provide some effective popular sovereign for
each corporation. I do not wish to keep this
twilight land one of large and vague boundaries,
by judicial decision that in a given case the
state can not act, and then a few years later
by other decisions that in practically similar
cases the nation can not act either. I am trying
to find out where one or the other Can act, so
there shall always be some sovereign power that
on behalf of the people can hold every big cor
poration, every big Individual, to an accounta
bility so that its or his acts shall he beneficial
to the people as a whole."
However people may differ about the meth
ods employed by the chief executive and Mr.
Bryan has' dissented from some of them no
S5 ?ute the President's statement that
SXE?J.50RATI0N MUST BE AMENABLE
?v,.S.?MI? SOVEREIGN. It is absurd to say
that the laws can create a fictitious person,
called a corporation, and that the creature can
then defy its creator and oppress at will the
people of the entire country.
These corporations have controlled na
tlonal politics for years and resent any inter
ference with their plans. They control politics
in several states and are reaching out after
more. They subsidize newspapers and these
papers defame every servant of the people and
eulogizo every official who betrays his constitu
ents. They contribute to the campaign .funds to
debauch politics; they corrupt business meth
ods and when these corrupt methods are at?
tackect they hide behind honest wealth and de
nounce all reform as an attack on legitimate
accumulations.
It is time to eliminate the "twilight zone"
and hold to strict accountability all the agencies
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