THE NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONGRESS 317 



feasible and worthy of completion. The board has been appointed and 

 soon will make its report. 



Suggestions have been made that the United States ought to aid in 

 the drainage of swamp lands belonging to the states or private owners, 

 because, if drained, they would be exceedingly valuable for agriculture 

 and contribute to the general welfare by extending the area of cultiva- 

 tion. I deprecate the agitation in favor of such legislation. It is 

 inviting the general government into contribution from its treasury 

 toward enterprises that should be conducted either by private capital 

 or at the instance of the state. In these days there is a disposition to 

 look too much to the federal government for everything. I am liberal 

 in the construction of the constitution with reference to federal power; 

 but I am firmly convinced that the only safe course for us to pursue 

 is to hold fast to the limitations of the constitution and to regard as 

 sacred the powers of the states. We have made wonderful progress 

 and at the same time have preserved with judicial exactness the restric- 

 tions of the constitution. There is an easy way in which the constitu- 

 tion can be violated by congress without judicial inhibition, to wit, by 

 appropriations from the national treasury for unconstitutional purposes. 

 It will be a sorry day for this country if the time ever comes when our 

 fundamental compact shall be habitually disregarded in this manner. 



Mineral Lands 



By mineral lands I mean those lands bearing metals, or what are 

 called metalliferous minerals. The rules of ownership and disposition 

 of these lands were first fixed by custom in the west, and then were 

 embodied in the law, and they have worked, on the whole, so fairly and 

 well that I do not think it is wise now to attempt to change or better 

 them. The apex theory of tracing title to a lode has led to much liti- 

 gation and dispute and ought not to have become the law, but it is so 

 fixed and understood now that the benefit to be gained by a change is 

 altogether outweighed by the inconvenience that would attend the in- 

 troduction of a new system. So, too, the proposal for the government 

 to lease such mineral lands and deposits and to impose royalties might 

 have been in the beginning a good thing, but now that most of the 

 mineral land has been otherwise disposed of it would be hardly worth 

 while to assume the embarrassment of a radical change. 



Forest Lands 

 Nothing can be more important in the matter of conservation than 

 the treatment of our forest lands. It was probably the ruthless destruc- 

 tion of forests in the older states that first called attention to a halt in 

 the waste of our resources. This was recognized by congress by an act 

 authorizing the executive to reserve from entry and set aside public 



