NEWS AND NOTES 



653 



tried to get his legislature to give irriga- 

 tion rights precedence over prior power fil- 

 ings, but without success." 



Continuing, he said, in part : 



"The state is helpless to take water from 

 its own abundant streams to irrigate its own 

 rich land because its creature, slimy and 

 loathsome, lies across the ditch. 



"We have had a great deal of discussion 

 about the carr3'ing out of the Roosevelt poli- 

 cies, and there seems to be a general im- 

 pression that they are being carried out on 

 a shutter, to slow music. But the Roosevelt 

 policies must live, despite changes in the 

 administration, and they will so live only 

 when they are plainly and unmistakably en- 

 graved upon our laws. Pressure on our leg- 

 islators for legislation exactly enrolling these 

 policies and making them permanent — this is 

 what we must seek, and the shortest road 

 to it is by a simple and convincing exploita- 

 tion of the exact situation in which we find 

 ourselves — exploitation utilized as pressure 

 upon our legislative representatives. 



'T am neither a friend nor an enemy of 

 Secretary Ballinger. I sincerely disapprove 

 of the trend of his actions. I came West this 

 summer to investigate the possible grabbing 

 of power sites he had restored. I have gone 

 carefully over the records of the several land 

 offices and have the facts in my possession. 



"I assert, and I will readily prove, that no 

 amount of filing on land alongside the 

 Missouri River could have given a power 

 site, and no withdrawal of Government 

 lands there can prevent use of a power 

 site. The Missouri is a navigable river. 

 Congress has spent $40,000 upon this 

 section by way of favor to the Helena Con- 

 gressman. No dam can be erected in any 

 river of which the navigability is recognized 

 by Congress without express authority given 

 in a special bill. 



"Though few vessels have ever plied its 

 waters above Great Falls, some have been 

 used there. Congress has formally recog- 

 nized the navigability of the stream, and the 

 three dams and power sites owned and in 

 use by the Amalgamated Copper Company's 

 United Missouri River Improvement Com- 

 pany rest upon specific bills from Congress 

 giving each separate company the right to 

 erect a dam and maintain it. 



"Such a bill must contain clauses safe- 

 guarding navigation. Sometimes they con- 

 tain certain provisions for the payment f o - 

 the water — but as yet not often. But no 

 state grant, no riparian right, no filing on 

 water or land, no ownership which the trust 

 can acquire can cover tlie erection of a dam 

 at a power site on a navigable river except 

 by special and express' authorization from 

 Congress. 



"There are abundant grounds for censur- 

 ing the conduct of Secretary Ballinger in 

 the whole course of these water-power sit" 

 withdrawals without recourse to disputed 

 facts. And in the case of the Missouri, espe- 

 cially, these land filings are of no impor- 

 tance. 



"Watch these water-power bills, for you 

 yourself have already given the right to the 

 land away. Careless of your rights, careless 

 of the actions of your Congressmen and 

 Senators, except when they secure you local 

 appropriations; careless of the rights of 

 others which they guard, you have let them 

 wipe out all the rights of an individual which 

 a corporation may covet to the power and 

 the land of a navigable river." 



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Iowa State Conservation Commission 



The last legislature of Iowa created a com- 

 mission known as the Iowa State Drainage, 

 Waterway and Conservation Commission, 

 composed of seven men appointed by the 

 governor, Hon. A. C. Miller, of Des Moines, 

 l)eing the chairman. The commission has 

 had one meeting and organized. Results 

 are expected later. 



]^ i^ ^ 



Conservation in Wisconsin 



The Wisconsin Conservation Commission 

 has been holding meetings to formulate rec- 

 ommendations to the governor for the con- 

 servation of the water-powers, forests, and 

 soils in the state. One of its members, Mr. 

 G. A. Whiting, of Neenah, a big paper manu- 

 facturer, protests against renewing a recom- 

 mendation that the state levy a special 

 charge on all developed water-powers of 

 the state for the purpose of securing money 

 for the extension of the state forest reserves. 

 The question involved is that of taxing fran- 

 chises, for the development of the water- 

 powers of the state. The commission is 

 expected to inspect the water-powers of the 

 Fox, Wisconsin, and Chippewa River valleys 

 and interview the owners of water-power 

 properties regarding the adoption by the 

 state of an equitalile policy toward such 

 properties and the issue of franchises for 

 undeveloped water-powers. 



«? Jt' i^ 



More Incendiary Fires 



A correspondent of the Nezv York Sun 

 holds that the forest fires which for three 

 weeks have raged in the Shawangunk Moun- 

 tains, Minnewaska, N. Y., are started by 

 berry-pickers, who burn the woods to obtain 

 better crops. The landowner fears to take 

 legal proceedings lest worse things come 

 upon Inni. The consequence is that one of 

 the most picturesque regions in the state of 

 New York is fast becoming an unsightly wil- 

 derness. The evil is apparent to every one 

 except the authorities. 



