598 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Commend Reclamation Service 



Approving the successful efforts of the United States to provide homes on 

 arid lands through irrigation, we inrlorse and commend the reclamation service 

 and urge its continuance, and the extension of the same policy to the drainage of 

 swamp and overflowed lands, to be carried forward so far as appropriate through 

 co-operation between state and federal agencies 



Mewing adequate and economical transportation facilities as among the 

 means of conservation, and realizing that the growth of the country has ex- 

 ceeded the development of transportation facilities, we approve the prompt adop- 

 tion of a comprehensive plan for developing navigation throughout the rivers 

 and lakes of the United States, proceeding in the order of their magnitude and 

 commercial importance. 



Favor Federal Control of Water Fewer 



Recognizing the vast economic benefit to the people of water power derived 

 largely from interstate and source streams no less than from navigable rivers, 

 we favor federal control of water {X)wer development ; we deny the right of 

 state or federal governments to continue alienating or conveying water by grant- 

 ing franchises for the use thereof in perpetuity, and we demand that the use 

 of water rights be permitted only for limited periods with just compensation in 

 the interests of the people. 



We demand the maintenance of a federal commission empowered to deal 

 with all uses of the waters, and to co-ordinate these uses for the public welfare 

 in co-operation with similar commissions or other agencies maintained by the 

 states. 



Approve Withdrawal of Public Lands 



Approving the withdrawal of public lands pending classification, and the 

 separation of surface rights from mineral, forest and water rights, including 

 water power sites, we recommend legislation for the classification and leasing 

 for grazing purposes of reserve public lands suitable chiefly for this purpose 

 subject to the rights of homesteaders and settlers or the acquisition thereof 

 under the land laws of the United States ; and we hold that arid and non-irrigable 

 public grazing lands should be administered by the government in the interest 

 of small stock men and homeseekers until they have passerl into the possession 

 of actual settlers. 



Would Lease Mineral Lands for Limited Period 



We hold that the deposits of important minerals, underlying public lands, 

 particularly mineral fuels, iron ores and phosphate deposits, should be leased for 

 limited periods not exceeding fifty years, but subject to renewal, the royalty 

 to be adjusted at more frequent intervals, such leases to be in amounts and sub- 

 ject to such regulation as to prevent monopoly and unnecessary waste. 



We hold that phosphate deposits underlying the public lands should be 

 safeguarded for the American people by appropriate legislation. 



