2 28 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The conservation of water-power, upon which in turn depend 

 the forests, is quite as grave a question as that of the coal, to 

 which considerable attention is now being devoted. It is said 

 that water-power is becoming exhausted at the rate of millions 

 of tons annually through the absence of forest control by the 

 State. The snows and water in the great mountain ranges of 

 the West, Mr Garfield says, contain enough power to turn 

 millions of wheels, to irrigate millions of acres, and to furnish 

 water supply to hundreds of cities. To this unused power com- 

 mercial interests are naturally turning. But mindful of the 

 spendthrift and monopolistic policy which has marked the con- 

 trol of the forest and mineral areas by the " interests," the 

 Administration has sternly set its face against the granting of 

 further franchises for the use of a natural agent that it conceives 

 to be a public utility, not a private privilege. 



The President has warned Congress that he will veto Bills 

 which grant such privileges to private monopolies. As a part 

 of the Administration's policies, this determination to thwart the 

 creation of vested interests in water-power, to check further 

 forest exploitation, and weaken the grip of illegitimate owner- 

 ship of the forest and mineral areas, is certain to meet with 

 bitter opposition in Congress, when in due time it takes the form 

 of proposed legislation. But the whole situation calls for laws 

 prescribing some intelligent system of national conservation, 

 similar to that followed in European countries, aided by uniform 

 laws in all the States. 



Linked with Mr Roosevelt's plans for this conservation is his 

 scheme for the improvement of inland waterways — a vital 

 question daily becoming of more urgency. Far-reaching 

 measures have been proposed by the Commission he appointed. 

 In a weighty report submitted to Congress, the Commission re- 

 commended that hereafter plans for the commercial development 

 of inland waterways should " take account of the purification of 

 the waters, the development of power, the control of floods, the 

 reclamation of lands by irrigation and drainage, and all other 

 use of the waters or benefits to be derived from their control." 

 Here is indicated the wonderful network of public interests 

 bound up with the Administration's concern for the conservation 

 and control of the national estate of the Republic. 



