A little more than 50 years ago, a constitutional conven- 

 tion met in St. Paul to frame an instrument of govern- 

 ment for the new state of Minnesota. It was long 

 before the word "conservation" had become a political shib- 

 boleth; but the leaders of the convention made shift to ad- 

 vocate such a policy without it. 



Through the influence, among others, of Alexander Ram- 

 sey, first governor of the territory, provision was inserted in 

 the constitution establishing a central fund from the proceeds 

 of the sale of public lands granted by the United States for 

 the use of schools. The income from this fund was to be 

 distributed among the townships in proportion to the number 

 of pupils they had between the ages of 5 and 21. No land 

 was to be disposed of except by public sale. 



This was the initial step in a policy of public thrift which 

 it would be hard to parallel, in our own history at least. 



By itself, however, it would have been altogether insuffi- 

 cient to attain the truly magnificent results which have been 

 the reward of the effort thus auspiciously begun. The states- 

 men of the new comm.onwealth not only adhered faithfully to 

 the injunction laid upon them by the constitution which they 

 had framed, but they added laws in accordance with its spirit, 

 for the purpose of enhancing the advantages it contemplated. 



One of the first and most important of these was the im- 

 posing of a minimum price for state lands. In his message 

 of 1861, Governor Ramsey pointed out the choice that lay be- 

 fore the state as to "whether these vast estates, consecrated 

 to the noblest aspirations of a free people, shall be hus- 

 banded with a wise and statesmanlike economy, or squan- 

 dered with a blind improvidence." He decried a "selfish 

 eagerness for premature results." 



In consequence, the legislature fixed a minimum of $5 an 

 acre for farm lands and $7 for timber lands. But the great 

 step rame in 1863, when it was further enacted that the tim- 



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