consistent with the natural growth of communities 

 in the history of the civiHzed world. 



The prairie states are more interested than any 

 other in the question of cheap fuel. We do not 

 depend upon Alaska for our future supply. There 

 is abundant coal on the Pacific Coast nearer to 

 our seaports and commercial centers. Vancouver 

 Island is underlaid with it. To say nothing of Nova 

 Scotia on the Eastern coast, there is coal in Spitz- 

 bergen, within the Arctic Circle, actually nearer our 

 Eastern markets than the coal of Alaska. While 

 we lament the exhaustion of our coal supply, we 

 maintain a tariff that compels us to draw upon it 

 continuously. It would be well to cast out this 

 beam before we worry too much over the conser- 

 vation mote. 



The iron deposits of Minnesota, the most won- 

 derful in the world, are today not only furnishing 

 industry in the nation with its raw material but are 

 piling up a school fund at home that is the envy 

 of other states and adding more and more every 

 year to the contents of the state's treasury. Minne- 

 sota is considering the reduction of her general 

 tax levy by one half. Would it be better if these 

 lands were today held idle and unproductive by 

 the federal government, or worked only on leases 

 whose proceeds went into the federal treasury and 

 enabled congress to squander a few more millions 

 in annual appropriations? 



Against some forestry theories the West enters 

 an even stronger plea. What the United States 

 needs is neither reckless destruction nor an em- 

 bargo upon our splendid Western commonwealths 

 by locking up a considerable portion of their avail- 

 able area. There were, by the last report of the 

 Forestry Service, over 194,500,000 acres withdrawn 



