702 



CONSERVATION 



ure as the soil actually receives. There 

 seems little doubt that, between irriga- 

 tion on the one hand, and dry-farming 

 methods on the other, the arid area 

 will, from now on, rapidly shrink until, 

 we may hope, with the aid of forests 

 for mountain slopes, it will have dis- 

 appeared altogether. 



Where to Get the Money 



ON OCTOBER 7 the Upper Missis- 

 sippi River Improvement Associ- 

 ation closed its eighth annual conven- 

 tion in Winona, Minn. 



Congressman Tawney, of that city, 

 chairman of the Appropriations Com- 

 mittee of the United States House of 

 Representatives, addressed the associ- 

 ation. 



He admitted that it? object was de- 

 sirable and "should succeed." The 

 great problem, however, was that of 

 "securing the means." 



Said he : ''The Government owns all 

 the navigable rivers and all the harbors 

 in the country, and to keep them all in 

 good condition and repair would re- 

 quire a fabulous sum." 



The proposition advocated by the 

 convention, namely, a six-foot channel 

 in the upper Mississippi, would require, 

 he stated, twenty millions of dollars for 

 its completion a sum larger than Con- 

 gress had ever before appropriated or 

 authorized for any improvement except 

 for the Panama Canal. The proposal 

 for a bond issue was one in which he 

 could not concur. 



Mr. Tawney deprecated the costli- 

 ness of wars, past and prospective, and 

 expressed the hope that "the bill now 

 pending, authorizing the improvement" 

 of the Mississippi "at a cost of $20,- 

 000,000," and "carrying with it an ap- 

 propriation of $20,000,000 per year for 

 ten years" would pass. He, however, 

 failed to indicate where the money 

 would come from. 



Every conservation proposal coming 

 before Congress may, of course, ex- 

 pect to be met with the cry of "economy 

 and deficit." To this, there are two 

 answers, either of which is sufficient. 



First, the country is full of wealth, 

 practically unreached by taxation. Two 

 ways of reaching it were suggested by 

 President Roosevelt in the following 

 language: "A graduated income tax 

 of the proper type would be a desir- 

 able feature of Federal taxation. The 

 inheritance tax, however, is both a far 

 better method of taxation, and far more 

 important for the purpose of having the 

 fortunes of the country bear, in propor- 

 tion to their increase in size, a corre- 

 sponding increase and burden of taxa- 

 tion." 



Legislation providing for either or 

 both of these taxes might have passed 

 at the recent special session, and might 

 again pass with a little more encour- 

 agement. Through such channels, 

 wealth can easily be drawn to meet 

 every proper requirement of the Na- 

 tional Government. 



Second, conservation, properly han- 

 dled, yields far more than it costs. To 

 hesitate at an expenditure for reclaim- 

 ing deserts, draining swamps, improv- 

 ing inland waterways, preventing ero- 

 sion, or saving forests and water- 

 powers, is like hesitating to spend 

 money for seed corn. 



Ordinarily speaking, a crop pays for 

 itself and yields a profit besides: the 

 same is true of conservation policies 

 properly established and administered. 

 To object to them on grounds of na- 

 tional poverty is to confess incompe- 

 tency in statesmanship. 



Courts, Congress, and Conservation 



A DECISION recentlv rendered by 

 a Federal judge in Oklahoma bears 

 upon an aspect of the conservation 

 movement. 



Oklahoma is rich in natural gas ; the 

 people of that state desire to guard this 

 utility for their own benefit. 



To do ?o they hnve utilized their state 

 constitution. In framing this document 

 they inserted a section denying to any 

 corporation the right of eminent domain 

 or the use of highways unless a do- 

 mestic charter was first taken out. 



