138 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



men unfortunate enough to come in contact with his 

 "touch." 



In Ireland such enactments, with their manner 

 of enactment, might possibly be construed as suggestive 

 of landlordism. , 



This bureaucracy has expanded and grown until 

 it now embraces in its holdings an area more than 

 twice the size of Colorado, and in Colorado of 'nearly 

 one-fourth its entire area, and has an annual budget 

 cf nearly $2,000,000. Naturally, very few people 

 come in direct contact with its actual operation, but 

 the general public stimulated and enthused by the 

 recent utterances of the President regarding the vital 

 necessity of conserving the forests for forestry prod- 

 ucts and for conserving the rainfall, supplemented by 

 the vast and extensive propaganda, by the men of the 

 service, for educating the people through the local press 

 have been carried with them enthusiastically, and 

 mindful of the beneficent results being rapidly achieved 

 under the reclamation service, they are now thoroughly 



the job is done. Whole volumes then will be required 

 in which to compile his "rules and regulations," viz., 

 delegated congressional laws. 



The stockmen are being coddled into popularizing 

 the leasing of the ranges, as a measure for their 

 benefit, and as a cheap attraction, provision is made 

 for a local executive committee with apparently full 

 powers, whereas, upon close analysis it will be seen 

 that it is absolutely without any authority, while veiled 

 in the background is the same "forester" with the same 

 authority. In the present development of the regime, 

 viz., the forest reserves, less obscurity is required, hence 

 that committee is termed the "advisory committee," 

 and in practical operation, stockmen are wisely care- 

 ful, and for obvious reasons, how they advise contrary 

 to the notions of the forester. 



To please those who would insist upon every facil- 

 ity being afforded the farmer and the miner, ample 

 provision is made whereby the lands shall be free for 

 their appropriation. It is, however, in like manner 



ANOTHER VIEW OF CORNING (MAYWOOD COLONY), CALIFORNIA, on "TURKEY DAY." 

 This view also shows fine hotel, erected and conducted by Mr. Woodson for the accommodation of tourists and homeseekers. 



prepared and receptive to the plans for extending and 

 enlarging the holdings of the bureaucracy to cover the 

 entire public domain, including the minerals thereof, 

 for the present at least, to the extent of the coal lands 

 and also the water powers. 



This explains how this measure has insidiously 

 grown, attained its present gigantic proportions and 

 aspires to future aggrandizement without attracting 

 our attention to the vital principles involved. 



The same alluring tactics which have been exercised 

 so successfully in developing the forest reserve regime, 

 are readily discernible in these new measures, and it 

 is interesting and instructive to compare these initial 

 steps with those more fully developed under their pres- 

 ent plan. It is, indeed, fortunate that we have a 

 going concern to serve as an object lesson. 



The first essential is to induce the public to let 

 them "get their foot in," and then a casual expres- 

 sion or two in the congressional act relative to being 

 "under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed 

 by the Secretary of Agriculture" the forester and 



provided concerning the lands of the forest reserves, 

 and likewise there appears that innocent little proviso 

 of being "under such rules and regulations as may be 

 prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture," that is, 

 the forester, of course, and we have come to know 

 that it means a running fight and constant annoyance 

 and harassment, for any man to acquire mineral or 

 agricultural claims in the forest reserves. Every man 

 in the service seems actuated by the principle that all 

 lands acquired are stolen from them, and to be given 

 up only when forced to. Such procedure is certainly 

 not conducive to rapid settlement of the public do- 

 main, but rather will effectually serve to preserve it 

 as a government estate for perpetual landlordism. 



The retention in government ownership of our 

 water powers, coal lands and later doubtless of all min- 

 erals, are but succeeding steps and future measures in 

 the embryo and for the realization of which the un- 

 qualified success of the first plant, viz., the forest 

 reserves, affords abundant encouragement. 



Carried to ultimate conclusions, i. e., all results 



