176 



THE IEBIQATION AGE. 



I am getting somewhat gray, and I have some old- 

 fashioned ideas. I cannot agree with some ideas that 

 have been expressed in this city within the last three 

 days, that the constitution of the United States must 

 be interpreted according to the actual needs of the hour. 

 I cannot agree that the Constitution of the United 

 States can be amended by an act of Congress or by 

 an executive or administrative order. (Applause.) I 

 learned in my boyhood days when at school that the 

 only way to amend the Constitution of the United 

 States was in the way specified in that great document 

 itself. Now, Mr. President, I believe that, constitu- 

 tionally, and under the law, and under the compact be- 

 tween the original colonies organized into the Federal 

 Union, the lands within a state can only be held by 

 the general Government as a sort of trust until they 

 can be passed into private ownership or otherwise dis- 

 posed of and made available for the support of that 

 sovereign commonwealth. (Applause.) I would not 

 complain so much of this forestry service, because it has 

 at the foundation of it something good, and I believe 

 that great good can be worked out of it, but what I fear 

 is what the President in his Jamestown speech said 

 should be persisted in, and what the forester of the 

 United States said today was bound to come the Gov- 

 ernment control of our unoccupied arid lands. I have 

 had occasion before to say that this really meant. I had 

 occasion to say that if this one hundred and thirty- 

 seven million acres of land were stretched out over 

 our country it would form a strip of land two hun- 

 dred miles wide extending from New York to Chicago. 

 I take occasion now to say that if the proposed policy 

 of the Government is enforced it will take a strip of 

 land extending nearly two hundred miles wide from 

 New York city clear across the continent to the Golden 

 Gate. 



Now, that is a tremendous statement, but it is 

 true. And that is the magnificent domain, capitalized 

 upon the basis which is given here, which you are 

 asked to entrust into the hands of one human being. 

 Why, gentlemen, it is appalling. One human being to 

 control the destinies, at his arbitrary will, of a piece 

 of land of those magnificent dimensions, enough to 

 cover great states and territories and commonwealths, 

 to be worked upon; if you have business upon or with- 

 in this territory you will carry it on under his direc- 

 tion; if you run cattle you will run them under his 

 rules and regulations; if you want four thousand head 

 of sheep he tells you whether you shall have them or 

 not. In other words, in every little detail of your busi- 

 ness and domestic life the ruler of this great domain is 

 the final arbitrator. I confess I do not like the pros- 

 pect. (Applause.) 



And while Mr. Pinchot says upon this platform 

 that that thing has got to be, he is no more a repre- 

 sentative of the people than I am (great applause), 

 and I say to him that as long as the Rocky mountain 

 region produces the men and women it produces now, 

 by the Eternal, it never shall be done. (Great cheering 

 and prolonged applause.) 



But there is this about it all, another thing I do 

 not like, I am afraid in my old age I am getting 

 cranky. I am afraid I am beginning to see things. But 

 I do have some sober periods, and I do have this idea, 

 that the more this Government is administered by rules 

 and regulations instead of by definite law, the worse it 

 is for the welfare and the prosperity of its people. 



(Applause.) 



An eminent gentleman has within a few days 

 pointed with pride to that experiment of departmental 

 government that we have in the Indian Territory. If 

 there ever was, my friend and I know there are 

 some Indian Territory people here and they may not 

 agree with me if there ever was a monumental failure 

 in human government in the Eepublic, that some fail- 

 ure is found in the Indian Territory. I am not over- 

 stating it. The business interests of that territory 

 have been paralyzed. It has largely been the fault of 

 Congress, but it has also largely been the fault of the 

 Government by red tape methods and rules and regu- 

 lations at long range. 



Now, this is true: I believe that that government 

 is best which governs least, and I believe that that 

 government is the best that interferes the least in the 

 domestic and individual affairs of the citizen. 



Now, we are told that there is a remedy for all 

 these things. We are told that if a cabinet officer or' 

 a bureau chief gets a little enthusiastic, works a little 

 overtime, that if he wrong any man, that man has his 

 remedy. It is true that you cannot sue the Govern- 

 ment of the United States, but you can sue a cabinet 

 officer, and I will hazard the assertion that there are 

 very few days that the Secretary of the Interior is not 

 sued. 



Secretary Garfield : Above five or six times a day. 



Senator Clark: About five or six times a day. 

 That is a good record. Nobody questions and I hope I 

 am not so understood the desire of the officials of this 

 government to render good service. Nobody questions 

 the desire of every goi|ernment official to give every 

 man his due. But government officials often err, and 

 we are calmly told that if they err the man has a rem- 

 edy by suing the Government official and bringing him 

 into court. Well, I can see that fellow's finish. (Laugh- 

 ter.) The government of the United States retains a 

 great many eminent gentlemen for the express purpose 

 of defending these acts of its departmental officers. 

 Unfortunately^ very few of the poor devils that are 

 thrown out by a forest ranger have an eminent attor- 

 ney retained by the year. So that the remedy is abso- 

 lutely ineffectual; and, Mr. Secretary, I have only to 

 express the hope that I have in my heart. I have the 

 confidence in my heart that this meeting will bear good 

 fruit. I believe this meeting will bring about a better 

 understanding between the people of this region and 

 the officers of the Government of the United States. 

 Mr. Secretary of the Interior, this people asks nothing 

 but what it thinks is right you must not grant less 

 than that. 



There Are Majestic Mountains Near Flathead Lake, Montana. 



