THE NATION'S PRIDE 



599 



mote hydro-electric development on pub- 

 lic lands, named after the chairman of 

 the Public Lands Committee of the 

 House, Mr. Ferris. This bill was called 

 for by the fact that existing legislation 

 permitted only a revocable permit to be 

 granted for such use, and this was re- 

 garded by engineers and financiers as too 

 tentative and hazardous a tenure where 

 millions of money were needed for the 

 installation of the necessary plant. 



THE PEOPLE WANT THE LANDS USED 



The Ferris bill meets this difficulty by 

 proposing a lease of these lands for a 

 definite term of 50 years. The objection 

 is made that the lands should be given 

 outright. To this there are several an- 

 swers of substance : No enlightened gov- 

 ernment gives such a franchise. There 

 is danger — very real danger, too — of a 

 complete monopolization of such power 

 sites if the lands go forever from the 

 people. 



The value of water power is not yet 

 fully realized, and its full value cannot be 

 known at this stage in our industrial life. 

 The purpose of the government in trans- 

 ferring these lands is to secure their use, 

 because it does not choose to use them 

 itself ; but the time may come when it 

 may be most desirable to the full develop- 

 ment of our life that they shall be op- 

 erated by the Nation or the States or the 

 municipalities in the States, and to trans- 

 fer them forever would cast a burden 

 upon the future which would be unfor- 

 givable, and is, moreover, unnecessary. 

 The people desire these lands used, not 

 held as a mere basis for speculation in 

 stocks or bonds. Where there is need for 

 such a plant, the lands should be available 

 on most generous terms. 



At the end of the fifty-year period, 

 if the plant has been so managed as to 

 best serve the country, there would be no 

 reason why the holding company should 

 not have a new lease. 



With the passage of these two meas- 

 ures (the general development bill for 

 utilizing our oil, potash, etc., and the 

 water-power bill) there will be no land 

 or resource that will not be at the full 

 service of the people ; and yet the ro- 

 mantic enterprise of revealing America 



will not be done. To get from our re- 

 sources their fullest use — this is our 

 goal. And this is nothing less than a 

 challenge to the capacity of a democracy. 

 There are many prosaic details in- 

 volved in this quest. The mining men 

 need a new set of mining laws, for in- 

 stance. The old code is so elaborate and 

 complicated that the best of brains can- 

 not tell what the law is. The truth seems 

 to be that between mining engineers and 

 mining lawyers the rules of the game 

 have been refined into obscurity. And if 

 Congress were to say to the President 

 that he might select three men familiar 

 with mining laws and miners' difficulties 

 to suggest a new mining code to Con- 

 gress, it would, I believe, be giving in 

 earnest a new freedom to the mining in- 

 dustry. 



A LAND OP MYSTERIOUS CHARM 



Then, too, there is the matter of the 

 further development of Alaska. That 

 land is a long way off. It would be too 

 hazardous a thing to surrender these re- 

 sources to local control or disposal, for 

 those who have lived in any new country 

 know how great the temptation is to grant 

 away water front and power sites, for- 

 ests, and other exceptional resources to 

 those who come offering large sums for 

 quick improvement. Yet this should not 

 drive us into a policy that makes slow 

 administration a necessity. The confu- 

 sion in administrative action in Alaska is 

 well known. I have tried to give it cur- 

 rency that it might hasten the establish- 

 ment of some method of coordinated con- 

 trol of Alaskan affairs, primarily in the 

 hands of a resident commission, but al- 

 ways in touch with and responsive to the 

 wish of Congress and the President 

 through one of the departments. 



That land has a mysterious charm, a 

 pull which affects all who see it, and those, 

 too. who only know indirectly of its 

 largeness, its grandeur, and its economic 

 possibilities. This could not be better 

 illustrated than by the number of appli- 

 cations for places which were received 

 by the Alaskan Engineering Commission. 

 When that body left for Alaska in the 

 spring the number was over 38,000, and 

 most of those who applied were not out 



