THE NATION'S UNDEVELOPED RESOURCES 



185 



have who got them. Land is land, save 

 when it contains minerals ; this was 

 roughly the broad principle adopted. To 

 classify was a task too difficult or not 

 worth while. The lands would classify 

 themselves when they arrived in indi- 

 vidual ownership. And so the door was 

 opened for monopoly and for fraud. 



If the government did not appreciate 

 the invaluable nature of its assets, there 

 were men who did. Great fortunes were 

 laid in the vast holdings of what had but 

 a short time since been the property of 

 the people. There was danger that the 

 many still to pour into the West would 

 by necessity become the servitors of a 

 fortunate and early few. On this dis- 

 covery our indifference at once took 

 flight. And so out of the abuse of the 

 nation's generosity there came a reaction 

 against a policy that was so liberal as to 

 be dangerous. 



The nation wanted home-makers, but 

 found its lands drifting into the hands of 

 corporations which were withdrawing 

 them from the market, awaiting a time 

 when lands would be more scarce ; it gave 

 opportunity for many competing coal 

 operators and iron manufacturers, but 

 found the sources of raw material cen- 

 tering into a few large holdings ; it wished 

 its lands to be cleared of forests to make 

 way for farms, but it found hundreds of 

 consecutive miles reserved from use by 

 the fiat of those who appreciated their 

 worth, and many more miles of water- 

 shed despoiled of its needed covering in 

 places where homes were not possible. 



A REACTION WAS INEVITABLE 



A reaction was inevitable. If lands 

 were to be withdrawn from public serv- 

 ice, why might not the government do the 

 withdrawing itself? The old philosophy 

 that "land is land" was evidently unfitted 

 to a country where land is sometimes 

 timber and sometimes coal ; indeed, where 

 land may mean water — water for tens of 

 thousands of needy neighboring acres ; 

 for the lands of the West differ as men 

 do, in character and condition and degree 

 of usefulness. We had not recognized 

 this fact when we said "land is land." 

 Lands fitted for dry farming and lands 

 that must forever lie unused without irri- 



gation ; lands that are worthless save for 

 their timber ; lands that are rich in grasses 

 and lands that are poor in grasses ; lands 

 underlain with the non-precious minerals 

 essential to industry or agriculture ; lands 

 that are invaluable for reservoir or dam 

 sites — these varieties may be multiplied, 

 and each new variety emphasizes the fact 

 that each kind of land has its own future 

 and affords its own opportunity for con- 

 tributing to the nation's wealth. 



So there has slowly evolved in the pub- 

 lic mind the conception of a new policy — 

 that land should be used for that purpose 

 to which it is best fitted, and it should be 

 disposed of by the government with re- 

 spect to that use. To this policy I believe 

 the West is now reconciled. The West 

 no longer urges a return to the hazards 

 of the "land is land" policy, but it does 

 ask action. It is reconciled to the gov- 

 ernment making all proper safeguards 

 against monopoly and against the sub- 

 version of the spirit of all our land laws, 

 which is in essence that all suitable lands 

 shall go into homes, and all other lands 

 shall be developed for that purpose which 

 shall make them of greatest service ; but 

 it asks that the machinery be promptly 

 established in the law by which the lands 

 may be used ; and this demand is reason- 

 able. 



ALASKA HAS ENORMOUS UNDEVELOPED 

 RESOURCES 



The largest body of unused and neg- 

 lected land in the United States is Alaska. 

 It is now nearly half a century since we 

 purchased this territory, and it contains 

 today less than 40,000 white inhabitants, 

 less than 1,000 for each year it has been 

 in our possession. The purchase was 

 made as a means of protection against 

 the possible aggression of a foreign na- 

 tion and without the hope that it would 

 be even self-supporting. In the inter- 

 vening 46 years we have given it little 

 more than the most casual concern ; yet 

 its mines, fisheries, and furs alone have 

 added to our wealth the grand sum of 

 $500,000,000. 



For almost a generation it was the rich 

 harvest field of a single company. Indi- 

 vidual fortunes have been made in that 

 country larger than the price paid to 



