THE NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONGRESS 317 
feasible and worthy of completion. The board has been appointed and 
soon will make its report. 
Suggestions have been made that the United States ought to aid in 
the drainage of swamp lands belonging to the states or private owners, 
because, if drained, they would be exceedingly valuable for agriculture 
and contribute to the general welfare by extending the area of cultiva- 
tion. I deprecate the agitation in favor of such legislation. It is 
inviting the general government into contribution from its treasury 
toward enterprises that should be conducted either by private capital 
or at the instance of the state. In these days there is a disposition to 
look too much to the federal government for everything. I am liberal 
in the construction of the constitution with reference to federal power ; 
but I am firmly convinced that the only safe course for us to pursue 
is to hold fast to the limitations of the constitution and to regard as 
sacred the powers of the states. We have made wonderful progress 
and at the same time have preserved with judicial exactness the restric- 
tions of the constitution. There is an easy way in which the constitu- 
tion can be violated by congress without judicial inhibition, to wit, by 
appropriations from the national treasury for unconstitutional purposes. 
It will be a sorry day for this country if the time ever comes when our 
fundamental compact shall be habitually disregarded in this manner. 
MINERAL LANDS 
By mineral lands I mean those lands bearing metals, or what are 
called metalliferous minerals. The rules of ownership and disposition 
of these lands were first fixed by custom in the west, and then were 
embodied in the law, and they have worked, on the whole, so fairly and 
well that I do not think it is wise now to attempt to change or better 
them. The apex theory of tracing title to a lode has led to much liti- 
gation and dispute and ought not to have become the law, but it is so 
fixed and understood now that the benefit to be gained by a change is 
altogether outweighed by the inconvenience that would attend the in- 
troduction of a new system. So, too, the proposal for the government 
to lease such mineral lands and deposits and to impose royalties might 
have been in the beginning a good thing, but now that most of the 
mineral land has been otherwise disposed of it would be hardly worth 
while to assume the embarrassment of a radical change. 
Forest LANpS 
Nothing can be more important in the matter of conservation than 
the treatment of our forest lands. It was probably the ruthless destruc- 
tion of forests in the older states that first called attention to a halt in 
the waste of our resources. This was recognized by congress by an act 
authorizing the executive to reserve from entry and set aside public 
