Newspaper Page Text
seven years before was dancing “Pos
sum up the gumtree” in the chimney
corner of his father’s kitchen. Nick
had entered the counting room of a
merchant in Charleston some five or
six years before; had been sent out
as supercargo of a vessel to Bordeaux,
and, while the vessel was delivering
one cargo and taking in another, had
contracted a wonderful relish for
French music.
As for myself, I went home in con
vulsions, took sixty drops of laudanum
and fell asleep. I dreamed that I was
in a beautiful city, the streets of
which intersected each other at right
angles; that the birds of the air and
the beasts of the forest had gathered
there for battle, the former led on by
a Frenchman, the latter by an Italian;
that I was looking on their move
ments towards each other, when I
heard the cry of “Hecate is coming!”
I turned my eye to the northeast, and
saw a female flying through the air
towards the city, and distinctly recog
nized in her the features of Miss
Crump. I took the alarm and was
making my escape, when she gave
command for the beasts and birds to
fall on me. They did so, and, with all
tk ) noises of the animal world, were
in the act of tearing me to pieces,
when I was waked by the stepping of
Hall, my roommate, into bed.
“Oh, my dear sir,” exclaimed I “you
have waked me from a horrible
dream. What o’clock is it?”
“Ten minutes after twelve,” said he.
“And where have you been to this
late hour?”
“I have just returned from the
party.”
“And what kept you so late?”
“Why, I disliked to retire while
Miss Crump was playing.”
“In mercy’s name!” said I, “is she
playing yet?”
“Yes,” said he; “I had to leave her
playing at last.”
“And where was Jenkins?”
“He was there, still in ecstacies,
and urging her to play on.”
“And where was Truck?”
“He was asleep.”
“And what was she playing?”
“An Italian ”
Here I swooned, and heard no more.
BALDWIN.
n * *
LET NATION HOLD ITS COAL
LANDS.
So Roosevelt Urges In Message to Con
gress.
LEASING SYSTEM FAVORED.
He Urges Congress to Enact Legisla
tion by Which Coal and Other Fuel
Resources on Public Lands May Be
Conserved.
Washington, D. C., Feb. 13. —Presi-
dent Roosevelt today sent to both
houses of congress a long message
calling attention to what he terms
the urgent need of legislation affecting
the different phases of the public land
situation in the United States. He
advocates the conservation of coal and
other fuel resources on lands still be
longing to the government, saying that
henceforth the nation should retain its
title to its fuel resources, urges gov
ernment control of the western public
land pastures with a system of small
grazing fees, etc., and asks for an
appropriation of half a million dollars
immediately available in addition to
present estimates, to aid in detecting
and preventing land fraud. He con
tends for a sytem of government leas
ing of its mineral lands, and for treat
ing these fuel lands as public utili
ties.
The president points out that it
would have been better if some eas
tern coal lands had been left under
government control, and suggests pro
vision In the west “against recurrence
of the conditions we deplore in the
east.” Citing 2,300 cases in public
land in four districts mentioned, the
president says non-compliance with
the law was found in over half of
them, and deliberate fraud in very
many cases.
The Leasing System.
The message, in part, says:
“Sir a leasing system as that pro
posed represents by no means an un
tried policy. In the Australian coun
tries during the last fifteen years coal
has been mined under a system of
government leasing. In all the great
coal producing European countries, ex
cepting Great Britain, leases are
granted almost entirely by private
land owners, but there, as in other
countries, the surface culture and
mining operations are conducted inde
pendently of each other. In Nova Sco
tia, British Columbia, Indian, and oth
er British colonies, a government leas
ing system has been adopted, and is
working satisfactorily. In the United
States, although conveyance of the
mineral rights with the surface has
been common practice, the separate
development of the two interests is in
creasing; and in the eastern and mid
dle states a large part of the coal
is being mined under a system of pri
vate leases. It is gratifying to note
that in these states, these two great
industries, agriculture and mining, are
conducted within the same boundaries,
and the country thus attains its high
est dual development without conflict
of interests. Indeed, the mining in
dustry, and the factories using these
fuels, create large local markets for
the products of the farm.
“In our own western states and ter
ritories the scarcity of both water and
forests has rendered necessary their
preservation of public utilities, and the
preservation of the forests for the pur
pose of conserving both the waters and
the timber supply has come to be rec
ognized as the wise and proper policy
of the federal government. The quan
tity of high grade mineral fuels in the
west is relatively much smaller than
that of the forests, and the proper
conservation of these fuels is a matter
of far-reaching importance. We have a
right to the proper use of both the
forests and the fuel during our life
time, but we should not dispose of the
birthright of our children. If this gov
ernment sells its remaining fuel lands
they pass out of its future control.
If it now leases them we retain control,
and the future congress will be at lib
erty to decide whether it will continue
or change this policy. Meanwhile the
government can inaugurate a system
which will encourage the separate and
independent development of the sur
face lands for agricultural purposes,
and the extraction of the mineral fuels
in such manner as will best meet the
needs of the people, and best facil
itate the development of manufactur
ing industries.
Objections to System.
“I am aware that objections to this
system are being urged. It is claimed
that so large a part of the coal in
systems in some western states have
already passed into the possession of
certain large corporations, that those
endeavoring to operate under a lease
system other coal deposits would be
unable to compete with these corpora
tions and therefore that the fuel de
posits still belonging to the govern
ment should be allowed to pass into
private’ ownership, presumably into
the hands of the same or other large
corporations. It is also claimed that
reservation of the fuel supplies still
belonging to the government would
raise the price of coal in the west, and
as an argument in favor of this con
tention it is claimed that the reserva
tion of the natural forests is raising
the price of lumber in the west. It
should be remembered that the best
and most accessible bodies of timber
in the west passed into private hold
ings before the forest reserves were
THE WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
established; that while the price of
timber has advanced in the west it has
advanced still more in the east, where
there are no forest reserves; that sup
plies of timber are today being ship
ped from the west to the markets of
the Mississippi valley and even to for
eign countries. To secure cheapness
of timber and fuel for the moment at
the cost of ruin to our own children
would surely be a suicidal policy. It
may be fairly claimed among the ad
vantages of the leasing system that:
“1. It will facilitate the working
under favorable conditions of coal de
posits for local markets by miners
without large capital, as no land pur
chase money would be required and
the small royalty charges would be
paid out of the earnings;
“2. It would facilitate larger opera
tions, as the leases could be made suf
ficiently liberal in the matter of time,
area and other conditions, to induce
healthy competition and meet all real
demands; and yet in all cases the
general supervision of the government
could be such as
“3. To prevent waste in the extrac
tion and handling of these fuels;
“4. The system can be operated in
such manner as to prevent the evils
of monopolistic control;
“5. It will permit the government to
reserve from general use fuels espe
cially suitable for metallurgical and
other special industries, and
“6. It will enable the government to
protect the public against unreasona
ble and discriminating charges for
fuel supplies.
Private Control of Coal Lands.
“Already probably one-half of the
total area of the high grade coals in
the west has passed under private
control. Including both the lignite
and the coal areas, these private hold
ings probably aggregate not less than
30,000 acres of coal fields. With the
remainder of the lands containing min
eral fuels reserved and leased by the
government there will be ample op
portunity to determine, in the near
future, which of the two systems—
private ownership or the leasing sys
tem with general government super
vision—will best protect the interests
of the people and thus promote the
permanent development of the west.
“In planning such a leasing system
by the government the question of rev
enue, beyond that necessary to cover
the expenses of administration and ex
ploitation, need not be seriously con
sidered. The spirit of generosity
which the country as a whole has
shown in connection with the disposal
of its public lands and the use of the
proceeds from the sale of these lands
for the further development of the
west through the reclamation service
and in other ways, is of itself a suf
ficient guarantee that in the admin
istration of both the forest reserves
and the national coal lands this gen
erous policy will be continued. It is
safe to believe also that federal super
vision of both the coal lands and the
forests will be reduced to a minimum,
and that in the future then more than
in the past this supervision will be
limited to that necessary to carry out
the policy of conserving these national
resources in such a manner as will
best permit the permanent interest of
the people, and, above all, of the wes
tern people or the people in the neigh
borhood of the mines and the forests,
which we seek to preserve for the
public use.
“The necessity for care in the future
management of these fuel supplies is
further illustrated by the rapid rate at
which the use of such fuels is in
creasing in the United States. I can
not too emphatically say that all laws
which merely seek to prevent monopo
ly or the mishandling of the public
by forbidding combination are likely
to fail of their purpose. Our expert
(Continued on page 10.)
GRAIN THRESHERS
,n combination with
Fo°s Gasolino
...Engines
Dunn Machinery Company
54 Marietta St., ATLANTA, GA
Nessmith & Bonney
General Southern Agents for
THE BROWN-COCHRAN CO.
-Xi ■■•■ l
Gas 6 Gasoline Engines
STATIONARY, PORTABLE, MARINE
and ELECTRIC LIGHT, ICE AND RE-
FRIGERATING MACHINERY.
WOOD AND STEEL
TANKS
STEEL TOWERS
A high grade Engine.
One of the greatest labor savers of the
day.
Especially adapted for threshing, saw
ing wood, pumping water —in fact all
kinds of farm work.
Correspondence Solicited.
70 S. Forsyth St.. Atlanta, Ga.
ecjUfl
L C. SMITH
Visible Typewriter
Writing' in Sight
Is in Line of Progress
See Our 1907 Models
H. M. ASHE CO.
Ground Floor Y. M. C. A Building
ATLANTA, - GEORGIA
Bell Phone 1541 6 1896
Standard Phone 296
We have SB,OOO worth of
our competitors' standard
machines which we will
sell at less than half price.
7