and minerals. The measures Importance of the legal basis of fertility of our soils, and thus protecting the future food supply of our people. The enactment of legislation whereby the title to the surface of public lands and to the minerals therein shall be granted separately, with every appropriate facility to miners to acquire such part of the surface as may be needed in the development of their claims. The conservation and control of the unappropriated public range lands by the government in the interests of the stockman and home maker, and subject at all times to homestead entry. The retention by the government of the title to all lands still in public ownership which contain phosphate rock, coal oil, or natural gas, and the development of the same by private enterprise, under conditions that will prevent extortion and waste. The enactment of appropriate legislation to prolong our coal supply, to reduce waste in mining, and to establish sufficient safeguards against the loss of life in mines. ... The foregoing enumeration is intended to indicate the general character of some of the measures which this organization believes should be adopted to carry the principles of conservation into practical effect. It will, however, coöperate in every appropriate way with other organizations and with the state and national officials to cover the entire field of the conservation and development of our natural resources, and to bring to this coöperation the vigorous support of an intelligent and disinterested citizenship. 179. The legal basis of conservation 1 An important element in the conservation movement is the legal right of state governments to regulate privately-owned natural conservation. resources within their borders. Wishing this phase of the situation to be clearly defined, the Senate of the State of Maine in 1907 submitted to the Supreme Court of the commonwealth certain questions as to the right of the legislature to check and prevent the uneconomical use of privately owned resources. The opinion of the Court was that the property rights of the individual are subordinate 1 Questions submitted by the Senate of the State of Maine to the justices of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, March 27, 1907, with the answers of the justices thereon. (103 Maine, 506.) the Maine Supreme Court: statement as to the power of lature. to the rights of the community, and that the waste of privately Opinion of owned resources may properly be prevented by state legislation. Some extracts from the opinion of the Court follow: We find that the legislature has, by the constitution, "full power Preliminary to make and establish all reasonable laws and regulations for the defense and benefit of the people of this state, not repugnant to this constitution nor that of the United States." It is for the legislature the legisto determine from time to time the occasion and what laws and regulations are necessary or expedient for the defense and benefit of the people; and however inconvenienced, restricted, or even damaged particular persons and corporations may be, such general laws and regulations are to be held valid unless there can be pointed out some provision in the state or United States Constitution which clearly prohibits them. . . . [With regard to the status of private property rights, we refer to the opinion of Chief Justice Shaw, expressed as follows]: Private individuals may not use their property in such a way as to injure the rights of the "We think it a settled principle, growing out of the nature of wellordered civil society, that every holder of property, however absolute and unqualified may be his title, holds it under the implied liability that his use of it may be so regulated that it shall not be injurious to the equal enjoyment of others having an equal right to the enjoyment of their property, nor injurious to the rights of the community. All property in this commonwealth is derived directly or in- community. directly from the government and held subject to those general regulations which are necessary for the common good and general welfare. Rights of property, like all other social and conventional rights, are subject to such reasonable limitations in their enjoyment as shall prevent them from being injurious, and to such reasonable restraints and regulations established by law as the legislature, under the governing and controlling power vested in them by the constitution, may think necessary and expedient. There are two reasons of great weight for applying [a] strict construction of the constitutional provision to property in land: Why the public may control and First, such property is not the result of productive labor, but is limit the derived solely from the state itself, the original owner; Second, the amount of land being incapable of increase, if the owners of large tracts can waste them at will without state restric use of private property. Conclusion of the Court. Much has been done, but much more remains to be done. Federal legislation needed with respect to fire protection and forest renewal, the extension and consolidation of Federal forest holdings, tion, the state and its people may be helplessly impoverished and one great purpose of government defeated. ... The foregoing considerations lead us to the opinion [that the legislature of the state of Maine has the power to enact legislation designed to prohibit, restrict, or regulate the utilization of privately owned natural resources, where such prohibition, restriction or regulation is necessary to the protection of the public interest.] 1 180. Needed conservation legislation 1 Since the historic Conference of Governors in 1908, the movement for the conservation of natural resources in the United States has become national in scope. Notable progress has been made toward conserving forests, water power, land, and minerals. Nevertheless, the conservation movement is still in its infancy, and the amount of work to be done greatly exceeds the amount already accomplished. In the conservation of forests, for example, much progress has been made, yet this phase of the movement is retarded by the lack of helpful legislation. In 1920 the Forest Service in the United States Department of Agriculture summed up the need for legislation on forest conservation as follows: ... Legislation is needed . . . which will enable the Forest Service to assist the respective states in fire protection, methods of cutting forests, reforestation, and the classification of lands as between timber production and agriculture. It should carry an initial annual appropriation of not less than $1,000,000, expendable in coöperation with the states, with a proviso that the amount expended in any state during any year shall not exceed the expenditures of the state for the same purposes. ... Legislation is needed . . . which will permit the rapid enlargement of the national forests and the consolidation of existing forest units for more effective administration. This legislation should: (a) Continue the purchase of forest or cut-over lands, as initiated under the Weeks Act, with annual appropriations of at least $2, 000,000. 1 From the United States Department of Agriculture, Department Circular 112, Timber Depletion and the Answer. Washington, June, 1920; pp. 10-16. (b) Authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to exchange national forest land, timber, or transferrable timber certificates for private timbered or cut-over land within or adjoining existing national forests. (c) Withhold from any form of alienation, except under the mineral laws, all lands now in government ownership or control but not embraced in national forests or national parks, including canceled patents or grants, unreserved public lands, and Indian and military reservations, which are valuable chiefly for the production of timber or protection of watersheds, and all lands of similar character hereafter revested in or acquired by the United States; and authorize the President upon recommendation of the National Forest Reservation Commission, or otherwise, to incorporate such lands in national forests. ... of denuded Federal The current appropriations of the Forest Service should provide reforestation for the progressive reforestation of denuded lands in national forests to be completed in not more than 20 years, with a yearly sum begin- lands, ning at $500,000 and increasing to $1,000,000 as soon as the work can be organized on that scale. . Legislation carrying a moderate appropriation is needed which will authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to study the effects of the existing tax methods and practices upon forest devastation, to devise model laws on forest taxation, and to coöperate with state agencies in promoting their adoption. [Forest insurance should also be studied.] and the study of forest tax ation and insurance. State legislation needed with respect to [The following state legislation on forests is recommended]: State laws should provide for the organized protection of all forest lands in the state, during periods of fire hazard, the protected areas fire preto include all cut-over and unimproved land as well as bodies of vention and timber. The protective system should include patrols during dry reforestation, weather, lookout stations, fire breaks and roads where effective, and organized fire-fighting forces. . . . Police regulations for the control of fire during dry periods in connection with railroad or industrial operations near forest land, land clearing or slash disposal, hunting, etc., and for the control of incendiarism, form an essential feature of the protective system. State laws should establish the responsibility of owners of forest and state and municipal forests. land for complying with such equitable requirements as may be determined upon and promulgated by the proper state agency, dealing with precautions against forest fires, the disposal of slashings, methods of cutting timber or of extracting particular forest products, such as naval stores or pulpwood, and such other equitable requirements as the authorized state agency shall determine upon as necessary to prevent devastation. ... Supplementing the policy of forest acquisition by the Federal government, every state, including states in the prairie region, should acquire forest land or lands adapted to tree growth and provide systematically for the planting of such areas as will not otherwise restock with timber of valuable species. . . . State laws should encourage the acquisition of forest lands by municipalities, to the end that public forest ownership may be extended by any agencies capable of undertaking it. . . . Questions on the foregoing Readings 1. In what period of our history did the conservation movement begin? 2. What important step toward conservation was taken by President Roosevelt in 1908? 3. What problem was considered by the Conference of Governors? 4. Compare the use of natural resources in the days of Washington with their use in recent times. 5. When is conservation necessary? Why? 6. What did the committee on resolutions of the Conference of Governors say as to the need of coöperation in the conservation question? 7. What remedial measures were recommended by this committee? 8. What service was performed by the National Conservation Commission? 9. Why was the National Conservation Association formed? 10. What is this association fighting for? II. Outline the organization of the association. 12. What is the relation between the formulation of principles of conservation and remedial legislation? 13. Outline the conservation measures recommended by the National 14. What measures were recommended with respect to water? |