BEMIS: AN EXPERT IN THE PEOPLE'S SERVICE
Graham, Louise
Bemis: An Expert in the People's Service By LOUISE GRAHAM EDWARD WEBSTER BEMIS, Economist, Expert, First University Extension Lecturer in the United States, Speaker of the truth, "made" by no ring...
...It would be a mere waste of government money to survey lands which are likely to be so exchanged...
...Not only so, but it takes away from the Secretary of the Interior the right to decide the conditions on which the people's property may be used by the companies on renewal of the lease, and as to these conditions gives the companies in effect the equivalent of the right of condemnation through the courts...
...Pinchot''s report: Good Conservation Laws Needed NOTHING is more important to this Association than the passage of good laws for the protection of our natural resources at the present session of Congress...
...The only change in existing law, as interpreted by the courts, is that part of the proposed substitute which provides that the 'Secretary of the Interior shall report all such withdrawals to Congress at the beginning of its next regular session after the date of withdrawals.' " The contention of the National Conservation Association is here fully sustained, and the whole influence of its members should be thrown behind this bill...
...There is no recognition of the fundamental fact that land laws are good in proportion as they tend to multiply that most desirable of all citizens, the man who owns the land from which he makes his living...
...It is only lately that this power has been doubted and questioned, and the object of the proposed substitute is to make it definite and clear beyond all dispute that the President possesses this power of withdrawal...
...The restrictions on rates charged to the public would be easy to evade...
...5489) repeals this Act, but re-places it with provisions which promote speculation and retard the development of agricultural and mineral lands far beyond the Act it repeals...
...The sermon struck home...
...This appointment, doubtless, will do much to create public sentiment favoring ultimate municipal ownership of public utilities, as Dr...
...Proverbs XXII: 29—but not so with naughty professors of political economy who decline to kow-tow ad nauseam...
...They wisely separate the surface of the land from the underlying minerals, and provide for the disposal of the minerals by lease and not by sale...
...Bemis will 'make good' in his new work...
...It will then be, in the words of Mr...
...Bemis: An Expert in the People's Service By LOUISE GRAHAM EDWARD WEBSTER BEMIS, Economist, Expert, First University Extension Lecturer in the United States, Speaker of the truth, "made" by no ring and a tool of none—occupies a most unique position in public life today...
...I believe that efficiency is the most important lesson that a young man can learn, no matter what his professional or commercial career may be," said Dr...
...In reporting this bill, Senator Nelson, for the Committee on Public Lands, said in conclusion: "The statutes cited, as well as the decisions of the court above referred to, and other decisions that might be cited, as well as the opinions of the Attorneys-General, all go to show that the President of the United States has the inherent power to reserve for public purposes lands of the United States from location, sale, or entry...
...The water power bill does not follow the results of recent Government experience in dealing with similar problems...
...Alaska Survey Bill THE bill for surveys in Alaska requires no comment at this time...
...As a clearsighted manager he has excelled...
...SENATE BILL 5485, as amended in general accordance with the recommendations of this Association, is as follows: "Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the President may, at any time in his discretion, withdraw from settlement, location, sale, or entry, any of the public lands of the United States and reserve the same for forestry, water power sites, irrigation, classification of lands, or other public purposes to be specified in the orders of withdrawals, and such withdrawals and reservations shall remain in force until revoked by him or by an Act of Congress...
...Timber Bill THE inducement to speculation in Government timber is the worst feature of the Timber and Stone Act, and has led to an insistent demand for its repeal...
...Carelessness is as the little foxes that spoil the grapes...
...5488) are both modeled on the Nelson Bill of a previous Congress...
...Against clamorous opposition, against even the doubts of those who wished him well, Mr...
...In the same spirit of constructive criticism I ask your attention to the remaining eight bills and to changes which will be required in them in order that this Association may advocate their enactment...
...The immediate effect of the passage of this bill would doubtless be to stop the development of water power on Government land...
...Organized Traffic in Women and Girls TTThe Bulletin of the City Club, Chicago, in its issue of January 26, publishes an address given on January 15 before the club by Clifford G. Roe, formerly Assistant State's Attorney of Cook County...
...Learn to do some one thing well...
...It makes easy the protection of all natural resources on the public domain until good laws can be passed...
...D., and later holding a professorship in the University...
...Whether the water power bill (S...
...It makes the use of "dummy" entrymen easy and profitable, and reduces the public auction for which it provides to a mere form...
...Two are good and bad in about equal proportion...
...Then life for the Bemises and the three Bemis babies was anything but beer and skittles...
...In addition to existing law two principal things are needed...
...During the strike, a minister offered his pulpit...
...This understanding requires only legislation to make it effective...
...5484) is inconsistent with the coal bill in failing to separate the surface from the underlying mineral, and it opens to private appropriation at $2.50 per acre such deposits of iron ore as lie in the National Forests of Minnesota...
...It contains no sufficient anti-monopoly clause like that in the Alaska Coal Act of 1908...
...This clause the bill repeals...
...Soon President Harper looked about for an associate professor who should not thunder plain truths, who should have respect for the tax dodger, who should not be altogether distasteful but who should take the cash and let the credit go...
...The clause which purports to regulate rates to be charged the public is so framed that it may be evaded with ease...
...Bemis for the primary purpose of making a complete scientific examination of the water works department, including all waste by leaks in pipes, and reducing of everything to a system...
...Following is Mr...
...5488) clearly obeys this principle is left uncertain by the vagueness of its terms...
...In 1892, he became associate professor of political economy in the University of Chicago...
...Bemis has repeatedly and abundantly proved his efficiency as a capable executive...
...Justice Holmes, "in possession of what all admit to be a great public good, and what it has it may keep, and give no one a reason for its will...
...Bemis on the eve of taking his new position...
...But it overlooks the long pending understanding between certain of the roads and the Forest Service for the return of railroad lands within the National Forests to the United States, in exchange for the right to cut in one body an amount of timber equal to that on the lands returned...
...NiEe bills relating to the conservation of natural resources were introduced in Congress on January 18, on behalf of the Secretary of the Interior, and are now pending before the Public Lands Committee of the Senate...
...5491) which deals with reclamation projects destroys this vital principle by opening these lands to absentee landlordism and to speculation...
...So upon his graduation from Amherst, this youthful economist entered John Hopkins University, taking special courses in history and economics, receiving the degrees of A. M. and Ph...
...Survey of Railroad Grant Lands THE BILL for the survey of railroad land grants (S...
...It is believed that Dr...
...Bemis established the water meter system in this city, and has subsequently proved its justice and good business sense of the venture...
...The bill (S...
...It doe^ not matter where they live, but what they are...
...Such is the possible unforeseen increase of charge at every ten-year period, which would seriously hamper the financing of such enterprises...
...It imposes more stringent conditions on the small man than on the timber speculator, and fails to provide for reforestation on lands vauable only for the growth of timber...
...For that reason your officers expect to keep in touch with the progress of legislation with the view to making report when action by the members is required...
...Bemis is now recalled to "the frontier city half way between London and Frisco" by Mayor Gaynor, whose election was the climax of a sensational campaign of national interest...
...The address sets forth conditions in Chicago in a convincing, though unsensational manner...
...two years later he was appointed director of the department of municipal monopolies in New York...
...As reported by Senator Nelson, this bill should have the unqualified support of the members of the Association...
...Water power sites should be protected from private appropriation under the land laws, and it should be made possible to issue to the companies permits good for and definitely terminating at the end of fifty years...
...It imposes upon the latter certain restrictions which are far more burdensome to them than they are valuable to the Government...
...Reformers at twenty are not taken seriously...
...The provisions against monopoly are less effective than those now in force under the Secretary of Agriculture, from whom, by a radical departure from existing laws, and at the obvious cost of duplication of work, it takes the control of water power development in National Forests...
...But when all is said, the fundamental principles of these two bills are sound, and they deserve and I hope they will have the vigorous and united support of the Association...
...Bemis preached...
...5488) requires similar amendments...
...States, cities and towns are apparently shut out from the benefits of the provisions of the bill...
...Classification Bill THE bill for the classification of public lands (S...
...General Character of the Bills SOME of the eight bills still in Committee merely require amendment...
...On land which it governs, this bill allows the purchaser of Government timber to let his trees stand uncut for twenty years...
...He will carry with him the best wishes of all who appreciate the merit of efficient and conscientious public service...
...Since the National Conservation Association keenly desires the immediate passage of good laws on conservation, its officers have made careful and deliberate studies of these measures, and this report has been delayed to await the results of these studies...
...The present law provides that no sale of water in any Government irrigation project "shall be made to any land owner unless he be an actual bona fide resident of such land, or occupant thereof residing in the neighborhood of said land...
...The officers of the Association have already conferred with the Public Lands Committee of the Senate on these bills and have met with the hearty co-operation of the Committee...
...The passage of sound laws on conservation at this session of Congress is and must remain the first consideration...
...Political 'pull' has been of no avail, and the Cleveland waterworks has been a shining example of the excellence possible, under proper management, of municipal ownership of certain branches of public utility...
...So when Johnson became mayor of Cleveland, he needed this expert's help...
...5485...
...One is predominantly bad...
...It should be of great assistance to all those who are seeking to know the real facts about the white slave trade...
...5487) and the phosphate, oil, asphal-tum, and natural gas bill (S...
...5492) will properly enable the railroads to perfect titles to their lands...
...The oil bill (S...
...There should be none...
...It invites the concentration of Government timber in the hands of great companies...
...The coal bill limits the maximum royalty that can be charged to fifteen cents per ton, which is much too low if a maximum is to be set...
...Mayor Gaynor secured the services of Dr...
...Another clause may reduce the standard of mining to the wasteful level of the "prevailing commercial practice...
...Bemis is widely known as the author of "Municipal Monopolies" (1899) and "Municipal Ownership of Gas Works in the United States" (1891...
...And he got it,—to the great advantage to Cleveland...
...Pinchot Points Out Weak Spots in Conservation Bills GIFFORD PINCHOT, former Chief Forester of the United States, and now President of the National Conservation Association, issued a report under date of February 5 to the members of that Association and to the general public regarding the character of the conservation bilk now before Congress...
...Coal and Oil THE COAL BILL (S...
...Without fear he has enforced the merit system in his department...
...Triumphing Over Rebuffs THE following editorial appeared in a Cleveland newspaper that was anti-Johnson for some months previous to the ex-mayor's defeat last November: "Mayor William J. Gaynor of New York has made no mistake in calling Edward W. Bemis to the post of deputy commissioner of the water, gas and electric light department of Greater New York...
...he acted in this capacity for Mayor Pingree, of Detroit, where the street railway lines were being operated by Tom L. Johnson...
...Now Mayor Gaynor has adopted the European way of retaining picked men...
...This provision is useless to the small man, who must cut quickly, and of great use to the timber speculator, who can hold his timber for a rise in price...
...All rights granted to water power companies by the Government should terminate at a specific time, and there should be no doubt about it...
...Every citizen who believes that Congress should enact laws for the conservation of the natural resources that will fully protect the public interest and at the same time encourage development, should read what Mr...
...Do they believe that public office is a public trust...
...Called from New York to Cleveland in 1901 by Tom L. Johnson who had just entered upon his first term as mayor, Dr...
...It was here that Johnson met and formed a friendship with the college man that has lasted...
...Bemis will render the same valuable service to Greater New York that he did to Cleveland, where as superintendent of the waterworks department he placed Cleveland in the front rank...
...However, in 1897, this "anarchist," etc., became professor of economics in the University of Kansas...
...Pinchot says about these bills...
...The immediate result was an amended bill on withdrawal of public lands (S...
...When properly amended, this bill should pass...
...Are they the best to be found...
...Clevelanders are satisfied that Mr...
...The Secretary of the Interior shall report all such withdrawals to Congress at the beginning of its next regular session after the date of the withdrawals...
...I call upon you to communicate with your Representatives and Senators in a strong effort to get it enacted into law...
...As New York has no electric light or gas plants, this department supervises the entire lighting of the city as well as the water supply...
...These are the only questions asked...
...James R. Garfield, as its representative...
...Some of Chicago's "first citizens" didn't like to have certain "interests" discussed, the very topics that men like Edward W. Bemis and Charles Zueblin considered quite worth while...
...The bill for the sale of timber and timber lands (S...
...It should not pass...
...Two of the bills are good, and, when certain necessary amendments are made, they should have the hearty support of every member of this Association...
...We must get the best bills we can and then get them passed...
...The three remaining bills are thoroughly unfortunate and should be rewritten entirely...
...Look to the details that make the great whole...
...The timber bill defers settlement of land under sale until the timber is cut...
...But" it has conclusive defects, whether seen from the point of view of conservation, or from that of the water power companies...
...his eyes travelled to the chimney-piece and following his I read: "Then welcome each rebuff that turns earth's smoothness rough...
...The Government should be left as free as the lessee to bargain for a renewal of the permit, or to refuse it...
...The Pullman strike developed...
...Five years is long enough, as experience has abundantly proved...
...Water Power Bill THE FIRST principle of water power control is a fixed and definite time limit...
...It repeals in silence the existing water power law, and curtails the already ample power now exercised (with the approval of a former Attorney-General) by the Department of Agriculture...
...It still further retards land settlement and prospecting for minerals by compelling the prospector and the homesteader on the land it covers to pay for the timber he needs or must remove at a price fixed by public auction...
...Reclamation Bill THE GREAT merit of the Reclamation Act of 1902 is that it compels the making of homes on the land reclaimed...
...The views of the Association were presented by the Hon...
...During this time, Doctor Bemis was retained by various cities as expert in public questions...
...In 1889, he married Annie Louise Sargent, who had done research work in New York under the direction of the Charity Organization Society, and for the next three years he was professor of history and political economy in Vanderbilt University...
...During his service as head of the water works department of Cleveland Mr...
...The bill wisely provides for compensation to the Government by the companies, in harmony with existing law, and that is good...
...others must be recast altogether...
...The system of meters worked out by him has been studied by experts from all over the world...
Vol. 2 • February 1910 • No. 7
