Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1903-08-28
How Man $
Carelessness Has
Ruined Nations

| Cotton last June reached price
! double that at which it stood couple
If years ago and the consequence has
been chat all the great cotton mana-
| featuring towns in the north of Eng
land have suffered terribly.
Tie cotton famine has been put
&c WI 70 the INSCRIPTIONS Vaccinations
Of ring of American capitalists. but
its real cause is a very different and
much deeper one. 1t arises from the
slackness and carelessness of cotton
growers For years past they nave
been selling their best seed to the oil
manufacturers and contenting them
selves with sowing poor, second-class
seed.
1t IS this short-sigbted policy which
W. Us brought disaster in its train. The
yield per acre has decreased from 80
% 10 per cent, and moi 0niy are the
growers themselves, over al area twice
IS laSge as the British isle, suffering,
3ut 1 eco. 000 operatives h6ie and In
other parts of the world have a6on on
the verge of famine, White all the
Word over people are paying larger
prices than for forty years past for cot
Ton materials.
The world at large is paying heavily
today for the criminal careleSsness Of
"aces dead and gone; and the worst OF
it is that the nations of today have
learned so little from experience that
the same sort of thing continues, and
matters constantly go from bad to
worse.
Take the giant blot upon the map,
the enormous desert of Sahara, as an
example. Once all North Africa was
forest. at least for hundreds of miles
back from the coast.
But the Carthaginian empire needed
timber for her vast navies, and wood
for building houses and for fuel. The
forests were cut down, and in thel1
stead was planted corn. Later came
the Romans, and they, as they extend
ed their empire over North Africa, c;
md cut. never considering what the
,esult would be for future generations.
Gradually the rainfall began to In
.rease. and to fall in torrents instead
| " gentle showers. The soil was wa sh
ID from the hillsides, and cultivation
| became possible only in the valleys
which were subject yearly to terrible
| :nundations There were no forests
| eft to absorb the moisture and allow
| L TO descend more gradually toward
the sea.
So. century by century, matters went
from bad to worse, until now we see
| lalf a continent which might have rem
| or timber and corn turned into a
| dessert of sand on which the daily
| 'ange Of temperature reaches the ap-
qalhng figure OF 120 degrees.
| Nature. left to herself is endeavor-
| ng to remedy matters, From the
| eUtA the timber line is slowly creep
| ing back northward across the desert
| waste bur it must be thousands OF
ears before the desert in which Eu.
| one might he lost, is restored.
A well-known explorer who Travelled
| trough NamaQualand century ago
wrote Of the rivers which ran through
Ne country, and the beautiful green
Try which formed wide belts along
heir banks.
During the recent war, Col. WriGhts
olumn, which was fighting rebels up
md down the country lost many men
and beasts from thirst There is next
to 10 water anywhere in the county
except in the Kamies Berg. the range
Of mountains which crosses It.
a more modern instance Of the dan
gers of care.ess'y untalaaatng nat.79
IS supplied hy tie recent petition for.
me farmers Of Arizona to tie Unite
States government PRAYING tta' size.