The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-10-03
ASpendthriH Nation

lork herald paper ON the spend
thrift tendency of the country to
squander its great natural resources.
and he points out the grave dangers
confronting America. with its rapidly
growing population. Its forests and
mines will alike be depleted within u
comparatively brief span of years.
The Bulwark against national disas-
ter. he points out. must be in a more
intelligent development of our vast
agricultural resources. In the course
of his article Mr. Hill says:
The United States was able easily
to take care of the great increase Of
population in the past because 1t had
vast area OF unOccupied land. This
was the main asset in its natural in
heritance.
Within the last six years there
have been transferred from public to
private ownership more than 100000
900 acres of government land. an area
twice the size OF tn, state of Mime
sofa.
THE entire area OF surveyed and
unapproPriated land within the Uni
ted States is only two and a half times
that amount. At the present rate,
therefore, every acre of public land
would disappear within the next Is
years. But as large percentage Of
the land included in this estimate is
wholly or partially unfit for tilling 1t
is literally true to say that our arabic
public lands have almost disappeared.
Where are our children to finu
standing room and the tens of mil
lions of the future place for whole
some industry? This is an intensely
practical question. 1t is immediate.
Within Al years We shall have to
meet the wants of more than 100000
600 people. In less than 20 years
from this moment the United States
will have 13O,OoO,O0O people.
Where are these people. not of
some dim distant age. but of this very
generation, now growing to manhood,
to be employed and how supported?
When the searchlight is thus sudden
ly turned on We recognize not mere
speculation. but the grim face of that
spectre which confronts the unem-
ployed, tramping hateful streets. in
hope OF food and shelter.
The two great resources of the un-
dereath. economically speaking, that
are indispensable to human comfort
and growth are coal and iron. Our
inheritance of these was princely.
The most wonderful achievement of
this age is the incredible activity with
which we are eXhausting them. The
coal areas and measures of the Uni
ted States are describalbe only in
somewhat general term. But the fact
of the future is not doubtful.
NO dependable authority gives
more than a century of life to our
main available coal supply. 1t will
not be all gone by that time. but the
remainder will have to be obtained
from deposits of low grade or at
great depths or from points remote
from where it is most needed. 1t
will be poor in quality or high in
price. or both, so that it's economic
employment on existing terms will be
very difficult.
The prospect of the mighty iron
interest is even more threatening and
more sure. Our available iron de-
posits have been carefully catalogued.
All the fields of national Importance
have been known for at least 20
years. BY every possible means we
are stimulating consumption, especi-
ally by a tariff that places bounty
on the exhaustion of the home supply
of both coal and iron. thus prohibiting
recourse to outside supplies and conf
polling the exhaustion of our own re-
serve.
I'm the year 1850. so far as our
own resources are concerned. We will
approach an ironless age. For
population of iron will have retreated
almost to the company of the preci-
ofn1c &c ,hcti f,,fa
whose production and preparation for
practical use are not far more eX-
pensive. Not merely our manufactur-
ing industries but our whole conf
pick industrial life, so intimately
built upon cheap iron and coal. will
feel the strain and must suffer re-
alignment. The peril is not one of re-
mote geologic time. but of this gen.
<eration. And where is there a sign
OF preparation for it?
IF any man thinks this prophecy
OF danger fantastic let him glance
at Great Britain. It's iron supply is
now nearly exhausted 1t must i'm
port much OF the crude material or
close its furnaces and mills.
ALREADY there is the cry OF want
and suffering from every street in
England. From 100000 to 1,50O,-
00G men are lowering together in
her cities, uttering that most pathetic
and most awful ultiMatium:
Damn your charity, give us
work. And this is only the beginn-
Ing OF that industrial readjustment
which the unwise application of in
dustry and the destruction OF natural
resources must force everywhere.
Every people is thus reduced in
the final appraisal OF it's estate to re-
lance upon the soil. This is the sole
asset that does not perish, because it
contains within itself. if not abused,
the possibility of infinite renewal.
There must be national revolt
against the worship of manufacture
and trade as the only forms of pro-
gressive activity, and the false no
ton that wealth built upon these at
the sacrifice of the fundamental form
OF wealth production can endure.
"A clear recognition on the part
OF the whole people, from the highest
down to the lowest. that the tillage
of the soil is the natural and most de-
sirable occupation for man, to which
every other is subsidiary and to
which all must in the end yield, is
the first requisite. Then there will
be check administered to the city
movement
1.-THE government should establish
small model farm on its land in ev-
cry rural congressional district, later
perhaps in every county in the agri-
cultural states. Let the department
of agriculture show exactly what can
be done on a small tract of land by
proper cultivation, moderate fertiliz-
ing and due rotation of crops. The