The sea coast echo., 1906-06-30

| preservation of the forests we nave, Dy
| their right use, for the planting OF new
| forests, and for the scattering through
| this great nation, in every state and
territory, of forest plantations that,
| when they come to maturity a genera
| ton from now, will supply every state
| with wood and timber of every kind
| for every purpose from Forests and
| Tree Plantations within its own bor-
| ders.
/ have no time today to go into de-
| tails, but if you will go into the South
and see the actual conditions with ref
erence to the water supply on the
| streams flowing from the Appalachian
mountains, and study the beauties of
| that country, you will be converted
| in an instant to the necessity for the
creation of the Appalachian Forest re-
serve; and the same thing is true of
the proposed White Mountain Forest
Reservation in New England. Those
Reserves are comparatively small
| things in the amount of money in
volyed. If we can throw money to the
birds, as a manure spreader throws it
out of the back of a wagon into the
field, to build the Panama canal and
manage the conquest of the Philippine
Islands, and to build huge battleships,
| maintain that we can at least spare
money enough to perpetuate the for
estS that God gave us and for the pres
eryatiOn of all the Internal Resources
of our country at home. (Applause)
| maintain another thing, and that
is that if the women who are here to-
day would go to their homes from this
convention, and take up and study the
possibilities of the development of
Arizona and New Mexico under a
policy which will reserve for national
control the forests and the water sup
ply which are the only things that
keep that great country from going
back to the desert, you would save
this nation from the infamy of join
ing Arizona and New Mexico in the
bonds of joint statehood. In the face
Of your opposition that great wrong
could never be accomplished. All
women in the land should rise up and
protest against it, because it is
abandoning the destiny and develop
ment of the foundation of all the re-
sources for homemaking of those ter
ritories to the unrestrained legislative
dominated by the most evil political
influences that ever existed in any
state-the offscOurings of the worst
political rOttenness that ever pre-
vailed in Pennsylvania, coupled with
the iniquities that will prevail by
reason Of the fact that so large pro-
portion Of the population of New
Mexico cannot even speak the English
Language. The joint statehood bill
proposes to give to the control of such
a legislature as that, without any pos
sible check r hinderance, a land grant
of about twenty million acres to
grab and speculate with and graft on
and practically to do with as they
please. (Applause)
I only want to say in closing: If
you find crime anywhere; if you find
a man gone wrong anywhere; if you
find political corruption or anything
going wroL.; in our political institu-
tions, you will Fl d, if you trace it
back, that the fault lies in its original
source, at some place or other, in the
fact that there was not the right
kind of home and the right
kind of a mother. If you find
man of strong and sterling character
Tor woman either) you trace it ba,
and you will find that it was because
there was the right kind Of mother,
and the / ght kind Of a home.
We have heard a good deal lately
about the "man behind the gun" and
the ''man behind the pick and the
man behind the ballot and the man
behind" a great many o-her things,
but 1 want to tell you that you can
pile them all one upon another like
Ossa upon Pelion and all Of them to-
gether are not of as much Importance
as the Mother behind the Homer
(Applause.)
If you are to have the right kind of
homes and the right kind of mothers
everywhere throughout ne length and
breadth of this great and beautiful
country of ours, you must make it
easily possible for every man who
works and lives by his toll to have a
home of his own on the land-a
HOMECROFT, however small.
You must train every child in
garden schools to know how to plant
seeds and make things grow and get
food directly from the BOSOM of
Mother Earth. You must so train all
boys ana SlFlS ludL luSlI h1oL SIS1l
ambition will be to get home of
their own with a piece of ground
around it large enough for a garden.
The Good Book tells US that God
planted a garden eastward i'll Eden;
and there he put the man whom he
had formed. And out of the ground
made the Lord God to grow every
tree that is pleasant to the sight and
good for food"
God intended that every man and
woman and every child should live
next to nature and on the Ind, and
every man who marries woman
should put her in home in the midst
of garden.
The great movement which is now
fairly under way, known as the
HOMECROFT MOVEMENT, pro-
poses to do that V y thing, and the
Greed and Platform &C the Home
crofters tells how it may be done.
The slogan of the Homecroft Move
ment IS: