Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1906-10-12
TELLS CHICAGO COMMERCIAL
CLUB WHAT he THINKS.
Northwest Must Pave Way for Vast
Infiux-our Highest Duty is to Post
pone Day of Shadows - Economic
chanses-system of Waste Menaces
the Nation-Intenslfied FARMING.

forum motel under the auspices of
the Commercial association. His
theme was The Development of the
Northwest" and his remarks were
greeted with applause because of the
great deal in ore lands which he clos
ed recently in behalf of the Great
Northern Railway.
David e. Forgan, president of the
Commercial association, presided at
the banquet, which was attended by
about $50 members of the association
and their friends. Sir Thomas Upton
was one of the chief guests of the
evening. Other speeches were:
Conquest of the Pacific" Congress
man George e. Foss, and "San Fran
CISCO" by Ernest F. BickneIl. Mr..
Bicknen represented the Chicago Com
mercial association in the relief meas
ures at San Francisco after the earth
quake.
After reviewing the progress made
in the northwest in the past so years,
Mr. Hill said:
'The first business and the highest
duty of the northwest is to prepare for
the burden and heat of the coming day
and to postpone the frightening of the
shadows that must surely fall. With
in certain limits we may know exactly
what is to happen in this country and
the northwest if forces now operative
and if tendencies now active are I'M
checked. These, briefly, are the GER
tainties of the next so years, support
ed by facts ascertained beyond pos
sibility of error. BY the middle of
this century, within the life time of
thousands now living, our population
will be more than 200,0O00Uv. Where
are these people to find profitable &C.
cupation? How are they to obtain the
necessities of life? The question is
always pressing upon great cities like
Chicago, where immigration concen-
trates. But these newcomers can not
be excluded. Labor was never as
scarce, wages were never as high as
at the present day. We can not stop
the inflow or check the natural in
crease. We must determine, however,
upon an economy different from the
present, when our population is ap-
preaching three times what it was in
1900. Striking as has n found the
contrast between 1850 and 1900, that
between the present and 1850 will re-
veal more serious features. Practi-
cally speaking, our public lands are all
occupied.
Irrigation Will Assist.
"The irrigation of lands by the gen
eral government will do something,
but when all the present plans are
completed, they will furnish land for
fewer than 100000 small farms of 40
acres each, or for a population of
seven or eight million people. Our
other natural resources have been ex-
plotted with a lavish hand. Our eX-
ports, of which we love to boast, con-
sist mostly of the products Of the soil.
Our iron and coal supply will begin to
show signs of exhaustion before SO
years have passed. The former at the
present rate of increasing the produc-
ton, will be greatly reduced. Our for
ests are rapidly going, our vast supply
of mineral oil flows to the ends of the
earth. We can not continue to sup
ply the whole world and recruit our
own resources by the methods of trade
that now obtain, because the minerals
stored in the ground do not recreate
themselves. Once used they are gone
forever. We shall, with these coming
millions to provide for, be thrown
back upon the soil, the only resource
of mankind that it capable of infinite
renewal and that offers life for gen
Grafton after generation. The PERIOD
of ransacking the national storehouse
TO see what can be sent over seas and
sold must be changed to an era IN
which we shall consider the preserVa-
ton and improvement of what is, fun
damentally, our chief maintenance.
or upon the cultivation of the soil and
all varied commercial activity, intris'
sic or intact, is mainly built; and upon
it depends the future of mankind, and
the nature and stability of its instftu
tions.
''In some things we are going back
ward. The soil of the country is be-
ing impoverished by careless treat
ment. Forests are cut down that the
sun may make it and the floods scoul
it into the ocean. 1t has been cropped
with the same grain year after year
until it's productive power in some OF
the richest portions of the country mas
deteriorated fully so per cent. Ihe
census returns show an actual de
crease in farm values in large mum
Der of the states. 1t is easily demon
strated that a reform of methods OF
cultivation would double the agricui
tural production each year. adding &c
the whole country from $4,000 ,OOO,OOl
to $6,OOO,OOO,0 900 to the naliona
wealth, while the resort of small
farms and the adoption Of the 1nten
sive cultivation would give an equa
and additional increase.
Foreign Trade Delusion'
"The costliest error will be in cling
ing to the delusion that we are to con