The Delta independent., 1907-03-01
1.-THE NATIONS FUTURE"
CONTINUED From Last Week.

fe8cn possibly DO,ooO,ph IONS Oh
merchantable iron ore in the deposits
of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.
This viii keep our industry going, sup
ary, for thirty or forty years In the
year 1850, as far as our own resources
are concerned, will approach an ironless
age. For population of 200, 900. 600
people, our home supply of iron will
have retreated almost to the company
of the precious m etals.
There is no substitute whose produc-
ton and preparation for practical use
is not far more expensive. Not merely
our manufacturing industries, but our
whole complex industrial life. SO init
mately built upon cheap iron and coal,
will feel the strain and must suffer
realignment The peril is not one of
remote geologic time, but of this gener
alton. And where is there sign of
preparation for it? Where. amidst our
statistical arrays and the flo urish of
trumpets with which the rise of our
manufactured product is always an
nounced. do we hear so much as a
whisper of care about the needs of the
time marching so swiftly upon US? In
stead Of apprehension and diligent fore
Thought for the future, the alton is
engaged in policies of detail and oppor-
tamism
ENGLAND AN ENAMfLE.
II any man think this prophecy of
DANGER fantastic. let him glance at
Great Britain. That nation was not SO
extrayagant as we, because it did not
compel the instant exhaustion of its
resources by q tariff prohibiting such
imports. and because its surplus popu
'istisn could and did scatter over ths
globe. But it has concentrated effort
upon the secondary form of industry
manufacturing at the sacrifice of tn,
primary-the tillage of the soil. 1t:
iron supply is now nearly exhausted
, Ii must import much of the crude ma
terial or close its furnace and mills 1t:
coal is being drawn from the deeper
levels. The added cost pinches the
marx ct and makes trade smaller botf
in volume and in profits.
The process of construction has only
begun. None are advertising it. onl!
few understand it. But already ther'
is the cry of want and suffering from
every street in England. From ;
million to a million and half of mel
are huddling together in her cities
uttcring that most pathetic and mos
awful ultimatum. Damn your charity
give US work." And this is only th'
beginning of that industrial readjust
ment which the unwise application o
, industry and the destruction of natura
resources must force everywhere. HI
who doubts may easily covince himself
by an honest investigation of the facts
that this is no sensational prediction
but something as established and inevi
table as an eclipse or the return of the
seasons. The most amazing feature OF
our situation, indeed. is its vast ant
compelling simplicit
SOIL. THE SOLE ASSET.
Every people is thus reduced. in thu
final appraisal of its estate. to reliance
upon the soil. This is the sole asse
that does not perish. because it contains
within itself, if not abused. the posi-
bility of infinite renewal. All the hf'
that exists upon this planet. all the
DEVELOPMENT of man from his lowest
to highest qualities, rest rs firmly and
as unreservedly upon the capacities o
tbs soil as do his feet upon the ground
beneath him. The soil alone is capable
of sclf-renewal. through the wasting o
the rocks. through the agency of plan
life. through its chemical reactions witt
the liquids and gases within and abou
it. A sclf-perpetuating race must rel.
upon some self-perpetuating means o
support. Our one resource, therefore
looking at humanity as something more
than the creature of n day il the pro-