Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-12-10

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/ agriculture is permitted to sink in the scale
| as compared with other employments. We
| can not afford to lose that prominently
| typical American, the farmer who owns his
| own medium-sized farm. To have his place
| taken by either a class of small peasant
! proprietors, or by class of great land
/ lords with tenant-farmed estates would be
/ a veritabe calamity. The growth of our
cities is good thing but only in so far
| as lt does not mean a growth at the ex-
| pense of the country farmer. We must
welcome the rise of physical sciences In
| their application to agricultural practices.
/ and we must do all we can to render coun-
| try conditions more easy and pleasant.
| There are forces which now tend to bring
| about both these results, but they are, as
| yet, in their infancy The national gov
/ eminent through the department of agri-
| culture should do all it can by joining with
the State governments and with independ-
| ent associations of farmers to encourage
the growth in the open farming country Of
| such institutional and social movements as
Will meet the demand of the best type OF
| farmers, both for the Improvement of their
farms and for the betterment of the life it.
self.
/ The grain producing industry of the coun-
| try, one of the most important in the
| United States, deserves special consideration
| at the hands of the Congress. / suggest to
! the Congress the ACCESSIBILITY of a national
system of inspection and grading of grain
1
merce as remedy for the present evils.
| Inland Waterways.
For the last few years, through several
| agencies, the government has been endeav-
| oring TO get our people to look ahead and
| to substitute planned and orderly devel-
| opment Of our resources in place of a hap
| hazard striving for immediate profit. Our
| great river systems should be developed as
national water highways; the Mississippi,
| with its tributaries standing first in import
| Columbia cap0Od alfhouQh
| there are many others of Importance on the
| Pacific, the Atlantic and the Gulf slopes.
| The national government should undertake
| this work, and | hope a beginning will be
made in the present Congress and the
| greatest of all our rivers, the Mississippi,
| should receive special attention. From the
| Great Lakes to the mouth of the Mississippi
] there should be a deep waterway, with
| deep waterways leading from it to the east
and west. Such waterway would prac-
| tically mean the extension of our coast
! line into the very heart of our country. 1t
would be of incalcuable benefit to our peo-
| pie. If begun at once it can be carried
| through in time appreciably to relieve the
| congestion of our great freight-carrying
| lines of railroads. | have appointed an in
| land waterways commission to study and
outline a comprehensive scheme of develop
ment along all the lines indicated. Later
shall lay its report before the Congress.
| Reclamation Work.
| Irrigation should be far more extensively
| developed than at present, not only in the
| States of the great plains. and the Rocky
/ Mountains but in many others, as, for in
| stance, in large portions of the south Allan
| tic and Gulf States, where it should go
hand in hand with the reclamation of
| swarco land The Federal Government
| should seriously devote itself to this task,
! realizing that utilization of waterways and
| water power, forestry, irrigation, and the
reclamation of lands threatened with over
| flow. are all interdependent parts of the
4 Nl,n tSfNra
| service in developing the larger opportuni-
/ ties of the western half Of our country for
| irrigation Is more important than almost
| any other movement.
Public Lands.
/ The effort of the Government to deal with
| the public land has been based upon the
| same principle that of the reclamation
/ service The land law system which was
| designed to meet the needs of the fertile
| and well-watered regions of the middle
| west has largely broken down when sp-
| piled to the drier regions Of the great
| plains. the mountains, and much of the
| Pacific slope, where farm of 160 acres
| is inadequate for self-support. In these re-
| gions the system lent itself to fraud. Three
years ago a public lands commission was
| appointed to scrutinize the law, and de-
| fects. and recommend a remedy. Their ex-
| animation specifically showed the existence
| of great fraud upon the public domain. and
4 their recommendations for changes in the
| law were made with the design of conserv-
/ ing the natural resources of every part of
/ the public lands by putting ii to its best
| use The re recommendations of the public
| lands commi sson are sound; for they are
1 especially in the interest of the actual
| home-maker and where the small home
| maker cannot at present utilize the land
4 they provide that the Government shall
/ keep control of it so that ii may not be
| monopolized by few men. Some such
| legislation as that proposed is essential
1 in order to preserve the great stretches OF
1 public grazing land which are unfit for Gull
/ tivation under present methods and are
/ valuable only for the forage which they
| supply.
Preservation of Forests.
| Optimism is good characteristic. but If
| carried TO an excess ii becomes foolishaess.
| We are prone to speak Of the resources of
| this country as inexhaustible: this is not
| so The mineral wealth Of the country. the
/ coal. iron, oil. gas. and the like does not re-
| produce itself. and therefore is certain to be
| exhausted uutimately. and wastefulness in
| dealing with il today means that our de-
/ scendants VIII 5eel the exhaustion a eene--
/ alton or two before they otherwise would
4 But there are certain other forms OF waste
1 which could be entirely stopped-the waste
| ~ soil by washing. for instance which is
/ among the most dangerous Of ali wastes
| now IN progress in the United States. is
| easily preventable, 50 that this present
enormous loss Of fertility Is entirely IN
necessary. The preservation or replacement
| Of the forests Is one OF lie most important
II
| made q beginning in forest preservation.
| out II Is only a beginning At present
| laundering is the fourth greatest industry
| IN the United States and yet so rapid has
/ been the rate OF exhaustion Of timber in
the United States in the past. and so rap
| idly Is IN remainder being exhausted that
! the country is unqVestionahly on the verge
/ Of a timber famine which viii be felt In
| every household in the land There has
| already been a rise in the price OF lumber
| hut there is certain to be a more rapid
| and heavier rise in the future The present
1 annual consumption Of lumber IS certainly
| three times as great as the annual growth !.
| ana II the consumption and growth coatin0e
| unchanged. practically all our lumber win
/ ae exhausted In another generation. while
| long before the limit to complete exhaas-
1 tioa Is reached the growing scarcity win
| make itself felt in many blighting ways
| upon our national welfare Forests can Be
| numbered 50 as to give 10 the pablfe the
1 full use OF their mercantile timber without
| the slightest s@etriment 10 the forest, any
more than IL Is detgimsuf 10 a farm to
| furnish harvest But forests II used as
al our forests have been used In the past
and as most Of them are stfl used. viii be
either wholly destroyed. or - damaged thzt
many decades have to pass before elective