Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1907-12-05
pubIIc opinion would probably have

public opinion would probably hav,
: brought about prompt adjustment.
: 1T is idle to hold that without goot
laws evils such as child labor as tn,
over-working of women, as the fail
ure to protect employees from loss OF
life or limb, can be effectively reached
any more than the evils of rebates and
ck-watering can be reached without
good laws. To fail to stop these prac.
tees by legislation means to force
honest men into them, because other
wise the dishonest who surely will
! take advantage of them will have
everything their own way. II the states
will correct these evils, well and good
but the nation must stand ready to aid
them.
When the department of agriculture
was founded there was much sneering as
to Its usefulness. No department Of the
government, however, has more en-
phatically indicated its usefulness, and
none save the post office department
comes so continually and intimately into
touch with the people. The two citizens
whose welfare Is in the aggregate most
vital to the welfare of the nation, and
therefore to the welfare of all other citl-
zens. are the wage-worker who does
manual labor and the tller of the soil
the farmer. There are, of course, kinds
mental. and there are other kinds OF
labor where, under existing conditions,
very little demand indeed is made upon
the mind, though / am glad to say that
the proportion of men engaged in this
kind of work is diminishing. But In any
community with the solid, healthy quail
ties which make up a really great nation
the bulk of the people should do work
which calls for the exercise of both body
and mind. Progress can not permanently
exist in the abandonment of physical
labor, but in the development of physical
labor, so that 1t shall represent more and
more the work of the trained mind in the
trained body. Our school system is
gravely defective in so far as II it puts a
premium upon mere literary training and
tends therefore to train the boy away
from the farm and the workshop. Moth
ing is more needed than the best type of
Industrial school, the school for me-
chanical industries in the city, the school
for practically teaching agriculture in the
country. The calling of the skilled tiller
OF the soil, the calling of the skilled me-
| chanic, should alike be recognized as
professions, just as emphatically as the
callings OF lawyer, doctor, merchant, or
clerk. The schools should recognize this
| fact and 1t should be equally recognized
in popular opinion. The young man who
has the farsightedness and courage to
reCognize it and get over the idea that
| 1t makes a difference whether what he
earns is called salary or wages, and who
refuses to enter the crowded field of the
so-called professions. and takes to con-
| structiye industry instead, is reasonably
sure of an ample reward In earnings, in
health in opportunity to marry early,
and to establish a home with fair
amount of freedom from worry. 1t
should be one of our prime objects to put
both the farmer and the mechanic on a
higher plane of efficiency and reward, so
as to increase their effectiveness in the
economic world, and therefore the dig
nifty, the remuneration, and the power OF
their positions in the social world.
Inland Waterway Systems
should BE Developed.
/ THE conservation Of our national re-
sources and their proper use constitute
the fundamental problem which under
lies almost every other problem of our
national life. We must maintain for
our civilization the adequate material
basis without which that civilization
| cannot exist We must show foresight.
| we must look ahead AS a nation we
not only enjoy wonderful measure of
present prosperity but IL this prosper
ity is used Alright 1T is an earnest of
| future success such as no other nation
| will have. The reward of foresight foi
this nation is great and easily foretold
But there must be the look ahead,
there must be a realization of the fact
| that to waste, to destroy. our natural
resources. to skin and exhaust the land
instead of using 1t so as to increase its
| usefulness, will result In undermining
in the days of our children the very
prosperity which we ought by right to
hand down to them amplified and devel-
| oped. For the last few years. through
several agencies the government has
Ano vi TO or nrNla m
look ahead and to substitute a planned
and orderly development of our re-
! sources in place of a haphazard striv-
ing for immediate profit. Our great
river systems should be developed as
national water highways; the Missis-
sippi, with its tributaries standing first
! in Importance, and the Columbia Sec
ond, although there are many others of
| Importance on the Pacific and Atlantic
| and the gulf slopes. The national gov
eminent should undertake this work,
and l hope a beginning will be made
! in the present congress; and the great
est of all our rivers, the Mississippi,
should receive especial attention. From
the Great Lakes to the mouth of the
| Mississippi there should be deep wa
terway with deep waterways leading
from it to the east and the west. Such
a waterway would practically mean
| the extension of our coast line into the
| very heart of our country. 1t would be
| of incalculable benefit to our people. II
begun at once 1t can be carried through
in time appreciably to relieve the con-
gestion of our great freight-carrying
lines of railroads The work should be
| Systematically and continuously carried
forward in accordance with some we'll
conceived plan. The main streams
should be improved to the highest
point of efficiency before the improve
ment of the branches is attempted: and
the work should be kept free from
every faint of recklessness or tobbery."
Attention is called to the work Of ir-
rigation and reclamation of govern
ment lands. In the same connection ne
asks for revision Of the public land
laws along the lines proposed by the
public lands commission. Believes the
government should increase its efforts
to conserve our forests and should in
crease by purchase the existing forest
preserves. On the subject of the natural
resources of the nation he says:
'In the eastern United States the
mineral fuels have already passed into
the hands of large private owners, and
those of the west are rapidly following
1t is obvious that these fuels should be
conserved and not wasted, and it would
be well to protect the people against
unjust and extortionate prices. so far
as that can still be done. What has
been accomplished in the great oil
fields of the Indian Territory by the
action Of the administration offers a
striking example of the good results
| of such a policy. In my judgment the
government should have the right tc
keep the fee of the coal, oil and gas
fields in its own possession and to lease
the rights to develop them under
proper regulations: or else, IL the con
gress will not adopt this method. th'
coal deposits should be sold under lin.
itetions. to conserve them as public
utilities. the right to mine coal beine
separated from the title to the soil
; The regulations should permit Goa
lands to be worked in sufficient guam
tity by the several corporations. Thu