The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1907-10-05

effect tax greater than all other Ian,
! taxes combined, and one yielding alb
sontely no return. The department
OF Agriculture Is now devislng an,
testing means to check this enormou,
waste through improved methods O
agriculture and forest management.
Citizens Of all portions Of the coun
try are coming to realize that, how
ever important the Improvement b
navigation may be. it Is only one d
many ends to be kept In view. Tho
demand Tor navigation Il hardly more
pressing than the demands for re
claiming lands by irrigation IN the
arid regions and by drainage In thu
humid lowlands, or for utilizing the
water power now running to aste, OF
for purifying the waters so as to re,
duce or remove the tax of soil vast n
to promote manufactures and safe
1 fEufrd life. II is the part of wisdom
! TO adopt not tumble Of unrelated
!pians, but single comprehensive
scheme for meeting all the demands
$50 far as possible at the same time
and by the same means. This is the
reason why the Inland Waterways
/ Commission was created in March
last, largely in response to petitions
from citizens of the Interior including
many OF the members of this congree
Broad instructions were given to the
commission In accordance with this
general policy that no plan should be
prepared for the use of any stream
for single purpose without carefully
considering, and so far as practicable
astually providing for, the use of that
stream for every other purpose. Plans
Tor navigation and power should pro-
vide with special care for sites and
terminals not only for the Immediate
present but also for the future. 1t is
because of my conviction In these
matters that | am here. The Inland
Waterways Commission has task
broader than the consideration Of
waterways alone. There is an init
mate relation between our streams
and the development and conserya.
ton OF all the other great permanent
sources of wealth 1t is not possible
rightly to consider the one without
the other. No study of the problem
OF the waterways could hope to be |
successful which failed to consider |
also the remaining factors in the |
great problem of conserving all our
pHEDl1rnnC tylxr I |
the Waterways Commission to take
account of the orderly development |
and conservation. not alone of the
waters, but also of the soil, the for
asts, the mines, and all the other
natural resources of our country.
Many of these resources which we
nave been in the habit Of calling mex
are being rapidly exhausted
d In certain regions have actually l
disappeared Coal mines, oil and gas
ields' and iron ines in important num-
)efs are already worked out The
'oal and oil measures which remain II
re passing rapidly, or have actually X
'assed, into the possession of great II
operations, whoa cquire ominous I
over through unchecked control of
hese prime necessities of modern {
lie; control without supervision of s
NY kind. We are consuming our for '
SITS three times faster than they are '
eing reproduced. Some of the rich. 9
st timber lands of this continent Q
ave been destroyed, and not re- q
laced, and other vast areas are on 4
he verge of destruction. Yet forests, {
nike mines, can be so handled as to il
leId the best results of use, without II
just like grain fields. y
Our public lands, whose highest use a
to supply homes for our people. il
ave been and are still being taken N
great quantities by large private o
Tners to whom homemaking is at Il
&c very best but a secondary motive Il
lbordinate to the desire for profit. a
. allow the public lands to be work lo
by the tenants of rich men for the Vi
ont of the landlords.i instead of by ~
eehclders for the livelihood of their OF
Ives and children, is little less than ST
erie against our people and our in eN
buttons. The great central fact of pc
c public land situation, as the Pub II
Lands commission well said. Is I
at the amount of public land patent yC
by the government to individuals &C
increasing out Of all proportion TO to
number of new homes. II is clear te
yond peradventure that our natural on
sources have been and are still oh
ing abused, that continued abuse
II destroy them. and that we have up
last reached the forks of the road. tn
2 are face to face with the great ini
= that the whole future of the ma. CO
Ii is directly at stake in the momen- cl'
is decision which is forced upon en-
Shall We continue the waste and co
struction of our natural resources. ia
shall We conserve them? There is ma
other question of equal gravity Of
W before the nation. I'm
{ is the plain duty of those of us In
o for the moment are responsible W.T.
make inventory of the natural re- Nc
frees which have been handed jus
Tn to us. to forecast as well as sb'
may the needs of the future. and pu
-. a.