Evening journal. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1907-1913, 1908-01-07
A Square Deal For the Soil.
(By Samuel w. Allertono


What is the biggest business prob
lem this nation is facing today? One
man will speak up quickly and say:
THE question of an elastic curren-
cy, of course" his neighbor will de-
clare that the attitude of the admin
istration toward corporations over
tops everything else in Importance
to the people of this country A lit
tie later we are likely to be told
that the reimbursement of the tariff is
the overshadowing question.
But all the time a problem bigger
than any of these is being overlook
ed by the politicians, by the press OF
| the entire country, by the political
economists and by most OF the people
themselves. Only few men recog-
nize the existence and the bigness Of
tbs question, and they are OF the kind
that makes very little noise in the
world. However, If they are not list
ened to and their words taken to heart
by the men who make up the greatest
industrial class in the United States,
we, as nation, will suddenly wake
up TO the fact that we have been
committing industrial suicide.
The reckless and wholesome deple-
ton of the fertility of the soil, in
this good land of ours, is beyond all
question the biggest and the most SER
| American people--and 1t is bound to
remain the big problem for many
years to come. | am sure of this, and
feel so deeply in this matter, that
have determined to devote the remain
ing years Of my life to doing all
can to arouse the farmers of this
country to the fact that, if they go
on taking everything they can out
4 Of the soil and putting next to moth
i ing back, they are in the position of
deliberately and knowingly creating
a hopeless run on the greatest and
richest bank in the world-the marve-
lous soil of the United States--a run
which can result only in wreck ano
disaster as wide as the whole coun-
try.
| This is the dark side of the picture,
the thing which will surely happen
il we do not wake up and give the
soil a square deal There Is anoth-
er side to the problem as bright as
this one is dark--a reward for we'll
doing Just as great in proportion as
the punishment for wrongdoing. Ii
only 25 per cent Of the farmers
of this country would wake up to
the situation and Go their level best
in giving the soil square deal, they
would not only save the absolute loss
of millions of dollars, but they would
make millions more-and make them
selves rich in the bargain. Unless
there is general and widespread
reform in this matter of the mistreat-
ment of our soil we are going liter
ally to put millions of acres of good
land out of business. All we have
to do, to cut out of our national
wealth land enough to make dozen
European kingdoms. is to keep right
on doing what we are doing, and
what we have been doing ever since
the first reaper and binder was put
into the field. In the matter of soil
depletion the farmers Of this coun-
try have been going the pace that
kills-that kills land and robs the
nation of yearly power to produce
volume of wealth almost beyond the
power Of the average man to under
stand.
This problem is not theory with
me; | havn't come at it from the the
oretical side side. To the contrary,
have bumped against it from the
practical, the active side ! did not
leave the farm until was twenty
six years old, and there hasn't been