Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-12-26
ANNUAL WASTE
IS A NECESSITY
D. C. BEAMAN, FORMERLY OF OF
TUMWk, CHAMPIONS FARMERS
AGAINST MR.. WATKINS.
ASKS FOR AUTHORITY
He Suggests that Maybe the Lecturer
Has Interviewed Catfish for His
UNSATISFACTORY Formed
Louisiana.

The pioneers. farmers. prospectors.
miners and other tanners of the wild
erness of the United States, recently
charged with being ruthless MASTERS
OF the natural resources of the country
by Congress Watkins Of Louisiana III
an address before a Texas convention,
have found a forthy champion in d. c.
Beanan, formerly OF this city. and
now vice president, general counsel
and secretary of the Colorado Fuel
and Iron company of Denver. Colo.
In the following letter to the Courier
Mr.. Beaman mildly suggests that Con
gresham Watkins may have gained
mis- statistics in regard to the soil
washed away annually. from inter
viewing catfish; and also conveys the
innocent statement that il the soil
hadn't been moved by the great water
ways of the country that Louisiana
would have never been formed The
letter follows:
Champions Farmers.
In your issue of the 10th inst you
quote from an address recently made
by Congressman Watkins of Louisi-
ana before convention in Texas, on
the waste of orr natural resources.
Among other things he says a billion
tons of soil is washed in to our rivers
annually causing sand bars, etc, and
often cause the streams to go dry;
that this soil is Of the richest kind,
and is worth twenty billion dollars an
nually. which is lost to the farmers.
1T is difficult TO conceive how rich
soil is converted into sand, or how the
damming up of a stream causes it to
go dry, and just imagine if the farmers
have been for the last thirty or forty
years losing twenty billions year,
how have they managed to keep 60
ing, and on the other hand if they
had stopped this erosion and saved
all this money, where could they have
stored it and had room in their cribs
for the corn?
HE also bewails the waste Of tim
Der, coal, iron, etc. which should have
been conserved for posterity.
Improved VS.. Uni11proved Land
More than fifty years ago my
father and l cleared farm in the
Des Moines valley, using the timber
for building houses, fences, etc. This
farm has produced every year since
crop worth probably $40 per acre,
which for fifty years means over
$1,000 per acre The timber, if stand
ing today. might possibly be worth
800 per acre.
THE same process repeated by
others has made the Great West. 1t
will greatly surprise the pioneers OF
that day, who are yet living, to now
learn that they cut and wasted the
timber when they really supposed they
We're making for themselves farms
and homes.
AS to the waste Of the iron, what
is the fact? We have mined lots of
it. it is true, but we have built rail
roads, ships and cities, and are turn
ing it over to our children in state
OF complete utilization. Is that waste.
when they could have done nothing
more with it if it had been left in the
ground?
Il believe posterity will get all that
is coming to it. unless we are to stoE
building towns and railroads and
mining coal, shut down our steel
works. gas and electric plants, and go
back to the log cabin, the blacksmith
shop and the tallow candle, and then
it will get less.
Mr. Watkins and others who have
just walked up to economic questions
by no means new, are filling our
magazines with fearful wailings, mis-.
leading pictures and doleful predic.
tons as to waste of our resources.
~f ;nk
absolute present necessity if civiliza-
ton is not to stand still. yet if any
Of them have any practical remedy
they have never suggested it. They
ignore the fact that for years practical
and scientific men have been making
improvements in these directions
which are put in operation as fast as
proved to be of practical and econom.
ical value.
"The complaints Of these Rip
Van Wrinkles are either without
foundation or remedyless under ex
listing knowledge and conditions. for
in fact. nothing is wasted in the true
sense of the word, which at the time
and place and under existing know,
ledge and conditions cannot be
economically utilized.
Where Mr.. Watkins gets his data
as to the tonnage of soil going into
the streams he does not say Probably
from the catfish. which should know
most about it, Nor does he state, if he
realizes. that ever since the earth
cooled off. disintegration of the rocks
and erosion has been going on; that
The quantity Of arabic soil has been
constantly increasing. that the erosion
from the rocks OF the mountains has
made all the plains country of the wes
that the wash into the Mississippi
river has formed most Of the two
great states at it's mouth, and but fol
that there would have been no con
gresham from Louisiana