The Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1903-1909, 1908-05-16

from the farmers fields choked the
neighboring river he thought only
OF using the railway rather than
boats for moving his produce and
supplies.
Now all this is changed. On the
average the son Of the farmer OF to-
day must make his living on his
fathers farm. There is no diff
Guilty in doing this if the farmer
will exercise wisdom. No wise use
of farm exhausts its fertility.
So with the forests. We are on
the verge of a timber famine in
this country and it is unpardon.
able for the nation or the state to
permit any further cutting Of our
timb Der save IN accordance with
system which will provide that the
next generation shall see the tim.
Der increased or diminished. More
over, we can add enormous tracts
of the most valuable possible agri-
cultural land to the national do.
main by irrigation in the arid and
semi arid regions and by drainage
of great tracts of swamp land in
the humid regions. We can enor.
mously increase our transportation
facilities by the canalization OF our
rivers SO as to complete great sys-
tenn of waterways on the Pacific.
Atlantic and gulf coasts and in the
Mississippi valley, from the great
plains to the Alleghanies and from
the northern lakes to the mouth of
the mighty Father of Waters.
But all these various uses of our
national resources are 30 closely
connected that they should be CO.
ordained and treated as part of one
coherent plan and not in hap.haz-
ard and piece meal fashion.
It was largely because OF this
that | appointed the waterways
commission last yesr and that |
have sought to perpetuate it's work.
/ wish to take this opportunity to
to express in heartiest fashion my
acknowledgment to all members
Of the commission. At great per
sonal sacrifice OF time and effort
they have rendered service to the
public for which we cannot be too
grateful. Especial credit is due to
initiative, the energy, the devotion
to duty and the far.sightness OF
Clifford Pinchot, to whom we owe
80 much of the progress already
made in handling this matter of
the coordination and conservation
OF natural resources. IF it had not
been for him this convention nei-
Their would nor could have been
called.
We are now coming to recog-
nice as never before the right of
the nation to guard its own future
| in the essential matter of natural
resources. In the past we have adj
mitted the right of the individual
to injure the future of the republic
for his own present profit. The
time has come for a change. As a
people we have the right and the
duty, second to none other but the
right and duty Of obeying the NOR.
al law, of requiring and doing jus.
tice, to protect our children and
ourselves against the wasteful de
velopment OF our natural resources,
whether that waste is caused by
| the actual destruct on of such re
sources or by making them impos-
sible Of development hereafter.
Any right thinking father earn
estly desires and strives to leave
his son both an untarnished name
and a reasonable equipment for
the struggle of life; So this nation
as whole should earnestly desire
and strive to leave to the next gen.
Grafton the national honor unstain
ed and the national resources un-
exhausted. There are signs that
both the nation and the states are
waking to a realization of this great
truth. On March 10, 1908, the su.