The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1909-01-23
PRESIDENT CALLS ON THE
NATION TO SAVE ITSELF
Massage States Need Of Conserving Country Resources
Comments in Vigorous Terms on Report of Ma.
tional Conservation Commission.

pie effectively In transportation, but
that the vast expenditures for our wa
terways have not resulted in maintain
ing, much less in promoting, inland
navigation. Therefore let us take i'm
mediate steps to ascertain the reasons
and to prepare and adopt a compre-
hensive plan for inland waterway nav
tgation that will result in giving the
people the benefits for which they have
paid, but which they have not yet re-
ceived. We know now that our forests
are fast disappearing, that less than
one-ffth Of them are being conserved
and that no good purpose can be met
by failing to provide the relatively
small sums netded for the protection,
use and improvement of all forests still
owned by the government and to enact
laws to check the wasteful destruction
Of the forests In private hands. There
are differences Of opinion as to many
public questions, but the American peo-
pie stand nearly. as a unit for water
way development and for forest pro-
lection.
We know now that our mineral re-
sources, once exhausted, are gone for
ever and that the needless waste of
them costs us hundreds of human lives
and nearly $3OO,0OO,OOO year. There
fore let us undertake without delay
the investigations necessary before our
people will be in position through state
action or otherwise to put an end to
this huge loss and waste and conserve
both our mineral resources and the
lives of the men who take them from
the earth.
I desire to make grateful acknowl-
edgment to the men both in and out of
the government service who have pre-
pared the first inventory Of our natu-
raj resources. They have made It pos
sible for this nation to take a great
step forward. Their work is helping
us to see that the greatest questions
before us are not partisan questions,
but questions upon which men of all
parties and all shades Of opinion may
be united for the common good. Among
such questions, on the material side,
the conservation of natural resources
stands first. 1t is the bottom round of
the ladder on our upward progress to-
ward condition in which the nation
as whole and its citizens as individu-
ais will set national efficiency and the
public welfare before personal profit.
Industrial Democracy In Danger.
The policy Of conservation is per-
haps the most typical example Of the
general policies which this government
has made peculiarly its own during the
opening years Of the present century.
The function Of our government is to
insure to all it's citizens now and here
after their rights to life, liberty and
the pursuit Of happiness. If we Of this
generation destroy the resources from
which our children would otherwise
derive their livelihood we reduce the
capacity Of our land to support popu-
lation and so either degrade the stand
ard Of living or deprive the coming
generations Of their right to life on
this continent. If we allow great In
dustrial organizations to exercise un-
regulated control of the means of pro-
ductfon and the necessaries Of life we
deprive the Americans Of today and of
the future of Industrial liberty, right
no less precious and vital than polit-
1cal freedom. Industrial liberty was a
fruit Of political liberty and in turn
has become one Of it's chief supports,
and exactly as we stand for political
democracy so we must stand for indus
trial democracy.
The rights to life and liberty are
fundamental, and, like other funda-
mental necessities, when once acquired
they are little dwelt upon. The right
to the pursuit of happiness is the right
whose presence or absence is most
likely to be felt in daily life. In what
ever It has accomplished or failed to
accomplish the administration which
Is just drawing to close has at least
seen clearly the fundamental need of
freedom Of opportunity for every citi-
zen. We have realized that the right
Of every man to live his own life, pro-
vide for his family and endeavor, &C.
cording to his abilities, to secure for
himself and for them a fair share of
the good things of existence should be
subject to one limitation and to no
other. The freedom Of the individual
should be limited only by the present
and future rights, interests and needs
Of the other individuals who make up
the community. We should do all in
our power to develop and protect indi-
vidual liberty, individual initiative, but
subject always to the need of preserv-
ing and promoting the general good.
When necessary the private right must
yield, under due process Of law and
with proper compensation, to the well
fare Of the commonwealth. The man
who serves the community greatly
should be greatly rewarded by the
community. AS there is great Unequal
1ty of service, SO there must be great
inequality Of reward, but no man and
no set Of men should be allowed to
play the game Of competition with
loaded dice.
All this Is simply good common sense.
The underlying principle Of conserva-
ton has been described as the appli.
cation Of common sense to common
problems for the common good. If the
description is correct, then conserva.
ton is the great fundamental basis for
national efficiency. In this stage Of
the worlds history to be fearless, to be
Just and to be efficient are the three