The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-01-23

navigation. Therefore let us take i'm mediate steps to ascertain the reasons and to prepare and adopt compre | hensive plan for inland waterway nav. | igation 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 needed 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 $500, 100000 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 fatu- ral resources. They have made it DOS 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. It is the bottom round of the ladder on our upward progress to- ward condition in which the nation as whole and it's citizens as individu- als 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 it's 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- tation 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 duction and the necessaries of life we deprive the Americans of today and of the future of industrial liberty, a right no less precious and vital than pOlit- lcal freedom. Industrial liberty was 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. .....--.n
 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 endeayor, ac- 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 wei fare of the commonwealth. The man who serves the community greatly should be greatly rewarded by the community. As there is great inequal- ity 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- tion has been described as the appli- cation of common sense to common problems for the common good. If the description is correct, then conserva- tion 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 great requirements of national life.
 Administrations Aims Defended.
 This administration has achieved some things. It has sought but has