The Mankato free press., 1909-01-29

coming millions is like that of parents
| to their children and that I'm wasting
| our resources we are wronging our de
scendants.
We know now that our rivers car
and should be made to serve our peo
, 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 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-flfth 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 $3OO.OOO,OOO year. There
fore let us undertake without delay
the investigations necessary before our
people will he i'm 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.
| 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 a 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 it's own during the |
opening years of the present century.
The function of our government is to
insure to all its 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
lerive their livelihood we reduce the
of our land to support popu-
alton and so either degrade the stand
'rd of living or deprive the coming
of their right to life on
his continent. If we allow great in
lustrial organizations to exercise un-
regulated control of the means of pro-
luction and the necesSaries of life we
deprive the Americans of today and Of
he future of industrial liberty, q right
10 less precious and vital than polit-
cal freedom. Industrial liberty was
ruit of political liberty and in turn
has become one of it's chief supports.
nd exactly as we stand for political
democracy so we must stand for indus
rial democracy.
The rights to life and liberty are
and, like other funda-
mental necessities, when once acquired
hey are little dwelt upon. The right
o the pursuit of happiness is the right
whose presence or absence is most
lkely to be felt in daily life. In what
yer 1t has accomplished or failed to
ccomplish the administration which
just uId Wig W a CLOSE mas at ledSC
cen clearly the fundamental need Of
reedom Of opportunity for every citi-
en-. We have realized that the right
f every man to live his own life, pro-
ide for his family and endeavor, ac-
ordfng to his abilities, to secure for
imself and for them a fair share of
he good things of existence should be
ubject to one limitation and to no
ther. The freedom Of the individual
hould be limited only by the present
nd future rights. interests and needs
the other individuals who make up
ne community. We should do all in ,
ur power to develop and protect indi- I
idual liberty, individual initiative, but ,
ubject always to the need of preserv-
lg and promoting the general good. ,
When necessary the private right must ,
ield, under due process of law and .
18th proper compensation, to the well |
are of the commonwealth. The man {
Tho serves the community greatly !
hould be greatly rewarded by the ]
AS there is great Unequal 1
y Of service, so there must be great [
of reward, but no man and .
o set of men should be allowed to
lay the game of competition with
,aded dice.
A II this iS ciuuIy uood oop,poop So,,co