The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1909-01-22
CALLS on NATION TO SAVE ITSELF
SCHRADER TRIAL
GOES OVER TERM
oar EResponsiblIlty al. sI,s Fatures

wei known. We know that our popu.
lation Is now adding about one-ffth to
its numbers in ten years and that by
tile middle Of the present century per
llaps 100000 Americans and by its
end very many millions more must be
fed and clothed from the products Of
our soil. With the steady growth Ii
population and the still more rapid IN
crease in consumption our people viii
hereafter make greater and not less
demands per capita upon an the natu-
raj resources for their livelihood; COM
fort and convenience. It is high time
to realize that our responsibility to the
coming millions is like that OF parents
to their children and that. in wasting
our resources we are wronging our de-
scendants.
We know now that our rivers can
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 a compre-
hensive plan for inland waterway nav
lgation that will result in giving the
people the benefits for which they have
paid, but which they have not vet 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 falling 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
theme costs us hundreds Of human lives
and nearly $500, 600 a year. There
fore let us undertake without delay
the Investigations necessary before cur
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.
j 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 1t pos
stble 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 Ia 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 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
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. II we allow great in
dustrial organizations to exercise un4
regulated control Of the means of pro-
tluction 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-
lcal freedom. Industrial liberty was
fruit Of political liberty and in turn
has become one Of its 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