The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1909-01-22

of the public GcCd.
Our Responsibility For the Future.
The great basic facts are already
well known We know that our popu-
lation is now adding about one-ffth to
its numbers in ten years and that by
the middle of the present century per.
haps 15O,O00.O00 Americans and by its
end very many millions more must be
, fed and clothed from the products of
our soil. With the steady growth In
population and the still more rapid In
crease in consumption our people will
| hereafter make greater and not less
| demands per capita upon all the natu-
| raj resources for their livelihood, COM
| fort and convenience. 1t 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
| 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-fifth 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
lpublic 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 $3O0,000,O00 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.
/ 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
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.
L ha cF ic fr
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'
iation 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 o1
1 the future of industrial liberty, right
{ no less precious and vital than polit
J ical freedom. Industrial liberty was q
fruit of political liberty and in turn
: has become one of it's chief supports
and exactly as we stand for political
7 democracy so we must stand for indus
3 trial democracy.
! The rights TO life and liberty are
: fundamental, and, like other fuhda
: mental necessities, when once acquired
D they are little dwelt upon. The right
t to the pursuit of happiness Is the righ1
: whose presence or absence Is mos
] likely to be felt In daily life. In what
8 ever it has accomplished or failed K
: accomplish the administration which
r Is just drawing to a close has at leas'
d seen clearly the fundamental need o1
$ freedom of opportunity for every citi
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