The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1910-09-16

was certainly sent into Il world that. il
not deformed, is unfinished and not
near half made up. This is made yer,
evident to any one travelling in which
ever direction they go. On Il visit east
some seven years ago, | was astonisheC
at the vast amount of waste and un
productive land. Even in the very old
est settled parts of Massachusetts. be
tween Boston and the real old original
Plymouth with its Yankee blarney
stone. one travels through wilder
ness OF woods and swamps. \ great
deal of the land has once been under
cultivation. but has been allowed t.
go back" and is covered with a thick
growth of young timber. These waste
and sparsely settled places extend all
the way from Boston TO Chicago will
stretches OF cultivated land, apparently
few and far between. But if the vast
amount of waste land one sees going
east is astonishing going west it is be-
wildering, and sets Il person wonder
ing where Uncle Sam houses his big
family of ninety millions. Even when
one gets to the land of promise. the
land. If rot of song. of stories" of rail.
road folders and land boomers. it is
found that most of it is only the crude
very crude raw material for the cult
waited farm and orchard. Except in
rare instances and limited areas the
land is either too wet or too dry. too
high or too low. too boggy or too barren.
That is like King Dick j. is lmiin-
ishcj.' and not neai malt made up
Here is mission for the millions
which TO perform is Inc very reason
why we are here 1t may not be as
pleasant or profitable a mission, nor
tickle Eighty shallowpated person :
vanity as much us believing FROM Il
public platform about something they
know nothing about. Ii is wonderful
what great faculty such people have
OF barking up the wrong tree. The
tuberculosis fighters attribute that dis
ease to all imaginable causes but the
right ones, which are shoddy or cotton
underwear, ovcrwork, unwholesome
food. high rents for unsanitary dwell
lings, and those undcrheated on account
of Baer-fiNcd prices of fuel, etc.
1t Is the same with the shouters
against the so-called. white slave"
traders. The cry is, "Shoot. lynch. kill.
lmprioon for life or hang the Villains .
but rot a word about the white slave"
Why is she not under her parents roof.
or one o. her own? The white plague"
and the white slave as far as they
are abnormal, like nearly all our social
Ills. are the products of the UNEQUAL dis
trlbution or the products of labor
Some day our people will learn that we
cannot produce millionaires and real
men and women at the same time. iii
fare the land, to Fastening ills a prey.
where wealth accumulates and men de-
cay Right industrial wrongs and the
social evils of all kinds will sink to
their normal level. Until the millcn
mum the vicious and the foolish will
always be with us, but the law should
take care of the first and the fool
killer will take care of the foolish. His
task at the present time is Immense"
for. as moral and intellectual qualities
ebb and flow. and the present age is the
renaissance of visionary cranks and
dreamers OF unwholesome dream, he has
an army of the DOGGY haunted to
brighten to death. The bogy of the
Pacific coast is the harmless, as far as
the United States is concerned, little
Jap. Hobson has done his work well. and
it means fat" contracts for builders of
battleships. etc. 1t don't count there
beng 10 n:ore danger from the ,Japs
than there is from the man in the
moon. This is not the age of reason
any more than the hereto and witch
burning age was. And so we have
anti-Japs, kissing, splitting, public drink
ING cup, soiled bank notes, flies, mos
qultoes, pet cat, dog, etc, to the
end of the chapter. The funny and in
consistent thing about all these antics
and micrcbe hunters is that they all
travel from Dan unto Beersheba'' in
dirty, unsanitary. ovcr-crowded sleen
ing cars and preach, anti mcrobe or
anything else for a proper reward in
germ laden bank notes. 1t is the fear
frl waste OF human energy and sym
pathy on fruitlcss. frivolous and sense
less fads and schemes. when there is
such vast amount of real practical
work TO do in the world that would
not only benefit the doer but unborn
generations, that turns farce into
tragedy.
a trip TO the Pacific coast shows
wildly the great need of reclamation.
That is finishing" the earth and max
ing il habilablc for civilized man. Con
scrvation and reclamation ought to 90
hand in hand for one is as important
as the other and TO be a public benefit
the work must be done by the public.
that Is the general government. The
main work in reclamation is to get
water on to desert land and to drain it
of or dixie it out of swamp and Hooded
lahd. Tn our trip to California we pas
sed through the southeast corner of
Colorado and saw grand example of
the power of water to make a sage
bush desert blossom as rose Along
the railroad were strips of alfalfa and
Young orchards alternated by the gray,
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