The Elbert County tribune., 1910-09-09

/
communitiss In the Mississippi valley and
| IN the middle west have made marvellous
| prugress. yet sven the best OF them. like
| communities Of every other kind, are not
beyond Improvement while much needs
| 70 b done IN some other sections to i'm
prove country life. A. yet we know COM
| paratively little OF the basic facts of rural
| civilization The msang for better farm
Ing We have studied with care. but to bet
/ ter living on the farm and to better busi-
meas on the farm the farmers themselves
have given scant attention. One Of the
most urgent needs of our civilization IL
| that the farmers themselves should un-
dertake to get for themselves better
knowledge along these lines and then to
apply IT. Sir Horace Plunkett. for many
years a Wyoming cnttleman. and now de-
voting himself in Ireland TO the country
life problem there, has suggested in his
recent book on the Country Life Prob
| lem IN America" the creation OF Coun-
| try Life institute as a center where the
work and knowledge of the whole world
concerning country life may be brought
together for the use OF every nation. I
am strongly in sympathy with this idea.
md hope to see II carried out with the
cooperation and assistance OF our own
people. Last spring. while visiting the
capital of Hungary. Buda-Pesth, was
Immensely impressed by the Museum of
Country Life. containing an extraordinary
series Of studies in agriculture. In stock
raising. In forestry. in mining: the ex-
hibits were of the utmost practical i'm
portance and were nlso intensely inter-
esting and Instructive.
As n people we have not yet learned to
cconomize. One of the virtues we Amcri-
cans most need is thrift. IT is mere
truism to say that luxury and extrava-
Tanco are not good for a Nation. SO far
as they affect character. the loss they
cause may be beyond computation. But
in tho material sense there is a loss
greater than is caused by both extrava-
Eance md luxury put together. ! mean
the needless. useless. and excessive loss
to our people from premature death and
avoldabIe diseases. Wholly apart from
the grief. the suffering. and the wr',tched-
ness which they cause. the material loss
each year has been calculated at nearly
twice what It costs to run the Federal
government. In addition to the state and
city health officers and organizations.
there is urgently needed Federal bu-
reau Of health. to act. so far as the Ma
tiorai government properly may. to re-
1ieve our people from this dreadful bur-
den.
National Conservation Commission.
One of tho most important meetings in
our recent history was that of the gov
ernors IN the white house in May. 1908.
to consider the conservation question. BY
tho advice Of the governors the meeting
was followed by the appointment Of
National conservation commission. The
meetlnR
attention of the country to conservation
as nothing else could have done. while
the work OF the commission gave the
movement denniteness and supplied It
with a practical program. But at the
moment when the commission was ready
to begin the campaign for putting its pro-
gram into effect an amendment to the
sundry civil service bill was introduced
by . congressman from Minnesota with
the purpose of putting stop 70 the work
SO admirably begun. Congress- passed the
Amendment. It's object was to put an
end to the work Of a number 81 commits
Mons. which had been appointed ny the
prestdent. and whose contribution TO tho
public welfare Ind been simply incaicu-
liable. Among these were the commission
for reorganizing the business methods of
the government. the public lands COM
mission. the country life commission.
and the National conservation commits
sion itself. When signed the 6undry
civil service bill containing this amend
ment, I transmitted with II as my last
oficial act memorandum declaring that
| the amendment was void. because II was
an unconstitutional interference with the
rights Of the executive. ana that II I were
| to remain president I would pay to It no
attention whatever.
Tho National conservation commission
| thereupon became dorn.snr. ~he suspen-
| efon of its work came at a most unfor-
tunate time. and there was serious dan
eer that the progress already made would
be lost A. this critical moment tho Mr.
ttonaI conservation sssociatiop was or
| ganixed. It took up the work which 9TH
erwise would not have been done. end IL
| sSercired q most useful influence ~ pre-
venting hsd 1egi,'&tion. in securing the
| Introduction of better conservation mems
| ures Mt the past session of congress- and
| in promoting the passage OF wise laws. It
| desc-ves the confidence AMI sur port of
| every citizen inte-estcd In the ~'ra de-
velop-nent and preservation OF our nat
| uraI resources, and in preventing them
| from ressing into TIE hands nj uncon-
| t-olied monopolier. II Joins with tho Ma
| tinnsl conservation congress in holding
| this meeting. am here by the Joint In
| vitation of both.
Pan-AmerIcan Construction.
When the government OF the United
States awoke to the idea of conservation
and saw that It was good II lost no time
| in communicating the advantages of the
| new point of view to Its immediate neigh
| bors among the nations. A North Ameri-
can conservation conference was held In
| Washington, and the cooperation of
Canadn and Mexico in tho great problem
| of developing tho resources of the conti-
nent for the benefit of its people wns
asked ard promised. Tho nations upon
our rorthern and southern boundaries
wisely realized that their opportunity to
conserve the natural resources was better
| than ours, because with them destruction
and monopolization had not gone SO far
as they had with U.S. 80 It is with the
republics of Central and South America.
Obviously they are on the verge of
period of great material progress. The
DEVELOPMENT OF their natural resources
their forests, their mines. their water.
and their soils-will create enormous
wealth. 1t is to the mutual interest OF
the United States and our sister Ameri-
can republics that this development
should be wisely done. Our manufacture
ing industries offer n market for more
and more of their natural wealth and
| raw material. while they will increasingly
desire to meet that demand in CONNER
cial exchange. Tho more we buy from
them the more we shall sell to them.
rt,l.. La