The Prescott daily news., 1910-08-24
ROOSEVELT TALKS
 ID THE FARMERS
First Address of His Tour Deliv-
 cred Near Utica, N. '.
PROBLEMS OF COUNTRY LIFE
Danger Seen In the Growth Of Cities Plea Made for the Farm Laborer and the Farmers
 Wife.

Utica, N Y., Aug. 29.-Theodore Roosevelt arrived here this afternoon with his party in the private car Re public for the first stop and address of his tour through the west. A tre- mendous crowd was at the station to greet the former president and he was given an enthusiastic welcome.
 The entire party boarded trolley cars at once and proceeded to Orisk- any, nine miles outside the city, and thence to Summit park, a mile further on. where MT. Roosevelt spoke to the farmers of Herkimer and Oneida counties. The agriculturists were out in great numbers and brought with them their entire families, making the affair gala event. MT. Roosevelt is extremely popular with the farmers because of the deep interest he has shown in the problem of bettering farm life conditions, If for no other reason. He was listened to with closest attention and his remarks were accorded frequent applause. He spoke as follows:
 There are no two public questions of more vital importance to the future of this country than the problem of conser- walton and the problem of the betterment of rural life. Moreover. these two prob Iems are really interdependent for nei- ther of them can be successfully solved save on condition that there ie at least a measurable success In the effort to solve the other In any great country the prime physical assst-the physical as set more valuable than any other-is the fertility of the soil All our industrial and commercial welfare, all our material development of every kind depends in the last resort upon our preserving and increasing the fertility of the soil This of course, means the conservation of the soil as the great natural resource, and equally. of course. 1t Furthermore implies the development of country life, for there cannot be a permanent improvement of the soil if the life cf those who live on it. and make their living out of 1t. Is suffered to starve and languish to be- come stuntsd and weazened and inferior 10 the type of life '~ed elsewhere. We are now trying to preserve. not for sx- ploitetion by individuals, but for the per mansnt bensfit of tho whole peapis. the waters and the forests. And we fs Ao- ing this primarily as . means of adding to the fertility Of the soil, although in each case thsre is a great secondary use both of the water and of the forests for commercial and industTial purposes. In the same way it is essential for the farm CTS themselves to try to broaden the life of the man who lives In the open country: to make 1t more attractive; to give 1t every adjunct and aid to development which has beep given to the life of the man of the cities Therefore. friends the conservation and rural life policies are really two sides of the same policy; and down at bottom this policy rests upon the furdamrutal law that neither man nor nation can prosper unless. in dealing with the present. he steadily take thought for the tr'''rs.
 Proh'em of Cites Growth.
 IT. ore sorse this pv1blem with which we have to deal Is ve~" very old Wher- ever civilizations havo hitherto sprung up they have always tended to go through certain stages and then to fall No nation Can develop a real civilization without cities. Up to certain point the city movement is thoroughly healthv; vet 1t is a strange and lamentab able fact that all ways hitherto after this point has been reached the city has tended 10 develop at the expense of the country by draining the country of what Is best In it. and making an insignificant return for this best. In consequence in the past, every civilization in its later stages has tend ed really to witness those conditions un- der which 'the cities prosper and the men decay" There are ugly signs that these tendencies are at work in this na- ton of ours. But very fortunately we gee now what never before was seen in any civilzation--an aroused and alert public interest In the problem. . reoog- hilton of It's gravity and a desire to at- tempt its solution.
 The problem does not consist merely in the growth of the city. 6AeA . growth in itself is a good thing and not bad thing for the country. The problem con sists in the growth of tho city at tho ex- pense of the country; ana even where this is not the case, in so great an equal ity of growth fin power and interest as to make the city more attractive than the country. and therefore apt to drain tho country of the people who euGht to Mvs therein.
 The human side of the ruvaI life prob lem Is to make tho career of the farmer and the career of the farm IAbsrers as at tractive and as remunerAtive As eorrs- spending careers in the city. Now, I am well aware that the fsssnsS must kgnssh take the lead in bringing thll aboat. A century and . quarter ASo the wise Nns- fish farmer. Arthur YounS, wYets of 6hs efforts to impfvve French wocas "A esgl\i- vator at the head of shssp fArn e( t0oe or l,000 acres would In lAv Years do Eoxe for ttsis x.co.. .t:n sN fk. .c.,