The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1910-03-23

Otis Smith, Director. United States
Geological Survey, before the Mimi
esota Conservation Congress. st.
Paul. Wednesday, Mar. 16:
We Americans prefer to adopt the
ready-made and to buy at wholesale
from headquarters. If we need fur
niture the whole nation buys at
Grand Rapids; if a new style of public
opinion is desired, forthwith we ex-
pect the weekly and monthly period
icals of New York to serve it up to
the country at large, and for the
latest fashion in conservation you
have for three years past always
looked to Washington. Is it not
possible that too much has been ex-
pected of Washington? Conserva-
ton. while a question of national
importance, is at bottom a local is
sue.
| am not at all sympathetic with
the somewhat popular notion which
ascribes virtues and powers to the
Federal government that are not
vouchsafed to the States. Good gov
eminent, like charity, should begin
at home. AS with the government,
so with conservation: To be for the
people, conservation must be by the
/ people.
The really creative work in conser-
walton must be done by the engineer
acting for the capitalist and by the
farmer acting for himself. The en-
gineers and the farmers have taken
little part in the talking, but they
will have to do most of the work.
In order to stop waste you must
show the average citizen that it is
not unnecessary but Improbable as
well, and it is the engineers task to
make the conservation practicable
and profitable.
The States part in encouraging
this devlopement is to inventory the
undeveloped water powers; and as
John R. Freeman, leader among
engineers, has pointed out, here is a
conservation policy that any State
will do well to adopt, policy that
will mean cheap lights in your home
and cheap power on your farm.
As individuals we may profit by
observing the practice of the corpor-
ations, whose officers must give
their attention not only to earning
immediate dividends but also to pro-
viding for successful operation many
decades hence.
However satisfactory may be the
corporations record for conservation
as producers, that fact must not OBJ
scure the issue of their just obliga-
lions to the ultimate consumer; and
to secure the people their share in
the benefit of conservation strong
governmental regulation of corpor-
ations is essential.
The farmers conception of con-
servation should not differ greatly
from the engineers. In
tensiye farming with scientific rota-
ton and intelligent fertilization are
the immediate remedies if the
American farm is to become able to
meet the demand already upon it.
The farmers part in conservation is
no vision, but present-day job.
Increased demand for the crop,
whether it be trees or corn, is giving
such value to the land that blind
indeed must be the man who fails to
see that the largest reward lies, not
in quick turn of his money, but in
such use of his woodlot or his corn
field that not only he but his child
ren's children may profit therefrom.
This will be conservation by the
people. To attain this end an elab-
crate legislation program is not es-
sential. Rather let the government
al activities, both State and Federal,
be exercised in the education of peo-
pie by the spread of information,
which has been termed "the most
beneficial, the most potent, and the
least Objectionable of all extra-gov-
ernmental function"