The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1910-08-23
COL. ROOSEVELT
PLEADS FOR THE
COUNTRY LIFE
Better Farm Conditions Mean
Greater Strength for the
Whole Nation

Whole Nation
CONSERVATION Of THE SOIL AND
BETTER MARKETS THE kEYSTONES
Life Must Be Made Such That the
Call Will Come From the Farm In.
stead Of the City as Place of
Residence.
Utica, n. Y, Aug. 23-Theodore
Roosevelt this afternoon delivered
the first address Of his western tour
at Summit park. this city. He spoke
as follows:
There are no two public questions
of most vital importance to the fu-
ture of this country than the prob
lem of conservation and the problem
OF the betterment of public life. More
over. these two problems are really
interdependent for neither of them
can be successfully solved save on
condition that there is at least meas
urable success in the effort to solve
the other. In any great country the
prime physical asset-the physical as
set more valuable than any other-is
the fertility Of the soil. All our in
dustrial development of every kind.
depends in the last resort upon our
preserving and increasing the fertil-
ity OF the soil. This, of course,
means the conservation of the soil as
the great natural resource; and, equ-
ally. Of course, it Furthermore implies
the development of country life, for
there cannot be a permanent improve
ment of the soil If the life of those
who live on it, and make their living
out of 1t are suffered to starve and Ian
guish. to become stunted, and weak
ened and inferior to the type Of life
| lived elsewhere. We are now trying
to preserve, not for exploitation by
individuals. but for the permanent
benefit of the whole people, the wat
ers and the forests. and we are doing
this primarily as a means of adding
to the fertility of the soil, although In
each case there is great secondary
use both Of the water and of the for
ests for Commercial and Industrial
/ purposes. In the same way it is es-
sential for the farmers themselves to
try to broaden the life of the man
who lives in the open country; to
make 1t more attractive. to give it
every adjunct and aid to development
which has been 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 bot
tom this policy rests upon the funda-
mental law that neither man nor ma
tion can prosper unless, in dealing
with the present. he steadily take
thought for the future.
An Old Problem
"In one sense this problem with
which we have to deal is very, very
old. Wherever civilizations have
hitherto sprung up they have always
tended to go through certain stages
and then to fall No nation can de-
velop real civilization without cit
les. Up to a cretain point the city
'cvement is thoroughly healthy; yet
it is strange and lamentable fact
that always hitherto after this point
has been reached the city has tended
to develop at the expense of the coun-
try by draining the country Of what
is best in it, and making an insignifi-
cant return for this best. In conse-
quence, in the past. every civilization
in its later stages has tended to wit
ness those conditions under which
the cities prosper and the men decay
There are ugly signs that these tend
encies are at work in this nation of
ours. But very fortunately we see
now what never before was seen in
any c:vilization-an aroused and
alert public interest in the problem, a
recognition of it's gravity and a de-
sire 10 attempt its solution.
The problem does not consist
merely in the growth of the city. Such
growth in itself is good thing and
not q bad thing for the country. The
problem consists in the growth of the
city at the expense of the country;
and. even where this is not the case, in
so great an equality of growth in
power and interest as to make the
city more attractive than the coun-
try. and therefore apt to drain the
country OF the people who ought to
live therein.
Making Farm Life Attractive
"The human side of the rural life
problem is to make the career Of the
farmer and the career of the farm la
borer as attractive and as renumera-
tive as corresponding careers in the
city. Now, am we'll aware that the
farmer must himself take the lead in
bringing this about. A century and
a quarter ago the wise English farm
er. Arthur Young. wrote Of the efforts
to improve English wool: "A cult
vator at the head of a sheep farm Of
5000 or 1000 acres would in a few
years do more for their wools than all
the academicians and philosophers
will effect in ten centuries.' 1t is
absurd to think hat any man who has
studied the subject only theoretically
is fit to direct those who practically
work at the matter. But, friends, Il
wish to insist to you hereto you
practical men, who own and work