Arizona republican., 1910-08-24

physical asset more valuable than any other-is the fertility of the soil. All our industrial and com merciaI welfare, all our material de velopment of every kind. depends in the last resort upon our preserving and increasing the fertility of the soil This. of course, means the con servation of the soil as the great natural resource; and, equally. of course. it furthermore implies the development of country life, for there cannot be permanent improvement of the soil if the life of those who live on it. and make their living of it, is suffered to starve and languish, to become stunned. and weakened and inferior to the type of life lived elsewhere.
 CONSERVATION.
 "We are now trying to preserve not for exploitation by individuals, but for the permanent benefit of the whole people, the waters and the for ests, 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 forests for commercial and industrial purposes In the same way it is essential for the farmers themselves to try to broaden the life of the man who lives in the open country: to make 1N~n fn prf 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 pol icy; and that neither man nor nation can prosper unless, in dealing with the present, he steadily take thought for the future.
 In one sense this problem with which we have to deal is very, very old. Wherever civilizations have hith- erto sprung up they have always tended to go through certain stages and then to fall No nation can de- velop real civilization without cit ies. Up to a certain point the city movement is thoroughly healthy; vet it is a strange and lamentabit fact that always hitherto after this point has been reached the cltS has tended to develop at the ex- pense of the country by draining the country of what is best in 1t, ano making an insignificant return 'ol this best. In consequence. in tho mast. every civilization in it's later stages has tended really to witness those conditions under which the cities prosper and the non decay There are ugly signs that these ten dencies are at work in this nation oi : ours. But very fortunately we se' now what never before was seen IT any civiliZation-an aroused and alerl public interest in the problem, rec ognition of it's gravity and deslr' to attempt it's solution.
 THE CITY AND COUNTRY. ~The problem does not consist merely in the growth of the city ! Such growth in itself is goot thing and not a bad thing for th' country The problem consists Tn th' growth of the city at the expense o the country: and. even where thlS is not the case, in so great an equal itv of growth in power and interes AS to make the city more attractive than the country, and therefore ap to drain the country of the people who ought to live therein.
 ..The human side of the rural lii' problem is to make the career ot th' farmer and the career or the Iarf laborer as attractive and as remuner alive as corresponding careers Tn th' citv Now. I am well aware that th' farmer must himself take the lead 1T brininp this about A century ana oIrarter ago the wise English farmer | Arthur Young, wrote of the efforts t' ! improve French wool: "A cuitiVato
 at the head of sheep farm of 3oO' or 40o0 acres would in few year.
 do more for their wools than all tn | academicians and philosophers WI effect in ten centuries. It IS ao
 slrd to think that any man Who hd studied the subject only theoreticail' is fit to direct those who practlcail.
 work at the matter. But, friends,
 wish to insist to you hereto vol practical men, who own and wor'
 your farms-that it is perniclou
 absurdity for the practical men to re
 fuse to benefit. it by the work of tn
 student. The English farmer l hay
 quoted, Young, was practical far
 mer, but he was also scientlfi
 farmer. one reason why the grea l business men of today--the great in
 dustriai leaders--have gone aheat