The Prescott daily news., 1910-09-06

Crev.S ard 45 0Nn miners More than 'Ho "e~scrs used thcm for other special irdr~t tries Nearly "t noN so'uers had tNe f~>e use of wood The total resident pNp''lotion of the National forests is aocut quarter of million. which is larger than the population of certain states$ More than TOO. 900 acres of az ricuitural land have been patented or listed for patent within the forests and the reports of the forest officers show that more than 100000 people a year use the forests for recreation camping. hunt ing, fishing and similar purposes All this is done. of course without injury to the timber. which has value of at least a thousand million dollars. Moreover the National forests protect the water supply of thousand cities and towns about s00 irrigation projects, and more ivan 300 power projects, not counting tue use of water for these and other pur- poses by individual settlers
 Country Life institute.
 The investigations or the Country Life Commission have led the farmers of this country to realize that they have not been getting their fair share of progress and all that 1t brings. Some of our farming communities in the Mississippi valley and in the middle west have made marvellous progress, yet even the best of them, like communities of every other kind, are not beyond improvement while much needs to be done in some other sections to inn prove country life. As yet we know com paratively little of the basic facts of rural civilization. The means for better farm ing we have studied with care, but to bet ter living on the farm and to better busi- ness on the farm the farmers themselves have given scant attention. One of the most urgent needs of our civilization is that the farmers themselves should un dertake to get for themselves a better knowledge along these lines, and then to apply 1t. Sir Horace Plunl1ett for many years a Wyoming cattleman, 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 a 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, and I hope to see 1t carried out with the cooperation and assistance of our own people Last spring, while visiting the capital of Hungary. Buda-Pesth, I 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 also intensely inter esting and instructive.
 As a people we heve not yet learned to economtze One of the virtues we Ameri- cans most need Is thrift It is a mere truism to say that luxury and extrava- gance are not good for Nation. So far as they affect character, the loss they cause may be beyond computation. But Tn the material sense there Is a loss greater than is caused by both extrava- gance and luxury put together. I mean the needless, useless. and excessive loss to our people from premature death and aVoida bio diseases. Wholly apart from the grief. the suffering. and the wretched- ness which they cause the material loss each year has been calculated at nearly twice what 1t costs to run the Federal government In addition to the state and city health officers and organizations, there is urgently needed a Federal bu- reau of health, to act. so far as the Ma tiopal government properly nAay, to re- lieve our people from this dreadful bur den.
 National Conservation Commission.
 One of the 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 the advice of tho governors the meeting was followed by the appointment of National conservation commission The meeting of the governors directed the attention of the country to conservation as nothing else could have done while the work of the commission gave the movement definiteness and supplied 1t 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 hy a congressman from Minnesota with the purpose of putting stop to the work so admirably begun. Congress passed the amendment. Its object was to put an end to the work of a number of con,mis- sions. which had been appointed by the president, and whose contribution 10 tho public welfare hed been simply incalcu labie. 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 I signed the Sundry civil service bill containing this amend ment, I transmitted with 1t as my last official act memorandum declaring that the amendment was void, because 1t was an unconstitutional Interference with the rights of the executive. and that if were to remain president I would pay to It no attention whatever.
 The National conservation commission tEereupon became dorn an- 7he susnen- sion of its work came at a most unfnr- tunate time, and there was serious dan ger that the progress already made would be lost. At this critical moment Inc Nr- tional conservation association was or- ganized. It took up ;he work which oth- erwise would not have been done fnd 1t exercised & most usS;ul Influence " pre- venting had leg'aletion. in securing the introduction of better conservation meas- urcs at the past session of congress and in promoting the passage of wise laws. n 1 tha oAA xk every citizen interested in the r,s, de- velopsr1ent and preservation of our nat ural resources, and in preventing them from ressng into t,s hands of unooR-