The Holly chieftain., 1910-09-09
THEODORE ROOSEVELT ON
OUR NATIONAL EFFICIENCY
Address Before the Conservation Congress.
At 81. Paul He Says New Method. Of De-
veloping and Using Natural Resource.
Of Country Are Needed.

the forests for recreation. camping. hunt
ing. fishing. and similar purposes. All
this II done. OF course. without injury to
the timber. which has . value of At least
. thousand million dollars. Moreover,
the National forests protect the water
about 10 irrigation projects. and more
than 100 power projects. not counting
the use Of water for these and other pur-
poses by individual settlers.
Country Life Institute.
Tho Investigations Of 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 It brings. Some OF our farming
communities In tho 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 i'm
prove country life. Az 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 IL
that the farmers themselves should un-
dertake to get for themselves a better
apply it. Sir Horace Plunkett, for many
years 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 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, 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 q people we have not yet learned to
sconomixe. One of the virtues We Ameri-
cans most need IL thrift 1t ia a mere
truism to say that luxury and extrava-
Eancc are not good for Nation. 80 far
A. they affect character, the loss they
cause may be beyond computation. But
in the material sense there IL loss
create. than IL caused by both extrava-
Eancs and luxury put together. ! mean
tho needless. useless. and excessive loss
to our people from premature death and
avoidable diseases Wholly apart from
the grief the suffering and the wretched-
ness which they cause tho material loss
each year has been calculated at nearly
twice what It costs to run the Federal
government. In addition to the state and
city health officers and organizations,
there IL urgently needed a Federal bu-
reau Of health. to act, 50 far az the Ma
tional government properly may. to re-
love 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
tho advice Of the 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
AZ nothing else could have done, while
the work Of the commission gave the
with 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
by congressman from Minnesota with
the purpose of putting stop TO the work
SO admirably begun. Congress passed the
end to the work Of a number Of commis-
sions. which had been appointed by the
president, and whose contribution TO tho
public welfare had been simply incalcu-
liable. Among these were the commission
for reorganizing tho business methods Of
the government. the public lands COM
mission, the country life commission,
and the National conservation commits
sion itself. When signed the sundry
civil service bill containing this amend
ment. transmitted with 1t as my last
official act a memorandum declaring that
the amendment was void. because It was
an unconstitutional Interference with the
rights Of the executive. and that II were
to remain president would pay to It no
attention whatever.
The National conservation commission
thercupon became dorm an-. r'he suspen-
sion of Its work came at a most unfur-
tunate time and there was serious dam
ger that the progress already made world
be lost. AZ this crt.!cal moment ',ic No
tional conservation 6fsocfatiop was or
ganized. 1t took up IN. work which 9TH
erw.se would not have been dooe, end IL
exercised most nseiul influence u pre-
venting had leg'3lslion, in securing the
ures at The past session of congress- and
in promoting the passage of wise laws. It
deserves the confidence and sur port Of
every citizen inte"eHted in the MIA de-
velop:nent and preservation of our nat
ural resources. and in preventing them
from Iassing into t''a hands Of uncon-
trolled mnnopolies. II Joins with .hu Ma
tinnal conservation congress In holding
this meeting. I am here by the Joint In
yitation Of both.
Unless the governments OF all the
American republics, including our own,
enact in time such laws as will both pro-
tect their natural wealth and promote
their legitimate and reasonable develop
ment future generations win owe their
misfortunes to US of today. A great pa