The new era., 1910-09-15
THEODORE ROOSEVELT ON
OUR NATIONAL EFFICIENCY
In Address Before the Conservation Congress
at St. Paul He Says New Methods Of De-
veloping and Using Natural Resources
Of Country Are Needed.

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. Tho means for better farm
ing we have studied with care. but to bet
ter living on the farm and to better busi-
ness on tho farm the farmers themselves
have given scant attention. Ono Of the
most urgent needs Of our civilization II
that the farmers themselves should un-
dertake to get for themselves better
knowledge along these lines. and then to
apply 1t. Sir Horace Plunkett, for many
years q 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" tho creation Of Coun-
try Life institute as 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 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 ana were BlSO lnt0ubeiY iHeet~
esting and instructive.
As a people we have not yet learned to
economize One of the virtues we Ameri-
cans most need is thrift. 1t is mere
truism to say that luxury and extrava-
eanco are not good for Nation. 30 far
rs they affect character. the loss they
cause may be beyond computation. But
in the material sense there IL loss
greater than is caused by both extrava-
gance and luxury put together. l mean
the needlers, useless. and excessive loss
to our people from premature death ana
avoidable 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 It costs to run the Federal
government In addition to the state ana
city health oficers and ORGANIZATIONS.
there Is urgently needed Federal bu-
reau OF health. to act SO far as the Ma
tioral government properly may. 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 tho gov
ernors in the white house in May 1903.
to consider the conservation question. BY
the advice Of the governors the meeting
was followed by the appointment of a
National conservation commission. Tho
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 dehniteness and supplied 1t
with practical program. But at tho
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
bv q congressman from Minnesota with
the purpose of putting stop TO the work
h.c,
Amendment It's object was to put an
end to the work Of a number Of commits
eions. which had been appointed by the
president. and whose contribution TO tho
public welfare Ind bsen simply incalcu-
liable Among these were the commission
for reorganizing the bus'ress methods nf
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 II as my last
of,cial act a memorandum declaring that
the amendment was void because " was
An unconstitutional interference with the
rights of the executive, and that II I were
to remain president would pay to II no
attention whatever.
The National conservation commission
thercupon became dornan-. rhe suspen-
zion Of It's work came Mt most unf"r-
tunatc time. and there was serious dan
ger tina. the progress already made would
be lost. ~ this cr!.!rsl moment 'lc NJ
tional conservation association was nr-
eaniZed It took uN III. work which 9TH
erw,se would not have been dn,e. end II
exercised most 1sst;il influence u pre-
venting had lce'7lston. In securing TIC
ini reduction of bett.r conservation mrns-
urcs at +he past session of conercsr ard
In promoting the passage OF wise laws. IL
dsec-ves the confidence and sur port or
evcry .,itizen Interested in the 'h's, de-
yeIop.nent and preservation of our nat
ural resources. and in preventing them
from, reasing into t''a hands of uncon-
t-olIed monopolie. II Joins with he Ma
tIrral conservation cnnGress 'r holding
th's ro-etine. am here by the Joint In
vitation of both.
Pan.Amercan Construction.
Whom the Rover,r,e,t Of the United
state, awoke to the idea of conservation
and saw that II was good. It lost no time
in communicating the ADVANTAGES OF the
new point of view to Its immediate neigh
bors among the nations. North Amerf-
can conservation conference was held In
Washington, and the co-operation of
Caradn and Mexico in the great problem
OF developing the resources of the CONT
ren. for the benefit of Its people was
asked snd promised. The nations uoon
our forthern and southern boundaries
wisely realized that their opportunity to
conserve the natural resources was better
than ours. because with them destruction
and moncpclizatton had not gone 30 far
as they had with us. So It is with the
reoublics of Central and South America.
Obviously they are on the verge OF
period Of great material progress. The
development of their natural RESOURCES
their forests. their mines, their water.
and their soils-will create enormous
wealth It is to the mutual interest of
the United States and our sister Ameri-
can republics that this development
should be wisely done. Our manufactur-
ing industries offer market for more
and more OF their natura! wealth and
raw material. while they will increasingly
desire to meet that demand in CONNER
cial exchange. The more we buy from
them, the more we shall sell to them.
Their prosperity Is inseparably involved
with our own. Thank heaven. we of this
continent are now beginning to realize.
what in the end the whole world will
realize. that normally It is a good thing
for nation to have its neighbor nations