River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1910-09-08

all. that IT 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 I'M
prove country life. AS yet we know COM
paratiyely 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 or the
most urgent needs of civilization is
| that the farmers themselves should UNI
dertake to get for themselves better
| knowledge along these lines, and then TO
apply it. Sir Horace Plunkett, for many
| years a Wyoming cattleman, and now de-
| voting himself in Ireland to the country
| life problem there, has suggested In ms
| 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. L
| am strongly in sympathy with this Idea,
| and I hope to see it carried out with the
| cooperation and assistance of our own
people. Last spring, while visiting the
| capital of Hungary. Buda-Pesth, 1 was
| immensely impressed by the Museum or
| Country Life, containing an extraordinary
| series of studies in agriculture, In stock
| raising, in forestry, in mining; the ex-
| hibts were of the utmost practical I'M
| portance and were also intensely inter-
| esting and instructive.
AS a people we have not yet learned TO
econom;ze. One of the virtues we Amer1-
| cans most need is thrift. 1t is a mere
| truism to say that luxury and extrava-
| gancc are not good for Nation. So far
aI,o 0afn no
| cause may be beyond computation. But
| In the material sense there Is a loss
| greater than Is caused by both extrava-
| gance and luxury put together 1 mean
| the 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, 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 Federal bu-
| reau of health, to act, SO far as the Ma
| tional 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 the gov
| ernors in the white house In May, 190S,
| to consider the conservation question. BY
| the advice Of the governors the meeting
| was followed by the appointment or
| 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 def1niteness 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
! by a congressman from Minnesota with
| the purpose of putting stop TO the work
| so admirably begun. Congress passed the
| amendment. It's object was to put an
| end to the work Of a number Of commits
| 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 recognizing 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 it as my last
| official act a memorandum declaring that
| the amendment was void. because 1t was
| an unconstitutional Interference with the
| rights Of the executive and that II I were
to remain president I would pay to 1t no
| Alteration whatever.
The National conservation commission
| tfereuDon became dorn.anr. ~he suspen-
| sion of its work came at most unfOr-
| tunatc time, and there was serious dam
| ger that the progress already made would
| be lost At this critical moment The NJ
| tional conservation association was or
| ganized. It took up the work which 9TH
erWise would not have been done, end 1t
| exercised most usoS,ll influence ~ pre-
6.oN II In
| Introduction Of better conservation meas
ures at the past session Of congress ard
| in promoting the passage Of wise laws. 1t
| deserves the confidence and sur port nj
| every citizen interest ed in the %iS. de-
| velop7nent and preservation of our nat
| ural resources and in preventing them
from RAISING into r." hands 1T uncon-
| +rolled monopolies. II Joins with tho Ma
| tinnal conservation congress in holding
| this meeting. am here by the joint in
| vitat1on of both
Pan-American Construction.
| When the government Of the United
| States awoke to the idea of conservation
| and saw that 1t 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 Ameri-
| can conservation conference was held in
| Washington, and the cooperation or
| Canada and Mexico in the great problem
| OF developing the resources or the contl-
| nent for the benefit of its people was
asked and promised. The nations upon
our 1orthern and southern boundaries
| wisely realized that their opportunity to
| conserve the natural resources was better
| than ours. because with them destruction
| and monopolization had not gone so lar
| as they had with So 1T is with the
| republics Of Central and South America.
| Obviously they are on the verge or a
| 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 manufactGr-
| and more of their natural 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 a nation to have its neighbor nations
prosper We of the United States are
genuinely and heartily pleased to see
| growth and prosperity in Canada, in
| Mexico, in South America.
| It is clear that unless the governments
OF our southern neighbors take steps in
| the near future by wise legislation to con-
| troll the development and use of their
| natural resources, they will probably fall
! into the hands of concessionaries and pro-
moters, with single purpose. without re-
gard to the permanent welfare OF the