The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1911-07-28

Evans former commissioner of health
for the city of Chicago. and member
Of the board of control Of the National
Irrigation Congress. which has its
nineteenth annual meeting here De
cember 5 to 3 this year, is greatly In
terested in the reclamation of lands
and has analysed the unoccupied land
situation, swamp an darid, as it re-
lates to the national health and to the
food supply and the elements which
rule the prices thereof. Having for
four years served the city of Chicago
as commissioner of health, DR. Evans
is one Of the most prominent medical
authorities of the United States, and
at various times has been mentioned
as the most suitable appointment to
the post of national commissioner of
health should such an Office be estab-
lished at Washington. OF the efforts
of the National Irrigation Congress to
further the work Of land reclamation,
he says:
"The irrigation of dry lands and the
drainage of wet lands are health ques-
tions as we'll as economic questions.
For it is not healthy for human beings
to live one thousand or more to the
acre, as they live in our cities. They
cannot get their share of sunshine or
air. With them there is not the proper
balance between animal and vegetable
life and this lack Of balance is always
prejudicial to their welfare. They be-
come unhealthy and diseontented and
every health officer is interested in
the movements that offer out-of-door
opportunities for the dwellers in cities.
'In time our millions of unoccupied
acres will have been put to use. When
this has been done, and the now un-
used acres no longer act as sofety
valves for our cities, we should have
learned the science and art Of city life,
something we do not know now. Cities
with us now are great breeders of di-
sease and discomfort Eventually we
will learn the proper spirit of them.
There will be greater freedom of the
individual through limitation of his
selfish liberties, more planning, more
cooperation, more co-pleasure Until
then health officers will be for decen-
tralization.
Something is wrong when wheat is
piled high in one locality and the peo-
pie of another are without bread Our
transportation, icing and storage in
dustries are now so developed that
supply and demand work uniformly
over all parts of the country. The sur
plus Of the summer is carried over
to the lean days of the winter and so
seasons as well as space as factors in
supply and demand have been elimrl-
ated
When we come to people the even
ness stops. There are acres where
fifteen hundred people live; there are
other parts of the country in which in
one hundred square miles there will
be but few human beings The peo-
pie have not piled up in the one be-
cause they wanted to. They had to, or
thought they did, which amounts to
the same thing They have not left
the other vacant because they wanted
to- They thought they had to- They
thought the land would not support
life. Paradoxically, this land is the
most fertile in the world The nour-
ishment is there to support more life
than any other land will support.
"All the fertility in the world counts
for nothing If the water to dissolve it
is not just right.
Since time began the wind and
weather have worn the rocks. The
crumbling shale is the fertility of the
soil. Each rain dissolves some of this
richness and the solutions made are
taken up by vegetable roots and built
into leaves. flowers and fruits. The
stream that runs muddy to the ocean
robs the soil in wild riot of waste
ut is different in the arid regions.
Here nature is found in an economical
mood Here the rocks have added |
their riches to the soils since the
world began and there has been little
loss. Here is nature leading the con-
servation way-nature's great saving
bank. Nor does the reign of reason
stop when water is put upon the soil,
because, when this is wisely done, the
fertility put in solution is proportion.
ate to the needs of useful plants, and
the run-off is low in soil chemicals.
Where the lands are in swamp
areas the process is different but the
results are the same, Tho fertility of
the hills put into solution has spread
out over the swamps Some of it has
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