Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-01-02

endless procession of time shall walk
our ways after us. Moreover, the pre-
vailing winds and the proximity of
mountain and sea give us annually
copious rainfall which ought to be
husbanded and refined into all pos
sible good. We have taken away the
great forests. symbolic of our name
We have allowed this natural reser-
Voir of our rains all too speedily to
be replaced with fire-swept wastes
that add to the menace of our people
and our industries, and that leave arid
what might otherwise be fertile
reaches of great productiveness. In
stead of steady and dependable flow
or water in our streams we have the
destructive flood and famished land
The toll of life and property is in
creasingly heavy and we have not
applied safety first" principles to our
conservation problem.
1 should like to see this Legislature
take the initial steps in a great con-
structlve service to our people:
(a) BY providing for a typographical
and geological survey of our
State.
(b) BY taking the initiative in i'm
pounding flood waters and Sc
curing steady flow through
out the season for the benefit of
our people and of our indus
tries.
(c) BY securing at the source of our
streams largely increased areas
of watersheds from which to
obtain potable water for our
increasing millions.
(d) BY inquiring into the feasibility
of irrigation and the supply
ing at minimum cost of water
power at its source to the
great utility and industrial
agencies that would welcome
this power and that would dis
tribute it for the welfare of
our people.
(e) BY beginning now the construc-
tion of some of these great res
ervoirs such as the Pymatum-
ing Dam and others in the
Allegheny range
f) By considering freely and fairly
the utilization of our WATERWAYS
as the basis of great systems
of water transportation such as
prevail in many of the most
advanced industrial communi-
ties of the world
(g) BY planting on our forest reserves
seedlings that will in time give
our people the protection and
the revenue forest will as
suredly give.
(h) BY organizing upon q scale COM
mensurate with its Importance
the prevention of forest fires,
the protection of game and fish
and the encouragement of our
people to live part of each
year out under the sky near to
nature, upon lands made rich
IN welcome and beneficence to
our people.
O BY computing the decrease in
our mineral resources and de-
IermlnlnR fn
posterity in the taxation wisely
TO be laid now upon this dim
lnlshing asset of our people.
Cd By cooperating with the national
government and local munich
palities to make our navigable
streams heavy with the traffic
from our mills and mines, our
forges and factories, thus link
ing Pennsylvania industry di-
rectly with the work markets.
(k) BY encouraging great industries
to establish themselves in in
creasing numbers in Pennsyl-
Vania with the assurance that
the Commonwealth will by it's
constructive service make this
increasingly the greatest indus
trial Commonwealth in the
Union.
CD BY making liberal provision for
our farmers and farm life to
the end that 1t will be increas-
ingly attractive and remuner-
ative to till our soil, to grow
our food, to make life in rural
places as wholesomely attrac-
tive and educative as a wise
people should.
(m) BY increasingly liberal provision
Tor education and equalizing its
benefits to all our children.
(n) BY safeguarding public health
ana decreasing the ravages of
disease and the loss by prema-
ture death in this Common
wealth.
COZ BY demanding that the cost of
production shall include rea-
sonable compensation for death
or accident, and such addi-
tional elements of relief as in
dustry can support and as So
clal justice may make manifest
from time to time.
(p) And in general, by LAYING now
deep and well the foundation
for realizable good to our
people.
we cannot lay all this lightly aside
with the unreflective thought that it
is visionary and impracticable. 1t is
really possible. 1t is within our at
tainment 1t cannot, of course. all
be done now. But it can be accent
ed as a goal to which step by stem in
successive sessions covering MANY
years we can finally arrive. I ASH
only that the whole subject be thor
oughly considered and such begin
nings made as will prove an earnest
OF purpose. 1t is essential to the
welfare and future growth of the
Commonwealth. Every wise hus-
oandman, every sane corporation
plans for the future and works stead
lily for the realization of its mr.
poses. Why should not the Common
wealth? We are its responsible agents
to-day. Others will follow us. What
we do will in a definite way infIu-
ence those that succeed us, What
we tail to do complicates the duties of
our successors and harms the Com
monwealth. Let there be an end tn
sporadic, tentative and unproRressive
enactments, and let us turn to tbe
great duty of safeguarding and ads
Vancing the welfare of our people and
the prestige Of our beloved State
Local Option
have steadily stood for the an
actment of County Local Option
Law, and hope you share with me the
Importance of giving to the people the
right to decide for themselves wheth
er or not they wish to have licenses
for the sale of intoxicants granted
In their several counties, No dele
gated body can 80 we'll administer the
license laws of the State as can the