The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1921-06-02
THE NATIONAL CAPITAL
Continued from Page g.

sons why famine and plague hold
China III their sinister grasp is to be
found in the ruthless devastation Of
natures arrangements; and they point
out that d~enudation, wherever prac-
ticed, leaves naked soil; floods and
erosion follow; and when the soil is
gone men must also go.
Was it Darwin who told us that men
quit wearing long tails when the hard
ware art supplied better devices in
their hooks and shelves? And then
there is that other display of natures
wisdom in cutting out waste by leav-
moth cave. But to show that she is
absolutely square about the PROPOSE
ton, eyes are restored to the fish after
one or two of their generations if they
are moved to above ground streams.
But to return to forests and China:
Our government forestters point out
that the forests play an important
part in the distribution Of mankind
over the earth's surface, and also deep
ly affect his spiritual, physical and
economic life. A country that reck-
lessly wastes its natural resources, we
are told, faces ultimate poverty and
d~ecadence and history is full of such
examples. The United States has ri
vailed China when it ONE to using
up its sources for coal and oil. Build
ing conditions are likewise hampered
by the scarcity of lumber. The near
famine in newsprint paper is another
incident of the waste of resources,
which are capable of being conserved
through the intelligent use of u idle
waterpowers and the extension of by.
dro-electric systems. The foresters
warn us that we are helping to put
civilization on the slide, and they
point out that in great rich areas OF
China where the forests and the
streams performed natures tasks that
the absence of trees has resulted in
the rivers running muddy, outlying
away the mountain sides, and carry
ing enormous masses of fertile earth
to the sea. The lack of forest cover
has precipitated many OF the factors
that have brought disaster to millions
of people in China this year, and our
foresters say that in consequence the
unfortunate people see their crops
wither and die for lack of water when
it is most needed, as a result of which
many factors combined with the IN.
certain moisture conditions, make
seven years out of every ten more or
less famine years.
In our own country we have had
many evidences that nature strikes
back when it is mlstreated, and the
warning of the foresters is timely and
it should be applied to our own natu-
raj resources.
In the beginning of the first Wilson
administration there was a good deal
of sentiment favoring including the
vice-president's attendance at meet
ings of the presidents cabinet. The
president was known to favor the idea,
and he doubtless would have put it
into effect except for the fact that it
did not take long for Mr.. Wilson and
Mr.. Marshall to discover that they
were of Incompatible temperaments,'
the kind that divorces are made of.
But the big idea lived and President
Harding includes Mr.. Coolidge in his
official family councils. A White
House reporter in describing the effect
on Mr.. Coolidge says: After the
Tuesday meetings he returns to the
senate about half past one o'clock
looking as demure as if he were not
freighted with mighty affairs of state.
On Fridays 1t Is the same way. A
senator remarked that that his coun-
tenance was so immobile that even