, 1923-08-01
WINTERS EUL0G|zES HOWARD
EATON AT TRAIL DEDICATION

ding itself of many evils which have
accompanied its growth. Our country
is not ~retrograding; it is rising to q
higher, cleaner, better moral plane
and when all is said and done, all this
agitation and regeneration is but the
stirring impulse towards righteous.
ness pulsating in the great, true, con.
slant heart of the American people;
that righteousness which Theodore
Roosevelt referred to when he quoted
the words Of the great Book, The
Righteousness that exalteth a nation
"The West is the Nations richest
storehouse; a su~b-treasury of the
first class on which large drafts will
be honored under wise regulations for
a thousand years to come. What has
been produced is but a ripple upon a
mighty a It is but the first
faint glimmerings of the dawn. What
we should look forward to and plan
for is the rising of the sun and then
the glorious fullness of the midday.
The day has come when this nation
needs all the West has to offer. 1t
needs her mighty area; the oncoming
millions need room; it needs her
mighty forests; her ever-reaching
waters; her virgin soil; it needs her
production, her live stock; her wool;
her gold and silver and copper and
coal and iron and oil.
"And so the feet of many thousands
are turning to the West. She has i'm
perial domain and she welcomes them
She has mountains and valleys and
plains and she bestows fortunes and
homes and acres; she has limitless
possibilities and bestows limitless am
bition; she has unreasonable poten-
tialities and she bestows on all who
seek her with faith and with work
power and hope, mastery and success.
1t is for all of US to see to it that
there shall be no halt, no hesitation,
no limitation to her splendid progress,
but that she shall go forward steadily,
nightly, splendidly to the goal of her
great destiny.
"One of the wonderous transforma-
ton brought about on the great
plains and valleys of the West has
come from the application by indivi-
duals and private corporations of the
principle of irrigation and by the Fed
eral Government in its great project
of reclamation. When l behold the
marvellous change wrought in the
West by the bringing together of the
water from the splendid streams and
the sands of the desert, l can not pass
a mountain stream without seeing in
it more than mere beauty.
water! The r~eviving, refreshing,
purifying, restoring, lifegiving fluidl
1t is the blood of the soil. 1t makes
glad the earth. Touching the burning
sands, it produces grass and grain and
flower and wealth. When l look into
a mountain stream / see in its sheen
the while of silver, in its glitter the
flash of diamonds. In its pools see
the green of meadows and trees and
growing fields; in its shaded deeps
the dark purple of ripening fruit, in
its sunlit ~underflow the yellow of
golden grain.
ain its tinklings I hear the clink of
precious metals, in its gurgling the
merry voices of children, in its splash
-ings the laughter of men, in its rush
ing the singing of women, in its roar
the strains of the triumphal march
of the mighty West.
Water! That greatest, most wide
spread, most wonderful, most blessed
gift to man. Under its vitalizing con-
tact the deserts of the West shall
spring from sterility to fertility, from
f~arrenness to fruitfulness, from desola
tion to habitation, from death to life.
And then behold the apotheosis of the
West! New Ravens shall be opened to
the coming millions, a new earth shall
be theirs. A mighty people whose
blood is red and whose hearts are
strong and true shall here develop
an empire in plenty, peace and hap
piness. Water! 1t is the Spirit of the
West!
Here let me say that, great as
their utilitarian purposes might be,
the lakes and waters of this and other
national parks must not be touched or
altered for business or profit. The
American people are practically of
m mind on that question. There
must be no commercialism of the
Park waters!
But there is something else higher
and beyond all these magnificent
material things which the wilderness
West contributes to the national char
acter and well-being: we have this
nation three great divisions; the East
r seaboard commercial section with
its great wealth and numerous educa-
tional institutions. The distinguish
ing feature or contribution of the
Fast to the National character should
be and is culture.
"The great central section of the
land is the agricultural center. The
vast Mississippi Masin which gives to
the people mental and physical
strength. To grow strong men
must plant their feet upon the ground
HN1-.- -. "