Evening star., 1933-10-01
NATIONS GHOST CITIES
SHOW ADAPTATION NEED
Causes Underlying Decay Turn Attention
to Natures Laws of Progress
Based on Understanding.

Of these ambitions. At any rate, under
the present administration, he will have
sympathetic atmosphere In which to
work and q knowledge that many Of
our deepest as well as most practical
hopes>are bound up In his enterprise.
Lessons From Nature.
It may be platitudinous to say that
man lives by the sufferance of nature.
Yet this platitude expresses profound
truth which deepens as society becomes
more and more complex. Nature, using
the word in the widest sense possible,
sets the conditions to which all our
plans must adapt themselves.
Success or failure of human enter
prise is very largely determined by the
accuracy with which we gauge the de-
terminants which are set for us. The
road maker succeeds in building good
road by understanding his terrain. His
objective must be that Of reducing oppo-
sition-gravity, soil, climate-to mans
desire for rapid transportation. Even
the beautifying Of these roads consists
In the discovery of designs and of
vegetation which emphasizes the char
acteristics of the locality he works in.
The great battle which is being made
to overcome the effects Of the suicidal
use Of the land In past generations has
its strategy determined by the same
principles. One of the enemies Of man
kind is soil erosion. Nature took care
Of this very nicely until man began to
crowd her. Intensive agriculture, even
Of the pastoral type, makes the soil
vulnerable to erosion Of wind and wa
ter. The intentions of nature In this
respect do not include mans scheme
for populating the earth and for ere
ating q standard of living higher than
that of the other animals.
We refuse to reduce population or to
lower standards of living, and yet We
are face to face with the fact that
unless soil-building forces are made as
powerful as the soil destroying ones we
shall ultimately be unable to maintain
ourselves. The problem which Is set
for us, therefore, Is that Of stimulating
those natural forces which recreate the
soil. There are many places in the
United States where this problem is not
future one, but Is immediate and
pressing Millions Of our acres are lost
beyond repair except through hundreds
OF years OF return to forests and
grasses. Other millions Of acres, how
loss and can yet be saved If We are
sufficiently careful.
The problem Is never posed in purely
theoretical terms It Is always local
and practical. One incident in this
long struggle. but to me q most in
teresting one, Is occurring in California
There are many square miles which
are naturally grassy regions. The wide
valleys and rolling hills flowing up to
the forested coast range on one side
and the SierraS on the other were orig
tnally covered, 1t seems, by hardy ma
tive grasses which formed a perfect
protective cover for the land.
Two hundred years ago when the
Spanish came up from the South and
established their pastoral economy the
herds and flocks began to shorten the
grasses and to interrupt their cycles
Of maturity. The native grasses Ian
guished under these terms. This fur
nished the opportunity for q curious
and astonishing process Of substitution
to occur. The seeds Of European
grasses, perhaps carried In the litter of
themselves in California fields and
spread under the new conditions until
they had completely stolen the land
from the native vegetation.
Protective Cover Need.
But. although the new vegetation
survived better under the conditions
Of close pasturage, they were less well
adapted to the protection of the soil.
Erosion has now become so serious
problem and the exhaustion of the top
soil has gone so far In many places
that there is an acute need for the
discovery Of protective cover.
Those whose business it is to con-
duct the research into this particular
problem, conceived the notion that no
better vegetation probably could be
found for the purpose than that which
was native, and they are now conducting
an intensive search in isolated valleys
and protected corners here and there
for the survivals of these native grasses
q remedy for erosion. They hope, in
other words, to make q better adapta-
tion to nature by discovering the con-
ditions and the processes which nature
herself has dictated.
I find in all this modern attempt to
use nature intelligently something In
structive. There seems to me to be a
principle here which runs all through
our experimentation with ways to bet
ter our situation on the earth. It
might help, perhaps, if we clearly un-
6erstood the rationale of this method
and applied 1t today more widely. I
should be willing to say as the basis of
this principle that our design for gov
ernment has to express the conditions
and assume the contours which are de-
termined for it by nature. throughout
its varied work government must always
try to understand that success In its
objectives will be proportional to its
understanding Of the given trends and
processes which it did not create but
which it must accept.
The first effort is one of understand
ing and this requires continuous effort
IN research and analysis. The second
effort must be one Of administration.
Administration must be merely an ef-
fort to carry out the dictates OF re-
search.
This research may sometimes lead us
far afield and may sometimes require
actions which seem strange and even
revolutionary. But find the progress
dve changing of q system Of banking,
for instance, very like the process which
led several decades ago to the intro
duction into California by our plant
explorers Of the Australian salt bush.
This particular plant grows in arid
conditions which few other plants
will tolerate. Further than that it is
so resistant to fire that there is hope
that 1t may prove to be the ideal vege-
tation for cover in fire breaks within
the national forests. 1t is green and
it does not burn. Where it grows
along California roadsides now, grass
fires creep up 10 its clusters and stop.
The process and the result here are
no more revolutionary "a gSipcip,e
than the other social changes wnach
are coming into the new deal as . re-
cult Of experiment and exploration IN
other scientific fields, and our accept
ance Of the one will have to become as
accustomed as our acceptance Of the
other. II we find 1t necessary to de-
centralize many kinds Of industry, to
rebuild the nations cities, to redis-
tribute the country's wealth. we shall
have to do It ON the same principles
of adaptation as are being used in the
much simpler problems Of agricultural
adaptation.