Evening star., 1936-07-12
Time to Rebuild.

From the annual progress report Of
the National Resources Committee these
two paragraphs are selected for their
bearing on one of the greatest problems
confronting the United States today:
The fact is that most of the territory
occupied by the United States is not
naturally suited for a permanent civili-
cation. 1t is like the land of the Mayas
OF Yucatan or the land of Babylon-a
rich country where civilization can flash
into blaze OF glory and then collapse
in few generations into ruin. Our
soil is not enriched by the usual methods
OF cultivation, but impoverished BY
the normal processes of our farming our
mining and our numbering we create q
desert. Americans need to realize that
all other national hopes and aSpira-
tions are secondary to the question
whether we can continue to eat. With
out fertile soil and self renewing for
ests the Splendor of our bankrupt cities
will become ghastly joke. Armies and
navieS cannot defend nation against
the scourge of wind and flood; consti-
tutions and courts have no authority
over natural law. Any nation whose
land naturally tends to turn into desert
must either take measures to preserve
the land or it will surely die.
In America, with our present popula-
tion and our present knowledge of agri-
cultural technology, we can easily sup
port ourselves by plowing only the fiat
lands or the lands that can be terraced
without great expense. We have land
enough to afford to Craze cattle without
overgrazing, and we can afford to turn
our mountainsideS into forests without
overcrowding ourselves in the valleys
America, therefore, does not need to
submit to the drastic antlike discipline
by which Egypt and Peru held back the
desert. But America cannot escape the
necessity of controlling the present
ominous wastage of the land. The
general feeling of the committee is one
of encouragement. There will be no
serious danger of national disaster from
soil erosion if a comprehensive program
can be in full swing within ten years
and if the soil can be under control in
twenty years. Measured on that time
scale, the progress of the last two years
is tiSfactory-provided no reaction to
previous conditions or responsibility
occur.
There you have brief but meaty de-
scription of the price to be paid for
wanton abuse of the soil resources of
the Nation, unless there is chosen the
more sensible course of a continually
enlarged program of soil conservation.
This administration is to be praised for
the preliminary steps already taken in
pursuance of such program. Subse-
quent administrations must be counted
upon to carry the program forward.
Much of the waste of soil through
destruction of forests, overgraZing, poor
agriculture, with consequent erosion from
wind and water, has gone so far that
checking it now seems hopeless. But in
the view of the experts, it is not hopeless.
The most desirable objective now is
public appreciation of the calamitous
effect of destroying the soil and public
support of efforts by organized Govern
ment to stop that destruction and to
rebuild before it is too late. If the
public understands the nature of the
problem-which Nature is doing so
much to dramatic right now-the
remedy will not be sought in vain.