Evening star., 1936-03-30
Soil Biggest
Problem for
America
Despoilation of Land
Commenced With
the Pioneer.
BY DOROTHY THOMPSON.

committee on Tuesday, Morris
Cooke, one of the adminiStra.
~ tons experts on soil conserva-
ton, drew a startling picture OF the
condition of the Nations land. Mr..
Cooke was trying to persuade Con-
gress land his own administrator
not to go in for any more huge dams
like the T. v. A projects. I'VE have
been trying to get the water of the
land, into the big rivers. and out OF
the way. We've got to hold it on the
fields, or wherever it falls. and do 1t
quickly, if disastrous floods. dust
storms and other calamities are to
be stopped.
The uurning DuS timely. Within
the last tDo years duStStornrS, and
now the floods. hape bloUn or
mashed dway forever tncalculdble
millions OF tons OF our most fertile
soil. The duststorm OF May II.
1894, swep 100000, 900 tons Of the
uheat plains in one day; in normal
gears nearly half million more
are mashed auay into the Cult OF
Merico. Water and lDind erosion
together carry of 5000 900. 900 tons
OF soil eDery year of our liues. The
money ualue OF this loss in normal
gears is nearly halt billion dol
lars, and the rate is increasing.
Mr.. Cooke was not exaggerating
when he said "Our country Is afflicted
with earth disease We are like a
man well gone with cancer or tuber-
culosis. We cannot remain virile
Nation for another 100 years unless
something is done"
Loss of Land Great Loss.
The pioneer was the first villain.
For the sake of his own generation he
sacrificed the future. He leveled for
ests, mined the soil, impoverished re-
sources. Water engineering on false
principles helped carry the process
farther. This has not yet stopped.
Lumber companies, uncontrolled by
law, also assisted. The great war did
its part. To feed our troops and those
of the rest of the world-and to make
large proflts-we plowed In the years
1914-1918 millions of acres whose sod
should never have been turned; 1t
upset the whole agricultural economy
of the world. Some time me may
realize that our greatest losses were
not the unpaid debts, not even the
human lives, but the loss of the land
upon which all human life depends.
Think about the fields when you think
of the next war.
That's not the whole story. The
cotton, tobacco and corn economy
OF the South is depicting the land
there. That economy is the re-
suit of another Dar-the Cipl War.
Which has neUer been HQuidated.
The system of land tenure and land
Uork in the cotton and tobacco
States is an inheritance OF slapery.
Go and look at the cotton belt (the
Mississippi DeltaJ and see our
India.
The system Of land taxation helps
The farmers overhead has been grow
ing steadily. Farm real estate is SUBJ
ject to relatively higher tax payment
than the rest Of income-producing
property. The farmer cannot buy the
fertilizers necessary to keep his land
in shape If he is paying in this fashion
The Federal Government cannot help
this. We desperately need q revision
of our State, county and town tax
alton systems, which are overlapping
and wasteful in the extreme It also
ought to be considered whether farm
taxes should not be based upon in
come from land rather than upon
more or less artificial land values
Many European countries have made
this change. Add to this our tariff
policy, which has further reduced the
farmers income, besides contributing
to the world chaos which accounts
for much of what is happening In
Europe. The most conservative Re.
publicans are beginning to see this
Col. Frank Knox did his party and
his country a service when he acknowl'
edged the fact in his speech this week
IN New York.
Farmer to Blame, Too.
And the farmer Is to blame, too, fol
sharing our universal speculative
frenzy and buying land to hold for q
rise. .-.-. ...
think 1t unfortunate that the
new agricultural adjustment act Il
tied to a conservation program. II
unites a questionable means Of In
creasing the farmers buying power
to an unquestionable national neces-
sity. Soil conservation is something
which must be planned for long
range, over decades. There can b 20
two political opinions about 1t. Il