wear because the owner neglects to keep them properly oiled. Often
a wheat drill, a mowing machine, a threshing machine, or an engine
is left out of doors for a whole year, or for several months after
the farmer has ceased to use it. A good piece of machinery, if
judiciously used, properly lubricated, and put away in a dry
place, may last from ten to twenty years, while the life of such
machinery will only be about half as long without proper care. If
a wooden handle rots loose from its fastenings it is an indication
that the handle has not been thoroughly dried after it has been
used. Tools rust out very readily if they are not kept dry and
thoroughly oiled ... So careless are some farmers that hoes,
shovels, mattocks, wrenches, saws, and axes are thrown down in the
field or woods to lie there until it is again necessary to use
them. It often takes hours to find an article thus misplaced or
thrown aside. It is economy of time to know just where to find
everything on the farm. [Footnote: The Teaching of Thrift, by H.
R. Bonner, Assistant State Superintendent of Schools, West
Virginia, pp. 22, 23.]
The topics on page 180 from publications of the States Relations
Service of the Department of Agriculture are suggestive:
Preventing loss of food in the home:
Suitable food storage places and equipment.
Essentials of a good refrigerator.
The care of winter vegetables and fruit.
The care of perishable vegetables and fruit.
Prevention of spoilage of milk, meat, and fish.
Preservation of eggs.
Care of bread and other baked products.
What should not go into the garbage pail.
Good cooking and attractive serving.
Failure to use perishable food promptly.
Failure to use left-overs completely.
Failure to use all food materials (fats, meat and fish bones, etc.).
Leaving small portions of food in mixing and cooking dishes.
Lack of accurate measuring and mixing, so that food is not palatable.
Allowing food to be scorched or otherwise spoiled in preparation.
Providing over-generous portions in serving.
Failure to eat all food served.
Preventing loss of food in the market:
Sanitary display cases for food.
Prevention of "sampling" and handling of food.
Food protection in food carts and delivery wagons.
Proper care of milk.
Proper care of meat and fish.
Prevention of cereal products from deterioration.
Protection of fruits and vegetables.
The care of bread and bakery products.
Careful selection of food.
Following are special points which might be discussed:
The well-planned house.
Saving steps by better arrangement of equipment.
Lessening work by systematizing it.
Menu-planning for lessened work in preparation.
Household lighting.
Labor-saving equipment in the laundry, the kitchen, and the sewing room.
Labor-saving devices for house cleaning.
Leading a simple life.
Apply to your home demonstration agent, or write to States
Relations Service, for publications relating to thrift in food,
clothing, fuel, etc.
THRIFT IN INVESTMENT
(4) Thrift involves a wise use of savings. They may be invested in
a home, a wise use because of the satisfaction that a home
produces. If the home is well located, well built, and well kept
up, it will probably also increase in money value. Savings may be
invested in machinery for farming, manufacturing, or mining; in a
stock of goods to be sold at a profit; in houses or office
buildings to be rented to others; or they may be lent to others
who pay interest for their use. In all these cases money
represents CAPITAL--capital being the machinery or tools and other
equipment with which wealth is produced.
Capital is brought into existence in only one way--that is, by
consuming less than is produced. If one has a dollar one can spend
it either for an article of consumption, say confectionery, or for
an article of production, say a spade. He who buys a spade becomes
a capitalist to the amount of a dollar--that is, he becomes the
owner of tools. The process is precisely the same whether the
amount in question is a dollar or a million dollars. [Footnote:
T.N. Carver, "How to Use Farm Credit," FARMERS' BULLETIN 593, U.S.
Department of Agriculture, p. 2.]
BORROWING
Every business requires capital, some more than others. Farming
requires more capital to-day than formerly because of the
increased use of machinery. The necessary capital must either be
saved by the person who wants to use it, or borrowed from others
who have saved it.
The advantage of borrowing is that one does not have to wait so
long to get possession of the tools and equipment. One can get
them at once and make them produce the means of paying for
themselves. Without them the farmer's production might be so low
as to make it difficult ever to accumulate enough with which to
buy them. With their help he may be able to pay for them--that is,
to pay off the debt--in a shorter time than it would take to
accumulate the purchase price without them. That is the only
advantage of credit in any business, but it is a great advantage
to those who know how to use it. [Footnote 2: T.N. Carver, "How to
Use Farm Credit," FARMERS' BULLETIN, 593, U.S. Department of
Agriculture, p. 2.]
CREDIT
Credit is simply a person's ability to borrow and depends upon the
confidence that others place in him. This confidence depends on
his reputation for honesty and his known ability to repay. A man,
as a rule, has to HAVE something--land or property of other kind--
that he can offer as security before he can borrow much. It is for
this reason that thrift is essential to a man's credit--thrift and
honesty.
There is no magic about credit. It is a powerful agency for good
in the hands of those who know how to use it. So is a buzz saw.
They are about equally dangerous in the hands of those who do not
understand them. ... Many a farmer would be better off to-day if
he had never had a chance to borrow money at all, or go into debt
for the things which he bought. However, there is no reason why
those farmers who do know how to use credit should not have it.
Shortsighted people, however, who do not realize how inexorably
the time of payment arrives, who do not know how rapidly tools
wear out and have to be replaced, or do not keep accounts in order
that they may tell exactly where they stand financially, will do
well to avoid borrowing. Debts have to be paid with deadly
certainty, and they who do not have the wherewithal when the day
of reckoning arrives become bankrupt with equal certainty.
On the other hand there is nothing disgraceful in borrowing for
productive purposes. The feeling that it is not quite respectable
to go into debt has grown out of the old habit of borrowing to pay
living expenses. That was regarded, perhaps rightly, as a sign of
incompetency. ... But to borrow for a genuinely productive
purpose, for a purpose that will bring you in more than enough to
pay off your debt, principal and interest, is a profitable
enterprise. It shows business sagacity and courage, and is not a
thing to be ashamed of. But it cannot be too much emphasized that
the would-be borrower must calculate very carefully and be sure
that it is a productive enterprise before he goes into debt.
[Footnote: T. N. Carver, "How to Use Farm Credit," p. 2.]
COOPERATION FOR CREDIT
Even though a farmer be thrifty, industrious, and honest, the
conditions of farm business are such that it has not always been
easy for him to borrow capital. Here again cooperation helps. In
some of our states the law permits the organization of CREDIT
UNIONS. The members are farmers of a neighborhood or district and,
therefore, are acquainted with one another. Each member must buy
shares of stock, which provides a certain amount of funds. The
union may also receive deposits of money, paying interest on them
as a savings bank would do. This increases the funds and also
encourages thrift on the part of the farmer. Idle money, or money
that might otherwise be spent unwisely, is thus made productive.
In some unions, as in Massachusetts, children are encouraged to
deposit their small savings, and in some cases half the capital of
the union is made up of such small savings deposits. From these
funds loans are made to members of the union on reasonable terms,
provided they are to be used for productive purposes. The union
may also borrow money from the bank in town on the COLLECTIVE
CREDIT of its members for the improvement of agricultural
conditions in the neighborhood.
NATIONAL AID TO THE FARMERS' CREDIT
Similar aid to the farmers' credit has been given by the national
government through the Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916. This Act
created a Federal Farm Loan Board in the Treasury Department, and
twelve Federal Land Banks, one in each of twelve districts into
which the United States was divided for that purpose. Through the
organization provided by the board and the banks, a farmer may now
borrow money on more favorable terms, but only on condition that
he agrees to use the money for the purchase and improvement of
land or for equipment, and to engage in the actual cultivation of
the farm for the development of which he desired the money.
The provisions of the Federal Farm Loan Act afford an excellent
illustration of how government promotes citizen cooperation. The
government does not lend the money to the farmers; it merely
provides the machinery by which the farmers may cooperate among
themselves, and also secure the cooperation of investors in all
parts of the country, to obtain capital necessary for the proper
development of the land. As a rule the farmer can borrow money
from the land bank only by being a member of a local "national
farm loan association." His dealings with the bank are through
this association. His membership in the association gives him
better standing and secures for him better terms than he could get
if acting separately. Moreover, the money that the bank lends to
the farmer comes from the farmers who belong to the association,
and from investors in all parts of the country, who buy shares of
stock in the bank and bonds issued by the bank on the security of
the farmers' land and equipment. The whole scheme is one of
cooperation which would be impossible but for the legislation,
financial support, and supervision of the government at
Washington.
PARTNERSHIP IN THE NATION'S BUSINESS
It will be seen then that much of the capital that a farmer uses
is borrowed, and is made up of small savings of other people--some
of them his neighbors, others in distant places. The same is true
with respect to the capital used in all other businesses. The
enormous capital of railroads is derived chiefly from the savings
of millions of people, some of whom buy shares of railroad stock
directly, but most of whom deposit their savings in banks or other
institutions which, in turn, lend it to the railroads or invest it
in their stock. The farmer or the school boy who has a savings
account in a neighboring bank thus may become a partner in various
business enterprises of the country. His dollars or dimes, added
to the dollars and dimes of many other people, are used to buy
machinery and tools and materials, and to pay labor. Because of
the service performed by his savings he receives interest on his
money.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR INVESTMENT
There are many opportunities for young people to invest savings in
productive enterprises,--perhaps more in rural communities than
elsewhere. The different kinds of boys' and girls' clubs
illustrate the variety of channels through which money may be both
earned and invested. As soon as a boy invests a little money in a
pig, or a calf, or garden tools, he becomes a capitalist to that
extent. It is to be hoped that not many have the experience of the
boy described in the following lines: [Footnote: Read by R.H.
Wilson, in an address before the National Council of Education,
N.E.A. PROCEEDINGS, 1917, p. 133.]
Johnnie bought a little pig with money he had earned,
He named her Nell and fed her well, and lots of tricks she learned.
But Nellie grew to be a sow, had piggies quite a few,
Then father up and sold them, and kept the money, too.
Johnnie took a little calf as pay for hoeing corn,
He loved the calf and the calf loved him as sure as you are born.
The calfie grew to be a cow, as all good calfies do,
Then father up and sold her, and kept the money, too.
Now, Johnnie loved his little pets, but father loved the pelf,
So Johnnie left his father's farm and struck out for himself.
Said Johnnie's pa, one summer day, "I often wonder why
Boys don't like life upon the farm, 'the city' is their cry."
"It always will be strange to me," continued Johnnie's pa,
"It only goes to prove, though, how ungrateful children are."
When Johnnie heard what father said, he gave a bitter laugh,
And thought of his empty childhood and of his pig and calf.
Savings may be deposited in savings banks, which accept small
deposits and pay compound interest, usually at a rate of 3 per
cent or 3 1/2 per cent. Such banks operate in accordance with
state or national laws to protect the depositor against loss. Many
schools conduct school savings banks. The pupils bring their small
amounts to the teacher or to some pupil acting as "teller," the
collected funds then being deposited in some bank in the
community. These school banks promote habits of thrift and afford
experience in business methods, besides bringing into use in the
world's work many small amounts of money that would otherwise be
lying idle or spent unwisely.
POSTAL SAVINGS SYSTEM
In 1910 Congress established the Postal Savings System under which
any post office may be a savings bank. Any person over ten years
of age may deposit money at the postal savings bank in amounts of
from $1.00 to $25.00, receiving from the postmaster POSTAL SAVINGS
CERTIFICATES as evidence of the deposit. Provision is made for
savings accounts of less than a dollar by selling POSTAL SAVINGS
STAMPS at ten cents each, ten of which may be exchanged for a
dollar certificate. Two per cent interest is paid on postal
savings, but savings certificates may be exchanged for POSTAL
SAVINGS BONDS, bearing interest at the rate of 2 1/2 per cent.
LENDING TO THE GOVERNMENT
The purchase of Liberty Bonds or Savings Stamps and Thrift Stamps
is a good investment and a patriotic act. The money raised in this
way is used for the national defense and for reconstruction after
the war. The Savings Division of the United States Treasury
Department carries on a campaign of thrift education. Among other
things, it promotes the organization of savings societies and
thrift clubs, because thrift is a habit which is encouraged by the
example and cooperation of others. In Randolph County, Indiana,
for example, each consolidated school has its thrift club, and
over 75 per cent of the pupils are members. One of these schools
sold over $11,000 worth of thrift stamps, and others sold from
$1500 to $3500 worth. Savings societies exist among the workmen of
many industries, and employers report that these have increased
the purchase of homes, and have resulted in a saving of materials
and tools because of the habits of thrift established.
INSURANCE
Among the many other agencies to promote thrift we shall only
mention BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS and INSURANCE. The purpose
of building and loan associations is to help people of small means
to purchase or build homes. Insurance affords a particularly good
illustration of organized cooperation. The PREMIUMS paid by
thousands of policy holders produce a large sum of money, part of
which goes to pay the expenses of the insurance company, but most
of which is invested in enterprises that cause the amount rapidly
to increase. Out of this fund the occasional losses of individuals
are paid. Life insurance is a good form of investment. It provides
for the future of the family of the insured in case of his death.
By the ENDOWMENT plan the insured may himself receive, at the end
of a specified number of years, all that he has paid in premiums
together with interest.
During the war our national government itself insured the soldiers
against death or injury. This was known as WAR RISK INSURANCE. At
the end of the war the soldier had the privilege of converting the
war risk insurance into a regular form of insurance, still
provided, however, by the government itself. One of our states
also, Wisconsin, sells life insurance to its citizens.
As we proceed with our study we shall encounter other aspects of
thrift in various chapters. As a nation we may be thrifty or
unthrifty in the use of our resources (see Chapters XIV and XV).
Thrift is as essential in our "community housekeeping," which is
carried on by government, as in our homes and business. But we can
hardly expect thrift to become a national characteristic unless it
first becomes a personal habit.
Are you a capitalist? If so, explain in what way.
What forms does the capital take with which your father does
business?
What capital does an Eskimo have? the American Indians when the
country was first settled?
Do you belong to a thrift club? Would it be desirable to organize
one in your school? Confer with your teacher and principal about
it. Write to the Savings Division, U.S. Treasury Department,
Washington, D.C., for literature regarding organization.
Is there a credit union, or a savings association, or other
organization to promote thrift in your community? If so, find out
how it operates.
Write a story on the subject, "What my five dollars may accomplish
after I put it in the savings bank, before it comes back to me
with interest."
Why are people willing to accept a lower rate of interest from a
postal savings bank than from an ordinary savings bank?
READINGS
In LESSONS IN COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL LIFE:
Series A: Lesson 6, Capital.
Lesson 13, U.S. Food Administration.
Lesson 14, Substitute foods.
Lesson 15, Woman as the family purchaser.
Lesson 21, Borrowing capital for modern business.
Lesson 22, The commercial bank and modern business.
Series B: Lesson 7, An intelligently selected diet.
Lesson 22, Financing the war.
Lesson 23, Thrift and war savings.
Series C: Lesson 7, Preserving foods.
Lesson 8, Preventing waste of human beings.
Lesson 14, The U.S. Fuel Administration.
Lesson 16, The Commercial Economy Board of the Council
of National Defense.
Write Savings Division, U.S. Treasury Department, for materials;
especially "Ten Lessons in Thrift," and "Teaching Thrift in
Elementary Schools." Both of these contain lists of readings.
The Post-Office Department has publications descriptive of the
postal savings service.
Farmers' Bulletins, U.S. Department of Agriculture, relating to
thrift.
Federal Farm Loan Act, How It Benefits the Farmer, Farmers'
Bulletin 792.
See references in footnotes in this chapter.
Dunn, THE COMMUNITY AND THE CITIZEN, Chapter XIV, "Waste and
Saving."
The local public library, the State Library, and the State
Agricultural College, will doubtless furnish lists of references
and perhaps provide materials.
The United States Bureau of Education will send list of
references.
CHAPTER XIV
THE RELATION BETWEEN THE PEOPLE AND THE LAND
"NATURE WAS MUCH BIGGER AND STRONGER THAN MAN. SHE WOULD SUFFER NO
SUDDEN HIGHWAYS TO BE THROWN ACROSS HER SPACES; SHE ABATED NOT AN
INCH OF HER MOUNTAINS, COMPROMISED NOT A FOOT OF HER FORESTS. ...
FOR THE CREATION OF THE NATION THE CONQUEST OF HER PROPER
TERRITORY FROM NATURE WAS FIRST NECESSARY ... A BOLD RACE HAS
DERIVED INSPIRATION FROM THE SIZE, THE DIFFICULTY, THE DANGER OF
THE TASK."
If you wanted to buy a farm, what facts would you investigate in
regard to land and location?
What farm in your neighborhood comes nearest to meeting your
requirements in these matters? Explain fully why.
Make a sketch map of a farm in your neighborhood, preferably one
upon which you have lived, showing as nearly as you can the
boundaries, the position of highlands and lowlands, marshes,
timber, streams, etc. Also the position of house, barns, bridges,
roads, and other important features.
Did the features of the land indicated on your map determine the
location of the buildings? of the roads and bridges? the kinds of
crops raised on different parts of the farm?
Should the surface features of the land be taken into account in
determining the position of the house and barns in relation to
each other? Why?
Has the character of the land influenced the life of the farmer's
family in any way? Explain.
IMPORTANCE OF GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS
Directly or indirectly, geographical conditions affect every
aspect of community life and help or hinder us in satisfying all
of our wants (see Chapter I). Their influence is chiefly felt,
however, in their relation to the economic interest of the people;
that is, in relation to earning a living and the production of
wealth.
ESTABLISHING RELATIONS WITH THE LAND
Every step that man has taken to make his relations with the land
permanent and definite has been a step of progress in
civilization, as when, for example, the savage hunter became a
herdsman, or the herdsman an agriculturist. We live to-day in an
age of machinery, which is a result of turning to our use the
metals from the depths of the earth and the power derived from the
forces of nature, as in the application of steam, electricity, and
the explosive force of gasoline. Many have had a part in this work
of establishing relations with the land: explorers; scientists who
have discovered the uses of our varied mineral and vegetable
resources and how to make the forces of nature serve us; engineers
who have built our railroads and bridges and tunneled our
mountains. A most important part has been taken by those who win
their living directly from nature's resources--the woodsman, the
miner, the farmer; and the service of the farmer has been
especially great in giving stability to our community life.
AGRICULTURE MEANS A SETTLED LIFE
Those American Indians were most civilized who had developed
agriculture to the highest point, because this meant a settled
life. If we recall the story of the colonization of America we
shall remember that it was not successfully accomplished by the
gold hunters and fur traders who came first, but only when those
came who, as farmers, began to cultivate the soil. Later, as the
population moved westward across the Alleghenies into the
Mississippi Valley and on to the Pacific Coast, the hunters and
trappers were the scouts who found the way, while the real army
that took possession of the land was an army of farmers.
Did the American Indians who formerly lived in your locality lead
a settled life? Why? Were they agriculturists to any extent? If
so, what do you know of their method of agriculture?
Of what pastoral peoples have you read? Why was their life more
settled than that of hunting peoples? Why less settled than that
of farmers?
Why were settlements by gold hunters and fur traders likely not to
be permanent?
Do you know of important mining towns that have had a brief life?
PROTECTING OWNERSHIP OF LAND
The story of how individuals acquired the right to own land is an
interesting one, but too long to be told here. The right has long
been recognized and protected by government. If your father owns a
piece of land he doubtless has a DEED for it, containing an
accurate description of the land and giving him title to
ownership. In each county there is an office of government where
all deeds are recorded--the office of the recorder or register of
deeds.
The record of every piece of land is thus kept and is open to
examination by any one. If a man wishes to buy a piece of land he
will go to the office of the recorder and find out whether the
title to the land is clear. Only by so doing may he be protected
against error or fraud.
TRANSFERS OF LAND
Since lands are likely to change hands a number of times, and
since men frequently MORTGAGE their lands as security for loans or
other indebtedness, thus giving to others a claim to their land,
it is sometimes a tedious and difficult task for a buyer to trace
the record back and to be sure that the title to the land is
clear. It sometimes requires months. There are lawyers who make a
business of examining the records and making ABSTRACTS OF TITLES.
This involves expense. Besides, there is always the chance that a
mistake may be made somewhere. For this reason some states have
adopted a plan known as the TORRENS SYSTEM of land transfer, from
the name of the man who devised it in Australia.
Under the Torrens System the government itself, through its proper
officer, may examine the title to any piece of land. The land is
then REGISTERED, and the owner is given a certificate as evidence.
If a mortgage is placed on the land or if it changes hands the
transaction is recorded on the certificate and in the office
records. A mere glance at the record of registry or at the
certificate is sufficient to ascertain the title to the land. Thus
time and expense are saved; and moreover the government gives its
absolute guarantee to the owner or buyer as to his rights in the
land.
The Torrens System is in use in some form in fourteen states of
the Union, in the Philippines and Hawaii, and in various other
countries of the world.
THE SURVEY OF THE PUBLIC LANDS
When settlers began to occupy the lands west of the Alleghenies,
many of them laid claim to tracts without much regard for the
claims of others. Boundary lines were indefinite. Where surveys
were made they were often inaccurate. Much confusion resulted.
Disputes arose that frequently found their way into the courts and
dragged on for many years. The government sought to put an end to
this state of affairs, and in Thomas Jefferson's administration a
survey was begun to establish lines by which any piece of land
might be located and defined with exactness.
The government survey was begun by establishing certain north and
south lines known as PRINCIPAL MERIDIANS. There are twenty-four of
these, the first being the meridian that separates Indiana from
Ohio, while the last runs through the state of Oregon. At
intervals of six miles east and west of the principal meridians
were established other meridians called RANGE LINES. A parallel of
latitude was then chosen as a BASE LINE, and at intervals of six
miles north and south of the base line were established TOWNSHIP
LINES. These township lines with the range lines divide the
country into areas six miles square called TOWNSHIPS. A township
may thus be located with reference to its nearest base line and
principal meridian (see diagram I).
Since meridians converge as we go north (look at a globe), the
townships are not exactly square, and become slightly smaller
toward the north. To correct this, certain parallels north and
south of the base line were chosen as CORRECTION LINES, from which
the survey began again as from the original base line.
Each township is divided into SECTIONS one mile square, and
therefore containing 640 acres each. These sections are numbered
in each township from 1 to 36 as indicated in diagram III. Each
section is further subdivided into halves and quarters, which are
designated as in diagram IV.
This government survey has been made only in the "public lands"
(see below, p. 197). It is still being carried on by the General
Land Office of the Department of the Interior. In 1917 more than
10,000,000 acres, or nearly 16,000 square miles, were surveyed. In
that year there still remained unsurveyed more than 900,000 square
miles of public land, 590,000 of which were in Alaska and 320,000
in the United States proper. In the original thirteen states along
the Atlantic seaboard a similar survey has been made, but either
by private enterprise or under the authority of the state or
county governments. Massachusetts has recently spent a large sum
of money in a new survey of the state for the purpose of verifying
and correcting doubtful boundaries.
Has your father a deed to the land you live on? If so, ask him to
show it to you and explain it. How is the land described?
At the first convenient time, make a visit to the office of the
recorder of deeds in your county, and ask to have some of the
records shown and explained to you, preferably the record of the
property you occupy. Where is the office of the recorder? (A visit
of this sort should be in company with the teacher or parent. A
class excursion for this and other purposes may well be arranged
for.)
What is a MORTGAGE? An ABSTRACT OF TITLE? (Consult parents.)
Is the Torrens System in use in your state?
Is your state a "public land state"?
From the deed to your father's land, or from the records in the
recorder's office, or from a map of your county showing the survey
lines, locate the land you live on, as indicated in the
accompanying diagrams.
In what section and township is your schoolhouse?
Are there still any "public lands" in your state?
Are the boundary lines of farms in your neighborhood regular or
irregular? How does this happen?
Do you know of any boundary disputes between farmers or other
citizens in your community? What machinery of government exists to
settle such disputes?
THE PUBLIC LANDS
At the close of the Revolutionary War, the territory of the United
States extended west as far as the Mississippi River. That part of
this territory which lay west of the Allegheny Mountains had been
claimed by seven of the thirteen states that formed the Union; but
soon after the war they ceded these western possessions to the
United States, having received a promise from Congress that these
lands, which were largely unoccupied at the time, should be
disposed of "FOR THE COMMON BENEFIT OF THE UNITED STATES." They
thus became PUBLIC LANDS; that is, they belonged to the people of
the nation as a whole. The common interest in these public lands
was one of the chief influences that kept the thirteen states
united under one government during the troubled times between the
close of the Revolution and the adoption of the Constitution in
1789. As time went on, the public lands of the nation were
increased by the acquisition of new territory, [Footnote:
Louisiana Territory was acquired in 1803, Oregon in 1805, Florida
in 1812 and 1819, Texas in 1845, California and New Mexico in
1846-48, the Gadsden Purchase in 1853, Alaska in 1867.] Of the
3,600,000 square miles comprising the United States and Alaska
more than three fourths has at some time been public land; but of
this there now remain, exclusive of Alaska, only about 360,000
square miles, much of which is forest and mineral land, unsuitable
for agriculture.
DISPOSAL OF THE PUBLIC LANDS
To turn this great domain with all its resources to the fullest
service of the nation has been one of the greatest problems with
which our government has had to deal. In the early part of our
history various plans were tried by which to secure the occupancy
and development of the agricultural lands by farmers, until in
1862 the first Homestead Act was passed by Congress.
About 10,000,000 acres of the public land were given to soldiers
who fought in the Revolution and in the War of 1812 in recognition
of then-service to their country. About 60,000,000 acres were
later given to veterans of the Mexican War.
Until the year 1800 the plan in use for the disposition of the
public lands was to sell large areas to colonizing companies, with
the expectation that these companies would find settlers to whom
they would sell the land in small quantities at a profit. This was
not successful, as actual settlers found it difficult to get land
they wanted at prices they could afford.
From 1800 to 1820 lands were sold in small areas ON CREDIT. Many
bought more than they were able to pay for, and much land so
disposed of had to be taken back by the government.
In 1820 a third plan was adopted: That of selling land for cash in
any quantity to any purchaser. This led to speculation,
individuals and companies of individuals buying recklessly,
without intention of actual settlement, but with the purpose of
selling again at a profit. This brought on a financial panic in
1837.
Then followed the "PREEMPTION" plan, by which actual settlers
could "preempt" land (get the first right to it) by merely taking
possession and paying a cash price of $1.25 an acre.
The Homestead Act of 1862 was an extension of the preemption plan;
but instead of paying a cash price, the settler could acquire the
land merely by living on it for a period of five years (now three)
and paying fees of about $40.00.
HOMESTEAD ACTS
The Homestead Act, like earlier laws, made a direct appeal to
men's desire to earn a living, to acquire property, and especially
to own homes. It has been modified from time to time, but in all
essentials it still remains in force and provides that any citizen
of the United States who has reached the age of twenty-one, or who
is the head of a family, may acquire a farm on condition of living
upon it for a period of three years, cultivating the land and
erecting a dwelling, and paying to the government a small fee. The
size of the farm that he may so acquire varies according to the
nature of the land, but the usual homestead on good agricultural
land is limited to 160 acres.
The purpose of the government has been to encourage ACTUAL
SETTLEMENT in order to secure the development of the nation's
resources, and for this purpose to allow each settler enough land
to enable him to support a family in comfort. It was decided that
160 acres of GOOD FARM LAND was enough.
Some portions of the public land, however, are less productive
than others. Where the rainfall is slight and where irrigation is
impracticable, and yet where crops can be raised by the "dry
farming" process, the law allows a settler to take 320 acres.
A settler may also obtain 320 acres in the "desert lands" of some
of the western states. These lands may be made productive by
irrigation, but the settler must construct his own irrigation
system. Originally 640 acres were allowed in such lands, but the
amount has been reduced to 320 acres, and the Commissioner of the
General Land Office now recommends (1916) that it be further
reduced to 160 acres.
In those parts of the desert region which the government has
already reclaimed by irrigation, thus making the land extremely
fruitful, the amount usually allowed a settler is from 40 to 80
acres.
There are regions where the land is suitable only for stock
raising and for forage crops. Here Congress has decided that 640
acres is a fair amount for the support of a family.
Lands that are valuable for their timber and mineral resources are
disposed of on different terms, but on somewhat the same
principle.
RECLAMATION OF LANDS BY SOLDIERS
At the close of the war in 1918 a plan was proposed by the
Secretary of the Interior to secure the occupation of land by
returning soldiers. Since the lands suitable for farming in their
natural state have practically all been disposed of; the plan
contemplates the reclamation of arid and swamp lands, and of land
from which the forests have been cut but which are still covered
with stumps. It is proposed that returned soldiers shall be
employed by the government in the work of reclaiming the land, and
that those who desire to become farmers may buy their farms in the
reclaimed lands at a reasonable price, and with a period of thirty
or forty years in which to pay for them. The Secretary of the
Interior said: "This plan does not contemplate anything like
charity to the soldier ... He is not to be made to feel that he is
a dependent. On the contrary, he is to continue in a sense in the
service of the Government. Instead of destroying our enemies he is
to develop our resources." Much of the land whose reclamation by
and for returning soldiers is thus contemplated is not now public
land, but is lying idle in the hands of private owners.
LAND SETTLEMENT IN CALIFORNIA
The state of California has recently enacted a law known as the
Land Settlement Act, which provides for "a demonstration in
planned rural development." "Its first idea is educational, to
show what democracy in action can accomplish." Under the terms of
this act the state acting through a Land Settlement Board and with
the cooperation of experts from the University of California, has
purchased several thousand acres of land at Durham, in Butte
County, which it sells to settlers on easy terms. It also lends
money to settlers for improvement and equipment for the farmers.
The California Land Settlement Act is significant, because it
eliminates speculation, it aims to create fixed communities by
anticipating and providing those things essential to early and
enduring success.
Another feature is the use it makes of cooperation. The settlers
are at the outset brought into close business and social
relations. It reproduces the best feature of the New England town
meeting, as every member of the community has a share in the
discussions and planning for the general welfare. This influence
in rural life has been lacking in new communities in recent years.
In the great movement of people westward with its profligate
disposal of public land, settlement became migratory and
speculative. Every man was expected to look out for himself. Rural
neighborhoods became separated into social and economic strata.
There was the nonresident landowner; the influential resident
landowner; the tenant, aloof and indifferent to community
improvements; and, below that, the farm laborer who had no social
status and who in recent years, because of lack of opportunity and
social recognition, has migrated into the cities where he could
have independence and self-respect, or has degenerated into a
hobo.
At Durham, for the first time in American land settlement, the
farm laborer who works for wages is recognized as having as useful
and valuable a part in rural economy as the farm owner. The
provisions made for his home are intended to give to his wife and
children comfort, independence, and self-respect; in other words,
the things that help create character and sustain patriotism. The
farm laborers' homes already built are one of the most attractive
features of the settlement; and when the community members gather
together, as they do, to discuss matters that affect the progress
of the settlement, or to arrange for cooperative buying and
selling, the farm laborer and his family are active and respected
members of the meetings.
From maps in school histories study the claims of the seven states
to western lands.
What is the Ordinance of 1787?
Make reports on the circumstances connected with our various
territorial acquisitions.
From whom did the colonists get the right to the land in the
original thirteen colonies?
Do you know anyone who has ever taken up a "homestead claim"? If
so, learn how it was done.
If possible, get a description of a "land lottery" and a "land
rush" in newly opened public lands.
Get all the information you can about the plan to provide land for
the soldiers, referred to above. Do you think this is a better
plan than that of giving land to soldiers outright? Why? Is your
state likely to cooperate with the national government in carrying
out this plan? How?
THE NATION'S INTERESTS ARE FIRST
The policy of the government of disposing of the public lands to
individuals has of course been of great benefit to the latter; but
we should not lose sight of the fact that the national well-being
is the first consideration. As the Commissioner of the General
Land Office said in a recent report (1916), "Every acre of public
land disposed of under this line of legislation is AN INVESTMENT,
the profits to be found in the general development of the welfare
of the nation at large."
SAFEGUARDING THE INTERESTS OF INDIVIDUALS
It has been no simple matter to administer our public lands, and
mistakes have been made. Sometimes the interests of individuals
have not been sufficiently safeguarded. Many settlers have
suffered serious loss, and many promising communities have failed,
through the taking of homesteads in regions of little rainfall, as
in western Kansas and Nebraska. The government now seeks to
protect homesteaders against such errors by distinguishing
carefully between lands suitable for ordinary agriculture and
those suitable only for dry-farming and stock-raising, by
informing prospective settlers in regard to the facts, and by
allowing larger entries in lands of the latter classes. Another
mistake was made in allowing many of the first claimants to stock-
raising lands so to locate their claims as to acquire the
exclusive use of the only available water supply for miles around,
thus making useless other large tracts. This might have been
avoided by a little foresight.
ABUSE OF LAND LAWS
On the other hand, the land laws have sometimes been abused. Large
quantities of public land have fallen into the hands of
speculators whose purpose is not to develop its resources, but to
make a profit from the increased value of the land due to the
efforts of others. Immense areas of land have thus been withheld
from production, or have been made to produce to a limited extent
only, to the great loss of the nation.
RAILROAD LANDS
In the days of transcontinental railroad building, large tracts of
land were given to the railroad companies by the government, with
the expectation that they would dispose of it at reasonable prices
to settlers attracted by the new transportation facilities, and
would use the proceeds in railway development. In fact, however,
large quantities of this land have been held in an unproductive
state for speculative purposes.
An illustration of this is the case of the Oregon and California
Railroad land grant, made by Congress in 1869 and 1870, and
comprising more than 4,200,000 acres, most of which bore a heavy
growth of valuable timber. "This railroad grant ... contained a
special provision to the effect that the railroad company should
sell the land it received to actual settlers only, in quantities
not greater than one-quarter section to one purchaser and at a
price not exceeding $2.50 an acre. By this precaution it was
intended that in aiding the construction of the railroad an
immediate impetus should also be given to the settlement and
development of the country through which the road was to be
constructed."
After selling some of the lands according to the terms of the
agreement, the railroad company ceased to live up to these terms
and sold large bodies of the land to lumber interests, thus
putting a stop to the development of the region in the way
intended by the government. The government brought action against
the railroad company, the outcome of which is that the government
has bought back from the company at $2.50 an acre all of the lands
of the grant which remained unsold, amounting to about 2,300,000
acres and valued at from $30,000,000 to $50,000,000.
These lands are being classified "in accordance with their chief
value, either in power-site lands, timber lands, or agricultural
lands," and are to be disposed of accordingly. The timber will be
sold separately from the land, and the land will then be opened to
homestead entry.
By this arrangement the railroad company gets for the land all
that it was entitled to under the terms of the original grant. In
addition, provision is made for the payment to the counties in
which the land lies of the taxes which the railroad company has
not paid. As the lands are sold, the proceeds are to be divided
between the state and the United States, the state receiving 50
percent, 40 percent being paid into the general reclamation fund
of the United States (see Chapter XIV, p. 213), and 10 per cent
into the general funds of the United States Treasury.
(From the Report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office,
1916, pp. 46-49).
This is a striking illustration of how our government, acting
through Congress, the Courts, and the General Land Office of the
Department of the Interior, has sought to obtain justice for all
parties concerned, and to fulfill the original purpose of securing
the development of the land in the interest of the state and the
nation.
LANDS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Something like 133,000,000 acres of our public lands have from
time to time been turned over to the states, the proceeds to be
used for the promotion of public education, for the construction
of roads, and for other purposes (see Chapters XVII and XIX). In
some cases these lands have not been used altogether for the
purposes for which they were granted. School lands have sometimes
been sold at a nominal price to individuals who have reaped the
profit, whereas the lands might have been so administered by the
states as to have brought large returns for educational purposes.
In some cases, state officials have made unwise investments of the
funds derived from the sale of the lands, thereby losing them for
the use of the state.
LAND MONOPOLY AND TENANTRY
The control, or "monopolizing," of the public land by large
holders is said to be one of the causes of increasing tenantry
(Chapter X, p. 116); for as the available supply of desirable
farming land is diminished, the actual home-seeker is driven to
take less productive lands, or to purchase from the large holders
at a higher price. The more recent land laws limit the amount of
public land that an individual may acquire to an area sufficient
to enable him to make a comfortable living for a family (see
above, p. 199). They also exact from the homesteader an agreement
that he will actually occupy and cultivate the land.
RESPONSIBILITY FOR LAND FRAUDS
The responsibility for the defects in our methods of administering
the public lands rests in part upon our governmental
representatives, who have not always dealt wisely with the
extremely difficult problem. But it rests also upon each
individual citizen. There are those, be it said to our shame, who
deliberately seek to defeat the purpose of the laws and to
appropriate to their own selfish uses the lands which belong to
the nation as a whole. There is one division of the General Land
Office in Washington known as the Contest Division. Before it
come, not only the ordinary disputes that are likely to arise
between rival claimants, but also cases of alleged fraud and
violation of the land laws. In the year 1916 MORE THAN 12,000
CASES OF ALLEGED FRAUD WERE ACTED UPON, AND NEARLY 12,000 OTHER
CASES AWAITED ACTION AT THE END OF THE YEAR! But the
responsibility comes much closer home than this. Many of us who
would not think of violating the law have failed to appreciate the
value of the gifts that nature has given us, and have apparently
been "too busy" to inform ourselves as to whether or not our
public lands have been administered solely for the purpose to
which Congress devoted them just after the Revolution. This, like
every other matter of community interest, requires team work.
The community has certain rights to a citizen's land that are
clearly recognized as superior to the citizen's rights. Acting
through its government, it may take a part of a citizen's property
by taxation (see Chapter XXIII). Taxes are paid in money; but if a
citizen does not pay the tax upon his land, the government may
sell the land for enough to cover the obligation.
THE RIGHT OF EMINENT DOMAIN
Again, the government may take a citizen's land for public uses,
if the interests of the community demand it, by what is called the
RIGHT OF EMINENT DOMAIN. For example, if the interests of the
community demand that a new road be built, the government will
seek to buy the necessary land from the farmers along the line of
the proposed highway. Some farmer may say that he does not want
the road to run through his farm, or he may try to get a price
beyond what his land is worth. The government may then CONDEMN the
required land and fix a price despite the farmer's objections. The
citizen whose land is taken must, however, be paid for it; the
Constitution of the United States protects him by the provision,
"nor shall private property be taken for public use without just
compensation" (Amendment V, last clause).
The right of eminent domain may be exercised to secure a site for
a schoolhouse, a post-office, an army post, or courthouse, or for
any other public purpose. The government also authorizes
corporations that perform a public service to exercise the right,
as in the case of railroads which must obtain a right of way for
their tracks, and sites for their yards and stations.
THE POLICE POWER OF THE GOVERNMENT
Finally, by the exercise of what is known as the POLICE POWER, the
government may control the use to which a citizen may put his
land. Occasion for the exercise of the police power arises most
frequently in cities, where it is necessary to control the
construction of buildings for fire protection, and to regulate the
kinds of business that may be conducted. In country districts it
does not usually make so much difference what a man does on his
own land; but even there the police power may be exercised, as
when the state of Idaho passed a law forbidding the herding of
sheep within a certain distance of towns.
POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH THE LAND
There is another way in which government establishes relations
between the people and the land. Citizens of the United States
have certain political rights and duties, such as voting, holding
office, and paying taxes. These rights may be enjoyed and the
duties performed only within certain districts which the
government creates for this purpose. Thus, a citizen has a right
to vote within the state where he lives, but not in any other
state. He must cast his vote within his own county, township, and
precinct. The boundaries of the states are established by the
national government (except the original thirteen states of the
Union, whose boundaries were fixed before the national government
was organized); but they may not be changed afterward without the
consent of the states affected. The states organize their own
counties and townships [Footnote: In the public land states the
political township usually, but not always, corresponds with the
township surveyed by the national government. See pp. 194-196.]
and other districts. Villages and cities are granted definite
boundaries by the state, and organize themselves into wards and
precincts. There are legislative, congressional, judicial, and
revenue districts, the boundaries of which are fixed by state and
national governments. Locally, there are school districts. The
boundaries which separate one nation from another are determined
by agreement, or treaty, between the nations concerned.
Uncertainty or indefiniteness in regard to national boundary lines
has been the cause of much international strife, and was an
important factor in the European war begun by Germany in 1914.
If you live in a "public land" state, for what uses have public
lands been given to the state? Have the school lands in your state
been wisely used?
Is it easy for a young man to acquire a farm in your locality? to
keep up improvements on a farm that he owns? Has it been easy for
a farmer in your locality to borrow money? (Consult parents and
friends.)
Have the farmers of your locality made much use of the Federal
Farm Loan Act? Do they think it is a good law?
Have you heard of forced sales of land in your community to pay
taxes?
Do you know of cases of the exercise of the right of eminent
domain in your community? For what purposes? Was it exercised by
local, state, or national government?
In what ways does government control the use to which you may put
the land on which you live?
In what township do you live? school district? congressional
district? state legislative district? revenue district?
READINGS
Annual reports of the Secretary of the Interior.
Annual reports of the Commissioner of the General Land Office,
Department of the Interior, Washington.
The General Land Office has published a large wall map showing the
land surveys, the national forests, and many other important
items. It may be secured from the Superintendent of Documents,
Government Printing Office, Washington, for $1.
See the New International Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia
Americana on public lands, national forests, and other topics
referred to in this chapter.
In LESSONS IN COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL LIFE:
Series A: Lesson 4, What nature has done for a typical city.
CHAPTER XV
CONSERVING OUR NATURAL RESOURCES
RESOURCES OF THE SOIL
In the preceding chapter we learned that as a nation we have not
been altogether thrifty in the disposal and use of our public
lands. The same thing will have to be said regarding the use of
the resources of the land, of which the soil is by far the most
valuable.
It is said that 1200 boys in Ohio, organized in clubs, increased
the average yield of corn from 35 bushels to 81 bushels per acre.
The average returns per acre from the soil of the United States
were lower before the war than in any European country, except
Russia. The following table gives the production per acre of four
cereals in the United States and five European countries in 1913.
The same relative position of the United States would be shown if
we took the average production of these countries for a series of
years.
PRODUCTION IN BUSHELS PER ACRE UNDER CULTIVATION IN 1913
ABILITY OF THE AMERICAN FARMER
The low position of the United States in agriculture is by no
means due to inferior ability on the part of the American farmer.
The Secretary of Agriculture says that
Even now no farmer in the world can compare with the American
farmer in agricultural efficiency. His adaptability to new and
changing conditions, to the use of improved machinery and
processes, coupled with the great natural resources with which the
nation is endowed, make him far superior to any of his
competitors. It is true that he does not produce more per acre
than the farmers of some other nations. Production per acre,
however, is not the American standard. The standard is the amount
of production for each person engaged in agriculture, and by this
test the American farmer appears to be from two to six times as
efficient as most of his competitors.
WASTEFULNESS OF EARLY FARMING
As long as we had a great abundance of unoccupied land it would
perhaps have been uneconomic to increase the production of that
which was occupied by the costly methods of agriculture used in
Belgium, Germany, and other thickly settled countries. But the old
methods of farming not only failed to get from the soil all that
it was then capable of producing, they also robbed it of fertility
without restoring to it what was taken from it. Thus the loss
caused by wasteful methods was passed on to future generations. To
continue such methods in the light of our present knowledge and
with our growing population is thriftless in the extreme. Methods
of preserving and restoring the fertility of the soil and of
obtaining the largest returns from it are now receiving the most
careful attention from both state and national governments.
IDLE LANDS
A great deal of land lies idle that might be productive of food--
not only arid, swamp, and cut-over lands, mentioned in later
paragraphs, and land held for speculation, but also vacant lots
and unused back yards in cities and villages, and waste or unused
portions of cultivated farms. It is largely from city and village
lots that the School Garden Army obtained its remarkable results.
It is astonishing how many farmers buy instead of raising their
vegetables for the table, as well as feed for their stock.
Texas, for instance, has purchased $200,000,000 worth of food
products yearly from northern markets which might have been
produced more cheaply at home. It takes 15 to 20 acres of land in
Texas to grow cotton enough to buy 160 bushels of canned sweet
potatoes, while one acre of Texas soil would produce the same
quantity, and uncanned. [Footnote: THRIFT, a monograph published
by the National Education Association, 1918.]
Such topics as the following should be studied, consulting
parents, farmers of the locality, and such printed sources of
information as are available.
The important cereal crops of your state. The average yield per
acre of each. Increase or decrease in yield in recent years.
The work of corn clubs and other boys' and girls' clubs to
increase the yield of crops in your state.
The difference between "production per acre" and "production per
person engaged in agriculture."
The difference between "intensive" and "extensive" agriculture.
"Single crop" and "diversified crop" types of agriculture in your
locality. Advantages of each.
Extent to which farmers of your locality raise their own table
vegetables and stock feed.
Evidence furnished by your town, or neighboring towns, during the
war, of the wealth-producing power of vacant lots or unused
backyards.
RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS
Much of our public land has been nonproductive solely because of
the lack of moisture. In 1902 a law known as the Reclamation Act
was passed by Congress, providing that the proceeds from the sale
of public lands in states containing arid regions,[Footnote: The
states to which this law applies are Arizona, California,
Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico,
North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington,
and Wyoming. See map.] except such as were already devoted to
educational and other public purposes, should be used for the
construction and maintenance of irrigation works. This reclamation
work is in charge of the Reclamation Service of the Department of
the Interior, whose engineers have built great dams and reservoirs
from which the water has been led by canals and ditches into the
desert. By 1916 more than 1,000,000 acres had been irrigated under
this act, the crop value in that year reaching $35,000,000. The
reclaimed land is disposed of to actual settlers in accordance
with the homestead laws, each homesteader repaying the government
in annual installments the cost of reclaiming the land he
occupies. The fund so created is used by the government for
further reclamation projects. The Department of Agriculture sends
its experts to advise with the farmers in regard to the problems
peculiar to the reclaimed regions. "Every effort should be and is,
therefore, being made to promote the success of the farmer, and on
the basis of his success to increase the prosperity of the
country." [Footnote 2: Report of the Reclamation Service, 1912-
1913, p. 4.]
The Yuma project in Arizona opened a new Valley of the Nile where
four crops of alfalfa are now raised on what once were arid lands.
The streets of Yuma and Somerton are crowded with the automobiles
of farmers, enriched by thousands of acres of splendid long-staple
cotton, alfalfa, corn, and feterita. Another irrigated valley in
Arizona, that of the Salt River, has few superiors in the world
and has come in three years into great prosperity. Arizona planted
to cotton last year 92,000 acres. Its crop was 96 per cent
perfect, the best record in the United States. [Footnote: Arthur
D. Little, "Developing the Estate," ATLANTIC MONTHLY, March,
1919.]
The principal irrigation projects of the Reclamation Service are
shown on the accompanying map.
RECLAMATION BY STATES AND PRIVATE ENTERPRISE
Five or six times as much arid land has been reclaimed by private
enterprise as by the Reclamation Service. The first extensive
irrigation project in the West was a cooperative enterprise by the
Mormon colonists in Utah. It is said that about two fifths of the
land irrigated in the United States is supplied with water by
works built and controlled by individual farmers or by a few
neighbors, while another one third is supplied by stock companies.
As early as 1877 Congress passed "a desert land law," by which
homesteads were granted in the arid lands on condition that the
settlers should irrigate the land. In 1894 the Carey Act was
passed by Congress under which the national government may give to
a state as much as a million acres of arid public land within its
borders, on condition that the state provides for its irrigation.
The work is done by private stock companies, with whom the state
makes a contract for the purpose. The most extensive irrigation
project undertaken by private enterprise is that of the Imperial
Valley in California, which derives its water from the Colorado
River. Under the laws of California the Imperial Valley region has
been organized as an "irrigation district," with power to levy
taxes for the development and support of the irrigation work. Each
state in which irrigation is practiced has its own laws regulating
the use of water by farmers and other consumers.
The theory is that the state regulates the appropriation of the
water, exercising this power and holding the land in trust for the
public ... It is the duty of every state to which the Reclamation
Act is applicable to assist with every resource under its
control.[Footnote: Water Supply Paper, 234, U.S. Geological
Survey, Department of the Interior, p. 66.]
Reference has been made in Chapter XIV to the proposed plan for
the reclamation and settlement of new areas of arid land by
returning soldiers.
SWAMP LANDS
There are probably 80,000,000 acres of swamp lands in the United
States which could be made productive by drainage. Farmers
themselves could reclaim much of this land at comparatively small
cost, greatly increasing their own profit and the wealth of the
country.
One farm in Wisconsin has 40 acres of poorly drained land that in
its present condition is practically worthless. $25.00 per acre
spent in drainage will make this 40-acre tract the equal of any in
the district, and good land is selling there at $150.00 per acre.
[Footnote 2: "Unprofitable Acres," in YEAR BOOK, Department of
Agriculture, 1915, P. 147.]
The national government has at various times granted to the states
swamp lands aggregating 60,000,000 acres, with the expectation
that the states would reclaim them. The states have, however, done
very little to fulfill the expectation. These swamp lands are
among those whose reclamation by returning soldiers is proposed by
the government.
Investigate and report on the following topics:
The work of the Reclamation Service of the national government.
If you live in one of the states to which the Reclamation Act
applies, report on what has been accomplished by it in your state.
The development of one of the irrigation projects shown on the
map.
Irrigation by private or state enterprise in your state (if any),
and what it has accomplished.
The reclamation of Utah by the Mormons.
The development of the Imperial Valley of California.
The laws regulating the use of water for irrigation in your state
(if an irrigated state).
The swamp areas in your locality or state. Progress made in their
reclamation.
The reclamation of swamp or marshy land on particular farms of
your locality.
The extent of idle cut-over land in your locality, why it is idle,
the uses to which it could be put if reclaimed.
CONSERVATION OF WATER POWER
By the construction of dams, reservoirs, and canals the waters of
a few of our streams are turned to the work of reclaiming land.
Our unused water resources are very great. Niagara Falls have been
harnessed for industrial uses, and with only a small part of their
power in use they light the streets and houses, run the street
cars, and turn the wheels of industry in Buffalo and Toronto and
the neighboring region. But so far we are making use of less than
10 per cent of the power easily available from our streams. "The
water now flowing idly from our hills to the sea could turn every
factory wheel and every electric generator, operate our railroads,
and still leave much energy to spare for new developments."
[Footnote: Arthur D. Little, "Developing the Estate," ATLANTIC
MONTHLY, March, 1919, p. 388.] It is probably not too much to
expect that when our undeveloped water power is utilized it will
provide electric light and power for every farm in the land. Our
nation has allowed many of the best water power sites of the
country to fall into the hands of private speculators who hold
them undeveloped, as in the case of farmlands, forests, and other
resources.
CONSERVATION OF FLOOD WATERS
Floods are not only immensely destructive of property, causing a
loss of $100,000,000 along the Mississippi River alone in a single
year, but they carry to the sea water that might be used for
irrigation and for industry. Reservoirs, such as are built for
irrigating projects, regulate the flow of water in streams and
prevent floods. In New England and New York reservoirs have been
built for this very purpose, and probably 10 per cent of the flood
waters that originate in these states is saved in this way and
turned to industrial uses. Similar conservation of flood waters
occurs in Minnesota, but it is estimated that for the country as a
whole not more than one per cent of the flood waters is saved.
[Footnote: "Conservation of Water Resources," Water Supply Paper
234, U.S. Geological Survey, 1919.] There are areas in which the
reservoir system is impracticable, as in the lower Mississippi
Valley. Here all that can be done is to protect the adjacent land
by means of levees while controlling the floods farther up the
valley.
FUEL RESOURCES
Larger use of water power would conserve another valuable
resource--coal. Of this fuel we have vast resources--"in West
Virginia alone more than Great Britain and Germany combined." But
the supply is not inexhaustible and we are mining it and using it
in an extravagant manner. The loss here is not merely of heat and
power and light, but of many valuable products of coal, including
dyes, ammonia, vaseline, and many others.
DESTRUCTION BY FLOODS
Floods are increasing in the United States. This is due chiefly to
the destruction of our forests by wasteful lumbering and by fire.
In forested areas the ground absorbs the rainfall more easily,
while in areas barren of trees and other vegetation it runs off
the surface. The destruction of the forests, therefore, involves
not only the loss of the timber, but also the loss caused by the
floods, including the washing away of the soil.
THE FOREST RESERVES
In 1891 Congress authorized the President to establish "forest
reserves," the first to be created being the "Yellowstone Park
Timberland Reserve." From time to time new reserves were
established, and in 1907 the name was changed to the National
Forests. In 1917, more than 176 million acres were included within
the National Forest boundaries, 21 million acres of which,
however, belonged to private owners. They are administered by the
Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture, at the head of
which is the Chief Forester. They are grouped in seven districts
with a district forester in charge of each. Over each of the 150
forests in the seven districts there is a forest supervisor; and
each forest is further subdivided into ranger districts under
district rangers who not only look after timber sales and the use
of the forests generally, but also "help build roads, trails,
bridges, telephone lines, and other permanent improvements."
A ranger must naturally be sound in body, for he is called upon to
work for long periods in all kinds of weather. He must also know
how to pack supplies and find food for himself and his horse in a
country where it is often scarce. Besides a written test,
prospective rangers are examined in compass surveying, timber
work, and the handling of horses. [Footnote: "Government Forest
Work," Forest Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, p. 15.]
There are also employed in the Forests great numbers of logging
engineers, lumbermen, scalers, planting assistants, guards, and
others. In the great war, the Forest Service raised two regiments
of men who went to France to assist in the various kinds of
forestry work necessitated by the war.
WORK OF THE FOREST SERVICE
The purpose of the Forest Service is to secure the use of the
forests "in such a way that they will yield all their resources to
the fullest extent without exhausting them, for the benefit
primarily of the home builder. The controlling policy is serving
the public while conserving the forests." [Footnote: "The Status
of Forestry in the United States," Forest Service Circular 167,
1909, p. 5.] Timber is cut and sold, but always with a view to
developing future growth. The forests are protected against fire.
Burned-over areas are reforested by planting. Water power sites
are protected. The freest possible use of forest pasture land is
permitted, but under such regulations as to prevent injury to the
forests and the denudation of the land by overgrazing. In 1915,
nine million cattle, horses, sheep, and goats were pastured in the
forests. In 1916 it was said that "more than 20 million dollars
will probably be spent in the next ten years in building good
roads in the National Forests." [Footnote 2: "Opening up the
National Forests by Road Building," YEAR BOOK of the Department of
Agriculture, 1916. Also reprinted in separate Leaflet No. 696.]
WASTE OF TIMBER RESOURCES
But our timber resources are not all in the National Forests, and
the waste continues to an appalling extent.
With a total annual cut of 40,000,000,000 feet, board-measure, of
merchantable lumber, another 70,000,000,000 feet are wasted in the
field and at the mill. In the yellow-pine belt the values in
rosin, turpentine, ethyl alcohol, pine oil, tar, charcoal, and
paper stock lost in the waste are three or four times the value of
the lumber produced. Enough yellow-pine pulp-wood is consumed in
burners, or left to rot, to make double the total tonnage of paper
produced in the United States.
But the wastes in lumbering, colossal though they are in absolute
amount, are trivial compared to the losses which our estate has
suffered, and still endures, from forest fires. The French
properly regard as a national calamity the destruction of perhaps
a thousand square miles of their fine forests by German shells.
And yet the photographs that they show of this wreck and utter
demolition may be reproduced indefinitely on 10,000,000 acres of
our forest lands swept each year by equally devastating fire for
which our own people are responsible. You have doubtless already
forgotten that forest fire which last autumn, in Minnesota, burned
over an area half as large again as Massachusetts, destroying more
than twenty-five towns, killing 400 people, and leaving 13,000
homeless. [Footnote: "Developing the Estate," ATLANTIC MONTHLY,
March, 1919, pp. 384-385.]
The nation has been defrauded of a great deal of wealth in timber
by speculators who have taken advantage of the homestead laws.
Single tracts of 160 acres often have a value for the timber alone
of $20,000 ... Lands acquired ... under the guise of the homestead
law are to-day in the hands of lumber companies who promptly
purchased them from the settlers as soon as the title passed, and
are either reserving them for later cutting or are holding the
land itself after cutting for from $40 to $60 an acre, or even
more--a speculative process which effectively prevents the
possibility of men of small means acquiring and establishing homes
there. [Footnote 2: "The National Forests and the Farmer," in YEAR
BOOK, Department of Agriculture, 1914, p. 70.]
To prevent this sort of thing, the government now sells the timber
and the land separately, withholding from agricultural entry
heavily timbered land until the timber is cut off.
In the Kaniksy National Forest, in Idaho and Washington, timber
sales have been made to include much of the remaining agricultural
timberland. Within eight years fully 10,000 acres of land will be
made available for settlement. Permanent homes will be established
and there will be available for the use of the communities
approximately $225,000 for roads and schools, their share of the
proceeds from the sale of the timber. [Footnote 3: IBID., p. 71.]
STATE FORESTS
Besides the National Forests, there are more than 4,000,000 acres
of STATE FORESTS.
Twenty-four states have forestry departments, sometimes under a
state board or a commission, sometimes under the control of a
single state forester, as in Massachusetts and Virginia. In New
York, New Jersey, and Wisconsin the state forestry is a part of
the work of a general "conservation commission." In Connecticut it
is centered in the state agricultural experiment station, and in
Texas in the agricultural college. In South Dakota the state
forester is under the "commissioner of schools and public lands."
So there is great variety in the organization of forestry work,
and great variation in the amount and kind of attention given to
it.
PRIVATELY OWNED TIMBERLANDS
The difference between the number of states having state forests
and the number having forestry departments is due to the fact that
the public forests embrace only a small part of the timbered land
of a state. It will be noted from the table on page 225 that only
one southern state (North Carolina; two if Maryland is counted)
has state forests. Six of them (eight with Maryland and Virginia)
have state forestry departments. More attention is now being given
to forest preservation and use in the South than these facts
indicate, because of cooperation between state and national
governments, chiefly through the county agents. Such cooperation
also exists in the northern states. The map on page 242 shows
cooperation for fire protection in New Hampshire.
VOLUNTARY PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATIONS
The conservation of our forest resources requires cooperation on
the part of citizens. In many states there are "timberland owners'
fire protective associations," in 1917 about fifty of them. There
is an American Forestry Association that publishes a magazine
devoted to forestry, AMERICAN FORESTRY; a Society of American
Foresters; The Camp Fire Club of America, with a committee on
conservation of forests and wild life. Besides, there is a
considerable number of local associations with similar purposes.
EROSION
It is not always realized how important to our welfare the forests
are, especially from the point of view of agricultural production.
A very large part of the timbered area of the United States is in
small woodlands on privately owned farms. Not only are the timber
resources themselves of great value, but the relation of woodland
to agriculture is very close, especially in its effect upon soil
erosion.
Altogether it has been estimated that erosion is responsible for
an annual loss in this country of approximately $100,000,000. To
the farmer it means money out of pocket from start to finish. It
impairs the fertility and decreases the productivity of his land,
and may even ruin it altogether; it renders irrigation more
difficult and more costly; by reducing the possibilities of cheap
water power development it tends to keep up the price and check
the more extended use of electricity; and by interfering with
navigation it helps to prevent the development of a comprehensive
system of cheap inland water transportation. But the farmer is not
the only sufferer. The entire community is directly affected by
the loss and is justified in taking heroic measures to remedy the
evil.
If the problem is to be solved we must cease to accelerate surface
run-off by burning the forests and brush fields, overgrazing the
range, clearing steep slopes for agriculture, and practicing
antiquated methods of cultivation. On the contrary, the farmer,
the forester, and the stockman must cooperate in seeing that the
land is so used that surface run-off, particularly at the higher
elevations, is reduced to a minimum.
Children in particular should have their interest actively aroused
and their support enlisted. In one state, "gully clubs" have been
organized by the state forester. These are composed largely of
school children who take an active part in the work of gully
reclamation and particularly in finding and checking incipient
gullies before it is too late. Why could not such organizations as
boy scouts, girl scouts, and campfire girls be used in the same
way? [Footnote: "Farms, Forests, and Erosion," YEAR BOOK of the
Department of Agriculture, 1916, pp. 107-134.]
MINERAL RESOURCES
Soil, water, and forests are only a few of the rich natural
resources of our country, although they are among the most
important. Great as the mineral production of our country now is,
we have only begun to open the mineral storehouse. On the other
hand, we have been extremely wasteful of some of our minerals, as
in the case of natural gas, oil, and coal. The war has done more,
perhaps, than anything else to open our eyes to our mineral wealth
and to convict us of our wastefulness in the past. In the light of
what it has shown us we should redouble our efforts to conserve
our resources. Our government has been gradually developing a
program of conservation which we should help to make effective. At
the end of this chapter will be found references to interesting
accounts of our national wealth, and of what the government is
doing to conserve it in other directions than those described in
this chapter. Many of these references are to publications issued
by the government itself, which can be obtained for the asking.
Investigate and report on.
Losses in your state from periodic floods. Measures adopted or
proposed to control them.
The by products of coal and of petroleum.
The Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture.
A description of your state forests (if any).
Forestry in your own state, public and private.
Losses from forest fires in your state.
The life of a forest ranger.
The use of the farm woodlot in your locality.
The extent and effects of soil erosion in your locality or state.
Measures taken to prevent it.
The feasibility of "gully clubs" in your locality.
The mineral resources of your state. Uses in war and peace.
Game laws of your state.
READINGS
In LESSONS IN COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL LIFE:
Series A: Lesson 13, The United States Food Administration.
Lesson 14, Substitute Foods.
Series B: Lesson 5, Saving the soil.
Lesson 6, Making dyes from coal tar.
Lesson 9, How men made heat to work.
Lesson 13, The Department of the Interior.
Series C: Lesson 4, Petroleum and its uses.
Lesson 5, Conservation as exemplified by irrigation projects.
Lesson 6, Checking waste in the production and use of coal.
Lesson 10, Iron and steel.
Lesson 14, The United States Fuel Administration.
Lesson 16, The Commercial Economy Board of the Council
of National Defense.
Reports of your State Agricultural College and Experiment Station,
and of your State Geologist and other officers having to do with
the natural resources of your state.
Annual Reports of the Secretary of the Interior. That for 1915
(pp. 1-30) contains an interesting review of our natural resources
and their use; also (pp. 151-209) a comprehensive and interesting
discussion of our mineral resources and their development. That
for 1918 contains an account of the plan for land reclamation by
and for soldiers.
Publications of the Geological Survey, the Bureau of Mines, and
the Reclamation Service (all in the Department of the Interior),
and of the Bureau of Fisheries (Department of Commerce).
Publications of the Forestry Service (Department of Agriculture).
Among the numerous publications of the Department of Agriculture
may be mentioned:
Farmers' Bulletin 340(Declaration of Governors for the
conservation of natural resources).
The National Forests and the farmer, YEAR BOOK 1914, 65-88.
Importance of developing our natural resources of potash, YEAR
BOOK 1916, pp. 301-310.
Agriculture and Government reclamation projects, YEAR BOOK 1916,
177-198.
Farms, forests, and erosion, YEAR BOOK 1916, 107-134.
The farm woodlot problem, YEAR BOOK 1914, 439-456.
Economy of farm drainage, YEAR BOOK 1914, 245-256.
Economic waste from soil erosion, YEAR BOOK 1913, 207-220.
Unprofitable acres, YEAR BOOK 1915, 147-154.
Consult "Guide to United States Government Publications," U.S.
Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1918, No. 2; also, "The Federal
Executive Departments as Sources of Information," U.S. Bureau of
Education Bulletin, 1919, No. 74.
Report of the National Conservation Commission (1909), Senate
Document 676, 60th Congress, 2nd Session.
CHAPTER XVI
PROTECTION OF PROPERTY AND PROPERTY RIGHTS
DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY
There is nothing more discouraging than to have the product of
one's labor swept away by disaster. The farmer who has every
prospect of a bumper crop after a hard season's work may have his
hope dashed by smut in his grain, or by a visitation of
grasshoppers, or by storm and flood. Cholera may carry off his
hogs, or hoof-and-mouth disease his cattle. Rats and other rodents
may eat his grain. Fire may destroy his barn or his home. The
thief may steal his pocketbook or his automobile. His investments
may prove unfortunate, or be swept away by somebody's bad
management or fraud. Some thoughtless boys or deliberate vandals
may ruin in a few minutes a beautiful lawn or trees that have
taken years to grow and have involved great expense and effort.
THE NATIONAL LOSS FROM PROPERTY DESTRUCTION
The individual's loss is also a loss to the community. It is
reported by the Department of Agriculture that nearly $800,000,000
damage was done to crops by insects in a single year. Animal
diseases cause a direct loss to our country estimated at
$212,000,000 annually. Hog cholera alone costs $75,000,000 a year.
Smut destroys more than $50,000,000 a year in cereals. Food and
feed products to the value of $150,000,000 a year are destroyed by
prairie dogs, ground squirrels, and other rodents. It is said that
prairie dogs often take half the pasturage of western cattle
ranges. It is estimated that the killing of wolves, coyotes,
mountain lions, bobcats, and lynxes saved more than $2,000,000
worth of livestock in 1918. Floods have destroyed $100,000,000 in
property in the Mississippi Valley alone.
The loss from fire in the United States is said to equal the value
of our total product of gold, silver, copper, and petroleum.
The buildings consumed by fire in 1914, if placed on lots of 65
feet frontage, would line both sides of a street extending from
New York to Chicago. A person journeying along this street of
desolation would pass in every thousand feet a ruin from which an
injured person was taken. At every three fourths of a mile in this
journey he would encounter the charred remains of a human being
who has been burned to death. [Footnote: "The Fire Tax and Waste
of Structural Materials in the United States," Bulletin 814, U. S.
Geological Survey, Department of the Interior.]
THE SERVICE OF GOVERMENT
Protection against loss of property is one of the chief services
performed for us by our government. We have already noted in
Chapter XII what a great deal of work both the national and state
governments are doing to prevent loss of crops and of livestock
from disease, insects, and other causes. What this may mean to the
individual farmer and to the country is suggested by the case of a
farmer who had hundreds of acres of corn destroyed in some manner
unknown to him. A single visit from a representative of the
Department of Agriculture showed him the cause of the trouble, the
corn rootworm, and how it could be eradicated by a simple rotation
of crops. The farmer said that this knowledge would save him
$10,000 a year.
LEADERSHIP AND COOPERATION
The state and national governments spend a great deal of money in
equipping experimental laboratories and employing scientists to
seek out these enemies of the farmer and of the nation, to find
methods of destroying them or counteracting their effects, and to
advise the farmer how he may protect himself and his neighbors.
While the government provides leadership in these matters, it
depends upon the cooperation of the people to get results, as we
have seen in so many cases. A farmer may destroy all the rats, or
ground squirrels, or prairie dogs on his place, but the trouble
will be repeated unless there is community cooperation. The same
thing is true of animal and plant diseases, insect enemies, and so
on.
Investigate and report on:
Further facts regarding losses to farmers of the United States due
to insect and bird enemies, predatory animals, animal and plant
diseases.
Similar losses in your own state.
Estimated losses of individual farmers in your locality from any
of these causes.
The value of insect-eating birds as property savers.
Campaigns against rabbits and prairie dogs in the West.
Bounties on wolves and other predatory animals in your state.
The work of your state experiment station to prevent loss of
property.
NATIONAL COOPERATION FOR FLOOD PREVENTION
Some kinds of protection require effort beyond the powers of
individual citizens, or even of combined citizen action. This is
the case with flood protection. Millions of dollars in property
have been destroyed, thousands of lives lost, and untold suffering
caused by the periodic recurrence of floods in certain sections of
the country, as in the lower Mississippi Valley, or as in Ohio, a
few years ago. The individual farmer has some responsibility for
such floods, because by looking after his own drainage and
preserving his own timberland he may help decrease the amount of
water that flows into the streams and ultimately causes such havoc
farther down the valley. But such efforts are helpful only in
connection, with the larger efforts of the government. Even state
governments cannot alone control the floods, because the waters
that cause damage in Louisiana and Mississippi come from the
states along the entire course of the Mississippi River and its
tributaries. Moreover, the destruction caused in Louisiana or any
other state is a loss to the entire nation. The control of floods
requires the combined efforts of national and state governments,
as well as of local communities and individuals.
Levees have been built along some of our rivers that are subject
to flood, notably the lower Mississippi, where the work has been
done by the joint action of the states affected, through their
local levee boards and their state boards of engineers, and the
United States Mississippi River Commission. The United States
government has spent large sums for river improvements, but there
is a general feeling that the money has not always been wisely
spent. At all events the work has been restricted to navigable
streams under the power of the national government to regulate
interstate commerce. Recently, however, the President has approved
a law passed by Congress appropriating $45,000,000 for the control
of the floods of the Mississippi by improvements from the
headwaters of the river to the mouth of the Ohio. The law also
includes the appropriation of $5,000,000 for the protection of the
Sacramento Valley in California. This law was passed under the
power given to Congress by the Constitution "to lay and collect
taxes...for the common defense and general welfare of the United
States" (Art. I, sec. 8, clause i).
WORK OF THE UNITED STATES WEATHER BUREAU
Great saving of property has been effected by the United States
Weather Bureau. The work of this Bureau is wonderful, but it is
not mysterious. Just as the movements of a ship or of a railroad
train may be reported day by day, and hour by hour, by telegraph,
so the appearance and movement of a storm center or of a cold wave
or of a flood are reported from a multitude of observing stations.
There are central weather-forecasting stations at Chicago, New
Orleans, Denver, San Francisco, Portland, Ore., and Washington,
D.C. Weather forecasts are made up at these points from
observations telegraphed in from observing stations, and within
two hours are telegraphed to about 1600 distributing stations,
from which they are further distributed to about 90,000 mail
addresses daily, to all newspapers, and are made available to
5,500,00 x3 telephone subscribers. A farmer may call central by
telephone and learn with remarkable certainty what the weather for
twenty-four hours will be, except in the case of local thunder
showers which may drench his fields while passing by those of his
neighbor.
"It may be said without exaggeration that the San Francisco office
of the Weather Bureau has saved to the citrus fruit growers of
California more money within the last five years than the annual
appropriation for the entire Bureau during a period of twenty
years." "In the citrus fruit districts of California it is
reported that fruit to the value of $14,000,000 was saved...
during one cold wave." "The value of the orange bloom, vegetables,
and strawberries protected and saved on a single night in a
limited district in Florida...was reported at over $100,000." "The
warnings issued for a single cold wave... resulted in saving over
$3,500,000 through the protection of property." "Signals displayed
for a single hurricane are known to have detained in port on our
Atlantic coast vessels valued with their cargoes at over
$30,000,000." Flood warnings are sent in from about 60 centers
along our rivers, enabling farmers to remove their cattle from
bottom lands, to save their crops when they are ready for cutting,
and otherwise to determine their farming operations. They are also
of the greatest service to railroads, business men, and home
owners, in cities. These are but a few illustrations of the
services performed by the Weather Bureau.
Investigate and report on:
The building of levees in your state. Where, by whom, their value.
The amount of money spent in your state for river improvement (or
harbor improvement).
How the Weather Bureau forecasts the weather, storms, floods.
How to read a weather map.
Experiences of individual farmers of their locality with regard to
benefits derived from the Weather Bureau.
How a merchant in your town may be benefited by the Weather
Bureau.
The losses in your state and locale from frost.
Preventable Losses
A great deal of the property loss referred to is due to causes for
which we are not responsible, such as storms, the depredations of
insects, and epidemics of animal disease. But some of it is due to
our own carelessness. It was said on page 176 that wastefulness is
our chief national sin. Carelessness is the twin sister of
wastefulness; they go hand in hand. Enormous waste is caused by
fire, and most fires are due to carelessness--carelessness in
handling matches, in the use of oil stoves, in accumulations of
rubbish, in disposing of hot ashes, in smoking where there are
inflammable materials.
Fire Protection in Cities
In cities and towns the safety of our own property from fire is
largely dependent upon the care of others. If our neighbor is
careless, our property as well as his may be destroyed. Under such
circumstances it is necessary to have rules to regulate conduct
for the common safety. The materials with which we may build, the
thickness of our walls, the construction of our flues, the storage
of explosive or inflammable materials, the disposal of rubbish and
ashes, and many other things, are regulated by law. This is
cooperation for fire prevention. Much money is also spent by
cities for fire protection, including water supply and organized
fire departments.
FIRE PROTECTION IN RURAL COMMUNITIES
Where people live widely separated from one another, as in rural
communities, such regulations are less necessary and organized
fire protection is less easy to afford. A farmer's property may be
destroyed by fire from a spark from a passing locomotive, or from
the camp of a careless hunter in the adjoining woods. There may be
state laws to control such cases. But in the main, if his property
burns it is due to the carelessness of some one who lives on the
premises, and he is dependent upon his own efforts to control the
fire. Improved farm water supply with adequate pumping facilities,
the telephone by which neighbors may be summoned, and the
automobile by which help may quickly be brought, have increased
the farmer's safety; but his chief safeguard is the exercise of
care by all who live on the farm at every point where a fire might
possibly be started.
FIRE INSURANCE
Fire insurance is a means of reducing the fire loss of individual
property owners by a form of cooperation. Insurance companies,
operating under state laws, sell insurance to property owners. The
latter pay a small premium for the protection afforded. From the
funds produced by the premiums and the interest on their
investment, the occasional losses of individuals are paid. This
does not prevent the destruction of the property, but it
distributes the loss among thousands of people, perhaps in all
parts of the country.
FARMERS' COOPERATIVE INSURANCE
There are in the United States about 2000 FARMERS' COOPERATIVE
FIRE INSURANCE COMPANIES, carrying insurance amounting to more
than 5 billion dollars. These companies are associations of
farmers who elect their own directors and manage their own
insurance business. They provide insurance at a much lower rate
than the ordinary commercial insurance companies. A usual
provision of the laws under which these cooperative companies
operate is that no member may insure his property for its full
value. His neighbors will help him bear his loss, but will not
bear it all. This has the effect of causing him to exercise
greater care to prevent fire on his premises. For this reason
insurance does reduce the actual fire loss to some extent.
Property may also be insured against loss from storm and flood.
Investigate and report on:
Fire losses in your community in a year.
Causes of fires in your community last year. Number that were
preventable.
Precautions against fire in your home and school.
Fire preventive regulations in your community.
Cost of fire prevention in your community.
Improved means of fire prevention in country districts.
How fire insurance works.
Cooperative fire insurance companies in your state.
Storm insurance in your locality.
POLICE PROTECTION
All states have laws to protect their citizens against the "ill-
mannered" who do not respect property rights--thieves, burglars,
highwaymen, vandals, sharpers, and others. The enforcement of
these laws is left largely in the hands of local community
officers. Cities have police departments, with large numbers of
patrolmen and detectives whose business it is not only to arrest
violators of the law after the violation has taken place, but also
by their vigilance to prevent the violation from occurring.
RURAL POLICE PROTECTION
The state laws against the violation of property rights apply to
rural communities as well as to cities, and rural communities have
officers for their enforcement--the constable in townships, the
sheriff and his deputies in counties. Where the population is
small and widely scattered, as in a rural township or county,
about all the officers can do is to arrest law violators after the
commission of the unlawful act, if they can be found. The officers
are too few to watch isolated and remote property, and in case of
serious disturbance, such as a riot, they are too few to handle
the situation effectively. Rural communities and many small
industrial or mining communities do not always have the protection
they need against lawlessness. In such cases the tendency is
sometimes for the people to "take the law in their own hands." In
times of labor trouble mining companies and other industrial
corporations have sometimes organized their own police. Such
practice is dangerous, for the enforcement of law should be in the
hands of the state, and not in the hands of an interested party.
In early days on the frontier, in mining and lumber camps,
"vigilance committees" were common; and even now, in various
localities, we hear too frequently of "lynching parties," which
are as lawless as the original offenders against the law, and tend
to create a disrespect for law.
And yet disrespect for law may also result from failure on the
part of the community to enforce the law through regular agencies,
from failure of officers to apprehend offenders promptly, or of
courts to mete out justice promptly and impartially.
STATE POLICE Canada has been more efficient than the United States
in affording protection to remote and rural communities, by means
of her national mounted police. "The isolated farmer and his wife
slept securely in their sod hovel beyond the frontier, because
they knew that a brave and swift corps of vigilant young athletes ...
kept sleepless vigil. Life and property were secure ... ."
[Footnote: C.R. Henderson, "Rural Police," ANNALS American Academy
of Political and Social Science, 1912, p. 228.] In our own country
Texas has her "rangers" who protect her borders against raids; but
the best example of rural policing in the United States is in
Pennsylvania, where there is a well-organized state police, or
"constabulary," which has many times proved its efficiency in
protecting remote rural communities and homes, in bringing
criminals to justice, and in quelling riots in mining centers.
VANDALISM
A great deal of property is destroyed or injured by VANDALS. The
original Vandals were a tribe of Germanic peoples who invaded
southern and western Europe in the Middle Ages, and who were noted
for their destructiveness of the beautiful buildings and other
evidences of Roman civilization. There seem to be vandals in
almost every community, and sometimes they seem to be especially
numerous in small communities, perhaps because of the lack of
police protection. Sometimes vandalism is wanton,--that is, it
results from an apparent love of being destructive. Most often it
is purely thoughtless. Few people would knowingly injure the
property of another if they would stop to think of their feelings
if another should injure THEIR property. It is a case of "bad
manners." Moreover, it is not a "square deal" to injure another's
property while expecting one's own property to be secure. When
vandalism occurs in a community it creates a general feeling of
insecurity and destroys the sense of freedom.
PUBLIC PROPERTY is often more likely to suffer from vandalism than
private property. Some people will mar the walls of public
buildings, or make their floors filthy with expectoration, when
they would not think of doing so in private buildings. They will
break shrubbery in public parks, or despoil public flower beds,
when they would not think of entering private premises for such
purpose. There seems to be a feeling that public property belongs
to no one, or else that, since it is public, any one is at liberty
to do as he pleases with it. This, of course, is foolish. It is as
if a stockholder in a business corporation should injure or
destroy the corporation property, forgetting that he owned a share
in it and suffered a share of the loss.
Investigate and report on:
Organization of police protection in your community.
Organization of a police department in a large city.
The Mounted Police of Canada and their work.
The Texas rangers.
The state police of Pennsylvania.
Vigilance committees in frontier towns of former times.
Why lynching is wrong.
The promptness with which justice is meted out in the courts of
your state.
The extent and causes of vandalism in your community.
Is vandalism justifiable on Halloween?
Inspect the courthouse and other public buildings in your
community and report as to whether they are disfigured in any way.
THE SACREDNESS OF PROPERTY RIGHTS
When a thief or vandal takes or destroys another person's
property, the loss of the property is not the worst thing that
happens, but the attack upon PROPERTY RIGHTS. The right to
security in one's possessions is among the most sacred rights of a
free people, being classed with the right to life, the right of
free speech, the right of petition, the right to freedom of
religion. It is by securing these rights that the law makes us
free. The sacred right to property is as truly violated by one who
steals a nickel as by one who robs a bank of a thousand dollars,
by one who ruins our flower bed as well as by one who burns our
house. The amount has nothing to do with it. The tax which the
English government imposed on tea imported by the American
colonists was not a heavy tax, but the colonists objected because
it was imposed without their consent.
CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEES OF PROPERTY RIGHTS
The citizens of a free country require protection of their
property rights against infringement by their government as well
as by one another. The Revolutionary War was fought in defense of
this and other rights against violation by the English government.
When the Constitution of the United States was framed, the people
refused to ratify it unless amendments were added guaranteeing
these rights. Thus it was provided that "no soldier shall, in time
of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the
owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by
law" (Amendment III); that "the right of the people to be secure
in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ..."
(Amendment IV); that "no persons shall be ... deprived of life,
liberty or property, without due process of law; nor shall private
property be taken for public use without just compensation"
(Amendment V. See also Chapter XIV, p. 207). The Constitution also
provides that "no state shall ... pass any ... law impairing the
obligation of contracts" (Art. I, sec. 10, clause I), and in
various other ways protects our property rights. Our state
constitutions contain many similar provisions. Our governments
have the power to take property in the form of taxes, but under
certain restrictions imposed by our constitutions to safeguard the
rights of the people (see Chapter XXIII).
OUR NATIONAL ARMY
It is to protect these RIGHTS, rather than property itself, that
communities have their police, that states have their militia, and
that the nation has its army and its navy. Among the chief causes
that led us into war with Germany was the fact that Germany was
violating the property rights of our citizens. While our
Constitution provides for state militia and a national army for
the defense of our rights, property rights included, it has always
been our national policy to maintain as small a standing army as
is consistent with the national safety; and this for the very
reason that a large standing army and a large navy are not only a
great burden of expense, but also, as the founders of our nation
believed, a menace to the liberties of the people and to the peace
of the world.
THE SERVICE OF THE COURTS
We have seen that no person may be deprived of property by the
government "without due process of law." This means that the
procedure provided by law must be followed, and that the citizen
whose property is taken may have his side of the case presented,
the value of the property in question appraised by impartial
judges, and so on. It is the business of THE COURTS to see that
justice is done. They inquire into the facts in the case, and
interpret the law bearing on it. The courts are the final
safeguard to our liberties. Our government comprises, therefore,
not only a law-making branch and a law-enforcing branch, but also
a LAW-INTERPRETING, OR JUDICIAL, branch--the courts.
THE RIGHTS OF ACCUSED PERSONS
The Constitution guarantees justice to persons accused of
violating the property rights, or other rights of citizens, by
theft, fraud, or otherwise, as well as to the citizen who has been
wronged. "In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the
right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the
State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed ...
and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to
be confronted with the witnesses against him, to have compulsory
process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the
assistance of counsel for his defense" (Amendment VI). "Excessive
bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel
and unusual punishments inflicted" (Amendment VIII).
Investigate and report on:
How are property rights guaranteed in your state constitution? in
the national Constitution?
Read the charges made in the Declaration of Independence against
the King of England with respect to the violation of property
rights.
"Due process of law."
The violation of property rights by Germany as a cause for war.
Are property rights as sacred in time of war as in time of peace?
What property rights has an American in Mexico?
What property rights has a Mexican in the United States?
What became of German property in the United States during the
war?
The purpose of the courts.
What courts exist in your community?
The rights of a person accused of crime.
READINGS
In the Year Book of the Department of Agriculture:
1910, pp. 413-424, Fire prevention and control on the national
forests.
1913, pp. 75-92, Bringing applied entomology to the farmer.
1915, pp. 159-172, Animal disease and our food supply.
1915, pp. 263-272, Recent grasshopper outbreaks and methods of
control.
1916, pp. 217-226, Suppression of gypsy and brown-tailed moths.
1916, pp. 267-272, Cooperative work for eradicating citrus canker.
1916, pp. 381-398, Destroying rodent pests on the farm.
1918, pp. 303-316, Federal protection of migratory birds.
Farmers' mutual fire insurance, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Bulletin No. 530; also, Year Book, 1916, pp. 421-434.
The Weather Bureau (a pamphlet), Government Printing Office,
Washington. Send to the Weather Bureau for list of publications.
How the Weather Bureau forecasts storms, frosts, and floods,
Office of Information, U.S. Department of Agriculture; reprinted
in SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT, March 14, 1914.
Forecasting storms: the Weather Bureau's helpfulness, SUNSET
MAGAZINE, vol. 25, pp. 529-532 (Nov., 1910).
The Farmer and the Weather Bureau, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, Feb. 18,
1911.
Doing business by the weather map, WORLD'S WORK, June, 1914.
Flood control:
Water Supply Paper 234, U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the
Interior, 1919. Write for other publications on this subject.
Also, the Office of the Chief of Engineers, War Department.
There has been much magazine literature on this subject.
War and Navy Departments, in the Federal Executive Departments,
Bulletin, 1919, No. 74, U.S. Bureau of Education.
Dunn, THE COMMUNITY AND THE CITIZEN, chap. X.
Hart, ACTUAL GOVERNMENT, pp. 573-582.