as Prof. Condra said, that covers the subject of conservation to most
people, but to me it means a great deal. It means that your government,
your people are spending today some four hundred millions of dollars for
the purpose of conserving the interests of transportation between the
east and the west coast of the United States of all this great country,
the enormous commerce that has been absolutely and almost entirely in the
control of the railroads for so many years. So serious has this control
been that for nineteen years the transcontinental railway pool paid to
the owners of the Panama Railroad Company $1,080,000 a year for nineteen
years to induce them not to do business. Think what that means. Not
only that, but for many years they paid the United States of Colombia,
which formerly and originally was under the Republic of Panama before
it seceded, $10,000 a year to prevent the extension of that line, to
deepwater, so as they could utilize that route to develop the commerce of
the United States. Your Government, you people, are paying for that. I am
going to tell you a little, while we are waiting for the President. I
have just had the honor of being with him at dinner. He was unfortunately
detained, but I expect him every moment, and it is not necessary for me
to say that when he appears I shall retire.
They started out with that wonderful enterprise—the Panama Canal—by
meeting the opposition of all the railroad interests that were determined
that it should not be completed. Many, many times able articles, which
many of you have read in the magazines, were written and paid for by the
most eminent engineers to prove how totally impracticable the building
of the Panama Canal was. It was a dream. A long dream, they used to say.
It began in the early days of Spain when Columbus came to the Panama
Canal. He was the first one to visit it. There was located on the west
side of the canal what is known as the Treasure House of Spain. When our
Government took hold of it, and employed the engineers to make a thorough
survey, the question came up of building an open waterway free right
down to sea level. When it was suggested that they build lock canals—and
as many of you farmers to whom I am speaking may not understand that, I
take a few minutes to explain exactly how they work. You come in on the
level of the Caribbean sea, and the ship is elevated about thirty feet by
sliding into a lock, the water pouring from the upper lock, sixty feet
above, into this lower lock, thirty feet, and on this the ship rises.
That occurs three times, until they bring the ship up to a level of
eighty feet above the Caribbean sea. There is very little rise or fall in
the tide of the Caribbean sea, only about eighteen inches, maximum and
minimum. Then it enters into what is going to be—and now when I was there
in November, had about twenty-eight to forty feet of water in it—a most
beautiful fresh water lake some twenty-nine miles wide and some thirty
long, bordered with the most beautiful mountain ranges. The ship will
sail through that lake and will come into what you have all heard about,
the wonderful Culebra cut, a cut straight through the mountains. One of
the greatest difficulties, one that you have heard so much of, is the
slides, the land constantly sliding down into that cut, was due to the
character of the soil, it being a volcanic ash.
Now, the most wonderful thing has happened, due to modern invention,
which has brought to work what is known as the cement gun, a gun that
will fire cement into those banks and make them practically solid and
prevent sliding. So they can go on and dig the canal without further
interruption. There is no question whatever that the waterway will be
opened to the people of the United States by the shortest possible route,
saving 7,000 miles of water distance between the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans, all the way around the Straits of Magellan, by June, 1913.
(Applause) Not only have they made the cement gun, but they have made
the cement boat. I am an old steamship man of many years’ experience. I
can remember some years ago when they talked about iron boxes floating
as being impossible. Then they came to a steel box floating. Now, ladies
and gentlemen, they are floating a stone box there, and putting on this
stone box the gun which will fire the cement. It is made of cement. The
steamer will proceed through that large cut, which is covered with the
most wonderful vegetation that ever was written about, right in the
tropics, within eight degrees of the equator. The ladies here—all ought
to go to Panama and see the wonderful flowers, blooms—things that we see
here in our greenhouses—there growing as trees—magnificent, wonderful—and
the parrots playing through the woods. If you go a little way off you
can also see the monkeys playing in the woods. All those things will be
open to travel, and there will be the big fine passenger steamers going
through there.
When you get over to the other side of the canal you meet first what is
called the Piedro Miguel Locks. Peter McGill was an Irishman, but they
called him, in Spanish, Piedro Miguel. A number of things down there
are named after him. A short distance below you come to two more locks,
lowering you to the level of the Pacific Ocean, which has a rise and fall
of nearly eighteen feet. That is known as the Miraflores Lock, or many
flowers. Now you have reached the Pacific Ocean. I want to go back just
a moment, however, and tell you why it was necessary to make this lock
canal. An old steamship man’s ideal way is simply to sail through without
any destination whatever, but there is a river down there, you know, the
Chagres river. Up to the time I was last down there they never had yet
found the source of the river. The vegetation was so rank it was almost
impossible to get through. That river has been known to rise sixty feet
in forty-eight hours, and yet I have seen it when you could almost walk
across the river bed. Imagine that kind of a flood being taken care of
in an open waterway constituting a ship canal. I would not like to be on
the ship that undertook to go through a canal that might possibly meet
that condition of floods in Panama. I want to tell you another thing that
to me is the most wonderful work I have ever seen, and that is the way
everything is managed and controlled by one man, Col. Gilfos. He is a
wonder. You can go among the engineers, the laboring men, constituting
all the nationalities of that part of the country, a great many of them
Jamaicans and West Indians, Spaniards, and everywhere you will hear, “We
are working for Col. Gilfos.” No mistakes of any importance have been
made. They all live there in the most perfect socialism, if I may call it
in the true idea of socialism, the brotherhood of man, having everything
in common.
When a lady wishes to give a dinner, she asks by telephone—Government
telephone—for a carriage to be sent. It is a mule wagon generally, by
the way. But now they are getting some automobiles. It takes her down to
the commissary headquarters. She picks out what she wants to entertain
her friends with, and she uses no money. It all comes up promptly just
at the hour, and many times at prices which it would be impossible
today to duplicate in some of our Western and Eastern cities. When the
baby is sick she sends for the Government doctor. Everything is done in
that way by the United States Government. Why, they even run the most
wonderful hotel in the most wonderful way, the Hotel Tivoli. It is a
beautiful place, a marvelous place, and a remarkable arrangement they
have there. If you stay one week it is a fixed price per week. If you
stay two weeks it is at proportionate reduction, and three weeks again a
reduction, so as to encourage people to come there and stay in the hotel.
They are now adding to the Tivoli a very large $500,000 addition, just
to accommodate travelers, and everything is run by the Government. You
never hear a word of complaint, never any differences. There seem to be
no social bickerings or differences among the people. One goes everywhere
and finds absolute social enjoyment. I never in my life have seen such
a marvelous community. There is where we ought to raise our children.
Little figures running about with very little on them, there is so much
bright sunshine and beautiful weather they do not need clothes, and they
seem to be perfectly healthy. When you think of it, an old saying used to
be that when they built the railroad across there every tie cost a human
life. Disease was terrible. For five years there has never been a case of
fever—yellow fever—and it is the statistical record that it is one of the
healthiest places today in the United States.
Of course it is not in the United States, but compared with any place in
the United States. There was, by the way, one death, I understand, in
Panama that was due to the curiosity of one of our dear women. She came
down as a nurse, a trained nurse from New York, and did not believe that
the mosquito could possibly convey fever. In the physical laboratory
of the hospital at Ancon were a number of them in a glass case for
experimental purposes. Talking to some of the other nurses when the
doctors were not about, she put her finger in and allowed one of the
mosquitoes to bite her. She was bitten all right. In five days she died
of fever, proving beyond any question that the mosquito was the one thing
that made all this unhealthfulness in the past. But not satisfied with
that, the Government has drained in the most effectual way all the entire
canal zone of some fifty miles long and ten miles wide. At the head of
every small stream where there is any possibility of drainage or stagnant
water producing mosquitoes, they place a small barrel of oil, with a
drip. That drip is regulated just in proportion to the flow of water. Now
today it is one of the most pleasant places in fair weather I ever saw.
There are few or no flies on account of this strict sanitation, which
includes also the removal of garbage. Everything of that kind is done
by the Government in the most sanitary and most effective way. All the
houses belong to the Government—they have single men’s apartments, and
married men’s apartments, and houses for the different officers. There
is provided a special can for the removal of all the garbage and refuse
from the houses. If anyone leaves that open they are fined very promptly.
No one does. An inspection officer is going about. So today I know of no
more pleasant place in the world to spend a month or so than at the Hotel
Tivoli, Panama.
Another curious thing may possibly interest you. The first time I went
over to Ancon, which is on the west, the Pacific side—and I might
explain about Ancon—there are three towns. There is the town of Panama,
which stands on the Bay of Panama; a little distance off and connected
with it, you can hardly tell where, is the American town of Ancon, and
then across over a big hill is Balboa, the part in which the United
States is making all its improvements—getting ready to take care of the
transportation question. Now when I got down there, and I arrived rather
early in the evening, I had a beautiful room assigned me. All the rooms
have balconies. I went out and sat on the porch and looked at the Pacific
Ocean. What, to my surprise, did I see? I didn’t know what had happened,
but I saw the moon rising out of the Pacific Ocean. Now take that in if
you can. It was in the east—the Pacific Ocean was to the southeast of
Panama, and the moon was rising out of the Pacific Ocean, as the sun did
the next morning. I was completely turned around. The Isthmus of Panama
almost describes the letter “S.” We do not realize that unless we take
an atlas and put it before us. If you ever see a drawing or illustration
of the great work going on down there you will see how they always place
Panama on the right-hand side of the map as you look at it. It seems all
wrong. It ought not to be there. It did to me when I first saw it. I
think I have talked about Panama long enough, and you must be tired, and
I am quite sure the President will be here in the next few minutes. He is
trying to get here as rapidly as possible. What he will tell you about
conservation will be so much more than I can do. I thank you very much.
(Applause)
Chairman CONDRA—I have a note from the director of the band saying that
they can sing a certain song to be dedicated to the President. Dr. Hiner,
have you the soloist there? Can you favor us with the song? It is to be
sung next Saturday at Sedalia, I believe, and it has been dedicated to
the President by his permission.
After the singing of the song, the President entered, accompanied by
his official party and members of the Commercial Club and others, the
audience rising and singing “America,” after which long and loud cheering
took place for several minutes.
President WALLACE—Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the Conservation
Congress: It is my high privilege and duty to introduce to you tonight,
Hon. William H. Taft, President of the United States. (Loud applause and
cheers)
ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
President TAFT—Your distinguished President, Dr. Wallace, a month or two
ago wrote me and asked me to come before this Congress and advocate and
talk about the conservation of the soil. If that subject does not address
itself to you as a proper one in this Congress, you must blame your
president. If what I say is not orthodox, you must blame him, because he
called on me. But I am going to read you the best view that I can make
from the consideration of the best authorities that I can find on that
subject. And if you will bear with me, I will promise not to keep you
long, for the reason that my knowledge on the subject will not consume a
great deal of time.
At last year’s convention of this Congress I had the honor and pleasure
of delivering an address on the subject of conservation of our national
resources, and therein attempted to state what the terms “conservation
of our natural resources” meant, what were the statutes affecting and
enforcing such conservation, classified the different public lands
to which it would apply, and suggested what I thought was the proper
method of disposing of each class of lands. Nothing has been done on
this subject by Congress since that time, but it is hoped that the
present Congress at its regular session will take up the question of
the conservation of government land containing coal and phosphates or
of furnishing water power, adopt some laws that will permit the use
and development of these lands in Alaska and in continental United
States, and evolve a system by which the Government shall retain proper
ultimate control of the lands, and at the same time offer to private
investment sufficient returns to induce the outlay of capital needed to
make the lands useful to the public. The discussion did not invoke the
consideration of any question which directly concerned the production of
food.
Tonight, however, I wish to consider in a summary way another aspect of
conservation far more important than that of preserving for the public
interests public lands, that is, the conservation of the soil with a view
to the continued production of food in this country sufficient to feed
our growing population.
We have in continental United States about 1,900,000,000 acres. Of
this the Agricultural Department, through its correspondents, estimate
that 950,000,000 acres of this are capable of cultivation. Of this,
873,729,000 acres are now in farms. The remainder, about 1,000,000,000
acres, is land which is untillable. It is reasonably certain that
substantially all the virgin soil of a character to produce crops has
been taken up. It is doubtful how much of the part not included in farms
can be brought into a condition where tillage will be profitable.
The total acreage of farms in the last ten years, although the pressure
for increased acreage by reason of high farm prices was great, was
only about four per cent, or about 32,000,000. There are upwards of
25,000,000 acres that will be brought in under our irrigation system,
and perhaps more, and the amount of lands which can be drained and made
useful for agriculture will amount to about 70,000,000 acres.
The total improved farm lands in the United States amount to 477,448,000
acres, which is an increase in the last ten years of 62,949,000, or
fifteen and two-tenths per cent. The product per acre actually cultivated
increased in the last ten years one per cent a year, or ten per cent. The
total product increased in ten years nearly twenty per cent.
INCREASE OF POPULATION.
The population in this same time increased twenty-one per cent. If the
population continues to increase at its present rate, we shall have in
fifty years double the number of people we now have. It is necessary
then that not only our acreage but our product per acre must increase
proportionately so that our people may be fed. We must realize that the
best land and easiest land to cultivate has been taken up and cultivated
and that the additions to improved lands and to total acreage in the
future must be of land much more expensive to prepare for tillage. The
increase per acre of the product, too, must be steady each year, and each
year an increase is more difficult. Still, even in the face of these
facts, there is no occasion for discouragement. We are going to remain
as a self-supporting country and raise food enough within our borders to
feed our people. When we think that in Germany and Great Britain crops
are raised from land which has been in cultivation for one thousand
years, and that these lands are made to produce over two and three times
per acre what the comparatively fresh lands in this country produce in
the best states, it becomes very apparent that we shall be able to meet
the exigency by better systems of farming and more intense and careful
and industrious cultivation. The theory seems to have been in times past
that soils became exhausted by constant cultivation, but the result
in Europe, by which acres under constant use for producing crops for
ten centuries are made now to produce crops three times those of this
country, shows that there is nothing in this theory, and that successful
farming can be continued on land long in use and great crops raised and
garnered from it if only it be treated scientifically and in accordance
with its necessity. There is nothing peculiar about soils in Europe that
give the great yield per acre there and prevent its possibility in the
United States. On the contrary, there is every reason to believe that the
application of the same methods would produce just as large crops here as
abroad.
One of the great reasons for discouragement felt by many who have written
on this subject is found in the movement of the population from farm
to city. This has reached such a point that the urban population is
now forty-six per cent of the total, while the rural population is but
fifty-three per cent, counting as urban all who live in cities exceeding
2,500 inhabitants. This movement has been persistent, and has made it
very difficult for the farmers to secure adequate agricultural labor,
with an increase in the price of labor which naturally follows such
a condition. Still we ought to realize that enormous advances in the
machinery used on the farm have reduced the necessity for a great number
of farm hands on each farm.
THE COST OF FARM PRODUCTION.
Mr. Holmes, of the Department of Agriculture, in the Yearbook of that
Department of 1899, points out that between the years 1855 and 1894, the
time of human labor required to produce one bushel of corn on an average
declined from four hours and thirty-four minutes to forty-one minutes,
and the cost of the human labor to produce this bushel declined from
thirty-five and three-fourths cents to ten and one-half cents. Between
1830 and 1896 the time of human labor required for the production of a
bushel of wheat was reduced from three hours to ten minutes, while the
price of the labor required for this purpose declined from seventeen
and three-fourths cents to three and one-half cents. Between 1860 and
1894 the time of human labor required for the production of a ton of
hay was reduced from thirty-five and one-half hours to eleven hours and
thirty-four minutes, and the cost of labor per ton was reduced from $3.06
to $1.29.
In 1899, the calculation made with respect to the reduction in the cost
of labor for the production of seven crops of that year over the old-time
manner of production in the fifties and sixties, shows it to have been
$681,000,000 for one year. But while it is possible to say that there may
be in the future improvements in machinery which will reduce the number
of necessary hands on the farm, it is quite certain that in this regard
the prospect of economy in labor for the future is not to be compared
with that which has been effected in the last thirty years. Hence we
must regard the question of available population and available labor
in that population for the cultivation of the fields as an important
consideration. My impression from an examination of the figures is that
the change in this last decade from farm to city has not been as great
in its percentage as it was in previous decades, and if this be true,
it indicates that there is in the present situation an element that
will help to cure the difficulty. Farm prices are increasing so rapidly
and the profits of farming are becoming apparently much more certain
and substantial. While the acreage of the improved land only increased
65,000,000, or fifteen per cent, and the total acreage only four per
cent, the value of the farms in money increased from $20,000,000,000 to
$40,000,000,000 in ten years—an enormous advance. This, of course, was
due somewhat to the investment of additional money in the improvement of
land, and somewhat to the increase in the supply of gold which had the
effect of advancing all prices, but the chief cause for the advance is
in the increase in the price of farm products at the farm. So great is
this increase that the value of the average farm has now gone from $3,562
to $6,440, while the average value per acre has increased from $19.81 to
$39.09. In addition to this, comfort of farm life has been so greatly
added to in the last ten years by the rural free delivery, the suburban
electric railway, the telephone and the automobile, that there is likely
in the next ten years to be a halt in this change toward the city, and
more people in proportion are likely to engage in gainful occupation on
the farm than has heretofore been the case. Such an effect would be the
natural result of the actual economic operation of the increase in the
value of the farm product, and the increase in the certainty of farming
profits. It is the business of the country, insofar as it can direct the
matter, to furnish the means by which this economic force shall exert
itself along the lines of easiest and best increase of production. Of
course the Government by furnishing assistance in irrigation increases
the amount of tillable land, and the states, if they undertake the
drainage of swamp lands, will do the same thing. The cost of such
improvements will be considerable, and will affect the farming profit,
but the result generally in such cases is to yield such great crops per
acre that the farmer can well afford to pay interest on the increased
investment. Increased acreage from any other source is likely to be,
however, in more stubborn land, calling for greater effort in tillage and
producing less per acre. We may reasonably infer from the high prices
of the decade immediately passed that everything was done by those who
owned land to enlarge the acreage where that was easy, or practical,
and that what is yet to be brought in as tillable land presents greater
difficulties and greater expense. The way in which the states can help
to meet future increased demand is by investigation and research into
the science of agriculture, and by giving to the farming community a
knowledge which shall enable them better to develop the soil, and by
educating those who are coming into the profession of farming. It is now
almost a learned profession.
CONSERVATION OF THE SOIL.
The first great step that has to be taken in reformed agriculture is the
conservation of the soil. Under our present system the loss to the farms
in this country by the erosion of the soil is hardly to be calculated.
Engineers have shown how much is carried down the great rivers of the
country and is deposited as silt each year at their mouths. The number
of cubic yards staggers the imagination. The question is how this can be
prevented as it must be because the soil which is carried off by this
erosion is generally the richest and the best soil of the farms which are
thus denuded.