those who have spoken upon different branches of it. The first thing that
claimed my attention was the preservation of the forest. I found that we
were exhausting our timber supply. I found that it was a matter merely
of calculation, a simple matter of mathematics; that we could take the
number of acres of timber land remaining, subtract the yearly cut, and
calculate how long it would be before it was practically destroyed, and
then, when on the other side, we examined the amount of land planted in
trees and compare that with the yearly destruction, it was easy to see
we were approaching a time when our timber supply would be exhausted. I
became interested at once, as you must be interested, in legislation that
has for its object not only the protection of that timber which remains,
but the replanting of such ground as can be reforested. I am interested,
as you are, in protecting this country from exhaustion of its timber
supply.
THE NATION’S WATER SUPPLY.
Then, my attention was next called to another reason why our timber
should not be destroyed, and I am a little ashamed to admit to you,
that it is not very many years ago since I first began to think of the
protection of our water sheds. I wonder how many in this audience have
felt, until tonight, as indifferent as I felt until a few years ago. I
wonder how many tonight realize how serious a question it is? Two years
ago last June I crossed the crest of the Rockies, and as I went over the
ridge, I saw patches of timber, and then areas of naked land. I found
that wherever there was timber there was snow; and when I came near to
these patches of timber, I found little streams running down to make the
brooks and rivers. But wherever the timber was gone there was no snow;
it was perfectly dry, and then I realized, as I had not before, how God
in His infinite wisdom had established these great reservoirs that never
need repair, while man in his folly has been destroying them, and then
endeavoring to replace them by building great dams, and forming great
lakes that will in time fill up and have to be abandoned. What supreme
folly it is to allow the water sheds to be denuded and these natural
reservoirs destroyed, only to spend money after a while to replace them
with inferior substitutes. What does it mean to have a Nation’s water
supply imperiled? Have you ever been in a city that was threatened with
a water famine? Have you ever been where they discovered the necessity
of a larger water supply? What would it mean to the people living upon
the slopes of the Rockies if these water sheds were destroyed, and the
rain of the winter ran off, and left us with no reservoirs to supply
our surface streams and the veins from which we draw through wells?
When people tell me that the water shed question can safely be left
to the states in which these water sheds are, I tell them that while
I am glad to give every reasonable presumption to the state, I insist
that the people of this Nation have, on the fundamental doctrine of
self-preservation, the right, when necessary, to protect their water
supply in the mountains, and I may add, I have no fear that this will
cause a conflict between state and nation. (Applause)
My observation is that you very seldom have a conflict between states and
nation unless some private interest is attempting to ignore the rights of
both state and nation. Back of this controversy which we sometimes hear
suggested between the state and the Nation, you will find the interest
of the predatory corporation that is as much an enemy to the people of
the state as it is the enemy of the people of the Nation; whenever we
reach the point where the people recognize that they are greater than
any corporation which they create, the settlement of state and national
questions will become an easy matter, for patriots can then agree.
(Applause)
After one has acquainted himself with the necessity of preserving the
forests on the water sheds, he naturally comes to the control of the
water that comes tumbling down the mountain side. It is a little more
than two years since my attention was called to this subject; the facts
were given me by one who is in a position to know, and since that time
I have had a fixed opinion that has been freely expressed in regard to
the control of these mountain torrents, the commercialization of these
mountain streams.
THE LANDLORD SYSTEM.
One who has not visited the Old World cannot understand the landlord
system there. If you ask me what I regard as the greatest burden of
the people of Europe I reply “Landlordism.” (Applause) In some of those
countries the people are so situated that those who till the soil
transmit from generation to generation the right to pay rent, with no
possibility of ownership; while a few families transmit from child to
child the right to collect rent, with no disposition to till the soil. I
regard that as the greatest burden of Europe, and one of the blessings
that we enjoy in this country is freedom from such landlordism as they
have in the Old World. I know of nothing that nearer approaches the
system of landlordism in Europe than the proposed giving away of these
mountain streams in perpetuity to great syndicates that through the years
and generations to come could exact their toll from a toiling people.
Therefore, when we consider the use of these mountain streams, the first
thing we must decide is that there shall be no perpetual grant to a
water power. Who can tell what that right will be worth a hundred years
from now? Look back twenty-five years. Who could have estimated then the
value of a water power today? Within the last quarter of a century we
have had a development of electricity that makes it possible to carry,
for hundreds of miles, power generated by falling water. If you visit
Canada you will find in the Province of Ontario great towers carrying
to the various cities the power generated at Niagara Falls. We are now
in the very beginning of the use of electricity. No human being can
measure the value of one of these water falls. What criminal folly, then,
for this generation to barter away the sacred rights of posterity to
syndicates and corporations. (Applause) So, it seems to me, that one of
the important questions to be decided in the conservation of our natural
resources is that the principle of monopoly shall not be permitted in
this country under any guise or in any form. (Applause)
Let us insist that wherever and whenever a franchise is granted it shall
be granted for a term of years, and that that term shall not be so long,
but that we can reasonably estimate today the value of it at the end of
the term. No other principle is tenable in the discussion of this subject.
But one cannot visit the mountains; one cannot consider these streams
that we are trying to protect without thinking of the reclamation of the
arid lands. And here I think we have a subject too that is only beginning
to be understood. Go along a road and see on one side a desert and on the
other side a garden, and understand that the only difference is that one
is not watered and the other is, and then irrigation becomes a subject
of thrilling interest. Investigate and find how large a per cent of the
people of the world live upon lands cultivated by irrigation. Learn how
ancient and honorable an industry it is. Visit the communities, where, by
the use of the water under systems of irrigation, a man can make a living
for his family on twenty, thirty or forty acres, or even less. See how
the people are brought together; how every advantage of the city is
brought to the farm, and then you will understand why the country has at
last yielded to the demand that has come from the West, that some money
should be spent in the reclamation of these lands.
We have next the impounding of water, the building of storage reservoirs.
It is in its infancy. It ought to be continued until not one drop of
waste water is allowed to run down and flood the valleys in the spring.
All of this water should be conserved. It ought to be spread out on the
lands which need it, and then we can invite people from the crowded
cities to avail themselves of the light and liberty and larger life of
the country. (Applause)
SOIL WASTE.
But one subject leads on to another. You begin to reclaim arid lands,
and then you ask yourself, Why should we attempt to bring land under
cultivation at large expense while we waste the land that we have? And
that brings us to the very interesting subject that is presented at all
of these congresses, the conservation of the fertility of the soil. A
farmer this afternoon spoke of some people as robbers, who robbed the
soil of its fertility; I suppose I am one of the guilty ones, although
I have done most of my robbing of the soil through agents rather than
directly myself. (Applause) And yet, I had my apprenticeship upon the
farm, and when I was farming it never occurred to me that I was wasting
the soil. I was one who could claim pardon under the plea, “Forgive
them for they know not what they do.” (Applause) And yet, we cannot be
guiltless hereafter now that we understand of what we have been guilty.
Here is a subject that must interest every man who owns an acre of
ground. What right has one to impoverish the soil? As was suggested
today, we are not owners, we are merely tenants. The life of the
individual is short. He lives, he works, he passes away. What right has
the tenant of today to impoverish the estate upon which generations to
come must live? Is it not worth while to have these experts tell us? Is
it not worth while to have this fact impressed upon our minds and our
consciences? And when we come to the conservation of the soil on the
farms, we then understand the importance of the agricultural college. I
rejoice that the agricultural college has shown such wonderful growth and
development during the last twenty-five years. The interest which has
been manifested in these schools is wonderful, and what does it mean?
Not merely that our farms are to be better tended; not merely that our
crops will be increased in quality and in value; that is not all. To my
mind two important influences will grow out of this agricultural school
in addition to the material advantages. I expect to see more inventions;
I expect to see a quickened interest in improved machinery; that these
men who go out from college to till the soil will add more and more of
brain to the muscle when they till the soil; that the character of the
work is to be dignified and elevated just as in the factories we have
found the character of the work constantly lifted up as larger and larger
intelligence is brought into play in our industries. I expect to see this
on the farm. But more than that, I expect to see the farmer a larger
political factor in his government with the rising intelligence of the
farmer boy. (Applause)
The farmer has suffered; if you ask me why it is that we have the young
men drifting into the city, why we have seen so many farms abandoned, or
regarded as less desirable, I say that one of the reasons is that our
consideration has been given to the things of the city, and not to the
things of the country. Our laws have been made for the factory and not
for the farm. (Applause) The men who represent industry in the city have
been more numerously represented in the halls of legislation than the
men who represent industry upon the farm, and one of the results of this
higher education of our farmer boys will be, in my opinion, an increasing
influence of the agricultural classes in all matters of legislation. I
mention these as some of the subjects that are brought to our attention
as we consider the various phases of this work of conservation. I am
a believer in doing everything that can be done to make the farm an
attractive place. It is the nursery of our great men and great women. It
is the place where we train men in industry, in self-reliance, and in
character. The man who comes nearest to nature has a tremendous advantage
in the years of his youth. He deals with the works of the Almighty, while
the boy in the town deals with the work of man. Is it strange that from
the country and from the country life come the strength, the purity, the
character that help to make our city strong, without which our cities
would not be what they are today? (Applause)
TO MAKE FARMS ATTRACTIVE.
The man who lives upon the farm sees the miracle wrought about him
constantly. The man in the city puts his eyes upon a man-made machine;
the man upon the farm comes daily in contact with those irresistible
forces that lie back of all the products of the farm and the orchard. It
is a splendid training; we cannot allow it to be destroyed. Tributes for
the farm have come from the poets of every land:
“Princes and Lords may flourish or may fade,
A breath can make them, as a breath has made;
But a bold peasant, a nation’s pride,
When once destroyed, can never be supplied.”
Take from any nation its bold peasantry, and you have impoverished it to
an extent that figures cease to be valuable.
What will make our farms more attractive? It seems to me that just now
there are a number of things that conspire to add to the attractiveness
of the farm. Invention has already added largely to the comforts and
the conveniences of the farmer. I live nearly four miles from the city.
The telephone enables me to send and receive telegrams; it enables me to
call the physician in a moment. I know of no one thing that hung more
heavily on the mother than the fact when sickness came, or accident, it
took so long to secure a physician. Today, with the telephone, we cut
half in two, at least, the time between the accident and the relief. We
find improvements that can be carried to the farm. Water in the house,
light as good in the country as in the city. The light that I use in the
country is as good as I ever had in the city, and it can now be furnished
in small quantities, so that even the smallest house may be supplied.
We find the rural free delivery grown until now in almost every section
of our land the country is supplied as well as in the city. The good
roads movement is a growing movement, and will grow because the farmers
(applause) will not long be content to have a “mud embargo” upon their
liberty, so large a part of the year. It is not a matter of economy
merely. I believe the good roads movement is a social need as well as
an economic requirement. With the good road you can have the union
school, the community library; you can have a place for the farmers and
their wives to meet other farmers and their wives; where you can have
entertainment brought to them; where more light can be put into the
life, and larger opportunity for social communion be had. Electric lines
are bringing the country and city nearer together. All these things are
possible. All these things are coming, and with their coming I hope to
see the tide turn and the farm population increase rather than decrease
in proportion to the urban population.
But, my friends, I have saved for the last the suggestion that I regard
as most important. I have mentioned some of these things that have
contributed to the desertion of the farm, some of the things which I hope
will accelerate the return to the farm. I am interested in everything
that has been said by those of whose speeches I have only heard, and
by others to whose speeches I have listened. I believe in all of these
things, but I believe there is one thing that we cannot neglect. I am not
sure but it is the most important factor in this whole discussion, the
great need of the human race, less in this country than in any other,
but a need here as well, is a proper conception of the dignity of labor.
(Loud applause) The struggle of mankind has been to avoid work. It has
been to put the drudgery of life on somebody else, and Tolstoi has well
said that, as soon as we can make somebody else do the unpleasant work we
do not want to do, we then look down upon them and regard them as of a
different class. Lack of sympathy is the chief cause of human injustice
and human misery. I repeat that what the world needs, and we as well as
the rest of the world, though not so much, for we have made more progress
here than anywhere else in the world, is a proper conception of the
dignity of labor. (Applause) Our education is at fault if it separates
the idea of intellectual progress from the idea of moral advancement.
Sometimes our children are taught that they should get an education in
order that they may escape from work that seems unpleasant. Education
will not be a blessing to the world, but instead a curse, if it lifts man
above the willingness to toil. (Applause)
THE NECESSITY OF TOIL.
The most important thought that can be put into the mind of any child is
that his education is to enlarge his capacity for work, not to relieve
him from the necessity of toiling. (Applause) We find in the cities young
men earning small wages in a store where they can wear good clothes, keep
their hands clean and do a work that is considered more respectable, when
they might earn larger wages if they were willing to bear a larger share
of the manual labor of the world. (Applause) Not only do they escape
from manual labor, but they miss the physical development that that toil
brings. We find young men upon the farms taught that, if they manifest a
little brightness, if they are a little more ambitious than those about
them, they should look to the law, to medicine, to journalism, to the
ministry or to politics—that they must get away from the farm. I hope our
conservation congresses will not overlook the fact that we shall make
little progress towards making farm homes more inviting until we teach
men that the farm with all its toil and drudgery gives them a position
where they can be independent, and give their children an environment
that contributes to stature and character. (Applause) I believe that we
shall only be doing our duty to ourselves, to our fellow man, to our
country and to posterity when we emphasize the fact that it is the idler,
and not the man who toils, who is a disgrace to society.
Here is a place where all of us can work; here is a public opinion which
we can all join in cultivating. The mother who has a daughter approaching
womanhood’s estate can help when she teaches that daughter that she ought
to be more willing to link her fortunes with the fortunes of a poor
young man, with high aspirations, education, ambition, good health and
character, than to seek an alliance with an idle degenerate who spends
the money somebody else has earned. (Applause) The father can do his
duty, and can help, when he teaches the son that he is more proud of him
when he sees him at work, trying to become a useful factor in society,
than when he is simply waiting for some money to be left him that he may
squander it, and be the worse for having had it. (Applause) Every member
of society everywhere can serve in this great war upon the largest enemy
we have to meet. The teacher in the college has his work to do; the
preacher in the pulpit—oh, what an opportunity he has to present to his
congregation, Sunday after Sunday, the idea that Christ Himself made a
living reality, that greatness is to be measured by the service rendered,
and that happiness, as well as greatness, depends on the contribution one
makes to the world. (Applause) Here is a work that is large enough for us
all. Here is something that invites us, an opportunity as large as we can
crave.
MAN AND SOCIETY.
I present, therefore, as the most important thing that the conservation
movement can consider, the raising up of an ideal of life that will give
a man a proper conception of his relation to society. Where better than
on the farm can a man learn God’s law? What is the Divine law of reward?
God wrote it upon the face of the earth; He proclaimed it from the
clouds; He burns it into us through the rays of the sun, namely, that God
has given us the material and that in proportion as man shows industry
and intelligence in converting natural resources into usable wealth he
can rightfully draw from the common store of the world. That is God’s law
of rewards. If a man lack intelligence, God punishes him by failure. If
he lack industry, God whips him into poverty by laws that are inexorable.
That is the Divine plan, but we have allowed the speculative craze to
take its place, and man, instead of earning his bread in the sweat of his
brow, rushes into the city to get some short cut to riches, and society
has given respectability to the man who goes on the Board of Trade at
10 o’clock and by betting on what the farmers raise makes more than he
can make raising it, while it looks down upon the people who feed us and
clothe us. (Applause)
But, my friends, I have already talked longer than I intended to when I
came. (Cries of Go on! Go on!)
I am here because I am interested. I am here because I am a debtor to
society. Who in all this land has been placed under greater obligations
than I? Who is more bound in duty to contribute as best he can to any
improvement that is possible? This is one of the great avenues of effort;
one of the great reform movements. It enlarges as you consider it. I am
here to testify to my interest; I am here to listen to those who speak
that I may gather from their matured thought ideas that I can put into
use. My part is an humble part; it is not to discuss any question at
length; it is not to speak as an expert upon any branch of conservation;
it is rather to come and emphasize, so far as I can, the work that others
have done—to show you how large it is, to increase your interest in it,
to quicken your zeal, and to have you go from here determined, as I go
determined, to contribute more largely than in the past, not only to
this, but to every movement that has for its object the elevation of the
human race and the advancement of the civilization of the world.
I thank you. (Continued applause)
On motion of Professor Condra, duly seconded, the Congress adjourned
subject to the call of the executive committee.
SUPPLEMENTARY PROCEEDINGS
LIVE STOCK FARMING AND SOIL FERTILITY.
BY F. B. MUMFORD, _Of the University of Missouri_
The agricultural industry has been and will continue to be the greatest
and most fundamental industry in the economic life of the American
nation. Not only does agriculture supply the means of livelihood to
a larger number of people than any other calling, but because of its
intimate relation to many other arts, it occupies a most important place
among American industries. From reliable statistics, the materials of
manufacture drawn from agriculture constitute 42 per cent of all the
materials used in the manufacturing industries. Any conditions tending to
decrease these necessary materials of manufacture will react unfavorably
on this industry and result in hardship to great number of laborers
engaged in this occupation.
The dominant place of agriculture in the commercial and economic life
of the Nation is indicated by the enormous aggregate wealth invested in
agricultural enterprises. In 1910, there was invested in lands, buildings
and equipment used in agricultural pursuits $36,703,418,000. The value
of agricultural products for the one year of 1910, according to the
Secretary of Agriculture, was $8,926,000,000. A sum so large that the
human mind is unable to grasp its real significance.
All this enormous wealth comes directly from the soil. Any factors which
tend to diminish the productiveness of this fundamental resource are of
national concern.
The fertility of the soil is not inexhaustible, it is not
self-perpetuating. Soil fertility can be mined out of the soil as coal
can be mined out of the earth. When the fertility of soils has decreased
beyond a certain point, then the cost of cultivation becomes too great,
and farming becomes unprofitable and we may have abandoned farms. This
fact has been repeatedly demonstrated in the history of ancient and
modern agriculture.
But it is also true that soil fertility can be so utilized that the
continuous production of crops on the same land can be indefinitely
and successfully accomplished. It is also a fact that the conditions
of fertility are of such a nature that the natural productiveness of
the average soil can be greatly improved and the total production of
food crops largely increased. Improved systems of farming based on
perfectly definite scientific principles are now being practiced, which
are not only more profitable, but likewise maintain successfully the
productiveness of the soil.
A permanent agriculture can only be established through a rational system
of soil conservation. The most important factor in all agriculture is
the productiveness of the acre of land. No system of farming can endure
which is not profitable. Any scheme of conservation which aims to benefit
succeeding generations but fails to provide for the necessities of the
people now living on earth will surely fail.