The great work of material development accomplished in the past has been
done very largely by private capital and enterprise. Doubtless this must
be the chief reliance for progress in the future. We should realize,
however, that this method has involved losses as well as gains, for the
Nation has sometimes been too prodigal in offering its natural resources
as an inducement to private effort. Not only so, but with the exhaustion
of the free public lands in our great central valleys--the most
remarkable natural heritage that ever fell into the lap of a young
nation--conditions of home making and settlement have radically changed.
There can be do doubt that there is an important sphere of action which
the Government must occupy if we are to go steadily forward with the
work of continental conquest, and all it implies to the future of the
Nation, but in suggesting practicable steps of progress at this time I
do not forget the burden of taxation which confronts our people nor the
delicate and difficult task which Congress is called upon to perform in
trying to keep the national outgo within the national income. Hence, I
am now suggesting such constructive things as the Government may be able
to do through the exercise of its powers of supervision and direction
and with the smallest possible outlay of money.
Under this head I put, first, the matter of suburban homes for wage
earners; second, reclamation of desert, overflow, and cut-over areas,
together with improvement of abandoned farms, under a system of district
organization which may be made to finance itself; third, cooperation
with various States in the work of internal development.