CLOSING SESSION.

President White—Ladies and Gentlemen of the third National Conservation Congress will now come to order. I will introduce as the first speaker Prof. William Hoynes, Professor of Law at Notre Dame University.

Professor Hoynes—Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: In the limited time at my disposal, aware as I am that Senator Owen and Mr. Bryan are to follow, I recognize the need of brevity, and though I shall contend that the conservation movement is but the fulfillment of a natural impulse or instinctive privilege as old as the human race, yet I shall do so in as few words as practicable. In short, what I have to say may be viewed in a threefold aspect, as conservation in respect to soil fertility, conservation in respect to waste and extravagance in the affairs of daily life and the utility of education as a means of furthering the efficacy of conservation and common sense in these matters.

As viewed by many the principle of conservation is of recent origin. But this is a mistake. It is as old as mankind. In reality it amounts simply to the natural protest of reason and experience against waste and extravagance. It originated simultaneously with the consciousness of the need of food, raiment and shelter for the protection and preservation of life.

As men struggled in the primitive ages to procure food for sustenance, the pelts of animals to cover their bodies and the shelter of caves or rudely constructed huts to protect them from the rigors of the elements and the incursions of prowling beasts and venomous reptiles, they at the same time realized the indispensableness of these things and the necessity and wisdom of conserving them.

As in the case of our own Indians, the struggle they made to obtain the necessaries of life taught them to be saving of what they procured in that line and to be vigilant in providing for the future. They took no more fish from the waters of lake or river than seemed necessary for actual use, they did not destroy wantonly the wild creatures of the forest, and the denizens of the air were free from trap and arrow beyond the range of hunger and necessity. Thus they conserved carefully the sources of their food supply, and the pathetic story of a Hiawatha had rarely to be told.

It was only on the coming of the white man, who did not specially rely upon such means of livelihood, that the wild creatures of the air, forest, prairie, plain, lake and river were heedlessly slaughtered, or wantonly destroyed in sport, or driven to hiding places in swamp or mountain.

It may thus be seen that when things are deemed essential to the maintenance of life the lesson of care in using and conservation in protecting and preserving them is brought home to the comprehension and firmly fixed in mind and habit. But when, on the other hand, things appear to be measurably superfluous or easy of acquisition, the sense of their value becomes abated and the spur of conservation blunted.

And so with the land, which to civilized man is the source of life’s sustenance and the basis of progress and prosperity. Heretofore in abundance and easily procured at moderate cost or for the mere taking of it under the homestead law, but little attention was bestowed upon the preservation of its fertility. When there came manifest and pressing occasion for keeping it up by the restoration of its exhausted elements the owners sold it for whatever it would bring and migrated to the easily procurable new lands of the great West. But now this movement has met with a decided check, for there is hardly any more arable free or cheap land to be had. The most desirable government land has been taken by settlers under the homestead law, and that which has been reclaimed under the irrigation system is held at comparatively startling prices. Thus exists a condition which is measurably responsible for the overflow of nearly a million of our people into the British possessions on the North, actuated by the lure of virgin soil and cheap lands. And even this door is now less ajar through the taking by first corners of the choicest holdings and the failure of our reciprocity negotiations.

The comparatively impoverished lands sold by those who sought new homes in the West were usually purchased by persons who knew little about farming, or took them as an experiment or for speculative purposes, and placed tenants on them—tenants whose chief aim was, not to restore the fertility of the soil, but to make it yield all the profit possible with the least possible outlay of money and labor.

But a halt has been called in this state of things, and mainly so, as it seems to us, through the instrumentality of the many agricultural boards, alliances and societies, not to mention the Grange and Department of Agriculture, that appear to have united or coöperated in the organization of this great conservation movement. There is a marked tendency, as observers must admit, to look backward to the neglected lands and abandoned farms. These are being sought again by the returning pioneers of the West or their descendants, and so probably to a greater extent relatively in the South than in the East. This counter-movement is unmistakable and has led to a notable and increasing advance in the prices of these lands during the past decade. The cause lies not alone in the acquisition by settlers of all the desirable free and cheap lands of the West, but also in the expected restoration of soil fertility in the South and East.

To this end the deliberations of the present Conservation Congress have in large measure justly and wisely tended. Much has been said, and well said, touching the study and utilization of scientific means to restore soil fertility in the case of impoverished lands throughout the country. It is a subject of paramount importance. It points to the possibility of increasing at least twofold the productiveness of our present acreage.

It will not be considered as digressing if I refer in this connection to the Agricultural Department at Washington and the state agricultural colleges, boards and societies as having conferred incalculable benefit through work in this line on the people and the country. Well would it be, too, if the suggestion of President Taft, made in the course of his address in this hall last Monday evening, could be realized and the Agricultural Department represented among the people by an intelligent and practical farmer in each county of the several states. It would bring directly to the notice of farming communities the most approved means of cultivating the soil and lead to wholesome emulation in restoring its fertility and insuring abundant crops.

I am strongly optimistic in regard to the natural resources of the country and would not venture to set bounds to the possibilities of our soil and climate. We know historically that for thousands of years untold millions of people have lived on the same land in China, Japan, Egypt and Europe. They have treated it as a living thing, feeding it with the elements requisite for its productiveness. So judiciously and systematically has this been done that in some quarters it yields twice as much to the acre as the average of our own land. I venture to predict, however, that the present movement toward soil enrichment will not fall short of attaining to a like standard of productiveness.

While the restoration of soil fertility has fittingly been the dominant theme of these proceedings, I am pleased to observe that they have taken a much wider range. Thus are vastly broadened the activities and usefulness of this body, and correspondingly is strengthened its claim upon the confidence, approval and coöperation of the public.

So much has been said in relation to the conservation of health, morality, religion, municipal government, deep waterways and the public welfare that it would be superfluous, even if time permitted, to touch again upon these subjects.

I may be pardoned, however, for referring somewhat specifically to education in the light of its saving and helpful influence. It inquires into, searchingly examines and intelligently determines what to do in the practical phases of conservation. It penetrates proposed plans and theories and warns against mistakes, waste and extravagance.

With the diversification and expansion of labor in the industrial domain its products became marvelously varied in form and utility. With the machinery which labor invented and introduced one man could accomplish tenfold as much in a given time as could previously be done by hand. The things produced by labor were thus enormously multiplied and cheapened, and this very fact, as in the case of land superabundance, led to deplorable waste and senseless extravagance.

Ignorance may appropriately be called the mother of these evils. Education is the antithesis of ignorance and may be depended upon to curb them. Ignorance is imitative rather than original, and the wastefulness attendant upon it grows with the expansion of luxury. The wage or income of unfortunates upon whom it has set its mark usually passes through their hands as freely as water through a conduit, often going for the purchase of things unnecessary and tawdry, if not actually harmful.

But they are not alone in this regard. It happens that no matter what may be the income of some men it goes promptly forth again on its merry round, and they are as poor at the end of the month or year as they were at its beginning. The cause ordinarily lies in absurd vanity or inexcusable wastefulness and argues lack of self-control and common sense.

Edison is credited with having recently stated as the result of his observations abroad that a French family could live comfortably on what an American family throws away. Other travelers have spoken to like effect, but with remarks applicable to Europe generally. It must be admitted, however, that the French rank first in this respect or in the practical application of domestic science and economy. They have evidently learned to apply the principle of conservation in the management of kitchen, dining room, household and purchases in the market. Were we to use like foresight, discrimination and economy the cost of living might be reduced from one-third to one-half. Would not this be an easily achievable and reasonably satisfactory solution of the harassing problem of high prices?

The knowledge that creditably adorns the mind and makes for independence should show the wisdom of such economy and not be humiliated by betrayal into imitation of the reckless extravagance characterizing the vulgar rich in pomp, dress and prandial excesses. Intelligently and sagaciously inculcated along these lines, such knowledge would revolt at the conditions indicated. To this end education of wider scope and a more practical turn is needed. It should be of a nature capable of grappling successfully with such problems and conditions.

Education, genuine and practical, is the most precious of possessions, surpassing in value to honorable and useful manhood all the vulgar hoards of selfish and pleasure-seeking wealth. True education teaches independence and self-respect and scorns temptation to compete with showy vulgarism in dress, dining and deportment. It is the key that unlocks the arcana of knowledge and surpasses all the dross of mine or mountain in bringing man into soulful communion with God. It makes clearer and more acceptable the duties we owe to country and to one another. It teaches courage in adversity and fortitude in affliction. It is a light that penetrates the gloom of doubt and makes plain the path of honor and usefulness. It illuminates in all directions the activities of this great movement and I congratulate you upon having recognized the fact and so generously acclaimed it in the proceedings of this Congress. (Applause)

President White—I now take pleasure in introducing to the audience United States Senator Robert L. Owen of Oklahoma. (Applause)

Senator Owen—Ladies and gentlemen, and delegates of the Conservation Congress, when called on to pay my respects to this great meeting for the purpose of bringing about a public sentiment which should sustain the conservation movement, I felt in duty bound to respond, and for that reason I delayed my departure from this city to spend a few moments to present my respects, my sympathies, and my support to this movement. (Applause) I believe in the conservation of our national resources, and I believe that no government should go beyond the sentiment of the people, of the Republic, in the direction of conservation, or of any other important progressive policy. (Applause) This audience, therefore, and this Congress, have a duty to perform, and that duty is to sustain public opinion upon these important matters, and give it a concrete form, that will make its impress upon the legislative and administrative branches of this government. I believe in the conservation of our forests; in the conservation of our land; the reclamation of arid lands; the reclamation of swamp lands; making accessible the lands that we have, by good roads and by the improvement of waterways. I believe in the conservation of our water powers, that they shall not pass into private hands for speculative purposes, but I believe above and beyond all in every form of conservation that may be well discussed. I believe in the conservation, above all other things, of human life and human efficiency. (Applause) It was for that reason that I took occasion to draft a bill, providing for a department of health with a secretary in the cabinet at the head of it. (Applause) And I was actuated to do that by the pitiful history which we had recorded in the last great war, the war with Spain. I remember so well that over 900 of our chosen young men, those who had offered their lives upon the altar of patriotism, those who were willing to fight the battles of the Republic, instead of being able to die in the service of their country upon the battle field, facing a hostile foe, were laid in their graves by a malignant disease, at Chickamauga. We lost nearly a thousand of our best men at Chickamauga. And why? Because of the gross, unspeakable ignorance of those who were charged with the preservation of the lives of those young men. (Applause) It is a noted fact that the flies came from the cesspools where the offal and waste of the camp was thrown, came from those cesspools, with the slime on their feet, with typhoid germs on their feet to poison the chosen youth of our land by thousands. That is not only a national tragedy, it is a national humiliation, and it is a disgrace to this Nation. Therefore I desire, together with thousands of other men, to put an end to that sort of thing by a department of health. I remember Herman Biggs’ map of lower New York where in a single house twenty-three cases of tuberculosis were recorded, and in the house next to it eighteen cases. So that those houses where the poor workmen go, without notice, were in fact nothing but charnal houses where they went to their death. We ought not, in a civilized nation, to permit that to continue. And I glory in the man who has been trying to preserve the health of this Nation. I glory in our magnificent Dr. Wiley. (Applause) And I feel a sense of personal happiness that the millions of microbes that move and have their being in impure food and drinks, did not get Wiley’s goat. (Applause)

I am reminded in this connection of one of the stories of the champion of health, Mr. Lutz, of Indiana. It is called the story of the “Little Mother and the Fat Hog.” There was a little mother in Indiana. She was only twenty-three years old. She had three children. She began to notice that she was feeling ill, that the children, in whom she had had great happiness, were commencing to worry her, and become a care. She knew that she must be sick, and she went to the doctor. He looked at her and said, “You are all run down.” He gave a prescription in Latin. It was a little ginger, and a little alcohol, and a little water and some other things. She paid a dollar for it at the drug store, and she took it, but did not get well. She checked her strength out in a little while, and then one day she felt a sharp pain in her breast, a coughing spell came on and putting her handkerchief to her mouth, it became covered with blood. She had a hemorrhage. She sat down and wrote a letter to the secretary of health of Indiana: “My dear sir:—I am a little mother of Indiana. I have three children, I would like to raise to be good citizens of Indiana. I have just had a hemorrhage. Can you tell me what to do or where to go, so that I may get well? I do not want to die now.” He wrote her back an official letter right away in typewriting, and said something like this: “My dear madam, the state of Indiana does not make any provision for a case like you have described, but in case you die the state of Indiana will take care of your three children until some good people can be found who will take them from the asylum. Yours respectfully, Secretary.” (Applause)

A fat hog squealed in the back yard of a man, and the hired man looked at him and he said, “He has got the cholera.” The man said, “Telegraph to Uncle Jimmy Wilson right away.” And he did. And a man came with a little black satchel marked D. V. S., with a bunch of serum in one hand and a syringe in the other, and he shot a load into the hog and the hog got well. MORAL: Be a hog and worth saving. (Applause)

Now, last year as a United States Senator from Oklahoma, I had the opportunity and I sent out 25,000 bulletins on how to take care of the hog. And I didn’t have a single bulletin on how to take care of babies. I believe that the babies and the youth of this land ought to be given the preference, if necessary, over the swine family. (Applause) In New Zealand they have a death rate of 9.5 per thousand. In this Republic, where we have the fancy that we know more than other people do, and where it is largely a matter of fancy and not one of reality, we have a death rate of 16.5 to the thousand. In other words we lose by death from preventable causes seven persons to the thousand that we might save. That makes a vast army of 630,000 human beings who march to their graves every year from preventable causes. And we have on an average nearly three millions of people who are sick on an average throughout the United States from preventable causes. A careful calculation on a money basis, putting each individual as worth $1,700 apiece, and I do not think that is a high estimate for an American—it would make a loss of four thousand million to this Republic every year. And I think that is worth conserving. (Applause) Therefore in the few moments which I have at my disposal I call the attention of this great audience to its duty as American citizens, and I call the attention of this great Conservation Congress to its duty to this Republic to put on record a declaration in favor of a department of health. I thank you for your attention. (Applause)

President White—Ladies and gentlemen, I now take pleasure in presenting to you an American citizen who in all this broad land requires no introduction. (Applause)

Mr. Bryan—Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I am sure that whatever you may think of my speech you will agree with me that I was justified in asking you to listen to these other speakers. (Applause) I believe in the Conservation Congress. The good that it does is difficult to calculate. How many of the thousands who are assembled tonight have given to the subject of conservation the thought or study that it deserves. The arguments that are presented at such a meeting as this help make up the public opinion that controls our governments, state and national. A large number of subjects are brought before a Congress for its attention. The speeches made present the subject from different points of view, and each one turns upon the subject the light of his intelligence, and the warmth of his heart. When we go from such a meeting, we go enlightened, and with our views enlarged. We go prepared to communicate to others something of the information that we have received, and to impart to them something of the zeal that we feel. A number of subjects have been presented here, and I am sure that this meeting will be worth all that it has cost those who have brought it about or participated in it.

Take the thought, for instance, that has been presented by Senator Owen. I am so glad that I insisted upon his speaking, for his ability and public spirit are only equaled by his modesty, and if I had not insisted, I am afraid you would have lost the benefit of the speech that he has delivered. (Applause) And yet what one of us will forget the splendid illustration that he has given us in the story told of the difference we make between the human being with a priceless soul and the animal that can be converted into dollars and cents on demand. (Applause) We need to have this matter brought to our attention, and I venture the assertion that there is not one present in this audience that will not go from this meeting tonight with the conviction that our Nation could afford to subtract a little from its appropriations intended to prepare us to kill people, and spend the money in the preservation of human life. (Applause) Is it not strange how much more interest we can feel in the battleship and in the new gun than we feel in the preservation of the life and health of those about us? We need a speech like this to wake our consciences to our own neglect, and to give us a better idea of proportion when we look at things about us.

You heard last night a speech upon public health from one who has done so much to arouse the Nation to the unspeakable iniquity of the adulteration of food. Who will estimate the benefit of such a speech as that delivered to an audience with such intelligence as this audience represents?

AGRICULTURAL EXPERTS.

The President presented, as I understand it, a thought that has been emphasized today. The idea that there should be in every agricultural county of the Nation a representative of the Government, an expert on agriculture, to assist the people of that community to a better and more intelligent production of the crops to which the soil and climate are adapted. An idea like that needs only to be presented in order to be accepted and approved. The fact is that what we need is instruction. In Leeds, England, a year ago, I was speaking at a dinner in the mayor’s office. I was emphasizing the fact that our difficulties and controversies are largely due to misunderstandings and that misunderstandings are largely due to a lack of acquaintance with each other, and there flashed into my mind that quotation from Holy Writ, the last prayer of our Savior: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And I was impressed, as I had never been before, with the fact that ignorance is a large cause of sin. It is ignorance that we have to combat; when the people are once enlightened and understand a subject, you can trust their patriotism, their good intent, and their sense of justice. (Applause) These meetings help by instructing, and we go from them not only with larger information, but with a stronger determination to do our part in the correction of evils that need a remedy. As I sat tonight and listened to those who spoke before me, a thought came into my mind, and I venture to impart it to you. It is a proverb of Solomon’s; I do not know of a better motto for the conservation movement. It was suggested by the gentleman from Indiana that necessity compels us to conserve the Nation’s resources when we become aware that they are being impoverished, and I thought of this proverb of Solomon’s: “The wise man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself, but the foolish pass on and are punished.” What is conservation except looking ahead, the making of provision against coming dangers that may be prevented? Wisdom manifests itself in foresight. If we had had more foresight we would not have need of as much energy as is required today to protect that which is being wasted. I suggest, therefore, as a proper motto for the conservationists this wise saying of Solomon, “The wise man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself, but the foolish pass on and are punished.” (Applause)

Let me gather up some of the scattered threads of the discussion to which the delegates have listened. I am not an expert in any part of this conservation work. I confess that I am one who has been blind, during a part of my life, to the needs that are now so clearly recognized. I have had work that has engrossed my attention; I have been busy, but not with matters of conservation such as have been discussed. Possibly I represent some in the audience who have not had their attention turned to these subjects. I am grateful to those who have brought me into contact with this information, and I shall endeavor to make up for lost time by larger effort along these lines. (Applause)

The subject has grown upon me as I have examined it, and have listened to 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:

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.