Salt Lake Telegram | 1935-05-21 | Page 4 | That Mississippi Valley Desert

That Mississippi Valley D Desert Deserf sert prediction that in years the middle THE west will willbe be be a desert its big cities standing only as steel skeletons skeletons' surrounded by dust piles has brought swift ridicule from both laymen and scientists This of course presents the picture picture pic plc- ture at bec because use something will be done to stop any such totality of destruction But Morris L. L Cooke of Philadelphia an eminent en engineer engineer en- en and arid chairman of t the e Mississippi valley committee warns of the eal real seriousness of soil erosion and its causes U Unless ess it is stopped he says ais we we ha have e only about foo years of virile national existence ahead of us In another 50 years he says w we shall have only acres of really fertile soil if present wastage goes on unchecked It is his idea that soil preservation is as urgent a national problem as economic and financial recovery The situation is a direct outgrowth of our policy y toward agricultural land Of all natural resources resources with which this country was blessed its soil has been probably the richest In its best aspect the individualism of our agriculture has built up a social class unique in agricultural history We Ve have no peasantry instead we have a class of men of independent self reliance following a way of life that has produced much happiness and that has made our great democratic experiment workable On the other hand we have permitted this greatest of our natural assets to be used wastefully without without without with with- out regard for the future or for the welfare of the country as a whole We have let our soil be used in such way that wind and water have permanently ruined enormous areas and threaten the ruin of even larger areas What we need is to find some sort of middle co course which will conserve the good goodside side of our rural individualism and put a curb on the bad side We dont don't want collective farming We dont don't want a system of regimentation under which the farmer must ask permission of Washington before he puts his plow into the ground We Wedo Wedo Wedo do want to save that rural independence which has bas been productive of human values We must insist that farm land be used with the national welfare in mind We Ve need in intelligent intelligent intelligent in- in conservation measures which will en enable enable enable en- en able us to hand down a farmland just as broad and rich as it always has been We Ve must stop the wastage which if unchecked would lead to toa toa a progressive national decline