Show NATIONAL foundations IN TIME op OF PEACE needed TO SOLVE OUR PROBLEMS we must plant forests ro rests letter better schools make homes for workers and rear the children close to nature menace of great cities at the commencement exercises of the michigan agricultural college on june 1000 1900 tin an sid address dress was delivered by george IL 11 maxwell dean of the gild of the talisman and executive chairman of the national irrigation association tho the keynote key note of the address of mr maxwell was the idea that wo we should bring to the constructive construct ho work flork of our social and commercial lire lit in titio of peace the same fervent fen cut patriot ism and devotion demotion to tile tho public service that would mould inspire the whole nation if wo we were in the throes of n bloody conflict with the people of some other country in illustration of tills this he be referred to our forest resources the wasteful improvidence with which wo we havo have swept tho the forests out of existence was contrasted with the elaborate care with which we ive inne have built fortifications and navies and equipped our ar armies and yet said mr maxwell wo we have hao little to fear from any foreign foe hut but we have hao much to tear fear from froin the wreck and ruin that will inevitably follow the alio destruction of our forests destroy the forests and over oer itil im areas lood flood and drouth will destroy tile the forms destroy the forests and you win w tit nt the same teruo destroy many of our most important industries by tile exhaustion ha or of our supply of wood or timber destroy a city by bombard bombardment mont or fire and it can call be 10 rebuilt in a few years more beautiful than ever destroy a forest on tho the plains and it may take more than a generation to restore it destroy a forest on the mountains where the soli soil Is thin and poor and it may talo take centuries to restore tile forest if it van can ever bo be done tit at nil all the destruction of the forest cover leaves leases the mountain sides bides so exl apo joed cd to erosion that tho the rocks locks are abc washed control tile tho legislature would use to get control of and destroyer oi every cry nere of 0 unreserved timber land in those territories the country owes a debt of gratitude tu to senator burroughs of your state for ills his old in ili preventing presenting that bill from passing tho the senate it seems incredible that cheso things should bo be dono done by congress but there are reasons for foi it in tile the first pit ice the 1 ea ale nt fit largo large take no interest in the preservation of their own property what Is eui bodi a business to la nob oilia odys business bu sings in tho the second place we have not yet ct as a people risen far enough above tl alo meio worship of realize that we are deliberately sac rif icing to the golden cult calf the re source s without which we vio cannot exist as a nation anil ana than tills this we are crowding our working people both bell native anti and foreign born into nn an environment where dioro congestion of population Is do de 1 our workers and rotting their physical lind moral elbro where will yon fetid any nn citizenship lit in the iho slum alum anti and tene mout districts of our to ahorn yon can call effectively appeal for help bell to stop the waste wast 0 of our forests they know nothing about it and caro care loss less tile tho first need of any nation Is tin nn intelligent citizenship and the slums and tenements of our great cities tire are mael maelstroms stroms into which the citizenship of tho the country Is being drawn dran to its destruct destruction lun in a steadily iea dlly increasing volume we are suffering buffering just now from a spasm of national hysteria because what lobody everybody po body who over ever took look tile trouble to go find and look know knew long ago tho the revolting conditions under which tho the great packers of chicago hove been operating their plants and because been n so diseased ment meat has been sold fur for food tint you vou may draw tile tho worst picture that lint 3 your our imagination can point paint of the horrors of the slaughtering and packing of meat in those establishments find nothing you can imagine equals the horror of blighting tile tho lives of thousands of children who tire aio condemned to live anti and grow up in the foul physical social and moral miasma that permeates tile whole aluni district of Packing town it Is a national disgrace and Is bound to prove a national curie clime there la Is only one remedy for cor those C K 4 nil 1 jay rj 4 7 A 1 I 1 bijj V DESTROY arid ann FORESTS AND FLOOD AND WILL DESTROY THE FARMS bare of soli soil and r reforestation becomes impossible wo are told by exports experts and no ono one contradicts the statement that at the present rate of consumption our entire forest resources will bo be exhausted in less than forty years I 1 hinc have recently seen been it hunted nt at thirty ave nag years 3 ears if wo we tire to guard against this national danger the timber and stone law must bo be repeated repealed and till nl public timber linds lands included lit in permanent forest reserves tho the title to tho the land forever retained ly by the N national government stump aeo only of wo matured timber sold mid and young timber preserved for future cutting so that the forests will be perpetuated by right use and tile tho national government must by the reservation or put pui chase of existing forest lands and the planting of now new forests create in every state national forest plantations from which through nil all tho the years lears to conic come a sufficient clent supply of wood and timber can be harvested to supply tile tho needs of tho people of ench state from tile tho dorest Plan plantations tationa in that state unless we take time by tho the forelock the next generation will see thu tho united states practically a treeless nation without wood or timber for tile the uses of our people und devastated year ear after year liy by ruinous at al really leady the scarcity of timber Is being felt and every man who builds it home must pay the increased luct cased cost in michigan I 1 understand that somo of your sour most important industries are crippled by the shortage of timber and yot in tile face of this condition Is nothing more than alian a crisis the hie complete destruction st of ono one of our greatest gica test re ic sources as n nation congress busies itself with a multitude of matters of infinitely loii less importance and refi to repeal the timber and stone itono act under which the last rom nanta of our unreserved national forest lands tire being red fed into tho the insatiable maw m iw of the timber speculators for less that than one tenth of their actual value wo we tire are told by the men lit in congress who make janke committees and shape legislation that the money cannot lie bel spared to ne dequire quIre and save sac from destruction st tho the Cala talaveras calaveras veras ilig brcci in california or to create the white mountain and appalachian forest ite serves and preserve their forest resources and save sao the water power used in the manufacturing industries of new Engla angland ild and alad the south and the same men in tile the same moment refuse to stop the most shameless waste of a nations resources resource that ever disgraced a national lawmaking body by refusing to repeal tho the timber and stone act not only tills this but in arizona and now mexico where the forests foresta tire are the very life of tile country tho the joint statehood dill bill proposed to give a float boat ing grant of several million acres which the land speculators specula tord who would horrible condi conditions tiong of life for tile tho children and that Is to pet got tile tho work ing people ix opec and their children dill dren out of the slums and into the lie suburbs where they can lne bave sunshine and fresh air and pure and nourishing food from a home garden let us ua realize once for nil all that this problem of the children of our working ili people Is our greatest Krei national problem pi mul and po go at its solution with tho abe simo same patriotic and self sacrificing in national heroism that led the of japan to pc go into battlo te with their lives lit in their lands hands like ilac hand grenades to throw tit at tho the enemy thit that sought to crush out their notional national life let us catch the inspiration of the slogan tl of the Home crofters tors movement in this country and never cease our work until wo we have hac every child in a garden every mother in a find and ual industrial independence co for every worker lit in a blouio of lla hla own owa on tho the land the creed and platform of tile Ilonie crofter tells how bow it amny bo be dono done and anyone who wants a copy of it cali ill get it without charge by bonding a postal cam addressed to me at tile I 1 fisher ashir building in chicago the great cities tire are our most serious menace in this country our greatest grea ant lonal danger lies ill in the centralization of wealth and population and trade and industry tile hope or of tho n nation atlon Is in the farm and suburban homo home and in the country and suburban town and village let us its go seriously to work to creato create and them let every student who poca goes out from thlu splendid institution po go with the spirit of a I 1 soldier to fight the great battles of peace for higher national ideals for a purer public service for the premer preservation of our national resource i for n 1 I betti better r educational system find and above and beyond nil all for the multiplication of homes on the abe land where tile tho children can grow row to manhood and womanhood bood in the uplifting environment viron ment of a rural community where tho the evil influences of the cities can bo be forever kept at bay in such ju an children ca can it bo be reared to citizenship next to nature from whence they can draw health and vigor both moral and physical for tho the discharge Uc harge of nit nil the duties of life it Is not in fix the cities that this country now needs the service of the flower flow er of its patriotic manhood nian hooL it la Is lit in the country where the great national problem of the improvement of tile rural life alfo la Is to bo be solved where moro moio beautiful towns and villages und bettor better roads tire anre to be built letter better schools to be established telephones and trolley lines constructed and nil all the influences put to work that will socialize soc lalle lIze the country and drive away tho the isolation and hardships that wore were formerly its ita drawbacks we must not only stop and reverse everse tile tho great title of population that ann to boon been drifting from tho the country to tho the cities wo must decentralize industry and trade ns its well ivell ns is population the that la Is latent lit in every heart enit find in an outlet lit in every country town and village in the work of village improvement of creating till 1111 environment for human lift alfo where the highest utility anti ami beauty will surround tile entire community unity annl where it 11 local civic loyalty will prevail that will anchor the people to their own hearthstone rind where they will live content under their own vine and ami fig tree this local pride and lovo love of home anil and tho the hoino bonio town Is ono one of tit th strongest stron Rest of human feelings when once it Is deeply planted it should bo be cultivated lit in overy every possible way nothing ifil bo loft left undone to tn s t or cement it every elvery member of such a i community should cultivate a s spirit of comradeship find and co to advance tile general welfare of all the merchant tho the small tradesman the country editor tile church should nil all work together to that end nome homo industry should bo be encouraged wd in every possible way tile whole community should operate cooperate co to protect and stimulate the trado trade of the town tho the home paper should bo be liberally patronized there Is no one thing capable of more far reaching and en during influence for rood good dhati the country 0 11 press ono one of tile most unc unfortunate fortunate fortun nto of modern influences lifts lias been the trend of commercial evolution that lia iiii borne so heavily on tile tha country editor by tile development of tile the metropolitan family monthly and inai all order papers tilled with temptation for tile the rural people to stimulate the centralization of wealth anil and trade in tile the cities by supplying their ordinary need from fur far distant and practically unknown sources tilts till trend toward tile the centralization of trade and industry lit in tho the great cities walks tilde by side with the centralization of wealth and population us as it to our national future the danger it threatens threaten can only bo be obviated by people at large to a re rc of it the great central and controlling thought that must rise above nil all others us its a national ideal Is iq till con atlon that the real bulwarks bulwa of oc the nation tire arc the of its citizens and that the first tIl thought DlIght and highest ambition of mory every young oung man mail should bo be to establish it HOME a acir sus biome on oil tit alii land whore where ho can bo be independent and enjoy tile real leal hap happl pille nea As of a well spent lire and not make the ini mistake stake that brings lir liisa 41 apis and nil misery sery to so no ninny of setting sett ln up tile accumulation ac of si I 1 fortune f as the goal of lils lila llfra it Is a lure line which of necessity must wreck t lit in order that ti a few may succeed the nian mail who ho varna enough to live c comfortably without luxury at as fiery every intelligent and industrious dus dust tilous rious man can who bo has sufficient clent practical education arid who does ills duty to himself ula his family lili ills frien friends dx ills country and to lium nitty Is 3 tiro the man who really succeeds in ili lifo and who gets the greatest find and satisfaction out of it to create a 1 I human character of tl the I 1 lilg highest liest type with everything that implies Is the most admirable of all it human and that every evers man and woman must and can call do for then themselves sa s1 ves A t ili I 1 e like this demands strong nien men orent boarts true faith and reada hands I 1 miti men whom the lio lust of office does not cot kill afen ifen mc n whom me boll of onico cannot buy M alin aliu I 1 i opinion ant it a will on men v who u ho have bare honor bonor men inen who will leoj not lie men who con can lefore a demagogue and danan damn lilg las treacherous flatteries flat teries without winking tall men iun sun crowned who live above the fog fg lu ill public duty awl and in private 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