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About Oregon City courier. (Oregon City, Or.) 1902-1919 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 24, 1905)
tion from Japan has not yet been learned, uud when President House. volt falls to see lt.iind demands only more imttle snips, as tlie lesson of the Ki'oat sea light which lias just been fought, he unfortunately diverts the minus ot tlie people or this country from facts of supreme and overshad owing importance, widen should be burned into tlie public mind as by a stroke of lightning from every victory won by tlie Japanese. That lesson is tlie profoundly Im portant fact that the Japanese man, the unit of her national strength, is the product of a mode of life and aa environment which combines tlie physical strength which eomes only from the rural life from living next to nature with the mental activity and keenness which come from con stant contact with his fellowrueu the community life. A Nation of Gardeners. The Japanese are not a nation of fanners, as we understand the word. They are a nation of gardeners. There Is neither Isolation nor conges tion in their life. They dwell, the great majority of them, not in great cities, but in closely settled rural com munities. The ranch and the tene ment are alike foreign to the life of the Japanese. The greatprlnclple that mustcontrol our own national development hence forth ia that the land shall be subdl-l vlded Into the smallest tracts from which one man's labor will sustain a family in comfort, and that every child, boy or girl, in the public schools should be so trained in those schools that it will know how to till such n tract of land for n livelihood. In other words, let us reproduce In this country the conditions so well described in an article from the Book lovers' Magazine for August, 100-1, from which we quote the following: "While Japan is cannonadingHs way to rank with Christian powers us u nor military omiipmeiit, nor manu facturing skill. Western nations will fail full v to grasp the secret of tin dynamic intensity of Japan today, aud will dangerously underestimate the formidable possibilities of the Greater Japan the Dal JSippon or tomorrow, until they begin to study seriously the agricultural triumphs of that empire. For Japan, more scientifically than uiiv other nation, past or present, has perfected the art of sending the roots of its civilization enaunngly into tue soil. "Progressive experts of blgh author ity throughout the Occident now ad mit that in till the annals of agri culture there is nothing that ever ap proached the scientific skill of Sunrise husbandry. Patient diligence, with knowledge of the chemistry of soil aad the physiology of plants, have yielded results that have astounded the most advanced agriculturists iu Western nations." The Safe Foundation. The creation of the conditions above described under which the people of a nation are rooted to the soil in homes of their own on the land, is not only good statesmanship and the highest patriotism, but It Is tlie only safe foun dation for an enduring national structure. TP ignore and neglect this founda tion while we build battleships, equip .irniiest mid annex islands and dig Isthmian canals, is as fatal a mistake i as it would he to build u twenty-story skyscraper in Chicago without any foundation but the mud of Lake Michigan. We need not muster out our armies, nor dismantle our battleships nor evacuate the Philippines, nor stop work on tlie Isthmian Canal, but the fact remains, as clear as tlie sun from an unclouded sky at noonday, that the attention of our people as n nation Im riveted on our naval and military af fairs and scliL'iues of foreign exploltu- For, iu fact, they are undeveloped. We have, as yet, hardly more than tickled the earth over this immense area. Our Own Country. When we compare Japan, with Its dense population, its wealth, its rev enues, its trade and commerce, Its national strength, with any section of our own country equal to it in area and natural resources, we are unitized at the great possibilities of future de velopment in our own country. The entire population of Jupan is about forty-five million, of which thirty million Is a farming population, and 'this vast population of thirty mil Ion farmers and their families Is sus tained on nineteen thousand square miles of Irrigated laud. There is no agriculture in Japan -but irrigated agriculture. They have learned that water is the greatest fertilizer known to nature, and save and utilize it with the same care that they use every other uvailable process for the fertili zation of their fields. Nineteen thousand square miles is an area about one hundred and thirty five miles square, and In a square in a corner of the State of Illinois, tlie com parative size of which to the rest of the State is shown on the accompany ing map, is susranieu a nation wnich. to the amazement of all other peoples on tlie earth, has sprung to the front as one of the great world powers. Source of Power, And the Ilome Aero farms or gar dons the rural homes of Japan are the source of Hint national power. Commenting on this, the author of tlie article in I lie August 1004 Book lovers' Magazine, quoted from above, says In that article: "From what its advanced agricult ure has made its plains to yield, Japan lias fid and clothed and educated its multiplying masses, fast ncaring the H T H O A r u p e L 0 W A chicaA JL--ii x y I B 2 j --r"r,iNcoiir KBroBSBSEa io H ' n " X. .Nmto j .wvA (wCSf tN S A S j tf f r i i o X U-v 0 c k v J . llf&-- j M t tU N E S V' .NCR j" U. J? j ; Yt o R.c THE MIDDLE WEST. . The black aquaro la the above map represents the total area ot cultlviitod laud In Japan, supporting thirty millions of egf lcultural people. lion, to the disregard and neglect of I fifty million figure; it has stacked up the vastly more important Droblem of irold in lis treasury, has wealed a first-class fighting nation, It Is not neg lecting Its tields of rice, gouge, millet and mujl, its groves of mulberry and bamboo, its priceless plots of tea and mitsiiniata shrubs, and its niultl-niil-llou gardens of berries, vegetables, fruits and Mowers. The thousands of patriots that have marched to the front have not thinned the ranks of the mightier hosts tilling the soli. Thirty million farmers are gathering ample harvests In the diminutive tields of Japan. Husbandry Dlenlfled. "For twenty-live centuries the Sun rise sovereigns have dlgnilled hus bandry us the most important and most honorable industrial calling in tlie empire, and now more than sixty per cent of the Mikado's subjects till with Incomparable skill the limited soil of bis Islands, j'The name diligent genius that ena bles a landscape gardener in Japan to compass within a few square yards of laud a forest, a bridge-spanned ntreain, a water-fall aud lake, a chain of ter raced hills, gardens and chrysanthe mums, hyacinths, peonies and pinks, a lieelling crag crowned with a dwarfed conifer, and through all tlie dainty park meandering paths, with here a shrine and there a dainty summer bouse, has made it possible for the far mers of the empire to build up on less than nineteen thousand square miles of arable land the most remarkable agricultural nallou the world lias known. If all the tillable acres of Japan were merged into one Held, a man in an automobile, traveling at the rate of fifty miles an hour, could skirt the entire perimeter of arable Japan in eleven hours. Upon this narrow freehold Japan has reared a nation of imperial power, which Is determined to enlov comrierclal preeminence over all the world of wealth and opportu nity from Siberia to Slam and already, by the force of nrnis. Is driving from the shores of Asia the greatest mon archy of Kurope. Roots In the Soil. The secret of the success of the lit tle Uaybreak Kingdom has been a mysterv to many students of nations. Patriotism does not explain the riddle of its strengtli, neither cun commerce, building men at home, and creating a citizenship which will b an enduring national foundation forever, and en larging our home markets, which will be unatVected by any foreign complica tions or trade disturbances. The attention of our people of late has been so much absorbed by the problems of our export trade, that we overlook the fact that the United Stales today manufactures annually a product aggregating in total value the combined manufactured product of the three other greatest manufactur ing nations of the world. England, France and tierniany, and we con sume ninety-two per cent of our entire annually manufactured products at home. Create Farm Homes. And if every farm in tlie United States were cut in two, and a new homo created on it so that the number of farm homes, ami the capital in vested in. and labor devoted to agri culture throughout the entire United States, were thus doubled, the result would be nu enlargement of our popu lation, our home market for manu factures, and our power as a nation, almost beyond the power of the imag ination to picture to the mind. It Is to the development of its vast agricultural resources aud the creation of a closely settled population of far mers aud gardeners, who will culti vate the soil by the most intensive methods, that tlie Middle West must look If it Is to achieve its full destiny lu wealth, power and population. The resources of the great territory extending westward from the crest of the Alleghany Mountains to the one hundredth meridian the edge of the arid region and from the sources of the Mississippi liiver on the north to its outlet to the tiulf on tlie south, are so largely agricultural that It offers the Ideal section of the earth for the development of a nation along the lines of Japanese development, with ti preponderating rural population. There is no other section of the world's surface where latent agricul tural resources of such Inexhaustible richness aud extent lie practically undeveloped. great merchant marine, has captureda growing share of European commerce, lias already outmarshaled commercial America oil the Pacific, has crowded its cities with roaring factories, and has given costly and triumphant equip ment to its aggressive Hoots and regi ments. And it lias accomplished all this out of tlie prolit of harvests gleaned from a farm area scarcely large enough to afford storage room for the agricultural machinery iu use in the United States." Could there be a more striking proof of the oft-quoted words of David Starr Jordan, that: "Stability of national character goes with llruiuess of foot-hold on the soil.'' Comparison of Areas. Now coinpifre Japan and Its devel opment with the possibilities of devel opment in the Middle West. The area of all the islands compris ing the F.iupire of Japan is 147,tioo square miles; of this only 10,000 square miles is available for agricult ure, for every available acre in that country Is cultivated. The total combined area of Wiscon sin, Illinois and Indiana is 110,300 square miles, and it Is safe to say that considerably more than half of this area probably more than two thirds is capable of as close a cultivation, and of sustaining as dense a popula tion per square mile as the cultivated area of Japan. The water with which to Irrigate it now runs to waste. The water which Chicago turns Into her drainage canal, instead of producing ngricult"ral wealth by irrigating the lands of Illi nois, produces law suits with St. Louis because It runs to waste past that city to the Gulf of Mexico. The time will come when Irrigated agriculture In the Middle West will absorb every drop of water falliug within that territory. And when the irrigation canals and thp irrigated farms of the Middle West will dry up the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers. Just as irrigation in the West has dried up Tulare" Lake lu California, aud is rapidly drying up the Great Salt Lake lu Utah, the iioods of the Mississippi aud its tribu taries will be led out through a net work of canals, large and small, aud stored in reservoirs, and every drop devoted to benellclal use, a use that will be so valuable that its value for navigation will count for nothing in comparison, it may be a great manv years before this will happen, but it is certain to come, in no other way can the vast population with which this country will teem within a few hundred years be provided with the tood to sustain it. Japan, from her total area of 117, 055 square miles, of which only 10,000 are cultivated, collected an annual revenue bet ore the war with Itussia began of $121,433,725, aud her exports amounted to $124,208,023. The average population per snuare mile of Japan is 200.70, but only one- seveutu or nor territory is actually under cultivation. A Thousand Miles Square. A section of our own country con tained within a square extending one thousand miles north from New Or leans and one thousand miles west from Pittsburg, and containing one million square miles, If as densely populated as Japan, would sustain a population of 300,000,000; but a much larger proportion of this great square in the center of the United States could be intensely farmed than in Japan, where only one-seventh of the total area Is cultivated. On the'10,000 square miles of land in Japan that is actually farmed, they sustain 30,000,000 farmers. It is a safe estimate that at least one-half of the thousand mile square central sec tion of the United States above des cribed could be as closely cultivated as the productive fields of Japan. Those Japanese fields sustain over fifteen hundred people to the square mile. At the same ratio of population, our own thousand mile square central section would sustain 750,000,000 of farming population alone. A population of over fifteen hundred to the square mile sustained by agri culture seems to tlie ordinary mind In credible; but on the Island of Jersey, off the English coast, a population of over thirteen hundred to lue square mile is sustained by out of door agri culture in a climate by no means best adapted to intensive farming. It must be borne in mind that we are talking now of the possibilities of future development, and the facts and figured above given will no doubt be looked upon as utterly chimerical by the average reader. Degeneracy in England. Bear In mind however, again, that they are bused only upon the assump tion that we iu this country should at tain to a point of development already reached by the Japanese people, anil on which rests their national strength. It is true that our development dur ing tue last mut-century lias not been towards the land. We have followed in the footsteps of England, rather than Japan; and while, in flftv venrs. Japan has restored the land to her people and rooted them to the soil ia homes of their own, England 1ms done the contrary. She has driven, her yeomanry from the farms to the cities, where they have become fac tory operatives, and degenerated physically and mentally to such a de gree that the degeneracy of her citi zenship now presents itself to the statesmen of England as a most ap palling problem. , We are doing the same thing, but we are not, as yet, feeling the effects of it so severely because we have still a larger proportion of our people on the laud. Back to the Land. We hnve much to do' to reverse the tide of population, aud turn it from the cities back to the land from the tenement to the garden. It must not be imagined that it is necessary, in order to accomplish this, that the workers ia our cities or in our fac tories should quit their present em ployment and become farmers. All that is necessary is that the facilities for rapid transportation afforded by our trolley system should be availed of to plant every factory family upon at least au acre of land. Let that be done, ond the problem is practically solved no matter though the acre be used for nothing but to raise chickens and keep a goat. The children of the family will have fresh air and sunshine and pure milk, and will grow up to be healthy men and women. The lever with which we must move our population back to the land must be the public school system. Gardens and Handicraft. Every child in the public schools, boy or girl, must be trained from its earliest days of school life to culti vate the ground and make things grow in a garden, and to raise poul try, and do all that needs to be done to provide- the food for a family from an acre of land. Add to this a training in simple sloyd work and home handicraft, cooking and sewing and making things for the home, and you Wu, have cre ated the impulse lu the minds of the multiplying millions of our children which will lead them to shun the bricks and the asphalt, the slums and the tenements, as they would shun the plague, and flee from them far enough Into the country to have an acre at least for a home and a gar Create this Impulse in the minds of our children, tlie millions upon mil1 lions of them who are attending, and will attend, our public schools, and they will find a way to solve all the rest of the problem, how to get the land, and how to get back and forth to It, if they continue to work iu the city or the factory. Some will say mat school gardens cannot be provided for city children That is a mistake. The o-nly ditii- culty in the way of it Is a mere cus tom or habit, easily modified. Tlie terms of school of all city schools should be changed. There should be a short winter term, dur ing which the time should be given to instruction trom the booi;s auu in handicraft within doors. There should be a summer term of equal length during which the schools would be transferred to the suburbs, and work in summer school gardens. The children should be taken buck and forth to these summer school gar dens at public expense, as they are now taken to and from the consoli dated rural schools on tlie trolley lines in some of the xNew Euglund states. The vacation, which would not need lie so long, should bo divided betwen a spring vacation and a fall vacation, Intervening between the winter city erm and the country summer term ot each school. Building a Strong Citizenship. Of course, many will hold up their hands and say this is impossible. England finds it impossible, as the result of her system of great landed estates, to provide her people with homes on the land, and In conse quence her ruin as a nation is only a question of a comparatively brief time. Japan, on the contrary, put forth her hand and solved the very problem which, to England, seems impossible, and behold the results in her strength and power as a nation. It is only a question with us, as a people, whether we will follow the lead of Japan, and prolit by her les sons, or follow the lead of England and share in her eventual ruin. The inUuences which are destroying England are at work steadily and in sidiously in tills nation, and though it will" take longer for ihem to win-L our ruin, it is sure to come if we do not tind a way to root the irreiit- majority "of our people to the land iu homes of their own. as .T-m-m line done, and as we can do, unless we are as nana ami as impotent in deal ing with our national problems as seems to be the fate of England. In the carrying out of this great patriotic purpose of building a strong citizenship by building rural homes on the land, we are. at the same time, doing that which will create the greatest possible commercial prosperity, and develop to the high- -iu..u,ic iumii, uoi oniy tne re- Bouiuus or tue Middle West, but our entire country. If A 4 I L TZH I of The Olive Ia America, The annual output of olive oil In California is about 150,000 gallons; of pickles 230,000 gallons. The imports to the country of oil amount to about 1,250,000 gallons per year and of pickles to 2,116 gallons. The olive was introduced into California 135 years ago, which is a bad showing for use of native olive oil, especially when it is acknowledged to be the superior of all foreign oils. EXCAVATION WORK. .With Greatest Economy use the Western Elevating Grader and Ditcher. ll ;"-:'M ROAD CONSTRUCTION. Western Wheeled Scraper Co. AURORA, ILL. Send for Catalog. ji 1 1 A Tension Indicator IS JUST WHAT THE "WORD IMPLIES. 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