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About Oregon City courier. (Oregon City, Or.) 1902-1919 | View Entire Issue (July 13, 1906)
NATIONAL FOUNDATIONS. PATRIOTISM IX TIME OF PEACE SEEDED TO SOLVE OUR XA TIOXAL PROBLEMS. We Must Plant Forests, Organize Better Schools, Make Homes ror Workers and Rear the Children Close to Nature. Menace of Great Cities. , At the commencement exercises of the Michigan Agricultural College on June 20th, 1900, an address was de livered by George H. Maxwell, Dean of the Homecrof'tera Gild of the Talis man and Executive Chairman of the National Irrigation Association. The key-note of the address of Mr. Maxwell was the Idea that we should bring to the constructive work of our social and commercial life In time of peace, the same fervent patriot ism and devotion to the public serv ice that would Inspire the whole na tion if we were in the throes of a bloody conflict with the people of some other country. ; In illustration of this he re ferred to our forest resources. The wasteful Improvidence with which we have swept the for ests out of existence was contrasted with the elaborate care with which we have built fortifications and na vies and equipped our armies. And yet, said Mr. Maxwell, we have little to fear from any foreign foe. But 'we have much to fear from the wreck and ruin that will inevitably follow the destruction of our forests. . Destroy the forests and over im mense areas flood and drouth will destroy the farms. Destroy the forests and you will at the same time destroy many of our most important industries by the ex haustion of our supply of wood or timber. Destroy a city by bombardment or fire and it can bo rebuilt in a few years more beautiful than ever. Destroy a forest on the plains and it may take more than a generation to restore it. Destroy a forest on the mountains, where the soil Is thin and poor, and it may take centuries to restore the forest if it can ever be done at all. The destruction of the forest cover leaves the mountain sides so exposed to erosion that the rocks are washed "DESTROY THE FORESTS AXD ri.OOD AXD DROUTH WILL DESTROY THE FARMS." bare of soil, and reforestation becomes impossible We are told by experts, and no one contradicts the statement, that at the present rate of consumption, our en tire forest resources will be exhausted in less than forty years. I have re cently seen it stated at thirty-five years. If we are to guard against this national danger the Timber and Stone Law must be repealed, and all public timber lands included in perm anent Forest Reserves, the title to the land forever retained by the National Government, ntumpage only of ma tured timber sold, and young timber preserved for future cutting, so. that the forests will be perpetuated by right use: and the National Govern ment must, by the reservation or pur chase of existing forest lands, and the planting of new forests, create in every state National Forest Planta tions from which, through all the years to come, a sufficient supply of wood and timber can be annually harvested to supply the needs of the people of each state from the Forest Plantations In that state. Unless we take time by the fore lock the next generation will see the United States practically a treeless nation, without wood or timber for the uses of our people, and devastated year after year by ruinous . oods. Al ready the scarcity of timber is being felt and every man who builds a home must pay the Increased cost. In Michigan I understand that some of your most Important Industries are crippled by the shortage of timber. And yet, in the face of this con dition which is nothing more than a crisis threatening the complete de struction of one of our greatest re sources as a nation. Congress busies itself with a multitude of matters of infinitely less importance and refuses to repeal the Timber and Stone Act. under which the last remnants of our unreserved national forest lands are being fed into the Insatiable maw of the timber speculators for less than one-tenth of their actual value. We are told by the men in Congress who make Committees and shape leg islation that the money cannot be spared to acquire ami save from de struction the Calaveras Big Trees in California, or to create the White Mountain nnd Appalachian Forest Re serves, and preserve their forest re sources and save the water power used in the manufacturing Industries of New England and the South; and the same men in the same moment re fuse to stop the most shameless waste of n nation's resources that ever dis graced a national lawmaking body by refusing to repeal the Timber and Stone Act Not only this, but In Arizona and New Mexico where the forests are the very life of the country, the joint Statehood Bill proposed to give a float ing grant of several million acres which the land speculators who would control the legislature would use to get control of and destroy every acre of unreserved timber land in those territories. The country owes a debt of gratitude to Senator Burroughs of your State for his aid in preventing that bill from passing the Senate. It seems incredible that these things should be done by Congress, but there are reasons for it In the first place the people at large take no interest in the preserva tion of their own property. "What Is everybody's business Is nobody's business.". In the second place we have not yet, as a people, risen far enough above the mere worship of Mammon to realize that we are deliberately sac rificing to the Golden Calf the re sources without which we cannot ex ist as a nation. And worse than this, we are crowd ing our working people, both nntive and foreign born, Into an environment where congestion of population Is de generating our workers and rotting their physical and moral fibre. Where will you find any citizenship in the slum and tenement districts of our cities to whom you can effect ively appeal for help to stop the waste of our forests? They know nothing about It and care less. The first need of any nation Is an intelligent citizen ship, and the slums and tenements of our great cities are maelstroms Into which the citizenship of the country is being drawn to its destruction In a steadily increasing volume. We are suffering just now from a spasm of national hysteria because what everybody who ever took the trouble to go and look knew long ngo the revolting conditions under which the great packers of Chicago have been operating their plants, and because diseased meat has been sold for food. But you may draw the worst pict ure that your imagination can paint of the horrors of the slaughtering and packing of meat in those establish ments , nnd nothing you can Imagine equals the horror of blighting tle lives of thousands of children who are condemned to live and grow up In the foul physical, social and moral miasma that permeates the whole slum district of Packingtown. It is a national disgrace nnd is bound to prove a national curse. There is only one remedy for those horrible conditions of life for the children, and that is to get the work ing people and their children out of the slums, and Into the suburbs where they can have sunshine nnd fresh air nnd pure and nourishing food from a home garden. Let us realize once for all that this problem of the children of our work ing people is our greatest national problem and go at its solution with the same patriotic and solf-sacrlflc-ing national heroism that led the Homecrofters of Japan to go Into bat tle with their lives in their hands, like band grenades, to throw at the enemy that sought to crush out their na tional life Let us catch the inspiration of the slogan of the Homecrofters' Move ment In this Country, and never cease our work until we have "Every child In a garden Every Mother in a Homecroft and Individ ual Industrial Independence for Every Worker in a Home of his own on the Land." The Creed nnd riatform of the Homecrofter tells how it may be done and anyone who wants a copy of It can get It without charge by sending a postal card addressed to me, at the Fisher Building, jn Chicago. The Great Cities are our most serious menace in this Country, dur greatest national danger lies in the Centralization of wealth and popula tion and trade and industry. The hope of the nation Is in the farm nnd suburban home and In the country and suburban town and village. Let us go seriously to work to cre ate and upbuild them. Let every student who goes out from this splendid institution go with the spirit of a soldier to fight the great battles of peace for higher national ideals, for a purer public service, for the preservation of our national resources, for a better educational system, and above and beyond all for the multipli cation of Homes on the Land where the children can grow . to manhood and .womanhood in .the uplifting en vironment of a rural community where the evil Influences of the cities can be forever kept at bay. In such an environment children can be reared to citizenship next to Nature from whence they can draw health and vigor both moral and physical for the discharge of all the duties of life'. It Is not in the cities that this country now needs the sen-ice of the flower of its patriotic manhood. It is in the country where the great national problem of the improvement of the rural life is to be solved, where more beautiful towns and villages and bet ter roads are to be built, better schools to be established, telephones and trolley lines constructed, and all the influences put to work that will socialize the country, and drive away the isolation nnd hardships that were formerly its drawbacks. We must not only stop and reverse the great tide of population that has been drifting from the country to the cities. We must decentralize Industry and trade as well as population. The pariotlsm that Is latent In every heart must find an outlet In every country town nnd village In the work of village Improvement, of creating an environment for human life where the highest utility and beauty will surround the entire community, nnd where a local civic loyalty will prevail that will ?nchor the people to their own hearthstone and where they will live content under their own vine and fig tree. , This local pride and lovo of home and the home town Is one of the strongest of human feelings when once it Is deeply planted.. It should be cultivated In every possible way. Nothing should be left undone to stimulate or cement It. Every member of such a community should cultivate a spirit of comradeship and co-operate to advance the generril welfare of all. The merchant, the small tradesman, the country editor, the Church, should all work together to that end. Home Industry should be encouraged in every possible way. The whole comnv'iity p'lould co-operate to pro and stimulate the trade of the town. The home pnper should be liberally patronized. There Is no one thing capable of more far reaching and en during Influence for good than the country press. One of the most un fortunate of modern Influences has been the trend of commercial evolu tion that has borne so heavily on the country editor by the development of the metropolitan family monthly and mail order papers, filled with tempt ation for the rural people to stimulate the centralization of wealth and trade In the cities by supplying their ordin ary needs from far distant and prac tically unknown sources. This trend toward the centralization of trade and industry in the great cities walks side by side with the centralization of wealth and population as a mennce to our national future. The danger It threatens can only be obviated by awakening the people at large to a re alization of it. The great central and controlling thought that must rise above all others as a national ideal Is the con viction that the real bulwarks of the nation are the Homes of Its Citizens and that the first thought and highest ambition of every young man should be to establish a HOME, a self-sustaining Home on the Land, where he can be Independent and enjoy the real happiness of a well spent "life and not make the mistake that brings dissnp pointment and misery to so many, of setting up the accumulation of a for tune as the goal of his life's ambition! It Is a lure which of necessity must wreck thousands in order that a' few may succeed. The mnn who earns enough to live comfortably without luxury, as every intelligent and In dustrious man can who has sufficient practical education, and who does his duty to himself, his family, his friends, his country and to humanity, Is the mnn who really succeeds in life and who gets the greatest happiness and satisfaction out of It To create a human character of the highest type with everything that implies, Is the most admirable of all human achievements and that every man and woman must and can do for themselves. "A time like this demands strong men, Grent hearts, true lalth and ready hands; Men whom the lust of office does not kill, Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy, Men who possess opinion and a will, Men who have honor, men who will not lie, Men who can stand before a demagogue, And damn his treacherous flatteries with out winking; Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog, In public duty and In private thinking." FOR THE TOW X BEAUTIFUL. Missouri Women Begin Campaign for Cleaner Cities and Villages (Columbia Herald.) " The club women of Missouri have taken up in earnest the campaign for cleaner cities and towns. In St. Joseph nnd other large towns organ izations of women have done much to promote n general sentiment for clean liness and are planning more. In Ma con a women's organization virtually manages the street cleaning depart ment, collects the money from mer chants, superintends the work nnd disburses the funds. The members of the club ht Trenton, a women's club, have started a campaign that Is being watched with Interest and imitated In other towns. At the annual meeting at the home of their president, Mrs. T. N. Witten, the club discussed plans for the promotion of a sentiment for better care of lawns and gardens, cleaner streets nnd Uleys and general Improvements. The subject of the opening paper of the meeting, read by Mrs. J. A. Asher, was tills appropriate one: "The Town's Opportunity How Can It Do More Than the City for a Beautiful merican Life?" One of the plans decided upon was to offer cash prizes to children in the various wards of Trenton for the best show ings under prescribed conditions. In the growing of flowers and care of premises. ' Seeds for the competitor:' are to be furnished practically free jy the club. The mayor was asked to issue a proclamation for a neral clean!ng-up day, asking citizens to de vote a few hours systematically to dis posing of the accumulated rubbish. What the women are doing in some Missouri towns the school children have been urged to undertake In others. At various ward schools of Joplin the pupils assisted In the cleaning up of the grounds In readiness f the lant ing of shrubs and flowers. At Perry, in Ralls County, where Professor J. F. Osborne has the prettiest public school campus In the state, the school children helppd In the good work. At Joplin Principal S. A. Baker has lwen a leader In the observance of Arbor day and the Inculcation of the senti ment for the civic Iteauty. A town must first be built In t ? wilderness and then made beautiful. The Missouri wilderness has gone, the towns are here and are now befn' made beautiful. BE A HOMECROFTER Learn by Doing. Work Together. Give every Man a Chance. THE SLOGAN OP TH3 HOMECROFTERS IS 1 Every Child in a Garden Every Mother in a Hotnearoft, and rndi ridual, Industrial Independence for Every Worker in a Home of his Own on the Land." "A little croft wa owned-a plot of corn, A garden, stored with peas and mint and thyme. And flowers for posies, oft on Sunday morn, Plucked while the church bells rang their earliest chimes." Wordsmorih. "The Citizen standing In the doorway of his home contented on his threshold, his family gathered about his hearthstone, while the evening of a well spent day closes In scenes and sounds that are dearest he shall save the Republic when the drum-tap is futile and the barracks are exhausted." Henry tt. Lrratty. "The slums and tenements of the our fast increasing population in In great cities are social dynamite, cer- dividual homes on the land home tain to explode sooner or later. The f01' 8ma11' ow"ed by, h,e ' . , . , , occupant where every worker nnd his only safeguard against such dangers familv can enjoy lmiivld,m, i(1strinl is to plant the multiplying millions of Independence." George H. Maxwell. EDUCATION OPPORTUNITY THE FIRST BOOK HAS JUST BEEN PUBLISHED AND AMONG ITS CONTENTS ARE THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES OF ABSORBING INTEREST BY The Brotherhood of Man -Charity that is Everlasting The Secret of Nippon's Power . Lesson of a. Great Calamity The Sign of a Thought This book Is the first of n Series thnt will Chronicle the Progress of the HOMECROFT MOVEMENT and inform all who wish to co-operato with it how they may do so through the formation of local Homecrofters' Circles, Clubs or Gilds to promote Town and Village Betterment, stimu late home civic pride and loyalty to home institutions, industries and trade, improve methods nnd facilities of edu cation in the local public schools, and create new opportunities "At Home" thnt will go far to check the drift of trade nnd population to the cities. The first Gild of the Homecrofters has been established at Watertown, Massachusetts. The Gildhall, Shops and Gardens are located at 113 Main Street, whore the Garden School Is now fully organized and over one hundred children are at work in the Gardens. The departments for train ing In Homecraft and Village Indus tries are being Installed. The Weavers are already at work at the looms. It Is not designed to build here an isolated institution, but to make a model which can be duplicated in any town or village In the country. Copies of "THE FIRST BOOK OF THE HOMECROFTERS" can be obtained by sending twelve two cent stamps with your name and address (carefully and plainly written) to The Homecrofters' Clld of the Talisman 143. Main St., Watertown, Massachusetts. There Is New Hope nnd Inspiration for every Worker who wants a Home of his own on the Land in the CREED AND PLATFORM OF THE HOMECROFTERS' which is as fol lows: "Peace has her victories no less re nowned than war." EDUCATION CO-OPERATION OPPORTUNITY HOMECROFTS We believe thnt the Patriotic Slogan of the Whole People of this Nation should bo "Every Child In a Garden Every Mother in a Homecroft anil In dividual Industrial Independence for Every Worker in n Home of his Own on the hand," and that until lie owns such a Home, the concentrated purpose nnd chief Inspiration to labor in the life of every wage worker should be his determination to "Get an Acre nn.l Live on it." We believe that the Slums and Tenements and Congested Centers of population in the Cities are a savagely deteriorating social, moral and polit ical influence, and thnt a great public movement should be organized, and the whole power of the nation and the states exerted for the betterment of all the conditions of Rural Life, and to create and upbuild Centers of So cial and Civic Life in Country and Suburban Towns and Villages, where Trade and Industry can be so firmly anchored that they cannot be drawn into the Commercial Maelstrom that is now stendilv sucking Industry and Humanity into the Vertex of the Great Cities. -We believe that every Citizen in this Country has an inherent and Fundamental Right to an Education which will train him to Earn a Llv-" Ing, ami. if need be. to get his living straight from Mother Earth; and thnt he has the same right to the Opportun ity to have the Work to Do which will afford him that living, nnd to earn not only a cor'oriable livelihood, but enough more to enable him to be a Homecrofter and to have a Home of ills Own, with ground around It sufficient to yield him and his family a Living from the Land as the reward for his own labor. We believe that the Public Domain Is the most precious heritage of the people, and the surest safeguard the nation has against Social Unrest. Dis turbance or Upheaval, and that the Cause of Humanity and the Preserva tion of Social Stability and of our Free Institutions demand that the absorp tion of the public binds into specula tive private ownership, without settle ment, be forthwith stopped: and that the nation should create opjiortutiltles for Homecrofters by building Irriga tion and drainage works to reclaim land as fast as It Is needed to give every man who wants a Home on the Land a chance to get It. We believe Hint, as a Nation, we should be less absorbed with Making HOMECROFTS COOPERATION Z HOMECROFTERS Money, nnd should pay more heed to raising up and training Men who will be Law-Abiding Citizens; that the wel fare of our Workers Is of more con sequence than the mere accumulation of Wealth; and that Stability of Na tional Character and of Social and Business Conditions is of greater im portance to the people of this country as a whole than any other one ques tion that Is now before them; and wo believe that the only way to Preserve such Stability, and to Permanently Maintain our National Prosperity, is to enrry into Immediate effect and operation the Platform of the Talis man, which Is as follows; EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT AND HOMES ON THE LAND. . That children shall be taught gardening nnd homecraft In tho public schools, and that Homecraft and Garden Training Schools shall be established by county, municipal, state, and national governments, where every boy and every man out of work who wants employment where he can gain thnt knowledge, can learn how to make a home and till the soil and get his living straight from the ground, nnd where every boy would be taught that his first aim In life should bo to get a home of his own on the land. BUILD HOMECROFTS AS NATION AL SAFEGUARDS. 2. That the New Zealand system of Land Taxation nnd Land Purchase and Subdivision, nnd Advances to Set tlers Act, shall be adopted in this country, to the end thnt land shall bo subdivided into small holdings In the hands of those who will till It for a livelihood, and labor Hud occupation in the creation of homecrofts, which will be perpetual safeguards against the political evils and social discontent resulting from the overgrowth of cities and the sufferings of unem ployed wage-earners. PROTECTION FOR THE AMER ICAN HOMECROFT. 3. That Rural Settlement shall be encouraged and the principle of Pro tection for the American Wngeworker and ills Home applied directly to the Home by the Exemption from Taxa tion of nil improvements upon, nnd also of all personal property, not ex ceeding $2,5)0 in value, used on and In connection with, every Homecroft or Rural Homestead of not more than ten ncres In extent, which the owner occupies as a permanent home and cultivates with his own labor and so provides therefrom all or part of the support for a family. ENLARGEMENT OF AREA AVAIL ABLE FOR HOMEMAKING. 4. Thnt the National Government, as part of a comprehensive nation al policy of Internal Improvements for river control and regulation, and for the enlargement to the utmost possible extent of the area of the country available for agri culture and Homes on the Land, and for the protection of those Homes from either flood or drouth, shall build not only levees and revetments where needed, and drainage works for the reclamation 6f swamp and overflowed lands, but shull also preserve existing forests, reforest denuded areas, plant new forests, and build the great reser voirs and other engineering works necessary to safeguard against over flow and save for beneficial use the flood waters that now run to waste. RECLAMATION AND SETTLE MENT OF THE ARID LANDS. !i. That the National Government shall build the Irrigation works neces sary to bring water within reach of settlers on the arid lands, the cost of such works to be repaid to the govern ment by such settlers in annual In stallments without interest, nnd that the construction of the grent Irrigation works necessary for the utilization of the waters of such large rivers as the Columbia, the Sacramento, the Colo rado, the Rio Grande, and tho Missouri, and their tributaries, shall proceed as rapidly as the lands reclaimed will be utilized in small farms by actual settlers and homeuiakcrs, who will re pay the government the cost of con struction of the Irrigation works, and that the amount needed each year for construction, as recommended by the Secretary of the Interior, shall be made available by Congress as a loan from the general treasury to the He clamatlon Fund, and repaid from lands reclaimed, as required by the National Irrigation Act. SAVE THE PUBLIC LANDS FOR 1IOMEMAKEKS. 0. That not another acre of the pub lie lands shall ever hereafter be granted to any state or territory for any purpose whatsoever, or to any one other than an actual settler who has built his home on the land and lived on It for five years, and thnt no more land scrip of any kind shall ever be issued, and that the Desert Land Law and the Commutation Clause of the Homestead Law shall be made to con form to the recommendations of the Public Lands Commission appointed by President Roosevelt and of the Message of the President to Congress. PLANT FORESTS AND CREATE FOREST PLANTATIONS. , 7. Thnt the Timber nnd Stone Law shall be repealed, and that all pub lic timber lands shall be included In permanent Forest Reserves, tho title to tiie land to be forever retained by the National Government, stumpage only of matured timber to be sold, nnd young timber to be preserved for future cutting, so that the forests will be perpetuated by right use; and that the National Government shall, by the reservation or purchase of ex isting forest lands, and the planting of new forests, create in every ,state National Forest Plantations from which, through all the years to come, a sufliclent supply of wood nnd timber can be annually harvested to supply the needs of the people of each state from .he Forest Plantations in that state. CONTROL AND USE OF THE GRAZING LANDS. 8. That all unlocated public lands not otherwise reserved shall be re served from location or entry under any law except the Homestead Law, and shall be embraced in Grazing lie serves under the control of the Secre tary of Agriculture, who shall be em powered to Issue annual Licenses to graze stock In said Grazing Reserves, but such licenses shall never bo Issued for a longer period than one year on agricultural lands or live years on grazing lands, nnd all lands classified as grazing lands shall be subject to reclassification at the end of every five years; that no leases of Hie public grazing lands shall ever be made by the National Government, nnd that the area of tho homestead entry shall never under any circumstances be en larged to exceed 1(10 acres. RESERVE STATE LANDS FOR HOMESTEAD SETTLERS. 9. That the public land states shall administer the state hinds under n system similar to and in harmony with the national public land system above outlined, nnd that each state shall enact a State Homestead Law for the settlement of lands owned by the state, and that state lands shall be disposed of only to actual settlers under such law, and that all state lands shall at all times remain open to Homestead Entry. UNITED OWNERSHIP OF LAND AND WATER. 10. That It shall be the law of every state and of the United States, that, beneficial use is the basis, the meas ure, and the limit of all rights to water, including riparian rights, and that the right to the use of water for Irrigation shall Inhere In nnd be ap purtenant to the land irrigated, so thnt the ownership of the land and the water shall be united, and no right to water as a speculative commodity ever be acquired, held or owned. RIGHT OF APPROPRIATION FOR BENEFICIAL USE. 11. That it shall be tho law of every state and of the United States, that all unused and unappropriated waters are public property, subject to appro priation for a beneficial use, first in time being. first In right, and that on all Interstate streams, priority of use shall give priority of right, through out the entire course of the stream, without regard to state linos, nnd that in each drainage basin the Irri gators therein shnll control tho distri bution of the water. A Homecraft Garden. The Homecroft Movement is grow ing in strength and many leading newspapers are editorially advocating the Idea that every family, though living in tho city, ought to have a garden. A reader of MAXWEI 'S HOMEMAKER MAGAZINE, in Westbrancli, Iown. sends us the fol lowing editorial clipped from the Des Moines Daily News, which Is so fully In harmony with what this magazine stands for that we take pleasure In reproducing the mime. The editor of the News says: A little garden, if properly cared for, will save the city dweller many n dollar. Hut that Is by no means the chiefest good. Even If he has more money than he knows what to do with he will still llnd rich profit, in wielding the spade and hoe for exercise. And the rarest pleasure comes from follow ing the primal instincts of nature. It is not alone the plants and flowers we long for. An inner something impels us to put our hands at work In ti.j earth, to bathe our bodies in the sunshine nnd to open our souls in devotion to things that are not gross, but sweet nnd pure. To be pitied is i e man who i'oes not drink In with delight t e fragrance of the dowers after having breathed all day the stench of a city, and who docs not Irani a lesson from the noise less, orderly, beneficent processes of nature that nre constantly going on around him. Every city dweller who hart a bit of ground ought to have a garden. It mav be only five feet square, but be can plant It In refill peas, succulent onions, radishes or lettuce, and still find room for a flower or two to throw a little color und a little fragrance into bis life. There are , anv reasons, economical, physical, eslhetic and moral, why every man sliouhl be bin own gar dener, If he can. Thousands of dwcll.rs In hotels, flats and tenements can't be. Their existence is as dull and cheerless in the season when all nature Is gay as Is thnt of a bird that is caged. They mav laugh and so does the enged bird sing. Hut It Is not true living, for all that.