Chapter VIII: Part 8

It has just been suggested that the railways might discriminate in their rates on fertilizers, in favor of the home market, and against the foreign. Most railway men are probably unaware of the extent to which they are contributing to the exhaustion of our soils by their discrimination against the American milling of American grains and in favor of the export of the whole grains instead of the milled product. For generations we have had a tariff on wheat, ostensibly for the protection of the American farmer; and all the time the railways have made rates for export wheat lower than for domestic milling. Flour is largely denied the benefits of water transportation on the lakes, in part because it must go to market over the docks which are to a greater and greater degree controlled by the railways, while the great elevator companies with their terminal houses standing at the water’s edge, and many of them provided with their own lines of boats, send wheat and other grains to tide water so cheaply as to make the shipment of flour a thing practically under the control of themselves and of the railways with which they have been traditionally closely affiliated in business interest. The result has been that, while there are mills enough in America to grind all our grain, most of our exports go unground.

This will be intolerable to public opinion when once enlightened upon the subject. The export of flour, of course, constitutes a drain of fertility; but the phosphorus content of the grain is largely concentrated in the bran and shorts. In the bran of every bushel of wheat exported goes phosphorus in its most readily available form of the value, at the ordinary rates paid by farmers for phosphates, of from twenty-five to thirty cents. A system of transportation based on considerations of national welfare would sedulously seek to retain that fertility for our depleted farms. Where grain is milled there grows up a large local use for bran, shorts and middlings—the by-products of milling. These are used in the feeding of dairy cattle and other live stock, furnishing what is needed in animal nutrition to balance the corn ration. Farms to which they are carried for feeding increase in fertility. The fertility of the prairie states has been sapped by fifty years of grain shipments. This era should be succeeded by the golden age of American milling. The wheat fields of Canada stand ready to send us fertility to replace that which we have shipped to Europe; and our transportation system should be used to the end that it should be retained here. The Hudson Bay basin would thus, during its period of soil exploitation, return to the Mississippi Valley what we have sent to the hungry soils of the old world.

RAILROADS AND POPULATION.

The existence of overgrown cities is to a large extent attributable to the policies of the railroads with reference to them. The Texas system has, I believe, shown the power of transportation influences to decentralize population, just as the history of Chicago, Kansas City, the Twin Cities, New York and almost every large city proves their power in the direction of centralization. As a farming factor, the large city is a drain on fertility. These great towns are flushing out through their sewers the goodness of the Nation’s farms. In the carriage of lime, phosphates, potash, cottonseed meal, bone meal, and of all the fertilizers of commerce, the railways as national tools of right living should be used to restore to the lands the fertility of which they have inevitably, in some instances, mistakenly in others, deprived them. But in considering the so-called commercial fertilizers, the coarser manures should not be forgotten. The enormous waste of manure about the great cities should be stopped. A German farmer of my acquaintance told me the other day that he had never sold a load of hay or straw from his farm in all his life. “Often,” said he, “I have had more than I needed, but I have held it over, even when the price was high and I needed money. It seemed to me as if that hay and straw didn’t belong to me, but to the farm.” Under the renting customs of many British and other European localities the tenant agrees that whenever he hauls hay or straw to market he will haul back to the farm an equal quantity of manure.

This custom is based on the highest wisdom. The German farmer was right—that hay and straw do not belong to the farmer, but to the farm. And whenever hay or straw, or any of the vegetable substances which are made into manure, are taken to the city, they should be considered as lent, not sold. Getting them out to the farms—not the identical farms, of course, but the farms—is a railway problem. And it should rest on the conscience of the people and of the railways, as did the similar problem on the conscience of my German friend.

I am aware that the railways of the country are not entirely oblivious to the wisdom of the policies here urged upon them. In some places they are making commendable efforts to get the manure of the cities out to the farms. In other instances, they are making what they probably regard as very low rates on fertilizers and lime. Just recently a railway in Virginia has made a rate of from one-half to three-fourths of a cent per ton mile on lime. But I do not find that they have anywhere made any such heroic efforts to cut down the cost of carriage of fertilizers and manures for the farms, as they have in the case of coal from the mines to the docks on Lake Erie, or grain from the elevators at the foot of the lake to New York, or ore from lake ports to Pittsburgh, or packing house products from Missouri river points to Chicago. In my opinion, true national welfare demands that the fertility of our farms be sustained at all costs, and that no freight is entitled to rates as low as ground phosphate rock, ground limestone, and manures.

THE GREATEST RAILWAY FOLLY.

The demands made here upon the railways may be regarded in some quarters as unwarranted. I am quite aware of their scope and character as innovations. They go deeper than the relations between the railroads and the farmers, and rise to the point of an outline for a national rate policy for our railways. In what I have said I have regarded the railways as public utilities in the strictest sense of the word. I have scarcely more than alluded to the rights of investors in railway properties, and I mention them now for the sole purpose of stating that in my opinion no demands will ever be made in the interests of the public welfare, or should be made, inimical to the rights of investors to a proper return on their investment made for the purpose of serving the transportation needs of the Nation. None of the things which I suggest are at variance with these principles. The railways may properly adopt the policy of hauling, or may properly be forced to haul certain public necessities at or for less than cost, so long as on the whole job of transportation they are allowed to earn legitimate profits. I do not believe that in the long run the profits on the fertilizer traffic should be made directly out of their haulage. I do believe that the time will come when no transportation folly will rank as greater in the eyes of our railway managers than that of allowing rolling stock to remain idle, while there is a chance to get loads of ground lime, ground phosphate rock or manure at almost any rate. I am not unaware of the various private interests which would demand and secure monopoly prices if the railways should transport these things at low rates or even gratis, if that were possible; but this is not the time for the discussion of these things. They must be dealt with by the statesmanship of the future. Institutions must be gradually moulded to the end that the agriculture of the Nation may be enabled to flourish; for on its agriculture and the status of its agricultural population rests in the last analysis the welfare of the Nation and its railroads. It may be urged that the present railway system of the land will not permit of the exercise of the beneficent functions outlined here. If that be so, it is no affair of mine. My task is to follow truth as I see it, wherever it may lead. If the railway system under which we happen to be doing business be at variance with the final demands of national welfare, there is ground for optimism in the historic fact that nothing changes more readily than railway systems. They have been almost revolutionized in the past decade—and these considerations of national welfare of which I am here privileged to speak will take many decades in coming to a final decision.

Mr. Quick closed by reading the following telegram from O. C. Barber of Akron, Ohio:

Regret exceedingly my inability to attend Conservation
Congress. I note from several different programs there will
be distinguished speakers on the question from all over the
states. I hope as a result of the meeting something more than
speeches will be accomplished in conservation of the equities
of all American citizens. Things vital for their comfort have
been transferred to corporate power by unjust legislation,
without adequate legal restraint on corporate power compelling
fair play and justice to all interested. A special interest
should be elicited to compel a rate of freight on all
fertilizers for land from which we all derive our sustenance.
Not more than four-tenths of a cent per ton mile should be
permitted for long hauls, nor five-tenths of a cent per ton
mile for short hauls. Any well managed railroad could haul
fertilizer for that price at a profit—referring to all kinds of
fertilizer, lime, phosphate, rock, etc. If you would take such
action as would accomplish this one thing, you would do more
for the good of mankind than all the conservation efforts have
accomplished to date. Wishing you great success, I am sincerely,

O. C. BARBER.

President WALLACE—I have appointed the following committee on nominations: C. E. Condra, E. G. Griggs, A. B. Farquhar and H. C. Wallace, and B. N. Baker, Chairman.

Get together and be ready to report nominations promptly tomorrow. Remember, we will have a very busy Congress. I want you to be here at 2 o’clock promptly, because we will commence at 2 o’clock if there is anybody here, and some of you will be. This afternoon, I am very sorry to say, we will not have the privilege of hearing Brother W. H. Page. I have a letter stating that sickness prevents his attendance. Instead of that we will take up the report from conservation committees, and as far as possible from the states. Let me urge you to cut your speeches down to five minutes, or I will shut every man off after five minutes, no matter who he is. Don’t tell us about your resources. We know about them. Tell us what you are doing. Make it specific and to the point, and then this Congress will hear you patiently, but they won’t hear you after that, and I won’t either. We must come down to business. This afternoon we are to have Professor Mumford on the subject of live stock and soil fertility, a matter of immense importance. The ladies will come in after that, and I hope you will all bring your wives and sisters and cousins and aunts. We will have an address on the “Farmer’s Wife,” who you have heard is the most important person on the farm and the one who bears the greatest burden—by Mrs. Ashby of Iowa, followed by Mrs. J. N. Lewis of Kansas. Tonight we are to have a great treat. Mrs. Moore of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs; then the “Church and the Open Country,” by Dr. Warren H. Wilson, New York City, superintendent of home missions of the Presbyterian Church, and then finally, to round up, an address by Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, Washington, D. C., Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, United States Department of Agriculture, of whom you have all probably heard. That will be the closing address this evening. Be here promptly at 2 o’clock. The Congress will now stand adjourned until 2 o’clock.

_FIFTH SESSION._

Recording Secretary GIPE—Will the Congress please come to order. The Rev. Dr. George Hamilton Combs will pronounce the invocation.

INVOCATION.

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for this
world in which we live; for its beauty, for its adaptation
to our needs, for the skies that arch it over, for the grass
beneath our feet, for the seasons with their lessons, for
all the wonderful stories of life. Thou hast made it for man
and Thou art in it now. Help us to realize that this world
is instinct with Thy life, and may we see and hear God, not
only in the skies and in the singing of the stars, but in the
humbler things beneath us, and in that stiller music of all
growing things. May we seek this priceless heritage, may we
preserve this good world unimpaired, handing it down enriched
and beautified, to our children, those who shall come after.
We thank Thee for this Congress and for the great purposes
and ideals for which it stands, and upon the men and women
gathered here we pray Thy blessing, upon their homes while
they are absent, that their children, their wives, their all,
may be defended from harm. Upon them, in their deliberations
here, grant that in wisdom they may plan and in strength they
may execute, and that they may have a vision, not only of the
day, but of the years that shall come after. We thank Thee for
this good work, and oh, do Thou help us that we forget not that
while in the pursuit of this material good we do err; that
after all and that above all the riches of our people are not
in the mines, in its fertile fields, in its forests, but in its
men and in its women, and so send us the greater harvest, not
merely of corn and wheat, but of charity, of goodness, of the
great and patient fidelities of life, and help us all to live
that we shall have advanced at least a little the coming of
the day when righteousness shall cover the earth even as the
waters cover the sea. And so upon this earth of ours may God’s
sovereign will be done even as it is in Heaven. Amen.

Recording Secretary GIPE—I am asked by Mr. Baker, the chairman of the committee on nominations, to announce that a meeting of that committee will be held at 3 o’clock this afternoon at room 775 of the Baltimore Hotel. I now have the honor to present Governor R. S. Vessey of South Dakota, who will address the Congress and remain in the Chair after he has finished that address. Governor Vessey of South Dakota. (Applause)

Governor VESSEY—Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Conservation Congress: I have no set speech to make this afternoon, and I think, if I remember aright, the president said we would be permitted to talk five minutes on what we have done in our state in regard to conservation. So I just want to enumerate a few things that we have done up in our new state, practically only of age, twenty-one years old, in the past half a dozen years. We have reclaimed, by drainage, several hundred thousand acres, and we are reclaiming by irrigation something like a quarter of a million of acres, and nearly one-half of that is a Federal enterprise. We are in all parts of the western part of the state planting newer and similar individual irrigation plants that will develop a large part of the state. We have in the past been endeavoring to conserve the fertility of our soils. We are endeavoring to conserve manhood and womanhood by making them more efficient in the great agricultural work, by sending out into their community and out in their neighborhoods teachers along the line of agricultural and domestic science, and other matters pertaining to make the home more efficient and more modern. We believe that the time is coming, and that very soon, when every rural district will have a social and educational center for the upbuilding of that community. And when that is done, I look to see the day when the people will not, as soon as they have accumulated some wealth, move into the city for the purpose of giving their children an education, largely so they may enter vocations in life other than the farm life. We believe also that the heart should be educated the same as the mind. A committee of educators in our state has reported, not only along this line, favorably, but they have compiled a text-book and are introducing it into our schools, and we expect that our teachers will be trained along the lines of giving to our students ethical as well as material education. So that we can, at the same time we are improving the mind, build a character that will mean more to us in the future than the accumulation of dollars and cents. We have, I think, a progressive state, and we want to create conditions so that people from the further East and the more congested centers of population will find a haven of rest and a place where they can come and not only better their financial condition but better their social condition as well. I appreciate very much indeed having this opportunity of saying these few words in the interest of the conservation of our resources. I think that we have been looking so long upon the land that has been turned over to us by the United States Government, as something that is only for use for our own material well-being. We are beginning to learn that we are only here for a short time, and that if we are going to be honest with those that are coming after us, that it is our duty not to rob that soil, but to turn that soil over to our children, and from them to their children’s children, in just as good a state of fertility as it comes to us in its virgin state. And when we do not do this, we are robbing our posterity of something future generations are entitled to, that they are just as much entitled to as they are to our good name. And this, I believe, is a wonderful revelation. And it seems to be taking all over the country, to know that in farming a section of land that I have an obligation to those who may farm it a hundred years from now, and that it should be my intention, that it is my duty, and I am under obligations to keep that in just as good state of fertility when I leave it as it is when I take the responsibility of taking the products that are needed to sustain life from that land. It is a pleasure to meet the people of this Congress, the Third Conservation Congress. Now we will listen to the further program by the secretary.

President WALLACE—I have great pleasure in reading to this Congress a letter from a man you have heard about, commonly known as “Teddy.” (Applause. Hurrah for Teddy.) I wrote him a month ago and asked him to address this Congress. He declined to do so, but I would not accept his declination. Then I had a letter from him, a personal letter, which I did not care to read to this Congress without his permission. Unfortunately, I do not have it here, but expect to get it this afternoon or tomorrow from my office in Des Moines. So I will simply read you the letter giving permission to read another letter which I do not have, but you shall have if I get it in time. Here is the letter:

My Dear Mr. Wallace: I greatly wish I could attend the
Congress. You are very welcome to read as much of my letter as
you desire, or as much of this letter as you desire. I most
emphatically believe that there is no movement in our country
at the present time of such importance as the developing of a
higher country life. This was the object of the Country Life
Commission which I established. What we need most is good
citizenship; that is, a good family life, a high quality of
individual manhood and womanhood; and above all things, we
need these in the country districts, for in the long run every
nation’s welfare must primarily depend upon the welfare of
those who till the soil. The man is greater than his work.
The farm can only be made what it should be by paying chief
attention to the securing of the right man and woman on the
farm. To develop soil fertility, we must develop rural manhood
and rural womanhood. We must have a social life on the farm far
better worth living than such life has been in the immediate
past. Pray accept my heartiest sympathy and good will. Very
sincerely yours,

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

(Applause)

Recording Secretary GIPE—We are now going to have brief reports from some of the national organizations. Mr. W. E. Mullin of New York will report for the National Board of Fire Underwriters.

Mr. MULLIN—Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: The National Board of Fire Underwriters has been interested for many years in every element of conservation. They believe in the conservation of the soil, the conservation of the waterways, the conservation of the mines, the conservation of childhood and the conservation of our homes. We believe in everything that savors of practical conservation, but they are specially concerned in the conservation of our utilized forces.

[Mr. Mullin’s paper in full will be found in Supplementary Proceedings.]

President WALLACE—I must ask a favor. I will not ask the Congress to listen to more than three-minute speeches on these reports, and I wish all the speakers to understand that when that bell rings it is time for them to quit. They must learn to boil down. (Applause) As I said before, we do not care about the resources of your states. We can read that in books. We want to know what you have done in the way of conservation. You can say all you ought to say in three minutes. Moody used to say that a man had no business to pray more than three minutes, that he could ask the Lord all he really wanted in three minutes, and then it was time to quit. (Applause)

I take pleasure now in introducing Major E. G. Griggs, president of the National Lumbermen’s Manufacturers’ Association, who will give the report for that association.

[Mr. Griggs’ paper is in Supplementary Proceedings.]

Chairman VESSEY—We will now hear from Mr. W. J. Rushton, of the American Association of Refrigeration. I have pleasure in introducing him to you.

[Mr. Rushton’s paper will be found in Supplementary Proceedings.]

Chairman VESSEY—We will now hear a report from Hon. E. T. Allen, Forester for Western Forestry and Conservation Association, entitled, “Private Conservation on the Pacific Coast.”

Mr. ALLEN—The Western Forestry and Conservation Association, for which I report, is a league or alliance of a dozen coöperative forest fire associations maintained by timber owners in the Pacific forest states: Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California.

These five states contain over half the standing timber in the United States. Already furnishing a fifth of the Nation’s lumber, they constitute its great remaining storehouse of future supply. In other words, they contain the mature timber which must bear the burden of bridging national shortage until an adequate new crop is ripe. Because of climatic conditions and rapid growing species, they also contain the deforested land which, by reason of adaptability, most demands encouragement to produce this new crop, to which you must turn in the future for timber as you do to this region for iron and to the South for cotton. This is why you are directly and vitally interested in what every agency is doing to protect and foster these forests of the West.

Believe as you may concerning division of responsibility between state and nation, or policies of controlling the development of natural resources; but never forget that the forest ranger is actually on the job, saving the forests for the rest of us to talk about. If he had not been there for the last ten years, the national forests would be mostly old burns not worth arguing about. We want more, not fewer, of him, and we want Congress to spend more money to hire him and build trails for him to use.

The states, too, are waking up, but progress in this direction seems slow when we consider that of the tremendously important forest resources in the West the majority is in private hands, and that it is the attitude of the commonwealth that governs the ability of the private owner to manage it to best advantage for all concerned.

All these conditions I have hinted at—failure by Congress to give the forest service adequate funds, slow awakening of state responsibility, and realization that the Pacific Coast is both the last and the most promising field of forest industry—have inspired the most vigorous and efficient private movement for forest conservation ever known—the allied coöperative associations of timber owners in the Pacific Northwest. They fully realize that the control of such a stupendous community resource entails grave responsibilities; that their ownership is largely a public trust and that they must account for their stewardship. They also know that no new fields remain and that this is by no means inexhaustible; that to avoid heavy loss they must guard the forests they have, and to perpetuate their business they must have new ones coming on. Self-interest, more potent than philanthropy, demands abandonment of the wasteful methods prevalent in the past history of their industry.

With this new point of view, the Northwestern lumberman, far from being an element requiring regulation by the public in the interest of forest preservation, has become the leader in reform. It has been chiefly through his aggressive campaigning that state laws have been improved, bearing as rigidly on the careless member of his own brotherhood as upon anyone else. He gives his financial support to educational work directed at both lumbermen and public. He hires professional foresters to help him try such better management as conditions will permit. But particularly, through coöperative associations, he has taken the lead in fire prevention. And admitting his motive to be largely selfish, the benefit to the consumer is none the less. To the man who needs lumber, to keep it from burning up is conservation that counts.

After so much preamble you may wonder what we have actually to report; what we can offer in the way of results. Here are some of them: Last year was one of the worst for forest fires in American history. Loss of life and property was terrific. But the private protective systems allied with the Western Forestry and Conservation Association carried safely through the season fully 16,000,000 acres of forest, containing at least the stupendous amount of 300 billion feet of timber. They kept the loss of private timber in Idaho, Washington and Oregon, the three states hardest hit, down to one-fourth of one per cent. How did they do this? By raising and spending $700,000 for patrol and fire fighting, and actually extinguishing 5,580 fires.

It was a telegram from the president of the Western Forestry and Conservation Association, with the standing of our work behind it, that caused the ordering out of the United States Army to assist the undermanned forest service on the national forests.

This year’s records are not compiled, but will be quite as interesting. Through their alliance the associations turned to account every lesson each learned in 1910, and spread increased patrols equipped with new advantages of perfected organization, telephone and trail systems, supply storage, and automobile and motorcycles where these could be used. Organization permitted close and systematic coöperation with state and federal forces. Every association ranger served as a police officer and one Washington association alone got over thirty convictions. Offending lumbermen were made the first examples. Hundreds of fires were extinguished but not one was allowed to become serious in 1911.

Our association serves as the one and only common meeting ground for all agencies for forest protection, including state and federal as well as private fire officials, and employs a trained forester to collect and disseminate for all information that will assist in solving problems of reforestation, legislation, education and like matters demanding expert knowledge or central facilities. It thus had the chief responsibility for forest legislation in several Western states last winter and did more than had been done in all preceding Legislatures.

It has published the first comprehensive book on reforestation and forest management in the West ever issued, now used as a text-book by the Forest Service and forestry schools.

It furnishes all newspapers in the Northwest with regular bulletins throughout the fire season, not only giving reliable news but keeping the necessity and method of precautionary measures before the public.

It issues hundreds of thousands of fire circulars and stickers, with a highly perfected system for putting them where they will count. This year, with the aid of state authorities, it put an illustrated folder with simple questions and answers on forest protection in the hands of every school child in the Pacific Northwest, an enterprise requiring the printing and complicated distribution of thousands of pounds of material.

It furnishes state officials and others with practically all the mottoes and catchy material used for posters and other publicity matter in the West. It has even placed this kind of thing in the time folders of every railroad traversing our forest regions.

I cannot take your time to recite the many other activities of our coöperative movement, but these will indicate its scope and method. The Northwestern timber owner is doing his part to protect your resources that he holds in trust. If Congress, state and public will do as much, you have little to fear.

Chairman VESSEY—I now take pleasure in introducing Mr. Ferdinand G. Schwedtman of St. Louis, chairman of the delegation of manufacturers of the U. S. A. I have the honor to present him to you.

[Mr. Schwedtman’s paper is to be found in Supplementary Proceedings.]

Chairman VESSEY—The next speaker is William Edward Coffin of New York, vice-president of the Camp Fire Club of America.

[Mr. Coffin’s paper is in Supplementary Proceedings.]

Chairman VESSEY—I wish to introduce Dr. George W. Field, representing the National Audubon Society.

[Dr. Field’s paper will be found in Supplementary Proceedings.]

Chairman VESSEY—Is Mr. McBrien, representing the National Educational Association, here?

Is Mr. Edward R. Taylor, representative of the Electrochemical Society, here?

Mr. TAYLOR—It is my pleasure to represent the American Electrochemical Society. There are ten thousand chemists in the United States. They are largely concerned in the working out of economic problems and the best utilization of all substances capable of adding to our material prosperity. Many of these chemists are members of the American Chemical Society, the American Electrochemical Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the Society of Chemical Industry, all of which societies are deeply interested in the best conservation of our natural resources and are in full sympathy with the objects of this Congress.

Chairman VESSEY—We will next hear the president of the Iowa Federation of Women’s Clubs. Is Mrs. M. H. Weller present? Those who have papers that will take five or ten minutes to read can just speak on a short synopsis of their papers, and have the papers filed. They will be able to say more, so that the people will understand it better than if they only read part of the paper.

Mrs. Weller was not present.

Chairman VESSEY—Is Mrs. Carl Vrooman, representing the D. A. R., here?

I am very much pleased to present her to you. (Applause)

Mrs. VROOMAN—Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I feel weighted with a heavy weight of responsibility, as I am here to represent 77,000 Daughters of the American Revolution in general, but the chairman of the conservation committee of this organization in particular—a woman who has, I venture to say, done more for the cause of conservation than any other woman of our day—I was about to say than almost any man—since she is the very proud mother of Mr. Gifford Pinchot.

This society of women, “federated and organized”—to quote Mr. Pinchot, “spells only another name for the highest form of conservation, that of vital force and intellectual energy.” These 77,000 women do indeed represent a perfect Niagara of splendid ability and force—enough, if intelligently harnessed and directed, to furnish the motive power to keep revolving all the wheels of progress in this country.

But to revert from what we might do and ought to do in general, to what we have done and intend to do in particular, for conservation, a remark made by the Right Honorable John Burns of England, concerning the American people, might apply perhaps with equal force to our two-year-old conservation committee: “The American people,” said Mr. Burns, “is a very young colt in a very large field.”

The very able first chairman of this committee, Mrs. Amos Draper, inaugurated and carried on during the first year a most energetic campaign, a report of which you had submitted at the last Conservation Congress in St. Paul. The next year, however, illness compelled her resignation, when Mrs. Orton, of Cleveland, O., whose work in behalf of children is well known, took the chairmanship for the ensuing six months, during which time the committee concentrated its chief energies in efforts to help secure legislation for the protection and conservation of that greatest asset the Nation has—its children.

Now that we are standing well on our feet, a committee with Mrs. Pinchot at our head, with over one hundred women on the National Committee, representing each state, and a state chairman for every state, with every chapter represented on the state conservation committee, we hope we have the country well honeycombed with women who will take an active and intelligent interest in conservation. And aided and abetted by the National Conservation Association, which has promised to furnish us with all the ammunition we need, we intend to carry on an aggressive warfare, or, to speak less militantly, an active campaign of education. For we feel, in the words of our President General, that women today—even without any articulate voice in the councils of state—without the vote that so many are striving for, and think is essential—women today, when thoroughly aroused and awake to their present unquestioned opportunities and responsibilities, as well as to their problematical rights, can wield an incalculable influence, and become most potent and resistless factors for good in helping create a healthy public sentiment—in stimulating to higher activity that organ of the body politic (so often prone to paralysis) known as the civic conscience.

But since education, like charity, should begin at home, we intend, first of all, to educate ourselves. And, for this purpose, a number of our members have come from different parts of the country to attend this Congress and learn all we can about this problem of conservation.

We are glad to know that an officer of this association has written such a capital book on conservation, and we shall make it a point to advertise Mr. Price’s book, “The Land We Live In,” among the women of the country.

We hope soon to have a department on current conservation news in our D. A. R. Magazine, giving every month items of conservation interest, which can be supplied later to the local papers.

We expect also to have something to say about the importance of teaching conservation in the public schools—not necessarily as a part of the curriculum, for children are fairly swamped these days with a surfeit of extra studies—but we do feel that conservation as opposed to wastefulness everywhere (especially in the form of domestic economy) should be emphasized and inculcated as are other virtues—such as truth, patriotism, obedience.

Conservation in the kitchen is one of the most important problems in American life, and I believe I am safe in saying that that modern knight errant, Dr. Wiley, and his board of conservation of human health by means of pure food, has the enthusiastic and whole-hearted support of every one of our 77,000 daughters to a unit.

I should like to say in passing that another man we are behind—heart and soul in his fearless fight with the beast in our modern jungle—is that man who has made it his business and his mission to reclaim not waste lands, but waste lives—that great-hearted champion of the children, and of the people—Judge Ben Lindsey, first citizen of Denver and one of the first citizens of the United States.

I am aware that this is far from being an orthodox report, as it is more prospective than retrospective, and deals rather with what we intend to do than what we have already done, but we are drinking in so much inspiration here, and getting so many new ideas, that next year you may expect from us a _bona fide_ report, fairly bristling with businesslike facts and statistics.

May I say just one more word? In addition to this definite program of tangible things we want to carry out, we pledge you something else, which, although it cannot be weighed and measured and appraised at its face value, after all may be as worth while as the sum total of what we actually achieve in a concrete way, and that is our unswerving loyalty to the spirit of what this association stands for—to put it rather pompously—our moral backing and support in this business you have undertaken to help conserve the best interests of our country—a business in which we have no intention of being altogether “silent partners,” although we are women!

We may not, it is true, formulate any new policies for you, or launch any issues, or make any very original contributions to your program, but there is one thing women can bring into a movement of this kind, and that is—to use a very much overworked word—“atmosphere.” Even if women don’t dig down into the earth—even if we daughters don’t actually dig down into the earth, like you horny-handed sons of toil—women may yet bring with them, when they put their hearts, as well as their hands, into a thing, an atmosphere that, like the air and sunshine, is absolutely indispensable to a good crop, to a bountiful harvest, an atmosphere that makes ideas sprout and grow, and ideals expand and develop and take deeper root in the subsoil of the masculine mind!

So, then, we bring today to this Congress our heartfelt sympathy with its ideals—a sympathy that is born of a certain intuitive perception we have—not by any means of all the intricate problems involved in this question of conservation—but a perception of the principles which are at stake, and we promise you our whole-hearted allegiance to those principles, as well as our contagious enthusiasm, in this splendid crusade, to conserve not only the vast natural resources of this country, on which depends our national prosperity, but those ideals of public as well as of private morality, which we realize we must sacrifice for, and defend and conserve and make to prevail, if, in the words of the Athenians, which might well be the motto of the Apostles of American Conservation, “we would transmit our fatherland not only not less but better and greater than it was transmitted to us.”

Delegate BAUMGARTNER of California—I want to extend a vote of thanks on behalf of the entire audience by your leave, to the Lord High Chancellor of the Bell for not having rung it on the last speaker. All in favor of the motion say aye. Carried unanimously.

Mr. T. L. MCBRIEN—A while ago my name was called to speak for the committee representing the National Educational Association. I would like to say that the committee of five representing the National Educational Association met and unanimously selected Professor J. M. Greenwood to speak for our association. We want to call attention to the fact that he is the senior in educational work, having been thirty-eight years at the head of the Kansas City schools, and there is no other who has such a record.

Chairman VESSEY—We have a request from the National Educational Association that it be represented by Mr. Greenwood. Shall we hear from Prof. Greenwood now, or go on with the program?

(Cries of “Hear him now.”)

Chairman VESSEY—Prof. Greenwood.

Professor GREENWOOD—I would suggest you go on with the regular order of business.

(Cries of “Greenwood! Greenwood!”)

Professor GREENWOOD—Ladies and Gentlemen: The National Educational Association of the United States is the largest educational association in the world. The last session held in San Francisco enrolled 18,000 teachers from all parts of our country, and at the Boston session in 1905 there were 35,000 teachers in attendance. This organization represents in the broadest way the interests of the children of our country, and for more than fifty years it has been endeavoring to solve the great problems confronting our people. It represents the people of the South, of the North, of the East and of the West, and it has been one of the most important factors in bringing our people closely together when they were divided, not only by armies facing each other when homes were destroyed, but sadness was at every fireside. This was the organization that immediately after the Civil war brought our men and women who are working for the interests of our entire Nation together. This organization is represented here by a representative from the State of Arkansas, and by one from the State of Nebraska, and by one from the great State of Iowa, and by another one from the State of Kansas, and by another from the State of Missouri, and we have got to be shown. Mr. President, we will draft and submit a resolution to your committee at the proper time. There are just three things, it seems to me, that a public speaker who comes upon the platform ought to know—what to say, how to say it, and when to quit. (Applause)

Chairman VESSEY—We will now present on the regular program Dr. Frederick B. Mumford, dean of the University of Missouri, at Columbia.

Dr. MUMFORD—Ladies and Gentlemen: The limits of the time allowed for this subject are such that I shall have no time for the general subject of conservation. I hope, therefore, you will bear with me through this paper. I will confine myself somewhat closely to it, because in so doing I will say what I want to say in the shortest possible time.

[Dr. Mumford’s paper will be found in Supplementary Proceedings.]

Chairman VESSEY—Next on the program is Mrs. Harriet Wallace Ashby of Des Moines, on the subject, “The Farmer’s Wife.” I have the pleasure of presenting to you Mrs. Ashby. (Applause)

Mrs. ASHBY—The conservation movement, of which this National Conservation Congress is the exponent, has for its object the transmission of our natural resources, unimpaired, to posterity.

Any movement for the promotion of the farmer’s interest must, if it is to be a success, receive the support not only of the farmer, but also of the farmer’s wife. The first problem of the farmer is how to increase farm products through better farming; the first problem of the farmer’s wife is how to improve the condition of the farm home. The mistakes of the husband in his sphere during one season may be corrected in the next; the mistakes made by the wife in rearing her children are never entirely corrected.

Believing as I do, that the great problems of farm life as they pertain to us wives and mothers can only be solved through coöperation and organized effort, I wish to advocate the union of farmers’ wives in country women’s clubs with the object of breaking up the monotonous routine of farm life and for the discussion of anything and everything pertaining to the betterment of farm home.

The salvation of most families depends on the mother; she is the one who does so much to make for the happiness, health and long life of her family. The health of any mother is liable to fail under her responsibilities; the farm mother is especially subject to physical breakdown, for she not only bears the responsibility of rearing her family, but she also shares the anxieties of her husband if, as should always be the case, the farmer’s wife is his business partner and assistant farm manager.

The farmer’s wife is a most important factor in the conservation of the soil, for she will in a large measure determine the efficiency of the farmer. Then, too, the attitude of the wife towards the farm, and her success in making a happy farm home largely determine whether or not the country boy remains on the farm.

The average country boy is devoted to his mother. How that mother would like to clear the obstacles from his track, and to give him the best the world affords. If the mother feels that the farm offers no future for her boy, the chances are the farm will lose the boy. The training which the boy reared in the city must secure before he can be an efficient farm worker, and for which he must spend time, money and enthusiasm, is the very training which the country boy absorbs from his infancy, and which makes him the most valuable tiller of the soil.

The farmer’s wife has for so many years taken no thought for herself that her now misguided conscience reproaches her if she leaves home when there is work to be done, to attend a club meeting, or if she spends ever so small a sum of money to save herself. A neighborhood club with its exchange of experiences with labor saving tools will teach the folly of expending strength and energy when by spending a little money to secure convenience and ease in work, the farm mother may be conserved to her family, and continue to be a help in the busy world. All farm women have, in a large degree, the same experiences, and therefore they can and should help each other. They should meet to discuss problems of mutual interest; they should organize country clubs with the object of securing the best conditions in their home life; of broadening the outlook of the home; of encouraging a social spirit and of elevating the character of farm life.

THE FARMER’S DAY’S WORK.

One of the most vital problems with which the farmer’s wife has to do is how to shorten the farmer’s workday. The practice of working from sun up to nightfall and afterwards doing the chores is driving the boys from the farm. If all the farmers in a neighborhood would quit work in time for a 6 o’clock supper, a long stride would be taken towards making the farm home an ideal home. Most business men’s work closes with the day, but how about the farmer and his family? When townspeople are at leisure our husbands and sons are milking the cows, bedding the horses, and doing the rest of the chores. They wear overalls so many hours of the week that they are not entirely at ease in other clothes. They are too tired to keep up their interest in the outside world, frequently falling to sleep over the newspaper. Indeed, to bed is about the only place this exhausted man of the early evening is fit to go, for a tired man is not a social creature.

Washing dishes after a late supper with a nodding husband in the next room and your nearest neighbor from a quarter to a mile away does not foster love for the farm. It need not be wondered at that we are insisting that the farm day must be shortened and some time be given to the development of the mental and spiritual, as well as the physical side of the family.

You may remember how the little waif, Glory Maguire, as she looked through the windows at rich children’s parties use to lament: “Oh, the good times going on in the world, and me not in them!” We farmers’ wives want some of the good times that are going on in the world for our children; we want a social center; a club room where neighborhood gatherings can be held. We want a neighborhood library, a live church and an up-to-date school. If our children are to be more than little animals, they must go to church and Sabbath school; they must have a well ventilated, well lighted school room and an experienced teacher.

Men and women of mature judgment are placed at the head of town schools, where suitable courses of instruction and the most approved methods are pursued. The graded school teacher refers any case of insubordination, any report of vulgarity, any question of discipline, to her superintendent, yet these same teachers have been required to take months of training and practicing on country pupils before they were permitted to teach in town under a superintendent.

The country schools should have trained teachers; teachers of sound judgment in understanding the nature of the child and tact in dealing with him. A live, progressive teacher in every country neighborhood is often the little leaven which “leaveneth the whole lump.” We need fewer classes in the country schools; the long study periods are productive of inattention and mischief. If a child is permitted to spend this study time in idling and reading inferior fiction, he loses the power of concentration on his lessons and his taste for solid reading.

We need a well selected library planned for systematic reading; we need recitation benches and desks which will not produce spinal troubles. We need attractive school rooms, better furniture, good pictures and instructive maps. Part of the returns of the farm invested in the school is one of the farmer’s best investments, for all the improvements in the condition of farm life must come through education. Many helpful innovations on the farm have come about through a discussion of what the child learned at school.

We also need better playground facilities. Thousands of country children don’t know how to play. When they are at school there is nothing to play with; when they are at home there are chores, unending chores, to be done.

There is work right here for country women’s clubs to do in supplying the school grounds with tennis, croquet, and any other equally Wholesome and good sports which children can enjoy. Hence we must plan to meet and discuss our mutual problems. We need the stimulating influence which an exchange of ideas and the enthusiastic coöperation of club membership bring. We can accomplish much by the concerted effort which can only follow a reasonable getting together on the part of the farmers’ wives. Working the handle of a dry pump won’t bring results that a little priming brings. Women won’t attend a club unless they get results; they must have something to help them through the week—reading courses, and a study program, as well as the social half hour. We should study dietetics and learn how to balance the day’s food; to provide such articles as will feed as well as fill the family stomach. Man must eat to live, but he need not eat nearly so much if we give him the right kinds of food. The more we study our business, the more attractive it becomes; when we cease studying it, we lose interest in our work. So country women are organizing clubs for discussion and study. When a club is conducted in an orderly manner, and every member made to feel personally responsible for its success, when its membership is small enough to seem like a big family, yet large enough to gain and hold interest of the members, it will work a revolution in a country neighborhood. Wherever a country women’s club has been organized, the women report that it gives them new energy for their home work. Out of a small club at Adair, Iowa, have grown so many smaller clubs that a joint picnic of the members and friends brought out a crowd of nearly 1,000 persons. These ladies have issued a cook book, with the proceeds from which they are enlarging their sphere of usefulness.