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lion from Japan has not yet l>ecii
i’nrnod, and when i'resident Roose
velt fail* to see it,and demands only
more battle ships, as the lesson of the
t-'reat eeu tight which ho* just bceu
fought, he unfortunately diverts the
minds of the people of this country
from fact* of supreme and overshad
owing importance, which should be
burned into the public wind ns by u
stroke of lightning from every victory
won by the Japanese.
That lesson Is the profoundly Im
portant fact that the Japanese man,
the unit of her national strength, Is
the product of a mode of life mid nn
environment which combines the
physical strength Which comes only
from the rural life—from living next
to nature—with the mental activity
and keenness which come from con
stant contact with his fellowmen—the
community life.
A Nation of Gardeners*
The Japanese are not a nation of
fanners, as wo understand the word.
They are a nation cf 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 rnml com
munities. /l'lie ranch and the tene
ment are alike foreign to the life of
the Japanese.
Tho greatprlncJplo that mustcontrol
our own national development hence
forth is that tho land shall bo subdl-
'■ 1 1• • *i imo iii" •-t tracts from
which one man's labor will sustain a
family In comfort, and that every
child, boy or glfl. m the pttWlC SChOOIS
should bo so trained In those schools
that It will know.Jiow to till such a
tract of land for a livelihood.
In other wordii let ns reproduce In
this country the condition* so well
described lu an article from tho Book-
lovers' Magazine for August, 1004,
from which wo quote the following:—
“While Japan is cnnnonadlngitsway
to rank with Christian powers as a
nor military equipment, nor manu
facturing skill. Western nations
fail fully to grasp the secret of the
dynamic intensity of Japan today, and
will duugerously underestimate tho
formidable possibilities of the Greater
Japan—the JJul Nippon—of tomorrow,
until they begin to study seriously tbe
agricultural triumphs of that empire.
Tor Japan, more sdentltlcally than
any other nation, iwiat or present, 1ms
perfected the art of sending the roots
of Its civilization onduriugly 1
soil.
“Progressive experts of high author
ity throughout the Occident now ad
mit that in all tbe annals of agri
culture there Is nothing that ever ap
proached the scientific skill of Sunrise
husbandry. Patient riillgenn*, with
knowledge of the chemistry of soil and
the physiology of plants, have yielded
results that have astounded tbe most
advanced agriculturists In Western
nation*."
The Safe Foundation*
The creation of the conditions above
described under which tin* people of a
nation are rooted to the soil In homes
of their own on the land, Is not only
good statesmanship and tho highest
patriotism, but it Is the only safe foun
dation for an enduring national
structure.
To Iguoro and neglect this founda
tion while we build battleships, equip
armies and annex Islands and dig
Isthmian canals, Is as fatal a mistake
os It would be to build d twenty-story
skyscraper In Chicago* without any
foundation but tho mud of Laka
Michigan.
We need not muster out our armies,
nor dismantle our battleships nor
evacuate the Philippines, nor stop
work on the Isthmian Canal, but the
fact remains, as dear ss the sun front
so unclouded sky at noonday, that tbe
attention of our people as a nation In
riveted on our naval and military af
fairs and schemes of foreign explolta-
Por, In fact, they art* undeveloped
We liave, a. yet, hardly more than
tickled the earth over this lmmeus
area.
Our Own Country,
When we compare Japan, with Its
dense population. Its wealth, Its rev
enues, ItH trade and commerce, lta
national HtreugtlJ, with any section of
our own country equal to It In area
and natural resources, we are amazed
at tilt; (treat I xvs.si ill I i t it-s <;f future de
velopment io our own country.
The entire population of Japan Is
nhout forty-five million, of which
thirty million is a funning 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 Japun but Irrigated
agriculture. They have learned that
water Is the greatest fertilizer known
to nature, and save nnd utilize It with
the same care that they use every
other nvnllablo process Tor the fertili
zation of their fields.
Nineteen llionsind square telle* It
an area about one hundred and thirty-
five miles square, and In a square In a
corner of the State of Illinois, tho Com
parative site of which to tho rest of
the State is shown on the accompany
ing map, Is sustained « nation which,
to the amazement of all other peoples
on the earth, has sprung to tbe front
on the earth, has sprung to tbe fro;
as one of the great world powers.
Source of Power,
And tbe Roue Acre farms or gar-
dens—the rural homes of Japan—are
tbe source of that national power.
Commenting on tbli, the author of
tbe article lu tho August ISM Book—
lovers’ Magazine, quoted from above,
■a in that article:—
From what Ha advanced agricult
ure has made Its plains to yield, Japan
has fed and clothed nml educated Its
multiplying masses, fast nearing tbe
- TUB MIDDLE WEST.
Th* Mask masts la th* above mop tegmenta the total area st eatttntsA land ta Japan, easperitag thirty mtlUsas of egrtealtaiil paeon.
first-date fighting nation. It le not neg
lecting It* fields of ‘
1 rice, gengc, millet
and m«JL its groves of mulberry and
" ' iss plots of tea and
and Its multi-mil-
bambooT Its'priceless plots of tea and
mltaumata suruhs, and lta multi-mil
lion gardens of berries, vegetables,
fruits and flowers. The thousands of
patriots that have marched to the
SA&XUAiSl
of Japan.
Husbandry Dignified.
“For twentydive centuries toe Bun-
rise sovereigns have dignified hue-
bendry os toe most Important and
meat honorable Industrial calling to
with Incomnarnbi* skill the limited
soil of bis Islands.
“The eeme diligent geniut toot ena
bles • landscape gardener to Japan to
m2*h£? |a£3K2?Smribte
conifer, and through all ton dainty
park maundering paths, with bar* *
tbrine and there a dainty summer
boas* has matte It poaatbla tot tba far»
mere of tbe empire to build up on tecs
than nineteen thousand square mile*
of arable land ton moat remarkable
agricultural nation the world baa
ku.wu. if all toe tillable scree of
Japan were merged Into one field, a
man In an nutomobU*. traveling at tbe
rate ot fifty mllee an hour, could eklrt
the entire ix-rlraeter of arable Japan
la eleven hour*. Upon ttte HRVt
freehold Japan has reared a nation ot
power, which It determined
rctmmi
.... _ world of wealth and opportu*
nlty from Siberia to Slam and already,
by tbe force of arms. Is driving from
the shores of Asia tho greatest
archy of Europe.
Roots In tho Soil.
The secret of the suceees of the lit
tle Haybreak Kingdom has been a
mystery to many students of nations.
Patriotism don not explain toe. riddle
it lta etrength, neither can commerce,
tlon, to the disregard and neglect of
toe vastly more Important problem of
building men at home, and ereef
citizenship which wlU be an
national foundation forever,
larging our home markets, which will
bo unaffected by any foreign complica
tions or trade disturbances.
The attention of our people of late
ban been so much absorbed by tbe
problems of our export trade, that we
overlook the fact that the Bolted
States today manufacture* annually a
product aggregating in total vain* tbs
combined mnnutoctured product ot
tbe tore# other greatest manufactur
ing nations of toe world. England,
France nnd Germany, and we con.
■time ninety-two per cent of our entln
annually manufactured products at
hornfs
Create Farm Homes.
And If every farm to the United
State# were cut to two, and a new
home created on It so that toe number
of tom hornet, nnd the capital In
vented, In, and labor devoted to agri
culture throughout tho entire United
State#, were tone doubted, the remit
would be an enlargement of our popu
lation, oar bom* market for manu
facture*, and our power as a nation,
almost beyond to* power of to* Imag
ination to picture to ths mind.
It to to toe development of its vast
of ft closely Bottled population of far-
men and gardener*. who will culti
vate the soil by toe moet intensive
methods, that the MKM1* West must
look If tt la to achieve its full destiny
to wealth, power and population.
The reoourcet of the greet territory
extending westward from the crest ot
hnn^dr'mJri^S^fcS’^rt the
uunureutn mcnuuiu—ice cukg oi me
arid region-* nd from the source* of
toe Mississippi River on the north to
lta outlet to toe Gnlf on toe aontb, are
so largely agricultural that It offers
the Ideal section of tbe earth tor to*
development of a nation along tha
lines of Japanese development, with
a preponderating rural population.
Then to no other section of the
world's snrface where latent agricul
tural resources of inch Inexhaustible
richness and extent U0 practically un-
developed. '
fifty million figure; It has stacked up
gold to Its treasury, has created a
great merchant marine,has captured a
growing than ot European commerce,
has already outmarahated commercial
America on the Pacific, hat crowded
Its cities with roaring factories, and
hat given costly and triumphant equip
ment to Its aggressive fleets apd regl-
nts. And it baa accomplished all
out of toe profit
harvests
6 , awnrom .
irge enough to afford, storage room
for toe agricultural mUthtacry to use
to tbe United States."
Could there be a more striking proof
of tosofujuoted words of David Btarr
"Stability of national character goes
with firmneso ot foot-hold on toe
Comparison of Arona.
How compare Japan and It* devel
opment with the possibilities of devel
opment to toe Middle West.
Tbe area ot all the Islands compris
ing the Empire of Japan to 147,686
square miles: of this only 19.000
eqnare miles Is available tor agricult
ure, for every available acre to that
country la cultivated.
Tbe total combined area of Wiscon
sin, Illinois and Indiana la 148JS00
■ * ’»tn say that
of this
. . more than two thirds—
to capable of as close a cultivation,
and of sustaining as dense a
tlon per square mil* as toe
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 agricultural
wealth by Irrigating the land* of.Ull-
noto, produces law suit* with St Louis
because It runs to waste past that
city to ths Gulf of Mexico.
The time will com* when Irrigated
agriculture ta the Middle West will
SSQb£ water
And when the Irrigation canals and
the Irrigated farms of toe Middle
West'will dry tip the Ohio and the
Mississippi river*. Just os Irrigation
to the West has dried up Tulare Lake
to California, and to rapidly drying up
toe Great Balt Lake to Stabs toe
considerably more than
area—probably
Hoods of tlie Mississippi and Its tribu
taries will be led out through a net
.vork of canals, large and small, and
stored In reservoirs, and every drop
devoted to beneficial use, a use that
will be so valuable that its value for
navigation will count for nothing in
comparison. It may be a great many
years before this will happen, but It
is certain lo come. Ill no oilier way
can the vast population with which
tills country will teem within n few
hundred years bo provided with the
tood to. sustain It
Japan, from her tots! area of 147.-
055 square miles, of which only 19,000
are cultivated, collected an annual
revenue before toe war with Russia
began of *121,433,725, and her exports
amounted to $12439.023,
The average population per square
mile ot Japan to 290.76- bat only one-
seventh of her territory to actually
under cultivation.
A Thousand Miles Square.
A section of our own country con
tained within a square extending one
thousand miles north from Hew 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 800,000,000; 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 to cultivated. -
On the *19,000 square mile* of land
In Japan that to actually farmed, they
sustain 30,000,000 farmer*- It Is a
safe estimate that at least one-half of
the thousand mile square central sec
tion of tbe United States above des
cribed could be as closely cultivated
•a tbe productive field* of Japan.
Those Japanese fields sustain over
fifteen hundred people to the square
mile. At tbe same ratio of population,
oar 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; bat on toe Island of Jersey,
off the English coast a population of
over thirteen hundred to me square
mile to 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
fntere development and the facts and
figures 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 baaed only npon the assump
tion that we In this country should at
tain to a point of development already
reached by the Japanese people, and
on which rests their uatlouul strength.
It Is true that our development dur
ing the last half-century has not been
towards tbs bind. We bnve followed
In tho footsteps of Ehgtand, rather
than Japan; nud while, in flftjr years,
Japan has restored tbe tend to her
•eople nnd rooted them to the soil IB
homes of their own, England baa
done the contrary. She lias driven
her yeomaury from the farms to toe
cities, where they have become fac
tory operatives, and degenerated
physically and mentally to such a de
gree that tbe degeneracy of her citi
zenship now presents itself to tho
statesmen of England as a most ap
palling problem. ,
We are doing tbe aam thing, but
w* are not os yet, feeling the effects
of It-so severely because we have still
a larger proportion of our people on
the land.
Bask to the Lands
Wo have much to do to rovers* tho
tide of population, and turn It from
the cities back to tbe land—from the
tenement to the garden. It must not
be Imagined that It to necessary, In
otder to accomplish this, that tho
workers to our cities or In our fac
tories should quit their present em
ployment and become farmers. All
that I* necessary to that tbe faculties
for rapid transportation afforded by
our troUey system should be availed
of to plant every factonr family upon
at least an acre of land.
Let that be done, nnd the problem
practically solved iio matter
though the acre be used for nothing
but to raise chickens and keep a goat
Tbe children of the family wlU have
fresh air and sunshine and pure milk,
and wlU grow up to b* healthy men
and women.
Tha lever with which we mast
more our population back to the laud
must be the public school system.
Cardens and Handicraft
Every child In tbe public schools,
boy or girl, must be trained from its
earliest days of school life to culti
vate the ground and make things
grow to n -garden, and to raise pod-
try, and do aU that needs to be done
to provide to* food for a family from
an aero of land.
Add to tola a training to simple
eloyd work and boms handicraft,
cooking nnd aawtog and making things
for the home, and yon vh have ere-
ated-tbe Impulse la tbe minds of the
multiplying mUUona of our Children
which WlU teed them to shun the
bricks and tha asphalt, to* slums and
the tenements, aa they would atrao
the plague, and flee from them far
enough tote tba country to bare an
acre at least for a bom* and a'gar-
Create tola Impulse to to* minds of
our children, the mUllons upon mil
lions ot them who at* attending,
culty In the way of It Is n mere cus
tom or habit, easily modified.
Tbe terms of school of aU city
schools should be changed. There
should be n short winter term, dar
ing which the time should b* given to
Instruction from ths hooks and to
handicraft within doors. ,
There' should be a summer term ot
equal lengtu during which tho schools
would be transferred to the suburbs,
and work In summer school gardens.
The children should be taken back
and forth to these summer school.gar
dens at public expense, as they ore
now taken to and from the consoli
dated rural schools on tbe trolley
lines to some of tbe New England
states.
The vacation, which wonld not need
be so long, should be divided betwen a
spring vacation and a fall vacation,
tatrrreainc between the winter city
erm and the country summer term or
each school.
Bidding a Strong Citizenship.
Of course, many will hbld up their
hands and say this to Impossible.
England finds It impossible, as the
yesult of-her system of great landed
estates, to provide ber people with
homes on the laud, and in come*
queues ber ruin as a nation Is only a
question of a comparatively brief
time.
Japan, on the contrary, put forth
her band and solved the very problem
which, to 'England, seems impossible,
and behold tbe results In ber strength
and power as a nation.
It to only a question with us. as a
mple, whether we will follow the
sd of Japan, and profit by her les
sons, or follow the lead of England
and share in ber eventual ruin.
The Influences which are destroying
England are at work steadily and ta-
sidloualy In this nation, and though
It will take longer for them to work
our ruin, it to sore to come If we do
not And a way to root the great
majority of oar people to the land In
homes of their own, ea Japan has
done, and as we can do, tinless we
are aa blind and aa impotent In deal
ing with our national problems as
seems to be the fate of E"rt.-q,
In tbe carrying out of this groat
patriotic perpoeeof building a strong
clttaenablp by bonding rural homes
on tbe.land, we are. at the same
time, doing that which srill create
tho greatest possible commercial
prosperity, and develop to the high
est attainable point, not only the ra-
soureea of the Middle Weir( but of
our entire country.
A Tension
Indicator:
IS JUST
WHAT
THE
WORD
IMPLIES.
It
—_ tbe state
of tbe tension , et a glance.
Its use mean* time faring
and easier sewing.
It’s our own invention
and is found only aa the
White
Sewing Machines
We bare other striking
improvement* that appeal to
the careful buyer. Send for
our firyniit H» T* cfttftlog*
Whte Sewkg Iacme Co.
Cleveland, Ohio.
Tho OUra la imrlk*.
Tit* annual output of olive on la
California ta about UO.OOO gallons; at
tickles 130,000 gallon*. The Imports
o ths country of oil amount to about
1,250,000 gallons per year and of
tickles to 2,116 gallons. The olive was
ntroduced into California 125 yean
ago, which is a bad showing for use
ot native olive oil, especially when
It to acknowledged to be the superior
of all foreign otto.
will attend, our public schools, and
they will find a way to solve ill tbe
rest ot the problem, bow to get the
land, and bow to get hack and forth
to It, U they continue to work to the
city or the . factory. -
Gome will my that, school gardens
cannot bo provided for city children
” * mistake. Tbe only dlffl-
EXCAVATION WORK.
.With Greatest Boooocey
use the
Western Elevating Grader
and Ditcher.
ROAD CONSTRUCTION.
Western Wheeled Scraper Ca
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Over cm Thousand
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Widows* claim* a specialty.
U*ually granted within 90
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The roauatic aOvsnton* of Jobs DbrirtUI* DtUeaU Oktasri "The Storm Csstos
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“ ^ of
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“■4m.wtaHitoWta.fcsr wtetessS*. estate ares** «»• /
JL+ilUmt T. Iks Saturtsy Bsrisw. yf
*7tei U ss wars tosisWi ysriog to Uttar* amt tt* /
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On straps they strengthen sad nak* safe the trank. *al*e* ofler
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Meyele. hone or automobile or sssur* umbrella, bog, or aoat to ra
swtov other permanent object. They are s"»*n, stmpi^ flnrthlfw
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LOCKS-* varieties- IO sent* each; with leather trunk stoop.
» ft. 61.00,8 ft 61.25,8 ft heavy $1.50, S to 10 ft. doabte IlM-witk ’
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