Weekly times enterprise and South Georgia progress. (Thomasville, Ga.) 1905-????, November 17, 1905, Image 12

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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 AURORA, ILL. PENSIONS. Over CM Million Dollars allowed our client* during the last sly years. Over cm Thousand claims allowed through us dur- a the last dx months. Dis- Llitr* Age and In- cretfit pwirinnt obtained in the shortest poasibia time. Widows* claim* a specialty. U*ually granted within 90 day* u placed with ca immedi ately co soldier’s death.. Fees fixed by law and payable out of allowed pension. A successful experience of *5 year* and benefit of daily calls at Pension Bureau are at your service. Highest ref erences furnished. Local Magis trates pecuniarily benefited by sending us TABER & WHITMAN CO., Warder Bld’g, Washington, D. C. Poster’s ■ Ideal ' Cribs Accident Proof] Every reader of this paper should have this book. Cut off the coupon and mail to us with $1.50. j M Issourian The roauatic aOvsnton* of Jobs DbrirtUI* DtUeaU Oktasri "The Storm Csstos at tbe Court of Mxxlmnixa In Uexlco, whers biiMcrct mlMiao cones into conflk wim that cf ths tesatttalJscqasUn*. Ths bast mantis America sent of is- , ^ “ ^ of . r '****.•?*??**».—»»»■■»«« ***** * raiwouvu —St Louis BsuuhDa. J “■4m.wtaHitoWta.fcsr wtetessS*. estate ares** «»• / JL+ilUmt T. Iks Saturtsy Bsrisw. yf *7tei U ss wars tosisWi ysriog to Uttar* amt tt* / stay tom* «**» ertcfcsc «/ canfld and paltutMng / H*ta“—X T. Globa. Tha Newest and Bs STRAP LO CKS LYNCH PERFECTION YAUD~nUHGUaB TO THE TRAVELER these Locks Am Neces sities—Not Mere Luxuries On straps they strengthen sad nak* safe the trank. *al*e* ofler traveling caae, or lock tclewope it any tallness. With chain fasten Meyele. hone or automobile or sssur* umbrella, bog, or aoat to ra swtov other permanent object. They are s"»*n, stmpi^ flnrthlfw nnpldcable. 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 ’ best lHnch webbing 7 to 10 fk 61.00—with 1n1tafn|.i*_ anil ora* traveling case or maQ bag strap or witkrimtn Tie By nudX prepaid. on receipt of prion LYNCH MEG. CO* Madison. Wig, feSJL