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About The Montgomery monitor. (Mt. Vernon, Montgomery County, Ga.) 1886-current | View Entire Issue (July 5, 1906)
NATIONAL FOUNDATIONS. PATRIOTISM IX TIME OF PEACE SEEDED TO SOLVE OUR XA TIOSAL PROBLEMS. We Must Plant Forests. Organize Better Schools, Make homes lor Workers and Rear the Children Close to Nature.—Menace of Great Cities. At the commencement exorcises of the Michigan Agricultural College on June 20tli. 1906, an address was de livered by George H. Maxwell, Dean of the Homecrofters Gild of the Talis man and Executive Chairman of the National Irrigation Association. The key-note of the address of Mr. Maxwell was the idea that we should bring to the constructive work of our social and commercial life in time of peace, the same fervent patriot ism and devotion to the public serv ice that would inspire the whole na tion if we were in the throes of a bloody conflict with the people of some other country. In illustration of this he re ferred to our forest resources. The wasteful improvidence with •which we have swept the for ests out of existence was contrasted with the elaborate care with which we have built fortifications and na vies and equipped our armies. And yet. said Mr. Maxwell, we have little to fear from any foreign foe. Rut we have much to fear from the wreck and ruin that will inevitably follow the destruction of our forests. Destroy the forests and over im mense areas flood and drouth will destroy the farms. Destroy the forests and you will at the same time destroy many of our most important industries by the ex haustion of our supply of wood or timber. Destroy a city by bombardment or fire and it can be rebuilt in a few years more beautiful than ever. Destroy a forest on the plains and it may take more than a generation to restore it. Destroy a forest on the mountains, where the soil is thin and poor, and it may take centuries to restore the forest if it can ever be done at all. The destruction of the forest cover leaves the mountain sides so exposed to erosion that the rocks are washed “DESTROY THE FORESTS AND FEDOT) AND DROUTH WILD DESTROY THE FARMS." bare of soil, aiul reforestation becomes impossible We are told by experts, and no one contradicts the statement, that at the present rate of consumption, our en tire forest resources will be exhausted in less than forty years. I have re cently seen it stated at thirty-five years. If we are to guard against this national danger the Timber and Stone Law must be repealed, and all public timber lands included in perm anent Forest Reserves, the title to the land forever retained by the National Government, stumpage only of ma tured timber sold, and young timber preserved for future cutting, so that the forests will be perpetuated by right use: and the National Govern ment must, by the reservation or pur chase of existing forest lands, and the planting of new forests, create in every state National Forest Planta tions from which, through all the years to come, a sufficient supply of wood and timber can be annually harvested to supply the needs of the people of each state from the Forest Plantations in that state. Unless we take time by the fore lock the next generation will see the United States practically a treeless nation, without wood or timber for the uses of our people, and devastated year after year by ruinous oods. Al ready the scarcity of timber is being felt and every man who builds a home must pay the increased cost. In Michigan I understand that some of your most Important industries are crippled by the shortage of timber. And yet. in the face of this con dition which is nothing more than a crisis threatening the complete de struction of one of our greatest re sources as a nation. Congress busies itself with a multitude of matters of infinitely less importance and refuses to repeal the Timber and Stone Act. under which the last remnants of our unreserved national forest lands are being fed into the insatiable maw of the timber speculators for less than one-tenth of their actual value. We are told by the men in Congress who make Committees and shape leg islation that the money cannot be spared to acquire awl save from de struction the Calaveras Big Trees in California, or to create the White Mountain and Appalachian Forest Re serves, and preserve their forest re sources and save the water power used in the manufacturing industries of New England and the South; and the same men in the same moment re fuse to stop the most shameless waste of a nation’s resources that ever dis graced a national lawmaking body by refusing to repeal the Timber and Stone Act. Not only this, but in Arizona and New Mexico where the forests are the very life of the country, the joint Statehood Bill proposed to give a float ing grant of several million acres which the land speculators who would control the legislature would use to get control of and destroy every acre of unreserved timber land in those territories. The country owes a debt of gratitude to Senator Burroughs of your State for his aid in preventing that bill from passing the Senate. It seems incredible that these things should be done by Congress, but there are reasons for it. In the first place the people at large take no interest in the preserva tion of their own property. “What is everybody’s business is nobody’s business.” In the second place we have not yet. as a people, risen far enough above the mere worship of Mammon to realize that we are deliberately sac rificing to the Golden Calf the re sources without which we cannot ex ist as a nation. And worse tlian this, we are crowd ing our working people, both native and foreign born, into an environment where congestion of population is de generating our workers and rotting their physical and moral fibre. Where will you find any citizenship in the slum and tenement districts of our cities to whom you can effect ively appeal for help to stop the waste of our forests? They know nothin" about it and care less. The first need of any nation is an intelligent citizen ship, and the slums and tenements of our great cities are maelstroms into which tlie citizenship of the country is being drawn to its destruction in a steadily increasing volume. We are suffering just now from a spasm of national hysteria because what everybody who ever took the trouble to go and look knew long ago —the revolting conditions under which the great packers of Chicago have been operating their plants, and because diseased meat has been sold for food. Rut you may draw the worst pict ure that your imagination can paint of the horrors of the slaughtering and packing of meat in those establish ments , and nothing you can Imagine equals the horror of blighting the lives of thousands of children who are condemned to live and grow up in the foul physical, social and moral miasma that permeates the whole slum district of Packingtown. It is a national disgrace and is bound to prove a national curse. There is only one remedy for those horrible conditions of life for the children, and that is to get the work ing people and their children out of tiie slums, and into the suburbs i where they can have sunshine and fresh air and pure and nourishing food from a home garden. Let ns realize once for all that this problem of the children of our work ing people is our greatest national problem and go at its solution with the same patriotic ami self-sacrific ing national heroism that led the Homeorofters of Japan to go into bat tle with their lives in their hands, like hand grenades, to throw at the enemy that sought to crush out their na tional life Let us catch the inspiration of (he slogan of tlic Homecrofters’ Move ment in tliis Country, and never cense our work until we have “Every child in a garden—Every Mother in a Homecraft—and Individ ual Industrial Independence for Every Worker in a Home of his own on the Land.” The Creed and Platform of the Ilomecroftcr tells how it may he done and anyone who wants a copy of it. can get it without charge by sending a postal card addressed to me, at the, Fisher Building in Chicago. The Great Cities are our most | serious menace in this Country. Our greatest national danger lies in the Centralization of wealth and popula tion and trade and industry. The hope of the nation is in the farm and suburban home and in the country and suburban town and village. Let us go seriously to work to cre ate and upbuild them. Let every student who goes out from this splendid institution go with the spirit of a soldier to fight the great battles of peace for higher national ideals, for a purer public service, for the preservation of our national resources, for a better educational system, and above and beyond all for the multipli cation of Homes on the Land where the children can grow to manhood and womanhood in the uplifting en vironment of a rural community where the evil influences of the cities can he forever kept at bay. In such an environment children can is-’ reared to citizenship next to Nature from whence they can draw health and vigor both moral and physical for the discharge of all the duties of life. It is not in the cities that this country now needs the service of the flower of its patriotic manhood. ft is in the country where the great national problem of the improvement of the rural life is to be solved, where more beautiful towns and villages and bet ter roads are to be built better schools to be established, telephones and trolle.” liry" constructed, and all the influe t to work that will socialize j jtry. and drive away the isolatf 1 hardships that were formerly j whacks. We mi t only stop and reverse i the great tide of population that has been drifting from the country to the cities. We must decentralize industry and trade as well as population. The pariotism that is latent in every heart must find an outlet in every country town and village in the work of village improvement, of creating an environment for human life where the highest utility and beauty will surround the entire community, and where a local civic loyalty will prevail that will anchor the people to their own hearthstone and where they will live content under their own vine and fig tree. This local pride and love of home and the home town is one of the strongest of human feelings when once it is deeply planted. It should be cultivated in every possible way. Nothing should be left undone to stimulate or cement it. Every member of such a community should cultivate a spirit of comradeship and co-operate to advance tin* general welfare of all. The merchant, tin' small tradesman, the country editor, the Church, should all work together to that end. Home industry should be encouraged in overv possible way. The whole (‘or’" I "';ity ‘ \ould co-operate to pro nnd stimulate the trade of the r town. The home paper should bo liberally patronized. There is no one thing capable of more far reaching and en during influence for good than the country press. One of the most un fortunate of modern influences has been the trend of commercial evolu tion that has borne so heavily on the country editor by the development of the metropolitan family monthly and mail order papers, tilled with tempt ation for the rural people to stimulate the centralization of wealth and trade in the cities by supplying their ordin ary needs from far distant and prac tically unknown sources. This trend toward the centralization of trade |and industry in the great cities walks side by side with the centralization of wealth and population as a menace to our national future. The danger it threatens can only be obviated by awakening the people at large to a re alization of it. The great central and controlling thought that must rise above all others as a national ideal is the con viction that the real bulwarks of the nation are the Homes of its Citizens and that the first thought and highest ambition of every young man should be to establish a HOME, a self sus taining Home on the Land, where lie can he independent and enjoy the real happiness of a well spent life and not make the mistake that brings disap pointment and misery to so many, of sotting up the accumulation of a for tune as the goal of his life's ambition! It is a lure which of necessity must wreck thousands in order that a few may succeed. The man who earns enough to live comfortably without luxury, as every intelligent and in dustrious man can who has sufliclent practical education, and who does iiis .duty to himself, his family, his friends, his country and to humanity, is the man who really succeeds in life and who gets the greatest happiness and satisfaction out of it. To create a human character of the highest type with everything that implies, is the most admirable of all human achicvraents and that every man and woman must and can do for themselves. “A time like this demands strong men. Great hearts, true faith and ready hands; Men whom tlie lust of office does not kill. Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy. Men who possess opinion and a will. Men who have honor, men who will not lie. Men who can stand before a demagogue. And damn ills treacherous flatteries with out winking; Tall men, sun-crowned, who live a hove the fog, In public duty and in private thinking.” FOR TIIE TOWS BEAUTIFUL. Missouri Women Begin Campaign for Cleaner Cities and Villages (Columbia Herald.) The club women of Missouri have taken u]) in earnest the campaign for j cleaner cities and towns. In St. j Joseph and other large towns organ- j izations of women have done much to promote a general sentiment for clean liness and arc planning more. In Ma con a women’s organization virtually manages the street cleaning depart- | njent, collects the money from mer chants, superintends tin* work and j disburses the funds. The members of the club at Trenton, a women's club, have started a campaign that Is being watched with interest and imitated in other towns. At the annual meeting at the home of their president, Mrs. T. N. Witten, the club discussed plans for the promotion of a sentiment for : better care of lawns and gardens, cleaner streets and alleys and general j improvements. The subject of the opening paper of the meeting, read by Mrs. J. A. Asher, was this appropriate one: “The Town’s Opportunity—How Can It Do More Than the City for a Beautiful ‘ rnerican Life?” One of the plans decided upon was to offer cash prizes to children in the various wards of Trenton for the best show- ! ! irigs under prescribed conditions, in | the growing of flowers and eare of j premises. Seeds for the competitor j jure to be furnished practically’ free >y the club. The mayor was asked to | i issue a proclamation for a neral cleaning-up day. asking citizens to de- : vote a few hours systematically to dis- i posing of the accumulated rubbish. What the women are doing in some ' | Missouri towns tin* school children have been urged to undertake in others, j At various ward school* of Joplin the pupils assisted in the cleaning up of the grounds in readiness f> the hint ing of shrubs and flowers At Perry, in Ralls County, where Professor J. K. Osborne ha- the prettiest public school campus In the state, the school children helped in the good work. At Joplin Principal S A. Raker has been a leader In the observance of Arbor day am! the Inculcation of the senti ment for the civic beauty. A town must first be built in t * wilderness and then made beautiful. The Missouri wilderness has gone, tlie towns are here and are now belli,,' made beautiful. I BE A HOMECROFTER ! Learn by Doing. Work Together. Give every Man a Chance. THE SUKSAN OK THE HUMKCROKTKRS IS Every Child in u Hunlen Every Mother in n Homeerott, ami rndi rtduul, I nil list rial Independence tor Every Worker in it Home of his Own on the Lund." " A little croft we owned a p'.ot of corn. A garden stored with peas and mint and thyme. And flowers for posios, oft on Sunday morn. Plucked while the church hells tang their earliest chimes." I Vordsworth, "The Citizen standing in the doorway of his home contented on his threshold, his family gathered about his hearthstone, while the evening of a well spent day closes in scenes and sounds that are dearest ho shall save the Republic when the drum-tap is futile and the barracks are exhausted.”—//*//> vH . Grady. “Tin* slums and tenements of (ho our fast increasing population in in groat oitios arc social dynamite, cor- dividual homos on (he land homo . . »pi, crofts, however small, owned by the tain to explode sooner or later. 1 lie .. , *. " occupant. \> hero every worker atul Ids only safeguard against such dangers family ran enjoy individual industrial is to plant the multiplying millions of indopondonoo.”—(Joorgo 11. Maxwell. EDUCATION Pll HOMECRQFTS OPPORTUNITY fj] Hi COOPERATION THE FIRST BOOK * HOMECROFTERS HAS JUST BKKN PUBLISHED AND AMONG ITS CONTENTS ARE THE FOl LOWING ARTICLES OF ABSORBING INTEREST BY The Brotherhood of Man Charity that is Everlasting The Secret of Nippon's Pouter Lesson of a Great Calamity The Sign of a Thought This book Is the first of n Series that will Chronicle the I‘rogress of the UOIIHOItOKT MOYKMKNT ; and inform all who wish to co-operate j with it how they may do so through j the formation of local 1 lomeerofters’ ('lroles. Clubs or (Uhls to promote I Town and Village Betterment. stiniu ; late home civic pride and loyalty to home institutions, industries and trade, improve methods and facilities of edu cation in the local public schools, and create new opportunities “At Home" 1 that will go far to check tin* drift of trade and population to the cities. The first Gild of the 1 lomeerofters ' has been established at Watertown, Massachusetts. The GUdhall, Shops and Gardens are located at ll.'i .Main St retd, where tin* Garden School is now fully organized and over one hundred children are at work in tin* ' Gardens. The departments for train ing in Homecraft and Village Indus ’ tries arc being installed. The Weavers , are already at: work at the looms. It Is not designed to build here an Isolated institution, hut to make a model which can he duplicated in any town or village In the country. Copies of‘‘THE FIRST BOOK OF THE HOMECROFTERS" can be obtained by sending twelve two cent stamps with your name and address (carefully and plainly written) to The Homocrofters’Clld of the Talisman 143. Main St., Watertown, Massachusetts. There is New Hope and Inspiration for every Worker who wants a Home of his own on the Land in the ('HEED AND PLATFORM OF THE HOMECROFTERS’ which is as fol lows: “Peace has her victories no less re nowned than war.” EDUCATION CO-OPERATION OPPORTUNITY IIOMECROFTS We believe that the Patriotic Slogan of Hie Whole People of lids Nation | should he "Every Child In a Garden - j Every Mother in a Homecraft and In ! dividual Industrial Independence for Every Worker in a Home of his Own on the Land,” and that until he owns such a Horne, the concentrated purpose ami chief inspiration to labor in the life of every wage worker should he his determination to "Get. an Acre ant Live on it.” We believe that the Slums and Tenements and Congested Centers of population in the Cities are a savagely deteriorating social, moral and polit ical influence, and that a great public movement should he organized, and the whole power of the nation and the states exerted for the betterment of ail the conditions of Rural Life, anil to create and upbuild Centers of So cial and Civic Life in Country and Suburban Towns and Villages, where Trade and Industry can be so firmly | anchored that they cannot be drawn | into the Commercial Maelstrom that j is now steadily sucking Industry and Humanity into the Vertex of the Great Cities. We believe that every Citizen In this Country has an inherent and j Fundamental Right to an Education which will train him to Earn a Liv ! ing. and. if need la*, to g**t hi* living I straight from Mother Earth; and that j he has the same right to the Opportun ity to have tin* Work to Do which will afford him that living, and to earn not only a cor 'ortable livelihood, hut enough more to enable him to he a Homecrofter and to have a Home of his Own, with ground around It. sufficient to yield Dim and his family a Living from the Land as the reward for his own labor. We believe that the Public Domain is the most precious heritage of the people, anil the surest safeguard the nation has against Social Crirost. Dis turbance or Upheaval, and that the Cause of Humanity anil the Preserva tion of Social Stability and of our Free Institutions demand that thi* absorp tion of the public lands Into specula tive private ownership, without settle ment, he forthwith stopped: and that the nation should create opportunities for Homecrofters by building irriga tion and drainage works to reclaim land as fast as it is needed to give every man who wants a Home on the Land a chance to get it. We believe that, as a Nation, we should !>e less absorbed with Making Money, and should pay more hoed to raising up and training Men who will he La w-Ahiding Citizens; that tin* wel- | fare of our Workers is of more con- j scipicncc than tin* mere iiccuniiilution j of Wealth; and that Stability of Nil- - tional Character and of Social and business Conditions is of greater im portance to Hie people of this country as a whole than any other one tpies tion Hint is now before them; and we believe that, the only way to Preserve kik'li Stability, and to Permanently Maintain our National Prosperity, is to carry into Immediate effect and operation the Platform of the Talis man, which is as follows: EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT AND DOMES ON THE LAND. 1. Tlmt children shall he taught gardening and homecraft In the public | schools, and that Homecraft and) Garden Training Schools shall tie established by county, municipal, state, and national governments, where every boy and every man out of work who wants employment where he can gain that knowledge, can learn how to make a home and till the soil and get his living straight from the ground, and where every boy would be taught that Ids first aim in life should la* to get a homo of his own on tin* land. RFILD IIOMECROFTS AS NATION AL SAFEGUARDS. 2. That tile New Zealand system of Lund Taxation and Land Purchase and Subdivision, and Advances to Sel tiers Act, shall he adopted In this country*, to the end that land shall lie subdivided Into small holdings in the hands of those who will till it for a livelihood, and labor And occupation in the creation of homcerofts, which will he perpetual safeguards against tin* political evils and social discontent resulting from Hie overgrowth of cities and the sufferings of unem ployed wage-earners. PROTECTION I OR THE AMER ICAN IIOM ECHO FT. That Rural Settlement shall he encouraged and the principle of Pro- | lection for the American Wageworker and his Home applied directly to the Home by the Exemption from Taxa tion of all improvements upon, and also of all personal property, not ex ceeding $2,500 in value, used on and in connection with, every Homecraft, or Rural Homestead of not more than ten acres in extent, which the owner occupies as a permanent home and cultivates with Ids own labor and so) provides therefrom all or part of the j support for a family. ENLARGEMENT OF AREA AVAIL ABLE FOR HOMEMAKING. 1. That the National Government, as part of a comprehensive nation al policy of Internal Improvements for river control and regulation, and for the enlargement to the utmost possible extent of the area of the country available for agri culture and Hornes on the Land, and for the protection of those Homes from either flood or drouth, shall build not only levees and revetments where needed, mid drainage works for the reclamation of swamp and overflowed j lands, hut shall also preserve existing forests, reforest denuded areas, plant new forests, and build the great reser voirs and other engineering works necessary to safeguard against over flow and save for beneficial use the flood waters that now run to waste. RECLAMATION AND SETTLE MENT OF THE ARID LANDS. 5. That the National Government shall build the irrigation works neces sary to bring water within reach of settlers on the arid lands, the cost of such works to he repaid to tin* govern ment by such settlers in annual in stallments without interest, and that | tin* construction of the great irrigation works necessary for the utilization of the waters of such large rivers as the Columbia, tin* Sacramento, tin* Colo rado. tin* Rio Grande, and tin* Missouri, and their tributaries, shall proceed as rapidly as the lands reclaimed will be utilized In small farms by actual settlers and homemakers, who will re pay the gov rnment the cost of con struction of the irrigation works, and that the amount needed each year for construction, as recommended by the Secretary of the Interior, shall be , made available by Congress as a loan j from the general treasury to the Re- | clamatlon Fund, arul repaid from ; lands reclaimed, as required by the I National Irrigation Act. j SAVE THE PUBLIC LANDS FOR HOMEMAKERS. •i That not another acre of the pub lie lands shall ever hereafter he granted to any state or territory for any purpose whatsoever, or to any one other than an actual settler who has built his home on the land and lived on it for live years, and that no more land scrip of any kind shall ever lie issued, and that the Desert Land Law and tlie Commutation Clause of the Homestead Law shall he made to con form to the recommendations of the Public Lands Commission appointed by President Roosevelt and of the Message of the President to Congress. PLANT FORESTS AND CREATE FOREST PLANTATIONS. 7. That the Timber and Stone Law shall he repealed, and that all pub lic timber lands shall he Included in permanent Forest Reserves, the title to the land to lie forever retained by the National Government, stnmpage only of matured timber to he sold, and young timber to he preserved for future cutting, so that the forests will he perpetuated h,v right use; and that the National Government shall, by the reservation or purchase of ex isting forest lands, and the planting of new forests, create in every state National Forest Plantations from which, through all tin* years to come, a sufficient supply of wood and timber can he annually harvested to supply the needs of the people of each state from he Forest Plantations in that state. CONTROL AND UKK OF THE GRAZING LANDS. H. That all unlocated public lands not otherwise reserved shall he re served from location or entry under any law except tin* Homestead Law, and shall lie embraced In Grazing Re serves under the control of the Secre tary of Agriculture, who shall he em powered to Issue iiiiiillal Licenses to graze stock in said Grazing Reserves, I lint such licenses shall never he issued | for a longer period than one year on agricultural lands or live years on grazing lands, mid all lands class!fled ns grazing lands shall he subject to j reclassification at tin* end of every live years; Hint no leases of tin* public grazing lands shall ever In* made by tin* National Government, and that the area of the homestead entry shall never under any circumstances be en larged to exceed Kin acres. RESERVE STA'IE LANDS FOR HOMESTEAD SETTLERS. !». That the public land stall's shall administer the state lands under a system similar to and in harmony with the national public land system above outlined, and that each state shall enact a State Homestead Law for the settlement of lands owned by the state, and that, stale lands shall he disposed of only to actual settlers I under such law, and that all state | lands shall at all times remain open j to Iloinestead Entry. UNITED OWNERSHIP OF LAND AND WATER. 10. That, it shall la* the law of every state and of the United States, that lienetielal use is tlf* basis, the meas ure, and tin* limit of all rights to water, including riparian rights, and that Hie right to the use of water for Irrigation shall inhere In and l»* ap purtenant to the land irrigated, so that the ownership of the land and ti e water shall be united, and no right lo water ns a speculative commodity ever In* acquired, held or owned. RIGHT OF APPROPRIATION FOP. BENEFICIAL USE. 11. That it: shall he the law of every state and of the United Stales, that qil unused and unappropriated waters are public property, subject to appro priation for a lienefleiai use. first in time being first in right, and that on all Interstate streams, priority of u <* shall give priority of rigid, through out the entire course of the stream, without regard to state lines, and that in each drainage basin the irri gators therein shall control the distri bution of the water. A llomeeroft Harden. The llomeeroft Movement, is grow ing in strength and many leading newspapers are editorially advocating tin* idea that every family, though living in the city, ought to have a garden. A reader of MAXWEI ’S HOMEMAKER MAGAZINE. in Westhrarieh, lowa, sends us the fol | lowing editorial clipped from flit* Dos Moines Daily News, which is so fully in harmony with wlmt tlds magazine stands for that we take pleasure in reproducing the same. The editor of the News says: A little garden, if properly cared for, will Have the city dweller many a dollar. But that Is by no means the ehlefost good. Even if he has more money than he knows wlmt to do with he will still find rich profit in wielding the spade and hoe for ex. reise. And the rarest pleasure comes from follow ing tin* primal instincts of nature. It is not alone the plants mid flowers | we long for. An inner something impels i.s to put our hands at work in ti.-s earth, to : bathe inn* bodies in the sunshine and j to open our souls In devotion to things that are not gross, but sweet and ! pure. To he pitied is . e man who does not drink in with delight t. e fragrance -of the dowers after having breathed ! nil day the stencil of a city, and who (locs not learn a lesson from the noise less. orderly, beneficent processes of nature that are constantly going on j around him. Every city dweller who has a bit of ground (Might to have a garden. It may l-e only five feet squire, hut he can plant if In green peas, succulent onions, radishes or lettuce, and still And room for a flower or two to throw a little color and a little fragrance into Ids life. There are . any reasons, economical, physical, esthetic and moral, why every man should be his owu gai dener, if Ik* can. Thousands of dwell, rs In hotels, flats and tenements can’t he. Their existence is as dull and cheerless in the season when all nature Is gay as I is that of a bird that is caged. They mav laugh and so does the : caged bird sing. But it is not true - living, for all that.
