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A nation at work in human uplift 
 
The 
 Better Country 
 
 BY 
 
 Dana W. Bartlett 
 
 Superintendent of the 
 Bethlehem Institutions, Los Angelesy Cal. 
 
 Author of " The Better City " 
 
 THE C. M. CLARK PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 
 

 <4- 
 
 Cofy right ^ igil 
 
 Tmi C. M. Clabk Publishing Co. 
 
 Botton, Mattachu«etta 
 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 GIFFORD PINCHOT 
 JAMES WILSON 
 FREDERICK NEWELL 
 
 and that group of constructive workers in our government 
 
 service toho, during the past decade ^ have stood for 
 
 Justice and Equality of Opportunity, and who 
 
 have always ** set the common good of all of 
 
 us above the private gain of some of us,** 
 
 355;i50 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/bettercountryOObartrich 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The vital welfare of a nation is of larger import than 
 the physical extension of its borders. The effort to 
 raise life to its highest value once the work of the 
 individual or the group is now recognized of such im- 
 portance that the government itself has entered into 
 social service and the nation has acknowledged the 
 work of human uplift as its highest prerogative. 
 
 The purpose of this book is to point out some of the 
 lines along which our nation is moving toward a 
 larger co-operation in the interest of all the people, 
 the plain people as well as the prosperous; to show a 
 nation at work in internal improvement rather than in 
 foreign conquest; to exhibit real democracy in the 
 forming. 
 
 This is not intended to be an exhaustive study of all 
 of the uplift work of the nation, but rather illustrative 
 as to methods employed and somewhat suggestive 
 as to what more can be done. 
 
 In order to trace the development of National 
 Social Service, it has been necessary to include the 
 description of many of the successful efforts along 
 state and municipal lines. 
 
 I wish to acknowledge the courteous treatment on 
 the part of all government officials when approached 
 for information. The readiness of response on their 
 part and the completeness of the facts which they 
 furnished makes research work in government matters 
 a pleasure. I am greatly indebted to various federal 
 departments for the loan of many of the illustrations 
 used in this book. 
 
 DANA W. BARTLETT 
 Los Angeles, Cal. 
 
 January, 1911 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 I SOCIAL SERVICE 1 
 
 II RAISING THE STANDARD 16 
 
 III NATIONS AT WORK IN SOCIAL UPLIFT .... 36 
 
 IV WEALTH FOR ALL THE PEOPLE 62 
 
 V CONSERVATION OF A NATION'S RESOURCES 97 
 
 VI AGRICULTURE'S OPPORTUNITY 133 
 
 VII BUILDING HOMES 167 
 
 VIII ENRICHMENT OF LIFE 206 
 
 IX IN THE LIFE SAVING BUSINESS 250 
 
 X EDUCATING THE PEOPLE 306 
 
 XI IMMIGRANTS 359 
 
 XII SERVING OTHERS 405 
 
 Xin THE ARMY OF PEACE 455 
 
 XIV MORE DEMOCRACY 493 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 A nation at work in human uplift Frontispiece 
 
 Page 
 Desert land made valuable by irrigation 76 
 
 Frederick Haynes Newell, Director of U. S. Reclamation 
 
 Service 83 
 
 Old way — Logs cut and left together, Lodgepole pine, 
 
 Colorado 98 
 
 Gifford Pinchot, former chief of U. S. Forest Service 104 
 
 The land logged with care and protected from fire. The 
 
 timber and wood keep coming 119 
 
 Digging canals to carry water to distant water valleys 126 
 
 James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture 140 
 
 Future homesites for the people 156 
 
 Clay road, Eastover, South CaroHna 200 
 
 The government hospital on the Panama Canal 229 
 
 Teaching the people how to build good roads 238 
 
 The government is building good roads 241 
 
 The oxygen helmet in life-saving 259 
 
 View of Fort Stanton, New Mexico 283 
 
 Wallipai school boy at Hackberry. Trained in a govern- 
 ment school 317 
 
 Educating the Indians 326 
 
 Statute of Liberty on the Dome of Capitol, Washington, 
 
 D. C 445 
 
 In the Yosemite National Park 450 
 
 The design of the Hague Peace Palace which received the 
 
 First Prize. By L. M. Coronnier, of Lille 470 
 
 A Fourth of July fiesta at Iwahig, 1907, each division 
 
 with float showing work 485 
 
 Los Angeles makes its own cement for the great acqueduct 491 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 Social Service 
 
 A nation at work in human uplift — ^that is the 
 ideal, yet we have as a people fallen short in 
 our treatment of the hungry, the naked, the 
 stranger, the sick and the prisoner. At last 
 we are beginning to understand the meaning 
 of poverty, the number of those who are living 
 below the poverty line, the amount of wretch- 
 edness and misery which is to be found in every 
 city. In fact, now for the first time we are 
 beginning to learn how the other half lives. It 
 took Booth to show us darkest England and 
 its submerged tenth in Whitechapel. It took 
 Jacob Riis, by turning the limelight upon the 
 reeking New York tenement, to show us its 
 squalor and breeding places of disease. We 
 have heard the cry of the outcast children, 
 voiced in pitiless wail. Social settlements 
 have sprung up, every one of which has bec6me 
 a center for the gathering of facts regarding 
 poverty and disease. 
 
 So we have been forced to take notice of 
 
2 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 conditions and ask ourselves the way out from 
 this wilderness of despair. 
 
 It was Huxley who said: "It is certain that 
 there is an immense amount of remediable 
 misery among us. Unless this is effectually 
 dealt with, the hordes of vice and pauperism 
 will destroy modern civilization as effectually 
 as uncivilized tribes of another kind destroyed 
 the great social organization which preceded 
 ours." 
 
 In this the one word to be emphasized is 
 "remediable," and if this is so then we need not 
 lose heart, but learn how to apply the remedy, 
 believing that in time the misery of the world 
 will decrease. 
 
 As we have been learning our lesson, what 
 have been the steps by which we have gone 
 forward.'* It is a far cry from the time when 
 the aged and the weak were exposed to die, to 
 this day with its hospitals and homes for the 
 infirm, and the progress has been slow through- 
 out the weary years. 
 
 The first movement toward the better way 
 came to the world when a few rare souls moved 
 by the spirit of loving service gave themselves 
 in gentle ministry to the poor and needy. 
 They could not check the plague, but they 
 could cheer the dying and bury the dead; they 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 3 
 
 could not furnish employment, but they could 
 divide the loaf of bread with the hungry; they 
 could not stay the ravages of war, but they 
 could be nurses on the battlefield. 
 
 This spirit of loving service has not grown 
 less but has rather increased as the years have 
 passed by and the deaconess, the sister of 
 mercy, the Salvation Army lassie, and the 
 mission worker have given all that they had 
 to ''the least of these." 
 
 While these loving souls have labored, others 
 have given their money, asking only that the 
 sight of wretchedness and misery be kept far 
 from them. Helpful as were these ministra- 
 tions they afforded no final solution of the 
 problem of poverty, for the great crowd of 
 needy ones never grew less and the clamorous 
 cry for help rose and fell in ever increasing 
 power. 
 
 That something more had to be done was 
 very evident, and the leaders in the great 
 humanitarian movements said: "System is 
 what we need." And so the next great step was 
 in organizing charity. 
 
 This was certainly a gain, for duplication 
 was avoided. There was less of pauperizing 
 and more of the personal touch of the friendly 
 visitor. Men who had fallen behind were 
 
4 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 taught thrift and self-reliance and aided in 
 their movement to a larger manhood. 
 
 But organizing charity did not seem to lessen 
 greatly the amount of poverty and wretched- 
 ness. We were handling results, and failing 
 to reach the cause which lay farther back. 
 
 A new type of worker came forth as a search- 
 er for this cause. Usually he was found in 
 some settlement, not as an old-fashioned 
 sociologist, studying outward conditions, but 
 rather as a brother of the helpless who was 
 seeking to answer for them the almost in- 
 articulate cry of their hearts. 
 
 Those who have spent years in the very 
 centers of unrest, with one accord are saying 
 that much of the disease and death, crime and 
 poverty, is preventable — yes, that is the word, 
 "preventable." 
 
 The mission worker tenderly comforts the 
 mother in the tenement, who has lost her babe. 
 That is good, but better still is the work of 
 the city nurse who through the long, hot sum- 
 mer cares for the children in other tenements, 
 instructing the mothers in the proper use of 
 clothes and food, and perhaps sending both 
 mother and babe into the country for a week, 
 thus saving their lives. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 5 
 
 Perhaps the tenement inspector discovers 
 the deadly sewer gas and warns the owner to 
 make repairs, and thus keeps one more of 
 "the least of these" from being buried in the 
 potter's field. Better still, because Jacob 
 Riis has spoken, the city itself has moved to 
 the destruction of the death-dealing tenement 
 and a play-ground takes its place, and new 
 sanitary dwellings house the dispossessed. 
 
 We call this a part of a great social move- 
 ment, yet we must also call it a spiritual 
 movement, as it stirs the hearts of men in 
 every land. Tolstoy says : "Mankind is about 
 to be seized with a frenzy, a madness of love." 
 
 "This will not, of course, happen smoothly 
 or all at once; it will involve misunderstand- 
 ings — even sanguinary ones, perchance — so 
 trained and so accustomed have we been to 
 hatred, even by those, sometimes, whose 
 mission it was to teach us to love one another. 
 But it is evident that this great law of brother- 
 hood must be accomplished some day, and I 
 am convinced that the time is commencing 
 when our desire for its accomplishment will 
 become irresistible." 
 
 Inspired by this message, let us read again 
 the familiar words of the Christ descriptive of 
 
6 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 the judgment day: "When I was hungry ye 
 gave me food; when I was thirsty you gave me 
 drink; when I was a stranger you took me to 
 your home; when I was naked you clothed me; 
 when I fell ill you visited me; when I was in 
 prison you came to me. Lord, when did we 
 all these things to you? As often as you did 
 it to one of these, my brothers, however lowly, 
 you did it to me." 
 
 A new spirit is taking possession of many 
 students of the social problem. The old way 
 of tenderly caring for the sick in hospital and 
 dispensary is being reinforced by the new view 
 that disease is something to be studied, over- 
 come and prevented. 
 
 We once said that crime was normal, that 
 heredity was a constant factor and that the 
 best we could do was to build a prison, em- 
 ploy a chaplain, and endeavor to reform the 
 prisoner. The new view is that crime is not 
 necessary, that environment means more than 
 heredity, and that most crime can be pre- 
 vented if you only give the boy and the man a 
 chance to live right. 
 
 In the old days we pitied the poor, but the 
 new view that poverty itself may be blotted 
 out, crystallizes our pity into remedial action. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 7 
 
 Changed economic, political and social con- 
 ditions may help to lift the burdens which 
 have grown almost too heavy to bear. 
 
 The truest friend of '*the least of these" 
 gives more than a passing sympathy, or a coin 
 tossed into the outstretched hand, or even a 
 gentle word of cheer. He is a constructive 
 and preventive worker, who, first of all, seeks 
 to find out the cause of existing evils and then 
 wisely applies the remedy. 
 
 He who would fulfill the social service needed 
 today must not be like the one who taught the 
 ragged school a half century back, for the de- 
 mand of the modern world is deeper than 
 clothes ; deeper than daily bread ; it is a demand 
 for opportunity — a cry for a chance to be a 
 man. 
 
 True social service means each for all, and 
 all for each. It means working together for 
 the good of all. It is altruistic in spirit; yea, 
 deeper than that; it is vicarious; it has in it the 
 element of sacrifice, the sacrifice of the lower 
 for the higher, the sacrifice of ease and comfort 
 and position, the sacrifice of the world's most 
 coveted prizes, that mankind may be brought 
 nearer the divine ideal. 
 
8 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Not alone to Jesus came the vision of per- 
 fected society. Many men throughout the 
 centuries have dreamed of a day when right- 
 eousness and justice would take the place of 
 oppression and fraud, and love would bind 
 men into a real brotherhood. In increasing 
 numbers men and women throughout the 
 world are saying: " 'Count me as one who loves 
 his fellow-men,' and let me serve or suffer if by 
 that means I can ease the pain of those who 
 have so long suffered without friend and help- 
 er," and they are saying this because of the 
 vision of a new social order which their eyes 
 behold. 
 
 Perhaps we may more clearly understand 
 the meaning of social service if we trace the 
 growth of the communal idea. In the early 
 days of the world's life the individual was 
 lost in the family or the tribe. Each fought 
 for the other against their common foes. 
 Uniting into larger groups, the tribes became 
 the nation, which was surrounded by a larger 
 and stronger wall of defense against the hostile 
 hordes pressing upon it from every side. 
 
 Later on the organization of society changed, 
 and a few feudal over-lords ruled their serfs 
 with a rod of iron. This was the beginning of 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 9 
 
 a rude and cruel individualism. The world 
 moved on, men began to think, and the great 
 value of the individual human soul laid hold 
 of them. Then dawned the day of a new in- 
 dividualism. Each man as an individual 
 stood upon a footing of equality before his 
 God and his fellows. It was the day of oppor- 
 tunity for church and school. Each man 
 could now make of his life what he chose. 
 The way was at length opened to him for at- 
 taining the highest efficiency. 
 
 Church and school might have succeeded 
 in saving the world had there not entered into 
 the world's life certain great unsocializing 
 forces. An intense individualism reacted upon 
 democracy, upon industrial life, and even 
 upon religious life. The great nineteenth 
 century movement toward a pure democracy 
 was checked because men were too busy with 
 their own affairs to give attention to govern- 
 ment, or they chose to make popular govern- 
 ment serve their own advancement. Thus by 
 criminal greed and misuse of public funds 
 many officials became enemies of the republic. 
 Treason was to be found in senate and state 
 legislature and city hall. 
 
10 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Individualism in industrial life produces 
 swollen fortunes without regard to the rights of 
 others. A new industrial feudalism, with new 
 serfs and new retainers, took the place of the 
 simpler industrial life of an earlier century. 
 The results of the new industrialism were seen 
 in the growth of the slum, the importation 
 of ignorant, unskilled workmen, the intense- 
 competition which largely destroyed individ- 
 ual initiative and brought men into masses to 
 be controlled as "hands" by a common head. 
 These unsocializing forces brought about a 
 condition in city, state and nation which has 
 continued to grow ever since; and which now 
 calls for change. Social service, then, the 
 service which the present situation demands, 
 means individual and collective effort to bring 
 about a change in government, in industry 
 and in social relations, which will make for 
 righteousness and justice. 
 
 Because we are not all agreed as to the 
 proper method of procedure in order to bring 
 about the change desired, we are divided into 
 schools and parties, ofttimes warring one 
 against another; and yet if we only knew it, 
 we are all workers together after a common 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 11 
 
 object, although approaching, it may be from 
 a somewhat different angle. 
 
 One man writes the literature of exposure, 
 thinking that it is enough to reveal the sin 
 and grief and misery and greed of the modern 
 world. Another belongs to a group that 
 thinks that law enforcement and prohibition of 
 evil will certainly make men good. Another 
 works for constructive legislation and the 
 establishment of institutions that will make 
 the good attractive. Another becomes in- 
 terested in some minor part of service for the 
 community, often blind to the fact that others 
 working in different ways are brothers of the 
 common good. 
 
 To one man the reform of party politics is 
 the one great end to be sought ; to another the 
 better day cannot be brought in except by a 
 new party based on wiser social principles; to 
 the settlement worker, city congestion is 
 looked upon as a source of many of the cities' 
 ills ; to another the overthrow of the saloon, of 
 gambling hells, and of the social evil, are the 
 things for which h^is giving his life. 
 
 These groups of social workers, like the 
 different branches of the church, are divided 
 
12 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 by sect and creed; but as the fences which 
 have separated workers in the rehgious world 
 are slowly going down, so in this newer field of 
 service, the barriers are falling, and the allied 
 forces are working together with ever increasing 
 intelligence for the common welfare. 
 
 And this is necessary, for it is no easy task to 
 raise the standard of living to the ethics of 
 the law of love and the golden rule, even with 
 the combined effort of all who are laboring for 
 social uplift. 
 
 This movement for the improvement of ex- 
 isting conditions is world-wide. It is seen in 
 China, in its awakening from the sleep of 
 centuries; in Persia and Turkey, in the revolt 
 of the people from the rule of tyrants; in 
 Russia, in the heroic struggle for liberty which 
 grows more determined every day. 
 
 In our own land the feeling of responsibility 
 for the solution of problems relating to the 
 social order is increasing. Men who have 
 simply been money-makers have had a moral 
 awakening, and are stirred to action by the 
 facts which reveal man's inhumanity to man, 
 and show, too, the moral corruption of modern 
 politics. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 13 
 
 There are many men who are freely using 
 their talents and their money for a cleaner Los 
 Angeles, a cleaner San Francisco, a cleaner 
 New York, a cleaner society — a better world. 
 
 Reform is in the air. Men whose names 
 have become household words are making a 
 national fight in local fields. The same fight 
 is everywhere on to restore the government of 
 the people to the people, and to bring about 
 reform in industrial life. These reforms must 
 go hand in hand; for nothing has been shown 
 more clearly than that behind bad politics there 
 is bad business — bad business as seen in pro- 
 tected vice and bad business as seen too often 
 in the bribery and debauchery practiced by 
 the big interests. 
 
 But bad business has found something to 
 reckon with at last. The conscience of our 
 people is now awake. The wave of reform 
 now sweeping over the country is a "demand 
 welling up from the hearts of the people for 
 higher ideals in politics, for better standards 
 in public morals, for civic righteousness and 
 for better government all along the line.'* 
 
 But social service to be effectual must be 
 
14 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 constructive, as well as destructive. Not 
 only must the bad be destroyed; not only 
 must the better way be pointed out, but 
 actual work must be undertaken and institu- 
 tions organized that will crystallize in perma- 
 nent form the best which has been revealed. 
 
 No better illustration of the right sort of 
 social service can be found than that seen in 
 our cities in the care of the child in school and 
 playground; in the provision made for public 
 baths; in the making of the city beautiful by 
 definite plans, including the laying out of 
 parks, the planting of trees, and the erecting 
 of beautiful buildings; in the effort toward 
 prison reform, where the making of the man is 
 more thought of than the punishment of the 
 criminal; in establishing, wherever possible, 
 juvenile courts, parental schools, reformatories, 
 the probation system, the indeterminate sen- 
 tence and the parole. 
 
 Social service is also seen at its best in the 
 efforts to safeguard life and limb in factory and 
 on railroads, and in the conserving of the 
 nation's health by making war upon the 
 mosquito and thereby destroying yellow fever; 
 by making a nation-wide campaign against 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 15 
 
 tuberculosis — the dread white plague; by- 
 guarding the sources of water supply and de- 
 manding pure milk, that typhoid may not 
 sweep as a scourge over our cities — in fact 
 by putting into use every remedial agency 
 which science has to offer. 
 
 The best thinkers of today are saying that 
 much of disease, accident, death, crime and 
 poverty is preventable. If that is so, then in 
 a measure each one of us is responsible if we 
 do not work for prevention. The church as 
 well as the social settlement is recognizing the 
 necessity for preventive measures. Char- 
 acter-building will always be the chief work 
 of the clergy; yet in every church there is an 
 increasing number of those who are workers in 
 the cause of civic righteousness and justice for 
 all the oppressed. 
 
 The time is not far distant when the young 
 men of the nation will enter social service as 
 eagerly as they now seek public office through 
 the ordinary devious ways of politics. And 
 surely to work for the good of the people 
 supplies a nobler incentive than the emolu- 
 ments of office or the pride of political power. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Raising The Standard 
 
 The citizen is at last coming to his own, and 
 the word "citizen" is now written large. 
 
 A few years ago this nation had a rude 
 awakening when the people discovered that 
 the great mass of voters had abdicated their 
 rights as citizens and had allowed the affairs of 
 government to pass into the hands of self- 
 seeking politicians. Why was it that so many 
 good men became careless, and without pro- 
 test allowed bad men to rule in city and state? 
 It seems to have been the result of an intense 
 individualism, combined with a desire for 
 wealth and personal pleasure which made 
 many money-mad, and blinded their eyes to 
 all else of social import. 
 
 If a city is composed of one hundred thou- 
 sand such self-seeking individuals, each seeking 
 his own aggrandisement, regardless of the wel- 
 fare of others, then the common good will be 
 without a champion, and the democracy that 
 speaks for liberty, equality and fraternity will 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 17 
 
 cease to have a following. But even this in- 
 tense individualism so evident in the pioneer 
 might not have produced such evil results had 
 not the growth of modern industrialism with 
 its keen competition forced men into un- 
 scrupulous methods in order to win financial 
 success. 
 
 To some this government was only a means 
 to the end of enabling them to win more gold, 
 even though every dollar of their swollen 
 fortunes was a dishonest dollar. In order to 
 secure in office men that were susceptible to 
 bribery, the owners of monoplies and quasi- 
 public corporations entered into politics and 
 used every effort to corrupt the electorate. In 
 this way they became enemies of every reform 
 demanded by justice and public sentiment. 
 In city and state, the majority of legislators 
 were no longer servants of the people, but 
 puppets of a corrupt boss. 
 
 To the average man the word **politician" 
 had become unsavory ; therefore, he could not 
 afford for the sake of his business or good name 
 to enter into a campaign for a public office. 
 Had this condition gone on without protest, 
 our vaunted democracy would have proved a 
 failure. 
 
18 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 But, at the dawn of the new century, a 
 mighty change came over the minds and hearts 
 of the people. Who can explain this great 
 awakening of conscience, this arousing of 
 interest in the common good? Who were the 
 leaders who went before the people in this 
 crusade for the right, and gave the word 
 "responsibility" a new import to thousands of 
 citizens? It may not be difficult to call the 
 roll of these new crusaders, but after all may 
 they not have been the product rather than 
 the cause of the mighty awakening? 
 
 A change has come — not complete, it is true, 
 but a beginning. Not all business men are 
 seeking the almighty dollar only; and some 
 among the rich are coming to socialize their 
 wealth. The unsocial forces are weakening 
 and the bad is slowly giving away to the good. 
 
 Governor Folk emphasizes this point when 
 he says: "The present political awakening 
 marks the beginning of a new age. The next 
 few years will be distinguished as the time in 
 which industrial problems are solved, the 
 reign of special privilege brought to an end, 
 and the doctrine of equal rights fixed in poli- 
 tics and in the conscience of mankind." 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 19 
 
 An aroused people are at last undertaking 
 to solve the problem of real democracy. While 
 most of the effort is put forth along what 
 might be termed social service lines, yet the 
 movement has reacted upon business, and new 
 ideals of honesty are finding a place in the "T" 
 industrial life of this new day. (j/^ 
 
 We have learned that honesty is the best 
 "politics," and are slowly learning that all 
 business, public or private, will have the most 
 permanent success which is based on honesty 
 and integrity. The individualism of a past 
 century is giving away before the coming 
 co-operation which is essential to the welfare 
 of every city and nation. Who can say that 
 the great combination of citizens for the ex- 
 tension of trade and the improvement of 
 material conditions is not a part of the greater 
 social movement, made manifest in the mighty 
 changes which are already being wrought by 
 the closer relations of all nations. 
 
 The opening of the Panama Canal, while 
 primarily a business matter, will have both 
 ethical and social results which will touch 
 society in a thousand different ways. The 
 completion of the Los Angeles harbor will put 
 
«0 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 the southwest in touch with the orient, with 
 South America and Mexico, in a way that will 
 make us feel that brotherhood is not bounded 
 by national lines. Nevertheless, we are expect- 
 ing the greatest results from the combinations 
 of citizens who are directly interested in social 
 service work of a special character. 
 
 There are now great organizations, civic and 
 national, whose one thought is that of political 
 reform and reconstruction. Municipal and 
 civic leagues, national and local; voters' 
 leagues and non-partisan organizations are 
 militant bodies ever on the firing line watching 
 for fraud and graft and illegal voting. Another 
 group of citizens organized as the Anti-Saloon 
 I.eague are ever busy in the political field 
 working in the interest of saloon suppression. 
 
 In many cities the citizens have organized 
 associations for education along the lines of 
 higher citizenship, notably the City Club, 
 which has proven a great factor in many of 
 the largest cities. Within the last few years 
 there have come into being hundreds of citizens' 
 organizations, working for human betterment; 
 working for industrial reform, child labor, 
 better conditions for women workers, shorter 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY n 
 
 hours; the establishing of devices that will 
 make for greater safety of life and limb; and 
 for the passing of old-age insurance and em- 
 ployers' liability laws. Other associations are 
 working for the child, in women's clubs, civic 
 associations, and mothers' congresses, seeking 
 that every child may have a better home, a 
 more perfect school, and the divine right to 
 play. 
 
 So long as party machinery and other gov- 
 ernmental forms remain as they are at the 
 present time, some such form of activity on the 
 part of citizens is going to be absolutely neces- 
 sary if government is to be effective. 
 
 The National American Civic Association 
 is an organization existing for the direction 
 of the forces which make for a clean and beauti- 
 ful country. It regards the home as the unit 
 of our national life and the improvement of 
 home grounds as the first step in civic better- 
 ment. Co-operating with such associations, 
 the municipal art commissions and park 
 boards are seeking to make the city beautiful, 
 believing that by ruralizing the city it may be 
 made more healthful and more moral, a place 
 where the good may be made attractive. 
 
22 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 In the growth of the idea of true citizen- 
 ship, people are beginning to realize that there 
 must be a unit in city life, not half good and 
 half bad, not half clean and half unsanitary, 
 not half beautiful, and half squalid; but every 
 part brought up to the highest eflBciency. 
 
 Working to this end there are many asso- 
 ciations and congresses studying the question 
 of health and attempting to eradicate the 
 causes of disease. This leads into many 
 branches of work. If the city is to be health- 
 ful, the tenement and slum must be abolished, 
 the saloon must go, the water supply must be 
 guarded, the sewer system must be of the best, 
 the rats and flies and mosquitoes must be 
 killed, the swamps must be drained and great 
 care given to the appointing of the officials 
 who do the actual work of the health depart- 
 ments. Somebody must also constantly 
 watch the food supply, that the "pure food 
 laws," wrung from unwilling legislatures, may 
 be rigidly enforced; for if the milk supply, for 
 instance, is not constantly under supervision, 
 the mortality among the babies will help to 
 fill the Campo Santo. 
 • But there are diseases which are not local, 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 23 
 
 but interstate, and until our own government 
 can enlarge its department of health, national 
 committees of citizens must work together for 
 the desired end. 
 
 There are other great national and local 
 organizations working for prison reform, for 
 now it is believed that much of crime is pre- 
 ventable and that to save the man to society 
 is worth more than to punish the criminal for 
 a term of years. It was soon discovered by 
 those who worked for the establishment of 
 the Juvenile Court that it was even more 
 necessary to organize the Juvenile Improve- 
 ment Association and strike at the causes 
 which lead the young into criminal life. The 
 National Conference of Charities and Correc- 
 tion gives up most of its program to the dis- 
 cussion of the causes and cure of destitution, 
 crime and imbecility. 
 
 The average citizen of today is more of a 
 man than the money-maker of a generation 
 ago. His sympathies have been quickened, 
 his fellowship is larger, he has a more perfect 
 idea of government. Men of great ability 
 and great wealth are beginning to use their 
 power for the good of others. The captains 
 
24/ THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 of industry are learning that to be good 
 citizens, they must devote trained intelligence 
 to the building up of city and national life. 
 Every man must give himself to others if the 
 city is to be made a better city and the country 
 a better country. 
 
 The business methods of the past have not 
 been such as to inspire the captains of in- 
 dustry to enter social service. The dominant 
 ideas were individualistic, and competition 
 absolutely eliminated all thought of the rights 
 and interests of "the other fellow." The 
 governing principle was "business is business," 
 and sentimentalism found no place in the 
 program. 
 
 Great fortunes were built up by employing 
 "hands" instead of men to do the work. 
 Little thought was given to the health, safety, 
 morals or happiness of employees. If they 
 worked through the long hours for a limited 
 wage, no question was asked whether it was a 
 living wage; if disease, accident or death re- 
 moved a wage earner, never mind, there were 
 many other immigrants ready to step in and do 
 the work, for even less money. 
 
 Not all employers were of this hard-hearted 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 25 
 
 sort, for there have always been a few who 
 understood the value of the human touch in 
 industry. These were the pioneers of the new 
 neighborliness; others watched them with dis- 
 trust, believing that their humanitarian 
 methods were mischievous if not positively 
 harmful. But when those who criticized saw 
 that in the factories where the working people 
 received consideration there was less friction 
 and the output was better, both in quality and 
 quantity, they began to ask questions and 
 consider the welfare of their employees. 
 
 Mr. Carnegie claims that the root of busi- 
 ness must be always service to the community. 
 If the business man is to be a helper in the 
 betterment of society, then his first social 
 work ought naturally to be directed to the 
 advancement of those who are helping to 
 build up his fortune. 
 
 There is coming into existence an aristoc- 
 racy of wealth which is just as un-American 
 as an aristocracy of birth. Without con- 
 sidering the question whether the many 
 swollen fortunes were obtained by fair or foul 
 means, it remains true that the possession of 
 almost unlimited wealth gives greater power 
 
26 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 than was exercised by the kings and lords of a 
 past day. That the possession of such power 
 is working for evil in the land is shown by the 
 fact that it has been and is being used to de- 
 bauch senators and legislators, and thus secure 
 laws in favor of special interests, which should 
 have been made for the good of all the people. 
 This power has also been used to influence 
 judge and jury, to such an extent that the 
 people have cried out that justice was dead. 
 Unless a rigid inheritance tax can break up 
 these enormous fortunes, we can hardly 
 imagine what will happen when this vast 
 money power passes into the hands of those 
 who have not earned one dollar of the almost 
 uncounted gold they call their own and claim 
 the right to dispose of as they choose. 
 
 Within the last few years a new class of 
 capitalists have come into the public notice and 
 a new name has been coined to describe them, 
 viz: "Socialized capitalists." Under the old 
 Jewish dispensation, men regarded their 
 wealth as belonging to the Lord, and from the 
 whole they gave back to Him each year a 
 tithe of all that they possessed. In this new 
 century there seems to be at least a few capital- 
 ists who feel that wealth is commonwealth. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 27 
 
 inasmuch as a multitude labored together to 
 produce it; and that, therefore, they ought to 
 give back to the people for their good a tithe, at 
 least, of the fortune which they had hitherto 
 considered their own. True, this may not be 
 the course of reasoning of the capitalist. It 
 may be because, possessing power, he delights 
 to do things worth doing, or may feel that 
 doing helpful things is the only way of winning 
 the favorable regard of his fellow-beings. Yet 
 I prefer to believe that these captains of 
 industry have at last felt the social impulse 
 which is moving the hearts of humbler citizens, 
 and want to do that which will be most helpful 
 from their point of view for all their fellow-men. 
 
 But cities as well as individuals are entering 
 into social service. The great corporations 
 here and there are yielding up their monopolies 
 to the city, and the citizens are receiving 
 better service at cheaper rates. Water, gas, 
 electricity, street railways, are among the few 
 public utilities which will eventually come into 
 public ownership, to be conducted for the 
 common good. 
 
 The health of the people is of paramount 
 importance, not alone the health of the favored 
 
28 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 classes, but the health of all the people. K 
 disease is left unchecked in the seventh and 
 eighth wards, the prevailing winds may carry 
 the scourge to every home in the ninth. 
 Tuberculosis in the sweatshop may carry the 
 white plague into the homes where the fine 
 linen is worn. No city is safe from disease if 
 spots of contagion are found anywhere within 
 its borders. Thus the work of the Board of 
 Health, the Housing Commission, and the 
 Water Department takes on new importance, 
 for the results of this work are deeply social. 
 Working faithfully together, these boards may 
 prevent the spread of disease, and thus lower 
 the rate of mortality. 
 
 In the city where the Board of Health is 
 efficient, one can hardly imagine that con- 
 ditions could exist which would make it possi- 
 ble for a scourge to sweep . off thousands as it 
 did in St. Petersburg. A clean city in every 
 part is the only ideal for a Board of Health. 
 Seeking out and cleansing the source of disease 
 is better work than the building of hospitals 
 for the scientific cure of the sick. The time is 
 not far distant when there will be co-operating 
 boards — national, state and local — educating 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 29 
 
 the people in preventive measures, quarantin- 
 ing against foreign plagues, destroying the 
 germ carriers, cleansing the breeding places, 
 and making it possible to check all disease in 
 its incipiency. 
 
 The plumbing and sewer inspector may en- 
 tirely eliminate sewer gas, that dread of a 
 former day, which sent so many little ones 
 from the tenement to the potter's field; the 
 Housing Commission in a city can see to it that 
 no death-dealing tenement is ever erected, but 
 rather that the people are scattered in de- 
 tached houses of the best type; the Water 
 Commission must watch the water supply, for 
 one case of typhoid on the watershed may 
 scatter germs to a hundred homes. 
 
 Incidentally, social workers in many other 
 departments help much in making a city 
 healthy, such as food and milk inspectors, 
 district and school nurses, directors of play- 
 grounds and recreation centers, park com- 
 missioners and tree wardens, and all civic 
 reformers who are working for a higher 
 grade of efficient life. 
 
 The city has entered into social service in 
 the matter of education. The educational 
 
30 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 ideal of training for life and citizenship has 
 brought about many radical experiments in 
 education, and has led the public school to 
 broaden its scope and usefulness, and rapidly 
 become the most effective agency in the city 
 for spreading happiness and wisdom among the 
 people. The old pouring-in process is giving 
 way to the newer idea of drawing out and of 
 learning by doing things. It is what the child 
 learns by doing that counts. 
 
 The entire life of the child is now under 
 supervision; his physical as well as mental 
 defects are remedied, and the doctor and the 
 specialist are now closely related to the school. 
 Proper buildings with proper provisions for 
 play is an important part of the curriculum; 
 and thus in our great cities there has come a 
 response to a plea for a better chance for the 
 children of the congested districts. Instead 
 of dark and gloomy school buildings, sur- 
 rounded by high tenements, the Boston archi- 
 tect, J. Randolph Coolidge, has recommended 
 the erection of new buildings on the edge of 
 city parks, and the transportation of the 
 children to and fro at the city's expense. 
 This will keep them all day from the peril of 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 31 
 
 the streets, and give them supervised play 
 as well as instruction. This may prove to be 
 the best possible solution of the problem of the 
 child in the congested districts, until that happy 
 time when the city shall be able to break up 
 the slum and scatter the population out into 
 the country. 
 
 To make socially effective the great school 
 buildings with their millions of dollars of 
 investment, they must be used for more than 
 just giving so much instruction to the child, 
 important as that may be. In the matter of 
 education the night is as important as the day. 
 The new buildings should all be arranged as 
 neighborhood centers, for lectures, enter- 
 tainments and concerts. The adult foreigners 
 should find in them an opportunity not alone 
 to learn the English language, but also to 
 receive their first lessons in citizenship. A 
 night polytechnic school may prove to be of 
 greater value than a day one, for it reaches 
 those who otherwise might not be able to 
 secure the proper equipment for life, and who 
 without it, would enter life with a handicap. 
 
 The city is becoming interested in all of 
 its future citizens, and in its various lines of 
 
82 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 social service is trying to reach in a helpful 
 way everyone who needs. The rapid develop- 
 ment of the park idea, from the small flower 
 plot to the metropolitan park system, shows 
 how great value is placed on recreation for 
 all the people. 
 
 Within the last few years public baths have 
 been opened in nearly all of the great cities of 
 the land, and public comfort stations are now 
 deemed essential to the health and morals of 
 city dwellers. 
 
 The social service of a city attracts at- 
 tention when applied to the recreation of 
 the child. The playground and the small 
 recreation park is in fact a play school des- 
 tined to produce great results for the nation. 
 Supervised recreation reduces crime, promotes 
 health, cultivates the sense of others' rights, 
 teaches the value of community life, inspires 
 to cleanliness of body and neighborhood. 
 
 The city, by the establishment of the recrea- 
 tion center and the small park is taking to 
 itself much of the work of the social settle- 
 ment, and because it is supported by the 
 people's money can accomplish a much larger 
 work. By this new form of social settlement 
 the foreigner can be assimilated; by it the city 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 33 
 
 becomes the teacher of the immigrant, where 
 as formerly the saloon keeper and the ward 
 politician were the only instructors. 
 
 Some cities have; gone into the life-saving 
 business, and instead of degrading manhood 
 by the old methods of punishment, have 
 undertaken to make men out of those who 
 have gone wrong. Not content to handle 
 only the results of conditions that make for 
 crime, they have gone back to the starting 
 point. They are asking through their com- 
 missions, judges and social workers what the 
 conditions are that would lead a boy into 
 crime. Is it truancy? Then establish a 
 truant school. Is it bad home life? Then 
 if the home can not be remedied, place the 
 boy in a parental school. Does the boy need 
 a guardian? Place him on probation under 
 the care of a large-hearted man or woman. 
 Let the adult first offenders be given this same 
 treatment and the majority will be saved from 
 prison. Let the victims of drink work on 
 the city farm rather than have the oft-re- 
 peated jail sentence. Abolish the chain- 
 gang, as Cleveland is doing and treat every 
 prisoner as a man. When Tom Johnson was 
 
34 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 criticized because the city of Cleveland had 
 not made money out of the prisoners during 
 his administration, he replied: *'We are not 
 trying to make money out of prisoners; we 
 are trying to make men." What Cleveland 
 is doing should be the ideal for every city. 
 The higher ideals of service, once found only 
 in the church, are now permeating all society. 
 The church ought to rejoice that its allies in 
 world betterment are now found in the mart, 
 the court, the school, and in legislative hall. 
 
 Our cities are rapidly becoming great in 
 material splendor. It remains for them to 
 become great in the higher things of life. 
 That this is the dominant thought of this 
 decade is shown in the united efforts on the 
 part of groups of workers and city officials to 
 recognize as curable and preventable much of 
 the disease, accident, crime, and poverty 
 which now curse the city life. Governor 
 Hughes well expressed the social hope when 
 he said: "I have no illusions with reference to 
 the future. Laziness, thriftlessness, evil pas- 
 sions, and inordinate appetite will continue 
 to wreck human lives. But we can replace 
 ignorance with knowledge; we can give access 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 35 
 
 to air and light; we can build barriers against 
 infection; we can keep our city clean, whole- 
 some and attractive; we can see to it that 
 human beings may labor under conditions 
 with proper consideration for life and health 
 and eJHSciency, and we can make work for 
 social uplifting fruitful and progressive." 
 
 When all of our city officials remember 
 that they are servants of the people, then 
 will the movement for the social uplift go 
 forward with greater rapidity. 
 
CHAPTER in 
 
 Nations at Work in Human Uplift 
 
 The governments of the world have been 
 subject to change; the absolute becomes the 
 limited or constitutional monarchy; the lim- 
 ited or constitutional monarchy becomes the 
 republic; and the republic itself becomes more 
 and more democratic. 
 
 The early American idea of democracy was 
 that the least government possible was the 
 best government. Everything must be left 
 to private initiative, and only that done col- 
 lectively which evidently must be done to 
 produce the best results — such, for instance, as 
 the care of streets, of the postal service, of 
 prisons, and later the oversight of the public 
 schools. 
 
 But private conduct of public service soon 
 produced a monopoly and the people were 
 forced ofttimes against their will to take on 
 new departments of public service for the com- 
 mon good. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 37 
 
 Yet, inasmuch as the cure of the evils of 
 democratic government is always found in 
 more democracy, the people are slowly coming 
 to their own, and they, and not individuals or 
 corporations, are to be the rightful rulers. 
 
 It is intensely interesting to note the in- 
 crease in the various functions of government 
 in this republic, which is becoming more and 
 more paternal, for our nation is now doing 
 things for the good of all the people which our 
 forefathers would have thought impossible. 
 Scientists and psychologists now talk of the 
 unity of all life. The sociologist is basing his 
 plans for civic betterment and social ameliora- 
 tion upon the same principle. 
 
 "No man liveth unto himself," is more than 
 an ancient quotation; it is a statement of a 
 fundamental law of life. Each for all, and all 
 for each, is a modern statement of the same 
 thought. 
 
 "Everyone for himself" is the law of the 
 jungle. But slowly a new form of expression 
 is shaping, and we are beginning to take pride 
 in the things that are "ours," rather than in 
 those which are "mine." 
 
 This idea of the unity of all life is illustrated 
 
38 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 by the tendency to unify interest in city, state, 
 nation, and in the larger federation of the 
 world. It is noticeable in politics and re- 
 ligion. The search is going on for a common 
 standing ground, and for unity in essentials. 
 Fences are falling and non-essentials are for- 
 gotten. Family and neighborhood feuds, rel- 
 ics of the dark ages, are now being supplanted 
 by eflForts toward co-operation for the common 
 good. 
 
 If unity of plan and effort is the foreword 
 for the next decade of city life, much more is 
 it the foreword of the nation as a whole. The 
 original thought of a confederation of states 
 conferring only limited powers upon the 
 central government is slowly being outgrown. 
 
 This nation is one in interest and destiny. 
 The Civil War settled that question once for 
 all. The Mason and Dixon line had to be 
 abolished, and so must all other lines that 
 separate. The south, the north, the east, the 
 west, are but points of the compass, and not 
 sections of a common land — each striving for 
 supremacy. One part cannot suffer without 
 aflFecting the others, any more than the physi- 
 cal body can be well when one member is dis- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 39 
 
 eased. If New Orleans has yellow fever. 
 New York is alarmed; if Louisiana has the 
 boll weevil in its cotton, the mills of Lowell 
 and Lawrence at once feel the effect; if San 
 Francisco has the bubonic plague, Washington 
 moves for a nation-wide campaign against the 
 plague-breeding rats. The cyclone, tidal 
 wave, or earthquake, bringing death and disas- 
 ter to thousands, loosen not only heart- 
 strings, but also purse-strings in every city 
 and village of the land. Sympathy knows no 
 dividing line; suffering eradicates sectional 
 feeling; if the heart is inspired with brotherly 
 love it will not be long until the mind is moved 
 by altruistic impulse. 
 
 As a nation, each part is interested in every 
 other part. The problems of city government 
 in New York or Philadelphia are as much ours 
 as the nearer problems of San Francisco and 
 Los Angeles. Jacob Riis or Jane Addams are 
 working not alone for Manhattan or Chicago, 
 but for the City of the Angels as well. Be- 
 cause of the '*Ten Years' War" against the 
 slum in New York, it will be easier for us to 
 keep out the tenement and bring in the play 
 ground; because of the success of Hull House, 
 
40 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 our local social workers will be able to do far 
 better work in the congested neighborhoods. 
 
 Our nation is being unified by the rapid 
 changes in population. The eastern people 
 are flocking to California; the northerners are 
 flocking to the southland; the negroes are 
 drifting west and north; the Irish, the Cana- 
 dians, and the Slavs are dispossessing the 
 Yankees on the New England farms. The 
 fact is that a new race is in the forming 
 through the inter-marriage of Teuton, Latin 
 and Slav with Pilgrim and Cavalier — a new 
 race, the most wonderful ever known, a new 
 race in which pride of ancestry, of wealth, of 
 culture, will be forgotten, and in which loyalty 
 to truth and right will be the ruling motives. 
 
 This may seem like a dream and yet it is 
 within the limits of possibility, and should 
 become the vision of every lover of his fellow- 
 men. When such a dream shall have become 
 an actuality, co-operation for the common good 
 will be as natural as has been the keen com- 
 petition of the past age. 
 
 There are those who fear the growing pater- 
 nalism of the government, but it seems to be 
 one of the great world movements, and cannot 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 41 
 
 be stayed. More and more our nation is work- 
 ing for the good of all, caring for the health 
 and happiness of the weakest and the most 
 ignorant. It is in social service as well as the 
 city and the individual. 
 
 When we think of the unity of the American 
 people it takes no great stretch of the imagina- 
 tion to widen our thought to the unity of 
 all mankind. Already we have movements 
 which point to a great world-brotherhood as a 
 final consummation. Famine in India, China, 
 or Russia calls forth gifts of grain and money 
 from America. The Red Cross and the Peace 
 Congress show that the unity of all mankind 
 is not an empty phrase. The world is slowly 
 outgrowing its local battles and class con- 
 tentions. Let us hope that our own beloved 
 nation may lead in the movement of es- 
 tablishing the "parliament of man, the federa- 
 tion of the world." 
 
 "Nations at work in human uplift" — that 
 sounds well but it has not always been the 
 watchword for the rich political or industrial 
 feudal lords. Those who needed the helping 
 hand the least have always received the 
 greatest share of attention from their govern- 
 
4« THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 ments. But a change of thought, of purpose, 
 of effort, is now in evidence in every nation. 
 The larger good for "the all" is meaning more 
 than the gaining of riches and power by 
 "the few." 
 
 You who read are realizing a change within 
 your own minds, a new altruistic spirit has 
 taken possession of you, and you are thinking 
 of "the other fellow," the man without a 
 chance, the one who has never known the 
 equality of opportunity. What is true in 
 your experience is also true in the collective 
 mind in city, state, and nation; for, are we 
 not living in the time of a great spiritualized 
 social awakening.'^ — a time which marks a 
 great world epoch, the issues of which w^hen 
 written as history will seem as great and even 
 greater than any of the world's historic 
 revolutions? 
 
 These are the days of the rise of the common 
 man, and there are signs on every side that the 
 nations of the earth are taking heed of the 
 weak and the unfortunate, and that "the 
 slum is to be far more an object of considera- 
 tion than the palace, the money-market, or 
 even the factory." 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 43 
 
 But why this awakened interest in sub- 
 merged citizenship? Why not continue giving 
 the charity dole, or building the almshouse 
 and the prison? Because the old way is too 
 costly in life, in character, and even in those 
 things that bear the stamp of the "dollar 
 mark," 
 
 It costs a nation too much to allow a large 
 percentage of its people to dwell down deep 
 in the social cellars. The world is learning 
 that it pays to lift men to a higher social, 
 economic, and moral level; for the downward 
 drift has always meant loss of human efficiency 
 and that is always a heavy loss to the state. 
 The sociologists have figured out that every 
 efficient man is worth so many hundred dollars 
 each year to the state of which he is an eco- 
 nomic part. Then the outworking of the 
 old law of the ''survival of the fittest" means a 
 distinct loss of so much wealth to the nation 
 as represented by those who have been pressed 
 to the wall and destroyed by their stronger 
 mates. Influenced by the newer law of love, 
 the grander work of making others "fit to 
 survive" will produce results which will mean 
 great wealth for the nation. 
 
44 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 The poverty of slum life never builds up, 
 never adds power, but rather weakens physi- 
 cally, makes its victim less valuable as a 
 working force, and causes him to fall an easy 
 prey to the evil temptations of his environ- 
 ment. He who is forced to live in a tenement, 
 becomes a menace rather than a blessing to 
 society. The disease and the crime of these 
 plague spots are sure to spread to the more 
 healthful neighborhoods, bringing sorrow and 
 death to many households. 
 
 All this is preventable when we know the 
 cause; and if so, why should there be distress 
 and sickness and misery in the land when 
 science or money or legislation can change 
 the condition that produces them? Perhaps 
 the city or state alone cannot accomplish this 
 end, but when the nation works on the prob- 
 lem of crime and pauperism with the same sane 
 and scientific spirit with which she drains the 
 swamp in order to destroy the malaria-bearing 
 mosquito, then will we be nearing its solution. 
 
 Not charity, but justice; not philanthrophy 
 which does something for others, but the spirit 
 of co-operation which works with others; not 
 individual eiTort but collective power apphed 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 45 
 
 to great undertakings, is the way out. If the 
 group working together in corporations can 
 amass wealth, then the strong souls of a 
 nation, united in effort, ought to produce 
 health and happiness for all the people. 
 
 This book is written to show that the 
 United States as a government has entered 
 into social service, but this nation is not 
 unique in this grand work; in fact, some of the 
 nations are in many ways leading us in the 
 work for the common good. Without pre- 
 tense of making an exhaustive report of wel- 
 fare work among all nations, we offer a few 
 examples by way of argument to prove that 
 the tendency of the nations is to work more 
 and more for human uplift. 
 
 England is doing her part toward the so- 
 lution of the world's great social problems. 
 Among her various methods those which are 
 attracting the attention of every nation are 
 co-operation, public ownership, and municipal 
 trading. Yet these, helpful as they are, may 
 not be real solutions, but only guide-posts 
 pointing the way out of the wilderness of 
 human misery. 
 
46 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 They tell us* today that the great co-opera- 
 tive movement bids fair to absorb the entire 
 trade of Great Britain. But this did not seem 
 possible away back in 1843 when twenty -eight 
 Rochdale weavers who had lost in a strike for 
 higher wages, facing greater poverty, wrought 
 out the simple plan of co-operation in their 
 little store in Toad Lane. A pitifully small 
 beginning! But these early pioneers of Roch- 
 dale were dominated by a new spirit of service; 
 they were workers together for the good of all. 
 They refused to enter upon the warfare of 
 competition for, to them, such a course was 
 immoral ; so like all others under the rule of an 
 ideal, they labored on, sacrificing, teaching, 
 saving, until the spirit of co-operation which 
 they kindled and the co-operative movement 
 which they inaugurated spread to every part 
 of the land. The simple plan which they 
 evolved was this: After the initial member- 
 ship fee was paid, each member received his 
 part of the profits in proportion to his pur- 
 chases. That seems simple enough but by 
 this means the profits, which otherwise would 
 
 •Charles Edward Russell, author of "Soldiers of the Common 
 Good," is authority for many of the statements of fact in this 
 chapter. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 47 
 
 have gone to individuals or to trusts, went 
 back to the people. Instead of the common 
 people's money going to build up great for- 
 tunes, it returned to the homes that might 
 otherwise be barren of comforts, bringing at 
 least a measure of those things which make 
 life worth the living. Already over two mil- 
 lion of people are banded together in the 
 British co-operative societies, and that number 
 is rapidly increasing. They have established, 
 not alone retail stores, but also warehouses, 
 wholesale houses, manufactories, transporta- 
 tion facilities, banks, printing establishments, 
 home building societies, and almost every 
 kind of commercial enterprise. Sooner or 
 later the trust must fall before this co-opera- 
 tive movement in England, and then will 
 competition, backed by concentrated wealth, 
 receive its death-blow. 
 
 ' The idea of co-operation has seemed good 
 to many other peoples — France and Germany 
 now possess many co-operative workshops, 
 stores and agricultural societies. Austria, 
 Switzerland, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, 
 Australia, New Zealand, collectively count a 
 co-operative membership reaching into the 
 
48 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 millions. Co-operation means more than the 
 saving of money for the obtaining of physical 
 comforts. It has a spiritual side. "It exists 
 to make life better." "These co-operators 
 believe that this movement will work to 
 destroy race prejudice, break down national 
 barriers, obliterate armaments, and bring 
 about universal peace." Great as has been the 
 good accomplished by the wonderful Rochdale 
 movement started by the Toad Lane weavers, 
 the London slum still exists, and co-operation 
 has not yet touched the starving millions of 
 the submerged tenth. The evolution of the 
 common good is not yet complete in England, 
 or in any other favored nation. But England 
 has had a vision that there is a still more 
 excellent way of levelling up the world's 
 workers, of dispelling poverty, and of giving 
 every man a chance. It has said, "Let the 
 public utilities be publicly owned and operated 
 and then the rates will be reduced and better 
 service secured for all." 
 
 No city has ever undertaken such hmnan- 
 itarian work, or made such effort to use its 
 municipal powers for the good of its lowliest 
 citizens, as the great city of London; and yet, 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 49 
 
 when the London County Council was formed, 
 no one ever dreamed that one day it would 
 not only operate valuable franchises but 
 would outdo the whole world along the line of 
 municipal trading. Fifty years ago, trade 
 held sway, the city lacked in artistic ideals, 
 and was filled with grafting scandals, familiar 
 to American ears. In self-defence, parliament 
 created a new kind of board to administer the 
 affairs of the greater city and gave them extra- 
 ordinary powers. This council is composed 
 of 118 members, chosen by the qualified 
 voters; and 19 aldermen, otherwise chosen. 
 These all serve without pay and consider it a 
 high honor to be of service to their fellow-men. 
 The business of this council is to provide 
 whatever can be provided by government to 
 make life safer and more comfortable. The 
 story of what this great council has under- 
 taken and accomplished reads like that of a 
 peaceful revolution. It has secured a majority 
 of the street railways, and operates them in 
 the interests of the people. It has some two 
 score housing enterprises, putting many mil- 
 lions into an effort to make comfortable and 
 healthful homes for its congested population. 
 
60 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 For instance, it has covered 225 acres of 
 Tottenham with flat houses, accommodating 
 many thousands of persons. It has built 
 cheap lodging-houses, straightened and broad- 
 ened streets, let the light into innumerable 
 tenements, built bridges, doubled the park 
 area, opened playgrounds and baths. In 
 place of building a bridge across the Thames 
 at Woolwich, it runs a free ferry. It runs 
 municipal theatres and is trafficking and sell- 
 ing like an ordinary merchant. This is going 
 a long way toward reaching those beneath the 
 line, yet there is a vast population still denied 
 opportunity, and what is a man without a 
 chance to live.'^ 
 
 Many other English cities are coming to own 
 public utilities, and so rapidly is this absorbing 
 of private business going on that a careful 
 investigator claims that "private ownership 
 of franchises abroad is doomed." This again 
 is England's effort "to protect the less fortu- 
 nate from greed, to keep the weak from being 
 the prey of the strong, to deal with the situa- 
 tion in which one man has too much and 
 another too little, in which power gravitates 
 into the hands of a few to the injury of the 
 many.'* 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 51 
 
 Public ownership, as one method of solving 
 these problems, has gone beyond the days of 
 experiment. Few persons there are who 
 would return to the old days of private owner- 
 ship and competition. 
 
 The list of English cities which have taken 
 over or built new street-car systems is a long 
 one, and while not all lines have returned great 
 profits, thereby lowering taxes, yet because 
 these railways owned and operated by muni- 
 cipalities, "supply vast populations with fre- 
 quent, comfortable, quick, and wonderfully 
 cheap transportation," this method is pre- 
 ferred to the old way which is characterized by 
 an almost utter disregard for the interests of 
 the public. 
 
 Gas, electric, and telephone companies are 
 rapidly being absorbed by the cities as their 
 franchises run out; one-third to one-half of 
 the cities now owning these utilities, giving 
 the people far better results at cheaper rates. 
 Scores of other large cities as well as London 
 are now building model tenements and cottages 
 to take the place of the miserable habitations 
 of the slum dwellers. Lodging houses con- 
 ducted by municipalities are increasing in 
 
52 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 number. Slaughter houses owned and oper- 
 ated by municipalities insure pure food for 
 the people. 
 
 It is true that co-operative public ownership 
 and municipal trading have not yet trans- 
 formed England into a co-operative common- 
 wealth; yet they are helping to realize the 
 social ideal of "obtaining social wealth for 
 social use,'* and are securing to the people 
 more of the fruits of their toil. 
 
 Germany, both municipally and nationally, 
 is at work in human uplift. Believing that 
 whatever makes the poorest people healthy 
 insures a strong nation, it is endeavoring to 
 make every city a slumless metropolis; for 
 dark, noisome tenements threaten national 
 vigor. The houses of the poor are in broad 
 sunny streets, which are kept as clean as the 
 finest boulevards, and the fronts of the houses 
 themselves look like a hanging garden, for 
 every housewife vies with her neighbor in 
 making an artistic window box filled with 
 flowers and vines. This is possible in Ger- 
 many, for there the paternal government 
 can efiEectually regulate the construction of 
 tenements; can insist on wide courts, forbid 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 53 
 
 dark rooms, inspect the sanitary arrangements 
 and regulate the lighting and cleaning of the 
 halls. 
 
 If in Berlin the slum can become a national 
 asset, if the poor can be housed with decency 
 and comfort, then is there reason why any city 
 in any land should have a submerged area? 
 
 Germany has undertaken public ownership 
 to such an extent that an individualist might 
 expect that all private initiative was destroyed, 
 but this is not so; and there are few outside of 
 the special interests who would ask the govern- 
 ment to be less paternal. It seems to please, 
 and a referendum would surely sustain the 
 government and call for a still further exten- 
 sion of public ownership. 
 
 The government owns and operates the 
 telegraph and telephone systems and in fact 
 in most European countries these are part of 
 the postal system. The German government 
 owns the railways, and they are run in the 
 interest of the traveling public, who are 
 treated as the guests of the roads. The ques- 
 tion of dividends is secondary to the comfort 
 and accommodation of the people, and yet 
 they pay the government large returns. The 
 
54 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 railways are not in politics, nor are there rail- 
 way lobbies as in this country, and so the 
 people are the parties who are benefited by 
 every dollar earned. 
 
 Look at the side of human waste. "Every 
 week we kill more people than are killed on 
 the entire German railroad system in one year." 
 In order to increase transportation facilities, 
 this government is spending $350,000,000 on 
 water transportation schemes. It goes with- 
 out the saying that that which is aesthetic in 
 music and art and architecture has not been 
 neglected by a nation which seems to regard 
 the health, education and happiness of its 
 people as of the greatest moment. 
 
 Many other nations have a growing sense 
 of social responsibility. The Scandinavian 
 countries are struggling toward the ideal of 
 equality: ''Everybody's rights — the rights of 
 women as well as of men — of farmers as well 
 as urbanites; of the poor as well as of the 
 rich." 
 
 Sweden has a broad conception of the term 
 public health: — as meaning soundness, vigor, 
 abounding vitality. To secure this end the 
 nation has developed a system of exercise 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 55 
 
 which everyone must follow. They also fur- 
 nish to the school children free baths, free 
 dinners, free school books, free doctors, free 
 dentists, and free oculists; and are no more 
 pauperized thereby than are our pupils by 
 free instruction. 
 
 In Norway three-fifths of the women vote 
 for members of Parliament, and now Sweden 
 joins Finland in giving parliamentary fran- 
 chise to women. 
 
 All Scandinavian countries are, through the 
 establishment of the Peoples' High Schools in 
 the rural districts, creating a reaction towards 
 country life. The dwellers in the crowded 
 tenements are being turned toward the open 
 fields. This initial movement is destined to 
 spread around the world, as people learn that 
 it is necessary to break up congestion, to 
 ruralize the city, and to urbanize the country. 
 
 In America concentrated capital stands in 
 the way of the common good. But Japan, 
 learning a lesson from our failure to regulate 
 monopoly, after the great war was over be- 
 came an economic revolutionist; and as a 
 government became banker, trader, and trust 
 magnate; thus settling for all time the possible 
 dominance of selfish capital. 
 
56 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Seven railway kings of the United States 
 undertook to absorb the railways of Mexico; 
 and as they had never been checked before, 
 success was assumed; but the President of 
 the Republic did not intend that the country 
 should be dominated by foreign railway kings, 
 so he quietly went into the market and bought 
 for his nation a majority of the stock, and the 
 rule by railways was stopped forever. Does 
 this foreshadow the day when our land may be 
 freed from the rule of Wall Street, and oppor- 
 tunity given again for the government to be 
 administered in the interest of all the people? 
 
 Switzerland, the most democratic govern- 
 ment in the world, has taken over its railway, 
 telegraph, and telephone service, and operates 
 them strictly for the benefit of the people. Its 
 post-oflSce service and public school system are 
 of the best. Everything that the student 
 needs in the schools is furnished free, and yet 
 this does not pauperize this liberty loving 
 people. This is a land without a trust, without 
 graft, and without a political boss, for there 
 the people rule. If other nations can take 
 over the great public utilities and so operate 
 them that it will prove a benefit to all the 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 57 
 
 people, surely this nation with its general care 
 for the common good, ought easily to find a 
 way of absorbing the vested interests which 
 seem now to be a menace to its free govern- 
 ment. 
 
 But perhaps nowhere in all the world has 
 such rapid progress been made toward the 
 co-operative Commonwealth as in the two 
 British colonies in the far south seas — Austra- 
 lia and New Zealand. Not many years ago 
 Australia was under the power of a land mo- 
 nopoly . After the great rush for gold was over, 
 there were those who saw greater opportunities 
 for wealth and secured from the Crown, grants 
 of millions of acres of the choicest lands. A 
 landed aristocracy was formed, and the labor- 
 ing man, no matter how great his land-hunger, 
 was not allowed to secure enough of it for his 
 own tilling. This condition at last became in- 
 tolerable, and a determined eflfort was made by 
 labor and its sympathizers to break up the rule 
 of the landed gentry, and substitute for it the 
 rule of the democracy. At the beginning of 
 the present century, the six original colonies 
 were merged into the "Commonwealth of 
 Australia," under a federal constitution — a 
 
58 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 compromise government — something between 
 that of the United States and Canada. Then 
 it was that working-men, carpenters, brick- 
 layers, stonemasons, farm laborers secured con- 
 trol of the government. Those that have been 
 dispossessed of power say that the country 
 is being ruined by these "low fellows" with 
 their freak legislation; but those who have 
 carefully studied the situation claim that there 
 they are doing the things worth doing — the 
 things for the common good, which others have 
 only been dreaming about. It is evident that 
 these labor leaders are not extremists, but 
 "strive only to remedy the wrong that lies a 
 stumbling stone in the path of progress." In 
 national affairs, they are seeking to secure the 
 public ownership of every private monopoly; 
 letting the government own the trusts that 
 they may be administered for the welfare of all. 
 The public ownership of railways, telegraph 
 and telephone systems seems to be pleasing to 
 all, and provides for better service than when 
 under private control. The parcel post, carry- 
 ing parcels eleven pounds in weight, frees the 
 people from the excessive charges of the ex- 
 press companies. So we see that in our desire 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 59 
 
 to try new legislation, we need not experiment; 
 for we can find all the changes which have ever 
 been suggested successfully w^orked out in these 
 lands beyond the sea — woman suffrage, old- 
 age pensions, compulsory arbitration, and so 
 forth — and their success in Australia ought to 
 warrant their adoption in this older Common- 
 wealth. 
 
 Still farther on the road to the common good 
 is the island nation of New Zealand, where the 
 government seems to care most for the least 
 fortunate. This is the "world's economic 
 laboratory," but it was not always such, for a 
 score of years ago "the few" owned the land 
 and "the many" dwelt in poverty in the cities. 
 It is a familiar story, this struggle for the rights 
 of the common people. How, when the work- 
 ingmen gained political power, they were wise 
 enough to do what the privileged classes in our 
 land have as yet not found a way for doing. 
 The law which these new lawmakers worked 
 out, taxed so heavily the unimproved estates 
 which were held as sheep pastures that most 
 of the owners were glad to sell to the govern- 
 ment, while others were forced to sell. The 
 government subdivided the land and leased it 
 
60 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 on such simple terms that every man was able 
 to secure a home if he was an industrious 
 citizen. Even the tramps were set to work 
 on the roads and railroads, and paid partly 
 in land, so that the tramp became a tax payer. 
 The secretary of the Labor Department re- 
 ports that he has put ten thousand men on 
 the land who otherwise could have done no 
 better than to drift along on the perilous edge 
 of day labor, and to fall into dire straits at the 
 first calamity. 
 
 Compare this with the condition of the slum 
 dwellers of London or that of the army of the 
 unemployed in our own land. New Zealand 
 has given full suffrage to its women, even to 
 the Maori women, and does not regret it. 
 There the nation owns the railways, tele- 
 phones, and telegraph lines, and thus is able 
 to strike at the source of much of the graft 
 with which we are so familiar. The govern- 
 ment is acquiring land in the suburbs of cities, 
 and is putting up model cottages for working- 
 men's homes. It loans money, and gives old 
 age pensions; and by the enforcement of the 
 arbitration law has succeeded in stopping 
 strikes and lockouts. This island government. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 61 
 
 under the leadership of men who have earned 
 their living by common labor, has made life 
 worth living for the great mass of men who 
 before were struggling for existence. It has 
 surely paid all of these nations to work for 
 human uplift. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Wealth for all the People 
 
 The existence of a few swollen fortunes can 
 never make a wealthy nation. The owning of 
 the sources of wealth by a few persons creates 
 an industrial feudalism, with serfs and re- 
 tainers, more vicious than the feudalism of the 
 Middle Ages. Recognizing this as an estab- 
 lished fact, many nations are now moving to 
 limit greed and bring about a more just dis- 
 tribution of wealth. 
 
 The previous chapter has shown the methods 
 employed — such as public ownership, muni- 
 cipal trading, co-operation, taxation of un- 
 improved lands, exemption of improvements, 
 excess condemnation, income and inheritance 
 taxes, all of which make it more difficult to 
 build up and pass on great estates to those 
 who labored not to produce them. 
 
 In no land is the idea of private possession 
 held more sacred than in America. This 
 nation has become money-mad, and a new 
 conscience, and new decalog have been evolved. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 63 
 
 A new educational propoganda is demanded, 
 placing the emphasis on commonwealth as 
 over against private wealth; for under the 
 influence of the desire of gain for personal ends, 
 the larger idea of service for others is fast 
 losing its power. In every money market of 
 the land may be found thousands who are 
 individualists in an age demanding social 
 action. These men warring against all social- 
 istic advance, are anarchists in their disregard 
 for law, and in their contempt for government. 
 The massing of unlawful gains has caused a 
 reaction — a peaceful social revolution which 
 will yet check these lawbreakers, and bring 
 about a more just distribution of wealth 
 through a greater equality of opportunity. 
 The ideal society is surely without extremes 
 of poverty or riches, providing a competence 
 for all, lifting all the people above want, taking 
 away from them the fear of the poor-house, 
 giving every man who is willing and able to 
 work a chance for himself, and for securing a 
 home and an education for his family. In it 
 the law, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
 thyself," is put into practice. What do you 
 wish for yourself — a vocation, an avocation, a 
 
64 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 home, education, friends, opportunity? Then 
 according to this law these things which you 
 wish for yourself you wish for every other man. 
 This is the new ideal of social service — the 
 seeking to secure health, wealth and happiness 
 for all the people. Few realize to what extent 
 this nation has gone in its effort to change con- 
 ditions and bring about a more just and equit- 
 able distribution of its vast wealth. 
 
 This, then, is the story which we are to tell, 
 the story of a nation at work in internal im- 
 provement, rather than in foreign conquest — 
 in enriching the common people rather than in 
 aiding a favored few. 
 
 The real wealth of a nation does not consist 
 in its great congested cities with their trade 
 and commerce, their industrial plants, their 
 skyscrapers, their trusts and banks and 
 corporations; for the wealth which is abiding, 
 the wealth which gives true worth to a nation 
 is found in the strong character, the vigorous 
 manhood of its citizenship, in the proper edu- 
 cation of its children, and in the happy homes 
 in beautified cities which take the place of the 
 hovel and the ghetto. 
 
 Fundamental to the conserving of this 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 65 
 
 higher wealth of a nation lies the proper use 
 of its land and water; for if ever the urban 
 population should exceed the rural, then will 
 the physical, intellectual and moral forces 
 be weakened, and the nation will be poorer 
 because of it. This is the reason for the cry 
 "back to the land" — voicing the desire to 
 escape from the artificiality of the city to the 
 simpler and i;nore healthful life to be found 
 near to nature — and from the warfare of the 
 competitive struggle to the fraternal co- 
 operation of the modern agricultural commu- 
 nity. Not alone then does the higher wealth, 
 but also that lower wealth which is expressed 
 in dollars, lie in the development of a nation's 
 land and water. The man who makes the 
 soil productive is a real wealth maker of the 
 nation; for our food supply is of far greater 
 importance than all our luxuries. The man 
 who utilizes the forces and materials of nature 
 produces for the welfare of humanity in grain 
 and fruit and vegetables more wealth than is 
 drawn from all the gold mines in the world. 
 
 The proper use, and just distribution of the 
 nation's vast domains may well receive the 
 best thought of the times. The magnitude 
 
6e THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 of the undertaking of giving lands to the 
 people can be better understood when we 
 consider that this nation has had at its dis- 
 posal about two billion acres of land outside of 
 the original thirteen states, and the sovereign 
 state of Texas, where all public lands belonged 
 to the state to do with them as it judged best. 
 And even after the lavish free grants and ex- 
 tensive sales during the past decades, there still 
 remain half a billion unappropriated acres in the 
 arid regions, awaiting the touch of the magic 
 irrigation rivulet, and the wise plans of dis- 
 tribution at the hands of a paternal govern- 
 ment, to furnish ideal homes for many millions 
 of people. No other nation has ever made 
 such liberal gifts of land, not alone to its native 
 sons, but also to every alien who sought for 
 citizenship. 
 
 It will be of interest at this point to note the 
 methods by which this nation distributed its 
 vast acreage. After filling certain grants to 
 officers and men of the Revolutionary Army, 
 and to oflScers and men of the other wars, our 
 nation adopted the plan of oflFering all unap- 
 propriated lands at public sale, auctioning 
 them off in large tracts, and those lands that 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 67 
 
 were not bid in were offered afterwards at 
 private sale. 
 
 After the government had continued under 
 the policy of selling lands, it took another 
 step, which was to adopt the pre-emption law. 
 This law was of great value to pioneers, 
 because it allowed them a brief period in 
 which to raise the money to pay for their 
 land. Under this law, they could occupy 
 the land; and by filing a declaratory state- 
 ment have a year in which to pay for it. 
 Afterwards this law was so modified that they 
 could have two and one-half years in which 
 to make payment; and on surveyed lands they 
 had the same purchase period, after the plans 
 of the survey were returned to the local land 
 office. 
 
 In addition to these methods of disposal, the 
 homestead law was enacted, which in its 
 main provisions has been one of the great 
 home builders of the country. The defect of 
 that law was what we may call the commuta- 
 tion provision. Originally a seller could 
 enter his homestead, and, after living on it six 
 months, could commute by paying the govern- 
 ment the price; but, in many cases instead of 
 
68 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 the man who made the original entry becoming 
 the permanent occupant of the land, the 
 property got into the hands of speculators. 
 The law was subsequently modified so as to 
 permit commutation in fourteen months, and 
 at first the land oflSce interpreted that law to 
 provide that the settlers could commute within 
 eight months after the first six months in 
 which they were required to live upon the 
 land. Afterwards the land office abandoned 
 that construction; and today they require 
 fourteen months' of actual residence before 
 the settlers can commute. But even under 
 that provision, the records will show that at 
 the present time a large number of these 
 homesteads are taken and commuted; and as 
 soon as commuted and proved up and paid for 
 they pass into the hands of speculators and 
 middlemen, who hold them simply for a rise 
 in value and not for the purpose of utilizing 
 them for agricultural purposes. In addition 
 to these safeguards other laws have been 
 passed, which were no doubt designed for a 
 beneficent purpose, but in practice they have 
 not worked out satisfactorily. We had for 
 instance, years ago, what was called the 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 69 
 
 Timber Culture Law. The object of that law 
 was to promote the growth of timber on the 
 treeless prairies, but experience proved it to be 
 almost a failure. In many of the western 
 states, which have these timber claims, a few 
 trees were grown, but today on many of those 
 old timber claims you can scarcely find a tree 
 standing. That law has been repealed. 
 
 Other laws have followed, such, for instance, 
 as the law allowing men to relinquish lands in 
 forest and other reservations, and select new 
 lands in other parts of the country. Years ago 
 Congress passed an act relative to what they 
 called the Mount Rainier Reservation. That 
 reservation is within the limits of the North 
 Pacific grants. A great deal of the land was of 
 very inferior character, with little or no timber 
 on it. Claimants were allowed, under the 
 law, to relinquish that land and select other 
 lands in lieu thereof, and under that law they 
 selected some of the best timber in those 
 western states. Later on came the timber and 
 stone act, which required that the land should 
 be sold at the minimum price of $2.50 per acre. 
 Until recently the Land Department has con- 
 strued this to mean the maximum price, and 
 
70 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 the timber land owners or other intermediaries 
 who purchase these lands have often secured 
 the most valuable pine lands for that insignifi- 
 cant price. The Land Department has now 
 adopted a new ruling, under which they in- 
 terpret the law to mean that $2.50 is the 
 minimum price, and that the government can 
 charge a higher price in proportion to the value 
 of the land. If that ruling is enforced, it will 
 prove a great protection of public property; 
 but in order to enforce it, the government, 
 through its officials, will have to investigate 
 and examine these lands, classify them, and 
 determine so far as they can, the quantity of 
 timber, in order to fix the price for which they 
 should be sold.* 
 
 The time of the great rush for free home- 
 steads were times of great excitement. The 
 people flocked from the overcrow^ded east, 
 from its rocky and worked out farms; and from 
 its factories and workshops. The news of 
 homes to be had for the asking went across 
 the water, and the land-hungry people of the 
 old world set sail for the new world, with its 
 
 *This description of methods of land distribution is summarized 
 from the report of the Governors' Conference at Washington. 
 
. THE BETTER COUNTRY 71 
 
 new opportunities. West of the Mississippi, 
 this great crowd of homeseekers, alien and 
 American ahke, took up the march toward the 
 frontier with its promise of future wealth and 
 comfort. In prairie schooner and emigrant 
 train, they journeyed westward. Many were 
 the hardships of these early pioneers; they 
 lived in sod houses and shacks, on treeless, 
 windswept plains, far from social life, and the 
 ordinary comforts of an older civilization — 
 yet like all pioneers, they were willing to 
 endure suffering because of the vision of a 
 happy home for their children when the day 
 of hardship was passed and gone. None of 
 these home-seekers appreciated more fully 
 this gift of 160 acres of rich farm land than 
 those who came from the older nations: — 
 Germans, Scandinavians, Russians, and a 
 multitude of other aliens, who are now proud 
 to call themselves citizens of this land of 
 opportunity. In no part of the country can 
 be found a higher average of wealth today than 
 in these homestead states, where a paternal 
 government has given the poor man his 
 quarter section and bade him till the soil and 
 build a home. As the new farmer turned the 
 
72 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 prairie sod, he found that labor here brought 
 such sure returns in wheat and corn and hogs 
 that in place of the shack, he was soon able to 
 build a brick or a frame house with up-to-date 
 comforts. He was able to send his children to 
 school and college, and was made to feel that 
 he, himself, was a factor in the building up of a 
 new country and a new society. Vast in ex- 
 tent as were the fertile acres of the prairies, 
 there came a time when nearly every free 
 section was pre-empted, and the railroad lands 
 were sold to eager purchasers. Then the 
 prairie schooner and the emigrant car were 
 seen no more, but in their place long, slow- 
 moving freight trains carrying back to the east 
 the products of the great west. 
 
 With most of the desirable lands occupied, 
 the stream of immigration was diverted from 
 the western plains to the great cities. The 
 rapid development of urban industrial life 
 brought new aliens from Austria and Italy, 
 while the religious persecutions in Russia and 
 Poland brought a multitude of Jews. Pour- 
 ing into the tenement districts and ghettos, 
 this new immigration laid the foundation for 
 many of the complex city problems which now 
 call for solution. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 78 
 
 The next great opportunity in the new 
 West lay in the raising of cattle on the great 
 semi-arid plains, which were still a part of 
 the public domain. These almost boundless 
 reaches were once the home of the buffalo, but 
 these noble animals had been ruthlessly 
 slaughtered, leaving a vast territory rich with 
 nutrious dried grass, constituting a great 
 pasture of two million acres free for all comers. 
 Here the cattle owner and cowboy held sway, 
 and here vast fortunes were made from long- 
 horned steers. Those were picturesque days, 
 wild and rough, but they could not last for- 
 ever, for the pressure was ever outward from 
 the region of rains toward the rainless belt. 
 The barbwire enclosures of the ranches inter- 
 fered with the freedom of the cattle ranges, 
 the sheep encroached upon the grazing lands, 
 and ere long the border wars were on between 
 the cattle and sheepmen and the settlers — 
 wars which are only now coming to an end. 
 
 Next came the beginning of the great irri- 
 gation era, with new possibilities in the arid 
 and semi-arid regions, greater even than those 
 found in the middle west in the days of the 
 homestead rush. That irrigation furnishes a 
 
74 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 better opportunity for ideal homemaking and 
 scientific farming can easily be shown by the 
 history of this method throughout the world. 
 In a score of lands containing arid regions, 
 irrigation is looked upon as the permanent 
 and certain source of the greatest agricultural 
 wealth. Under the method of artificial water- 
 ing intensive farming is the rule, so that a 
 few acres only are needed to support a family, 
 this number ranging from one acre in China 
 and other parts of Asia to four acres in the Po 
 Valley and elsewhere in the watered regions 
 of Europe. According to this ratio, an Ameri- 
 can homestead of 160 acres rightly divided 
 would furnish support for an old-world village. 
 The leading of water from the uplands to the 
 desert is not the new dream original with the 
 modern engineer. More than a thousand 
 years ago the peoples of the plains of Meso- 
 potamia forced the waters of the Tigris to 
 transform sandy desert into a garden set with 
 cities. This "gentle art of outwitting the 
 summer sky" was well known in Egypt 1400 
 years before Christ, for before them con- 
 stantly was nature's illustration in the annual 
 inundation of the valley of the Nile. In the 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 75 
 
 old days in Egypt when irrigation and agri- 
 culture were at their height, it is estimated 
 that the land supported a population of 
 20,000,000 souls. The British government is 
 now seeking to restore the fertility of the land 
 by building the great Assouan dam, one of the 
 great engineering marvels of the world. In 
 Syria, Persia, India, China, Spain, Sicily, 
 Japan, Peru, was solved long years ago the 
 problem of living in a rainless land watered 
 only by the mountain snows, and the stored-up 
 floods of distant regions. It is true, that 
 much of this early effort of reclamation was 
 exceedingly crude, being by bucket, wheel, or 
 tilting trough; yet there is evidence that in 
 almost prehistoric times great reservoirs and 
 canals were built which have lasted for centu- 
 ries. India, both past and present, furnishes a 
 splendid example of the stupendous watering 
 of parched lands. When present plans in 
 India are carried out, it is said that 60,000,000 
 acres will be brought under the irrigating 
 ditch — almost enough to drive famine forever 
 from the land. 
 
 Because of the vast amount of well watered 
 land available in the United States, this 
 
76 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 country was slow to leam the lesson of the 
 older nations. Not until the Mormons 
 reached Utah in 1847 was the method of 
 watering arid lands by irrigation tried in 
 America. Brigham Young, wiser than his 
 day, did not turn the waters of City Creek into 
 ditches for mining purposes as had hitherto 
 been done, but upon the sage brush desert 
 around the Salt Sea, causing it to blossom and 
 bring forth fruit for his multitudinous fol- 
 lowers. On their twenty-acre farms, the 
 Mormons have prospered, and many of them 
 abound in wealth. 
 
 The success of the German Colony which 
 settled Anaheim in California in the eariy 
 fifties; of the Greeley Colony which settled in 
 Colorado in 1870; of the Riverside Colony in 
 California, which opened its first ditch in 1871, 
 changing seemingly worthless land costing 
 $2.50 an acre into orange land now worth 
 over a thousand dollars per acre — these and 
 many other similar pioneer undertakings at 
 length attracted widespread attention, and 
 awakened hope that the arid lands might be 
 put to better use than that of cattle pasturage. 
 
 By 1890 every state of the far west had its 
 

THE BETTER COUNTRY 77 
 
 great reclamation projects, either under way 
 or on paper, some of them calling for the 
 expenditure of millions of dollars. Great 
 numbers of farmers flocked into these newly 
 irrigated regions, quickly settling the lands 
 which were the most easily watered; but 
 troubles soon arose because there were no 
 uniform water laws. Projects overlapped. 
 Later undertakings upstream took the water 
 away from the first users lower down. Con- 
 tests over rights filled the courts. Lawyers 
 grew rich while the farmers saw their crops die 
 for lack of water. One by one these vexed 
 questions have gradually been settled. Smaller 
 water systems have been combined; and in 
 some instances, water users have formed co- 
 operative associations. In these ways, west- 
 ern irrigation is coming to its own. 
 
 While the projects which required only a 
 reasonable amount of money to finance were 
 under way, combined capital undertook the 
 building of great storage dams, thus securing 
 thousands of additional acres to possible 
 settlers. Under this miracle of irrigation in 
 its larger aspects, the seemingly unreclaimable 
 desert has brought forth untold riches for 
 
78 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 promoter and farmer alike. But not all of 
 these larger enterprises were successful. Those 
 who developed the projects were either ex- 
 ploiters, who overcharged for land and water 
 or sold more land than could be covered by 
 the available supply, or else failed to make a 
 suflScient study of the catchment basin, or 
 were furnished with insufficient data as to 
 rainfall through a series of years, and a dry 
 season would find them without water in the 
 reservoirs for the farmers below who had ac- 
 cepted their terms in good faith. Then again 
 there were projects too large even for captains 
 of industry to risk their many millions upon 
 in exploitation. These failures have slowly 
 led to the development of the sentiment that 
 the business of handling water in arid lands is 
 in its essence a public rather than a private 
 function. It has been the outgrowth of the 
 idea of public ownership in every land ; private 
 initiative changing first of all into exploitation 
 of the many by the few; the development of 
 a growing demand for co-operation, culmi- 
 nating in the acceptance of public ownership as 
 the best possible means of handling these great 
 enterprises for the greater good of all. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 79 
 
 Before considering the methods by which 
 this government has undertaken to control the 
 water and land of this Western Empire, upon 
 the conservation and utilization of which 
 depends the future development and prosper- 
 ity of an area equal to two-fifths of the whole 
 United States, attention must be turned to 
 the other plans by which the nation has 
 sought to give away the remainder of the great 
 American desert after all available homesteads 
 had been taken. 
 
 In March 3, 1877, Congress passed a law 
 known as the Desert Land Law, whereby in 
 eleven states and two territories, it was pos- 
 sible for a man to take up 640 acres of desert 
 land, either surveyed or unsurveyed. In 1891 
 this amount was reduced to 320 acres. During 
 the first, second and third years after making 
 entry, the entryman must spend one dollar 
 per year for each acre of land entered, for the 
 purposes of reclamation and improvement. 
 If at the end of four years, he can give final 
 proof that he has expended $3.00 per acre, he 
 may receive a patent for the land. The 
 Stone and Timber Law, passed in 1878, was 
 another method by which government land 
 went over into private ownership. 
 
80 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 No doubt many have been aided by all of 
 these laws to secure home sites as practical gifts 
 from a benevolent government, but the as- 
 signment clause in these laws and the com- 
 mutation clause in the homestead acts, opened 
 the way for a vast amount of fraud being 
 practiced upon the government. By the use 
 of "dummies," and other illegal devices, 
 hundreds of thousands of acres have been 
 secured by the great mining, grazing, and 
 timber corporations, which have grown rich 
 at the expense of the people. These laws, it 
 is said, have been notoriously used to enable 
 individuals and companies to acquire public 
 property for private speculation. 
 
 Another method of passing the nation's 
 land into private control is the Carey Act of 
 18TT, which authorizes the President to con- 
 tract with any state in which desert land may 
 be situated, binding the United States to issue 
 a patent to the state free of charge, for a 
 tract not to exceed 1,000,000 acres of such 
 desert land as the state might cause to be 
 irrigated, reclaimed, and occupied. As a 
 matter of fact, the states have always entered 
 into contract with private parties to irrigate 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 81 
 
 this land, only binding the companies to furnish 
 water to the settler, within a certain time; to 
 charge not more than a certain amount for 
 water rights, maintenance, etc.; and to pro- 
 vide for ultimate transfer of the irrigation 
 works to the water users. 
 
 Under the Carey Act the settler first makes a 
 contract with the irrigation company for 
 water. He registers this contract with the 
 State Land Board, pays 50 cents per acre for 
 the land selected and a fee of $1.00, making a 
 total of $81.00 on a quarter section. On 
 presentation of proof that he has occupied and 
 actually irrigated one-eighth of the area, he 
 gets a patent for his land. Good as was this 
 act, both for the state and the settler, it pro- 
 vided no check upon speculation, that menace 
 to the peoples' rights in the regions of sunshine 
 and drought. 
 
 But why should men seek so eagerly to 
 obtain possession of desert land.^^ Simply 
 because other lands have long since been ap- 
 propriated, and the knowledge that the watered 
 desert will produce the greatest crops, leads 
 men to rush by thousands to secure a few 
 acres at the opening of every Indian reserva- 
 
82 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 tion, and under every new ditch and reservoir 
 site even before the water is turned upon the 
 land. The richness of this desert land which 
 heretofore had grown only sage brush, mes- 
 quite, and cactus, is the wonder of the world. 
 In the east the constant rains wash out the 
 chemical energies of the land, but in the rain- 
 less belt, lands have been constantly enriched 
 with the accumulated potash, magnesia, sul- 
 phur, lime and phosphorus of the ages. The 
 farmer also utilizes only as much of the water 
 as is necessary for his crops, thus preserving 
 the natural strength of the soil. With the 
 knowledge of what arid America holds in store 
 for mankind, a few men of foresight have 
 labored through the years unselfishly, with 
 the hope that not only would the desert be 
 reclaimed for the use of man, but be saved for 
 the actual homemakers; and that its great 
 wealth might be divided among millions of 
 citizens rather than possessed by a few ex- 
 ploiters. 
 
 /Amongst these farsighted pioneers of a new 
 epoch. Major John W. Powell is well worthy 
 of notice. His daring descent of the Colorado 
 River brought him into public notice, but his 
 
Frederick Haynes Newell 
 Director of the y.S. Reclamation Service 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 83 
 
 greatest work was a report on "The Lands of 
 the Arid Region." Working first under the 
 Smithsonian Institution, then under the In- 
 terior Department, as director of the Geologi- 
 cal Survey, he was able by his constant and 
 accurate investigations, to lay the foundation 
 for the splendid work of reclamation now going 
 on. 
 
 Mr. Frederick H. Newell,* the present head 
 of the Reclamation Service was the first to 
 have the vision of the plan which is now in 
 operation. As hydrographer in the Geologi- 
 cal Survey, he was able to guage the streams? 
 make maps of the water courses and reservoir 
 
 * "There have been laid out systems which involve the ultimate 
 reclamation of several million acres. Large works whose magni- 
 tude is such that they have been passed over by private and 
 corporate enterprise have been built. In all it may be stated that 
 in round numbers there were ready for irrigation at the beginning 
 of the irrigation season of the present year over 5,000 farms, with 
 an aggregate acreage of 700,000 acres. Storage of flood waters 
 had been created and in actual use to the extent of a milUon acre- 
 feet. Canals and ditches were ready for use of an aggregate 
 length of more than 3,000 miles, a distance equal to that across 
 the United States. Fifty-eight tunnels had been built of a 
 length of 85,000 feet. Many thousands of smaller structures, 
 such as headgates, flumes, bridges, turnouts, etc., were completed, 
 a thousand miles of telephones in operation and yardages of earth 
 moved comparable to that handled in the same time at Panama." 
 
84 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 sites. He made the acquaintance of hydraulic 
 engineers all over the country, visited the 
 most promising sites time and again, and so 
 was ready to use his acquired knowledge as 
 soon as the Reclamation Act had been passed 
 by Congress. 
 
 Another leader in this movement was a 
 Californian, Mr. William E. Smythe, the 
 author of a book on **Arid America," and one 
 of the chief promoters of the National Irriga- 
 tion Congress. He aided greatly in bringing 
 the plan of reclamation to the attention of all 
 the country. 
 
 But it was not until the Ninth National 
 Irrigation Congress assembled in Chicago in 
 1900 that a concerted movement was made for 
 a comprehensive national system for the 
 storage of waters, and the reclamation of the 
 arid lands in the public domain. This Con- 
 gress demanded that water monopoly be 
 abolished, and insisted that water be made 
 appurtenant to the land irrigated, and that 
 beneficial use be the basis, the measure, and 
 the limit of the right. 
 
 Then began a systematic lobbying by the 
 friends of this measure. The Newlands Bill 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 85 
 
 was introduced in Congress, but the Panama 
 Canal debate was on and this far-reaching bill 
 could never have been passed had it not been 
 for the active interest of President Roosevelt. 
 In his second message to Congress, he had 
 put himself on record as follows : 
 
 "So far as they are available for agriculture, 
 and to whatever extent they may be reclaimed 
 under the National Irrigation Law, the re- 
 maining public lands should be held rigidly 
 for the home-builder, the settler who lives on 
 his land, and for no one else. In their actual 
 use, the Desert Land Law, the Timber and 
 Stone Law, and the commutation clause of 
 the Homestead Law have been so perverted 
 from the intention with which they w^ere 
 enacted as to permit the acquisition of large 
 areas of the public domain for other than actual 
 settlers, and the consequent prevention of 
 settlement." 
 
 President Roosevelt now became sponsor 
 for the bill and its passage on June 17, 1902, 
 will be counted as one of many of his great 
 executive triumphs. On the 28th of that same 
 month, the Panama Bill was passed. Great 
 as will be the results of the joining of the two 
 
86 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 oceans, in its relation to the welfare of the 
 people, the Act of June 17 will be of far greater 
 import. 
 
 This law, known as the National Reclama- 
 tion Act, provides: 
 
 "That all monevs received from the sale and 
 
 *> 
 
 disposal of public lands in Arizona, California, 
 Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, 
 New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ore- 
 gon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and 
 Wyoming, beginning -with the fiscal year 
 ending June 30, 1901, including the surplus 
 of fees and commissions in excess of allow- 
 ances to registers and receivers, and excepting 
 the five per centum of the proceeds of the sales 
 of public lands in the above states set aside by 
 law for educational and other purposes, shall 
 be, and the same are hereby reserved, set aside 
 and appropriated as a special fund in the 
 Treasury to be known as the 'Reclamation 
 Fund,' to be used in the examination and 
 survey for, and the construction and main- 
 tenance of irrigation work for the storage, 
 diversion and development of waters for the 
 reclamation of arid and semi-arid lands in the 
 said states and territories, and for the payment 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 87 
 
 of all other expenditures provided for in this 
 Act." 
 
 The law provides that pending these exami- 
 nations, public lands in districts under con- 
 sideration may be withdrawn from public 
 entry, except under the Homestead Act, and 
 this without the commutation clause. If 
 investigations prove to the satisfaction of the 
 Secretary of the Interior the feasibility of con- 
 structing the works in question, they may be 
 built from these funds and the public lands 
 there-under disposed of under the Homestead 
 Act, the entryman paying a price for the land 
 proportional to the cost of its reclamation, and 
 in ten annual installments, without interest, 
 taxes or profit; and the law provides further 
 that when the majority of these lands have 
 paid these charges, the entire distribution 
 system is to be turned over to the operation of 
 the local Irrigation Association which is to be 
 formed; the federal government however re- 
 taining possession and administration of the 
 storage reservoirs and head works of the system. 
 No one is allowed under this Act to take up 
 more than 160 acres, and the government 
 advises that the amount of land be limited to 
 40 or 80 acres on one allotment. 
 
88 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 If a man has acquired lands under the reser- 
 voir, he will only be given water sufficient to 
 irrigate 160 acres; all the surplus land he 
 must sell. In this way large land holdings are 
 broken up, and the necessity of constantly 
 living upon the land for ten years before 
 receiving a final patent to the land puts all on 
 an equality and shuts out the speculator, who 
 is the foe to all schemes heretofore devised. 
 The settler gets his land free, but pays the 
 proportionate cost of building the works. 
 This fund becomes revolving as soon as the 
 cost of one project is paid in by the water 
 users, so that the money is returned to the 
 fund to be used over and over again in the 
 construction of other works. 
 
 In June, 1910, Congress passed a bill pro- 
 viding for the issuing of certificates of indebted- 
 ness to the amount of $20,000,000 to provide a 
 fund for the completion of the reclamation 
 projects already begun; and President Taft 
 appointed an advisory board of five officers of 
 the engineering corps of the army as provided 
 in the new law. 
 
 Under the different projects already started, 
 the cost per acre is from $40.00 to $60.00 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 89 
 
 according to the cost of the works. After the 
 water users' association is formed, then the 
 cost of irrigation depends upon the cost of 
 maintenance of the ditches and the distri- 
 bution of the water.* 
 
 No sooner had the act been passed than the 
 Secretary of the Interior called F. H. Newell 
 to the work of organizing the Reclamation 
 Service. The facts so patiently gathered by 
 this efficient public servant through his years 
 of work in the Geological Survey were now 
 of inestimable value, and his knowledge of 
 the engineers available made it possible for 
 him to at once set in motion the machinery of 
 reclamation. Up to date 25 projects have 
 been undertaken, reclaiming 3,198,000 acres; 
 thirteen more are under consideration, which 
 when completed will add 3,270,000 acres more; 
 an area equal in extent to the agricultural 
 regions of many states. This enormous area 
 of land hitherto practically worthless, land 
 which was returning revenue neither to the 
 state nor to the nation, yet possessing the 
 potentiality of becoming one of the richest and 
 
 *Thi8 act, well worth the reading, can be found in the Appen- 
 dix, as also the list of land offices where information can be 
 secured. 
 
90 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 most fertile regions in the world, is being saved 
 for the people without cost to the taxpayers or 
 exploitation of the settlers. 
 
 Slowly but surely under this act, there is 
 being inaugurated the economic conquest of 
 half a continent. By the passage of this act, 
 at a single stroke, the productive capacity of 
 the republic was doubled, and the door of 
 opportunity and of hope was opened to 
 crowded millions. 
 
 The national government has gone into 
 business — "a business in which all the people 
 are stockholders and of which all the people 
 are to be beneficiaries." Formerly the gov- 
 ernment was very willing to subsidize steam- 
 ships, guarantee railway bonds, make vast 
 grants of land to corporations to encourage the 
 building of trans-continental roads; aiding 
 private capital and thus building up the mo- 
 nopolies under whose oppression we are now 
 suffering. The method of the Reclamation 
 Act is the exact opposite, for it is the nation's 
 first step in collectivism. The government is 
 not only building dams and ditches, but 
 roads and railroads w^herever necessary. It 
 runs its own electric light plants and makes its 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 91 
 
 own cement. Strange to say, the government 
 has gone into business and is successful. 
 
 The social aspect of this wonderful move- 
 ment will be discussed in a later chapter on 
 "Building Homes." For the present it is 
 enough to note that the nation has at last 
 moved to stop exploitation, and to curb greed, 
 while offering a chance to those who are 
 suffering under economic conditions which 
 are beyond their control. Fortunate it is 
 for the nation that all this has come about 
 when private individual initiative was reach- 
 ing its end, and the combinations of capital 
 were enriching themselves at the expense of 
 the many. 
 
 If this nation can build the Panama Canal, 
 conduct successfully the Panama railroad and 
 steamship lines, bore a tunnel six miles long 
 through a Colorado mountain, turn the waters 
 of a river upon a dry valley across a mountain 
 range, build the highest dam* in the world 
 
 ROOSEVELT DAM. 
 *"In the land of mystery, of lost races and hoary ruins, in 
 the warm and sunny valley of Salt River in Arizona, one of the 
 greatest engineering works in the world is now well under way. 
 Many miles above the valley, in what was once an almost inacces- 
 sible region, peopled only by the murderous Apache and the old- 
 time outlaw, the Salt River and its tributary, Tonto Creek, emerge 
 
92 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 in an almost inaccessable region known only 
 to Apache Indians; harness a score of wayward 
 streams and make them work together for 
 the good of man — if all these things so well 
 worth doing can be accomplished collectively, 
 with hardly a suspicion of politics and graft, 
 who will fear or question when still more am- 
 
 from the canyon and flow across a broad, level flat. Here two 
 thousand men are at work erecting the Roosevelt Dam, which is 
 to be one of the highest in the world, exceeded in height by only 
 one other, and that also a structure of the Reclamation Service. 
 The Roosevelt Dam will be of uncoursed rubble masonry (sand- 
 stone and cement ) with arch up stream. It will be 800 feet long 
 on top, 235 feet at river bed; and its contents will be 300,000 
 cubic yards. It will rise 284 feet above the lowest foundations, 
 and the height of water against the dam will be 230 feet. A 
 power canal 18 miles long with a drop of 220 feet is now being 
 utilized to furnish 4,000 horse power in constructing the work. 
 When the reservoir is completed the water will flow in the river 
 channel for 44 miles, and then be diverted by means of canals to 
 the irrigable lands. 
 
 "The reservoir thus created by the dam will be one of the largest 
 artificial lakes in the world. Its capacity will be ten times greater 
 than the Croton Reservoir. It will contain more water than is 
 stored by the Assouan Dam, on the Nile. One million four 
 hundred thousand acre-feet, or enough water to cover that many 
 acres a foot deep, will be held in this basis until needed by the 
 farmers in the valley below. Ten thousand horse power will be 
 developed from the dam and from drops in the canal, all of which 
 vnW be utilized to pump the underground water of the valley to 
 lands beyond the gravity systems." (Description by C. J. 
 Blarichard.) 
 
 This great reclamation dam is now completed. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 93 
 
 bitious government schemes are suggested, 
 the working out of which will bring health, 
 wealth and happiness to all the people. 
 
 Our nation is no longer a mere federation 
 of states ; it is even now a centralized adminis- 
 trative government. The old methods which 
 meant monopoly for the few, through tariff, 
 land grabs, etc., are passing, and the new 
 methods which mean prosperity for the many 
 are coming to the front. 
 
 Not content with turning the desert into a 
 garden for the use of the world's restless 
 millions, much has been done in reclaiming the 
 nation's vast swamp areas, ofttimes worse than 
 useless — a menace to the health of the nation. 
 In February, 1908, Senator Frank P. Flint 
 introduced the Swamp Drainage Bill, which 
 failed to pass, but there are strong hopes 
 for its passage in the near future. 
 
 "The object of this Bill is the adoption and 
 application of drainage of swamp and over- 
 flowed lands on the same system that now is 
 applied under the Reclamation Act. The 
 receipts from the sales of government lands in 
 the states specified are set aside as a general 
 drainage fund. These receipts are to be 
 
94 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 applied to the draining of such areas as after 
 examination and survey by the Director of 
 the Geological Survey shall be approved by 
 the Secretary of the Interior, under such rules 
 and regulations as the law may prescribe. 
 The lands reclaimed are to be sold to bona fide 
 settlers only, with no right of commutation, in 
 tracts of not less than 5 nor more than 160 
 acres. The cost of drainage is apportioned 
 among the owners of lands drained and the 
 benefits of such drainage is to be assessed 
 against the property. Payments for such 
 improvements are payable in ten annual 
 installments, thus returning the money for 
 the use in successive enterprises, thereby 
 creating a revolving fund. 
 
 The government report states that the area 
 of swamp lands affected by this proposed 
 legislation is approximately 80,000,000 acres 
 scattered throughout 34 states and territories, 
 comprising an area nearly as large as the States 
 of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. 
 
 If it were possible to subdivide this enormous 
 area into 40-acre tracts it would supply 
 2,000,000 settlers with homes and it would 
 put 10,000,000 people upon lands that are now 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 95 
 
 practically worthless. They are not only 
 worthless from an agricultural standpoint, 
 but are a positive menace to the development 
 of the country and thus to the people. Situ- 
 ated as most of these swamps and overflowed 
 lands are, they are the breeding places of 
 mosquitoes, so dreary and forbidding that even 
 wild animals shun them. If reclaimed they 
 would become the homes of a happy, prosper- 
 ous, and contented set of home builders. The 
 necessity for the drainage of swamp and over- 
 flowed lands has been recognized by European 
 governments for many years. The advan- 
 tages of such reclamation work was demon- 
 strated in England, where there are over one 
 hundred acts of Parliament pertaining to 
 drainage. As far back as 1854 the Prime 
 Minister of England insisted that an advance 
 of public money be made. In ten years, 
 $36,000,000 was loaned for drainage purposes 
 at three and one-half per cent, to be repaid 
 in twenty -two annual installments. This 
 amount was supplemented by further loans 
 until most of the swamp and overflowed lands 
 were reclaimed. 
 
 Holland, France, Italy, and other European 
 
96 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 nations have all enacted liberal drainage laws 
 which have resulted in great prosperity to the 
 respective countries, besides greatly improving 
 the hygienic conditions and surroundings. 
 
 It is undoubtedly the duty of the federal 
 government to improve its own coimtry at the 
 least possible expense and to aid citizens to 
 locate upon land where the most desirable 
 homes can be made. This great work when 
 fully carried out will be one more step toward 
 the consummation of the governmental ideal 
 that a government's chief object is to secure 
 the greatest good of the largest number. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 Conservation of a Nation's Resources 
 
 The reclamation of waste land is well worth 
 the combined efforts of a great nation, but the 
 conservation of a nation's resources may mean 
 even more when we consider the good of all 
 the people. 
 
 This has been a prodigal nation, wasteful 
 of its inheritance; perhaps not more so than 
 other nations, yet tardier than some in coming 
 to itself, and in deciding to save all that re- 
 mains, and to develop this to its highest 
 efficiency. 
 
 A third of the land surface of this country 
 was originally covered with magnificent forests 
 a million square miles in extent, a domain so 
 vast that the original pioneers did not dream 
 of its possible exhaustion. But land had to be 
 cleared that the little farm might be culti- 
 vated ; fuel and timber had to be cut for private 
 use; furthermore, the forest was a menace, 
 for it cumbered the ground, and harbored 
 
98 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Indians and wild beasts. Every day became 
 an "Arbor Day, on which a youth was praised, 
 not for planting, but for felling a tree." The 
 woodman's axe was the symbol of progress. 
 
 Following the eflFort to reclaim the timber 
 land for agriculture and homesteads, came the 
 vast lumbering operations for domestic use 
 and foreign exportation. Besides the de- 
 struction through axe and saw, has been the 
 destruction of fire, until the forests have 
 rapidly diminished, and w^e have now reached 
 the point where their growth is but one-third 
 of the annual cut; and at the present rate of 
 use, all of the standing timber w^ill be cut 
 within twenty or thirty years. To what other 
 land can we look for help? The government 
 reports that Canada can not supply our de- 
 ficiency, for she will need all her timber her- 
 self. Siberia can not supply us, for her timber 
 is too far from w^ater transportation. South 
 America can not supply us, because much of 
 the timber of that vast continent is of a different 
 character from that we use, and ill adapted to 
 our need. We must suffer because we have care- 
 lessly wasted our forests. It is impossible to 
 repair the damage in time to escape much 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 99 
 
 suffering, although it is not too late to work 
 hard to reduce it as much as we can. 
 
 One great reason for the exhaustion of the 
 nation's resources in land, and water, and 
 trees, and mineral, is found in the fact that 
 almost priceless possessions have been passed 
 over from national to individual or corporation 
 control. It is true that without this liberal 
 giving on the part of the government, the 
 development of the nation's resources would 
 never have been so rapid, nor would this 
 nation have come so surely to the forefront 
 in commercial and industrial activity. All 
 might have gone well had the beneficent laws, 
 created for the people's good, been carried 
 out according to their original intent; but 
 individuals and corporations began to grab 
 the government land, and through fraud se- 
 cured possession of millions of acres which 
 should have passed into the people's possession. 
 
 The great lumber, cattle, sheep, and mining 
 companies obtained vast stretches of land by 
 purchase from the railroads. To the State 
 School lands and other lands, "lumber jacks," 
 "squatters," and settlers honestly obtained a 
 title and then sold to the companies. "Dum- 
 
100 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 mies" were also hired to take up land and turn 
 it over to their employers; single companies in 
 this way obtaining a million and more acres, 
 thus coming to possess tremendous holdings 
 which were originally intended for the benefit 
 of the homesteader, and not for the enrichment 
 of a few who were already rich beyond their 
 need. How much greater would have been 
 the wealth of this nation today if instead of 
 these vast holdings of the land-kings, small 
 farmers each tilling his 160 acres had secured 
 the land as intended by the nation's laws. 
 
 The total grants made to railroad and other 
 corporations as an inducement to open up new 
 country in the far west, aggregate 266,000,000 
 acres, an area equal to France and Germany 
 combined, which support a population greater 
 than that of the United States. 
 
 The danger of all this lies not alone in the 
 building up of a landed aristocracy nor even 
 in the keeping of the people from the land, thus 
 compelling them to crowd into the great 
 cities, but in the temptation to skin the land 
 secured at such little cost and use it up at once, 
 thus exhausting all the resources which should 
 have been conserved and developed. Other 
 
THE BETTER CbUNTRY 101 
 
 countries have suffered in like manner, and 
 it is time for us to learn the lesson, and stop 
 the waste. Rome at one time held vast areas 
 of public lands, but allowed them to drift 
 into the hands of nobles and capitalists who 
 evicted the inhabitants and held the lands as 
 game preserves, or farmed them w^th the 
 labor of slaves. Many reformers lost their 
 lives in seeking to improve agrarian laws, and 
 to recover the land for the people. No such 
 dire results may follow similar effort in this 
 country, yet many political and oflScial heads 
 may fall before the result is accomplished ; the 
 good cause may be obstructed, and its tri- 
 umph delayed by hostile tactics, yet its final 
 victory is sure. In time the people will come 
 to their own, and as President Roosevelt has 
 said, "the nation will put the interest of all 
 the people in advance of any private interests 
 whatsoever." 
 
 In the effort to conserve the remnant of the 
 nation's resources, nothing has been more far 
 reaching than that of the establishment of the 
 national forests. While Washington gave the 
 precedent by buying and reserving for the 
 national government many thousands of acres 
 
102 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 on islands off the coast of Georgia and Louisi- 
 ana that there might ever be a supply of oak 
 for the building of ships for the navy, yet 
 because a wooden ship was displaced by iron- 
 clads, these lands were again opened for 
 settlement; and the original policy waited 
 many years before it was finally put in action 
 in the creation of great reserves. Not until 
 President Cleveland by his proclamation of 
 February 22, 1897, turned over at a single 
 stroke 21,000,000 acres of public lands for the 
 creation of the first forest reserves, did people 
 begin to think of the necessity of holding these 
 lands for the good of the people. This act 
 raised a storm of protest, yet there has been a 
 gradual change of public sentiment until now 
 the forest reserves and the forest service are 
 strongly established. 
 
 In 1891, President Harrison created the 
 Great Yellowstone Reserve, and each succeed- 
 ing president has added to their number, until 
 195,000,000 acres are now included in these 
 reserved lands, with a force of 3,753 persons 
 employed as caretakers.* 
 
 *NEW FOREST ASSISTANTS AND THEIR WORK. 
 Forty-seven young graduates of nine American forest schools 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 103 
 
 At first these reservations were called na- 
 tional reserves, because the first thought was 
 that of saving them from private or corporate 
 exploitation. The lines were roughly drawn, 
 and much good agricultural land, and needed 
 timber were locked up without income to the 
 
 have just received appointments as forest assistants in the United 
 States Forest Service. These men have secured their appoint- 
 ments as a result of passing the regular civil service examination. 
 
 Forest assistants are men who have completed their preUminary 
 training for the profession of forestry, as the graduates of law or 
 medicine have completed theirs, and are ready to enter upon 
 practical work. 
 
 There is a growing interest in the profession of forestry now 
 and many young men are asking how to get into it, and what it 
 promises. Gifford Pinchot, United States forester, in an address 
 to the graduating class in forestry at Harvard University this 
 year, said: 
 
 "The government and the country need more men trained in the 
 knowledge of forestry, and it offers opportunity to make a man's 
 life loom large and to count for much among the many phases of 
 human endeavor. To be a good forester a man should combine 
 something of the naturalist with a good deal of the business man. 
 To know how to use the forest he must have, therefore, the power 
 of observation, a fondness for nature, and the ability to penetrate 
 her secrets. He must be resourceful, able to stand by himself, 
 willing to undergo the privations of rough life, and capable of 
 commanding the respect of rough men, who quickly recognize 
 virility and genuineness of character, but will not tolerate pretense 
 or the assumption of superiority. A forester should be sound in 
 mind and body, and should make the fullest college preparation 
 for the service. This service means a free, vigorous life in the 
 open air, and a clear, straight, fine, wholesome, manly condition 
 of life — conservation." 
 
104 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 government. All this has been changed and 
 now they are known as national forests, and 
 their use is thus expressed by Gifford Pinchot : 
 "The essence of conservation is the appli- 
 cation of common sense to the common 
 problems for the common good, implying the 
 development and protection of resources, the 
 one as much as the other." 
 
 Working on this policy, the Forest Service 
 during the past year, received $1,800,000 from 
 grazing, mining and camping permits, and 
 from the sale of timber.* That this annual 
 income can be greatly increased and that the 
 national forests may be made to produce an 
 annual net income of many millions a year is 
 seen from the fact that they embrace one- 
 fourth of the timbered area of the country, and 
 at $2.00 per thousand feet stumpage, the 
 merchantable timber alone forms an asset 
 worth something like $800,000,000 while the 
 grazing charges should yield more than a 
 million a year. 
 
 *The forage yield of the forest for 1909, which sufficed for 
 nearly 7,700,000 sheep, 1,500,000 cattle, 90,000 horses and 
 150,000 cows, was utilized by more than 27,000 individuals and 
 concerns, besides furnishing free grazing for milch cows and 
 work horses of settlers, prospectors and travelers. 
 
Gifford Pinchot 
 Former Chief of the United States Forest Service 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 105 
 
 The national forests are for use and not for 
 exploitation. The homeseeker is allowed to 
 select suitable land if he can find it, and home- 
 stead it for a home, but for no other purpose. 
 He is given rights as to the cutting of fuel and 
 timber for his own use, and the grazing of a 
 limited number of his own live stock. Bona 
 fide prospectors can search the forests for 
 claims, stake out, locate, record and develop 
 them as they can anywhere else on the public 
 domain. The more people there are thus 
 lawfully living in the forests, the more there 
 are to fight the destructive fires. The timber 
 is for sale, the selection being made under the 
 best forestry methods, but preference is al- 
 ways given to the small user. Nine-tenths of 
 all timber sales thus far have been in amounts 
 of less than $500. The range is for use 
 and is not to be destroyed as in the old days. 
 Cattle and sheep ranges are separated and the 
 number limited so that no range need be over- 
 stocked. The government protects from fires 
 and sees that the small man always gets the 
 first chance. These national forests serve 
 another purpose as great national playgrounds 
 and health resorts, the importance of which will 
 
106 THE BETTER COUNTRY; 
 
 be more greatly appreciated when the sur- 
 rounding lands become more densely settled. 
 
 The forest-rangers are constantly employed 
 in reforesting the burned-over lands, large 
 nurseries being maintained for that purpose. 
 Over 2,000,000 trees were ready for planting 
 in 1909. This reforesting serves an important 
 end in preserving the water supply for the 
 valleys below. The killing of predatory wild 
 animals by the Forest Service hunters and, 
 the developing new sources of water supply, 
 probably saved the stockmen more than they 
 paid for their grazing permits. The reserva- 
 tion of one-fourth of the timber lands and their 
 proper use is only a small part of the work of 
 conservation. 
 
 The Reclamation as well as the Forestry 
 Service, recognizing the probable results of 
 the wanton waste of the natural resources, 
 joined in an appeal for conservation. Little 
 in the way of action could have been accom- 
 plished had not President Roosevelt with his 
 usual energy, and without consulting pre- 
 cedent, taken up the subject. On March 14, 
 1907, he appointed the Inland Waterways 
 Commission, whose duty it was to prepare and 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 107 
 
 report on a comprehensive plan for improve- 
 ment and control of the river systems of the 
 country; and the correlated subjects of forests, 
 and their conservation; soil erosion; and the 
 control of navigable and other waters for the 
 purpose of industry and navigation. This 
 was the beginning of the most remarkable series 
 of commissions and congresses the country 
 has ever known — worldwide in their influences. 
 
 On the 3rd of October, 1907, the Inland 
 Waterways Commission held a meeting on 
 board the steamboat, *'Col. A Mackenzie" — 
 President Roosevelt presiding, and decided to 
 call a conference on the general subject of the 
 conservation of the natural resources of the 
 nation. In conformity with this resolution, 
 invitation was issued to the governors of the 
 states and territories to meet at the White 
 House, May 13-15, 1908. In addition to the 
 governors, the President invited three ad- 
 visers to be selected by each governor, also 
 the senators and representatives in the 60th 
 Congress, members of the Inland Waterways 
 Commission, and members of certain national 
 organizations dealing with natural resources. 
 
 This first conference was held as per call. 
 
108 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 and resulted in the appointment by the 
 President of a National Conservation Com- 
 mission, divided into four divisions, to con- 
 sider the resources of water, forest lands and 
 mines, the President merging the Inland Water- 
 ways Commission into the Section of Waters 
 of the new body. Chief Forester Gifford 
 Pinchot was made chairman of the Commis- 
 sion. Following this W^hite House conference 
 thirty-seven state conservation commissions 
 were appointed and a large number of private 
 commissions and committees to act in har- 
 mony with the national organization. 
 
 The first meeting of the National Com- 
 mission was held in Chicago, June 19, 1908, 
 and a decision was there made to take a census 
 of our resources. To aid in this, the President 
 directed the heads of the departments to 
 render such service to the Commission as was 
 in their power. A large number of depart- 
 ment experts were placed on the work, thus 
 greatly aiding in the census. 
 
 On December 1, 1908, the Commission met 
 in W^ashington, formulated a report which was 
 laid before the President and governors at 
 the second Joint Conservation Congress. As 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 109 
 
 a result of the addresses and discussions at 
 this meeting, it was made evident that con- 
 servation was a larger matter than that which 
 was concerned in the United States, and so the 
 President was instructed to extend an in- 
 vitation to the governments of Canada, 
 Mexico, and Newfoundland to meet in a 
 joint Congress. The North American Con- 
 servation Congress was held in Washington, 
 February 18-22, 1909. As a result of this 
 meeting, the President invited all of the great 
 world powers to meet in conference at the 
 Hague. 
 
 In strange contrast with these movements 
 that enlisted the hearty sj^mpathy and co- 
 operation of nearly all of the governors, 
 students, and scientists of the whole country 
 was the attitude of Congress on the reception 
 of the President's message, in refusing to 
 appropriate money for the conservation com- 
 mission; the Committee of the House even 
 refusing to report favorably to the House a 
 resolution providing for printing 25,000 copies 
 of the report of the Commission, thus pre- 
 venting the people from gaining information. 
 
 The unpaid services of this Commission is 
 
110 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 worthy of notice, these men giving as they did 
 of their time and their talents to the accom- 
 pHshment of their purpose for the good of all 
 the people. The calling together of the 
 governors at this time may form a precedent 
 resulting perhaps in the assembling of the 
 House of Governors for consultation on ques- 
 tions affecting the interests of the nation. 
 In 1776 our forefathers joined in a Declaration 
 of Independence; in 1908 the governors joined 
 in a Declaration of Interdependence. 
 
 The reports of these conferences should be 
 read carefully, and should be circulated es- 
 pecially among the rising generation. Such 
 selections as the following show clearly the 
 view point taken concerning the relation of 
 the government to the people. Secretary 
 Garfield expressed himself strongly, as follows: 
 
 The people as a whole own these natural 
 resources and it is for them to determine 
 whether the resources shall be used for the 
 benefit of all, or be turned over to be used 
 without regulation for the benefit of whoever 
 may happen first to get a foothold in any 
 special locality. 
 
 The resolutions adopted by the governors 
 spoke earnestly in behalf of the people. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 111 
 
 "We agree that the land should be so used 
 that erosion and soil wash should cease, that 
 there should be reclamation of arid and semi- 
 arid regions by means of irrigation; that the 
 waters should be so conserved and used as to 
 promote navigation, to enable the arid regions 
 to be reclaimed by irrigation, and to develop 
 power in the interests of the people; that the 
 forests, which regulate our rivers, support our 
 industries, and promote the fertility and 
 productiveness of the soil, should be preserved 
 and perpetuated; that the minerals found so 
 abundantly beneath the surface should be so 
 used as to prolong their utility ; that the beauty, 
 healthfulness, and habitability of our country 
 should be preserved and increased; that the 
 sources of national wealth exist for the benefit 
 of the people, and that the monopoly thereof 
 should not be tolerated,'' 
 
 William Jennings Bryan gave expression to 
 this sentiment: 
 
 "It should be our purpose not only to pre- 
 serve the nation's resources for future genera- 
 tions by reducing waste to a minimum, but 
 also we should see to it that a few of the people 
 do not monopolize that which is in equity the 
 
in THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 property of all the people. The earth belongs 
 to each generation, and it is criminal to fetter 
 future generations with perpetual franchises, 
 making the multitude servants to a favored 
 faction of the population, as it would be to 
 impair, unnecessarily, the common store." 
 
 President Roosevelt set forth the rights of 
 the nation with reference to private property, 
 as follows : "The opinion of the Maine Supreme 
 Bench sets forth unequivocally the principle 
 that the property rights of the individual are 
 subordinate to the rights of the community; 
 and especially that the waste of wild timber 
 land derived originally from the state, involv- 
 ing as it would the impoverishment of the state 
 and its people and thereby defeating one great 
 purpose of government, may properly be pre- 
 vented by state restrictions." 
 
 The court says that there are two reasons 
 why the right of the public to control and limit 
 the use of private property is peculiarly appli- 
 cable to property in land : "First, such property 
 is not the result of productive labor, but is 
 derived solely from the state itself, the origi- 
 nal owner; second, the amount of land being 
 incapable of increase, if the owners of large 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 113 
 
 tracts can waste them at will without state 
 restriction, the state and its people may be 
 helplessly impoverished and one great purpose 
 of government defeated." 
 
 The report of the Commission on the natural 
 resources of the nation contained many in- 
 stances of the prodigal waste by the individual 
 owners of resources, which might have been 
 conserved had the more recent court decisions 
 been rendered and enforced during the great 
 formative period of our national life. 
 
 Touching the question of the development 
 of oil and natural gas, it is well to notice the 
 decision of the Indiana Court, declared con- 
 stitutional by the highest courts. When the 
 people of that state awoke to the fact that 
 their richest mineral was being wasted, they 
 pressed the suit which brought forth an opinion 
 which should be made the basis of a law in 
 every oil-producing state. In rendering that 
 opinion, the judge said to the people of Indiana, 
 "You cannot take the oil from the ground 
 where nature has safely stored it, until you 
 have provided a method of utilizing the ac- 
 companying gas or volatile oil as well. It is 
 against public policy to waste this valuable 
 fuel and it will not be permitted." 
 
114 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 A few more decisions like that, and our 
 people would begin to understand that the 
 so-called private rights in property are not 
 superior to the larger communal rights. 
 
 The people have been slow in learning this 
 lesson, for they have had perfect faith that 
 the possessors of so-called "vested interests" 
 have the right to do as they will with their 
 own. It is no wonder that they sat by and 
 calmly watched the wanton waste of one of the 
 nation's resources. For instance, there poured 
 from a Kentucky well, for twenty years, with- 
 out an attempt to shut it in, a stream of gas 
 which for fuel purposes would have been worth 
 $3,000,000. Everywhere throughout Penn- 
 sylvania, and West Virginia great flambeaux 
 have burned through many years and millions 
 of cubic feet of gas have escaped unnoticed 
 into the air, which if condensed into oil would 
 be equivalent to a river flowing unchecked into 
 the sea. 
 
 At the conference this question was raised, 
 "Why should a few oil producers in their 
 insane haste to get rich quickly, or to add to 
 fortunes already swollen beyond safety, de- 
 spoil the entire country of its choicest fuel, 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 115 
 
 and why should we, the people, permit without 
 protest the existence of a strong lobby at every 
 capital, using every means to prevent the 
 enactment of legislation which will stop the 
 waste, and make a greater use of the gifts of 
 nature for the good of man?" Perhaps a 
 people's lobby is the first step in the recovery 
 of human rights. 
 
 The frightful waste of coal in every land is 
 calling for a larger measure of governmental 
 supervision. Our nation has either given 
 away or has been robbed of most of its coal 
 beds. The coal barons have controlled trans- 
 portation, and through this means have con- 
 trolled legislation. Absolute regulation of 
 price and quantity was in their hands, and the 
 people suffered. Coal mining under absolute 
 private control has always been carried on 
 w^ith frightful waste of life and property. 
 Through mistakes in engineering, bad roofing, 
 the leaving of coal pillars, the mining of im- 
 pure coal, fully 50 per cent of possible coal 
 product is wasted. If, under present condi- 
 tions, but little can be done by law to prevent 
 this frightful waste of the people's heritage, 
 still there is hope for saving the remnant of 
 
116 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 coal and mining lands which still are under 
 government ownership.* 
 
 New laws are in the forming, embodying 
 new ideas which have recently been worked 
 out by good experts, which, w hen pu'c in action, 
 will supplement our Forestry and Reclamation 
 Acts. The government still owns much of 
 the western coal beds, the majority of which 
 are composed of lignite, which has been sup- 
 posed to be of poorer fuel value than either 
 anthracite or bituminous coal. The Govern- 
 ment Experimental Station, however, has 
 shown that when converted into gas, these 
 coals are of greater value than eastern coals. 
 How shall these remaining fields be worked.'^ 
 Shall they be sold to private owners to aid in 
 the forming of a great western monopoly, 
 or held and worked, or leased, by the govern- 
 ment itself.'^ A writer has recently pointed 
 out that — 
 
 *By June, 1910, President Taft had withdrawn 2,594,113 acres 
 of phosphate lands and 4,447,119 of petroleum. 
 
 The phosphate land acreage withdrawals are: Florida, 27,400; 
 Idaho, 1,102,317; Utah, 107,545; Wyoming, 1,381,851. 
 
 Petroleum land acreage withdrawals are: Arizona, 230,400; 
 California, 2,482,750; Colorado, 87,474; Louisiana, 314,720; New 
 Mexico, 419,901; Oregon, 74,849; Utah, 581,564; Wyoming 
 255.461. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 117 
 
 "By the most happy coincidence the value 
 of the lignites and the value of a new method 
 of disposing of the people's coal came to be 
 recognized at the same time. While Hayes 
 of the Survey was determining the extent of 
 the coal lands and Holmes and Parker were 
 determining the fuel value of lignites, Leupp, 
 the Indian Commissioner, was experimenting 
 in a new government policy in the Indian 
 Territory. Our coal lands were going for a 
 mere song, but the folly of letting the Indians 
 part with their coal at a great sacrifice when 
 they might be made self-supporting by its 
 proper sale was evident. Their coal was, 
 therefore, leased — with comparatively enor- 
 mous revenues to the Indian." 
 
 This, then, may be adopted as the policy 
 for the nation. Allowing the surface when 
 suited for agriculture to be homesteaded, or 
 sold for farms, but reserving the rights to the 
 ownership of all minerals beneath the surface. 
 If leased, the mining to be carried on under 
 the best rules for conserving both life and fuel. 
 If this method be followed it will bring many 
 times as much money for the support of the 
 state as did the old method, and with greater 
 
118 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 safety to life and limb. Why then should we 
 think for a moment of continuing the old 
 method of creating monopoly, with its con- 
 sequent graft and waste of life? Let every 
 acre of the 71,000,000 acres of western coal 
 lands, still owned by the government, be re- 
 tained for use,* or recovered when evidence 
 is shown that corporations have obtained them 
 through fraud, as is undoubtedly the case with 
 vast areas of the western fields. Fortunately 
 the engineers connected with the Geological 
 Survey are of high grade, and are zealously 
 seeking to protect the interests of the people, 
 and the nation can safely trust them to work 
 out these newer methods. 
 
 Germany has pointed out the way of saving 
 the cheap coals, avoiding smoke in the in- 
 dustrial districts, and breaking the power 
 of the coal carrying roads, by what is known as 
 
 ♦On July 14th, 1910, the secretary reported the following 
 withdrawals: 
 
 "Arizona, 161,280 acres; CJolorado, 6,191,161 acres; Montana, 
 20,208,865 acres; New Mexico, 2,894,279 acres; North Dakota, 
 17,828,182 acres; Oregon, 192,562 acres; South Dakota, 2,870,287 
 acres; Utah, 5,274,247 acres; Washington, 2,207,967 acres; 
 Wyoming, 13,099,718 acres. 
 
 "The total of coal lands now withdrawn in the United States is, 
 therefore, 71,518,588 acres. All the land, however, is open to 
 
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THE BETTER COUNTRY 119 
 
 "pitmouth distribution," and "electric can- 
 alization," or in other words turning the coal 
 into electricity at the mouth of the mine, and 
 transferring this power to the factory centers. 
 
 In the nation's fight for conservation there 
 has been no more flagrant betrayal of the will 
 of the people than when the party leaders, 
 headed by the Speaker of the House, stood for 
 the few as against the many and brought about 
 the defeat of the Appalachian legislation. 
 The welfare of the people was clearly ignored 
 because of the selfish scheming of special 
 interests whose private gain, it was fancied, 
 might in some way be injured, or because of a 
 feeling that "states' rights" was being put in 
 jeopardy. 
 
 From the Fifty-Sixth Congress to the 
 present, the plan to set aside the Appalachian 
 forests has been urged at every session. The 
 arguments are conclusive, inasmuch as they 
 
 agricultural entry, with a limited surface patented under the 
 terms of the order of withdrawal and in accordance with the 
 recent enactment providing for agricultural surface entries on 
 withdrawn or classified coal lands. 
 
 "Already 10,210,082 acres of coal land, in part included in the 
 earlier withdrawals, have been classified and appraised by the 
 Geological Survey prior to July 1, 1910, and restored to appro- 
 priate entry." 
 
120 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 show the fearful destruction of timber, the 
 consequent floods and soil erosion, and the 
 subsequent drying up . of the rivers, entailing a 
 great loss to all the states concerned. 
 
 The first appeal was for the government to 
 purchase 5,000,000 acres in the southern Appa- 
 lachian, but that was soon merged in a bill 
 including 600,000 in the White Mountains. 
 Henceforth this bill knew neither north nor 
 south, but was pressed by clubs and asso- 
 ciations, governors of all the interested states, 
 the Forestry Bureau, the Secretary of Agri- 
 culture, the President of the United States, 
 together with prominent men and women 
 throughout the land. The demand was nation 
 wide, yet the various bills were defeated time 
 and again, not because of argument, but be- 
 cause of the power of two or three men in 
 Congress who were able to nullify the ex- 
 pressed will of the people, and the majority of 
 the members of Congress. But the people 
 are aroused and the day is nearing when they 
 will be more directly represented in both 
 House and Senate, as well as in the State Legis- 
 lature and Common Council. 
 
 To conserve the waters of the nation for 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 121 
 
 irrigation, power, and navigation is a move- 
 ment worthy of the most constructive states- 
 manship ever apphed to any national subject. 
 To compass these ends, the nation's water- 
 ways must be improved and developed before 
 it is too late, and their possession has passed 
 forever into the hands of corporate interests. 
 
 The control of the rivers for navigation has 
 always been considered one of the functions 
 of the national government, but the right of 
 control of the smaller streams as sources of 
 the rivers has often been a contention between 
 the state and the nation. The correct rule 
 was recently laid down by the Supreme Court 
 of the United States in the Rio Grande case, 
 and that is, that over the portion of a stream 
 which is above the head of navigation, if it be 
 the headwaters of a navigable stream, on 
 account of its effect upon the navigability of 
 that portion of the stream lower down, ab- 
 solute control should be exercised by the 
 federal government. 
 
 This decision gives larger scope to the 
 nationalization of the conservation of natural 
 resources, and makes it possible to accomplish 
 far reaching results. In order to keep the 
 
122 THE BETTER COUNTRY'^ 
 
 channels open to navigation, it is necessary to 
 prevent the disastrous floods which cause a 
 loss to the United States of $100,000,000 
 annually — one billion tons of soil being washed 
 down the rivers to form bars obstructive to 
 navigation. The Mississippi River carries 
 through its channel annually something like 
 400,000,000 tons of sediment — more dirt than 
 will come out of the Panama Canal. Careful 
 data regarding the rivers and harbors of the 
 country have been made, first by the various 
 departments, and then systematized by the 
 Inland Waterways Commission, and later by 
 the Conservation Commission. A definite 
 plan of action is also being formed, and 
 powerful pressure is being brought to bear 
 on Congress to pass the necessary appropria- 
 tion. The plan proposed is as follows: 
 
 (1) A deep waterway from the Gulf of 
 Mexico to the Great Lakes. 
 
 (2) A deep and continuous inner passage 
 along the Atlantic Coast from New 
 England to Florida. 
 
 (3) The improvement of the Ohio for navi- 
 gation, including the building of reser- 
 voirs and the protection of the forests 
 along the headwaters. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 123 
 
 (4) The improvement and canalization of 
 the Missouri and upper Mississippi. 
 
 (5) An inner passage from Florida to the 
 Rio Grande. 
 
 (6) Improvements in the Columbia River 
 and Puget Sound and in the San Joa- 
 quin and Sacramento and Feather 
 Rivers in California. 
 
 The following bill was introduced, authoriz- 
 ing the issuance of bonds for the improvement 
 of waterways : 
 
 To borrow on the credit of the United States 
 from time to time as the proceeds may be 
 required to defray expenditures hereafter to be 
 authorized by Congress for waterway im- 
 provements in the United States and Terri- 
 tories (such proceeds when received to be used 
 only for the purpose of meeting such expendi- 
 tures) the sum of $500,000,000, or so much 
 thereof as may be necessary, and not to exceed 
 $50,000,000 in any one fiscal year. 
 
 This was on the recommendation of Presi- 
 dent Roosevelt who urged that funds should 
 be provided from current revenues if it is 
 deemed wise, otherwise from the sale of bonds. 
 The essential thing is that the work should go 
 
124 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 forward under the best possible plan and with 
 the least possible delay. The time for playing 
 with our waterways is past. The country 
 demands results. 
 
 It seems possible that the first work to be 
 undertaken will be the Lakes to the Gulf canal, 
 connecting Lake Michigan with the Mississippi 
 River, as President Taft is committed to the 
 support of this project. 
 
 The opening up of the waterways will have a 
 great influence upon transportation rates, 
 coming as they will in direct competition with 
 the railroads. It is said* that half a billion 
 spent on waterways would furnish the means 
 of carrying more commerce than five billions 
 spent on railroads, and that these waterways 
 could be operated at one-sixth the railroad 
 rate. And besides, private ownership and 
 monoply in transportation would be effectu- 
 ally shut out. It is true that quick relief can- 
 not be obtained by waterways improvements, 
 because of the magnitude of the undertakings, 
 but in pushing them forward we will be pro- 
 viding for the permanent advantage of our 
 children and of generations yet unborn. 
 
 ♦From speech of Hon. J. E. Ransdell of Louiaiana. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 125 
 
 Our modern industrial development rests 
 upon the two important physical bases — 
 transportation and power. When the electric 
 and steam railways are under government 
 control, or publicly owned, and operated, as 
 they are in many other countries, and the 
 waterways have also been fully developed, 
 then and not until then will the railway kings, 
 who now control all transportation, be forced 
 to relax their grip upon the very life of the 
 nation. 
 
 But this is pre-eminently an age, marked by 
 the wonderful development of physical power. 
 The early settlements in America were de- 
 termined by their accessibility to sources of 
 water power on rivers and streams, on which 
 must be built the sawmill and the gristmill, 
 but steam has made it possible to build the 
 mill far away from the water on prairie or 
 hilltop, and because of this we have grown to 
 be a great industrial nation. 
 
 The later application of electricity as power, 
 with its long distance transmission, is slowly 
 supplanting the mill wheel and the steam 
 engine, and as a consequence sources of elec- 
 tricity have become the most valuable assets 
 
126 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 in all the land. The waterways of the land 
 can furnish this new power; and that is the 
 reason why we should arouse ourselves in time 
 to ward off the impending monopoly in water 
 power sites, for the great captains of industry 
 well know that *'the waters of our streams 
 must furnish the Vhite coaF of the future, 
 and electrically turn the wheels of commerce 
 in smokeless economy."* 
 
 It is believed by many engineers that 
 within ten years a thousand miles may not be 
 the limit of sending the power generated by 
 the distant mountain stream, power which 
 will light our cities, run our railways and 
 factories, and do much of the hard work about 
 the farm and home. Electricity from Niagara 
 Falls now turns the wheels in Buffalo, Roches- 
 
 *In a recent open letter, Gifford Pinchot made the following 
 statement concerning the permit now used by the Forest Service 
 in granting all water power concessions in the national forests. 
 Some such form of permit should be used in the future to cover all 
 such concessions whether in the national forests or upon other 
 pubhc lands: 
 
 "I call your attention to the fact that this permit requires 
 that construction be begun and completed within a reasonable 
 time fixed in accordance with engineering conditions, to prevent 
 the speculative holding of undeveloped sites; that a small annual 
 mileage and acreage charge be paid during construction; that a 
 reasonable annual charge in proportion to the electrical output, a 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY U7 
 
 ter and Syracuse, and a hundred villages be- 
 side, binding them to the great corporations, 
 and making the people more dependent for 
 life and happiness upon them than upon any 
 other of the great monopolies in transportation 
 or fcod supplies. Thirty millions of horse- 
 power are now available from the waters of 
 the United States, and by building reservoirs 
 
 nominal amount at the outset and gradually increasing by moder- 
 ate increments in successive five-year periods, be paid after opera- 
 tion begins, with reasonable deductions on account of other than 
 national forest land used by the plant or forming part of the 
 watershed, and in order to encourage the building of storage 
 reservoirs on account of water storage by the permittee; that 
 timber cut or destroyed in construction be paid for at a reasonable 
 stipulated price; that the plant be operated continuously up to a 
 reasonable stipulated fraction of its full capacity, in order to pre- 
 vent artificial scarcity and the resulting high prices to consumers; 
 and that power be sold to the United States, when requested, at 
 as low a price as to any other consumer. 
 
 "It is also required that the permit shall not be transferred 
 since the transfer of government contracts is expressly prohibited 
 by statute; that the permittee must use reasonable precautions to 
 protect the forest by fire fighting, etc.; that the permit shall 
 terminate at the end of fifty years, but may then be renewed on 
 such conditions as the government shall then fix, but that in 
 fixing them neither the permit itself nor the franchises, stock er 
 bonds of that permittee shall be considered, but only the actual 
 value at that time of physical works constructed under the permit; 
 this in order that future generations may not be burdened to pay 
 dividends on inflated securities. 
 
 "These permits are issued under the authority of a specific 
 statute (Act February 15, 1901, 31 Stat. 790) ." 
 
128 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 they can be increased to one hundred and 
 fifty millions. This represents the equivalent 
 of all our coal. 
 
 Place this statement by the side of the fact 
 that a small group of "interests" control one 
 third of the present water power production, 
 and have a strong lobby in Congress and in 
 state legislation, pushing "grab bills," hoping 
 that they may be able to secure the greater 
 part of the remaining power sites before the 
 people awaken, thus securing the ownership 
 of potential water powers for a fraction of 
 their real value. If this mighty robbery of a 
 nation's resources is consummated, it will 
 destroy forever the people's hope of cheap liv- 
 ing, and will place in the hands of monopolies, 
 resources which, if controlled by the govern- 
 ment, might be used for public income and for 
 the cost of executive control. 
 
 In an appeal to President Taft, a magazine 
 writer urges him to curb the growing power of 
 a monopoly which threatens to become a 
 greater trust than the Standard Oil. He de- 
 clares it "a new monopoly, more terrible than 
 has ever threatened the country, paying noth- 
 ing, demanding all. Its members have gone to 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 129 
 
 Congress and borne away perpetual franchises 
 to the greatest of our last remaining resources. 
 Only the determined stand of President 
 Roosevelt and Forester Gifford Pinchot has 
 so far come between them and victory."* 
 
 President Roosevelt's veto of the Rainy 
 River Dam Bill and his veto of the bill passed 
 by Congress, June 15, 1909, which authorized 
 the applicant to construct a dam across the 
 James River in Missouri, and divert a part of 
 its waters through a tunnel for electric power, 
 are certainly in the right direction. He gave 
 as his reason for the vetoes that they gave the 
 grantees valuable privileges which by their 
 very nature are monopolistic, and do not con- 
 tain the condition essential to the promotion of 
 public interest. In regard to the Desplaines 
 River case, President Roosevelt took a forward 
 stand when he said: 
 
 "The great corporations are acting with 
 foresight, singleness of purpose and vigor to 
 control the water powers of the country. 
 They pay no attention to state boundaries 
 and are not interested in the constitutional 
 
 ♦Water Power Expert, John L. Mathews, in Hampton's 
 Magazine. 
 
ISO THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 law affecting navigable streams. It is sig- 
 nificant that they are opposing the control of 
 water power on the Desplaines River by the 
 State of Illinois with equal vigor and like 
 arguments to those with which they oppose 
 the national government pursuing the policy 
 I advocate. Their attitude is the same with 
 reference to their projects upon the mountain 
 streams of the West, where the jurisdiction 
 of the federal government as the owner of the 
 public lands and national forests is not open 
 to question. 
 
 "The people of the country are threatened 
 by a monopoly far more powerful, because in 
 far closer touch with their domestic and in- 
 dustrial life, than anything known to our ex- 
 perience. A single generation will see the 
 exhaustion of our natural resources of oil and 
 gas, and such a rise in the price of coal, as will 
 make the price of electrically transmitted 
 water power a controlling factor in transporta- 
 tion, in manufacturing and in household 
 lighting and heating. 
 
 "No grant of this kind should be made except 
 as it provides for a fee to secure title to the 
 people and for termination of the grantor 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 131 
 
 privilege at a definite time. I will sign no 
 bill granting a privilege of this character which 
 does not contain the substance of these con- 
 ditions. I consider myself bound, as far as 
 exercise of my executive power will allow, 
 to do for the people, in prevention of monopoly 
 of their resources, what I believe they would 
 do for themselves, if they were in a position 
 to act."* 
 
 ( The right time to control a monopoly is 
 before it is created. When it is once realized 
 that the public ownership or control of the 
 great water power sites is not only essential 
 to the possession by the people of means for 
 cheap power, light, and heat, but also for 
 protection from disastrous floods, with their 
 consequent soil erosion, and the keeping of 
 the rivers navigable, then it will be seen that 
 now is the time to determine that there shall 
 be no further private ownership of public 
 water power. 
 
 In the old day of unrestricted individualism, 
 
 *To date the areas involved in the power sites withdrawn are as 
 follows: Arizona, 107,550 acres; California, 47,819; Colorado, 
 201,549; Idaho, 230,971 ; Montana, 122,515; Nevada, 14,501; New 
 Mexico, 14,536; Oregon, 176,721 ; Washington, 55,439; Wyoming, 
 103,396; Utah, 379,912. 
 
132 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 this sentiment would not have been accepted 
 by any except those thinkers who were far 
 ahead of their time, but now we are thinking 
 continentally, speaking in terms of the nation, 
 taking a national view; and are regarding the 
 nation as a social and economic entity, every 
 part of which must be developed in the 
 interest of every other part. Conservation 
 and development have come to be familiar 
 words, and the general public is demanding 
 with no uncertain voice that this work shall 
 go on with increasing momentum. 
 
 But why not give to this principle a wider 
 application? If the nation must initiate, 
 carry through, and pay for these great public 
 improvements, why should it transfer the 
 sale, or chief benefits of such improvements to 
 private individuals and corporations? If the 
 public must do the work and pay the bills, 
 should it not share in the fruits? Other 
 nations have followed this method with great 
 success — why should this nation fall behind? 
 In the future, governments must at least earn 
 their keep to justify their existence. The 
 opponents of the plan of developing for the 
 public good that which belongs rightly to the 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 133 
 
 public, designate it as "paternalism"; yet it 
 should rather be called "fraternaUsm," for 
 the essential ideal in a democracy is that of a 
 group of brothers who have gone into partner- 
 ship, working together that even the weakest 
 may have his full share of the common in- 
 heritance. To fulfill its destiny, this govern- 
 ment must become in fact what it is in name — 
 "A government of the people, for the people 
 and by the people." 
 
 "^mm^ 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Agriculture's Opportunity 
 
 That this may become a nation without 
 extremes of poverty or riches is the dream of 
 many social reformers. A widespread distri- 
 bution of wealth is without doubt desirable 
 both as a means of abolishing poverty with 
 its consequent misery and crime, and as giving 
 opportunity for more general education, cul- 
 ture, and refinement of home life. History 
 has shown that a competency for every home- 
 builder is to be desired, while swollen fortunes 
 are a menace to the individual and the nation. 
 
 No department of our government service 
 is more closely related to the production and 
 distribution of wealth than the Agricultural 
 Department; and to Secretary Wilson, as to 
 no other man in the nation, can the great 
 results achieved be attributed. Through his 
 zealous labors, and well developed plans, the 
 farmer has been a larger recipient of the govern- 
 ment's aid than any other of the nation's 
 toilers. The gigantic strides which have been 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 135 
 
 made toward the common good in all agri- 
 cultural regions afford us hope that the time 
 is not far distant when as much thought and 
 effort will be put forth to better conditions in 
 industrial districts, and in the neglected 
 corners where people are left to suffer with no 
 one to help them in their time of need. 
 
 The present is far removed from the old 
 laissez faire idea of government. In the earlier 
 days every man claimed the liberty to go 
 without good roads; to keep his children from 
 school; to pollute the streams and poison his 
 neighbors; to carry a gun; or to sell liquor to 
 whom he pleased. In the interest of the com- 
 mon good, these rights are now restricted and 
 co-operation is taking the place of the com- 
 petition of a war-like age. 
 
 Under the direction of the Department of 
 Agriculture, the farmer has achieved enor- 
 mous successes in the line of economic co- 
 operation, even where the people in other 
 occupations have failed. According to the 
 report of the Secretary of Agriculture, more 
 than half of the six million farmers in the 
 United States are now represented in this 
 co-operative movement. In his summary of 
 
136 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 prominent objects of farmers' co-operation, 
 Secretary Wilson places first that of insurance, 
 with 2,000 associations and over 2,000,000 
 members. Co-operative creameries and cheese 
 factories have a very large membership. Co- 
 operation in selling has reached every part of 
 the nation. Fruit-growers, nut-and-berry- 
 growers, vegetable-growers, live stock men, 
 and producers of all sorts of grain, poultry, 
 eggs and milk have united for self-protection 
 and mutual interest. Co-operative buying has 
 also become popular, there being three hundred 
 and fifty stores owned mostly by groups of far- 
 mers, granges, and farmers' clubs, all of which 
 buy all sorts of goods on the discount plan.* 
 
 Warehousing for storage of corn, cotton, and 
 wheat is conducted with great success. Every- 
 where throughout the farming regions may be 
 found co-operative telephone service, the cost 
 of both equipment and service being kept at 
 the lowest figure because of the co-operative 
 
 *The spirit of co-operation has reached the farmers and many 
 organizations are now national in their scope. During November, 
 1909, the American Society of Equity held its national convention 
 in Indianapolis; the National Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, 
 met in Des Moines, the National Farm Land Congress in Chicago 
 and The Fanners' Union held its national convention at Raleigh, 
 N.C. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 137 
 
 feature. Through this team method of work- 
 ing, which does away with the profit of the 
 middlemen, the farmers are coming out of 
 poverty into comfort and wealth. The farmers 
 of the mortgage ridden Kansas of former days 
 have now filled the banks to overflowing, and 
 have changed the sod houses into beautiful 
 homes in the midst of fruit orchards and 
 shade trees. 
 
 During the past year the value of the farm 
 products of this country reached the vast 
 amount of $8,760,000,000 — enough to build the 
 Panama Canal, dredge our navigable rivers, 
 irrigate our desert lands, dig our necessary 
 canals, and do most of the things of this kind 
 worth doing.* This amount is four times 
 the value of the oil and precious metals pro- 
 duced in this country. The story of what 
 this department is doing for the farmer reads 
 like a chapter of New Zealand's effort for the 
 
 *In the report of the Agricultural Department for 1909, Sec- 
 retary Wilson says : "Eleven years of agriculture, beginning with a 
 production of $4,417,000,000 and ending with $8,760,000,000! 
 A sum $70,000,000,000 for the period! It has paid off mortgages, 
 it has estabhshed banks, it has made better homes, it has helped 
 to make the farmer a citizen of the world, and it has provided him 
 with means for improving his soil and making it more produc- 
 tive." 
 
138 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 common good. The American farmer has 
 thousands of expert investigators working 
 for him, teaching him, and demonstrating to 
 him how he may do things in the right way. 
 
 The Department offers the farmer a choice 
 of new crops, furnishes him with seed and 
 fertiUzer free of charge, shows him how to 
 breed both plants and animals. In short, 
 there is no part of country life that this won- 
 derful secretary and his trained assistants 
 do not touch in a way which produces aston- 
 ishing results. 
 
 It is interesting to trace the evolution of the 
 new farmer. Once agriculture was looked 
 upon as constituting the lowest stratum of 
 the industrial and social life of the nation. 
 The tiller of the soil was a serf, getting a 
 precarious living, while his overlord used the 
 greater part of the land as a game preserve. 
 The animals and birds were protected. To 
 kill a hare was a capital offence; so was the 
 very act of setting traps and nets by a serf. 
 Later when freed from vassalage to the soil, 
 the agriculturist with his rude implements of 
 husbandry, was unable to rise even to the 
 rank of the most poorly paid industrial laborers. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 139 
 
 The brightest of the farmer boys would not 
 remain upon the land but sought the city 
 with its greater opportunities. But thanks 
 to a nation whose best thought was given to 
 the development of agriculture, and to the 
 enrichment of the life of the farmer, a great 
 change has taken place, and now the farmer is 
 reaping the results of the small army of govern- 
 ment experts who have been laboring in his 
 behalf. Farm life for many is still hard. 
 Failure of crops, lack of water, poorness of 
 soil, may contribute to occasional financial 
 distress. Lack of neighborliness, and distance 
 from school still send many sons and daughters 
 to the busy centers ; yet for the greater number 
 of dwellers in the country, a new day has 
 dawned. Good roads, trolley lines, the tele- 
 phone, rural free delivery, and the daily 
 paper help to urbanize the country. The 
 boys returning from the agricultural colleges 
 now *'farm with brains"; and the products of 
 the soil are increasing in amount and quality. 
 The movement back to the land needs no 
 artificial stimulus. The present methods of 
 farming produce on an average about $500 
 for every family in the United States; and so 
 
140 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 rapid is the annual rate of increase, because 
 of scientific farming, that while we are led to be- 
 lieve that within two generations we may have 
 200,000,000 people in these United States in 
 place of the present eighty millions, still we 
 shall be abundantly able to care for all, and pro- 
 vide them with increasing wealth and comfort, 
 for are not the new leaders of agriculture 
 making two blades of grass grow where one 
 grew before, and thus doubling the value of 
 farm products? 
 
 Let us follow somewhat in detail the work 
 of Secretary Wilson and his corps of experts, 
 in their efforts to raise the standard of plant 
 and animal life. With the knowledge before 
 them of the wonderful results of breeding 
 among domestic animals, Mr. Willet M. Hays, 
 assistant secretary of the Department, be- 
 lieved that equal results could be obtained in 
 the breeding of better strains in plant life. 
 In this field, Mr. Luther Burbank had already 
 been eminently successful. It is over seven- 
 teen years since Mr. Hays began this work; 
 and by using the vast resources of the govern- 
 ment, and securing the co-operation of the 
 
James Wilson 
 Secretary of Agriculture 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 141 
 
 farmers, he has greatly increased the yield in 
 the improved strains which he has been able 
 to produce. During this time breeding has 
 passed the haphazard stage, and has become 
 thoroughly scientific. By applying scientific 
 methods, agricultural experts have created 
 annually millions of dollars, which have be- 
 come a substantial addition to the farmer's 
 bank account. In one state alone, at an 
 expense of $20,000 annually, a half dozen 
 varieties of newly bred field crops, when mar- 
 keted added $2,000,000 to the amount of 
 the same crops as raised in former years. 
 The improvements sought for are — increase 
 in productivity, immunity to disease, im- 
 provement in fiber, taste, and food-value; also 
 in size, shape, and color. The methods used 
 are hybridization and seed selection. 
 
 This work necessarily runs through many 
 years; for from large broods of the seeds of 
 single mother plants, individual plants which 
 show nearest to the desired traits must be 
 selected and their seeds planted; a yearly 
 selection being made until the desired change 
 is fixed. 
 
 For twoscore years the work of improving 
 
142 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 the corn crop has been in progress, chiefly 
 through the selection of the finest seed, with 
 the result that an addition has been made to 
 the size of the ears, the number and fullness 
 of the grains, and special varieties have been 
 adapted to the various climates and soils of 
 the various sections of the land. Corn breed- 
 ing is not only taught in college and short 
 course farmers' schools, but the results are 
 exhibited in fairs and on "corn-gospel" trains. 
 
 Because of the value of corn-breeding, 
 corn-breeders' associations exist in all the 
 corn states, and seed corn is grown largely 
 as a separate crop. New varieties are being 
 constantly originated, older ones improved, 
 and new strains developed. The annual value 
 of this great crop is now far above a billion 
 dollars ; and it would take only eight such crops 
 to pay for duplicating every mile of steam 
 railroads in the United States, together with 
 all the terminals, rolling stock and all other 
 properties. 
 
 The Florida orange has been hybridized 
 with the cold-resistant orange, thus greatly 
 increasing its hardiness. In Colorado a can- 
 taloupe has been bred that will resist the rust 
 fungus. From a lengthy list of improvements 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 14S 
 
 in plants and fruits reported by the govern- 
 ment, a few selected specimens may be quoted 
 as follows : 
 
 "Native Dakota plums and sand cherries 
 have been hybridized with other stone fruits 
 from Europe and Asia to combine the hardi- 
 ness of the native fruits with the size and 
 quality, to some extent at least, of the choice 
 cultivated fruits from abroad. In New Jersey 
 practically all of the important vegetables 
 have been subjected to hybridizing and breed- 
 ing, and many new varieties with desirable 
 qualities have been produced and dissem- 
 inated. 
 
 "Good varieties of wheat have been origin- 
 ated by breeding. The Minnesota station 
 originated numerous varieties, two of which 
 have spread over half a million acres, and 
 yield from one to three bushels more per 
 acre than the varieties formerly grown. The 
 winter-wheat belt has been extended farther 
 and farther north by sowing adapted varieties 
 until this wheat is now grown in regions which 
 had before been regarded as incapable of grow- 
 ing it. Winter character has been added to the 
 spring wheats of the Pacific Coast and new 
 hybrids of these wheats are now grown there." 
 
144 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 This same law of selection has played a large 
 part in the successful introduction into Alaska 
 of many cold-resisting fruits, grains, and vege- 
 tables. Indeed, by this method of fitting the 
 plants to the soil and climate, vast acreages 
 have everywhere been added to the agricultural 
 areas of the nation. 
 
 If, by careful scientific breeding, fifteen per 
 cent and more of increase could be added each 
 year to the four billion dollars worth of farm 
 crops, and a similar amount to the three 
 billion dollars worth of farm animals, that 
 would mean additional profits of one billion 
 dollars annually, and the farmers thus be made 
 rich at cost of a very small initial outlay. 
 
 Working through the state stations and 
 agricultural colleges, the Department has 
 begun to create new strains of farm animals, 
 as, for instance, "carriage horses in Colorado; 
 cattle for beef production under southern 
 conditions in Alabama; a cross between the 
 horse and the zebra in Maryland; the re- 
 establishment of the Morgan breed of horses 
 in Vermont; sheep especially suited to range 
 conditions in Wyoming; a breed of milking 
 Shorthorn cattle in Minnesota; draft horses 
 in Iowa; improved Holstein cattle in North 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 145 
 
 Dakota; and a breed of hens for high egg pro- 
 duction in Maine." 
 
 To one imbued with the older ideas of the 
 functions of government, it would seem pass- 
 ing strange that this nation should undertake 
 the business of horse-breeding, but it is a fact 
 that the government is raising horses on breed- 
 ing farms in Colorado and Vermont, in order 
 to check the evident deterioration, and estab- 
 lish types that would be most serviceable and 
 restore the former sturdy qualities of the 
 American horse. When all the people work 
 together for the good of all, nothing is too 
 small or insignificant, if in doing it better 
 conditions of living are brought about. 
 
 In addition to improving the strain of farm 
 animals, the Bureau of Animal Industry has 
 done much to stamp out the diseases of 
 animals, epidemic and otherwise, thus pro- 
 tecting both man and beast. (This might 
 well be called an animal bureau of prophylaxis. ) 
 Secretary Wilson declares that important dis- 
 coveries worth many millions of dollars to the 
 farmers of the country have been made touch- 
 ing the causes and cures of animal diseases. 
 The cause of hog cholera, for example, has 
 
146 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 been discovered, a cholera serum prepared, 
 and its use has demonstrated that it is a 
 practical, trustworthy, and cheap preventive 
 of this disease. By its use, millions of dollars 
 have been saved annually. 
 
 The great need of freeing herds of cattle 
 from tuberculosis led the government to 
 undertake the free distribution of tuberculin 
 for testing bovine tuberculosis. During last 
 year, 213,000 doses of tuberculin and 52,000 
 of mullein were sent out to the health officers 
 for use in testing dairy cattle and horses. 
 All imported cattle are carefully inspected. 
 A vaccine for the prevention of blackleg in 
 cattle is manufactured and distributed free 
 to the cattle raisers of the United States, 
 1,154,100 doses being sent out during 1908. 
 Sheep scab in the ranges of the west has been 
 nearly eradicated by the government in co- 
 operation with the states. 
 
 The injection of sterilized atmospheric air 
 into the udder of dairy cows affected with milk 
 fever, invariably results in cure, and thus pre- 
 vents the enormous loss which has resulted 
 from this disease. Since the discovery that 
 the cattle tick was the cause of Texas fever, 
 large regions have been freed from this insect 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 147 
 
 and the cattle fever prevented. Millions of 
 dollars have also been saved by the energetic 
 work of the government in stamping out the 
 foot and mouth disease in cattle. 
 
 Most careful meat inspection has been 
 undertaken in all abattoirs making interstate 
 shipments; and so extensive is the annual 
 inspection of animals that if placed in single 
 file they would form a line reaching four times 
 around the world. 
 
 The claim of the Department that insect 
 pests annually consume and destroy in the 
 United States values beyond estimate is 
 readily accepted when it is known that the 
 "vegetable bugs" alone lay upon the farmer 
 an annual tax greater than that involved in 
 the maintenance of the entire United States 
 government. By waging a relentless and 
 increasing war against such pests, the Bureau 
 of Entomology saves the farmer in some single 
 years from $300,000,000 to $400,000,000. 
 
 The loss by injurious mammals annually is 
 in excess of $100,000,000, while the insects of 
 all kinds make a tax of about one billion dollars. 
 The incidental losses greatly increase this 
 amount; as for instance, in the case of the 
 
148 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Hessian fly, which in some years has cut the 
 wheat crop to pieces, causing loss to flour 
 mills and railroads, throwing men out of work, 
 and affecting nearly every branch of industry. 
 To meet this great loss, the government, re- 
 ceiving reports in advance of the coming of 
 the Hessian fly, begins at once in its laborato- 
 ries the breeding of billions of parasites, which 
 are turned loose in the fields, to make war on 
 the fly, giving it no quarter until it is routed, 
 or completely destroyed. 
 
 A recent magazine reports the following 
 conversation with the chief of the Bureau of 
 Entomology: "He's a welcome little stranger," 
 said Dr. L. O. Howard, as he held a tiny bottle 
 before my eyes and handed over a microscope. 
 "That speck is a distinguished arrival from 
 Europe. I sent a man over for him two weeks 
 ago, and though the cost of getting him here 
 may seem disproportionate to his size (he was 
 about as big as the head of a pin) he'll pay his 
 passage by saving the elm trees of the country. 
 That is the egg parasite of the elm leaf beetle. 
 The magnificent elms of the country, the 
 splendid shade trees of New England especially, 
 have been attacked savagely of late by the 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 149 
 
 beetle which eats their leaves and destroys 
 them. This little fellow can be depended 
 upon to give increasing battle to the beetles. 
 We shall propagate these parasites by millions, 
 and when the elm leaf bettle starts his feast 
 he will find opposed to him a relentless army 
 of enemies bent on his destruction." 
 
 A similar story is told of the San Jose scale, 
 a parasite which was fast destroying the fruit 
 trees of the Pacific Coast. In addition to 
 spraying the trees, it was desirable to find a 
 natural enemy to the scale. The original 
 home of the parasite was found to be in China, 
 and dwelling with it was also found its deadly 
 enemy, a species of lady bug. A federal 
 employee was at once sent to China to bring 
 back the mother lady-bugs. On the trip 
 all died save one, but this one laid some 
 thousands of eggs and the brood when hatched 
 became the forerunner of the countless hosts 
 of lady-bugs which are seen every year swarm- 
 ing in the trees of the Pacific coast during the 
 fruit season, rapidly destroying the scale in 
 every tree. 
 
 It was found impossible to raise the Smyrna 
 fig in this country until the fig caprifying 
 
150 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 insect was imported, and by its help the 
 Smyrna fig growing and packing industry has 
 been strongly established. The importation 
 of the natural enemies of the sugar cane leaf- 
 hopper have saved the growers from a great 
 burden of loss. The destructive grain aphis 
 has found its enemy in a four winged fly which 
 lays its eggs in the body of the aphis. Were 
 it not for the tachinid flies, the army worm 
 would become a menace as great as the in- 
 vasion of a foreign enemy. 
 
 The gypsy moth, an accidental importation 
 from Europe in 1889, steadily advanced 
 through New England, until the fruit and 
 shade-trees were damaged and the loss had 
 reached the millions. The Bureau sought the 
 world over for destructive parasites, and when 
 found, propagated and liberated them in 
 such numbers that there is now hope for the 
 final extermination of both the gypsy and 
 browntail moth. 
 
 The search for the enemy of the destructive 
 cottonball weevil is still going on with much 
 success. Many different kinds of parasites 
 have been introduced. A mechanical appa- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 151 
 
 ratus for the control of the weevil has been 
 put at the use of the pubUc; and a * 'rapid fire" 
 cotton has been planted which matures, is 
 picked, and ginned before the weevil reaches 
 maturity. In these ways the calamity which 
 threatened the Southern planters is being 
 averted. 
 
 The danger from importation of insect pests, 
 hidden in fruits and packing boxes is so great 
 that the government is always on the watch 
 to guard against it; and on the other hand a 
 world-wide search for the enemies of existing 
 parasites is ever in progress ; and in this search 
 the departments of all nations are co-operating. 
 Not only is the effort made to keep out insect 
 pests, but all birds, beasts, and reptiles which 
 may prove dangerous or may become a 
 nuisance are debarred from importation. The 
 proscribed list includes poisonous snakes, the 
 English starling, rabbits, the flying fox, and 
 the quarrelsome mongoose of India. Especial 
 watch is kept against the mongoose, which 
 kills birds and poultry and makes of itself 
 an unbearable nuisance. 
 
 The depredations in the national forests by 
 insects is so great that the Department gives 
 
15« THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 constant attention to the destruction of the 
 many moths, beetles and flies, native or im- 
 ported, which are in any way hurtful to the 
 trees. 
 
 The warfare against noxious mammals is 
 ceaseless and expensive, forming a great tax 
 on agriculturists. Efforts to destroy these 
 animals by traps, poisons, and gases need to 
 be supplemented by inoculating certain ones 
 with virus, which will cause contagious disease 
 to spread among them and thus destroy whole 
 colonies at once. Among the most destruc- 
 tive of the mammals are field mice, rabbits, 
 gophers and rats. The circulars sent forth 
 to stockmen, giving the methods of killing 
 wolves and coyotes have been the means of 
 saving millions of dollars. A few of these 
 mammals are very beneficial and the Depart- 
 ment advises the sparing of bats, skunks, wea- 
 sels, badgers and foxes, that they may aid in 
 destroying the more harmful animals. 
 
 The Agricultural Department is also giving 
 great attention to soil analysis, for because 
 of the wasteful methods of farming, many 
 farms have depreciated in value, and have 
 been abandoned; and through lack of knowl- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 153 
 
 edge, many farmers have wasted much of the 
 fertilizer used on worn out land. It is another 
 instance where it is well to "farm with brains." 
 In addition to the soil survey, the government 
 co-operates with many states in conducting 
 demonstration farms where the farmers may 
 learn what can be done on the different kinds 
 of soil; what are the proper fertilizers to use, 
 if any, and what varieties and classes of crops 
 to grow on their respective farms. 
 
 Our agricultural lands are impoverished by 
 single cropping, and by failure to use proper 
 fertilizers. It is easy to remedy the first, but 
 the second requires careful thought and 
 scientific knowledge, which knowledge the 
 government stands ready to give. Constant 
 cropping depletes the soil by extracting from 
 it the nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. 
 These plant foods must be put back into the 
 soil if continuous farming is to be productive. 
 
 The nitrogen is quite easily obtained for 
 the air itself is a storehouse of it. Heretofore 
 most of the nitrogen salts have come from 
 mines of Chile, but a recent electrical dis- 
 covery makes it possible to condense the 
 atmospheric nitrogen into a product which can 
 
154 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 scarcely be distinguished from the imported 
 article. But another and a cheaper method is 
 at hand. All leguminous plants, by the aid of 
 bacteria, draw from the air large quantities of 
 nitrogen which is deposited in nodules on the 
 roots. These crops plowed under furnish both 
 humus and nitrogen to the soil. The govern- 
 ment sends out bacteria with which to inocu- 
 late the clover, cow pea, or bean and thus 
 develop this part of the plant food. About 
 20,000 cultures were distributed during one 
 year. 
 
 Potash has heretofore come mostly from 
 the German mines, but it can readily be ob- 
 tained in inexhaustible quantities by crushing 
 the igneous rocks which carry a percentage of 
 potassium. 
 
 With regard to the third item, namely, that 
 of phosphorus, it is necessary to conserve the 
 supply, for it is limited. The earliest source 
 of phosphorus was found in the South Ameri- 
 can Islands. More recently phosphate rock 
 was discovered in the southern states, but 
 this was largely monopolized and much of the 
 product was shipped abroad. Since then 
 large deposits have been discovered in Wyom- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 155 
 
 ing, Utah and Idaho. At the request of 
 President Roosevelt, these phosphorus bearing 
 lands were withdrawn from entry and an effort 
 was made to have Congress adopt the policy 
 of leasing them with a proviso in each lease 
 that none of the products should be exported; 
 thus holding for all time this last source of 
 phosphate for the use of our farmers. This 
 owning and leasing is one step towards the 
 larger policy of owning and operating. 
 
 In taking a survey of this growing nation, 
 and foreseeing the certainty of the population 
 crowding the old centers and the great cities, 
 we have rejoiced in the possible outlet on the 
 lands reclaimed by irrigation and from the 
 drained swamps, but even these would not 
 furnish sufficient agricultural area for all the 
 people who might wish to own farms. The 
 Agricultural Department tells us that millions 
 of people more can build happy homes on the 
 arid lands, and raise abundant crops by the 
 system of "dry farming." This method was 
 common among the ancient Egyptians and 
 the Aztecs, but it was one of the lost arts until 
 the experts, local and national, began a series 
 of experiments, which proved so successful. 
 
156 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 that now it is claimed that 200,000,000 acres 
 of available lands, once included in the Great 
 American Desert, await development by this 
 method. Think of the picture, you who have 
 travelled over the great plains, of the vast 
 desert stretches of the far west transformed 
 into delightful home-sites. Secretary Wilson 
 maintains that w^e have no useless acres. 
 "We shall make them all productive," he is 
 quoted as saying; and he adds, "We have 
 agricultural explorers in every far corner of 
 the world; and they are finding crops which 
 have become so acclimated to dry conditions, 
 similar to our own in the West, that we shall 
 in time have plants thriving upon all our so- 
 called arid lands. We shall cover this arid 
 area with plants of various sorts which will 
 yield hundreds of millions of tons of additional 
 forage and grain for Western flocks and herds. 
 Our farmers will grow these upon land now 
 considered practically worthless." 
 
 In order to test the practical workings of 
 dry farming, so that the people might not be 
 enticed into the desert only to find failure, the 
 government several years ago established eleven 
 stations in the Great Plains region in Montana, 
 
Future homesites for the people 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 157 
 
 North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, 
 Colorado and Texas, where scientific methods 
 were carefully worked out, assuring success to 
 those who used them intelligently. As soon 
 as these facts were given to the pubHc, settlers 
 began to pour in from far and near, until the 
 movement had grown to such proportions that 
 it warranted the calling of the first Trans- 
 Missouri Dry Farming Congress in Denver. 
 This was attended by 300 representatives. 
 The second Congress convened in Salt Lake 
 in 1908, with 650 delegates, and the third 
 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in February, 1909, 
 with nearly one thousand in attendance. 
 These prepared the way for the still larger 
 congress held in Billings, Montana, October, 
 1909. 
 
 Much interest has been aroused by these 
 successive congresses. As a result of them, 
 one railroad has put on a special train, in which 
 will be carried samples of farm products, the 
 experts in charge to give instructions to the 
 farmers at every station. The membership 
 in the Central Congress has now reached many 
 thousands, and it vies with the older body — 
 the National Irrigation Congress — which in- 
 
158 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 vited 10,000 people to be present at its last 
 meeting at Spokane. 
 
 Dry farming is a success, if a suitable cultural 
 system is used, and all of the moisture is 
 conserved. It involves the utilization of the 
 rains and snows of the non-productive seasons, 
 for the purpose of agriculture in the summer, 
 when there are no rains at all. With twelve 
 to fifteen inches of rainfall, properly conserved, 
 a crop may be produced; and there is little of 
 the desert that does not receive that amount. 
 
 The dry farming system is based on the 
 principle that the moisture falling in snow and 
 rain will sink into the earth, if the soil is 
 loosened with deep subsoil plowing in the 
 summer, with furrows turned at right angles 
 to the prevailing winds of winter, in order 
 that the snow may be caught. The moisture 
 during the wet months sinks to the depth of 
 eight feet, then the surface is sealed over with 
 harrows, so that the capillary ducts, by which 
 the moisture works its way to the surface, 
 are broken, and the land covered by a stirred 
 surface acting like a blanket. "Plow, plow, 
 plow!" is the cry of the dry farmer. This 
 prevents rapid evaporation in the hot weather. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 159 
 
 and makes it possible for plant life to exist 
 upon the water which it draws in through the 
 roots from the stored moisture far beneath. 
 There must of necessity be good soil as a 
 basis — "Only irrigation can conquer sand." 
 
 The annual change of crops, and seed selec- 
 tion, are vital to success in the dry regions. 
 Seeds are selected that have drought resistant 
 power, being chosen from plants that have for 
 centuries grown in arid regions. This new 
 process has had a great effect on land values, 
 some of the desert lands, from being a drug in 
 the market at 50 cents an acre, when brought 
 under cultivation command $25.00 per acre. 
 
 If the plant breeder has been able to make 
 two ears of corn grow where one grew before; 
 and the irrigationist has caused two blades of 
 grass to grow, where one grew before, the dry 
 farmer has caused profitable crops to grow 
 where nothing of value ever grew before. 
 Farming in the arid region has been made 
 possible not only because of the local experi- 
 ments, and the working out of methods of 
 scientific culture, but also because the govern- 
 ment has kept in the field a small army of 
 explorers, seeking for new crops which will 
 
160 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 meet any condition of soil and climate found 
 in America or in the island possessions. The 
 policy of the government has been to **send 
 out and get the best in the world; then educate 
 the farmers in its culture and the public in its 
 use; and after that grow it here at home with 
 scientific zeal." A writer has recently sum- 
 marized the efforts to bring fruits and vege- 
 tables from other lands, before the new agri- 
 culture made demands for new crops, as 
 follows : 
 
 "Before the sixties the tomato was a curio 
 from Peru — a 'poison apple' — it was called; 
 now it requires 600,000 acres to produce the 
 crop. In the fifties, the Franciscan Fathers 
 brought the alfalfa from Chile, whence it 
 came from Asia Minor; now the yearly crop 
 covers 2,000,000 acres. They also imported 
 the olive, which now covers a thousand 
 orchards. Here are some other varieties: 
 Siberian crabapple and Vladimir cherry from 
 Russia; horse-radish from Austria; potato 
 from Columbia and Peru; rhubarb from Central 
 Asia; asparagus from England and cherry from 
 the south of Europe." 
 
 Not content with the more or less accidental 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 161 
 
 discovery of new crops, the Agricultural De- 
 partment has organized a corps of explorers 
 to secure seeds and cuttings and to gather ex- 
 haustive data as to the methods of culture and 
 to secure information which will help to make 
 the transplanted crop a success. * 'These 
 explorers have invaded Indian jungles; en- 
 dured the hardships of Siberian steppes; 
 sweltered in the burning heat of the Sahara, 
 and risked their lives in the plague districts 
 of Bombay. They have touched at every 
 continent and penetrated many lands, and the 
 fruits of their daring endeavors are on a 
 thousand American farms." 
 
 The Bureau of Plant Industry has thus been 
 able to add many millions to the value of farm 
 produce and at a comparatively small expense. 
 For instance — it cost $2,000 to introduce 
 sorghum, a crop now worth $40,000,000 a year. 
 Then look at the durum wheat from Russia, 
 unknown in our markets till 1900! It is a 
 "dry land" grain for the semi-arid western 
 plains that will flourish where another wheat 
 would starve. To get it, test and distribute it, 
 cost us perhaps $10,000, while the crop's 
 annual value is at least $10,000,000! Similar 
 
162 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 increase came with the introduction of the 
 navel orange; Japanese rice and bamboo; the 
 Corsican citron; the Indian mango; Bohemian 
 horse-radish; Malay mangosteen; Mexican 
 sisal; Spanish almonds; French prunes; West 
 Indian cassava; hardy Finnish oats and tur- 
 nips for Alaska's short summers; Chinese 
 mustard and Egyptian cotton. 
 
 Dates for the desert, and several thousand 
 rare, delicious new foods, which are now either 
 being tested on the demonstration farms or are 
 growing on vast areas and filling the produce 
 markets of every city have been brought to 
 this land by these explorers. If this good work 
 goes on for a decade, it is safe to say that there 
 will not be an edible fruit or vegetable, a 
 forage crop, a medicinal plant or a rare flower 
 grown anywhere in the world that will not be 
 discovered and brought hither by the ex- 
 plorers and started in its new habitat some- 
 where in the vast reaches of this new land. 
 
 Of the work of seed and plant introduction, 
 Mr. Fairchild, of the Department, says: "I 
 feel that there is no government expenditure 
 which more directly affects the wealth pro- 
 ducing power of the country than this one. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 163 
 
 It means that the American farmer is no 
 longer tied to the few crops that his fore- 
 fathers knew. It gives him the material with 
 which to experiment. He ceases to be a 
 plodder along old lines and becomes an intelli- 
 gent investigator. He is emancipated from 
 the one crop idea. And the whole world is 
 coming to his aid." 
 
 That the work of distribution of seeds and 
 cuttings is greatly appreciated is shown in the 
 request for 6,400,000 packages of vegetable 
 seeds and 800,000 packages of flower seeds, 
 freely sent out through congressmen and 
 through the Department itself. For the en- 
 couragement of willow culture for baskets, 
 the Department is sending willow cuttings to 
 those who will plant and cultivate them. 
 
 The government is not satisfied with in- 
 creasing the quality and value of the farm 
 crops grown on land; it is also giving great 
 attention to the scientific farming of the 
 waters. The Fisheries Commission is culti- 
 vating the ocean floor that it may bring 
 forth greater crops, and that the natural re- 
 sources of the deep which were through greed 
 being rapidly depleted may be conserved for 
 
 iE- 
 
164 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 future generations. Fish laws have been 
 passed, making a closed season for many kinds 
 of fish (including shell-fish) as is done in the 
 case of rapidly disappearing animals. They 
 have gone still further and now, "every 
 specimen swimming the oceans, rivers or 
 lakes, which after investigation has proved of 
 benefit to man, will be saved through the cease- 
 less activity of the national Fisheries Commis- 
 sion, which has taken up the giant task of 
 putting back under the waves each year as 
 many fish as thoughtless man takes out, and 
 which in addition aims to discover new food 
 fish and make them plentiful; to bring to 
 American waters species hitherto unknown in 
 this country; to transplant the Atlantic fish 
 to the Pacific and those of the Pacific to the 
 Atlantic, and to develop toothsome dainties 
 for man's appetite, and, through a constant 
 increase in the quantities, to put them within 
 monetary reach of all." 
 
 Nor has the government overlooked the 
 protection and propagation of wild birds, as 
 an aid to the farmer in destroying insects, 
 and as a means of enriching the life of the 
 country-side through the music of the song 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 165 
 
 birds. The Biological Survey in its report on 
 birds pleads for their protection, for it claims 
 that when birds are permitted to labor undis- 
 turbed they thoroughly police both earth and 
 air. The thrushes, sparrows, larks, and wrens 
 search the surface of the earth for insects and 
 their larvae or hunt among the leaves and peer 
 under logs and refuse for them. The warblers, 
 vireos, creepers, and nuthatches with their 
 microscopic eyes scan every part of the tree 
 or shrub — trunk, branches, and leaves — and 
 few hidden creatures escape them. The wood- 
 peckers, not content with carefully scrutiniz- 
 ing the bark and limbs of trees, dig into de- 
 cayed and worm-eaten wood and drag forth 
 the burrowing larvae, which in their hidden 
 retreats are safe from other enemies. The 
 flycatchers, aided by the warblers, are ever on 
 the alert to snap up insects when flying among 
 trees and branches; while the swallows and 
 nighthawks skim over the pastures and patrol 
 the air high above the tree tops for such of the 
 enemy as have escaped pursuit below. Thus 
 each family plays its part in the never-ending 
 warfare, and the number of insects annually 
 consumed by the combined hosts is simply 
 incalculable. 
 
IW THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 The Survey offers as another reason for 
 governmental protection the ruthless slaughter 
 of birds by hunters and by agents of commercial 
 companies for beautiful feathers, and the 
 destruction of nests at the hands of egg 
 collectors. For many years the Audubon 
 Societies have worked with the Bureau of 
 Ornithology in establishing harbors for wild 
 birds. There are now sixteen such reser- 
 vations, carefully patrolled by wardens, and 
 the trade in feathers is therefore greatly re- 
 stricted. As these islands are now safe from de- 
 predation the birds are beginning to multiply 
 in them. 
 
 We have passed in review the wonderful 
 work of the Department of Agriculture in 
 breeding plants and animals, in preventing 
 disease, in creating better environment, in 
 improving the quality of food for man and 
 beast, in teaching the farmer how to grow his 
 crops, in adding millions of dollars to the 
 value of farm products; the thought must 
 have suggested itself that if a like amount of 
 work and thought were applied to humankind, 
 even greater results might be produced. For 
 is it not possible to develop choice strains in 
 
\ 
 
 THE BETTER COUNTRY 167 
 
 men as well as in plants and animals? Can 
 we not establish a department of prophylaxis, 
 both physical and moral, for men as well as 
 for plants and animals? And "is not a man 
 worth more than a sheep?" A bureau of 
 eugenics, or of health and development under 
 a secretary like James Wilson, serving through 
 several administrations, long enough to work 
 out a definite plan, would certainly accom- 
 plish much for human uplift. 
 
 Social workers are busy preparing for that 
 day. The government has been many times 
 appealed to, to form a bureau of health and 
 to grant a children's charter. To-day we 
 have social agitation, education, and experi- 
 mentation, and within a decade we may have 
 the consummation of all these creative con- 
 structive plans, the results of which will not 
 be expressed in millions of dollars, but in 
 terms of life, in a marked increase in health, 
 happiness and home comfort, and in the de- 
 velopment of knowledge, temperance, morality 
 and spirituality. 
 
 Not that the nation is entirely wanting in 
 altruistic work of this kind — but our plea is 
 that all this work should be co-ordinated, that 
 
168 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 it should be made scientific, for the proper 
 breeding of humans is even a greater science 
 than that of breeding plants and animals; 
 that if fish and birds need protection, so do 
 women and children. James Wilson has set 
 the pace for every other federal official. 
 Some day all will be thinking in terms of 
 human uplift as does this leader in his Depart- 
 ment. 
 
 Mil 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Building Homes 
 
 "The nation that will lead the world will be 
 the nation of homes," said Gifford Pinchot, at 
 the Irrigation Congress at Spokane. "The 
 most valuable citizen of this or any other 
 country is the man who owns the land from 
 which he makes his living. No other man has 
 such a stake in the country. No other man 
 lends such steadiness and stability to our 
 national life. Therefore, no other question 
 concerns us more intimately than the question 
 of homes. Permanent homes for ourselves, 
 our children and our nation — that is the central 
 problem. The policy of national irrigation is 
 of value to the United States in very many 
 ways, but the greatest of all is this, that na- 
 tional irrigation multiplies the men who own 
 the land from which they make their living.'* 
 
 How the people live is of vital interest to 
 the nation. The question of urban congestion 
 with its consequent crime and misery is of 
 more than local interest, and its solution comes 
 
170 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 within the scope of the federal government. 
 Let us study the growth of cities, and notice 
 the forces already at work in breaking up con- 
 gestion, and scattering the people. 
 
 In the social life of the world every succes- 
 sive generation has its new problems, and its 
 new methods for solving old ones. In the 
 last quarter of a century we have stood 
 amazed and almost helpless in the presence of 
 a mighty rush of rural people toward the great 
 cities, until the urban populations have become 
 so congested in certain districts as to be a 
 menace to health and morals. 
 
 The city has drawn into itself the farmer 
 boy and the foreigner, because it has offered 
 work for all, with regularity of employment. 
 There could be found companionship, possi- 
 bilities for education, together with the excite- 
 ment of the street, and the amusement hall. 
 For twenty-five years the millions from the old 
 world poured into the prairie country of the 
 west until all available land was pre-empted 
 under the liberal homestead laws. Then 
 that tide turned back upon the cities and a 
 million aliens a year tarried within the gates 
 and helped to swell the congestion. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 171 
 
 The increased demand for labor in industrial 
 centers, and the lack of opportunity to get on 
 the land, brought about the problem of con- 
 gestion, the solution of which has waited for a 
 new day with its new possibilities. Granted 
 congested factory life, under the old conditions 
 there must be congested family life. Because 
 there are docks and warehouses, depots and 
 transportation facilities in certain sections 
 only, in these sections blocks of factories must 
 be built. The railroad favors this system of 
 massing things together because of ease in 
 handling freight. The factory owner must 
 have a switch near by for the more economical 
 method of shipping the product of his mill. 
 
 Large factories in a given section call for 
 large tenements for the housing of the laborers. 
 These are speedily built without reference to 
 sanitary laws. This was markedly the case 
 in the earlier days when the health boards 
 were less eflBcient and had far less power than 
 at present. Old mansions, deserted by their 
 former owners, were filled to overflowing by 
 numerous families. Without the necessary 
 sanitary appliances, these places soon became 
 rookeries, "where children were not born. 
 
172 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 but cursed into life." Building lots in these 
 congested areas were nearly covered with 
 front and rear tenements, many stories high, 
 and these were filled with dark rooms, dismal 
 and unhealthy. 
 
 That congestion means disease goes without 
 saying. Sewer gas, and lack of sunlight and 
 fresh air breed germs of disease which would 
 help to fill the cemeteries, were it not that 
 poverty compels the use of the potter's field. 
 It is reported that one in every ten persons 
 who die in New York is buried at public 
 expense in the potter's field — and this repre- 
 sents the limit of misery. 
 
 Tenements are training schools in bad 
 morals. They have no redeeming qualities, 
 and make for unrighteousness among their 
 unhappy dwellers. Their pernicious influence 
 lends color to the idea that environment means 
 more than heredity; for certainly a well-born 
 child raised in a tenement house with the 
 streets for a playground and with oaths and 
 drunken songs for a lullaby, starts life with a 
 moral handicap. 
 
 Many of those whom society has branded 
 as criminals, and has thrust into jails, are 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 173 
 
 products of bad conditions rather than of 
 hearts naturally bad; and if congestion pro- 
 duces crime, the scattering of the population 
 is an effort in favor of good morals. 
 
 Congestion is as much the cause as the 
 result of poverty. "Those who are in poverty 
 may be able to get a bare sustenance, but they 
 are not able to obtain those necessities which 
 will permit them to maintain a state of physi- 
 cal efficiency." 
 
 Tenement house life destroys the incentive 
 for the improvement of living conditions. 
 An ever-present saloon incites to lawlessness, 
 and the inevitable debauchery lessens the 
 power to resist disease and reduces physical 
 efficiency as an asset. The dweller in a slum 
 becomes too often sodden and hopeless, and 
 therefore less of a man. 
 
 The indictment against the tenement with 
 its consequent slum reads in this wise : It pro- 
 duces unnecessary disease, forms a training 
 school for bad morals, fosters crime, promotes 
 poverty, creates a stronghold for bad govern- 
 ment, helps to people the potter's field, and as 
 a whole stands as a menace to society. More 
 jails and hospitals and nurseries are a growing 
 
174 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 necessity to handle the product of the con- 
 gested districts. If the tenement produces 
 evil and evil only, is it not folly to deal with 
 results when it is possible to be rid of the 
 cause? It is a glorious charity to carry the 
 little suflferers with surgical tuberculosis to the 
 sea shore for a breath of fresh air, but this is 
 largely a tenement house disease and need 
 not exist if the child is raised in normal 
 surroundings. 
 
 Against much of the crime, disease and 
 death originating in the tenement may be 
 written the word "preventable." Social 
 workers everywhere are awakening to a sense 
 of responsibility, and a campaign has been 
 waged against the slum. It has been a 
 ten-years' war against the worst of existing 
 conditions. Social workers have of late real- 
 ized that something more is necessary, viz., a 
 campaign of education as to the method of 
 scattering the people and ruralizing the city. 
 
 An appeal to commercialism must be made. 
 "It pays to ruralize the city," is a statement 
 which, when proven true, wins the support 
 of capital, even though there may be no in- 
 terest in the moral and social results. The 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 175 
 
 tenement and the slum must go from our 
 American cities, notwithstanding the oppo- 
 sition of builders of the tenement who are 
 coining money from the misery of the poor. 
 No city can long exist half bad and half good. 
 If left to itself, the slum will sooner or later 
 control the city hall. There is but one safe 
 way: exterminate the slums and make the 
 city good. 
 
 But vested rights, corrupt politics, and bad 
 business are strongly entrenched in these 
 congested districts. Before victory is assured, 
 it may call for more than a ten-years' war; 
 yet the forces of righteousness are sure to win 
 at last, because of the mighty civic awakening 
 that has been coming about in the last few 
 years. 
 
 Many wealthy individualists are now social 
 reformers; university men have chosen social 
 service as a life work; women's clubs, city 
 clubs, and civic associations, which are multi- 
 plying on every side, have taken up the work 
 of civic reform, while militant civic bodies are 
 embodying in their membership the leading 
 business and professional men in every com- 
 munity. These men are optimists with the 
 
176 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 vision of a better city. Wherever evil is to 
 be found entrenched, there are they to be 
 found on the firing line. 
 
 In all our newer cities the battle with the 
 slum may be briefer, for the population of the 
 congested districts is small compared with 
 that of the entire city. Large fortunes have 
 not yet been expended in building brothels 
 and tenements, and the political machine is 
 not so strong as in the older and larger cities. 
 But whether easy or difficult, an awakened 
 citizenship is saying that the slum must go. 
 
 The slum is the home of sin in its reeking 
 and revolting forms. There congregate the 
 scarlet woman, the inebriate, the law-breaker 
 — the wrecked and ruined sons and daughters 
 of a common father. In this school of 
 crime are to be found the children — the half- 
 clad, underfed children, who are almost 
 certain to follow in the sinful ways of their 
 elders. The slum has no redeeming feature. 
 Ragged schools and reform schools can never 
 essentially change its conditions, for they 
 work with results and not with causes; and 
 the settlements can do little more than study, 
 analyze, educate, and point the way out. 
 
 ^i 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 177 
 
 But the slum must go. Congestion must be 
 broken up. Population must be scattered. 
 The light must be let in; the city must be 
 ruralized. 
 
 There are many forces at work to bring 
 about a welcome change in conditions, the 
 most prominent of which are, industrial re- 
 movals, the building of model factory villages, 
 the extension of the rapid transit system, the 
 laying out of new tracts by real estate owners, 
 the garden city movement, the industrial 
 housing by municipalities, and the reclamation 
 work of the government. But while the 
 emphasis for the present is placed on these, 
 yet we must not for one moment forget the 
 grand work of letting in the light on the part 
 of the municipality, as well as through private 
 initiative. Jacob Riis saw Bottle Alley, Ban- 
 dit's Roost, and Kerosene Row, with their 
 fearful death rate and criminal record ; he told 
 the story of the wretchedness, misery, and sin 
 of their unfortunates; he told it over and over 
 again until someone moved, and those parts 
 of the slum world are now no more. 
 
 Letting in the light in the worst places has 
 brought into evidence the grime and the crime 
 
178 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 of regions which in the darkness seemed more 
 respectable. It is only a question of time 
 when an awakened conscience will demand 
 that the entire slum must go. Riis, Waring, 
 and Roosevelt let some light into New York's 
 slums, and every city took courage and let 
 light into other slums. Mr. D. O. Mills and 
 Mrs. Alfred Corning Clark said, "If the people 
 must live in this huddled up condition, we 
 will build for them men's hotels and model 
 tenements, that they may live more decently 
 and with less danger to health and morals." 
 Then the committees on small parks and the 
 playground associations opened recreation 
 centers, baths and playgrounds, and the 
 children began to come into possession of their 
 own. The Whyo gang and the Hook gang 
 were no longer the torment of the policemen 
 on the beat. Yes, the slum is going and some 
 of us may help to speed its passage. 
 
 Much has been done through the public 
 schools to make life more tolerable in the con- 
 gested districts. The roof garden, the school 
 garden, industrial classes, and lecture courses 
 are saving forces competing with the school 
 of the street which trains for a criminal life; 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 179 
 
 but good as this may be, how much better it is 
 to scatter the population and destroy the 
 slums. 
 
 Through the establishment of a fund given 
 by the late Baron de Hirsch, a systematic 
 attempt has been made to distribute Jewish 
 immigrants among different states where they 
 can follow industrial and agricultural pursuits 
 in exchange for their former commercial life. 
 A systematic effort is being made to turn the 
 tide of Jewish immigration away from New 
 York and the other great centers. Instruc- 
 tion is given to the newly-landed immigrant 
 concerning the possibilities in other parts of 
 the country, where those who are skilled in 
 certain trades are sure to find employment, 
 and where there are Jewish settlements in 
 which they can find friends who will assist 
 them in making a new start in life. 
 
 For some time past an effort has been made 
 to get the steamship companies to make 
 Galveston a port of entry for Jewish immi- 
 grants. At least one line has responded, and 
 these newcomers arriving on its first steamer 
 are scattered throughout the smaller towns 
 and farms of Texas, instead of being taken by 
 
180 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 way of New York and crowded into its Ghetto. 
 In the success of this movement is there not a 
 suggestion for our government regarding the 
 proper method of handling the entire miUion 
 of aliens that reach our shores each year? 
 
 While movements like that of the Industrial 
 Removal Office are being promoted by in- 
 terested philanthropists, much is being done 
 in the way of relieving city congestion along 
 commercial lines, where dividends in dollars 
 are the chief thing sought for. The rapid 
 transit and real estate companies are scatter- 
 ing population in a normal way. As long as 
 horse-cars were the only means of travel for 
 the poor man, he was forced to live near the 
 factory in which he worked. Electricity has 
 greatly enlarged the zone in which it is possible 
 for the factory hand to reside. In fact, 
 distance is no longer an appreciable factor, a 
 five or seven-cent carfare determining the 
 limit of travel. 
 
 Nearly every city now has its interurban and 
 rapid transit lines reaching many miles into 
 the country, and it is to the interest of the 
 operating companies to encourage settlers 
 along the right-of-way. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 181 
 
 A new profession has lately arisen, that of 
 city architect, and the monumental plans 
 already offered appeal strongly to all progres- 
 sive citizens. While these plans have given 
 special emphasis to cultural and civic centers, 
 they ought also to include the distribution of 
 the city's factories, and its working population. 
 It is to be hoped that every city may come to 
 plan definitely as to its housing and factories; 
 so that there may never again be such a con- 
 dition as exists in New York, where there are 
 five blocks with more than 3,000 tenants in 
 each. 
 
 Factory owners can render great service to 
 the city by removing their factories to the 
 suburbs; and if necessary building model 
 industrial villages, thus attracting workmen 
 with their families from the congested dis- 
 tricts. Such a thing would pay, for land is 
 cheaper in the country; and a larger measure 
 of capital could be employed in new buildings, 
 more completely equipped with up-to-date 
 machinery, and with safety and sanitary 
 appliances. Above all, health and happiness, 
 and increased morality will add much to the 
 efficiency of the employees. The fact that 
 
182 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 this movement, even though it be made sel- 
 fishly, places the employer in the line of social 
 service work, ought to be an added incentive 
 to such industrial removals. 
 
 Much has already been done voluntarily in 
 changing the conditions of labor in factories. 
 The enforcement of new factory laws has forced 
 many owners to clean up, to let in light and to 
 treat their employees more humanely. Yet 
 when all is done to mitigate existing evils, there 
 will still remain in the hemmed-in buildings a 
 condition far from ideal. Gloomy surround- 
 ings, bad air, dusty atmosphere, cramped 
 quarters, all make for ill health and inefficient 
 work. 
 
 Those employers who have removed their 
 factories to the suburbs testify that it pays, 
 and that they have been able to expand their 
 business as they never could have done in the 
 old surroundings. The Cadburys, the cel- 
 ebrated cocoa-makers of England, for instance, 
 moved to Bourneville from Birmingham, and 
 in an ideal rural situation increased the number 
 of their employees from 300 to 3,600. Visitors 
 to this model village are unstinted in their 
 praise of this method of housing workmen and 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 183 
 
 giving them an environment so much better 
 than that of the slums. 
 
 The list is long of the industrial removals 
 from the crowded cities of England. The 
 Rowntrees of York, the Levers of Port Sun- 
 light, the Clarks of Street, the Chivers of 
 Histon, and Graves of Sheffield, have all set 
 an excellent example to their competitors in 
 the crowded cities. Many of the printing 
 houses, both in England and America, have 
 moved to the country with good results, both 
 as to the health and morals of their workmen, 
 and with increased financial returns. Scores 
 of large manufacturers in the United States 
 have learned the value of having a factory 
 in a garden and have moved their factories to 
 rural surroundings. These successful experi- 
 ments ought to lead many others to plan for 
 the removal of their plants at least to the 
 outskirts of the town. The greater city may 
 become and ought to become the better city. 
 The scattering of population over a wide area 
 wherever undertaken, has produced purer 
 morals, greater efficiency, and cleaner govern- 
 ment. 
 
 A city encircled by a hundred model in- 
 
184 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 dustrial villages is a better city than the one 
 where a hundred factories in the midst of 
 congested tenements pour forth their volumes 
 of smoke to defile the air and shut out the 
 sunlight. It is a good omen for the future 
 that captains of industry and many municipal- 
 ities are now busy building industrial villages 
 where once were barley fields and truck 
 gardens, for they are realizing the evils of 
 congestion, and also the good resulting from 
 proper housing conditions. A home in a 
 village free from the saloon and its kindred 
 evils makes for sobriety and industry far 
 more than life in a tenement surrounded by 
 dives and barrel-houses. Times are un- 
 doubtedly changing, and a new altruistic spirit 
 is in the air. Men are beginning to think of 
 "the other fellow" at the same time that they 
 plan for dividends. 
 
 Total abstinence is one of the best assets 
 that the workman of today can possess. It 
 is almost as good a recommendation as effi- 
 ciency. That both are essential to good 
 workmanship is now recognized by nearly 
 every employer of labor. Because of this the 
 owners of large factories and mills are almost 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 185 
 
 as deeply interested in the environment of 
 their workmen as they are in finding markets 
 for their products. 
 
 Notwithstanding the praiseworthy efforts 
 which are being made to build model tene- 
 ments, congested life can never be made ideal. 
 Where there is a population of 1,000 to the 
 acre, the saloon is sure to be strongly in- 
 trenched; and only by beginning anew, by 
 closing up the slum and eliminating the saloon, 
 can the standard be raised. 
 
 That temperance is a business asset is an 
 accepted fact of modern commerce. Even a 
 drinking employer will insist that his em- 
 ployees do not visit the saloon, and con- 
 sequently he is interested in banishing the 
 temptation to drink. There has been found 
 no better way to accomplish this end than by 
 beginning a new village life, free from the 
 saloon curse. 
 
 In his "Model Factories and Villages," 
 Budget Meakin quotes from a report pre- 
 sented to the directors of the Guinness Brewery 
 by its chief medical oflBcer, in which he dis- 
 cusses the value of the housing problem, as 
 follows: "Until our families are given the 
 
186 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 opportunity of being comfortably and decently 
 housed we cannot expect to do much in raising 
 their social and moral standard. I, therefore, 
 make so bold as to look forward to the day 
 when a brewery model village is built on the 
 lines of Cadbury's at Bourneville, and Lever 
 Brothers, at Port Sunlight, where our people 
 can obtain a small one or two storied cottage 
 at a reasonable rent. That the tenement 
 house system, except for the very poor who 
 must continue to reside in a congested city area, 
 is a retrograde step, I am strongly of opinion; 
 such a system neither conduces to good morals 
 nor a high social standard of living. The 
 well-paid laborer, whose earnings are constant, 
 should be given a chance of having a self- 
 contained home of his own; such a cottage can 
 be made home-like, attractive and comfortable. 
 In few cases is this possible in a tenement 
 building.'' 
 
 Surely if the brewery feels the need of ideal 
 surroundings for their men, other manu- 
 facturers ought not to be far behind. In the 
 effort to solve the problem of finding shelter 
 for a million people, private initiative began 
 the erection of multiple dwellings, known as 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 187 
 
 model tenements, and if tenements must be 
 built they were as near the ideal as could be 
 devised. But many believe that there is a 
 more excellent way of solving the housing 
 problem. 
 
 To provide shelter for a city's poor is a 
 problem too great to be left to the ordinary 
 law of supply and demand. Experts must 
 study, philanthropists must experiment, and 
 municipalities must legislate or the slums will 
 increase. 
 
 The city authorities and the manufacturers 
 are experimenting along still newer lines by 
 establishing rural colonies to relieve city con- 
 gestion. Many such communities have been 
 established in the past year in France, Ger- 
 many, Denmark, England and America. The 
 houses erected are artistic, sanitary, and com- 
 fortable. In them mill hands can live cheaply, 
 in the midst of conditions which a high-paid 
 artisan could not afford in the city itself. A 
 recent writer, speaking of the changes de- 
 manded, makes the following forecast: "It is 
 fairly certain that if London goes on increasing 
 and developing as it has done for more than a 
 century, the central districts will be denuded 
 
188 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 of all resident population beyond a handful 
 of caretakers; and improved transit will 
 spread the crowds now swarming about the 
 center over the whole circumjacent country. 
 Then the workman and employer alike will 
 live in semi-rural surroundings and only work 
 in the city." 
 
 In America, assuredly, housing congestion 
 and factory congestion go hand in hand. The 
 factories must therefore be scattered as well 
 as the people; and this is where the enlightened 
 members of the community must place the 
 emphasis in conducting the necessary edu- 
 cational propaganda. All manufacturers must 
 be shown the splendid results of industrial 
 removals and village building, until they come 
 to see that it will pay them in every way to 
 remove from the congested districts. 
 
 A strong and widespread effort is being put 
 forth to re-make our American cities according 
 to definite plans, which frequently involve a 
 cost of millions of dollars. Much of this vast 
 outlay can be saved by laying out new villages 
 and suburbs in such a way that there will be 
 no need of extensive change; and such re- 
 strictions should be made as to make certain 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 189 
 
 that there will never be any new congested 
 districts. 
 
 Governor Hughes is reported as raising the 
 question as to the wisdom of putting people in 
 hospitals and caring for them, and of imprison- 
 ing them for crime and burdening the com- 
 munity with large loads of prison and hospital 
 bills, if we can save human beings from disease 
 and crime, and at the same time increase their 
 efficiency by checking congestion. It is surely 
 the dictate of wisdom to strike at the causes of 
 disease and crime! 
 
 A quotation from an editorial by Dr. Devine 
 in The Survey summarizes the foregoing 
 contentions thus: "The difficulty, in a word, is 
 that we have an uneconomical and socially 
 injurious distribution of our national industries. 
 From the national standpoint, under the 
 present conditions, it is eminently desirable 
 that manufactures and commerce should be to 
 some extent transferred from the large centers 
 of population to the smaller cities and towns. 
 By port restriction of immigration, by the 
 encouragement of removal on a large scale 
 from the great cities to villages and towns, by a 
 better distribution of population within the 
 
190 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 geographical limits of cities, suburbs gaining 
 on cities, and outlying sections on congested 
 districts, by attention to town planning, the 
 re-location of factories, the development of 
 the transportation system and by a reversal 
 of all policies, national and local, which have 
 favored the concentration of population in a 
 few spots, the nation must set its face against 
 the evils of congestion." 
 
 Although the idea of city planning is com- 
 paratively new, there are to be found some in 
 every city of the land who are seeking to make 
 of the whole city from all points of view an 
 ideal place in which to live, of making it a 
 city of homes instead of tenements, lodging 
 houses or even apartment houses. Why 
 should it be left to the caprice of a few indi- 
 viduals to decide whether the land outside of a 
 growing city should be held as vacant property 
 waiting for larger returns, or laid out in some 
 kind of allotments, without regard to the 
 interests of the rest of the city ? Far better for 
 the city itself to decide in advance the char- 
 acter of all of the surrounding neighborhoods, 
 buying and laying out in advance, for parks 
 and playgrounds; establishing industrial, resi- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 191 
 
 dential and agricultural districts, all with 
 an idea to beauty as well as to utility. Where 
 entire towns can be plotted before settlement, 
 everyone of them should be made a Garden 
 City. 
 
 Along with the movement to ruralize the 
 city, by adorning it with trees and parks and 
 liberal lawns, thus bringing much of the best 
 of the country into the city, there comes also a 
 counter movement, namely, an effort to 
 urbanize the country, carrying into it much 
 that makes life larger and richer. A deep 
 longing for the land has taken possession of 
 our city people. The abandoned farms of 
 New England are being absorbed by the 
 wealthy citizens of Boston and New York. 
 "During school days we exist in New York," 
 said a friend, in a rich apartment house, "but 
 we live in the country." The old time jokes 
 concerning the unhappy lot of the suburbanite, 
 or even of the "Reuben" must be laid aside, 
 for to these, in this new day of electricity, have 
 come more of the joys and enrichments of 
 life than to the crowded dwellers of the noisy 
 city. This migration countryward is signifi- 
 cant as one of the great world movements. 
 
192 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 It raises the question, Do we really need a 
 great city? The last two decades saw the 
 growth of the skyscraper, which drew people 
 to the center, but at the same time came the 
 trolley line whose business it is to scatter the 
 population. The old world has chosen to 
 limit the height of its buildings, and has also 
 undertaken to enlarge the borders of its 
 dwelling places. May we not hope for the 
 speedy arrival of the good time when all of the 
 habitable land may be settled so ideally, that 
 there shall not be so many buildings as to cause 
 congestion, or districts so thinly populated 
 that the people shall be lonesome for lack of 
 neighbors. Until then some of the people 
 must of necessity live under unsanitary con- 
 ditions in disease breeding districts, where 
 physical and moral deterioration are the 
 natural results. The cry "Back to the land" 
 is in reality the cry "Back to the farm." 
 
 From the standpoint of good home-making, 
 the question to be decided is, How many acres 
 of land are necessary in order to gain a liveUhood 
 through agriculture .f^ In answer to this ques- 
 tion. President Roosevelt says, "With an 
 adequate supply of water, a farm of five acres 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 193 
 
 in some parts of the arid west, or of forty acres 
 in other parts is as large as may be successfully 
 tilled by one family." Bolton Hall, in his 
 Suburban Farms Association in New York, 
 and Wm. E. Smythe, in his ^'Little Landers" 
 at San Diego, are claiming that on one to three 
 acres of land near a large town, a family may 
 secure a good income if the products of the 
 farm are sold co-operatively. The smallness 
 of the plots brings the homes close enough 
 together for the pleasure of village life, with- 
 out the evils of the city, or the loneliness of the 
 frontier. 
 
 The land hunger that has long characterized 
 the old world, is now in evidence in America. 
 It would be hard to satisfy this deep-seated 
 hunger were it not for the friendly offices of 
 the federal government, because it believes 
 that the establishment of the rural home means 
 improvement in citizenship and in stability of 
 American institutions. This nation is offering 
 land to every citizen, on the most liberal 
 terms. Before this policy was adopted, there 
 was a great rush for the lands in the last 
 frontier of Canada and 100,000 citizens left 
 the United States for Alberta and the Canadian 
 
194 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Northwest. The opening of Oklahoma saw a 
 great land rush, and the same thing happened 
 when President Roosevelt opened the Rose- 
 bud Reservation in South Dakota — a great 
 stretch of 382,000 acres — offered at one dollar 
 down, and seventy -five cents per acre for four 
 years. One of the last of the great land- 
 rushes has just taken place, namely, the dis- 
 tributing among homesteaders by the Govern- 
 ment's lottery plan, of 400,000 acres of the 
 Couer d' Alene Reservation in Idaho, 6,000 
 acres Spokane Reservation in eastern Wash- 
 ington, and 450,000 acres of the Flathead 
 Reservation in Western Montana, furnishing 
 homes for nearly 20,000 people drawn from 
 the cities and the crowded farms of the middle 
 west. As an evidence of the demand for 
 land for home sites, let it be noted that for 
 3,700 available homesteads, there were at 
 Spokane between August 9th and 16th, 
 286,238 applicants lined up and waiting for 
 the drawing, which was done in the following 
 manner: The applications having been placed 
 in envelopes were sealed in cans; these were 
 cut open in view of the people, and the enve- 
 lopes being piled in a great heap on a platform 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 195 
 
 were mixed with shovels, and a blindfolded 
 girl drew them from the pile, one at a time, 
 until the last of the prizes was taken. The 
 282,538 applicants turned back to the cities, 
 or went on to some further hunt for home sites. 
 
 For these disappointed ones, and millions 
 of others, our government is now busy work- 
 ing out a plan whereby all of them who will, 
 may have a rural home, with all the conven- 
 iences of modern life. The government is 
 wise in giving attention to its homes, for if 
 they are bad, or if they are massed together in 
 congested, vicious neighborhoods, they may 
 become breeding places for crime. If the 
 nation is justified in giving attention to the 
 rain-barrel from which the stegomia mosquito 
 starts on its fever-producing mission, because 
 yellow fever may destroy hundreds of lives, 
 certainly human environments which make 
 for evil ought also to receive its attention, for 
 millions of lives as well as the morals of the 
 land are at stake. To this work of home- 
 making, several of the departments of the 
 government are giving special thought. 
 
 The Department of Agriculture is working, 
 not alone to increase the farmer's bank account 
 
196 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 but also to enrich his life in the things that 
 make life worth the living. The Department 
 of Commerce and Labor is studying the ques- 
 tion of labor in its relation to the home. They 
 are asking if twenty -one women out of every 
 hundred are bread-winners, what about the 
 problem of dying babies? If a multitude of 
 children labor at the loom and the coal breaker, 
 what will be the effect on the next generation 
 of home makers? If in the industrial world, 
 hundreds of thousands are forced to work for 
 less than a living wage, what chance will there 
 be for such workers to own a home? 
 
 As long as there was available free land, 
 the Interior Department gave to all who sought 
 it a homestead, which by diligent labor could 
 be made into a homesite. The Bureau of 
 Immigration has undertaken a new work of 
 scattering the immigrant, and this may de- 
 velop into a search for homes for him, as well 
 as for a chance to labor. But it remained for 
 the Reclamation Service to undertake the real 
 work of home making for a nation. The 
 Reclamation Service is now "impounding 
 mountain-born streams and distributing them 
 over desert fields where only the zahuara figs 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 197 
 
 and mesquite beans have ripened for wander- 
 ing Indians," and this means more than raising 
 Smyrna figs and mission grapes on irrigated 
 lands, it spells equality of opportunity for 
 many who are now slaves of a competitive 
 system. 
 
 The annual sale of over $8,000,000,000 of 
 farm products has not compensated the farmer 
 for the loss of the advantages which the city 
 has to offer. The report of the President's 
 Country Life Commission shows conclusively 
 that the closely settled rural community, with 
 scientific intensive farming, together with more 
 complete agricultural education, will contri- 
 bute greatly towards the urbanizing of the 
 country-side, checking the drift of the 
 boys and girls cityward, and also prevent- 
 ing the final abandonment of the farm. As an 
 example to the older regions, the government 
 is now building cities for the farmers. Of 
 necessity, this work must be done in the arid 
 regions for it is there and there only for the 
 present that the Reclamation Service is at 
 work. There in the desert, with its sage brush 
 and grease wood, its rattlesnakes and Gila 
 monsters, a land parched by the burning sun 
 
198 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 and shunned by all but the most venturesome 
 white man, on this last frontier, the govern- 
 ment is planning to settle its citizens in com- 
 fort, in homes of their own, with the promise 
 of health and wealth and happiness to all 
 who may have the true co-operative spirit. 
 
 In this region, long vacant and voiceless, 
 and regarded as valueless, a region large 
 enough if placed in one tract to make a great 
 new state richer and more densely populated 
 than any in the union, the Reclamation Serv- 
 ice is seeking to build ideal rural communi- 
 ties. The government believes that "a multi- 
 tude of little farms, well tilled, instead of a 
 few wealthy, powerful cities and a depopulated 
 country, are of greatest importance for this 
 country's future greatness," and that, "com- 
 pact farming communities insure almost ideal 
 social conditions, bring educational advan- 
 tages never before heard of to the farmer's 
 family, which will forever do away with the 
 isolation of ranching in the desert, and pro- 
 mote intelligent, progressive citizenship." 
 
 These closer social relations will relieve the 
 farm life of its loneliness and enable the 
 farmer's family to keep up with the spirit and 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 199 
 
 amusements of the urban settlements. The 
 new idea now being actuaHzed by the Recla- 
 mation Service is that of the "farm unit city,'* 
 as centers of highly intelligent farming com- 
 munities. 
 
 In every reclamation project, it is planned 
 to establish several town sites about one mile 
 square, these town sites to be so arranged that 
 no farm will be more than four miles distant. 
 The center of the town will be reserved 
 for a public school, around which will run a 
 broad street; the main streets will terminate 
 at the schoolhouse, and broad diagonal streets 
 will run far into the country. The school- 
 house thus becomes the civic and social, as 
 well as the educational center. And, inas- 
 much as in the building of nearly every dam, 
 electricity is developed for power, when the 
 water is turned on the electricity will be avail- 
 able for all purposes in the homes of the town. 
 In some cases there will be enough electricity 
 to be sold for power for farm and factory. 
 On one of these projects coal has been dis- 
 covered and this will probably be turned into 
 electricity at the pit mouth instead of by the 
 wasteful smoky method so common in the 
 middle west. 
 
200 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Through the co-operation of the Good 
 Roads Division, the roads leading from town 
 to town will resemble boulevards, thus greatly 
 aiding in the social life of the larger commun- 
 ity. These roads, will, no doubt, be lighted 
 by electricity. The towns will be equipped 
 with water and sewer systems, parks and 
 playgrounds, as every town might be if only it 
 had been possible for it to have been planned 
 in advance, as are these government towns. 
 Rural telephone, and rural postal delivery will 
 keep the entire community in touch with one 
 another and with the wide world beyond. 
 As every farm will be within easy reach of 
 the center, without doubt every farmer will 
 choose to live in town and will drive to work 
 every morning, thus fulfilling the dream of a 
 happy combination of urban and rural life; 
 a life favorable to the development of the best 
 and noblest institutions of society. 
 
 At a center of service to several towns, the 
 Union High school will be built, the pupils 
 brought when necessary in wagons, thus 
 making it possible for every boy and girl to 
 secure a thorough education, for this union 
 method will guarantee a school large enough 
 
w 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 201 
 
 to attract the best teachers and strong enough 
 financially to secure the best equipment. As 
 this plan widens out, the day of the little red 
 schoolhouse will pass away. In time every 
 one of the growing municipalities under this 
 Federal system may have its own public 
 utilities. The creation of the new town site 
 will furnish an experiment in municipal owner- 
 ship well worth the watching. 
 
 In order to insure success even to the in- 
 experienced irrigator, the government has 
 "established experts on the land to show the 
 settler the best methods of using the water. 
 It also gives information as to the soils and 
 the best manner of working them, what crops 
 are the most profitable and the best manner of 
 cultivating them. It virtually conducts agri- 
 cultural kindergartens on experiment farms 
 in the various tracts, giving guidance that is 
 invaluable to the settler not familiar with 
 irrigation farming. The trained farmers them- 
 selves develop many new ideas by their con- 
 stant experiments. The experts are glad to 
 have the co-operation of these experienced 
 husbandmen." 
 
 Is there any wonder that the demand for 
 
202 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 these reclaimed lands is so great that nearly 
 every acre is homesteaded long before the 
 dam is finished, and the water turned into the 
 ditches? Already several towns are well 
 started although only water suflScient for house- 
 hold uses has thus far been developed. New 
 settlers are flocking in, largely from the Missis- 
 sippi Valley, and Chicago has become a distri- 
 bution center. Although these lands are 
 given free by a liberal government, yet money 
 is required by the settler in order that he may 
 be properly established without too great 
 hardships. 
 
 The following estimate of things required is 
 made by one of the early settlers: "One ought 
 to have at least $1,000. Of course I do not 
 mean that a person ought to have that in 
 cash, but he ought to have a team, some 
 household furniture, a cow or two, some hogs, 
 and some chickens and money enough to 
 maintain himself for about a year, besides 
 enough to build him some sort of a house." 
 He adds, *'It is not always the lack of means 
 or the pleasures of the city that deter people 
 from gathering their effects and journeying to 
 distant regions to establish new residences. It 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 203 
 
 is the sentiment that surrounds home ties, the 
 love of old association that deters many from 
 changing their places of abode. It is hard for 
 people to leave familiar surroundings, break 
 away from the close friends they have been 
 among for years and put miles between them- 
 selves and those associations endeared to their 
 hearts. There is a solution for this, though. 
 Families may co-operate and journey in com- 
 munities from the cities to the new lands. 
 Three or four families, either of relatives or of 
 close friends could take up farms together, and 
 establish themselves in the further west. 
 There would be no breaking of the old familiar 
 ties. The hegira would, under these circum- 
 stances, become more of a pleasure trip, the 
 new life a pleasant one, filled with the same old 
 friends, preserving the same old ties." 
 
 During the settlement of the middle west 
 and the far west, there were many instances of 
 the establishment of colonies like Grinnell, 
 Iowa; Greeley , Colorado ; Ontario, California, 
 in which the co-operative spirit aided much in 
 the ultimate success of the undertaking, but no 
 other enterprise has ever developed such a 
 combination of collectivism, fraternalism, and 
 
204 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 individualism, as is found in the government 
 reclamation projects. Collectivism is em- 
 ployed in the building by the nation of the 
 great reservoir and the retention of its owner- 
 ship and control, because upon its future en- 
 largement must depend the further expansion 
 of reclamation. Co-operation and fraternalism 
 are necessary, because each settlement is 
 organized as a water user's association, no 
 one person being allowed more water than is 
 needed for 160 acres. In these ways, there 
 comes about a community of interest, which 
 in a marked degree leads each to work to- 
 gether for the good of all. Individual initia- 
 tive is necessary in the intensive cultivation of 
 the individual farms. Here individualism is 
 at its best. Fraternalism is the natural method 
 of life, and the government stands behind to 
 guarantee the success of the entire movement. 
 The nation is providing homes for the most 
 citizens possible, but it is for them to deter- 
 mine that thrift shall bring the patent, and 
 that here the great co-operative tendencies of 
 the time shall come to their fairest fruitage. 
 
 A suggestion is offered to young men now in 
 college, who are settling the question of their 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 205 
 
 life's work. If six or more of them should form 
 a compact that on the completion of their 
 special courses they will go to a government 
 "project," settling in the different towns, as 
 doctor, lawyer, preacher, teacher, merchant, 
 or agricultural expert, with the determination 
 that as a united band they will work together 
 for the highest social ideals; agreeing that 
 there may never be a saloon located in any of 
 the towns; that there shall be no crime-breed- 
 ing spots, and that the rights of the lowliest 
 shall be guarded — how much better would be 
 such a co-operative movement among edu- 
 cated men in a new land of opportunity, than 
 the best possible condition under the com- 
 petitive struggle of the older cities. 
 
 That a community "made up of people who 
 own their own holdings and live on them is 
 of infinitely more value to the nation than any 
 area, however rich and productive, owned by a 
 few persons and tilled by hired labor or rented 
 to the men who cultivate it," is self-evident. 
 
 But wonderful as is the work which the 
 nation is doing in getting the people on the 
 land, and protecting them from exploitation, 
 yet something more must be done. The 
 
206 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 fellow who is down must be given a chance. 
 The ambition for independence must be 
 aroused in the souls of the discouraged. The 
 immigrants must be placed on the land in 
 order that society may be protected from the 
 final revenge of the slum. The overflow and 
 idle population must be distributed. For the 
 settler who has suflBcient capital, the present 
 irrigation projects furnish a grand opportunity, 
 but the next great battle will be for the adop- 
 tion of the New Zealand system of advance 
 to settlers; which may be thus epitomized: 
 "Place this waste labor upon the waste land 
 by means of waste capital, and thereby con- 
 vert this trinity of waste into a unity of pro- 
 duction." 
 
 It is reported that the late Senator Hanna 
 just before his death was preparing a Senate 
 bill, outlining the creation of model towns on 
 reclaimed lands, by the selling of bonds to the 
 value of $50,000,000, and by granting the 
 government power to make loans of from 
 $500 to $1,000 to poor but worthy home- 
 seekers. New Zealand has already expended 
 $20,000,000 in aiding her farmers to establish 
 rural colonies, thinking it wise to borrow at 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 207 
 
 three per cent and loan at four per cent to 
 settlers. In her experience, she has never 
 lost a dollar, but for every dollar loaned, has 
 added five dollars to the wealth of the country. 
 
 The United States can surely adopt this 
 or a better method, thereby converting possi- 
 ble pauper dependents on charity into aflOiuent 
 home owners. Some day, perhaps, this nation 
 may become interested in seeing that every 
 American in this fair land has a home whether 
 he be a younger son — the typical prodigal, a 
 new American, or one of the dispossessed. 
 
 This nation has entered upon the work of 
 building homes, and no cry of over-paternal- 
 ism will ever cause her to yield up the ideal of 
 giving a home to every American. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Enrichment of Life 
 
 A nation building homes for its people — 
 that seems to the conservative like a long step 
 toward the co-operative Commonwealth, but 
 having gone this far our nation must go still 
 farther, and give attention to the enrichment 
 of the life of all the people; for the highest 
 civilization of any land is not tested by the 
 amount of wealth counted in dollars which it 
 may possess, but by the kind and quality of 
 the men which it develops. 
 
 This nation is most successful in its work 
 of aiding the evolution of plant and animal 
 life. The time has come, in a collective way, 
 for all citizens to become workers together 
 with God in aiding human evolution on the 
 mental, moral and physical planes, in the 
 struggle upward. In this, we are working 
 for the future, and in proportion as we of 
 America accept our responsibility as trustees 
 of the nation's welfare, our children and our 
 children's children will call us blessed. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 209 
 
 The federal government is coming into 
 personal touch with the people at large in 
 many ways, but in none more closely than 
 through the Post Office Department. A re- 
 port to the House of Representatives says, 
 "Upon the Postal Service more than upon 
 anything else depends the general economic, 
 social, and political development of our coun- 
 try." Through this service, the whole world 
 is brought within reach of every man, whether 
 he lives in Boston, or Alaska, Porto Rico or 
 Guam. It gives access to knowledge, cements 
 the bonds of friendship and helps to overcome 
 the sense of loneliness because of isolation. 
 Through the Postal Service, the government 
 stands ready to send of its stores of knowledge 
 accumulated by the departments, books and 
 pamphlets, reports and bulletins, that would 
 fill a small library. Even the most remote 
 mountaineer or dry farmer on the desert, by 
 merely sending a request, can receive by return 
 mail from the government, without charge, 
 that which if paid for, only the rich might buy.* 
 
 ^INSTRUCTION OF SCHOOL CHILDREN IN POSTAL 
 MATTERS. 
 On September 18, 1908, the following order was issued: 
 Postmasters are hereby directed to confer with their local 
 school authorities with the view of adopting the most efiPective 
 
210 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 The world has for so long a time been ac- 
 customed to the usual workings of the Postal 
 Service that it seldom asks the question, 
 whether this can be improved, yet there is 
 evidence of an increasing demand for the 
 greatest service which it is possible for the 
 Department to render. Cities had long been 
 accustomed to the daily delivery of mail 
 before the demand for rural delivery was 
 heard at Washington, and the actual routes 
 established. Then for the first time the 
 nation began its work of human uplift, as 
 applied to the countryside. Before the in- 
 ception of this work, the farmer was too often 
 isolated, cut oflF from the direct touch of life, 
 
 method of instructing school children as to the organization and 
 operations of the postal service. These instructions should cover 
 such features of the service as the delivery of the mails, the class- 
 ification of mail matter, the registry and money-order systems, 
 and particularly the proper addressing of letters and the impor- 
 tance of placing return cards on envelopes. Postmasters should 
 arrange, if possible, to deliver personal talks to the pupils on 
 these subjects and should give teachers access to the Postal Guide 
 and the Postal Laws and Regulations and render them every 
 assistance in securing information. 
 
 Numerous reasons presented themselves showing the necessity 
 for a systematic education of the public in the ordinary operations 
 and requirements of the postal service. The thousands of pieces 
 of mail matter received daily in the Division of Dead Letters 
 present a most vivid illustration of the necessity for having the 
 name and address of the sender appear on an envelope. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 211 
 
 but the government dispelled this sense of 
 isolation by sending its messenger of news daily 
 to 4,000,000 homes. The growth of the rural 
 service has been remarkable, for starting in 
 1897 with eighty-three carriers at an expense 
 of $15,000, it has grown to a service including 
 40,000 carriers, who carry mail over nearly a 
 million miles of road, at a cost of $35,000,000. 
 This service is conducted at an annual loss, 
 yet in view of the patronage of 18,000,000 
 people, the enrichment of life counts for more 
 than the nation's loss in dollars and cents. 
 Loss there is, but in order that this material 
 loss may be converted into income, the post- 
 master-general is pleading for the establish- 
 ment of a local parcels post, limited to the 
 rural routes, by means of which an income of 
 $15,000,000 per year would be earned.* 
 
 The carrying of parcels through the post 
 office is not a new thing, for it has long been 
 
 ♦The Postal Department issues excellent post route and rural 
 delivery maps. Many interests outside of the postal service 
 including other branches of the government, business firms, and 
 private individuals, make considerable use of the post-route maps 
 and the rural-delivery maps. These maps are furnished under the 
 statutory provision that authorizes the sale of copies at the cost of 
 printing and ten per cent, thereof added, the proceeds of such 
 sales to be used as a further appropriation for the preparation 
 and publication of the maps. 
 
212 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 in successful operation in most European 
 countries. The size of the parcel which can 
 be sent is indicated by the limit of weights, 
 allowed in the following countries : 
 
 Pounds Pounds 
 
 Great Britain ... 11 New Zealand 11 
 
 Germany 110 Austria 110 
 
 France 22 Belgium 132 
 
 Italy 11 The Netherlands . . 11 
 
 Chile 11 Cuba 11 
 
 The government report shows, that, **The 
 present rate on the general parcel post is 
 16 cents a pound for people in our own country, 
 the limit of weight being four pounds, while 
 the rate from the United States to twenty-nine 
 foreign countries is twelve cents a pound and 
 the limit of weight to twenty-four of these 
 countries is eleven pounds. In other words, 
 our own people must pay four cents a pound 
 more for the privilege of dispatching packages 
 to each other than when destined to residents 
 of a foreign country. A rate of twelve cents 
 a pound for packages forwarded through the 
 mails to post offices in the United States and 
 its possessions, subject to the same regula- 
 tions as exist at the present time, with the 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 213 
 
 exception of increasing the weight limit to 
 eleven pounds, has been recommended by 
 several of the postmasters-general, but as yet 
 it has not been established by Congress." 
 
 The English system, now twenty -five years 
 old, will no doubt prove a model for our Service 
 when authorized by Congress. ''Great Brit- 
 ain's parcels post has become one of the most 
 important and highly appreciated of the 
 postal features. Its growth has been con- 
 tinuous and phenomenal, and its scope has 
 frequently been broadened. There was an 
 early clamor for an agricultural parcels post. 
 The owners of small farms in remote localities 
 wanted it. The growers of spring flowers in 
 Kerry, said it would enable them to compete 
 with the south of France and the Scilly Isles. 
 Eventually the agricultural parcels post was 
 authorized and also spacious dimensions for 
 packages. Flower-growers can now send full 
 length orchid spikes and long stemmed roses 
 by post, where formerly only simple blooms 
 were admissible. The produce of the cultur- 
 ists goes forward to London and other big 
 English cities in tremendous volume. Fresh 
 fish, dispatched from seaport towns to the 
 
214 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 large hotels, are delivered with celerity. Meats, 
 cheese, fruits, vegetables, and freshly laid 
 eggs in mail packages under the eleven pound 
 limit form a very considerable factor in the 
 commerce of the kingdom. 
 
 "The big retail stores of London avail them- 
 selves extensively of the parcels service for 
 delivery of goods. The rates, ranging from 
 six to twenty-two cents, are not prohibitive. 
 In many cases the government service is 
 cheaper and quicker. Laundries return wash- 
 ing by parcels post. In Germany, where the 
 rates are even cheaper, lads away at school 
 send their soiled linen home by mail to be 
 washed, and it is returned to them by the 
 same conveyance. 
 
 "Many curiosities, as well as staple articles 
 of trade and foodstuffs, are carried in British 
 parcels. A live baby, it is said, was posted 
 in London not long ago and promptly delivered 
 at its destination." 
 
 In pleading for his pet measure, the post- 
 master-general claims that an extension of 
 parcels posts in the United States would be 
 enormously facilitated, by the prevalence of 
 telephones. Farmers and culturists now have 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 215 
 
 them the country over. Telephone wires 
 have followed in the wake of the rural free 
 delivery wagon. The postage is now too 
 expensive and the limit of the package too 
 small ; but instead of a four pound package for 
 sixteen cents, let there be an eleven pound 
 package for twenty-five cents and the rural 
 routes will do a rushing business. Rural 
 patrons will telephone to town for many of 
 the things they want — for hardware, groceries, 
 and dry goods — and in turn will be mailing 
 to town, butter, cheese, eggs, and vegetables. 
 If this parcels post is so useful and essential 
 to the enrichment of the life of the people, 
 then why does not Congress order its estab- 
 lishment? Postmaster-General Wanamaker, 
 who first urged the establishment of the parcels 
 post, summed up the situation epigramatically 
 in his one hundred reasons for and only four 
 reasons against it; those four being the 
 express companies. Permission to carry 
 articles above four pounds weight at their 
 own rate has meant millions of dollars to these 
 companies. Inasmuch as there is a lobby at 
 Washington, the people are not as yet bene- 
 fited by the parcels post. But if the parcels 
 
«16 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 post cannot be universally established, why 
 not at least establish it in the rural communi- 
 ties. This was the thought of the President 
 of the United States in his message, communi- 
 cated to the two Houses of Congress at the 
 beginning of the second session of the Sixtieth 
 Congress. 
 
 "In my last annual message, I commended 
 the postmaster-generars recommendation for 
 an extension of the parcels post on the rural 
 routes. The establishment of a local parcels 
 post on rural routes would be to the mutual 
 benefit of the farmer and the country store- 
 keeper, and it is desirable that the routes, 
 serving more than 18,000,000 people, should 
 be utilized to the fullest practicable extent. 
 An amendment was proposed in the senate at 
 the last session, at the suggestion of the post- 
 master-general, providing that, for the pur- 
 pose of ascertaining the practicability of estab- 
 lishing a special local parcels post system on 
 the rural routes throughout the United States, 
 the postmaster-general be authorized and 
 directed' to experiment and report to the Con- 
 gress the result of such experiment by estab- 
 lishing a special local parcels post system on 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 217 
 
 rural delivery routes in not to exceed four 
 counties in the United States for packages of 
 fourth-class matter originating on a rural 
 route or at the distributing post office for de- 
 livery by rural carriers. It would seem only 
 proper that such an experiment should be tried 
 in order to demonstrate the practicability of 
 the proposition, especially as the postmaster- 
 general estimates that the revenue derived 
 from the operation of such a system on all the 
 rural routes would amount to many million 
 dollars." 
 
 The postmaster-general further urges that 
 this system be at once put into use, for while 
 adding appreciably to the postal revenues, it 
 will also directly and vitally benefit every man, 
 woman, and child within reach of a rural route. 
 The countryman would have the necessities 
 of life delivered at his gate at an average cost 
 of two cents a pound, and consumption there- 
 by would be facilitated and increased, aug- 
 menting the trade of thousands of country 
 merchants. Every component part of our 
 commercial system would feel the effects of an 
 increased prosperity. It would inevitably 
 tend toward the improvement of the roads. 
 
218 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Better roads and improved postal facilities 
 in the rural districts, would result in increased 
 values of farm lands. The rural service as 
 now organized has accomplished something in 
 this direction; its enlargement will add to the 
 good attained. 
 
 Sometimes a vision is better than argument. 
 In December, 1907, The Outlook published an 
 article by James L. Cowles, purporting to be a 
 statement made to a delegation from the 
 Chinese government in 1912, showing how 
 the United States government manages the 
 entire business of public transportation and 
 transmission within our National Territory. 
 Speaking of the actual condition in 1912, he 
 says : 
 
 "The United States rural mail service now 
 covers all the local traflSc within a rural route, 
 and provides for a regular interchange of 
 persons, produce, and ordinary mail matter, 
 morning and afternoon, between the different 
 routes and the outside world. The new serv- 
 ice furnishes organized transport facilities 
 for the education of the children and for the 
 occupation and recreation of the whole popu- 
 lation outside their homes. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 219 
 
 "The national government guarantees the 
 dweller in the remotest cabin on a rural route 
 that, up to the limits of the general postal 
 service, he shall be on a par as to the cost of 
 the transportation of his supplies and his 
 produce with the biggest corporation in our 
 greatest metropolis; as to his local business, 
 the government provides him with the best 
 possible machinery for the transport of him- 
 self, his family, his supplies, and his produce, 
 to and fro, within the limits of his rural route, 
 at a cost so low as to stimulate him to the 
 uttermost use of his powers. Under this 
 stimulus the special characteristics which 
 differentiate men and places from one another 
 are rapidly discovering themselves, and now 
 industries are in process of creation on our 
 rural routes that promise to be exceedingly 
 profitable to the whole country. Where, 
 under the old conditions, there was hopeless 
 stagnation, there is now joyous, vigorous life. 
 The service pays its way, and at the same time 
 adds hundreds of millions a year to the wealth 
 of the rural public. 
 
 **0n the average twenty -four mile route 
 there were originally but 125 families, about 
 
220 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 600 persons. The population, however, is 
 rapidly increasing. The actual cost to the 
 average rural family is considerably less than 
 sixteen cents per day. 
 
 "No trip of a person or a parcel is over 
 twelve miles; the trip of a child to a primary 
 school is not over three miles; to a graded 
 school not over six miles. 
 
 "Every family has its telephone, and goods 
 ordered from a city two hundred miles away 
 of an afternoon are delivered the next day, 
 in some cases by the morning delivery. So 
 too, milk, butter, eggs, chickens, squabs, etc., 
 ordered by a city family or store two hundred 
 miles away from a rural family of a morning, 
 are delivered before noon the next day; for 
 we have a city postal service, the counterpart 
 of the rural service." 
 
 While this is but the vision of a dreamer, who 
 will say that it is not well within the range of 
 possibility.^ 
 
 Another movement toward bringing the 
 post office up to its highest efficiency is that 
 for the establishment of postal savings banks 
 or depositories in connection with post offices. 
 
 The following facts from a report of the 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 221 
 
 postmaster-general, show that the Department 
 desires the estabhshment of these banks for 
 the good of all the people. It has been esti- 
 mated, he says, that altogether fully half a 
 billion dollars which is not today placed in any 
 bank, due to want of opportunity or lack of 
 confidence, might be brought back into cir- 
 culation through the agency of the postal 
 savings banks. 
 
 In Japan the total amount of deposits in 
 postal savings banks is about $46,000,000, an 
 average of $5.77 to each depositor. This 
 money would not in all probability have found 
 its way into the channels of trade but for the 
 establishment of such banks. 
 
 As an evidence of the demand for postal sav- 
 ings banks, we have reports from postmasters 
 that they have been compelled to refuse to 
 accept deposits offered by foreigners for safe- 
 keeping, and also that our own people have 
 bought postal money orders during the last 
 year, payable to themselves to the extent of 
 $8,104,447, on which amount fees of $25,000 
 were paid. 
 
 A bill was recently passed by Congress 
 establishing postal savings banks in the United 
 
222 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 States. Although the amendments will lessen 
 the efficiency of the original bill yet the friends 
 of this movement regard its passage as a very 
 great victory. 
 
 The postmaster-general urged the adoption 
 of this bill because he believed that postal 
 savings banks would foster thrift and increase 
 the habit of saving in many states and locali- 
 ties where opportunities for depositing savings 
 do not now exist, and would in the end serve 
 as feeders to the regular stock and mutual 
 savings banks, where greater returns would be 
 received. Thus they would be a real benefit 
 not only to the people, but also to existing 
 financial institutions. Practically all the lead- 
 ing nations have postal savings banks in suc- 
 cessful operation. No one can justly say they 
 are not needed in the United States, with its 
 vast sections unequipped with facilities for 
 the deposit of savings, while the experience of 
 Canada gives reason for belief that they can be 
 managed successfully in the United States. 
 
 This bill was fought in Congress by the 
 banking interests of the country, but the suc- 
 cess of the postal savings banks in Great 
 Britain and elsewhere answers the objections 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 223 
 
 made by the special advocates of the present 
 system. These banks have exerted a wonder- 
 ful influence in promoting thrift and saving on 
 the part of the poor. A writer in describing 
 the postal banks of England, writes : 
 
 "Englishmen who in the old time were in the 
 habit of spending a goodly portion of their 
 earnings at the public house of a Saturday 
 night, have in thousands upon thousands of 
 instances been induced to set aside part of 
 their earnings for deposit in the government 
 savings banks. Soon they had accumulated 
 quite a little nest-egg, and were then encour- 
 aged to put away more and more, and often 
 all the money that formerly had been spent 
 in the public-house found its way into the 
 government savings banks. Children were 
 led to deposit their little money, instead of 
 spending it as before on candy, etc. So in 
 various ways England became a nation of 
 depositors; thrift was encouraged and hope 
 fed; for the family which had a few govern- 
 ment consols to its credit and the prescribed 
 limit in cash in the government depository, 
 had a great load lifted from its heart. The 
 former ever-present dread of sudden sickness. 
 
224 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 death and the potter's field has been lifted in 
 the case of a vast army of Englishmen, who 
 under no circumstances would have deposited 
 their money in private institutions." 
 
 In a prospectus issued by the government 
 for the use of the Filipino, it is claimed that 
 in a country like the Philippine Islands it 
 would be very difficult and costly to provide a 
 separate, suitable, and convenient place in 
 which savings could be deposited by the 
 people generally. For this reason the govern- 
 ment has provided for placing savings banks 
 in the most widely distributed offices in the 
 islands — namely, the post offices, and the 
 banks are therefore known as postal savings 
 banks. These banks have been established 
 in the provincial capitols and will be extended 
 to other post offices as rapidly as seems de- 
 sirable. In this way the largest number of 
 people can be reached with the least expense. 
 
 The government of the Philippine Islands 
 guarantees to return to the depositor all sums 
 of money placed in the postal savings banks in 
 accordance with the rules and regulations for 
 the guidance of depositors, together with 
 interest thereon at the rate of two and one- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 225 
 
 half per cent, per annum as provided by law. 
 There is absolutely no danger of loss as there 
 sometimes is in the case of private institutions. 
 The government advises the Filipinos that they 
 can deposit their savings, be they large or 
 small, in these savings banks with the absolute 
 assurance of getting them again when they are 
 needed. It will be no longer necessary to 
 hide their money in the ground or about the 
 house or place it in the hands of a friend for 
 safe-keeping. There is great danger of loss in 
 trying to keep money in any of these ways, 
 but there is not the least danger of loss if they 
 place it in the postal savings bank. Moreover, 
 money hidden away for safe-keeping yields 
 no income, while money laid away in the 
 postal savings bank is working for them night 
 and day at the rate of two and one-half per 
 cent, per annum. 
 
 The reasons given why the Filipinos should 
 save their money and place it in the postal 
 banks might well be applied at home were the 
 opportunity for saving given to the poor people 
 of the mainland, as it is given to the islanders. 
 If a man consumes all his earnings, says our 
 great nation, it will be impossible for him ever 
 
226 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 to rise above his present station in life. Not 
 only is this true but in times of adversity he 
 will have no means of preventing a fall to a 
 still lower level, so that a failure to save in- 
 evitably leads a person on the downward road 
 toward destitution, want, and suffering. 
 
 The first penny saved, however, is a step 
 toward better things. It means that the 
 consumption of something useless or unneces- 
 sary has been abandoned and the money 
 saved for the purpose of buying something 
 necessary in the future. Man has been said to 
 be but a "bundle of wants." Success in life 
 consists in subordinating the lower of these 
 wants to the higher. 
 
 Every person should have some definite 
 idea about his own future, should know what 
 he wants to make of himself, and should make 
 the expenditure of his earnings contribute 
 directly to the attainment of that end rather 
 than let it become a mere unorganized drib- 
 bling away of mone3^ The greatest tempta- 
 tion to the careless expenditure of money lies 
 in the satisfaction of the wants of the moment 
 which are too often the result of our impulsive 
 and emotional nature, and as a general thing 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 227 
 
 unessential to the accomplishment of a higher 
 purpose, being in fact often debasing in their 
 nature. The curbing of such wants gives 
 courage and strength to character, lends 
 dignity and self-respect to one's life, as well as 
 results in the saving of money with which one 
 can in the future take advantage of those 
 opportunities which so often present them- 
 selves at every man's door. By such advice 
 as this, the government is seeking to encourage 
 thrift among the Filipinos. 
 
 In order to facilitate the deposit of small 
 savings there are issued by the Bureau of 
 Posts, postal savings bank stamps in denomi- 
 nations of five, ten, and twenty centavos. 
 These stamps will be sold at every postal 
 savings bank in the Philippine Islands. 
 
 Postal savings bank stamps, when purchased 
 are to be pasted on cards which will be sup- 
 plied free to those buying stamps. Five 
 centavo stamps must be placed on cards 
 arranged with twenty blank spaces, ten cen- 
 tavo stamps on cards with ten blank spaces, 
 and twenty centavo stamps on cards with five 
 blank spaces. 
 
 When the blank spaces on a card are pasted 
 
228 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 full with appropriate stamps, the card may be 
 deposited at any postal savings bank as though 
 it were a Philippine dollar. 
 
 Since the occupation of the islands, the 
 government has constructed, maintained, and 
 successfully operated cable telegraph lines 
 connecting all of the principal places and 
 islands. 
 
 If the government of the United States can 
 successfully own and operate public utilities 
 in the insular possessions, why does it not do 
 the same thing in the States where the need is 
 even greater.^ Telegraph and postal banks in 
 the Philippines, railroad and steamship lines 
 on the Isthmus, are but so many reasons why 
 public utilities should be operated in the 
 interest of all the people, rather than for the 
 aggrandizement of the few. Our Insular pos- 
 sessions may prove to be fine experiment 
 stations in sociology. 
 
 That our government is in social service is 
 illustrated on the Isthmus of Panama in the 
 care which they take for the health and com- 
 fort of all the laborers. Thousands of bright, 
 educated young men have taken positions on 
 the Isthmus and their lives would have been 
 
O 
 
 ^y ^ 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY ^29 
 
 desolate and the temptations great had not the 
 nation given attention to the social side of the 
 work. The description of the government 
 club house is of interest. 
 
 To add to the happiness and welfare of the 
 men employed by the United States govern- 
 ment in the construction of the Panama Canal, 
 there have been erected, equipped and placed 
 under the management of the Young Men's 
 Christian Association, four magnificent com- 
 mission club houses. These are located at 
 Cristobal, Gorgona, Empire and Culebra. 
 
 These club houses were erected by the 
 government, for the use of all white, gold 
 employees, and for non-employees upon elec- 
 tion to membership. The buildings are uni- 
 form in size and are described as containing a 
 reception lobby with library, secretary's ofiice, 
 soda fountain, phonograph and easy chairs. 
 A billiard and pool room with five tables, good 
 light and ventilation, enthusiastic players, 
 and first-class equipment give continuous 
 popularity. A reading room with a reference 
 library and a hundred leading magazines and 
 newspapers selected to satisfy the taste of all 
 classes of readers from all parts of the States, 
 
230 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 makes life seem more home-like to those who 
 are far from friends and former associates. 
 In the rear of the main building, connected by 
 wide verandas, are the bowling alleys. Here 
 men can bowl to their heart's content on alleys 
 seldom excelled in the States. In this annex 
 are found shower baths and lavatories. The 
 second floor of the main building provides a 
 committee room, small game room and a 
 large hall used for local and imported enter- 
 tainments, Sunday meetings, and social func- 
 tions, given both by association members and 
 outside organizations. A stereopticon, moving 
 picture machine and piano are features of the 
 equipment. This hall is used also for the 
 regular gymnasium work, indoor athletic meets 
 and such games as basket, volley and indoor 
 base ball. The library in each club house con- 
 tains about six hundred volumes, carefully 
 selected, chiefly of fiction, history, travel, 
 science, poetry and biography. Some of the 
 latest and best books are being added to the 
 library each month. 
 
 *Authority also has been given by the 
 Panama Commission to construct a number of 
 
 *Summarized from the report of the Panama CommiBsion. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 231 
 
 suitable buildings to accommodate properly 
 those who wish to attend religious services. 
 Where necessity seems to require, the erection 
 of two storied buildings is contemplated; the 
 upper floors to be fitted up as lodge rooms for 
 orders and societies already existing or which 
 may later be formed among the employees, 
 while the first floors will be used for religious 
 purposes. The Commission maintains a corps 
 of chaplains whose duties consist in holding 
 religious services at the various towns in the 
 Canal Zone, making daily visits to Commission 
 hospitals, and performing such other duties 
 connected with their calling as may be re- 
 quested. Practically every religious denomi- 
 nation is now represented on the Isthmus by 
 these chaplains. 
 
 A university club has been organized in the 
 city of Panama, which provides suitable table 
 board and assembly rooms for its members, 
 while in addition to the recreation halls and 
 university club, the employees themselves 
 have established clubs of various kinds, fra- 
 ternal orders, and athletic associations, in 
 various places along the line of the canal. 
 There have also been established a number of 
 
232 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 women's clubs in the various towns along the 
 canal route. 
 
 In its bearing on the enrichment of life, the 
 good roads movement is equal in importance to 
 the conservation of national resources, recla- 
 mation of arid lands, and the national water- 
 ways. Not until recently did the general 
 public awaken to the fact that the common 
 roads of a country were a disgrace, and a 
 hindrance to civilization. Like their ancestors 
 the people were willing to drag through mud 
 and sand and dust without thought that there 
 was an alternative. 
 
 The rapid settlement of the country in 
 widely scattered communities made road build- 
 ing in the new west a heavy burden, so that the 
 people welcomed the advent of the railroad as 
 it lessened the need for common highways. 
 The demand for better roads came not from 
 the farmer and the country merchant who 
 suffered most, but from a new class of travelers 
 on the king's highway. The bicycle rider, the 
 automobile owner, and the driver on the rural 
 delivery route, these woke up and took notice. 
 Decades ago, the great Sumner in the United 
 States Senate declared that the schoolmaster 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 233 
 
 and good roads were the most important 
 agencies in the advancement of civiHzation. 
 This must have been the faith of the fathers of 
 the nation also, for they encouraged the build- 
 ing of the little red schoolhouse at every 
 crossroads, and as early as 1802 Congress gave 
 attention to road building by adding to the bill 
 admitting Ohio to the Union, a provision set- 
 ting aside five per cent of the net proceeds 
 from the sale of public lands in that state for 
 building roads from the navigable waters of 
 the Atlantic coast to and through the State 
 of Ohio, two per cent to be available for roads 
 without the state and three per cent for those 
 within. "The first expenditure from this 
 fund was made in 1806, when the construction 
 of the so-called Cumberland road was begun. 
 ^Subsequent appropriations swelled the 
 amount expended upon this famous road to 
 over seven millions of dollars. Starting at 
 Cumberland, Maryland, it ran westerly over 
 the AUeghanies, across the Ohio River at 
 Wheeling, and on through the states of Ohio, 
 Indiana, and Illinois nearly to St. Louis. 
 
 *From report of James W. Abbott of the Office of Public Roads 
 Inquiry. 
 
234 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 It was constructed in the most substantial 
 manner, in accordance with the highest Euro- 
 pean standards of that time, and w as the best 
 road of such length ever built in a direct line 
 between two points anywhere in the world." 
 
 Congress established similar funds from the 
 sales of public lands in Louisiana, Indiana, 
 Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, and 
 Iowa. Besides the Cumberland road, or 
 "National Pike," as it was often called. Con- 
 gress planned for twelve other great national 
 highways, which were laid out and partially 
 built in the southern and western states and 
 territories. These various roads were de- 
 signed to be the arteries of a fairly complete 
 system of intercommunication, in the regions 
 which they traversed, according to the ge- 
 ography of those days. 
 
 The great financial panic of 1837 compelled 
 a restriction in government expenditure, and 
 for sixteen years thereafter few appropriations 
 were made for road construction. The policy 
 was resumed in 1854, and up to the beginning 
 of the Civil War further sums, aggregating 
 about $1,600,000 were thus expended. By 
 this time the railroad had effectually displaced 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 235 
 
 the common highway in public attention, and 
 for more than forty years the government 
 paid no attention to the construction of roads. 
 It was the bicycle which caused the revival 
 of interest in good highways for the nation. 
 The League of American Wheelmen under the 
 initials of L. A. W. will long be remembered 
 as initiators of this splendid movement. 
 Through their paper. Good Roads, a na- 
 tional convention was called to meet in 
 Chicago, 1892, at which time the National 
 League for good roads was formed. This 
 organization succeeded in inducing Congress 
 in the following year to establish the office of 
 Public Roads Inquiries, as a branch of the 
 Agricultural Department. The act made it 
 possible for the secretary to make inquiries re- 
 garding the systems of road management 
 throughout the United States, to make in- 
 vestigations regarding the best methods of 
 road-making, to prepare publications on this 
 subject suitable for distribution, and it also 
 enabled him to assist the Agricultural colleges 
 and experiment stations in disseminating 
 information on this subject. 
 
 Through this medium, now known as the 
 
236 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Office of Public Roads, a road census of the 
 world is now being taken. This aims to 
 gather all the information of highways that 
 the people of the world possess. The search 
 will extend to every country and island, 
 leaving no knowledge unfound concerning 
 the building and maintaining the world's 
 highways. Careful men will gather all books, 
 maps and descriptions obtainable and send 
 them to Washington. The director is able to 
 secure through the Department of State, the 
 services of all consuls and consular agents in 
 gathering this information. This army of 
 helpers will be augumented by 2,500 road 
 correspondents, representing nearly every 
 county in the United States. Such a census 
 will be of great value to all interested in good 
 roads. 
 
 Director Page of the Public Roads office and 
 the national forester have arranged to work 
 together in the interest of the Forest Service. 
 This agreement provides for the planning and 
 laying out of a marvelous system of roads and 
 trails through the forests, up and down the 
 sides of mountains, and along the very crests 
 and ridges of the great western hills. The 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 237 
 
 Office of Good Roads is co-operating closely 
 with the Reclamation Bureau in determining 
 the character of the roads of the "farm unit 
 cities" under the great reservoirs, that they 
 may not only be good roads but as long-lived 
 as the roads of ancient Rome. 
 
 The rural route carrier, when he finds his 
 road so impassable that he cannot deliver 
 his letters with regularity, reports the fact 
 to the director of Public Roads. This official 
 then sends instructions to the local officials 
 informing them that on request an expert 
 engineer will be detailed at government ex- 
 pense to advise them about the repair or 
 construction of a proper road. He may, if 
 desired, direct the work until the method is 
 understood by the local roadmaster. 
 
 The increasing use of motor cars has not 
 only hastened the destruction of existing roads, 
 but it has also increased the demand for dust- 
 free, mudless highways. "The heavy rubber- 
 tired automobile moving at a high rate of 
 speed produces a partial vacuum behind 
 each wheel which sucks up the dust from the 
 road surface and throws it into the air to be 
 carried oflf by the wind. This action soon 
 
238 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 strips the macadam road of all fine material, 
 the result being that it soon disintegrates." 
 Roads that have cost the public millions of 
 dollars are now being blown as dust into 
 adjoining fields. Thus macadam roads are 
 becoming almost as impassable as the mud 
 roads of the back country. That this is a 
 great loss is shown by the report which says 
 that "poor roads make high freight rates. 
 High rates mean an added burden to the 
 consumer. The average cost of hauling over 
 the 2,155,000 miles of country highways of 
 this country is twenty-five cents a ton mile. . . 
 For hauling over the roads of France, Germany 
 and England, the cost ranges from seven cents 
 for the incomparable national routes of France 
 to thirteen for the worst roads in England. 
 A generous average is twelve cents. The 
 difference is the mud, rut, and hill climbing 
 tax imposed upon all Americans, but first 
 against the farmers." This means a loss, 
 through bad roads, of a billion dollars a year, 
 enough, if saved, to meet the expense of our 
 general government. 
 
 How is this nation to secure roads equal to 
 the best highways of the world .^ In the first 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 239 
 
 place by co-operation. A writer in Appletori's 
 Magazine shows the failure of the old method 
 of "working out the road tax," under the 
 labor system. 
 
 "It has been estimated that the 'labor 
 system' of caring for the roads caused a waste 
 of $10,000,000,000 during the last century. 
 The work was done under the supervision of 
 salaried officials chosen by the voters. These 
 men were usually ignorant of the most ele- 
 mentary principles of road building, and the 
 elections tended to place the most incompetent 
 men in charge. The official who compelled 
 his neighbors to contribute the full value of 
 their tax in the form of labor, was certain to 
 prove unpopular, and in the next election such 
 a man would usually be replaced by some rival, 
 who was willing to permit the work to be done 
 in a slovenly and inefficient manner. Rota- 
 tion in office prevented any road official from 
 learning much about road improvement and 
 maintenance, and the most incompetent offi- 
 cials were likely to remain longest in office. 
 Every taxpayer tried to do as little as he could 
 on the days when he was working out his tax, 
 which was measured in days of work instead of 
 
240 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 in accomplishment. Thus the *labor system' 
 directly encouraged incompetence and shirk- 
 ing." 
 
 Co-operation can be carried on in four ways : 
 Cities and villages building their streets and 
 boulevards according to a definite plan; 
 model county systems; state aid and super- 
 vision ; and national aid and instruction. 
 
 According to the suggestion of the Secretary 
 of Agriculture, the roads of a county should be 
 built according to a pre-determined and unified 
 system, based upon a most careful investiga- 
 tion of materials, amount of traffic, revenue 
 available, methods of construction adapted to 
 local needs, organization and administration, 
 and all factors entering directly or indirectly 
 into the road work. A plan was inaugurated 
 during the past year whereby the most com- 
 petent engineers of the Office of Public Roads 
 were assigned, upon request of county authori- 
 ties, to make such an investigation and to 
 prepare for the future use of the county road 
 authorities an exhaustive and detailed report 
 with plans, estimates, and recommendations 
 indicating the location of all materials, and 
 advising which should be used, indicating the 
 
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THE BETTER COUNTRY Ul 
 
 roads that should be improved and the method 
 and cost of improvement suggested, needed 
 changes in organization and in methods of 
 administration, and in short affording a guide 
 for future county road work. This method 
 was carried out last year in Los Angeles 
 County, California, and on the strength of 
 the report of the expert, the people voted 
 $3,500,000 in order to build a most perfect 
 system of highways throughout the entire 
 county. State aid and supervision of public 
 roads is gaining every year. New York has 
 voted to spend $50,000,000 in ten years in 
 building 7,500 miles of macadam road. The 
 counties and towns to spend an equal amount, 
 the town fifteen per cent, and the county 
 thirty-five per cent. Pennsylvania has au- 
 thorized the expenditure of $6,000,000 in six 
 years with an additional $1,500,000 from 
 towns and counties. State aid, state co- 
 operation or supervision in construction of 
 good roads is found in nineteen other states, 
 A writer in Collier's sums up the good results 
 of this movement for better roads: 
 
 "To the farmer these roads mean that he 
 can drive with triple the load that his horses 
 
242 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 drew before, and that, at any season of the 
 year, under good maintenance; that he will 
 save in wear and tear and time two-thirds the 
 cost of his wagon transportation; that he will 
 gain in social comforts, in facilities for the 
 education of his children, in ease of contact 
 with the rest of the world through free mail 
 delivery, and in other ways that will enhance 
 the attractiveness and opportunities of his 
 life. To the driver of horses or automobiles 
 for pleasure they will mean a boom that 
 should add greatly to the popularity of road 
 travel in the Empire State. Amendments to 
 the various laws relating to highways have 
 given to the state engineer such control over 
 the maintenance of the roads improved with 
 state money that much better results are 
 assured in keeping them in condition than was 
 possible under the old system of go-as-you- 
 please, with all authority in the hands of 
 untrained highway commissioners and road 
 overseers." 
 
 There is a strong movement toward national 
 aid for road building, one suggestion being 
 that the nation spend $8,000,000 for three 
 years to be divided among the states according 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY MS 
 
 to population, no state, county or town receiv- 
 ing any help except as they contribute an 
 equal amount, the aim being not wholly to 
 build the roads, but to stimulate the people 
 locally to build better roads. This is a small 
 amount for the nation to spend in comparison 
 with France, which alone spent $350,000,000 
 in road improvement within an area less than 
 the size of Texas. 
 
 It is fortunate for this nation that the 
 framers of the Constitution inserted the clause, 
 "to promote the general welfare," thus making 
 it possible for the nation to do more of the 
 things that are necessary for the good of all 
 the people. 
 
 Our central government is actually building 
 roads, on the national reservations, and recla- 
 mation projects, and in the parks and forests, 
 and it is also teaching over one hundred com- 
 munities in all parts of the country by giving 
 them a piece of road as an object lesson. 
 Whenever a request is made, an expert en- 
 gineer, foreman and machine operator are sent 
 from Washington. 
 
 The chemists of the Department make labo- 
 ratory tests of material, and a short piece of 
 road is built in a thoroughly scientific manner. 
 
244 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 These object lesson roads serve to teach local 
 officers proper methods of building and also 
 stimulate public sentiment in favor of good 
 roads, so that the money needed for their 
 construction is forthcoming in the community. 
 More than this, in order to prepare engineers 
 for county and city work, the Department 
 accepts students for one year's training, thus 
 helping to spread the nation's ideals as to good 
 roads. 
 
 A department of work which has naturally 
 fallen under the federal administrative system 
 is that of the weather bureau. "The weather 
 for tomorrow" is of more than passing interest, 
 for on accurate forecasts of storms depends the 
 success or failure of shipping and harvest. It 
 is estimated that the system of storm signals 
 on the Atlantic coast saves $3,000,000 annually 
 in preventing wrecks or disasters. The fore- 
 cast of a cold wave during one winter, it is 
 estimated, saved shipping of perishable mer- 
 chandise valued at nearly four million dollars. 
 The record of temperature through a series of 
 years is of great service to those who are con- 
 sidering the planting of trees and crops, which 
 are drought or cold resistant. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 245 
 
 The director reports that, at the central 
 oflSce of the Weather Bureau in Washington, 
 D. C, is kept a collection of slides, from which 
 loans are made to station officials when they 
 desire to give illustrated lectures of a public 
 nature. Many such lectures are given to 
 teachers at summer institutes, normal schools, 
 colleges, or public gatherings, and have proved 
 very popular. 
 
 The health and comfort of school children 
 demand constant consideration, continues the 
 report of the Weather Bureau, and the daily 
 forecasts are carefully considered in school 
 administration. During, or on the approach 
 of, inclement weather it is common for school 
 superintendents to consult the weather fore- 
 casts and warnings or to telephone to the local 
 office of the Weather Bureau for advice in 
 planning to dismiss the school for the day or 
 prepare for a double session. In the larger 
 cities especially the schools are all connected 
 by telephone and arrangements can either be 
 quickly made for a double session upon the 
 advice of the local forecaster, or the schools 
 can be dismissed. In the rural districts the 
 farmers' telephone lines place the warnings 
 
246 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 of heavy snow, blizzards, cold waves, etc., at 
 the disposal of the country school quickly and 
 without expense, since the forecasts are in 
 most instances distributed free to their pat- 
 rons by the telephone companies . The j anitor, 
 too, watches the forecasts closely so that he 
 may not be taken unawares by rapid changes 
 in temperature and thus let the rooms become 
 too cold or too warm for the health and com- 
 fort of the pupils. He needs also to take 
 account of the conditions of rain or snow in 
 planning his work. Sometimes it becomes 
 advisable to close the schools entirely upon 
 receipt of Weather Bureau information. Thus 
 on the western prairies the schools may be 
 closed when a blizzard is expected; in New 
 England or elsewhere, when heavy snow is on 
 the way; in the far south, when snow sets in 
 to continue until the ground is covered, so 
 that the children may join with their parents 
 in frolicking and enjoying to the utmost the 
 unusual pleasure. In the fruit district of 
 California, where thousands of tons of raisins, 
 apricots, prunes, etc., are dried outdoors in the 
 sun, the schools are closed upon receipt of a 
 rain warning, in order that the children may at 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY £47 
 
 once be put to work covering up the trays of 
 fruit to prevent loss. 
 
 Modern methods of teaching in the public 
 schools provide an important place for weather 
 study the local officials granting liberal use 
 of the publications of the Weather Bureau. 
 During the school year a million or more 
 children of the public schools make weather 
 observations and study the daily weather 
 maps and forecasts. 
 
 In order to ^'promote the general weljare^^ 
 President Roosevelt, while in the executive 
 office, appointed a commission to investigate 
 country life, and to learn what was necessary 
 to promote the new social life of the farm, that 
 in the rural homes there might be found the 
 comforts and luxuries for the lack of which the 
 young people have forsaken the farm for the 
 pleasanter life of the city. In his message, he 
 said: 
 
 **It is especially important that whatever 
 will serve to prepare country children for life 
 on the farm and whatever will brighten home 
 life in the country and make it richer and more 
 attractive for mothers, wives, and daughters 
 of farmers should be done promptly, thor- 
 
248 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 oughly, and gladly. There is no more im- 
 portant person, measured in influence upon 
 the life of the nation, than the farmer's wife, 
 no more important home than the country 
 home, and it is of national importance to do 
 the best we can for both . . 
 
 "The farmers have hitherto had less than 
 their full share of public attention along the 
 lines of business and social life. There is too 
 much belief among all our people that the 
 prizes of life lie away from the farm. I am 
 therefore anxious to bring before the people 
 of the United States the question of securing 
 better business and better living on the farm, 
 whether by co-operation between farmers for 
 buying, selling, and borrowing, by promoting 
 social advantages and opportunities in the 
 country, or by any other legitimate means 
 that will help to make country life more 
 gainful, more attractive and fuller of oppor- 
 tunities, pleasures, and rewards for the men, 
 women, and children of the farms." 
 
 In transmitting the report of the Country 
 Life Commission to Congress, President Roose- 
 velt recommended three methods for uplift 
 of the countryside: 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 249 
 
 "First, effective co-operation among farmers 
 to put them on a level with the organized 
 interests with which they do business. 
 
 "Second, a new kind of schools in the coun- 
 try, which shall teach the children as much 
 outdoors as indoors, and perhaps more, so 
 that they will prepare for country life, and not 
 as at present, mainly for life in town. 
 
 "Third, better means of communication, 
 including good roads and a parcels post, 
 which the country people are everywhere and 
 rightly unanimous in demanding." 
 
 While the report of the Country Life Com- 
 mission has centered the thought of the 
 nation upon the needs of the country home, 
 yet the enrichment of life for the farmer has 
 been in progress for many years. The use of 
 water power and electricity applied to ma- 
 chinery, saves drudging and gives time for 
 thought. Rural delivery, telephones, and 
 trolleys keep the farmer in close touch with the 
 world. The consolidated school unites in one 
 the little red school-houses of the sparsely 
 settled regions, and the Union High gives the 
 boy and girl a better education than can be 
 
«50 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 obtained in the different environment of the 
 city. Good roads make for neighborliness. 
 Traveling libraries and short courses for 
 farmers and their wives bring culture and 
 refinement to otherwise barren lives. The 
 farmers' bulletins, sent so freely by the govern- 
 ment to every country home are not alone 
 useful to the man behind the plow, but 
 through them the nutrition experts teach the 
 woman in the kitchen the nutritive value of 
 all foods and the method of preparation which 
 will produce the greatest food values for body 
 and brain. In fact, while this nation under 
 its Secretary of Agriculture has done much for 
 the farmer, it has in no wise overlooked the 
 farmer's wife or his children, and yet rural life 
 must be still further organized and enriched. 
 In order that one part of our nation may not 
 receive more than another, has not the time 
 come for a benevolent president to appoint a 
 commission on the uplift of city life, especially 
 as it applies to that part of the city where 
 economic injustice is met by charity or the 
 prison.'^ Federal inspection and publicity 
 might arouse a thoughtless public in the 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 251 
 
 demand voiced by Dr. Devine for **sound 
 heredity, protected childhood, a prolonged 
 working age, freedom from preventable dis- 
 ease and from professional crime, indemnity 
 against the economic losses occasioned by 
 death, accident, illness and compulsory idle- 
 ness, rational education, normal standards of 
 living, and a social religion." 
 
 The signs of the times point not only to a 
 national awakening along the lines of social 
 uplift, but also to a determined effort on the 
 part of the nation itself, in bringing about 
 better social conditions as a prophecy of what 
 the government will do when the XJnited 
 States Civil Service is increased by the crea- 
 tion of many more social professions. Notice 
 how the Retirement Association provides for 
 the care of the employees in the government 
 who might be injured by accident or worn out 
 in service. While the insurance benefits of 
 this mutual association go only to members, 
 still the agitation which it carries on for uni- 
 versal pension will soon bring about the enact- 
 ment of an equitable law providing for 
 retirement of the superannuated and disabled 
 
252 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 in the service of the government. This will 
 make employment under the Civil Service far 
 more attractive than it is today. 
 
 A great nation like this cannot boast of its 
 greatness alone in terms of billions made or 
 millions saved, but also in greater results made 
 evident through the enrichment of the life 
 of all of its citizens. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 In the Life Saving Business 
 
 The saving of human life placed in jeopardy 
 has always won the praise of lovers of their 
 fellowmen. The world applauds a hero. The 
 story of what our nation has done in saving 
 life through the heroes of the surf, the men in 
 the Life Saving Service, is recorded in twenty- 
 seven volumes of greater interest than any 
 fiction, for these records tell of brave men who 
 through dark, stormy nights patrol the bleak, 
 inhospitable coasts, ever alert for shipwreck or 
 stranded mariner. 
 
 It was in 1837 that an immigrant bark went 
 ashore on Hampstead Beach, Long Island, 
 the residents of the neighborhood being able to 
 rescue but eight persons from the crowded 
 ship. Although this incident aroused intense 
 interest throughout the nation, it was not till 
 ten years later that the matter of life saving 
 was brought to the attention of Congress. 
 The first appropriation was only $5,000, but 
 as the years went by this amount was steadily 
 increased, new and better equipment was se- 
 
254 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 cured, and yet until the old political spoils 
 system was overthrown in 1876, the Service 
 was too often made the dumping ground for 
 men appointed without merit by local poli- 
 ticians. Since that date the Service has 
 become really non-partisan and thoroughly 
 trained men have been employed whose sole 
 work is to save life. Mere figures as to the 
 number of lives saved from a frightful death 
 can never tell the story of the surfmen's labors 
 with lifeboat or breaches-buoy, for his work 
 is not the sailing of a pleasure craft on a sum- 
 mer sea, but the pushing of a heavy boat 
 through breakers, often thickly filled with 
 mush ice, in the teeth of a gale, to reach an 
 ice-coated ship pounding dangerously upon 
 the rocks. Scores of trips must be taken 
 before the last survivor is landed safely on 
 shore. The care of the nearly drowned calls 
 for as great knowledge and tenderness, as the 
 working of the breaches-buoy and the man- 
 ning of the life boat call for courage. 
 
 The government is actually in the business 
 of saving life and when we consider the value 
 of a human soul, we must judge it to be an 
 honorable business. It is well to notice that 
 life saving is not confined to one bureau of the 
 
 yiia , V 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 255 
 
 government. Attention is now being given 
 to the rescue of men after the great mine 
 disasters and the even more important work of 
 safe-guarding the mines, thus preventing the 
 disastrous loss of life and limb. A report by 
 the Geological Survey states that in no coun- 
 try in the world are the natural conditions so 
 favorable for the safe extraction of coal as in 
 the United States, and that in spite of this 
 fact the number of lives lost* per one thousand 
 
 *The number of persons killed in coal mines per 1,000 employed 
 in the United States, as compared with the number killed in 
 Great Britain, Belgium and France according to government 
 report: 
 
 United Great 
 
 Year States Britain Belgium France 
 
 1893 2.53 1.55 
 
 1894 2.48 1.60 
 
 1895 2.67 1.49 1.40 
 
 1896 2.79 1.48 1.16 
 
 1897 2.34 1.34 1.03 
 
 1898 2.59 1.28 1.04 
 
 1899 2.98 1.26 .97 
 
 1900 3.24 1.30 1.05 
 
 1901 3.24 1.36 1.16 1.03 
 
 1902 3.49 1.24 1.07 .96 
 
 1903 3.14 1.27 1.04 .86 
 
 1904 3.38 1.24 .93 .89 
 
 1905 3.53 1.35 .91 .84 
 
 1906 3.40 1.29 ,94 
 
 1907 4.86 
 
 United States average death rate for 15 years is 3.11 
 
 for every 1,()00 employed. 
 Great Britain's average death rate for 14 years is 1 .36 
 
 for every 1,000 employed. 
 Belgium's average death rate for 12 years is 1 .06 
 
 for every 1,000 employed. 
 France's average death rate for 5 years is .91 
 
 for every 1,000 employed. 
 
^56 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 men employed is far higher than in any other 
 coal-producing country, and further the num- 
 ber of lives lost per million tons of coal pro- 
 duced is exceeded by only one other country. 
 Unless energetic means are taken to counter- 
 act this prevailing tendency not only will the 
 death rate in proportion to men employed and 
 tons produced increase as it has done in the 
 last few years, but it will increase at a much 
 more rapid rate. 
 
 With the depletion of the thicker and more 
 favorably mined seams of coal, thinner and 
 less regular seams must be worked. This 
 factor will undoubtedly be of the greatest 
 importance within a comparatively few years, 
 and the natural result would be, to greatly 
 increase the death rate. The rising price of 
 timber will have the effect of decreasing the 
 number of wooden props used in mining, and 
 probably will increase the chance of accidents 
 from falls of roof and coal. Another impor- 
 tant factor in the mines of the United States is 
 to be found in the nationality of the miners. 
 Most of the men are foreign born, a large pro- 
 portion of them are unable to understand 
 EngUsh readily, and a still larger number are 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 257 
 
 unable to read or write that language. Some 
 of them are inexperienced and do not take 
 proper precautions either for their own safety, 
 or for the safety of others. This ignorance 
 and neglect become a most serious menace 
 unless they are restrained by carefully en- 
 forced regulations. 
 
 With the mining of the smaller beds of coal 
 and the gradual development of properties 
 worked with more difficulty, mining conditions 
 in the United States will more nearly assume a 
 position of equality with those abroad, and a 
 great increase in the number of accidents 
 must be expected unless proper steps are taken 
 to remove the causes that have brought about 
 the present remarkably high death rate in the 
 coal mines of the United States. 
 
 As a natural result of President Roosevelt's 
 Conservation Congresses, the thought is now 
 turned to the conservation of American men. 
 Said Mr. John Mitchell, at the Governors* 
 Conference: 
 
 "In our mad rush for spoils and profits we 
 not only waste and destroy those material 
 resources with which God has so bountifully 
 endowed us, but we press forward in the race, 
 
258 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 sacrificing unnecessarily the lives and the 
 comfort of our fellow-beings. It seems to me 
 that the time has come when we should stop 
 for a moment and think — not alone of those 
 inanimate things that make for comfort and 
 prosperity, but also of the men, and the 
 women, and the children, whose toil and de- 
 privation have made and will continue to 
 make our country and our people the most 
 progressive and the most intelligent of all the 
 nations and of all the peoples of the earth." 
 
 Men have been considered by employers of 
 labors as cheaper than machinery and less 
 attention has been paid to the human animal 
 than to the draft horse or the mule in the mine. 
 The government through the Technologic 
 Branch is saying that this waste of life must 
 cease. To this end the nation has set aside 
 $150,000 to open and operate a great experi- 
 ment station on the grounds of the arsenal at 
 Pittsburg where a rescue corps will demon- 
 strate for the instruction of mine workers how 
 it is possible to penetrate into mines where 
 explosions have occurred, despite the deadly 
 gases liberated by the explosion, and to bring 
 forth the men who have been entombed 
 within. 
 

THE BETTER COUNTRY 259 
 
 This station is described as having a large 
 room fitted up so as to represent the difficult 
 passages in a mine after an explosion. All 
 sorts of narrow holes are provided through 
 which the rescuers have to wriggle and 
 passages choked with loose coal over which the 
 corps members work their way. Dummies 
 weighing two hundred pounds each are strewn 
 about and are brought forth as rapidly as 
 efficiency in the rescue work will permit. 
 Helmets, very similar to those used by divers, 
 into which air is supplied from oxygen tanks 
 are strapped upon the backs of the men. The 
 men remain in this airtight room filled with 
 deadly gases for periods of two hours each and 
 work hard without experiencing any bad 
 effects from the poisonous atmosphere about 
 them. 
 
 In actual work after mine explosions the 
 use of the oxygen apparatus carried by the 
 rescuers has made it possible to administer air 
 to miners who have been asphyxiated, and to 
 remove them to the outside before life was 
 extinct. The work carried on at these ex- 
 periment stations by the United States gov- 
 ernment is not for the purpose of supplying a 
 
860 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 corps of trained rescuers for general service 
 in the mines, but merely to teach the mine 
 owners and the mine workers how they may 
 themselves organize an effective corps for every 
 mine and thus reduce to a minimum the fatali- 
 ties that have heretofore attended all explo- 
 sions. As a result of this government 
 experimentation, four stations for the train- 
 ing of miners in rescue work have been 
 established recently by the big coal companies 
 and several more are in contemplation. 
 
 The Survey hopes not only to be able to 
 continue this good work, but greatly to extend 
 its influence. Speaking of the need for future 
 work, the director of the Branch urges that, the 
 testing of explosives purchased by the Isth- 
 mian Canal Commission, Reclamation Service, 
 etc., should be continued without intermission 
 as a protection against possible loss of life due 
 to handling unsafe explosives, and to protect 
 the government against the purchase of 
 inferior or dangerous material. Also that the 
 investigations within mines should be con- 
 tinued in order that the condition and char- 
 acter of the workings in each mine may be 
 definitely known from day to day and from 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 261 
 
 year to year, so that causes of disasters may 
 be more readily and intelligently ascertained. 
 
 He further urges that the establishment of 
 sub-rescue stations in each of the coal mining 
 fields should be pushed with vigor so that types 
 and methods of use of the various rescue 
 apparatus may be demonstrated in all of the 
 coal mines, and that the mine owners may be 
 encouraged to provide themselves with such 
 necessary modern adjuncts to the protection 
 of the lives of their miners. In undertaking 
 this experiment in life saving, the government 
 has made a good start in the work of prevent- 
 ing unnecessary accident and death, yet it is 
 but a beginning. 
 
 After the people have educated their con- 
 gressmen and shown them beyond a doubt that 
 it pays to save human life, then perhaps they 
 will appropriate not only $150,000 for this 
 purpose but a million and a half annually. 
 By an expenditure of that amount they could 
 save $35,000,000 each year, as certain of the 
 most conservative of the Old World insurance 
 companies place a cash value of $10,000 on a 
 human being. If the 3,500 men who lost 
 their lives in the coal mines of this land during 
 
262 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 the past year could have been saved, surely 
 that amount could be placed to the credit of 
 the nation. Some day we are going to become 
 as enthusiastic in the saving of life as we have 
 hitherto been reckless in its destruction. 
 
 As prevention is always better than cure, 
 that which makes commerce and industry safe 
 is of great value. Under the head of pre- 
 vention falls the work of the Coast and Geo- 
 detic Survey and that of the Lighthouse 
 Board. The scope of the Survey includes the 
 charting of the coasts under the jurisdiction 
 of the United States, and also the Pacific 
 Coast from San Diego to Panama.* Because 
 of this it is possible for mariners to avoid all 
 rocks and shoals and bars and know without 
 doubt the safe course into every harbor. 
 
 •LAW PERTAINING TO THE COAST AND GEODETIC 
 SURVEY. 
 
 (As modified by act of February 14, 1903. ) 
 
 The President is authorized to cause a survey to be taken of 
 the coasts of the United States, in which shall be designated the 
 islands and shoals, with the roads or places of anchorage, within 
 twenty leagues of any part of the shores of the United States; 
 and also the respective courses and distances between the princi- 
 pal capes or headlands, together with such other matters as he 
 may deem proper for completing an accurate chart of every part 
 of the coasts. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 263 
 
 Once found out by the scientific work of the 
 Coast Survey, it falls to the lot of the Light- 
 house Board to maintain such warnings as will 
 guarantee safety to the commerce of the sea. 
 These consist of lighthouse and beacon lights, 
 light ships, gas-lighted buoys, fog signals, 
 post lights, unlighted day beacons, whistling 
 buoys, and bell buoys, to the number of 
 nearly 10,000 separate signals. 
 
 Starting with eight lighthouses established 
 by the Maritime Colonies and accepted by 
 the federal government in 1789, this nation 
 has marched to the commanding position of 
 being in proportion to her coast line, "the 
 most perfectly protected country in the world. 
 The enormous coast line of the United States 
 and the difficult character of her inland waters, 
 the great rivers and the great lakes, makes a 
 service which demands every variety and kind 
 of light, of buoy, of day beacon, and of noise- 
 producing apparatus. The whole and main 
 idea of coast illumination is to provide lights 
 at such intervals that the lights shall overlap, 
 and a ship be unable to sail beyond the range 
 of one, along the coast, without coming within 
 reach of another. That there may be no 
 
264 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 dark spots in which a ship may be lost is the 
 whole end and aim of the Lighthouse Estab- 
 lishment as far as the seacoast is concerned."* 
 
 The world will never know how many ships 
 have been saved from the rocks and how many 
 human beings have escaped a watery grave 
 because of the signals which, night and day, 
 give warning to all mariners, but that un- 
 certainty is true of all preventive measures, so 
 that one actual rescue may be heralded more 
 widely than the adoption of a measure which 
 may prevent a holocaust. 
 
 The Steamboat Inspection Service has much 
 to its credit in preventing disaster. As far 
 back as 1838 Congress organized this Service, 
 providing for the better security of the lives 
 of passengers on board vessels propelled in 
 whole or in part by steam. In 1871, the pro- 
 motion of the security of life on such vessels 
 
 *The Lighthouse Board has adopted a type of acetylene light 
 for the coast of Alaska and eleven gas lighted beacons will be 
 installed at points along the "inside passage" in southwestern 
 Alaska. 
 
 Each light will burn without the care of a keeper or any 
 other attention for a period of six months, at the end of which 
 time the supply of gas-producing material may be replenished 
 readily by the visit of a lighthouse tender or other vessel. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 265 
 
 was extended to the crews and officers as well 
 as to the passengers. By inspection of hulls 
 and boilers, signal lights, names and numbers, 
 by deciding on the number of passengers to 
 be carried, and in many other ways the nation 
 saves men from possible disaster resulting from 
 the greed or ignorance or incompetence of the 
 owners, pilots, or masters of all steamships. 
 The rescue of imperiled lives is spectacular 
 as well as humane, whether by lifeline to a 
 ship pounding on the rocks, or by the oxygen 
 helmet, saving the asphyxiated miner from the 
 coal mine. Necessary as this may be, we are 
 as a nation beginning to applaud that work 
 which is now being undertaken, the object of 
 which is the prevention of disease. Health 
 is a national asset, and everything which aids 
 in preservation of health adds that much to 
 the wealth and happiness of a nation. Em- 
 phasizing the importance of life and health 
 to a nation, the National Conservation Com- 
 mission went on record in saying that "at 
 every stage in the growth of our country, 
 strong men grew stronger, through the exercise 
 of nation building, and their intelligence and 
 patriotism grew with their strength. The 
 
266 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 spirit and vigor of our people are the chief 
 glory of the republic. Yet, even as we have 
 neglected our natural resources, so have we 
 been thoughtless of life and health. Too long 
 have we overlooked that grandest of our 
 resources, human life. Natural resources are 
 of no avail without men and women to develop 
 them, and only a strong and sound citizenship 
 can make a nation permanently great. We 
 cannot too soon enter on the duty of conserving 
 our chief source of strength by the prevention 
 of disease and the prolongation of life. 
 
 ** Waste reduced and resources saved are the 
 first but not the last object of conservation. 
 The natural resources have an additional 
 value when their preservation adds to the 
 beauty and habitability of the land. Ours is a 
 pleasant land in which to dwell. To increase 
 its beauty and augment its fitness cannot but 
 multiply our pleasure in it and strengthen 
 the bonds of our attachment. 
 
 "In the conservation of all the resources of 
 the country the interest of the present and all 
 future generations is concerned, and in this 
 great work, involving the welfare of the 
 citizens, the family, the community, the state. 
 
 A&ii4''' 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 267 
 
 and the nation, our dual system of government, 
 state and federal, should be brought into 
 harmonious co-operation and collaboration." 
 Interest in the preservation of health 
 is ever widening. At the beginning of the 
 last century health was an individual matter. 
 The family doctor was the only health oflacer 
 for his limited circle of patients, and the poor 
 received but little attention, but the individu- 
 alistic treatment of disease proved as great a 
 failure as individualism in industry. Co- 
 operation is necessary to success in either 
 case. Health boards in the larger cities 
 gradually undertook the supervision of the 
 health of the cities, especially as it concerned 
 prophylactic measures and the handling of 
 contagious diseases. The existence of disease 
 is more profitable to the physician than its 
 dissipation, and yet in general it may be said 
 of this profession that the doctors have been 
 as zealous in the discovery and application of 
 preventives as they have been in the use of 
 curative measures. Invariably they have 
 worked with the boards of health, in introduc- 
 ing ordinances, enforcing laws and in educating 
 the public in matters pertaining to health. 
 
268 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 To the municipality naturally **falls the task 
 of providing for its citizens clean air, clean 
 water, clean food, clean streets, clean houses, 
 and protection from infectious disease. This 
 implies abolition of the smoke nuisance, the 
 closing of sewers, prompt removal of garbage, 
 adequate cleaning of streets, enforcement of 
 ordinances against spitting, maintenance of 
 an absolutely pure water-supply, inspection 
 of meat, milk, and other foods, enactment and 
 enforcement of strict building laws, publica- 
 tion and isolation of infectious disease, support 
 of bacteriological laboratories, distribution 
 and administration of anti-toxin and vaccine, 
 free medical service, and, above all, regular 
 inspection and free treatment for the children 
 in the public schools. 
 
 "Modern educators appreciate that because 
 of the responsible position occupied by them, 
 it is their duty carefully to guard the body as 
 well as the mind of the youthful generation 
 entrusted to their charge, as the origin of 
 many of the most distressing diseases can be 
 traced to the school life of the sufferer." 
 
 The state of California has recently passed a 
 Health and Development Law which, if strictly 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 269 
 
 carried out through the public schools, will 
 greatly aid in producing not only a healthy 
 generation but also men and women fully 
 developed in mind and body. Each city now 
 vies with every other in reducing the death 
 and the morbidity rate, but this effort takes 
 money and thus it becomes necessary for a 
 constant campaign of education in order to 
 secure the necessary funds. Sometimes it 
 takes an epidemic to make the people willing 
 to spend large sums of money for the public 
 health. The necessity for pure water is leading 
 many cities to make large expenditures for 
 water supply. Notable among these is Los 
 Angeles, California, which is now spending 
 $23,000,000 in order to bring to the city the 
 clear, pure water of the high Sierras in a 
 covered aqueduct 217 miles long. 
 
 There are many health problems which are 
 far wider than the city. Recognizing this 
 fact, every state has organized a state board 
 of health, the first being organized in Massa- 
 chusetts in 1869. 
 
 "What public provisions for sanitary work 
 had been made before this time in any state, 
 were of a temporary character, to meet 
 
270 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 special emergencies. Such had been the case 
 at one time when the city of New Orleans was 
 protected by quarantine against an invasion 
 of yellow fever. This and a few other ex- 
 amples may perhaps be regarded as early 
 indications of the coming of state medicine, 
 and as having had something to do in prepar- 
 ing the way. The Massachusetts board was 
 the first in the country so established and 
 equipped as to be able to do such general 
 good work, as to secure for itself a high and 
 permanent place in the public service. As 
 now seen, this early service was useful in an 
 important way, by furnishing object lessons 
 in practical sanitation to other states and 
 communities at home and abroad." 
 
 Thus came in the era of state preventive 
 medicine, a special study being made by 
 each state as to the primal causes of all dis- 
 ease with the object of preventing it. In 
 addition to the state sanitary work, the boards 
 are beginning to give attention to conserva- 
 tion of the vital resources of the nation by 
 seeing that they are not sapped at the root 
 through child labor and the industrial employ- 
 ment of prospective and nursing mothers, or 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 271 
 
 wasted by the subjection of its adult citizens 
 to extreme hours of labor or bad conditions 
 in mine, shop, or factory. 
 
 Co-operating with the city, state and nation, 
 there are a number of great institutions 
 founded by men and women of wealth, where 
 original investigations are carried on for the 
 purpose of finding the cause and cure of specific 
 diseases, such as the Henry Phipps Institute 
 for the study, treatment, and prevention of 
 tuberculosis; the Rockefeller Institute for 
 Medical Research, where a serum has been 
 discovered for the successful treatment of 
 spinal meningitis, and the McCormick In- 
 stitute for the study of infectious diseases. 
 The insurance companies have united in an 
 effort to secure the preservation and prolonga- 
 tion of human life — an effort actuated by 
 selfish motives, it is true, yet an effort which 
 points to great success when all the nation is 
 at work in the same endeavor. 
 
 Disease knows no state bounds, it is nation- 
 wide, it is even an international question. 
 While a national health department is inevi-: 
 table, the fear of a loss of states' rights and an 
 increase of paternalism has retarded the 
 
27« THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 necessary assumption of watchful care over 
 national health. 
 
 The work of the nation in life saving has 
 been an evolution, being greatly increased 
 within the past decade. The general public 
 now readily concedes that, '*The function of 
 the national government is to prevent the 
 importation of disease, through strict quar- 
 antine at all ports of entry, and the transfer 
 of disease from one state to another, through 
 strict supervision of all inter-state carriers; 
 to disseminate information on every point 
 pertaining to the vitality of the people; and to 
 collect and tabulate vital statistics." 
 
 But as yet few realize the great extent of 
 the work for public health which is now being 
 carried on in the great research laboratories, 
 or the extent of the preventive work in Porto 
 Rico, Panama, Guam, Hawaii, and the Philip- 
 pines, or of the number of workers, equal to an 
 army of men, now employed in national 
 hospitals as scientists and experts on sanitary 
 commissions and international research, on 
 sanitary corps and mosquito brigades, all for 
 the purpose of blotting out disease and bring- 
 ing about normal life and health. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 273' 
 
 Professor Irving Fisher estimates in terms 
 of money that the United States c ould save 
 annually one billion dollars now lost through 
 deaths that need not occur, and at least half a 
 billion through sickness that could easily be 
 prevented, which added to losses from minor 
 diseases would bring the sum to the amount 
 claimed by another expert, showing that every 
 seven years we waste enough through sickness 
 and death "to pay for the Panama canal, to 
 duplicate the army and navy, to deepen the 
 inland waterways, to double our shipping and 
 commerce, to pay our national debt, to abolish 
 taxes, and to put a billion-dollar surplus in the 
 national treasury." 
 
 This is surely of such moment that the 
 nation will respond to the greater demands of 
 the time. Our Agricultural Department re- 
 sponds quickly when there is an epidemic 
 among cattle or hogs. Recently much money 
 was spent in investigating and checking the 
 ravages of the disease among horses and cattle 
 caused by eating the loco weed. An equally 
 quick response on the part of the government 
 is hoped for in combating all disease affecting 
 the human race. This is the more important 
 
274 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 as shown by Prof. Fisher when he contends 
 that, "Both the length and the strength of 
 man's life are dependent upon definitive con- 
 ditions, and these conditions are within the 
 power of man to control." 
 
 **In the sixteenth century," says a writer, 
 in quoting this report, "the average length of 
 human life in European countries was between 
 eighteen and twenty years. Today, it is 
 between forty and fifty years. During the 
 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when 
 hygiene and sanitary science had not yet been 
 born, the rate of increase was about four years 
 per century. During the first half of the 
 nineteenth century, when those sciences were 
 taking their first uncertain steps, the rate of 
 increase was extended to nine years per cent- 
 ury. During the latter half of the nineteenth 
 century, when they had attained a fairly 
 robust growth, the rate of increase practically 
 doubled. At the present time, in Germany, 
 where hygiene and sanitation have been 
 highly developed and wisely applied, the rate 
 of increase is twenty-seven years per century; 
 while in India, where practically nothing has 
 I been done along these lines, there has been 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 275 
 
 no increase at all. In the world at large 
 man's life has lengthened and his death-rate 
 has fallen." 
 
 If life can be lengthened as is claimed on an 
 average of eight years by the use of pure water, 
 pure milk, and pure air, throughout the land, 
 has not the question of health and sanitation 
 attained a position of vast importance in the 
 nation.^ 
 
 In his report to the Second Reclamation 
 Congress on Sanitary Regulations governing 
 construction camps, Mr. M. O. Leighton, 
 says: 
 
 "Sanitation, according to the popular idea, 
 is a science which has no pecuniary utility — 
 that is, the purposes are entirely humanitarian 
 and have little or no relation to money values. 
 This idea is erroneous. There are phases of 
 the sanitary question which are quite as im- 
 portant from the financial as they are from 
 the purely social standpoint. Almost no- 
 where is this better exemplified than in 
 connection with great construction camps. 
 
 "The physical condition of the laborer is 
 the measure of his day's work. Whether his 
 occupation be active or sedentary, his 
 
276 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 achievements are finally controlled and limited 
 by his relation to physical ills. The difference 
 between the achievements of a person in good 
 and in poor physical condition is a matter of 
 common observation. When this difference 
 applies to a whole community its total is 
 increased in direct ratio to the number of 
 persons, and in a camp of several hundred 
 workmen it becomes a serious item. It may 
 represent the difference between success and 
 failure in the completion of a piece of work 
 within a specified period, in the character of 
 the work, or in its permanence after comple- 
 tion. 
 
 "It is only a step from the poor physical 
 condition that is responsible for indifferent 
 labor, to the acute illness during which all 
 productive labor ceases. A general epidemic 
 of acute disease in a construction camp is 
 disastrous. Disease rather than engineering 
 difficulties has been the cause of absolute 
 failure in certain great projects. The earlier 
 attempt at the construction of the Panama 
 Canal is a notable instance. In short, sanita- 
 tion is one of the vital necessities in construc- 
 tion camps." 
 
 )/iM 
 
 mm. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 277 
 
 So important is the question of health to 
 the efficiency of the force that not only the 
 ordinary precautions are taken in all govern- 
 ment construction work, but the following 
 clause is incorporated into the specifications 
 of each contract advertised under the Recla- 
 mation Law. 
 
 "The use and sale of intoxicating liquor will 
 be absolutely prohibited on the work except 
 under the direction and supervision of the 
 engineer in charge, or his agent, and then only 
 for medicinal purposes." 
 
 The story of what has been done by the 
 government must be told in order rightly to 
 judge of the extent to which our government 
 has gone in the matter of life saving. 
 
 The Navy Department has its bureau of 
 medicine and surgery under a surgeon-general. 
 This bureau maintains a large medical corps 
 assisted by a hospital corps and women nurses, 
 whose duty is to maintain the highest health 
 efficiency possible among both naval officers 
 and men afloat and ashore. Special attention 
 is given to the study of disease common to 
 tropical countries with reference to guarding 
 the health of the navy while sailing or 
 
278 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 stationed in tropical lands. The medical 
 oflBcers are able to be useful to local oflScials in 
 Porto Rico, Hawaii, Guam and Samoa, and 
 the Philippines. The naval hospitals at home 
 and abroad are not only houses of healing, but 
 laboratories for research as well, demonstrating 
 that the naval establishment is not for killing 
 men only, but is maintained also in the interest 
 of human life and health. 
 
 "Just as public opinion is throwing its 
 weight in the balance toward the cause of 
 universal amity and is guiding the action of 
 representatives in the great peace movement," 
 says the surgeon-general, "so this same potent 
 influence is being irresistibly felt in humani- 
 tarian and health movements, and is determin- 
 ing the progress of the world in all that makes 
 for the physical, mental, and moral uplift of 
 mankind." 
 
 The health of the United States army is 
 looked after by its medical department, and 
 like that of the navy it concerns itself with 
 more far-reaching questions than the handling 
 of disease among the soldiers, for it deals with 
 prophylaxis as well as with cure. Since the 
 Spanish War, attention has been especially 
 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 279 
 
 directed toward preventive measures, since 
 as a result of this war there was a great in- 
 crease in malaria and yellow fever, tuberculo- 
 sis, typhoid and venereal diseases, all of which 
 yield readily to preventive treatment. The 
 methods employed in combating these diseases 
 will be described later in discussing health 
 conditions in Porto Rico, Panama, and the 
 Philippines, as well as at home. 
 
 The medical department of the army main- 
 tains a board for the study of tropical diseases, 
 and the published results of their investiga- 
 tions are of great aid to all health boards in our 
 insular possessions. 
 
 But the greatest results in the increase of 
 national health are to be found in the Public 
 Health and Marine Hospital Service, the 
 nucleus of the future department of health 
 and education. Surgeon-General Walter Wy- 
 man, at the head of this splendid service, 
 attached to the Treasury Department, tells 
 of the splendid work done in the interest of 
 life saving. In 1798, Congress passed an act 
 for the relief of sick and disabled seamen, thus 
 establishing the Marine Hospital Service. 
 Duties of a public health nature were gradu- 
 
280 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 ally added until in 1902, the name was changed 
 to the present one **The Public Health and 
 Marine Hospital Service." For the perform- 
 ance of the duties of the Service, the personnel 
 numbers 118 commissioned medical officers, 
 three special scientists in the Hygienic Labo- 
 ratory, ^55 acting assistant surgeons, 47 
 pharmacists, and 851 employees. 
 
 While the men of the Life Saving Service, 
 the lighthouse establishment, the army and 
 navy are guarding and protecting our coasts 
 from foreign invasion, these heroes of the 
 microscope are prolonging and protecting 
 human life by a constant warfare on germs 
 and microbes which might otherwise come 
 swarming in from Europe, Asia, and the 
 tropical islands. These are men to be hon- 
 ored, and some of them should have their 
 names engraved in the Hall of Fame. 
 
 The work of the Service consists of maritime 
 and interstate quarantine, medical inspection 
 of immigrants, medical care and treatment 
 of sick and disabled seamen, medical assist- 
 ance to other branches of government, scien- 
 tific research in public health matters, sup- 
 pression of epidemics, the regulation of the 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 281 
 
 manufacture and sale of serums, antitoxins 
 and analogous products in interstate com- 
 merce, the collecting of morbidity statistics, 
 and sanitary information, and co-operation 
 with state boards of health. A broad field 
 of work, yet growing broader every year. 
 General Wyman reports that in the laboratory 
 of the Public Health Service, there is a corps 
 of men consisting of bacteriologists, patholo- 
 gists, zoologists, pharmacologists and chemists 
 constantly employed at research work having a 
 direct sanitary bearing. In addition it is 
 through this laboratory that the manufacture 
 and sale of viruses, serums, toxins and analo- 
 gous products are regulated. Institutions man- 
 ufacturing these articles, at the present time 
 so important in the treatment of the sick, are 
 inspected at frequent intervals, and the pro- 
 ducts themselves are bought in the open 
 market and examined for purity and strength. 
 Thus the consumer, who in this case is the 
 helpless sick, is protected, and the physician 
 can intelligently and with a feeling of security 
 prescribe an article of assured efficiency. 
 
 To this end standard units, official for the 
 United States, have been established for 
 
282 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 diphtheria, and tetanus antitoxin so that the 
 strength of all makes of these products sold in 
 interstate commerce is based on a common 
 standard and the labels on the package show 
 correctly and in known terms the therapeutic 
 efficiency of the contents. Previous to the 
 establishment of these standards far difiPerent 
 conditions existed. At this laboratory much 
 work has been done on public health subjects, 
 of which the following will give some idea of 
 the character: The cause of the prevalence of 
 typhoid fever in cities; the relation of milk to 
 the public health; the cause and effect of the 
 prevalence of hookworm disease in certain of 
 the southern states; the best methods of use 
 and relative efficiency of disinfectants and 
 germicides; the chemistry of milk in its re- 
 lation to infant feeding; the effects and 
 therapeutic uses of drugs; bacteriological 
 studies in connection with quarantine and 
 quarantinable diseases; studies in malaria, 
 yellow fever, Rocky Mountain fever, milk 
 sickness, and many other sanitary investi- 
 gations of a similar nature. Here also is 
 prepared the virus used in the prevention 
 and treatment of rabies. Persons living in 
 
o 
 
 O 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 283 
 
 the District of Columbia, bitten by rabid 
 animals, or those unable to come to Washing- 
 ton are treated upon request of local health 
 officers to whom also the therapeutic virus is 
 sent for treatment at a distance when asked 
 for. The service also maintains a leprosy 
 investigation station on the Island of Molokai 
 where this disease, of so much importance to 
 our island possessions, Hawaii and the Philip- 
 pines, is being studied, and where investiga- 
 tions will be continued until the best means 
 of treatment is found or a specific cure dis- 
 covered.* The facilities of this laboratory are 
 offered to municipal and state health offices as 
 well as offices of the corps, and of other 
 departments and of neighboring republics. 
 On request of states, trained officers are sent 
 to investigate and suppress epidemics, when 
 the local forces are unable to control the 
 situation. 
 
 The service maintains forty-three quaran- 
 tine stations along all the coasts and in the 
 Insular Possessions, "and vessels coming to 
 these ports from foreign countries are boarded 
 and inspected before entering the port, and 
 
 •From the Annual Report of the Service for 1908. 
 
284 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 if quarantinable disease is found on board, or 
 if they have come from an infected port with- 
 out having taken proper precautions, as 
 specified in the quarantine regulations, the 
 vessel is detained for observation, disinfected 
 or otherwise treated." 
 
 An important and interesting portion of the 
 quarantine administration, according to Gen- 
 eral Wyman, is the fruit-port inspection serv- 
 ice, medical officers being stationed in ten of 
 the principal fruit ports of Central and South 
 America, detailed by the President in the 
 offices of the American consuls, to insure such 
 care in the sanitation of the vessels as to war- 
 rant their admission at the southern ports of 
 the United States without detention, which 
 would destroy the fruit. The effect of these 
 officers in the fruit ports is most salutary, 
 greatly enhancing their sanitary condition. 
 
 In addition to the medical inspectors in 
 fruit ports there are medical officers at the 
 principal ports of Japan and China, one at 
 Calcutta and one at Naples. Besides their 
 quarantine duties these officers also examine 
 departing emigrants. 
 
 Bulletins of public health are issued weekly 
 
 ■^.... 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 285 
 
 and in addition to these, short bulletins are 
 sent to health officers and others whenever 
 requested. No more important work falls 
 to the Service than that of medical inspection 
 of immigrants, thus saving the introduction 
 into the country of many infectious and 
 contagious diseases. In addition to the in- 
 spection at Ellis Island, the Service maintains 
 large hospitals there for the treatment of the 
 sick among the newcomers. 
 
 The surgeon-general is required by law to 
 hold a sanitary conference at Washington of 
 the state boards of health. At the Fifth 
 Annual Conference there were twenty states 
 and the District of Columbia represented. 
 The transactions are printed in a separate 
 volume which may be obtained by applica- 
 tion. 
 
 International meetings relating to the public 
 health are occasionally held, such as the Third 
 International Sanitary Convention of Ameri- 
 can Republics held in the City of Mexico; the 
 International Congress on Tuberculosis held 
 in Washington, September, 1908, at which was 
 presented an exhibition relating to tuber- 
 culosis, prepared by the scientific bureaus of 
 
286 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 the several departments, and also the Inter- 
 national Congress of Hygiene and Demog- 
 raphy, meeting every three years — in Berlin in 
 1907 and at Washington by invitation of the 
 President in 1910. 
 
 The Service maintains twenty-one marine 
 hospitals and 123 marine hospital stations for 
 free treatment of sick and disabled sailors 
 together with a reservation at Fort Stanton 
 for the tubercular sailors. 
 
 The surgeon-general recommends in his 
 report the establishment of a school of 
 hygiene connected with hygienic laboratory of 
 the Service, to which accredited state and 
 municipal health officers might be assigned 
 for a well-defined course of research and 
 special instruction. The plan would include 
 the presentation of authorized diplomas, or 
 title of doctor of public health. Without 
 doubt the plan suggested would greatly 
 strengthen state and local health administra- 
 tion, and the cost to the service would be 
 insignificant. 
 
 This might include a special course, the 
 graduates from which would receive the title of 
 Doctor of Prophylaxis, for in the future there 
 
 i^fc^ 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 287 
 
 is sure to be a great demand for men trained 
 in the profession of preventive medicine. 
 
 The national government does not content 
 itself with collecting and publishing statistics 
 and information regarding the great national 
 diseases, but it is engaged in the actual work 
 of driving these fearful plagues from the land. 
 Should a foreign foe attempt to land on our 
 shores, a foe strong enough to slay 200,000 of 
 our citizens, it would be met by an armed force 
 of suflScient strength to repel it. Even 
 though this effort should call for the ex- 
 penditure of millions of dollars. Congress 
 could appropriate the money, for it has the 
 power, under the Constitution, "To provide 
 for the common defense and promote the 
 general welfare of the United States." Tuber- 
 culosis, "that captain of the hosts of death," 
 which is the cause of the world's greatest 
 mortality, lays a tax upon the nation to be 
 measured only in terms of billions of dollars. 
 As the right of defense against an armed force 
 is granted by the Constitution, then the 
 nation has the same right to war against 
 tuberculosis for this disease is indeed a foe, 
 inasmuch as it annually slays over 200,000 
 
288 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 citizens. This white plague can be combated 
 also under the general welfare clause of the 
 Constitution, for the general welfare of the 
 nation is wrapped up in the protection of the 
 lives and the health of its citizens, and in the 
 raising of all its people to their highest eco- 
 nomic efficiency. Because of the evident 
 truth of this statement, it is readily granted 
 that "the nation ought to be interested ag- 
 gressively in whatever tends unnecessarily to 
 handicap the economic value of the lives of its 
 people, and in whatever tends to vitiate and 
 deteriorate and to make less efficient the lives 
 of those who are the builders of the nation." 
 What this government has done to prevent 
 and cure tuberculosis among its soldiers and 
 sailors might be extended to the other needy 
 ones among its citizenship. For its soldiers 
 sick with tuberculosis, the medical depart- 
 ment of the army has arranged a sanatorium 
 on a tract of land six miles square at Fort 
 Bayard, New Mexico. The Naval Bureau 
 of Medicine has chosen Fort Lyon, Colorado, 
 for its sanatorium for the officers and men of 
 the navy. These locations are remote from 
 the evil influences of large cities, and when 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY £89 
 
 beautified will make homelike places, offering 
 many physical comforts to those who are 
 seeking health. 
 
 The Public Health and Marine Hospital 
 Service maintains a sanatorium for all con- 
 sumptive seamen, on a beautiful reservation at 
 Fort Stanton, New Mexico. Here the com- 
 manding officer has eliminated all spirituous 
 liquors from the materia medica of the sana- 
 torium. If the government can care so 
 thoughtfully and successfully for some of its 
 citizens, why can it not do so for other tuber- 
 culosis sick, segregating them and thus saving 
 many from possible infection. 
 
 The Interior Department operates another 
 reservation, given entirely to the cure of the 
 nation's sick at Hot Springs, Arkansas. Here 
 is situated the Army and Navy General 
 Hospital with over 700 patients treated an- 
 nually. While the water from these wonder- 
 ful medicinal springs is sold to a number of 
 private hotels, it is furnished without cost to 
 the hospital and to the free public bathhouse, 
 where the indigent sick from all over the land 
 can come to bathe in the healing waters. 
 Some seven hundred daily make use of this 
 bath house. 
 
290 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 ^Typhoid is another interstate, even inter- 
 national disease, for the source of contagion 
 may be across the state or national line, 
 therefore falling naturally under the care of 
 the nation. The government has undertaken 
 the education of the public as to the possi- 
 bility of the elimination of this disease by 
 showing it to be entirely preventable. The 
 campaign of education is now on and millions 
 of leaflets on prevention of disease are being 
 issued by the government and state boards 
 of health. Considering the deaths from pre- 
 ventable diseases, it has been estimated that 
 four hundred thousand of every million deaths 
 result from diseases which could easily have 
 been prevented had proper sanitary and hy- 
 gienic precautions been taken. 
 
 Inasmuch as typhoid fever is an easily pre- 
 ventable disease, it has been said, with truth, 
 that every case of typhoid fever is evidence of 
 almost criminal neglect on the part of someone. 
 
 The financial waste from this disease is 
 shown to be great, when an average state, like 
 Indiana, can report that typhoid fever costs the 
 
 ♦See Appen(Jix for description of typhoid and the method of 
 treatment. 
 
 lH 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 291 
 
 people within its boundaries over $5,000,000 
 annually. This waste is calculated upon lives 
 unnecessarily lost, time lost through sickness, 
 and costs of drugs, nurses, and doctors. 
 
 Through investigations carried on by the 
 government specialists, it has been shown that 
 typhoid is more than a water-borne disease, for 
 milk and flies are carriers and their investi- 
 gations have also shown that recovered pa- 
 tients may carry about with them the source 
 of contagion for many years. 
 
 "The human being distributes typhoid 
 bacilli during the disease, during convales- 
 cence, and frequently for years after as carrier 
 cases, and indeed some carrier cases seem 
 never to have had typhoid fever at all — it may 
 be that such cases have had the disease so 
 mildly as to be overlooked." This new dis- 
 covery demands post-typhoidal treatment in 
 all cases. 
 
 The milk supply is such a source of disease, 
 not alone of typhoid but of many infantile 
 troubles, that in the interest of the babies of 
 the nation, the government has joined with 
 states and municipalities in a campaign for 
 clean milk. It has also undertaken a strong 
 
292 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 campaign against the house fly, which it 
 names the ^'typhoid fly," although dysentery, 
 cholera morbus, tuberculosis, Asiatic cholera, 
 and certain infectious eye diseases, as well as 
 typhoid fever, are among the maladies known 
 to be distributed by the house fly.^ 
 
 Beyond question the house fly was mainly 
 accountable for the outbreaks of this deadly 
 disease in our military camps during the war 
 with Spain, in 1898. Every regiment devel- 
 oped typhoid within eight weeks after assemb- 
 ling in the encampments, and in every one of 
 the camps, in the north as well as in the south, 
 the malady became epidemic. One in every 
 five of our soldiers in the national encamp- 
 ments, during this war, developed the disease, 
 and of the total deaths more than eighty per 
 cent were caused by typhoid. It was the 
 flies that were mainly responsible. Had every 
 colonel rigorously enforced the simple sanitary 
 measure of making the soldiers use plenty of 
 dry earth in the sinks, the several hundred 
 
 *The government prints a pamphlet on household insects which 
 tells much about the house fly, as well as other pests. It is 
 Bulletin No. 4, new series, Department of Agriculture, Division 
 of Entomology, and can be had for the asking. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 293 
 
 deaths and several thousand cases of typhoid 
 might have been prevented. 
 
 Flies lay eggs in various kinds of filth, as for 
 instance, rotting meat or vegetables, but the 
 principal breeding place is the horse stable. 
 A fly will lay 120 eggs at one time. The eggs 
 hatch in a few hours, and the fly matures in 
 ten days. 
 
 The method for the prevention of the breed- 
 ing of flies is to keep a constant watch that no 
 filth is left exposed anywhere about the place, 
 and to clean out the horse stable thoroughly 
 every morning, putting the refuse in a covered 
 receptacle so constructed that newly hatched 
 flies cannot escape, and therefore die for lack 
 of water. 
 
 The health authorities of New York City 
 estimate that "the anti-fly work, when prop- 
 erly carried out, will reduce the typhoid 
 deaths in the metropolis from 650 to about 360 
 a year, and diarrheal deaths from 7,000 to 
 about 2,000. This saving of more than 5,000 
 lives per annum will be accompanied by an 
 additional saving of 50,000 cases of serious 
 sickness." 
 
 For some time foreign armies have used 
 
«94 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 vaccination as a means of immunizing against 
 typhoid. A board of medical experts have 
 reported favorably on the question of vaccina- 
 tion, and as a result this method will be used 
 by the medical corps of the army. This proves 
 to be a harmless way of gaining protection, 
 and is given as follows : 
 
 **A man receives a few drops of the prophy- 
 lactic material by means of a hypodermic in- 
 jection into the arm, and after a few hours he 
 will probably have a little fever or headache, 
 and a tender spot on the arm. It has, how- 
 ever, the great advantage over vaccination 
 against smallpox, that the tender spot on the 
 arm never becomes sore. It is, in fact, a 
 simple, clean, and harmless affair, and a mere 
 trifle compared to the danger of life, or the 
 long illness and expense of an attack of typhoid 
 fever." 
 
 If the government is warring against flies, 
 the battle is fiercer against mosquitoes. Ma- 
 laria and yellow fever have claimed their 
 victims by millions throughout the centuries, 
 and mankind seemed helpless before the 
 scourge. It was thought that malaria was 
 mal-aria — bad air — caused by miasmas rising 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 295 
 
 at night from swamps and bogs. Therefore, 
 it was believed that the people who lived in 
 such regions would surely have malaria or 
 ague. The yellow fever came, they knew not 
 how, and the people in a panic could only 
 fight it blindly, fearing the worst. The cause 
 of both of these diseases was found to be the 
 mosquito. 
 
 An English commission of doctors was sent, 
 to camp for a year in the deadly swamps of the 
 Pontine Marshes in Italy, a region always 
 noted for malaria. By protecting their faces 
 with veils, and their hands with gloves, and by 
 living in carefully screened camps, they were 
 able to avoid the bite of the mosquito, with the 
 result that not one of the commission became 
 infected with malaria. By many other similar 
 experiments, it was decided by scientists that 
 malaria is conveyed to human beings only 
 through the agency of the anopheles mosquito. 
 Mosquitoes become infected by biting persons 
 who are already affected with the disease. 
 Mosquitoes can be destroyed by removing 
 all stagnant water; by deepening ponds and 
 pools which cannot be drained or filled up, and 
 introducing fish; by clearing away obstructions 
 
296 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 and weeds from gutters and ditches to permit 
 of free escape for storm water; by destroying 
 the larvae with oil in situations where more 
 radical treatment cannot be applied; by 
 destroying adult mosquitoes which hibernate 
 in cellars, drains, cesspools, and other places 
 by the use of the smoke of burning insect 
 powder, and by brushing them out and con- 
 suming them by fire. 
 
 When the government carries out the plan 
 of draining the 80,000,000 acres of swamp 
 lands in the United States, it will not only 
 help in home making, but will go far towards 
 expelling malaria from the land. 
 
 If the anopheles mosquito comes laden with 
 the germ of malaria the stegomyia is more to be 
 feared, for the bite of the female may bring 
 the dreaded yellow fever. 
 
 The city of Havana for several centuries 
 was the yellow-fever pest-hole for infecting 
 North America; and every summer our south- 
 ern cities were in fear of this undesirable Cuban 
 importation. As soon as the Spaniards were 
 superseded by our army, Havana was cleansed 
 of its dirt and became a healthy city, except 
 that it still produced yellow fever. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 297 
 
 Then came that wonderful exhibition of 
 heroism by three young United States' army 
 surgeons. Samuel Hopkins Adams in a maga- 
 zine article, describes the work of these memo- 
 rable heroes: 
 
 "Reed, Carroll, and Lazear established near 
 Havana in 1900, an experiment station to test 
 on human subjects the mosquito theory sug- 
 gested by Finlay and earlier observers. Two 
 adjoining houses were selected, presenting 
 precisely the same conditions of hygiene, 
 sanitation and temperature, and in these 
 squads of Volunteers were domiciled. In one 
 was put the soiled sheets, pillows, blankets 
 from the hospital at Havana, in which yellow 
 fever patients had slept and died. This 
 dwelling was carefully screened to prevent the 
 entrance of mosquitoes. In the foul bedding 
 the volunteers slept for two months. Not one 
 case of yellow fever developed among them. 
 The other house was kept as clean as sanitary 
 science could make it. Everything used by the 
 men who volunteered for this part of the work 
 was sterilized. Into the room were intro- 
 duced specimens of the stegomyia mosquito, 
 which had bitten yellow fever patients. Of 
 
298 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 the occupants of this room, fifty per cent 
 developed yellow fever. Finally, men who 
 had lived unaflFected for twenty days amidst 
 the foul surroundings of the first establishment 
 allowed themselves to be bitten by the in- 
 fected mosquitoes, and seventy per cent of 
 them took the disease. No low order of 
 courage was required in those who submitted 
 to either test. Lazear died, a martyr to 
 humanity, and is remembered by one where 
 the lesser heroes of our Cuban battlefields 
 are acclaimed by thousands. Carroll barely 
 escaped with his life, and Reed shrinking from 
 no peril which his companions braved, came 
 through unscathed by virtue of some natural 
 immunity, only to die of another illness in the 
 following year. At the price of martyrdom 
 for several men (for some of the volunteers 
 died ) of patience and peril and suffering for 
 the others, it was proved in the utmost detail 
 that only through the bite of an infected 
 mosquito does yellow fever attack the human 
 subject; that the fever-bearing insect itself 
 becomes infected only by biting a patient in 
 the first five days of disease; and that 
 not until twelve days thereafter can the insect 
 
 Ih- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 299 
 
 transmit the infection. Reduced to its prac- 
 tical terms, this means that yellow fever can 
 exist only where the stegomyia breeds." 
 
 This being proven, the sanitary superin- 
 tendent of Havana, Col. W. C. Gorgas, de- 
 stroyed the mosquitoes and drove out yellow 
 fever. Later the battle against yellow fever 
 in New Orleans showed that it was within the 
 power of men to rid the world of this dread 
 disease. 
 
 With the Havana experience, Colonel Gor- 
 gas was just the man to be sent as chief 
 sanitary oflScer to the Panama Canal. On 
 the Isthmus, yellow fever had wrecked De 
 Lesseps' enterprise. It had put a Chinaman, 
 under every tie of the Panama Railroad ; it had 
 taken the life of many a Forty-niner on the way 
 home with gold from California's mines. The 
 ignorant public was impatient, waiting for 
 the dirt to fly on the great canal, but Colonel 
 Gorgas insisted that health must have first 
 consideration. After the zone had been 
 cleansed, sanitary houses built and all build- 
 ings well screened from mosquitoes, the 
 stegomyia destroyed, and the anopheles re- 
 stricted by swamp drainage, then the work of 
 
SOO THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 canal building might be undertaken without 
 fear of disaster through disease. The results 
 show that this officer was not only humane, 
 but wiser than most of his critics, for the 
 miracle of sanitation accomplished by Colonel 
 Gorgas has "transformed the Canal Zone 
 from a region reeking with disease and death 
 to a beautiful park, cleared of its jungles, 
 drained of its swamps, with its mosquitoes 
 practically exterminated and yellow fever 
 stamped out." 
 
 A sample report made to the Isthmian 
 Canal Commission for one month in 1908, is 
 encouraging : 
 
 '^Taking the total population, in 1907, we 
 had a population of 92,494, with 278 deaths, 
 giving us a yearly rate of 36.07 per thousand. 
 In 1908, we had a population of 113,269, giv- 
 ing us 202 deaths with a yearly rate of 21.40 
 per thousand, an improvement of 15 per 
 thousand in the rate of the whole population. 
 Twenty-one and forty hundredths is the 
 lowest rate we have ever shown for our whole 
 population, and is about the rate of New York 
 City. It is somewhat better, in general, than 
 that of Washington, Baltimore, or New Or- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 301 
 
 leans. Taking up individual diseases, the 
 showing is equally good. We had only one 
 death among the employees from dysentery , 
 two from malaria, and not a single death from 
 typhoid fever. Among the 8,000 white Ameri- 
 cans in commission quarters, which includes 
 2,000 women and children, we had no deaths 
 from disease of any kind." Colonel Gorgas 
 believes that tropical countries can be made 
 perfectly safe for the white man where modern 
 sanitary methods are introduced. 
 
 The further story of life-saving through 
 sanitation in the Philippines must be told in 
 another chapter, mention being made here only 
 of the work done to prevent leprosy, the 
 plague, and the hookworm disease. The 
 segregation of lepers began in May, 1906, and 
 has steadily continued. Of the 4,000 esti- 
 mated to exist in the islands, only about 
 1,000 remain to be collected and transported 
 to the Leper Colony at Culion. In the prov- 
 inces which have now been entirely freed from 
 lepers more than 300 new cases of leprosy 
 formerly appeared annually. The govern- 
 ment reports that now not more than fifty 
 new cases appear, which fact alone would more 
 
302 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 than justify the policy of segregation. It can 
 be positively stated that not only has the 
 increase in the number of lepers been perma- 
 nently checked, but a steady decline has begun 
 and will continue if the present policy is 
 adhered to. 
 
 That the government is determined to blot 
 out leprosy — Asia's ancient disease — is shown 
 by the building and equipping of an investiga- 
 tion station at Molokai in the Hawaiian 
 Islands, where the Territorial Board of Health 
 assemble all those affected with that disease. 
 It is hoped that by scientific experimentations 
 with the leprosy bacillus, some way may be 
 found to check the ravages if not to cure those 
 who are already lepers. 
 
 The bubonic plague calls for national aid 
 for it is an imported disease and the danger of 
 spreading beyond the coast states is so great 
 that all the forces of the nation must be called 
 in to stay its progress. The plague once swept 
 over Europe and Asia,devastating vast regions. 
 When it started from China on its latest death 
 dealing journey it was met by the knowledge 
 that the only possible method of inoculation 
 is through the bite of the flea, from a rat or 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 303 
 
 other rodent afflicted with the disease. When 
 the rats die the fleas leave the body and make 
 any man or animal their host. The way to 
 check the disease then is to destroy all rats, 
 not only those on ships coming from infected 
 countries, but every rat in the entire nation. 
 
 When the plague reached the Pacific coast, 
 the states called on the nation to help in ex- 
 terminating the rats. The response was 
 hearty and months were spent in the warfare 
 against the rodents until there was no longer 
 any trace of the disease on the mainland. 
 During the year 1906, there were over a mil- 
 lion cases of plague in India with 860,000 
 deaths. China had 500 cases with 450 deaths, 
 and it is never absent from a score of other 
 lands. Every ship sailing from affected ports 
 is liable to carry rats which are sure to escape 
 by the mooring ropes or in merchandise. 
 Thus a national quarantine must be con- 
 tinuously maintained until all the world unites 
 in destroying the rodents and with them the 
 fleas which do the mischief. 
 
 Millions of people in all lands through all 
 the ages have suffered from anemia, chronic 
 debility, and lack of efficiency, and have not 
 
804 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 known the cause. It is only recently that the 
 discovery was made that it is the parasite 
 called uncinaria or hookworm in the intestines 
 which has robbed millions of children in this 
 land, in the Philippines, in Porto Rico and in all 
 other lands, of their birthright of a healthy 
 childhood, making them dwarfed in mind, 
 prematurely old, and yet undeveloped. 
 
 This small worm after sucking the blood and 
 leaving toxin, a constant poison, lays its eggs 
 which are passed from the bowels; and in 
 regions without proper sanitary conveniences 
 these eggs are hatched on the ground and 
 when the children walk barefooted, they are 
 bitten by the little worms, causing ground- 
 itch. They pass into the circulation through 
 the lungs, thence into the stomach, then to 
 the intestines, where they become the cause 
 of anemia, making the child puny and as the 
 disease progresses, showing such symptoms as 
 these as described in a state health report: 
 ''The eyes are a little swollen when the child 
 gets up in the morning. Later, the feet and 
 legs begin to swell and then the bloating be- 
 comes general. The protruding abdomen is 
 tender, shortness of breath supervenes, the 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 305 
 
 whites of the eyes become more and more 
 blanched, the lips more and more livid, the 
 ears more and more translucent, the bloating 
 more and more pronounced, the headache 
 more and more constant, the child more and 
 more helpless, till, in some cases, death re- 
 lieves the little sufferer; in others they con- 
 tinue, not to live, but to exist." 
 
 It is recognized that throughout the United 
 States there are two million persons afflicted 
 with this disease who can not only be cured 
 but may be brought back to normal life and 
 efficiency by giving the patient proper doses 
 of thymol to drive out the worm, and by better 
 sanitation, which will in the future prevent 
 the common custom of soil pollution by those 
 who are ignorant of the consequences.* 
 
 HOOKWORM. 
 
 ♦John D. Rockefeller has recently given $1,000,000 for the 
 study of the hookworm disease. This fund has been placed in 
 charge of a Commission selected by himself. The members of 
 this Commission include — Dr. William H. Welch, professor of 
 pathology in Johns Hopkins University; Dr. Simon Flexner, presi- 
 dent of the American Medical association; Dr. Charles W. Stiles, 
 chief of the division of zoology, United States public health and 
 marine hospital service, and discoverer of the American species 
 of hookworm and the prevalence of the disease in America, and 
 Starr J. Murphy, Mr. Rockefeller's counsel, and John D. 
 Rockefeller, Jr. 
 
806 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Through proper prophylactic measures, our 
 nation in co-operation with state and local 
 boards of health, may in the next few years 
 change conditions in entire neighborhoods, 
 save thousands of baby-lives and bring multi- 
 tudes to greater power and eflSciency of life. 
 
 The review of that which is being done by 
 the nation to prevent disease and to build up 
 the health of the people shows that this land 
 has indeed entered into the work of life-saving, 
 but that it has not gone far enough is the be- 
 lief of many scientists and social workers. A 
 committee of one hundred has been formed to 
 press upon Congress the necessity of creating a 
 new department to be formed by concentrat- 
 ing the health agencies and functions now 
 scattered through the Department of the 
 Interior, the Agriculture Department, and 
 the Treasury Department, with the ultimate 
 aim of forming a Department of Health and 
 Education. Many other methods now in 
 vogue in other countries might well be adopted 
 here. A permanent committee on alcoholism 
 ought to do much toward finding out the 
 facts regarding the evil results of the use of 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 307 
 
 alcoholic liquors and through proper publicity, 
 create a public sentiment that would demand 
 the suppression of a business which is causing 
 death, disease, and disaster on all sides. 
 
 It is suggested that the health office of the 
 City of Washington might be transferred to 
 this new department in order that our national 
 capital may be made the pride of the country 
 as to healthfulness — a kind of ^'spotless town", 
 with model tenements, model street cleaning, 
 model water and milk supply, model system of 
 reporting and controlling epidemics, and, as a 
 consequence of this, a death-rate below the 
 best records yet reached in American cities. 
 It is believed that as a result of such a con- 
 dition at the national capital, hundreds of 
 other cities would begin to clean up. 
 
 In addition, there would be in this depart- 
 ment of health, a bureau of infant hygiene, 
 expert physicians and scientists devoting them- 
 selves to research, and experiments, that they 
 might be able to decrease the present appalling 
 waste of baby-life. There would be a bureau 
 of sanitation, and a bureau of pure food. It 
 is also suggested that a bureau of health in- 
 
308 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 formation might be added as a sort of clearing 
 house where all the news of the various 
 bureaus would be given out to the public 
 through trained and specialized popularizers. 
 Also a bureau of research, and bureaus that 
 would keep a national registration of physi- 
 cians, druggists and drug manufacture, and 
 one that would deal with problems of quaran- 
 tine and labor conditions. 
 
 We are rapidly coming to believe with 
 Theodore Roosevelt, when, speaking as Presi- 
 dent of the United States, he said : 
 
 **Our national health is physically our 
 greatest national asset. To prevent any pos- 
 sible deterioration of the American stock 
 should be a national ambition. We cannot 
 too strongly insist on the necessity of proper 
 ideals for the family, for simple living and 
 those habits and tastes which produce vigor 
 and make men capable of strenuous service 
 to their country. The preservation of national 
 vigor should be a matter of patriotism. 
 
 "For this reason, and because many of the 
 problems of public health are interstate in 
 their character, the aid of the federal govern- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 309 
 
 ment is necessary to supplement the work of 
 state and local boards of health. Federal 
 activity in these matters has already developed 
 greatly, until it now includes quarantine, 
 meat inspection, pure food administration, 
 and federal investigation of the conditions of 
 child labor. It is my own hope that these 
 important activities may be still further 
 developed." 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Educating the People 
 
 There are social writers of late who place 
 ignorance as the chief cause of human misery. 
 But ignorance can be dispelled and men can be 
 enlightened concerning the possibility of their 
 physical, mental, moral and spiritual develop- 
 ment. Associations are being organized on 
 every hand with this end in view; for it is a 
 common belief that the next decade will mark 
 an epoch in human development as pro- 
 nounced as that of the Reformation or the 
 Rennaissance. To some extent the govern- 
 ment as well as the people is feeling the in- 
 fluence of this educational Zeitgeist, 
 
 In the past this government has had very 
 little to do with the school system of the 
 country, as school work was thought to be 
 purely of local interest. Other nations, like 
 Germany, might work out a great and yet 
 harmonious system, but in the United States 
 the government lacked all except advisory 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 311 
 
 power. In this country, as it is well under- 
 stood, there is no federal system, but each 
 state of the Union has a public school system, 
 of its own, supported by funds derived from 
 its own resources and administered by state 
 officials. The common schools do not re- 
 ceive any financial aid from the general 
 government. 
 
 As to the development of the public school 
 system, history shows that in 1836, the sur- 
 plus revenue in the United States Treasury 
 was divided among the states as a loan, many 
 of the states setting aside their portions of 
 this federal loan for public education. Before 
 the end of the eighteenth century it became 
 the policy of Congress to grant for educational 
 purposes the sixteenth section of the public 
 lands on the organization of new territories, 
 and subsequently both the sixteenth and 
 thirty-sixth sections were set aside for this 
 purpose. Many of the newer states still own 
 these lands and derive school revenue from 
 them. Others sold all or portions of their 
 school lands, creating permanent school funds 
 from the proceeds, which funds are entirely 
 under state control. 
 
312 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 The amount of permanent school funds of 
 each state varies from $60,000 in New Hamp- 
 shire to over $60,000,000 in Texas, while the 
 fund of most of the states runs into the mil- 
 lions. The various states show such marked 
 differences in their school system that uni- 
 formity can only be secured through the 
 co-operation of the central government. This 
 was the thought that led to the establishment 
 of the National Bureau of Education, the 
 original purpose of which was "to collect 
 statistics and facts showing the condition and 
 progress of education in the several states 
 and territories, and to diffuse such information 
 respecting the organization and management 
 of schools and school systems, and methods of 
 teaching, as shall aid the people of the United 
 States in the establishment and maintenance 
 of efficient school systems, and otherwise pro- 
 mote the cause of education throughout the 
 country." 
 
 General James A. Garfield introduced the 
 bill in 1867, which was enacted into law, es- 
 tablishing the Department of Education, 
 which three years later was transferred to the 
 Department of the Interior, as a bureau. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 313 
 
 Like the **general welfare" clause in the con- 
 stitution, the words of the original act "other- 
 wise promote the cause of education through- 
 out the country," give wide latitude in deal- 
 ing with all educational matters as the country 
 grows, and the needs become more complex. 
 The first enlargement of the Bureau came 
 in the Act approved in 1896, authorizing the 
 Commissioner of Education to prepare and 
 publish a bulletin showing the condition of 
 higher education, technical and industrial, 
 giving educational facts as to compulsory 
 attendance in the schools and such other 
 educational topics in the several states of the 
 Union, and in foreign countries, as may be 
 deemed of value to the educational interests 
 of the states. In 1884, the Bureau was given 
 charge of the education of the native children 
 in Alaska and in 1890 the Bureau established 
 the Government Reindeer Service in Alaska. 
 Further administrative duties, without doubt, 
 will from time to time be added, if the Bureau 
 of Education is to be more of a school board 
 than a literary bureau. Other branches of 
 the government are giving direct attention to 
 educating the people. They became responsi- 
 
314 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 ble for education in the Philippines, in Porto 
 Rico, in Guam and Panama, among the In- 
 dians and in general agricultural education. 
 
 In 1892, the government offered facilities for 
 study and research in departments and bu- 
 reaus. Because this opportunity for gaining 
 higher scientific education is so little known, 
 the entire Act is here given : 
 
 "Whereas large collections illustrative of the 
 various arts and sciences and facilitating lit- 
 erary and scientific research have been ac- 
 cumulated by the action of Congress through a 
 series of years at the national capital; and 
 
 "Whereas it was the original purpose of the 
 government thereby to promote research and 
 the diflfusion of knowledge, and is now the 
 settled policy and present practice of those 
 charged with the care of these collections 
 specially to encourage students who devote 
 their time to the investigation and study of any 
 branch of knowledge by allowing to them all 
 proper use thereof; and 
 
 "Whereas it is represented that the enum- 
 eration of these facilities and the formal 
 statement of this policy will encourage the 
 establishment and endowment of institutions 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 315 
 
 of learning at the seat of government, and 
 promote the work of education by attracting 
 students to avail themselves of the advantages 
 aforesaid under the direction of competent 
 instruction ; Therefore, 
 
 ''Resolved by the Senate and House of Rep- 
 resentatives of the United States of America 
 in Congress assembled, That the facilities for 
 research and illustration in the following and 
 any other governmental collections now exist- 
 ing or hereafter to be established in the city 
 of Washington for the promotion of knowledge 
 shall be accessible, under such rules and 
 restrictions as the officers in charge of each 
 collection may prescribe, subject to such 
 authority as is now or may hereafter be per- 
 mitted by law, to the scientific investigators 
 and to students of any institution of higher 
 education now incorporated or hereafter to be 
 incorporated under the laws of Congress or of 
 the District of Columbia, to wit : 
 
 "Of the Library of Congress, of the National 
 Museum, of the Patent Office, of the Bureau of 
 Education, of the Bureau of Ethnology, of 
 the Army Medical Museum, of the Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture, of the Fish Commission, 
 
316 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 of the Botanic Gardens, of the Coast and Geo- 
 detic Survey, of the Geological Survey, and of 
 the Naval Observatory." 
 
 In 1901, this Act was enlarged in its scope by 
 offering opportunity of study, to individuals, 
 students, and graduates of all institutions of 
 learning, as follows : 
 
 "That facilities for study and research in 
 the Government Departments, the Library of 
 Congress, the National Museum, the Zoologi- 
 cal Park, the Bureau of Ethnology, the Fish 
 Commission, the Botanic Gardens, and similar 
 institutions hereafter established shall be 
 afforded to scientific investigators and to duly 
 qualified individuals, students, and graduates 
 of institutions of learning in the several States 
 and Territories, as well as in the District of 
 Columbia, under such rules and restrictions as 
 the heads of the Departments and Bureaus 
 mentioned may prescribe." 
 
 As the years go by there should be an in- 
 creasing number of students residing at Wash- 
 ington, making use of the unequaled oppor- 
 tunities for research found in the various de- 
 partments. 
 
 The last published report of Commissioner 
 
k^ 
 
 / 
 
 r i 
 
 m 
 
 [ 
 
 i 
 
 ~ir 
 
 Wallipai school boy at Hackberry 
 Trained in a government school 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 317 
 
 Elmer E. Brown, of the Bureau of Educa- 
 tion, gives a review of the great educational 
 movements, that are nation-wide in their 
 influence which the commissioner believed 
 were destined to leave a strong impress upon 
 our educational history. 
 
 The report places emphasis on the results 
 secured through the awakening of interest in 
 education by the "whirlwind campaigns" 
 carried on in the southern states. These 
 campaigns had for their purpose the increase of 
 local taxation for schools. The great Edu- 
 cational Conference at Atlanta, decidedly 
 aided the movement for better educational 
 advantages, through consolidated rural schools 
 and county high schools, libraries, and uni- 
 versities and normal schools. The great 
 constructive private organizations. The South- 
 ern Educational Society, the General Edu- 
 cational Board and the Negro Rural School 
 Fund, have proved to be of great help in the 
 educational propaganda in the southern states. 
 
 In 1908, ten weeks before the calling of the 
 celebrated White House Conference of Gov- 
 ernors, the Commissioner of Education called 
 together at Washington fifty of the chief 
 
318 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 educational officers of the states and territories. 
 The report of proceedings of this conference 
 seems to indicate that the meeting is destined 
 to mark an epoch of no small importance in 
 the history of educational co-operation in 
 this country, revealing, as it did, a strong 
 disposition on the part of the state educational 
 officers to strengthen the national office of 
 education; and making clear the aim of the 
 national office to accomplish its work through 
 the assistance rendered to the state offices. 
 
 The effort to standardize the public schools 
 of the states received strong support from this 
 conference. Industrial and vocational edu- 
 cation is well in the foreground of popular 
 discussion, resulting in some new legislation 
 and many new bills introduced in legislatures 
 and notably the Davis bill* in Congress, pro- 
 viding for national aid to industrial schools, 
 the adoption of which would give "national 
 encouragement to the whole effort toward in- 
 dustrial education." The number of volun- 
 tary, non-governmental organizations is ever 
 increasing. They aim at large practical re- 
 forms, many of them administrating enormous 
 endowments. 
 
 ♦See synopsis of bill in the Appendix. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 319 
 
 Interest in education is international, as 
 shown by the large numbers of Congresses 
 recently held, as for instance : 
 
 International Congress on the Welfare of 
 the Child, International Congress for the 
 Advancement of Drawing and Art Teaching, 
 International Congress for Moral Educa- 
 tion, International Congress of Household 
 Economy and Arts, International Congress on 
 Historical Sciences, Pan-American Scientific 
 Congress, International Congress on Tuber- 
 culosis, International Geographical Congress, 
 International Congre:ss on Popular Education, 
 International Congress on School Hygiene. 
 
 The interchange of teachers between the 
 secondary schools and colleges of this and other 
 countries is another evidence of the world- 
 wide movement toward educating all the 
 people. Another illustration is that of the 
 teachers' visit to Europe : 
 
 "The National Civic Federation, through 
 the co-operation of the International Mercan- 
 tile Marine Company and of Alfred Mosely, 
 of London, England, arranged for a visit of 
 five hundred or more selected American teach- 
 ers to inspect the schools and colleges of Great 
 
S20 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Britain and Ireland, during the school year, 
 1908-9. About fifty of the number having 
 sufficient acquaintance with the French or 
 German language to profit by such a visit 
 went on to the continent, landing at Ant- 
 werp. The selection of teachers was confined 
 to those engaged in elementary and secondary 
 schools, in industrial and technical schools of 
 elementary and secondary school grade, and 
 in institutions for the training of teachers." 
 Out of all the many conferences. Congresses 
 and meetings of associations, there is sure to 
 come wisdom which will aid in more intelli- 
 gently administrating the schooling of a 
 nation. The expenditure of $442,000,000 on 
 the education of the children, seems like a 
 considerable sum, but large as it is, it looks 
 small by the side of the nation's drink bill or 
 even the tobacco bill. Capital is easily 
 turned toward business enterprises, but the 
 greater work of transforming children into 
 good citizens does not secure the aid that is 
 adequate. Nineteen million pupils taught by 
 475,000 teachers — there is both a debit and a 
 credit side to this account. A writer admits 
 that Dr. Brown can tabulate the debit side 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 321 
 
 but who, he asks, can ever fill out the credit 
 side, showing the changes produced in these 
 students, their increase in bodily welfare, 
 knowledge, skill, power, worthy interests and 
 noble ideals, for the returns from the years' 
 investments can not be made out in full until 
 each individual for whose happiness and use- 
 fulness to the nation and the world as a whole 
 the investment has been made, has lived his 
 life, and finished his work. 
 
 While it would be of interest to follow out 
 more fully the work of public education, the 
 purpose of this chapter is to show that the 
 nation itself is at work educating at least some 
 of the people. 
 
 The Bureau of Education is responsible for 
 the education of the native children of Alaska. 
 From the time Russian America was bought 
 by the United States until 1884, Alaska was 
 without any government whatsoever; without 
 laws by which life or property could be pro- 
 tected, and without schools. In 1877, the 
 Presbyterian Board established missions in 
 Alaska, under Dr. Sheldon Jackson. When 
 finally the Bureau of Education was author- 
 ized to establish a school system in this great 
 
322 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 territory, it sought for a reliable man, familiar 
 with local conditions, to superintend this 
 service, and found him in the missionary, 
 Sheldon Jackson. Dr. Jackson, who still 
 remains general agent of education in Alaska, 
 has done a great work under most adverse 
 circumstances in this vast territory one-fifth 
 the size of the United States. From small 
 beginnings, the schools have grown in numbers 
 reaching from Sitka to the northernmost icy 
 cap. As last reported, there are fifty-nine 
 United States public schools for natives with 
 seventy-three teachers and an enrollment of 
 about 3,000. 
 
 The use of liquors on the part of the natives, 
 their unsanitary conditions of life, the pre- 
 valence of disease, and the destruction of 
 their fishing and hunting grounds, have 
 proved to be great hindrances in the way of 
 their rapid advancement. In order to meet 
 these conditions, the Commissioner of Edu- 
 cation urges the passage of a law, making the 
 selling or giving of liquor to a native a felony, 
 and that such a law be rigidly enforced. The 
 unsanitary mode of life is so general that only 
 governmental enforcement of better laws will 
 
 I 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 823 
 
 compel the natives to live more healthfully. 
 A recommendation is made that such legisla- 
 tion be passed as will enable the Secretary of 
 the Interior "to erect and equip hospitals which 
 will serve as centers for relieving disease and 
 destitution and for furnishing instruction to 
 native girls in nursing, and to employ physi- 
 cians and nurses for the management of these 
 hospitals. 
 
 "The service of competent physicians and 
 proper care in sickness is one of the greatest 
 needs of the natives of Alaska. Diseases are 
 general among them. The few statistics that 
 have been collected indicate that in some vil- 
 lages about one-half of the inhabitants are 
 afflicted with either tuberculosis or syphilitic 
 diseases. Epidemics cause large fatalities." 
 
 Pending the building of such government 
 hospitals, physicians have been appointed as 
 teachers of certain schools. Other physicians 
 have been appointed as sanitary officers of 
 districts. Contracts have been made with 
 resident physicians in certain other regions, 
 while by contract the Holy Cross Hospital at 
 Nome, the Simpson Hospital at Juneau, and 
 the Good Samaritan Hospital at Valdez, give 
 
324 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 hospital care and medical treatment to desti- 
 tute natives. 
 
 Through the liberal distribution of seeds 
 among the public school teachers by the 
 agents of Alaska experiment stations, great 
 progress has been made in agricultural in- 
 struction. Many school gardens are main- 
 tained and the raising of fruits and vegetables 
 suitable to the climate have thus been greatly 
 extended. A strong appeal is made by the 
 Bureau of Education for an increase in the 
 annual appropriation for the extension of edu- 
 cation in Alaska. In his report, Dr. Sheldon 
 Jackson, says : **The United States day schools 
 throughout Alaska aim principally at train- 
 ing the Alaskan natives in the use of the 
 English language, in order to enable them to 
 communicate with the white population and 
 obtain a living thereby. It is desirable that 
 to this instruction in English there should be 
 added systematic training in the various 
 industries, in order that the more intelligent 
 of the natives may become better enabled to 
 support themselves. In northern Alaska the 
 industries that could be introduced into the 
 school curriculum are boat-making, sled-mak- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 325 
 
 ing, fish-curing, use of carpenter's tools, and 
 the making of fur clothing and shoes. In 
 southern Alaska the forms of industrial train- 
 ing adapted to the needs of the native popula- 
 tion are fish-curing, boat-making, the manage- 
 ment and care of sawmills, the building of 
 houses, the raising of domestic animals, and 
 the cultivation of vegetables. Epidemics of 
 measles, smallpox, and diphtheria are frequent 
 and because of the high rate of mortality, 
 there are many orphans in the Alaskan vil- 
 lages. It would seem but just for the national 
 government to protect these destitute children 
 by placing them in an orphanage, where in- 
 struction and medical treatment could be 
 given them. This institution, could be a 
 center for industrial education. 
 
 "The question of the legal status of the 
 natives of Alaska presses for decision. In 
 southern Alaska especially, where schools have 
 been in operation for twenty years, the natives 
 have abandoned their ancient customs, dis- 
 carded their tribal relations, and have adopted 
 civilized modes of living. Many of them are 
 industrious, law-abiding, and self-respecting. 
 They make excellent carpenters and mechanics. 
 
326 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Many of them engage successfully in business 
 as traders, storekeepers, managers of sawmills 
 and fisheries, as pilots and engineers. They 
 accumulate property and pay taxes; but, 
 except in a few instances, the privilege of 
 citizenship has been denied them. Legisla- 
 tion granting citizenship to such Alaskan 
 natives as are qualified to receive it, would 
 seem to be extremely desirable." 
 
 In 1890, Dr. Jackson made a tour of all of 
 the important villages on the north Alaskan 
 and Siberian Shores, making the journey in 
 the revenue cutter Bear, Captain Healy com- 
 manding. A summary of his report shows 
 that the Alaskan Eskimos were found eking 
 out a precarious existence upon the few whale, 
 seal, and walrus that they could catch, while 
 across Bering Strait, in Siberia, but a few miles 
 from Alaska, with climate and country pre- 
 cisely similar, were tens of thousands of tame 
 reindeer supporting thousands of natives, the 
 flesh and milk of these reindeer furnishing 
 food, the skin providing clothing, bedding, and 
 shelter, and in winter the use of the trained 
 animals making possible rapid communication 
 between the scattered villages. 
 
4> 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 327 
 
 Both Doctor Jackson and Captain Healy 
 seemed to be so deeply impressed with the 
 fact that it would be wise, national policy to 
 introduce domestic reindeer from Siberia into 
 Alaska that they urged the establishment of 
 reindeer raising as an industry in connection 
 with the schools maintained by the Bureau of 
 Education, which industry might aflFord the 
 Alaskan Eskimos an assured means of support 
 and in the course of time advance them from 
 nomadic fishermen and hunters to the position 
 of civilized, wealth-producing factors in the 
 development of northern Alaska. 
 
 In 1893, Congress granted the request and 
 has appropriated since from $6,000 to $25,000 
 annually. The revenue cutter Bear carried 
 the agents of the Bureau of Education back 
 and forth between Siberia and Alaska, during 
 nine seasons transporting Siberian reindeer to 
 Alaska. Although Dr. Jackson fully realized 
 that the work was exacting in the extreme, in- 
 volving cruises along hundreds of miles of 
 fog-ridden, ice-beleaguered, uncharted coast; 
 long delays in dangerous waters; patient bar- 
 gaining in sign language with uncouth, un- 
 civilized Siberians; tedious payment for the 
 
828 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 reindeer in barter goods; hard work in trans- 
 porting deer in the Bear's boats from shore 
 to ship; discomfort on board while on the way 
 to Alaska, and much labor in landing the deer 
 on the Alaskan side, yet he and his aids per- 
 sisted in their labors until by 1902, when the 
 total number of deer thus imported into 
 Alaska had reached the number of 1,280. 
 After that date the Russian government with- 
 drew its permit. By the natural increase of 
 the herds, the number of deer now in Alaska 
 is about 1600, increasing annually. 
 
 The government from the first has followed 
 the plan of loaning small herds, usually one 
 hundred in number, to the mission stations as 
 an equipment for the industrial training of the 
 Eskimos, the loan to be paid at the end of a 
 specified period by an equal number of young 
 deer. In order to scatter the deer widely 
 throughout Alaska, apprentices are taken for a 
 given number of years at each station. During 
 his apprenticeship, each man is given thirty- 
 four reindeer in payment for services. 
 
 The following rules governing apprentice- 
 ship show how carefully the government has 
 guarded the interests of the natives. With 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 329 
 
 the approval of the local superintendent of 
 his station, an apprentice may kill his 
 surplus male deer and sell the meat for food 
 and the skin for clothing. He is encouraged 
 to use his sled deer in carrying mails, passen- 
 gers and freight. 
 
 Upon the satisfactory termination of his 
 contract of apprenticeship an apprentice be- 
 comes a herder and assumes entire charge of 
 his herd, subject to the rules and regulations 
 for the reindeer service. The herder must then 
 in turn train and reward apprentices in ac- 
 cordance with the provisions of the rules and 
 regulations, and thus become an additional 
 factor in the extension of the enterprise. 
 
 Under no circumstances is an apprentice 
 or herder permitted to sell female reindeer 
 except to the government or with the written 
 approval of the superintendent, to another 
 native inhabitant of Alaska. The native 
 purchasing the reindeer then becomes subject 
 to the rules and regulations regarding the 
 reindeer service. The prohibition of the sale 
 of female reindeer to white men has been 
 adopted in order to insure the reindeer in- 
 dustry remaining in the hands of the natives 
 
330 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 until there is a sufl5cient number of reindeer in 
 northern Alaska to furnish a permanent means 
 of support to the native population of that 
 region. 
 
 Upon the government has devolved the 
 work of educating the Indian. The century 
 of dishonor is drawing to a close. The Indian 
 is now considered by the government, more as 
 a man and even as a brother than as a savage 
 to be fought or as a ward to be cared for. The 
 Indian problem is being settled by the Indian 
 himself becoming a factor of our social life, to 
 be given justice and an equality of opportunity 
 by the side of the white man. The policy of 
 the government is now to induce the Indian 
 to become a citizen rather than remain an 
 alien in his native land. This, then, is the 
 educational work of the nation, not to give a 
 little artificial training to a few, who too often 
 lose what little they have gained as they re- 
 turn to their tribal life but to aid all to assume 
 the duties and responsibilities of American 
 citizenship, and thus slowly rise to a con- 
 sciousness of equality with their pale-faced 
 neighbors. 
 
 As far as the actual work of the school-room 
 
 
 S* 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 331 
 
 is concerned, there are reported 281 govern- 
 ment schools, with an enrollment of about 
 26,000 pupils. This includes day and reser- 
 vation boarding schools and non-reservation 
 schools. The schools at Carlisle, Pa., Law- 
 rence, Kansas, and Riverside, California, lead 
 in numbers among the non-reservation schools, 
 having an enrollment respectively of 1,000, 817 
 and 699. Owing to the changed attitude 
 toward the Indian and because of certain 
 abuses that had arisen in securing pupils, the 
 Commission has recommended the gradual 
 closing of these schools. 
 
 A plan of building has been adopted for the 
 primary Indian schools, in the warmer regions, 
 which has proved so successful that it might 
 well be used for the ordinary school in the 
 milder climates with great success. In de- 
 scribing it. Commissioner Leupp, says : 
 
 "If the Indian has been living in a certain 
 way for untold centuries, I should not push 
 him too rapidly into a new social order and a 
 new method of doing business; I should pre- 
 fer to let him grow into them of his own ac- 
 cord. For one thing, the children of the 
 Indians are little wild creatures, accustomed 
 
332 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 to life in the open air, familiar with the voices 
 of nature rather than the voices of men, and I 
 have felt that to imprison them in closed 
 houses and compel them to do their school 
 work in the ordinary routine way is a hardship 
 which there is no need of enforcing arbitrarily. 
 Of course, it is impracticable in some parts of 
 the country to depart very far from the com- 
 mon method of housing our schools; the 
 climate would forbid it, for example, in places 
 where the winters were very long and severe. 
 But in a large part of the southwest there has 
 never seemed to me any good reason why 
 children should be confined in a closed house 
 during the season of fair weather, and I there- 
 fore hit upon the plan of having a few ex- 
 perimental houses built for our day schools, in 
 which there will be the ordinary frame of 
 studding and joists but the solid woodwork 
 will come up only about as high as a wainscot 
 or chair rail in an ordinary living room. The 
 siding above that will be made of wire screen, 
 and the roof will have a somewhat wide over- 
 hang. The plan contemplates also flaps, sail- 
 cloth or tent canvas, so arranged that when the 
 weather is fair and only the ordinary breezes 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 333 
 
 are blowing, these flaps can be raised and leave 
 the screen the only barrier between the school- 
 room and the outside world. In the brief 
 passages of inclement weather which come 
 sometimes during the dry season in the south- 
 west, the flaps can be lowered as a protection 
 against the sand storm, or rain dash, or what- 
 ever form the disturbances may take, on those 
 sides from which it comes, leaving the other 
 sides open to the air as before. 
 
 ''This plan is perfectly practicable, and will 
 appeal to the mind of any one familiar with the 
 climate in parts of Arizona and New Mexico 
 and southern California. I cannot help think- 
 ing that the greater sense of freedom which the 
 children will have in being thus simply cor- 
 ralled instead of imprisoned will have a good 
 effect even in the matter of discipline. 
 
 "But there is still another reason why I like 
 the open-air schoolhouse better than the 
 closed one. Our Indian children are particu- 
 larly prone to pulmonary complaints. Ever 
 since we have begun clothing the Indians and 
 thereby making them physically more tender, 
 the lungs have been their great seat of trouble; 
 and when one child has begun to show pretty 
 
334 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 plainly symptoms of tuberculosis, it is not 
 only cruelty to that child to shut it up where 
 it shall breathe the inclosed atmosphere, but 
 it is a menace to the other children with whom 
 it is thus brought into close and unwholesome 
 contact." 
 
 In order to check the spread of tuberculosis, 
 the Commission has established many san- 
 itarium camps for the younger generation 
 where the Indians may have the open air treat- 
 ment and the best general care which is now 
 being given in the high-priced establishments 
 elsewhere. 
 
 Mr. Leupp has recently resigned after over 
 four years' most successful work in charge of 
 Indian afifairs. President Taft appointed Mr. 
 R. G. Valentine, the assistant commissioner, 
 as his successor. In an article in the Outlook, 
 Mr. Leupp tells the story of his work in treat- 
 ing the Indian as a man, the summary of 
 which is as follows : His first principle was to 
 attempt to mold, not the Indian adult, but 
 the Indian child, his second was to give the 
 Indian, not instruction, but education; his 
 third was to release the Indian as fast as 
 possible from tribal and governmental bonds, 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 335 
 
 and make him an individual citizen, and his 
 fourth was to make the Indian a factor in his 
 community. Not as an Indian fighter but as a 
 Hfe-saver and as a constructive builder will 
 Mr. Leupp's name be written in history. His 
 successor, Mr. Valentine, is imbued with the 
 same spirit and will without doubt accomplish 
 as much if not more for the general welfare of 
 the Indian. 
 
 Miss Clara D. True, the wonderfully suc- 
 cessful Indian agent in California, after most 
 intimate knowledge of reservation life, says: 
 **A spirit of brotherhood which is felt in all the 
 ends of the earth is stirring the heart of the 
 nation. The government is bending its energy 
 toward lifting the Indian to his feet, so that 
 he as well as we may walk in integrity before 
 God, following the footsteps of the Man of 
 Galilee." 
 
 The Spanish-American War brought to this 
 nation, not only administrative but also edu- 
 cational problems. Porto Rico, Guam and 
 the Philippines were without a general school 
 system and the language was alien. With 
 Cuba the aid given in education by the mili- 
 tary government was only temporary, but 
 
336 THE BETTER COUNRTY 
 
 with the other countries mentioned, it has 
 taken on the form of a permanent educational 
 system. 
 
 In 1898, Porto Rico came under the military 
 rule of the United States. The island is 
 described as being forty miles wide by one 
 hundred long, a veritable tropical garden, but 
 with a climate tempered by the trade winds, 
 making nearly every day like a northern day 
 in June. Without forests, every part of the 
 land is capable of cultivation, even to the 
 mountain tops. When this island came under 
 the new rule the schools were few and poorly 
 taught, and disease was widespread, while 
 syphilitic infection and the hookworm disease 
 had enfeebled and rendered anemic many of 
 the children. With less than six per cent, 
 of the school population in any school, the 
 military government took hold of the problem 
 of the schools and that of sanitation with great 
 vigor. 
 
 General John Eaton was sent from Washing- 
 ton to take charge of the schools and under his 
 wise management many of the former methods 
 were changed. Under the Spanish rule, girls 
 and boys were not allowed in the same school 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 337 
 
 but the military orders, established co-educa- 
 tion, "also abolished the fee system and made 
 the schools absolutely free to all residents of 
 Porto Rico between the ages of six and eight- 
 een; fixed the school year at nine months of 
 twenty days each; established a graded 
 system for schools in towns; limited the 
 number of pupils for each teacher to fifty; 
 provided a principal where four schools are 
 grouped together; changed the course of 
 study by eliminating the study of church 
 doctrine and religion and inserting Spanish, 
 English, arithmetic, geography. United States 
 history, and civil government, with music and 
 manual training as minor subjects where 
 teachers w^ere competent to instruct in them ; 
 fixed the legal qualifications and salaries of 
 teachers on a uniform basis for equal work, and 
 required uniformity of instruction for the 
 various classes of schools." 
 
 The military government came to an end in 
 1900, being supplanted by civil government. 
 The report of this interesting period is 
 as follows: "The civil duties of the military 
 authorities were performed with such great 
 efiiciency on the whole that many of the most 
 
338 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 intelligent Porto Ricans and most Americans 
 in the island would have been glad to have 
 seen the period of military rule extended for a 
 few years, until the Porto Ricans had become 
 more familiar with efficient public administra- 
 tion before being called upon to legislate for 
 themselves and to execute their own laws. 
 But public sentiment in the United States was 
 naturally impatient to see more democratic 
 institutions established than are possible under 
 military government." 
 
 Under the Commissioner of Education for 
 Porto Rico, a system of schools has been built 
 up, far from perfect, and yet showing great 
 advances during the single decade, 80,000 
 children being now enrolled in the public 
 schools, consisting of common and high 
 schools, rural and agricultural schools, and 
 normal schools. In order more quickly to 
 prepare teachers for the many schools to be 
 established, the government early decided 
 to send pupils for special training to the 
 United States, and w^hile the transports were 
 still running, sixty Porto Rican boys and girls 
 were sent to Carlisle. Afterwards forty-five 
 more were sent to the same school. The legis- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 339 
 
 lature set aside a certain sum of money to 
 send to various schools in the United States 
 annually twenty-five carefully selected young 
 men and fourteen young women, each to re- 
 ceive a scholarship of $500 a year for five 
 years. Selections are made from those who 
 have graduated with high rank from some one 
 of the high schools of the island, or from the 
 insular normal school, and each must agree to 
 return to the island upon the completion of 
 their studies and devote four years to the 
 service of the public schools, in return for 
 proper compensation. 
 
 Dr. Samuel McCune Lindsay, former Com- 
 missioner of Education in Porto Rico, in 
 describing these students says: ''With very 
 few exceptions no occasion for discipline has 
 arisen, and these young boys and girls have 
 proven themselves worthy recipients of public 
 aid. Many have scored most unexpected 
 academic victories, and all are pledged to 
 return to Porto Rico to do their share in the 
 uplift of their fellows." 
 
 The American school system has been 
 thoroughly established on the Panama zone 
 to accommodate the many children of both 
 
340 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 gold and silver workmen and natives. Edu- 
 cation in Hawaii is under the control of the 
 Territorial Board, which enrolls some 17,000 
 in the public schools, ranging in nationality 
 according to members: Hawaiian, Japanese, 
 Portugese, Port Hawaiian and Chinese. 
 
 The report of the Hawaiian Commissioner 
 of Education, describing the new College of 
 Agriculture and Mechanical arts, established 
 in 1907, enumerates the purposes of the act as 
 follows: "To give thorough instruction in 
 agriculture, mechanic arts, and the natural 
 sciences connected therewith, and such in- 
 struction in other branches of advanced learn- 
 ing as the board of regents may from time 
 to time prescribe, and to give such military 
 instruction as the federal government may 
 require. The standard of instruction in each 
 course shall be equal to that given and re- 
 quired by similar colleges on the mainland, 
 and upon the successful completion of the pre- 
 scribed course, the board of regents are 
 authorized to confer a corresponding degree 
 upon all students who shall become entitled 
 thereto. The legislature appropriated, from 
 the loan fund, $10,000 for the erection of 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 341 
 
 buildings, purchase of apparatus, fixtures, etc., 
 and $15,000 from the general revenues of the 
 territory, $10,000 of which is to be for salaries 
 and $5,000 for general expenses. 
 
 **The Board of Regents has been appointed, 
 and the task of selecting a site and putting the 
 institution in working order is already under 
 way. Much interest has been manifested by 
 the community in the college, and it is hoped 
 that many good results will flow from it. 
 With the aid that this institution should re- 
 ceive from the federal government, under its 
 munificent system of endowing agricultural 
 colleges, a most thorough system of practical 
 instruction can be built up, the equal of any 
 that obtains in our sister territories. This 
 being a subtropical country, the problems that 
 will be presented here will be unique, and their 
 working out will be watched with much in- 
 terest." 
 
 Dewey's victory in Manila Bay spelled 
 responsibility for this nation. Either this 
 distant colony must be ruled from Washington 
 as a possession rather than a co-ordinate part 
 of a great federation or else the Filipinos must 
 be trained as speedily as possible for inde- 
 
342 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 pendent self-government. The latter alter- 
 native was adopted as the policy of the insular 
 government, which recognized that education 
 was essential to the establishment of a demo- 
 cratic self-government. The bloody victories 
 of the army and navy were followed by the 
 bloodless victories of an army of teachers. It 
 was recognized that if the eight million people 
 of the Philippines, Pagan, Mohammedan and 
 Christian, speaking many languages, were ever 
 to be amalgamated into one nation they must 
 have a common language, and no other lan- 
 guage w as so suitable as the English. To the 
 end of bringing an English education to all the 
 islands, this government in 1901 sent over 
 1,000 teachers from the states. During the 
 past eight years, nearly 2,500 American 
 teachers have gone to the Philippines. To- 
 day there are about 750 of this number on the 
 field. 
 
 Extracts from the report of Superintendent 
 Dr. David P. Barrows, Superintendent of 
 Education, made in 1904, show the ideal to- 
 ward which the government was aiming: 
 "The aim has been and still is to place the 
 elements of an English education within the 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 343 
 
 reach of children of every social class in every 
 municipality and every hamlet of the archi- 
 pelago. During the past year a course of 
 study has been prescribed for these primary 
 schools by the general superintendent. It 
 covers but three years of instruction, which in- 
 clude three in the English language, two in 
 arithmetic, prefaced in the first year by easy 
 number work, and one year in elementary 
 geography. In addition to these subjects 
 provision is also made for singing and drawing, 
 for both of which the Filipino has unusual 
 endowment; for handiwork, consisting of 
 school gardening and simple tool work for the 
 boys, sewing and elementary housekeeping for 
 the girls, for physical exercise; and for the 
 training of character." 
 
 The main reason for making the primary 
 course so brief is the need for a plan of study, 
 fairly complete though very simple, which can 
 be taught wholly by Filipino teachers, who 
 themselves have had but a limited English 
 education. 
 
 "The primary course aims to give the bare 
 essentials of a primary education, and it aims 
 to give this to every child between the ages of 
 
344 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 six and fourteen. The attendance of 400,000 
 children in the primary schools is the standard 
 toward which the bureau of education is 
 aiming, and if it can reach this standard and 
 maintain it for a period of ten years, there will 
 be, broadly speaking, no illiterate youth among 
 the Filipino people, but the entire coming gen- 
 eration will be able to speak, read, and write 
 the English language with a fair degree of 
 accuracy and fluency; will be able to make 
 ordinary arithmetical calculations, including 
 those operations which are used in ordinary 
 business; will have fair knowledge of the 
 geography of the Philippines and of the con- 
 tinents and countries of the world; and, it is 
 believed, will have received a very beneficial 
 influence upon their characters during the 
 formative period." 
 
 The early standard of 400,000 has been 
 passed, for today there are half a million 
 pupils enrolled in all the public schools of the 
 islands. 
 
 The Educational Department recognizing 
 that the knowledge of English is not the only 
 thing necessary in order to fit the islands for 
 self-government, has adopted the policy of the 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 345 
 
 extension throughout the islands of facilities 
 for giving education along the most practical 
 lines of industrial, agricultural, and domestic 
 science training. In an address delivered by 
 the secretary at the annual convention of 
 division school superintendents, which was 
 held in Manila on January 14 to 20, 1907, it 
 was pointed out that along the lines of purely 
 academic instruction most satisfactory prog- 
 ress has been made, but that an immense 
 field for the development of the more practical 
 lines of education still lay before the de- 
 partment. 
 
 It was also shown that because of the previ- 
 ous training and habits of thought of the Fili- 
 pinos and the necessity of making every 
 member of the community a self-supporting 
 individual at the earliest practicable date, 
 that it was necessary to establish and main- 
 tain the most extensive industrial school sys- 
 tem throughout these islands which the finan- 
 ces of the government would permit. The 
 Filipino boys have shown exceptional aptitude 
 and ability for acquiring industrial training, 
 and in the use of modern tools and implements 
 they have shown themselves remarkably efii- 
 
346 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 cient. The Primary Industrial work includes 
 weaving, hat-making, drawing, elementary 
 agriculture, woodworking (ship and carpen- 
 try ), elementary pottery and masonry, mak- 
 ing of rope, cordage, brooms, brushes, etc., 
 for the boys, and weaving, sewing, cooking, 
 dyeing, bleaching, hat-making, and pottery 
 for the girls. 
 
 In a recent interview, Mr. B. E. Ingersoll, 
 principal of the large Trade School at Iloilo, 
 is quoted as saying : 
 
 '*When we first started work among the 
 Filipinos, although we had everything in the 
 way of equipment, we encountered every 
 kind of difficulty and opposition. Our first 
 year was very discouraging, for the natives 
 refused to attend school or even to show the 
 slightest interest. In fact, I remember during 
 that year that we had less than twenty-five 
 pupils in the entire school. After the first 
 year they seemed to hunger for an education, 
 but the courses they pursued were impractic- 
 able and did not serve to help them in earning 
 a living. Again, many of them needed money 
 on which to live while they attended school. 
 From this situation sprung the trade school. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 347 
 
 which today is one of the factors in the de- 
 velopment of our island possessions and in the 
 happiness and comfort of its people. The 
 trade school is self-supporting in itself and 
 earns a living for its students. The school 
 takes contracts for different work in their 
 line. During the afternoon session of the 
 school, it pays its students, who are practically 
 practicing at their trade, for piece work. In 
 one instance, we took a contract for the making 
 of 100 trunks for the constabulary police and 
 paid the pupils for their work in turning them 
 out." 
 
 Agricultural and industrial schools are being 
 rapidly extended among the non-Christian 
 tribes with fair success. Filipino students 
 were sent by the government to the United 
 States for further education. A number of 
 students are reported as having finished their 
 course with credit, subsequently taking posi- 
 tions under the civil service or as insular 
 teachers. The yearly expense of maintaining 
 these students in the United States is nearly 
 $100,000. If this nation has helped in the 
 educating of the Filipino, it has been of equal 
 service in the line of sanitation. Disraeli 
 
348 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 once wrote : *Tublic health is the foundation , 
 upon which rests the happiness of the people 
 and the power of the State." 
 
 The general average health among the 
 Filipinos has been raised. Smallpox has been 
 checked by compulsory vaccination of the 
 entire population, a disease which formerly 
 claimed a toll of hundreds of thousands of 
 lives. The Bubonic plague has been kept out 
 of the Islands, and the lepers have been as- 
 sembled in one place. The tropical diseases 
 are being studied and efforts made to strike at 
 the cause of the age-long plagues. 
 
 The question of higher education conducted 
 under Federal authority has always been a 
 dream of some of the national leaders. Wash- 
 ington, himself, hoped for the establishment of 
 a great national university to be located in the 
 Federal City as is shown by an item in his will. 
 
 Item — "I give and bequeath in perpetuity, 
 the fifty shares which I hold in the Potomac 
 Company (under the aforesaid acts of the 
 legislature of Virginia ) toward the endowment 
 of a university, to be established within the 
 limits of the District of Columbia, under the 
 auspices of the general government, if that 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 849 
 
 government should incline to extend a foster- 
 ing hand towards it. (Signed July 9, 1790. )" 
 Those who did not believe in a centralized 
 government opposed so strongly the granting 
 of any appropriations for such purposes, that 
 the university was not established. 
 
 A bequest made by an unknown foreigner 
 in 1826 made it possible for the nation to 
 undertake research work and the diffusion of 
 knowledge without depending upon the whims 
 of Congress for the necessary funds. James 
 Smithson, an Englishman who had never 
 visited America, and, as far as is known, was not 
 acquainted with any Americans, willed his 
 estate, amounting to more than half a million 
 dollars to the United States: *'I bequeath the 
 whole of my property to the United States of 
 America, to found at Washington, under the 
 name of the Smithsonian Institute, an estab- 
 lishment for the increase and diffusion of 
 knowledge among men." 
 
 The gift was accepted and the establishment 
 was organized, composed of the President of 
 the United States, Vice-President, the mem- 
 bers of the Cabinet, and the Chief Justice of 
 the Supreme Court. The administration is 
 
850 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 by a Board of Regents composed of the Vice- 
 President of the United States, the Chief 
 Justice, three members of the Senate, three 
 members of the House of Representatives and 
 six citizens, no two of whom may be from the 
 same state, though two must be residents of 
 the District of Columbia. The executive 
 officer of the Smithsonian Institute is the 
 secretary, chosen by the Regents. A beauti- 
 ful building was built on the Mall, and situ- 
 ated as it is in a park, this structure forms 
 one of the architectural attractions of the city. 
 
 The motive underlying the bequest was the 
 desire **to increase knowledge; to stimulate 
 men of talent to make original researches, by 
 offering suitable rewards for memoirs con- 
 taining new truths ; to appropriate annually a 
 portion of the income for particular researches 
 under the direction of suitable persons," and 
 "to diffuse knowledge; to publish a series of 
 periodical reports on the progress of different 
 branches of knowledge; and to publish occa- 
 sionally separate treaties on subjects of general 
 interest." 
 
 The publications of all these series are dis- 
 tributed gratuitously to important public 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 351 
 
 libraries throughout the world, thus aiding 
 greatly in the diffusion of knowledge. Con- 
 gress has, from time to time, added to the 
 duties of this Institution. It was made the 
 depository for scientific books. It was made 
 the custodian, and the only lawful place of 
 deposit, of all objects of art and of foreign and 
 curious research, and all objects of natural 
 history, plants and geological and mineral- 
 ogical specimens belonging to the United 
 States. These collections are known as the 
 National Museum. 
 
 A large number of works of art having been 
 given the nation, the Institution was declared 
 to be the National Gallery of Art and the 
 recipient of all such donations. 
 
 In the early history of the establishment, 
 scientific study of the American Indian was 
 undertaken. From these researches has grown 
 the Bureau of American Ethnology, an im- 
 portant division of the work of the Institution. 
 Another Bureau is that of the International 
 Exchange, by means of which any scientist of 
 recognized standing, whether in the United 
 States or elsewhere, may send, without ex- 
 pense to himself, any material of a scientific 
 
352 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 nature, including books, to any other scientist 
 who is within reach of the system. While 
 not a federal university, it is doing much of 
 the work that would be done by such an in- 
 stitution, having eighty-two men on its scien- 
 tific staflf. 
 
 In 1902, Mr. Carnegie gave twelve millions 
 of dollars to found in Washington, in the 
 spirit of Washington, a university without 
 students, which "with the co-operation of 
 institutions now or hereafter established, 
 there or elsewhere, shall, in the broadest 
 and most liberal manner, encourage investiga- 
 tion, research and discovery, encourage the 
 application of knowledge to the improvement 
 of mankind; provide such buildings, labora- 
 tories, books and apparatus as may be needed, 
 and afford instruction of an advanced char- 
 acter to students whenever and wherever 
 found, inside or outside of schools, properly 
 qualified to profit thereby." 
 
 Congress approved and incorporated the 
 institution in 1904. The work carried on may 
 be divided into four classes : 
 
 First: large projects whose execution re- 
 quires continuous research by a corps of 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 353 
 
 investigators during a series of years; second: 
 small projects which may be carried out by 
 individual experts in a limited period of time; 
 third: tentative investigations, carried on by 
 young men and women who have shown un- 
 usual aptitude for research and have desired 
 to pursue specific problems for one or two 
 years ; fourth : the publication of the year- 
 books of the institution and of certain works 
 which would not otherwise be readily printed. 
 
 In pursuance of this plan, six laboratories 
 for as many different fields of investigation 
 have been constructed in different sections of 
 the country, and an administration building 
 is in course of construction in Washington and 
 plans for the construction of a vessel specially 
 designed for ocean magnetic work have been 
 completed. 
 
 The following departments of investigation 
 have been established: Department of Bo- 
 tanical Research, with headquarters at Tucson, 
 Ariz.; Department of Marine Biology, with 
 headquarters at Tortugas, Fla. ; Departments 
 of Historical Research and Terrestrial Mag- 
 netism, with headquarters in Washington; 
 Geographical Laboratory, located in Washing- 
 
S54 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 ton; Department of Economies and Sociology, 
 with headquarters in Worcester, Mass. ; Mount 
 Wilson Solar Observatory, in California, and 
 the Department of Meridian Astrometry, 
 which is now establishing a temporary ob- 
 servatory in San Luis in Argentina. 
 
 The nation has devoted much attention to 
 agricultural education and research. Agri- 
 cultural societies were formed in the very 
 beginning of the United States, having for 
 their object the handling of fairs and the pub- 
 lication of books and periodicals. In 1792, a 
 professorship for natural history, chemistry 
 and agriculture was established in Columbia, 
 in New York City. During the next forty 
 years, many schools in which agriculture was 
 taught were opened in various parts of the 
 country. In 1853, New York opened the 
 Peoples' College, a state agricultural and in- 
 dustrial school. Within a few years, three 
 other states opened agricultural colleges. 
 
 The national connection with agricultural 
 education began when the Department of 
 Agriculture was formed in 1838; first as a 
 division of the Patent Office for the purpose 
 of distribution of valuable seeds and plants. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 355 
 
 and in 1862 formally organized as an inde- 
 pendent department. The story of the edu- 
 cational work of this department is told in the 
 annual report. The Act establishing the de- 
 partment, defined the purpose to be, "to 
 acquire and diffuse among the people of the 
 United States useful information on subjects 
 connected with agriculture in the most general 
 and comprehensive sense of that word, and to 
 procure, propagate, and distribute among the 
 people new and valuable seeds and plants.'* 
 Since its organization, however, the functions 
 of the department have been constantly en- 
 larged by succeeding Acts of Congress, until 
 they now include almost every phase of agri- 
 cultural research, and a wide range of edu- 
 cational work. The year in which the National 
 Department of Agriculture was established 
 according to a report on agricultural education 
 also marks the passage of the first Morrill Act 
 "donating public lands to the several states 
 and territories which may provide colleges 
 for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic 
 arts." This Act provided for "the endow- 
 ment, support, and maintenance of at least 
 one college ( in each state ) where the leading 
 
356 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 object shall be, without excluding other 
 scientific and classical studies, and including 
 military tactics, to teach such branches of 
 learning as are related to agriculture and me- 
 chanic arts * • * * in order to promote 
 the liberal and practical education of the 
 industrial classes in the several pursuits and 
 professions in life." For these purposes the 
 several states were granted 30,000 acres of 
 land for each member of Congress, the entire 
 proceeds of the sale of which was to constitute 
 a perpetual fund yielding not less than five 
 per cent interest. There have been granted 
 by the federal government, under the provi- 
 sions of this Act, 10,320,843 acres of land, from 
 the sale of which there has been realized the 
 sum of $12,744,467 with land valued at 
 $4,858,111 remaining unsold. 
 
 The passage by Congress of the Hatch Act 
 in 1887, granting each state and territory 
 $15,000 for the establishment and maintenance 
 of agricultural experiment stations gave a 
 great impetus to agricultural education in 
 the land grant colleges. The Morrill Act passed 
 by Congress in 1890 increased the amount of 
 the grant providing an immediate appropria- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 357 
 
 tion of $15,000 to each state and territory, an 
 increase of $1,000 each year for ten years, 
 and thereafter $25,000 annually to be applied 
 only to instruction in agriculture, the mechanic 
 arts, the English language, and the various 
 branches of mathematical, physical, natural, 
 and economic science. Fifteen states have 
 taken advantage of this provision, while 
 sixty-three agricultural institutions receive 
 from federal and state governments an income 
 amounting in all to more than $10,000,000 
 annually. Experiment stations are now in 
 operation in every state and territory includ- 
 ing the insular possessions. Both the depart- 
 ment and the stations open their laboratories 
 to students for research work while continuing 
 their studies. 
 
 The work of the Agricultural Department 
 in reaching the farmer and his family with the 
 results of its own laboratory work, and that 
 of the experiment stations, is ever widening. 
 President Roosevelt in his first message, said : 
 "The national government, through the De- 
 partment of Agriculture, should do all it can 
 by joining with the state governments and 
 with independent associations of farmers to 
 
358 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 encourage the growth in the open farming 
 country of such institutional and social move- 
 ments as will meet the demand of the best 
 type of farmers, both for the improvement of 
 their farms and for the betterment of the life 
 itself. The Department of Agriculture has in 
 many places, perhaps especially in certain 
 districts of the South, accomplished an ex- 
 traordinary amount by co-operating with and 
 teaching the farmers through their associa- 
 tions, on their own soil, how to increase their 
 income by managing their farms better than 
 they were hitherto managed. The farmer 
 must not lose his independence, his initiative, 
 his rugged self-reliance, yet he must learn to 
 work in the heartiest co-operation with his 
 fellows, exactly as the business man has learned 
 to work; and he must prepare to use to con- 
 stantly better advantage the knowledge that 
 can be obtained from agricultural colleges, 
 while he must insist upon a practical curri- 
 culum in the schools in which his children are 
 taught." 
 
 Concerning instruction in meteorology, the 
 chief of the Weather Bureau reports as follows : 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 359 
 
 "A steady increase of interest in meteorological 
 education is manifest throughout the country, 
 as, in fact, throughout other civilized nations. 
 In general, instruction in meteorology is con- 
 sidered as a part of the courses in geology, 
 geography, or physical geography; but in two 
 universities, George Washington and Cornell, 
 courses have been offered in the higher 
 mathematics and physics that constitute the 
 fundamental basis of meteorology. 
 
 **During 1907, there were fourteen universi- 
 ties, colleges, and scientific schools in which 
 regular courses of instruction were given by 
 Weather Bureau officials, and in five or six 
 more the matter was in abeyance. Also there 
 were at least forty officials besides those con- 
 ducting the above mentioned courses who 
 gave occasional lectures or addresses." 
 
 The chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry 
 reports on the distribution of seeds for school 
 gardens as follows: **The school-garden work 
 which has heretofore been conducted by the 
 office of the horticulturalist has been con- 
 siderably enlarged during the present year. 
 The work of supplying flower and vegetable 
 
360 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 seed to teachers of the rural schools was ex- 
 tended to every state in the Union save two, 
 namely, Arkansas and Nevada. The four 
 states which received the greatest number 
 were New York, Illinois, Maryland, and 
 Massachusetts in the order named. The 
 extent of this work can be seen when it is 
 stated that the number of individual gardens 
 which, if planned on the basis suggested in 
 Farmer's Bulletin, No. 218, could be main- 
 tained with the seed furnished aggregates 
 36,173 flower gardens and 31,480 vegetable 
 gardens. In addition to the seed, 5,102 
 decorative collections, consisting of ten va- 
 rieties of annual flowering plants, have been 
 distributed to these schools. The total num- 
 ber of packets of flowers and vegetable seed 
 sent out for school purposes was 388,285. It 
 is evident from these figures that there is a 
 very general interest in the school-garden 
 work, and as the demand increases each year 
 it is believed that a very important edu- 
 cational want is being met." 
 
 The Forest Service has sent thousands of its 
 publications to teachers and school oflSicers and 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 361 
 
 has recently published a valuable circular on 
 forestry in the Public Schools. The Service is 
 now co-operating with the Office of Experi- 
 ment Stations in preparing exercises in forestry 
 for elementary and secondary schools. 
 
 Many agricultural high schools have re- 
 cently been established, recognizing the teach- 
 ing of agriculture as one of the important 
 branches of industrial education. Federal 
 aid has been sought for the establishment of 
 industrial schools in the several states, many 
 bills have been introduced, but they are mostly 
 embodied in the Davis Bill,* still pending in 
 Congress. This bill provides for national aid 
 to industrial schools, not more in number than 
 one for each district of five counties, nor less 
 than one for each district of fifteen counties in 
 each of the states, on condition that the schools 
 shall be otherwise adequately supported by 
 the states in which they are located. The 
 measure takes account of all three kinds of 
 industrial training, but the emphasis is placed 
 upon agriculture. 
 
 The Agricultural Department is not only 
 teaching the boys and girls but it is also teach- 
 
 ♦See Appendix for text of Davis Bill 
 
362 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 ing the adults to farm, and this includes home 
 culture as well as crop culture. The women as 
 well as the men are taught by experts at all of 
 the farmers' institutes. 
 
 Booker Washington, in a recent magazine 
 article, speaking of the new work of education, 
 says: "If I were to name a single instance of 
 this new policy of taking education to the man 
 on the job, an instance which seems to me to 
 be more thorough-going and more fruitful of 
 good than any other of which I know, I should 
 refer to the work that the General Education 
 Board is doing in conjunction with the Agri- 
 cultural Department at Washington in order 
 to instruct the farmers of the South, by 
 practical demonstrations on their own farms, 
 J ft the newer and better methods of cultivat- 
 ing the soil. No other single agency, I am 
 sure, is destined to do more in the task of 
 creating the New South. 
 
 "It has compelled the farmer, the mechanic 
 and the doctor to go back to school to become 
 students, and to retain the student habit in 
 reference to the practice of their trades and 
 professions. 
 
 "On the other hand, the same need has com- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 363 
 
 pelled the universities and the schools to go 
 outside of their walls in order to reach the 
 masses of the people. It is responsible for 
 the night-schools and the university extension 
 work and the correspondence schools of all 
 kmds." 
 
 "It is a significant fact," says Dr. Brown, 
 Commissioner of Education, **that our more 
 recent educational movements are taking 
 much more adequate account of the body on 
 the one hand, and of the supreme concern of 
 human life or moral life upon the other hand." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 Transforming Foreigners into Fellow Citizens 
 
 Each ship doth bring them ; see where lost they stand 
 
 In huddled groups, and stare from side to side 
 
 Upon the curious crowds whose looks deride 
 
 Their peasant faces, garments strange that brand 
 
 Them aUens; in their far-off native land 
 
 Each had his place, though himible; here the tide 
 
 Sweeps him along, an animal dull-eyed, 
 
 Patient, submissive. What mysterious hand 
 
 Haa thus uprooted from their ancient place 
 
 These myriad exiles, cast them on our shore, 
 
 And what the purpose? Shall our country be 
 
 The crucible of nations whence a race 
 
 Shall issue in dim ages to restore 
 
 God's image to mankind, and make men free? 
 
 William Aspemvall Bradley. (Oct, 'OQ-American) . 
 
 The real Americans came to this land in the 
 cabin of the Mayflower and landed on Ply- 
 mouth Rock — yes, and they are also coming 
 in the unspeakable steerage of every ship 
 which lands its motley crowd at Ellis Island. 
 
 The only native Americans were the red 
 men, who stood with wondering eyes and 
 welcomed the newcomers from many lands. 
 There never has been a time when this was a 
 white man's country with common ideals and 
 
 M:m: 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 365 
 
 a universal language. The nation, its people, 
 and its language have always been in the 
 making, for new elements have been con- 
 stantly introduced. If the earlier settlers 
 were English, they were quickly followed by 
 Dutch, German, Spanish, French, African, 
 each with its own national offering for the 
 composite life of the new nation. John Alden, 
 Roger Williams, John Smith, William Penn, 
 Peter Stuyvesant, down to the latest Vasili 
 KorbsofiF just landed from Russia — each of 
 these came with an added contribution to the 
 common life. 
 
 There are those who would put up the bars 
 against all except the Celt, the Briton, the 
 Teuton, the Scandinavian, but the Semitic, 
 the Slavic, and the Latin peoples have quali- 
 ties which are needed to complete a full 
 rounded national life. A student of racial 
 characteristics, says: "We shall be a more 
 versatile, a more plastic people, gentler in our 
 thoughts and feelings because of the Alpine 
 strain; livelier and brighter, with a higher 
 power to enjoy the beautiful things of life, 
 because of the Latin blood. We may doubt- 
 less learn courtesy from many an Italian; 
 virtue from many a Slav; family loyalty from 
 
5> 
 
 366 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 many a Jew; the beauty and the refining in 
 fluences of music from many a Hungarian. 
 
 The question of restriction of immigration 
 is not one of shutting out European races, 
 but of denying entrance to the dependent and 
 defective individuals from all the nations. 
 As President Roosevelt well said, "We cannot 
 have too many good immigrants, and we do 
 not want any bad ones." 
 
 A million aliens coming to our ports each 
 year will prove too great a number for proper 
 assimilation unless better methods of selection 
 are applied, and greater effort is put forth to 
 train the new Americans in the ideals of 
 democracy. Yet quantity will be no menace 
 if the quality of immigration is up to the 
 standard. Quantity will be no menace if 
 those who are already here will teach the 
 newcomers that we are brothers all in the 
 building of a great nation.* Selection, re- 
 
 ♦IMMIGRATION BY DECADES, 1820 to 1906, INCLUSIVE. 
 
 1820 8,385 
 
 1821 to 1830 143,439 
 
 1831 to 1840 599,125 
 
 1841 to 1850 1,713,251 
 
 1851 to 1860 2,511,060 
 
 1861 to 1870 2,377,279 
 
 1871 to 1880 2,812,191 
 
 1881 to 1890 6,246,613 
 
 1891 to 1900 3,687,564 
 
 1901 to 1906 4,933,811 
 
 Total 24.032,718 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 367 
 
 ception, education, these are great words, 
 embodying great ideas, suggesting the neces- 
 sary steps in the nation's work of transforming 
 foreigners into fellow citizens. 
 
 The history of the regulation of immigra- 
 tion only records the restrictive measures of 
 the last quarter century of our nation's life. 
 For the first thirty years of the federal con- 
 stitution, the Fathers regarded this republic 
 as an asylum for the oppressed of all nations, 
 and the good and the bad were equally wel- 
 comed. To check, in a measure, the entrance 
 of the criminal classes, an act regulating the 
 "carriage of passengers," referring to ocean 
 passengers, was passed in 1819. But until 
 after the Civil War, Congress left the actual 
 control of immigration to the various sea- 
 board states, which made no efiFort to unify 
 their laws. A comparatively small amount 
 of harm resulted from this lack of system, 
 because these immigrants coming largely from 
 the north of Europe were destined for the 
 farms of the newer west rather than the in- 
 dustrial and mining centers as in later times. 
 
 The Civil War so checked the immigration 
 of the foreigners that special efforts were put 
 
368 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 forth to encourage their coming. President 
 Lincoln, during our Civil War, in his third 
 annual message (1863), referring to the 
 subject of immigration, said: '*I again submit 
 to your consideration the expediency of es- 
 tablishing a system for the encouragement of 
 immigration. Although this source of national 
 wealth and strength is again flowing with 
 greater freedom than for several years before 
 the insurrection occurred, there is still a 
 great deficiency of laborers in every field of 
 industry, especially in agriculture and in our 
 mines, as well of iron and coal as of the pre- 
 cious metals. TMiile the demand for labor is 
 much increased here, tens of thousands of 
 persons destitute of remunerative occupation 
 are thronging our foreign consulates and offer- 
 ing to emigrate to the United States if essen- 
 tial, but very cheap, assistance can be afforded 
 them ♦ ♦ • ♦ This noble offer demands the 
 aid, and ought to receive the attention and 
 support, of the government." 
 
 Again, in his fourth annual message (1864 ), 
 he said : "I regard our immigrants as one of 
 the principal replenishing streams which are 
 appointed by Providence to repair the ravages 
 
 .l:£i± 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 369 
 
 of internal war and its waste of national 
 strength and health. All that is necessary is 
 to secure the flow of that stream in its present 
 fullness and to that end the government must 
 in every way make it manifest that it neither 
 needs nor designs to impose involuntary mili- 
 tary service upon those who come from other 
 lands to cast their lot in our country." 
 
 Later the evident necessity for restriction 
 of coolie immigration and contract labor 
 called for the laws of 1869, 1873 and 1875. 
 The first real immigration law was passed in 
 1882, the Supreme Court having decided that 
 this question was one to be settled by the 
 federal rather than state legislation. In the 
 practical administration of this law, the nation 
 allowed the states to perform the work with 
 federal co-operation. National supervision of 
 immigration was fully secured by the law of 
 1891, and the machinery for the enforcement 
 of the law was set in motion. Owing to the 
 industrial depression which followed, there 
 was a widespread feeling of hostility toward 
 the immigrant, finding voice in the demand 
 for an "illiteracy test," which was enacted 
 into law by Congress in 1896, but vetoed by 
 President Cleveland. 
 
870 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 The law of 1903, added further restrictive 
 measures, increasing the head tax to $2.00, 
 excluding many more classes of persons and 
 requiring the deposit of the ships' manifests 
 containing full information concerning the 
 immigrant. 
 
 In 1903, the supervision of immigration was 
 transferred to the new Department of Com- 
 merce and Labor, and later the administra- 
 tion of the naturalization laws was added to 
 the work of this Bureau. In 1907, after 
 much discussion, a new Act was passed by 
 Congress, which gave the government in- 
 creased powers in supervision and selection, 
 although it left many loop-holes which must 
 be stopped later. 
 
 It is well to know the important provisions 
 of this law in order to judge of its effectiveness. 
 This law raises the head tax to $4.00, although 
 the original bill made the amount five dollars 
 instead of four. This head tax is to be paid 
 to the collector of the port by the master of 
 the vessel. The tax becomes a lien on the 
 ship until paid. This forms an "immigrant 
 fund to be used to defray the expense of regu- 
 lating immigration, the salaries of officers and 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 371 
 
 clerks, and all other expenses incurred in en- 
 forcing the laws.* That this head tax might 
 
 *The financial statement of the immigrant fimd for a year is 
 shown in the following which is a statement of the receipts and 
 expenditures on account of the immigrant fund for the fiscal year 
 July 1, 1907, to June 30, 1908, and balance on hand, June 30. 
 
 Balance shown in report for fiscal year 1907 $3,079,515 .26 
 
 Special appropriations not heretofore deducted .... 1,259,529 . 13 
 
 Total 1,819,986.13 
 
 Amount advanced to Immigration Commission, 
 
 fiscal year, 1907 75,000.00 
 
 $1,744,986.13 
 
 Appropriation "Enforcement of the 
 Chinese-Exclusion Act," 1908 500,000.00 
 
 Appropriation "Immigrant Station, 
 Charieston, S. C 70,000.00 
 
 Appropriation "Immigrant Station, 
 Galveston, Tex." 70,000.00 
 
 Appropriation "Immigrant Station, 
 
 New Orleans, La." 70,000.00 
 
 Appropriation "Immigrant Station, 
 Philadelphia, Pa." 250,000.00 
 
 Reimbursement, Public Health and 
 
 Marine Hospital Service 150,000.00 
 
 Addition to old Hospital building, Elhs 
 Island 250,000.00 
 
 Additional buildings contagious-dis- 
 ease hospital, Ellis Island 150,000 . 00 
 
 New Water main, ElHs Island ........ 18,000 . 00 
 
 Mechanical equipment, contagious- 
 disease hospital, Ellis Island 115.000.00 
 
 Immigration Commission 75,677.14 
 
 Amount of special appropriations to be 
 reimbursed from the "immigrant 
 fund." 1,718,677.14 
 
 26,308.99 
 Receipts, fiscal year, 1908 2,600,000.00 
 
 2,526,308.99 
 Expenditures, fiscal year, 1908 1,975,391 . 95 
 
 Balance June 30, 1908 $550,917.04 
 
372 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 well be increased to ten dollars is the thought 
 of certain experts, this increase to be made, 
 not for the purpose of restriction but rather 
 to reimburse the government for the cost of an 
 increased force of employees, and to cover all 
 expenses incurred before individual immigrants 
 become self-supporting. 
 
 The provisions of this law regarding the 
 excluded classes are strong enough if thor- 
 oughly enforced to keep most of the undesir- 
 able immigrants from landing on our shores 
 or remaining to become a burden to the na- 
 tion.* 
 
 A recent decision of the Commissioner of 
 
 Causes of rejection. 
 
 1904 
 
 1905 
 
 1906 
 
 1907 
 
 1908 
 
 Idiocy 
 
 16 
 
 33 
 4,798 
 1,560 
 
 35 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 1,501 
 
 38 
 
 92 
 
 7,898 
 2,198 
 
 39 
 
 24 
 
 4 
 1,164 
 
 92 
 
 139 
 7,069 
 2,273 
 
 205 
 
 30 
 
 « 
 2 
 2,314 
 
 29 
 
 189 
 6,866 
 3,822 
 
 341 
 
 18 
 
 1 
 1,434 
 
 20 
 
 Imbeciles 
 
 45 
 
 Feeble-minded 
 
 121 
 
 Insanity (including 
 
 epileptics ) 
 
 184 
 
 Pauperism 
 
 3,741 
 
 Contagious diseases 
 
 Tuberculosis 
 
 2,900 
 53 
 
 Criminality 
 
 136 
 
 Prostitution (and in 1908 
 other like immorality) . . 
 
 Procuring or importing pros- 
 titutes, etc 
 
 124 
 43 
 
 Contract laborers 
 
 1,932 
 
 During year ending June 30, 1910, 25,000 were denied admis- 
 sion while 1,041,570 were admitted. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 373 
 
 Immigration extends this act to apply to the 
 possession of a certain amount of money. 
 "Certain steamship companies are bringing to 
 this port many immigrants whose funds are 
 manifestly inadequate for their proper sup- 
 port until such time as they are likely to ob- 
 tain profitable employment. Such action is 
 improper and must cease. In the absence 
 of a statutory provision, no hard and fast rule 
 can be laid down as to the amount of money 
 an immigrant must bring with him, but in 
 most cases it will be unsafe for immigrants 
 to arrive with less than twenty-five dollars 
 in addition to a railroad ticket to destination; 
 while in many cases they should have more. 
 They must, in addition, of course, satisfy 
 the authorities that they will not become 
 charges upon either public or private charity.'* 
 
 If the steerage "pays the ship," then is it 
 any wonder that there has been in the past a 
 great scramble for the passage money of the 
 immigrant.f^ The steamship companies, with 
 ships flying a foreign flag, thought first of the 
 dollar, so that quantity rather than quality 
 became their aim. 
 
 By glowing advertisements and by the 
 
374 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 personal eflForts of their agents, immigration 
 was unduly stimulated. As long as this emi- 
 gration meant the opportunity of freeing their 
 lands of dependents and delinquents, many 
 countries not only acquiesced but secretly 
 aided the transportation companies in the 
 effort to increase the size of the ships' mani- 
 fests. 
 
 This secret encouragement of emigration has 
 given place to a policy of restriction on the 
 part of most of the European nations, for they 
 have discovered that the emigration of thou- 
 sands of stalwart young men is a financial loss 
 inasmuch as their going has greatly reduced 
 the number fitted for military service or for 
 industrial or agricultural life. Another reason 
 for restriction is found in the fact that the 
 deported immigrant is returned not to his 
 home, but to a port often far from his native 
 village, thus filling the ports with paupers and 
 possible criminals, every one becoming an 
 added burden to the state. 
 
 In addition to the free transportation of 
 the deported immigrants by the steamship 
 companies, under the new law these com- 
 panies are fined $100 for bringing to the 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 375 
 
 United Staes any alien who is an idiot, im- 
 becile, epileptic, afflicted with tuberculosis or 
 with any loathsome or dangerous contagious 
 disease, if it can be shown that such disease or 
 disability could have been detected before 
 sailing. Because of this provision, more care- 
 ful inspection is made by the transportation 
 companies, and yet because of the passage 
 money, the temptation is always present to 
 take great risks in hope that individuals care- 
 fully coached to answer questions may be 
 able to pass the inspectors at Ellis Island. 
 The equipment and management of Ellis 
 Island is well nigh perfect, but with several 
 thousand immigrants daily passing through, 
 little time is given for a sufficiently careful 
 individual inspection. That the inspection 
 and selection should be made before sailing is 
 self-evident, yet thus far but one country has 
 granted this privilege. Physicians from the 
 U. S. Marine Hospital Service are welcomed 
 as inspectors in the ports of Italy, for that 
 nation has a special care for all of its emi- 
 grants, constantly sending officials to every 
 foreign colony, and reporting conditions to 
 their government. 
 
376 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 There are those who insist that even foreign- 
 port inspection is not enough, but that there 
 should be located an inspection station in 
 every important center that none need be 
 misinformed or drawn away from home with- 
 out assurance of entrance to the United States. 
 This inspection service might be maintained 
 even in an unwilling country by a provision 
 denying entrance to any aliens except those 
 who bore clean bills from such local inspectors. 
 This extra expense could be met from the in- 
 creased head tax. Until such a system is 
 established, the government is compelled to 
 maintain a force of secret service men espe- 
 cially to see that the steamship companies do 
 not break the law regarding the soliciting of 
 trade, to watch the procurers of women, and 
 to keep a check on those who are seeking to 
 import contract labor. 
 
 The necessity for strict enforcement of the 
 Contract Labor Law is revealed in the con- 
 stant effort on the part of employers of labor 
 to import foreigners in order to reduce the 
 wage or to take the place of strikers. Nat- 
 urally the labor unions are opposed to such 
 importation of alien labor as tending to lower 
 
 ^r,l 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 377 
 
 the standard of living. That they have high 
 authority for their desire to maintain a high 
 standard is certain, for President Taft is 
 reported to have said in a recent speech: 
 "There is a higher standard of living among 
 American laborers than in any country in the 
 world, and while there doubtless have been a 
 good many other reasons for this, certainly 
 the eflFect of the organization of labor has been 
 to maintain the steady and high rate of wages, 
 making such a standard of living possible." 
 
 The Bureau of Immigration thus urges the 
 necessity for the continuance of the contract 
 labor law: "So long as healthy, honest, and 
 industrious laborers, either unskilled or skilled, 
 seek this country impelled by no other motive 
 than a desire to better their condition, by 
 availing themselves of a natural demand for 
 their services, no one is entitled to complain, 
 but the moment that the migration of any 
 class of laborers is induced, encouraged, or 
 assisted by the prospective employer, there is 
 an encroachment upon that principle essen- 
 tial to the protection of our own institutions 
 and standards of living and constituting the 
 very marrow of the alien contract labor legis- 
 lation, which requires that preference shall be 
 
378 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 given by the employer to our own labor market 
 in the selection of his employes and that a 
 foreign source of supply shall be resorted to 
 only in case of absolute necessity, and even 
 then solely by the statutory means." 
 
 Many criminals and otherwise undesirable 
 immigrants escape U. S. inspection at ports 
 of entry, by traveling as stowaways and by de- 
 serting in American ports from ships on which 
 they were employed as sailors. This apparent 
 failure in the law must be remedied if we are 
 to cope successfully with the "Black Hand,'* 
 and with the fugitives from justice from many 
 lands.* 
 
 ♦Deserting alien seamen, fiscal year ended June 30, 1908. By 
 ports. 
 
 New York, N. Y., 6,942; Boston, Mass. (Spain and 
 France not included) 217; Baltimore, Md., 284; Phila- 
 delphia, Pa., 1,278; San Francisco, Cal., 586; San Juan, P. R. 
 1: Brunswick, Ga., 54; Eureka, Cal., 6; Femandina, Fla., 22; 
 Galveston, Tex., 264; Gloucester, Mass., 6; Gulf port, Miss., 393; 
 Jacksonville, Fla., 8; Key West, Fla., 3; Los Angeles, Cal., 110; 
 Mobile, Ala., 220; New Bedford, Mass., 15; New Orleans, La., 
 782; Norfolk, Va., 247; Pascagoula, Miss., 135; Pensacola, Fla., 
 279; Portland, Me., 9; Portland, Greg., 488; San Diego, Cal., 34; 
 Savannah, Ga., 159; Seattle, Wash., 570; Tampa, Fla., 64; 
 Honolulu, Hawaii, 50; Alaska, 9. Total, 13,235. 
 
 Stowaways found on board vessels, arriying at ports of the 
 United States, fiscal year ended June 30, 1908. By ports: 
 
 New York, N. Y., 344; Boston, Mass., 33; Baltimore, Md., 29; 
 Philadelphia, Pa., 31 ; San Francisco, Cal., 6; San Juan, P. R., 4; 
 Galveston, Tex., 18; Gulfport, Miss., 1; Jacksonville, Fla., 3; 
 Mobile, Ala., 1; New Bedford, Mass., 6; New Orleans, La., 26; 
 Norfolk, Va., and vicinity, 3; Pascagoula, Miss., 3; Pensacola, 
 Fla., 1; Portland, Me., 4; San Diego, Cal., 6; Savannah, Ga., 5; 
 Seattle, Wash., 16; Honolulu, Hawaii, 93. Total, 633. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 379 
 
 The three-years' clause in the immigration 
 laws, making it possible to deport alien women 
 found in houses of ill-fame or practicing pros- 
 titution, made it possible to strike a severe 
 blow at a great evil, but a recent decision of 
 the United States Supreme Court declares 
 the law unconstitutional. The fact that three 
 of the judges dissented from the opinion of the 
 court, gives hope that the apparent defect 
 may be remedied in the near future. 
 
 Our government has tardily subscribed to an 
 international arrangement for the suppression 
 of the white slave traflSc* The countries now 
 
 ♦INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT ON WHITE SLAVE 
 TRAFFIC. 
 
 Article 1. Each of the contracting governments agrees to 
 establish or designate an authority who will be directed to cen- 
 tralize all information concerning the procuration of women or 
 girls with a view to their debauchery in a foreign country; that 
 authority shall have the right to correspond directly with the 
 similar service established in each of the other contracting states. 
 
 Article 2. Each of the governments agrees to exercise a super- 
 vision for the purpose of finding out, particularly in stations, 
 ports of embarkation and on the journey, the conductors of 
 women or girls intended for debauchery. Instructions shall be 
 sent for that purpose to the officials or to any other qualified 
 persons, in order to procure within the limits of the laws, all in- 
 formation of a nature to discover a criminal traffic. 
 
 The arrival of persons appearing evidently to be the authors, 
 the accomphces or the victims of such a traffic will be communi- 
 
380 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 included in the agreement are Great Britain, 
 France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, 
 Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, 
 Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, and the United 
 States. As a further method of restricting 
 this fearful traffic the Commissioner of Immi- 
 gration suggests that, "it would be highly 
 advantageous in the endeavor to break up the 
 white-slave traffic to make it a felony or mis- 
 demeanor punishable by imprisonment for an 
 alien once deported from the United States 
 as a procurer of prostitutes or as a prostitute 
 again to return to the United States, and the 
 alien to be deported at the expiration of the 
 term of imprisonment. It is highly necessary 
 
 cated in each case, either to the authorities of the place of desti- 
 nation, or to the interested diplomatic or consular agent, or to 
 any other competent authorities. 
 
 Article 3. The governments agree to receive, in each case, 
 within the limits of the laws, the declarations of women and girls 
 of foreign nationahty who surrender themselves to prostitution, 
 with a view to establish their identity and their civil status and to 
 ascertain who has induced them to leave their country. The 
 information received will be communicated to the authorities of 
 the country of origin of said women or girls, with a view to their 
 eventual return. 
 
 The governments agree, within the limits of the laws, and as 
 far as possible, to confide temporarily and with a view to their 
 eventual return, the victims of criminal traffic, when they are 
 without any resources, to some institutions of public or private 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 381 
 
 that this diabolical traflSc, which has attained 
 international proportions, should be dealt 
 with in a manner adequate to compass its 
 suppression. No punishment is too severe 
 to inflict upon these procurers who prey upon 
 womanhood. 
 
 In administering the law, the department is 
 
 charity or to private individuals furnishing the necessary guar- 
 antee. 
 
 The governments agree also, within the limits of the law, to 
 return to their country of origin such of said women or girb who 
 ask to be so returned or who may be claimed by persons having 
 authority over them. Such return will be made only after reach- 
 ing an understanding as to their identity and nationaUty, as well 
 as to the place and date of their arrival at the frontier. Each of 
 the contracting parties will faciUtate their transit over its ter- 
 ritory. 
 
 Correspondence relative to the return (of such women or girls ) 
 will be made, as far as possible, through direct channels. 
 
 Article 4. In case the woman or girl to be sent back cannot 
 herself pay the expenses of her transportation and she has neither 
 husband, nor relations, nor guardian to pay for her expenses 
 occasioned by her return, they shall be borne by the country in 
 whose territory she resides as far as the nearest frontier or port 
 of embarkation in the direction of the country of origin, and by 
 the country of origin for the remainder. 
 
 Article 5. The provisions of the above Articles 3 and 4 shall 
 not infringe upon the provisions of special conventions which may 
 exist between the contracting governments. 
 
 Article 6. The contracting governments agree, within the 
 limits of the law, to exercise, as far as possible, a supervision over 
 the bureaus or agencies which occupy themselves with finding 
 places for women or girls in foreign countries. 
 
382 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 frequently embarrassed by the fact that an 
 alien woman of the immoral class refused ad- 
 mission at a port or arrested within the coun- 
 try for deportation may, by marrying an 
 American citizen, invest herself with his 
 status and defeat the purpose of the law. To 
 overcome this difficulty, it will be necessary 
 to add to the Naturalization Act a pro- 
 vision that the marriage of an alien woman to 
 an American citizen shall not be regarded as 
 conferring upon such woman the rights and 
 privileges of citizenship in this country unless 
 she is a person of good moral character. 
 
 The multitudes from all nations are coming 
 to our shores. We cannot close the gates. 
 We can restrict, but even then nearly one 
 million a year of aliens will land at our ports 
 while one-third of that number will yearly 
 return to their native land. Our duty then 
 as citizens is to know these people better, so 
 that we can more easily educate and assimi- 
 late the new Americans. We must know 
 these people before they leave their homes. 
 Already a number of social workers have 
 traced certain streams of immigration to their 
 source. They have lived in the humble homes 
 
 :i-:: 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 383 
 
 in the mountain valleys; they have studied 
 the religion and the ideals of these peasants, 
 and by their descriptive writings furnished 
 the information which makes it possible for 
 us in America to deal with these newcomers, 
 not as "dagoes" or "hunkies," but as men and 
 women, capable of high attainment, recogniz- 
 ing that each nationality has its offering of 
 music or art or methods of agriculture, which 
 will make the nation richer. Prof. Steiner's 
 pilgrimage with a number of young men from 
 Pennsylvania we hope may be extensively 
 copied. The members of this group journeyed 
 to the villages and mountain towns of Italy 
 and eastern Europe, lived in the homes of the 
 peasants, thus gaining a knowledge of the 
 language and customs of the people, which 
 will prove of great service to them as later 
 they take up the Y. M. C. A. work at home 
 among the foreign young men in the industrial 
 and mining districts of their state. 
 
 What are the sources of the great river of 
 immigration? A student of this subject re- 
 ports his conclusions:* "The immigrants en- 
 ter America in two great streams. One has 
 
 Herbert Francis Sherwood, in OiUlook, June 6, 1908. 
 
384 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 its rise among the historic hills of Palestine and 
 receives tributaries from the ports of Greece, 
 the Adriatic, Italy and the Azores. Its course 
 lies over the blue waters of the Mediterranean 
 and between the Pillars of Hercules. The 
 other stream trickles across Russia to the 
 shores of the Baltic and German border. In 
 ancient Poland and on the wooded slopes of 
 the Carpathian Mountains the chief tributaries 
 have their source. These are made up of 
 Slavic men who have toiled long on the land 
 without making headway ; of kerchiefed maids 
 and matrons of the same race who have 
 roughened their fingers, their faces, and their 
 voices in the fields and go in search of husbands 
 or to join them, and well-nigh destitute Jews 
 attempting to escape from their poverty and 
 political persecution at the same time. Across 
 Germany, in well-worn converging courses, 
 these rivers of humanity take their way to the 
 ports of the North Sea — Hamburg, Bremen, 
 Rotterdam, and Antwerp. As the broad 
 stream sets out over the waters of the North 
 Atlantic it is joined by the Scandinavians, 
 English, Welsh, Scotch, and Irish." 
 
 But why do so many leave the farms and 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 385 
 
 vineyards of Calabria, and Sicily, of Mon- 
 tenegro and the Trans-Caucasus, and the 
 many far off regions of eastern Europe? 
 
 In the earlier days it was the potato famine 
 which sent the Irish away from the Emerald 
 Isle. So in other lands, every returning fam- 
 ine or war or over-taxation has sent a multi- 
 tude to these shores of plenty. The pogrom 
 at Kishineff and the "May Laws" stimulated 
 Jewish immigration beyond measure. The 
 glowing picture of work and wealth in the 
 New World, set over against the poverty of the 
 land and the cheapness of labor in the Old 
 World, sent the young men on their long pil- 
 grimage across the water. 
 
 That this was a stimulated immigration is 
 evident to every student. The steamship 
 companies used every art known to the ad- 
 vertiser in order to fill their steerage. All 
 sorts of agencies were used that the most 
 remote of the mountain villages might be 
 reached with the good news of free land and 
 well-paid labor far across the sea. The new 
 law has forbidden this activity, yet ways are 
 still found by which the glowing stories of 
 wealth in America are put in circulation among 
 the simple peasants. 
 
386 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 But stimulated immigration though vast in 
 amount does not equal in numbers that large 
 class of aliens who are led to undertake the 
 long voyage to America, because assisted by 
 friends or relatives, who are already here. 
 Usually the strong men of a village are the first 
 to emigrate to the New World, but the wives 
 and sweethearts left behind soon receive the 
 passage ticket made possible by the higher 
 wages in the land of opportunity. The glowing 
 descriptive letters sent from America are read 
 to the eager listeners in the far-away villages. 
 The padrones and the bankers encourage the 
 sending home of American publications printed 
 in foreign languages. The installment ticket, 
 tempts the immigrant to put all of his spare 
 wages into passage money for the old folks at 
 home. One Russian, coming from the Trans- 
 Caucasus to Los Angeles, six years ago, was 
 the means of bringing to that city 4,000 of 
 his co-religionists, with all of the 25,000 of the 
 remaining ones of their religious sect waiting 
 for an opportunity to leave Russia without a 
 passport and make the long journey to the 
 Pacific shore. 
 
 No doubt many have come to this land be- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 387 
 
 cause of the opportunity for religious liberty 
 denied at home, yet few have even heard of 
 our Declaration of Independence. A simple 
 economic reason led the greater number to 
 break with the past. An opportunity for 
 labor and a chance to gain more of the good 
 things of this life for themselves and their 
 families were the usual reasons why the immi- 
 grant peasants were willing to desert their 
 poverty-stricken farms in Europe. Because 
 of possible wealth in the future, they gladly 
 sold the few acres of their ancestral homes and 
 exchanged the familiar labor of the farm for 
 the harder and more hazardous jobs on the 
 railroads, in the tunnels, mines, factories, or 
 sweatshops of America. 
 
 They are coming by the ship-load, these 
 peasants, and artisans of an older land. We 
 may check the flow but we cannot stop it. 
 Having used every effort possible in the way 
 of selection on the other side, rigidly enforcing 
 the laws against stimulated and assisted immi- 
 gration, placing tried and true men as watch- 
 ers of the gate that the inspection may be 
 well-nigh perfect; deporting everyone to whom 
 the law denies entrance, although that process 
 
388 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 may be tragic, when we have done all this 
 still there will remain nearly a million a year 
 to be added to our population. But the 
 optimist is not discouraged at that. The 
 problem is half solved when you have analyzed 
 it. The disease is well in hand when a diag- 
 nosis is made by the attending physician. 
 That many leaders of thought are hopeful 
 for the future is shown by words like these 
 from some who are nearest the people. Jacob 
 Riis says: "As I have seen them mix ore 
 from far distant mountains in the great 
 blast-furnaces of Pennsylvania, in order that 
 the product may get just the right kind of 
 strength and quality, so it may be that to this 
 recasting of the race to make a people fit for 
 the great destiny which we must believe the 
 Almighty has marked out for the great 
 American Republic, there need go men of all 
 peoples and all lands, of the old and of the 
 new dispensations." 
 
 What will these foreigners do to America 
 when they get the power .'^ Prof. Edward A. 
 Steiner answers: "They will help you save it 
 or they will aid you in destroying it. It is as 
 much in your power whether they shall be 
 leaven' or ^dynamite'.'* 
 
 m 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 389 
 
 The people of Montenegro, Poland, Hun- 
 gary and Italy are worth the knowing. "If 
 struggle for liberty means anything in the 
 character of a nation, then these people have 
 character; for their fields are drenched in 
 martyrs' blood. Where in Hungary the pop- 
 py grows reddest, or in Italy the figs are most 
 luscious, there the common people have shed 
 their blood heroically." 
 
 Mr. David Blaustein, of the Chicago He- 
 brew Institute, speaking of the people he 
 knows so well, says: "The immigrant comes to 
 this country from a land of despotism and op- 
 pression, and finds America willing to allow 
 him to indulge a broad view, freedom — in 
 short, new life. He is the dreamer, the idealist, 
 and loves America by contrast. He finds op- 
 portunity to develop and adopt the American 
 customs, traditions, and spirit with an eager- 
 ness that is absolutely wanting in the Ameri- 
 can native, who looks on these privileges as 
 his natural rights." 
 
 Another lover of the immigrant, writes: 
 "When he comes to the land of the rich, the 
 Italian will bring gifts beyond price, memories 
 of beauty, of gray cliflfs above a purple, ever- 
 
390 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 changing sea, of a coast the loveliest in the 
 world; and more precious than memories, he 
 brings a beauty-loving nature and a joyous 
 spirit. He does not know as he comes with 
 eager looks toward his land of desire that 
 more than he needs our freedom to work, do 
 we need these gifts he brings." 
 
 As one who has spent many years as a 
 neighbor to a multitude of aliens, the writer 
 wishes to record his belief in the immigrant, 
 in the possibility of Americanizing him in the 
 best sense of being able to transform him 
 from a menace, to our civilization to an aid 
 in giving the best to those who come later. 
 
 Granted proper selection, inspection, depor- 
 tation, there yet remains a great work to be 
 done in order to transform the foreigners into 
 fellow-citizens, and this larger service finds 
 expression in the words, "protection, educa- 
 tion and distribution." These last three 
 nouns represent America's new duties to the 
 alien. If the nation, as a whole, undertakes 
 this work as heartily as she has that of trans- 
 forming a desert into a garden, of breeding 
 cattle of a higher standard, or of educating 
 the people of the Insular Possessions, then 
 
JHE JBETTER COUNTRY 891 
 
 will the multitude be prepared for citizen- 
 ship, and a larger brotherhood will be real- 
 ized as the principles of democracy are trans- 
 lated into life. 
 
 The foreigner has been slow to assimilate 
 for he has for the most part met our civilization 
 in the rough. The worst side of all men was 
 toward him, giving him a false ideal of Ameri- 
 can life. The slum was too often his only 
 home, and this evil environment wrought 
 havoc to his old time ideals of family life. 
 His American neighbors too often met him 
 with suspicion and hatred. The padrone 
 first, and then the American contractor were 
 ready to exploit his labor, the only thing 
 which he had to give. His teachers were the 
 ward politicians, the saloon keepers, or pos- 
 sibly the policemen. He was shown how to 
 become a full-fledged citizen within a few 
 months, at a time when American citizenship 
 was exchanged for votes or money. No 
 matter what his standing might be in the 
 old country, be he merchant, artist, artisan, 
 or farmer, here, because of his foreign tongue, 
 he could be only a hewer of wood and a drawer 
 of water, the servile laborer in the building of 
 
392 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 a new nation. The "good people" of the 
 church and school were not in touch with 
 him, but rather looked upon the foreigners as a 
 distinct class, separated from them by a great 
 gulf. They were willing to send a missionary 
 to teach them, but did not wish to have too 
 close personal contact. Who is to blame 
 that we have slums, and our courts and jails 
 are filled with aliens branded as criminals? 
 We, who have been too good to touch these 
 strange people, can largely blame ourselves 
 for they needed us as teachers — they called 
 us, and we sent a proxy. 
 
 The immigrant is well protected in the great 
 receiving stations, being given the most 
 careful attention at every step of the way, 
 from the gangplank to the gateway which 
 opens outward toward the nation. When 
 the gate swung open, the nation thought that 
 its work was done, but this is the very point 
 where the work of the new day must commence. 
 A great governmental plan must be worked 
 out, a plan for protection, education, distri- 
 bution. A start has been made but the best 
 thought of the nation must be given in order 
 properly to develop this plan to its highest 
 efficiency. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 393 
 
 Protection — how can the immigrant be 
 protected after leaving the battery or boarding 
 a train. Thus far many homes and philan- 
 thropic societies have aided in saving thou- 
 sands who might otherwise have been robbed 
 of Hfe or money or character. The govern- 
 ment has given permission for representatives 
 of these societies to labor with the immigrants 
 within the enclosure of Ellis Island, where the 
 society for the Protection of Italian Immi- 
 grants, the Industrial Removal OflBce, and a 
 score of other social or religious organizations 
 are doing a wonderful work with these people 
 who are as helpless as children when landing in 
 America. This is well, but there ought to be 
 a national protective policy. 
 
 In discussing the protection of immigrant 
 women, a writer says: "Many girls do not 
 stop in New York and so come under the in- 
 fluence of the watchful societies. Suppose 
 a girl has a through ticket to Chicago. The 
 responsibility of the government ends when 
 she is safely on the train, and the railway is 
 not held responsible for her safe arrival. 
 Suppose she loses her address, or the street 
 number is wrong, or her friends fail to meet 
 
894 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 her, or have moved, or any one of fifty things 
 that may break the connection, has happened! 
 Suppose a procurer meets her on the train 
 ( as they do ) and she is induced to go with him? 
 Her friends and relatives are anxiously await- 
 ing her, and the government is not aware that 
 she is lost. How long will it be before both 
 begin to look for her together? 
 
 "At present nothing is done by the state or 
 federal government to meet this great defect. 
 The states do not know who are coming into 
 them to live, or under what conditions. They 
 make no effort to get into touch with the 
 immigrants or help them to become citizens. 
 What more simple than for each state to have 
 its department or bureau, and to receive from 
 the federal government the names and addres- 
 ses of all immigrants coming in, to visit them 
 and put forth an effort to make them into 
 citizens ? How else can the compulsory educa- 
 tion law be enforced, when there are hundreds 
 of children coming in who are never on the 
 school roll and cannot be traced? How else 
 can the child labor laws be enforced, when 
 children slip from the station to the factory 
 and are reported above the age which they 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 395 
 
 may look to be ? The ship's manifest, with the 
 ages, would enlighten many duped inspectors 
 if the state had a copy of it from the federal 
 ports. Such bureaus could also cooperate 
 with other states and notify them of removals." 
 
 This may as truly be said of men, for the 
 exploiters of the labor of men and boys are 
 as eager for their victims as are the procurers 
 of women. 
 
 Granted that the matter of selection, res- 
 triction and protection of immigrants will 
 soon be well in hand, the problem of immigra- 
 tion from now on becomes essentially one of 
 distribution. If a decade ago a wise plan of 
 scattering the newcomers had been resorted 
 to, many of the evils of the present day would 
 have been avoided, but without a plan the 
 ports of entry became congested centers, a 
 menace to the general welfare of the nation 
 and a detriment to the character and health 
 of the aliens themselves. 
 
 This country cannot afford to have a large 
 proportion of the new citizens swallowed up 
 by the lower east-side of New York. The 
 rest of the land needs the new blood, the 
 brawn and the brains of these who are seeking 
 
396 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 our shores. How can this distribution be 
 effected? The various philanthropic socie- 
 ties, social and religious, with headquarters 
 in New York have sent many thousands to 
 distant parts of the country. The Jewish 
 Industrial Removal Office, for instance, is 
 thoroughly organized with correspondents in 
 every city and with travelling agents, yet 
 in nine years they have persuaded less than 
 50,000 persons to remove from New York. 
 But 62,000 Jews arrived at Ellis Island during 
 1908, of which 44,000 remained in the city, 
 almost as many as were removed in the nine 
 years of the work of the Office. It is evident 
 that something more than this must be done. 
 Something on a large scale must be undertaken 
 or else the Ghetto will rule the city and the 
 Jew himself will degenerate. 
 
 The desire of some of the states, especially 
 in the South, to secure desirable immigrants 
 ofiFers a new opening for distribution. Desir- 
 ing to aid this movement, the government 
 allows properly accredited agents of the states 
 to work at Ellis Island among the new arrivals. 
 The South offers a splendid field for the alien 
 peasant with its millions of fertile acres await- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY S97 
 
 ing intensive cultivation. Many immigra- 
 tion societies have been formed in a score of 
 states. In describing the work done by one 
 of these societies, in North Carolina, Mr. 
 Hugh Macrae says: "The United States De- 
 partment of Agriculture has shown a willing- 
 ness to co-operate actively with the state 
 department in this work. From the knowledge 
 obtained from the government soil experts 
 other men were trained as experts, and surveys 
 and maps were made of more than six hundred 
 square miles of land. The reports of the soil 
 experts exceeded our expectations. Options 
 were taken on large areas which were best 
 suited for the purpose of colonization. After 
 the titles were examined and accepted by 
 competent attorneys, corps of engineers were 
 put in the field to make surveys, drainage 
 plans, and layouts for farming communities 
 and town sites. This required about two 
 years' work of a large force of men. 
 
 "In the meantime, agents were sent abroad 
 to study the sources of immigration, and the 
 best manner of directing the immigrants to 
 the desired locality. Demonstration farms 
 were started so that the first arrivals could 
 
898 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 be shown the best methods under the new 
 conditions. The ditching, clearing, and fenc- 
 ing were first done by negro labor, and later 
 by the colonists as they arrived. A good 
 superintendent, who was a skilled agriculturist* 
 was placed in charge of each colony, even 
 when it contained only two or three families. 
 As the cost of preparing for and securing the 
 first arrivals was enormous, it seemed wise 
 to nurse them with the greatest care. 
 
 "The Italian colony was started with seven 
 families from Northern Italy. They were 
 chosen from a district in the province of Vene- 
 tia, and it may be interesting to know that 
 our agent, upon investigation, found from the 
 records that no serious crime had been commit- 
 ted in this district for more than four hundred 
 years. To this can be added the statement 
 that at St. Helena in three years there has 
 not been a single lawless act. Five colonies 
 have been established, with Italians at St. 
 Helena, Hungarians and Hollanders at Castle 
 Hayne, Poles at Marathon, Germans at New- 
 berlin, and Hollanders and Poles at Artesia.'' 
 
 That it is essential to the welfare of the 
 nation that the immigrants be scattered over 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 399 
 
 a wide area in order to hasten the process of 
 assimilation, has long been evident to students 
 of the immigration problems, yet it was not 
 until February 26, 1907, that an eflFort was 
 made to embody this thought in law. Section 
 40 of the revised immigration laws, passed at 
 that date, established a Division of Informa- 
 tion, in the Bureau of Immigration. The 
 law reads as follows: 
 
 "It shall be the duty of said Division to 
 promote a beneficial distribution of aliens 
 admitted into the United States among the 
 several states and territories desiring immigra- 
 tion. Correspondence shall be had with the 
 proper oflScials of the states and territories, 
 and said Division shall gather from all available 
 sources useful information regarding the re- 
 sources, products, and physical characteristics 
 of each state and territory, and shall publish 
 such information in diflferent languages and 
 distribute the publications among all admitted 
 aliens who may ask for such information at the 
 immigrant stations of the United States and 
 to such other persons as may desire the same." 
 
 All persons interested in the subject of 
 immigration should study this law very care- 
 
400 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 fully for it seems to offer the solution of a 
 vexed question, since in the carrying out of 
 of the work of the Division lie great possibili- 
 ties for effective service and for the enlarge- 
 ment of national aid, not alone to the aliens 
 but also to Americans in need of economic 
 assistance. Terrence V. Powderly was ap- 
 pointed chief of this Division, and immediately 
 undertook the organization of the work, 
 although the hard times greatly hindered 
 effective work. His methods used to find 
 labor and cheap land that the immigrants 
 might be widely distributed are reported by 
 him in substance as follows: 
 
 Letters were sent to each governor and to 
 other state officials asking for such informa- 
 tion as they had to give relative to the possi- 
 bilities in each state. Letters were also sent 
 to manufacturers' associations and individual 
 employers of labor and to labor unions, en- 
 closing this list of questions : 
 
 Where is the demand for workmen most 
 urgent? 
 
 What class of labor is needed? 
 
 Are settlers on land needed? 
 
 What nationalities or races would be pre- 
 ferred? 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 401 
 
 Does your state (or territory ) offer induce- 
 ments to settlers on lands? 
 
 If strikes, lockouts or other diflSculties 
 exist, state fully the cause of the same. 
 
 The answers returned gave much available 
 information. 
 
 Through the courtesy of the Bureau of 
 Statistics of the Department of Agriculture, 
 the township correspondents of that Depart- 
 ment to the number of 35,000 returned infor- 
 mation on blank forms and these were filed 
 in the oflBce for further use. 
 
 The editors of all agricultural papers were 
 asked to run news items concerning number 
 of immigrants and others who might be sent 
 where there was a scarcity of farm laborers. 
 Nearly 3,000 postmasters of county seats 
 were corresponded with as to whether small 
 farms could be leased or purchased in the 
 locality; with price and terms of sale with 
 details as to climatic conditions, soil, crops, 
 school, church and transportation facilities. 
 Volunteer information of this kind from any 
 part of the land is eagerly sought for as offering 
 a good method for distribution of the aliens. 
 
 Over 2,000,000 cards were sent out through 
 
402 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 the rural delivery routes urging the farmers 
 to make use of the Division when needing 
 laborers. Correspondence was also had with 
 Chambers of Commerce, Boards of Trade, 
 Bureaus of Labor and Statistics, Boards of 
 Agriculture, and with factory inspection de- 
 partments of various states. 
 
 A liberal construction of one clause of the 
 law opens the way for making this Division 
 a great national Employment Bureau vieing 
 with that of New Zealand in its eflfectiveness. 
 The law directs that information gathered 
 by the Division be given "to all who may 
 ask for it at the immigrant stations and to 
 such others as may desire the same." "To 
 such others" can only refer to non-aliens. 
 When this Division has headquarters in every 
 city, it can be made largely to supersede the 
 ordinary employment bureau, and will be 
 free to everyone. In this way, the opportunity 
 to labor might be assured to all. 
 
 Mr. Powderly recommends certain changes 
 which would greatly strengthen the law in 
 practice. Europeans are quite ignorant of 
 the resources of the United States. Litera- 
 ture must be provided and placed in the hands 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 403 
 
 of the immigrants already here, hoping that 
 they may send it home and by this means 
 attract a still better class of people. Repre- 
 sentatives of the government should travel in 
 the steerage, using the time of the passage 
 in distributing literature and informing the 
 passengers as to positions and possibilities 
 elsewhere than at the port of entry. He 
 suggests that a hall be furnished at every 
 immigrant station where the people could be 
 gathered to receive information through lec- 
 tures in their own language, and by means of 
 stereopticon pictures.* 
 
 ♦RECOMMENDATION OF MR. POWDERLY FOR THE 
 AMENDMENT OF SEC. 40. 
 "Section 40. Authority is hereby given the Commissioner- 
 General of Immigration to establish, under the direction and 
 control of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, a division of 
 information and distribution in the Bureau of Immigration and 
 Naturalization; and the Secretary of Commerce and Labor shall 
 
 fTovide such assistance, clerical or otherwise, as may be necessary. 
 t shall be the duty of said Division to promote a beneficial dis- 
 tribution of aliens admitted into the United States and of persons 
 resident therein among the several states and territories, desiring 
 immigration. Correspondence shall be had with the proper oflficials 
 of the states and territories, and said Division shall gather from 
 all available sources useful information regarding the resources, 
 products, and physical characteristics and industrial conditions 
 of each state and territory, and such other information as may be 
 useful or necessary and shall publish the same in different lan- 
 guages and distribute the publications among admitted aliens, 
 either at the immigrant stations in the United States, or at such 
 other points as may be found necessary, and to such other persons 
 as may desire the same, and the Division of Information and 
 
404 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 The completion of the Panama Canal in 
 1915 will make it possible to distribute im- 
 migrants from new centers on the Pacific 
 Coast, for undoubtedly all the great steamship 
 lines will run ships direct from the Old World 
 to the Pacific ports, carrying steerage passen- 
 gers as they do now to New York, Boston, 
 and other Atlantic ports. It is to be hoped 
 that the work of this Division may be per- 
 fected before that date so that Los Angeles, 
 San Francisco, and other coast cities may be 
 saved from the fearful immigrant congestion 
 found at present in the eastern cities. 
 
 Some success has come in the effort to divert 
 immigration to Galveston. The mayor of that 
 city welcomed the first ship bringing Russian 
 
 Distribution may distribute this information in the industrial 
 centers as hereinafter provided, and on shipboard after leaving 
 the last port of foreign embarkation, under such regulations as 
 the Secretary of Commerce and Labor shall prescribe. Branches 
 of the Division of Information and Distribution may, in the dis- 
 cretion of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, be established 
 in the various industrial centers of the United States, where 
 f aciUties shall be afforded to disseminate the information gathered 
 in conformity with this act. The secretary of Commerce and 
 Labor may, whenever it is deemed necessary to verify information 
 furnished to the Division of Information and Distribution, detail 
 oflBcials thereof for that purpose to any part of the United States. 
 All expenses incurred in establishing, equipping, and maintaining 
 the said branch ofl&ces for the accommodation of the said Divisions 
 in the city of Washington, if necessary, and of making the investi- 
 gations herein authorized, shall be paid from the permanent ap- 
 propriation, 'Expenses of Regulating Inunigration'." 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 405 
 
 Jews. The Jewish leader replied to the mayor's 
 words of welcome, saying: "We are over- 
 whelmed that the ruler of the city should 
 greet us. We have never been spoken to by 
 the oflScials of our own country except in 
 terms of harshness, and although we have 
 heard of the great land of freedom, it is very 
 hard to realize that we are permitted to grasp 
 the hand of the great man. We will do all 
 we can to make good citizens.'* 
 
 South America is the point of destination 
 for many of the Latin races. Argentina for 
 instance received in 1908, 250,000 immigrants. 
 On landing they were all given five days' free 
 board and lodging; railroad tickets were given 
 them to any point designated by them, with 
 support for two days after arrival. All me- 
 chanics or laborers who applied were found 
 places by the National Bureau of Labor. 
 Cannot we in the United States do as well and 
 thus make fellow-citizens out of foreigners? 
 
 To the great words already discussed, there 
 must be added another, even greater and that 
 is "education." The public school is working 
 a miracle of transformation among the alien 
 children, but adult education has but just 
 
406 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 commenced. Cannot the government follow 
 every immigrant from the time he arrives 
 until he becomes a naturalized citizen, and 
 see that not alone does he receive employment 
 but that every chance is given him for an 
 education ? Night-schools of citizenship, camp 
 schools, public schools, opened as social and 
 recreation centers can greatly aid in this 
 matter of proper adult education. Adult 
 recreation must be furnished as a counter 
 attraction to the saloon; national plays like 
 Italian Pallone and Boci must be available 
 to all the foreigners. Let the nation, the city, 
 and the state work together in making the 
 New American, and the immigrant problem 
 will soon be solved. Says David in Zangwill's 
 play, "The Melting Pot," "America is God's 
 crucible into which the nations are being poured 
 to come out the new American. Down at the 
 Educational Alliance the other night, I saw 
 a thousand little Jews salute the American 
 flag and my heart was thrilled. This is what 
 they said: 
 
 " Tlag of our great Republic, inspirer in 
 battle, guardian of our homes, whose stars 
 and stripes stand for Bravery, Purity, Truth, 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 407 
 
 and Union, we salute, thee! We, the natives 
 of distant lands, who find rest under thy folds, 
 do pledge our hearts, our lives, and our sacred 
 honor to love and protect thee, our COUNTRY 
 and the LIBERTY of the American people 
 FOREVER.' " 
 
 That the government is determined to secure 
 all the facts regarding immigration is shown 
 by the appointment of a joint Commission 
 of Immigration which is delving deep into 
 every field of investigation. A preliminary 
 report deals with oriental aliens and other 
 excluded classes, peonage, charity among 
 immigrants, white slave traffic, conditions of 
 steerage, anthropology, congestion in large 
 cities, alien criminality, competition of im- 
 migrants, school inquiries, administration of 
 the immigration laws, distribution of immi- 
 grants and other questions. 
 
 While the preparation for citizenship is 
 important, the method of inducing an alien 
 into his duties as a citizen must receive more 
 careful attention, calling perhaps for the 
 passage of new laws. While Congress passed 
 a naturalization law as far back as 1795, its 
 enforcement was left to the states with no 
 
408 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 central control, so that there grew up in this 
 country very great frauds resulting in the 
 cheapening of citizenship and a debauching 
 of the new citizen. 
 
 In 1904, President Roosevelt appointed a 
 Commission and the law which they reported 
 was passed in June 1906. * Everyone in- 
 terested in citizenship should inquire locally 
 as to the proper enforcement of this law and 
 see to it that all fraud is eliminated and thus 
 deal bad politics a telling blow. You and I 
 have a duty to perform in the great work of 
 transforming the foreigner into a fellow-citizen. 
 
 ♦See Appendix for digest of law. 
 
CHAPTER Xn 
 
 Serving Others 
 
 A need of the day is for men who can serve 
 their fellows. There is an equal need for a 
 nation that can serve its people. "left dien^* 
 was the splendid motto of the Black Prince; 
 it might also stand as the foreword of demo- 
 cracy. 
 
 In the not far distant years, the greatest 
 nation will not be the one with the mightiest 
 dreadnaughts, or the largest standing armies; 
 it will not be the one with greatest area nor 
 the most numerous colonies, but the one which 
 looks best after the health and happiness of 
 its people; which guards its mothers and its 
 children as its choicest possession; and which 
 reckons beauty and chastity and temperance 
 as virtues to be cultivated by all of its citizens. 
 
 Without boasting, cannot we of the United 
 States claim that, as a nation, we have started 
 on the good way of serving others? It is only 
 a start, it is true, but the way grows broader 
 and brighter as the years slip by. 
 
410 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 While we have already reviewed much of 
 the work of these departments of the govern- 
 ment which are especially interested in human 
 uplift, attention must be called to still further 
 work carried on by the nation. In some 
 respects, one of the most important laws ever 
 passed was that which established the Depart- 
 ment of Commerce and Labor, for this De- 
 partment has to do with the protection of the 
 American laboring man and with the checking 
 of the abuses on the part of capital. 
 
 The preamble to the Constitution lays down 
 broadly two great aims of government; first, 
 the defense of the life, liberty, and property 
 of the citizen, and second the promotion of the 
 general welfare. This gives a constitutional 
 basis for every law which may be passed with 
 these objects in view. Acting under these 
 provisions of the Constitution, this Depart- 
 ment in its Bureau of Labor is giving national 
 aid and supervision to the laboring interests 
 of the country, giving special attention to the 
 relation of labor to capital, the hours of labor, 
 the earnings of laboring men and women, 
 and the means of promoting their material, 
 social, intellectual, and moral prosperity. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 411 
 
 Because of the existence of this Bureau 
 of Labor, legislation for the comfort and safety 
 of American labor has been much greater in 
 amount and in effectiveness, since its creation 
 in 1885, than in all of the previous years in 
 life of the government. 
 
 The educational features of this Bureau 
 are of great value. In a recent bulletin the 
 fact is clearly brought out that in the United 
 States an immense amount of human life 
 is wasted and much unnecessary and pre- 
 ventable injury is done to health and strength, 
 with resulting physical impairment, amount- 
 ing to a very considerable economic loss to 
 the nation as a whole. 
 
 The conservatism of the world is a bar to 
 such remedial legislation yet this Bureau will 
 in time break down this barrier by constant 
 agitation and education, showing what has 
 been done the world over for the cause of 
 labor. 
 
 Ever since the Civil War, commercial or- 
 ganizations have repeatedly memorialized Con- 
 gress for the establishment of a Department 
 of Commerce. This appeal was granted by 
 the creation of a Bureau of Manuf acturies in 
 
412 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 the Department of Commerce and Labor. 
 This Bureau collects and collates information 
 about manufacturing industries and markets 
 both in this country and abroad. A special 
 article on the work of this Bureau says : 
 
 "Its aim is to promote the sale of our articles 
 in foreign lands, and the value of its service 
 to the manufacturer is recognized when the 
 Bureau sends a special message to him con- 
 cerning a market for his goods, discovered 
 in the course of its regular investigation. 
 For example, agents were sent to China to get 
 specimens of fabrics, and two hundred sets 
 of these samples were furnished to manu- 
 facturers of cotton and to textile schools, 
 that they might be prepared to supply the 
 Chinese market with goods salable in that 
 country. Agents of the Department have 
 also been investigating South American, Mexi- 
 can, and Japanese markets, and reports from 
 these countries likely to be of use to certain 
 manufacturers have been mailed to them, 
 with a view to their losing no time in sending 
 out their goods." 
 
 One of the duties of the United States con- 
 suls and consular agents in every land is to 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 413 
 
 gather and forward such information as will 
 make it possible to expand the trade of the 
 nation until our commerce shall be world- 
 wide. 
 
 If trade and commerce were governed only 
 by the law of supply and demand, then the 
 duty of the government would be to stimulate 
 and safeguard the business interests of all the 
 people. But the organization of trusts and 
 combines have brought forth problems which 
 now call mightily for solution. In order to 
 save the public from being victimized by these 
 newly formed corporations, it was necessary 
 to create the Bureau of Corporations, with 
 power to investigate and if necessary restrict 
 their action. This mighty potent force is 
 something new in Republican government for 
 it gives the President almost inquisitorial 
 powers, commanding the secrets of every 
 business enterprise in the country. The law 
 reads as follows : 
 
 "The said Commissioner of Corporations 
 shall have power and authority to make- 
 under the direction and control of the Secre- 
 tary of Commerce and Labor, diligent inves- 
 tigation into the organization, conduct and 
 
414 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 management of the business of any corpora- 
 tion, joint-stock company or corporate com- 
 bination engaged in commerce among the 
 several states and with foreign nations, except- 
 ing common carriers, subject to *an act to 
 regulate commerce,' approved February 4, 
 1887, and to gather such information and data 
 as will enable the President of the United 
 States to make recommendations to Congress 
 for legislation for the regulation of such com- 
 merce, and to report such data to the Presi- 
 dent from time to time as he shall require; 
 and the information so obtained, or as much 
 thereof as the President may direct, shall be 
 made public." 
 
 Under this law, proceedings have been under- 
 taken against the Standard Oil Company, 
 and against many other corporations ap- 
 parently breakers of the law. 
 
 Under this Department of Commerce and 
 Labor, industry is encouraged, labor is pro- 
 tected and lawbreakers are punished. This 
 is surely for the good of all the people. 
 
 The Census OflSce, a division of this De- 
 partment, is no longer an intermittent bureau 
 but a permanent continuing one, whose duty 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 415 
 
 is to gather all manner of statistics as to popu- 
 lation, agriculture, and manufactures, as 
 well as to take the usual census every ten 
 years. This makes it the general statistical 
 clearing-house of the United States, growing 
 in importance as the years pass by. 
 
 The government wishes to be of service 
 to those who are of inventive mind, for it 
 furnishes anyone who writes to the Patent 
 Office publications at five cents each, con- 
 taining the description of all patents granted, 
 up-to-date in any class, furnishing suggestions 
 as to the new inventions and acting as a guard 
 against the possibility of infringement. The 
 manufacturer who desires to keep to the front 
 in his line may subscribe for the ^'Gazette,*' 
 a magazine published once a week at $5.00 
 per year, containing the descriptions and 
 pictures of all the new inventions. 
 
 If you are in doubt as to the exactness of 
 any of your weights, measures or instruments, 
 you may have them tested by the Bureau of 
 Standards at the actual cost of the test. 
 Thousands of letters pour into the various 
 departments every day, each one receiving a 
 courteous reply and usually containing the 
 
416 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 information wanted. Remember the govern- 
 ment does not advertise, but it has a vast 
 amount of information waiting for you if you 
 ask for it, at the cost of a single postage stamp. 
 The government has been of great service 
 to those who Hve along the banks of the great 
 rivers. It has built enormous levees, amply 
 protecting from the danger of flood, hundreds 
 of miles of rich valley farm land and many 
 riverside cities. Even with this protection, 
 there would be great damage from the annual 
 floods were it not for the warnings issued by 
 the Weather Bureau. The chief of this 
 Bureau has divided the nation into forty -four 
 "river districts" each with many sub-stations. 
 The local officials are constantly employed 
 in gauging the streams, measuring the snows 
 and rains, and daily sending to headquarters 
 their reports to be made into maps as a basis 
 of reports to be sent out by the river guardians. 
 The early warnings sent out a dozen years 
 ago were received contemptuously and few 
 acted upon them, although they were signed 
 by the chief in Washington. The disastrous 
 flood of 1897, which overflowed 13,000 square 
 miles of land, destroying life and property 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 417 
 
 because the warning had not been acted upon, 
 brought its lesson to those who were once in- 
 credulous. 
 
 The people are now ready to act promptly 
 when the Bureau telegraphs the unwelcome 
 news that the flood will reach them in from 
 two to ten days, acccording to their location, 
 up or down the river. This gives time for 
 the entire country-side to turn out for the 
 purpose of fighting the flood, strengthening 
 the levees or removing valuable property to 
 higher ground. In time, by building stronger 
 levees and by forecasting floods, the govern- 
 ment will be able to make the dwellers on the 
 lowlands as safe as are the farmers who dwell 
 under the dykes of Holland. 
 
 In the interest of all the people, the Geo- 
 logical Survey is busy examining accurately 
 all mineral lands and guarding this infor- 
 mation with great care until it may be released 
 at the same time to all interested parties, 
 thus largely avoiding monopoly by the few. 
 Experts under the Geological Survey have long 
 worked on the composite value of the explo- 
 sion engine, as compared with that of steam 
 power. The experiments seemed to show that 
 
418 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 the explosion engine fed with gas made direct 
 from coal by a machine devised for that pur- 
 pose, is certain to furnish the stationary 
 power in this country for the next industrial 
 epoch. 
 
 The tests on the use of alcohol for power 
 have been successful, showing that in the tropics 
 where coal and oil do not occur, the luxuriant 
 vegetation makes it possible to distill alcohol 
 at small cost. This type of engine may dis- 
 place the present equipment in the war vessels 
 and commercial ships, so that the enormous 
 expense of maintaining great coaling stations 
 abroad may be eliminated. Another advan- 
 tage in the use of the gas and alcohol engines is 
 found in the almost entire elimination of 
 smoke and dirt, the bane of all our industrial 
 districts. 
 
 The government has always been liberal 
 in the payment of pensions to the men who 
 fought in its wars. At present there are over 
 a million pensioners on the rolls of the pension 
 oflSce. The last pensioned soldier of the War 
 of 1812 and the last surviving widow of the 
 Revolutionary War have now passed away, but 
 two daughters of Revolutionary soldiers and 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 419 
 
 about 500 widows of the War of 1812 still 
 receive their regular pensions. This item 
 indicates that though another war may never 
 occur, there will be work for the Pension 
 OflSce for a century to come. 
 
 In order to serve the scattered people in its 
 vast domains, the government has entered 
 into the business of owning and operating 
 far beyond the dreams of the early fathers of 
 the nation. The government built the Wash- 
 ington Alaskan telegraph and cable system, 
 to carry the news of the world to the far-oflF 
 Yukon Valley. In laying the cable, the gov- 
 ernment found it impossible to carry it across 
 Norton Sound. Wireless towers were erected 
 on either shore, 107 miles apart, thus closing 
 the break in the line of transmission. This 
 federal line, by means of telegraph, cable and 
 wireless, transmits daily the news of the whole 
 world to far-off Alaska, and this news is 
 discussed in the streets of Nome by 6.00 P.M. 
 
 The government has not hesitated to open 
 abattoirs in Philippine cities and cold storage 
 plants in Manila, while government saw- 
 mills, mines, stores, farms and tenements 
 are conducted successfully in these islands. 
 
420 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Yet there are still those who say that this is 
 the field for private initiative alone and not 
 for public ownership. 
 
 In the industrial life of this nation, it is not 
 difficult to show that w^e have been in the 
 business of ''making steel and killing men"; 
 of slaughtering thousands by street car and 
 railroad, so that life has seemed cheap as 
 compared with the estimate placed upon it by 
 many other nations. The story of this slaugh- 
 ter has been voiced in Congress and many bills 
 have been introduced intended as a remedy, 
 a few of which have been enacted into law, 
 but whatever has been done can be considered 
 only as a small beginning as the need of relief 
 is so great. 
 
 The Inter-state Commission in order to find 
 methods of preventing railroad accidents, 
 appointed under act of Congress a "block 
 signal and train control board to investigate 
 block signals, automatic stops and cab signals, 
 and other devices designed to promote the 
 safety of railroad operation." The reports 
 of this Board when completed will furnish a 
 basis for proper legislation aflfecting railway 
 control. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 421 
 
 While not so directly in touch with com- 
 mercial and industrial life, yet the nation is 
 in business to such an extent that it will be 
 forced to pass laws covering industrial acci- 
 dents. The government must give attention 
 to the use of safety devices as well as to the 
 matter of compensation for industrial acci- 
 dents, the loss through which constitutes 
 annually "an industrial Bull Run." That 
 such compensation must be on a basis of the 
 risk of the industry, rather than on a basis of 
 negligence seems inevitable. 
 
 We have been making paupers under our 
 industrial system. To abolish pauperism and 
 poverty will call for the best thought in city, 
 state and nation. But in the meantime, while 
 pauperism and poverty continue, efforts must 
 be put forth to discover the cause and with 
 courage to apply the cure as the proper methods 
 of treatment are made evident. 
 
 In the prefatory note to the article by 
 Charles Edward Russell on "The Passing of 
 the Poorhouse," the editor of one of our pop- 
 ular magazines* says: 
 
 "They are abolishing the poorhouse in 
 
 Hampton's Broadway Magazine, Dec, 1908. 
 
422 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Europe. Parliament has just passed the 
 Old Age Pensions Bill, which has profoundly 
 agitated England. Germany, France, Aus- 
 tralia and New Zealand have all taken drastic 
 steps in the same direction. Excepting our 
 own, the foremost nations of the world are 
 combining in a human battle against poverty 
 in old age. We, in turn, must soon awaken 
 to the necessity and economy of pensioning 
 the aged poor. 
 
 "To-day there are some 2,500 almshouses, 
 with more than 80,000 permanent inmates, 
 in this country. According to the latest 
 government report their annual cost of main- 
 tenance is $37,306,135. This does not include 
 the enormous property investment, the in- 
 terest on which, together with the millions 
 spent for maintenance, would afiford every 
 public pensioner in this country nearly $100. 
 a year."^ 
 
 The demand for annuity or retiring pensions 
 for governmental civil service employes is 
 growing insistent and in some form must soon 
 be granted. If a pension is to be granted to 
 employes of the government, why not to all 
 citizens who have passed a certain age and 
 fulfilled the required conditions. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 428 
 
 That the burden of taxation which has always 
 rested heavily on the shoulders of the great 
 middle class and the masses in general is now 
 to be shifted or at least more equally distri- 
 buted is shown in the discussions concerning 
 the inheritance and income tax. It is to be 
 hoped that the proposed income law will be 
 ratified by the states and thus another step 
 taken toward the true democracy. 
 
 Although much has been said in a previous 
 chapter concerning the government work in 
 the life-saving business, the record of the 
 nation's service in the cause of health was not 
 completed. To this must be added the work 
 of the hydrographer of the U.S. Geological 
 Survey who is waging an educational campaign 
 on the subject of danger from the pollution 
 of rivers. The report points out that not 
 only thousands of lives could be saved were 
 the streams kept pure, but that hundreds of 
 millions of dollars are represented by the lives 
 snuffed out. Heretofore there has been but 
 little thought on the subject of stream pollu- 
 tions, each city dumping its sewerage into the 
 nearest stream, only to pollute the drinking 
 water of the cities and towns farther down. 
 
424 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 The people are becoming aroused through the 
 agitation and education on the part of the 
 goverament; various methods for the puri- 
 fication of city sewerage are being installed and 
 the purified product discharged into the rivers 
 without damage to the water users below. 
 That it pays to give attention to the disposal 
 of sewerage is shown by the result of an inves- 
 tigation of the cost of typhoid fever in one 
 of the large cities on the Ohio River. "In 
 one year in two wards, 149 cases cost the com- 
 munity $24,345, and on this basis the 5,637 
 cases the city had in the year cost $725,000, 
 a sum ample to give a perfect system of clean 
 water and thus avoid this monetary loss, 
 without considering the humanitarian side." 
 The nation which can drive out yellow fever 
 from the Isthmus of Panama ought to be able, 
 in co-operation with the states and municipali- 
 ties, to exterminate typhoid fever from the 
 entire land. 
 
 Because the furnishing of clean milk to the 
 public is a national problem, the government 
 is giving special attention to the safeguarding 
 of this necessary food supply through the De- 
 partment of Agriculture. The report of the 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 425 
 
 Secretary says: "The dairy cow maintains 
 an industry whose products are worth more 
 than the wheat crop or the hay crop or *King 
 Cotton.' They go to almost every one of the 
 19,000,000 families of the country as milk or 
 butter or cheese, but more especially as milk. 
 It is a matter of greater concern to the public 
 than ever before that milk and butter should 
 be wholesome and unadulterated. The qual- 
 ity and healthfulness of these products largely 
 depend on bacteria. It has been necessary 
 to educate the dairyman and the public in the 
 exclusion of injurious bacteria and in the use 
 of beneficial bacteria of such kinds as impart 
 the desired flavors to butter and cheese. Such 
 education has been immensely promoted by 
 the work of the Department and of the ex- 
 periment stations." 
 
 This Department has adopted the slogan 
 of Gail Borden, sounded a half century ago 
 that "Clean milk is pure milk," and it has 
 undertaken to educate the people of a nation 
 and bring them up to this ideal. Under the 
 direction of the Dairy Division, the first cream 
 and milk contest in the country was held 
 in Chicago, in 1906, with many states and 
 
426 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 cities holding similar contests since that date, 
 each contest having the presence and advice 
 of the national experts. The object of the 
 national contest was, first, educational; sec- 
 ond, to determine the possibilities in the hand- 
 ling and keeping of milk and cream produced 
 under sanitary conditions; third, to test a 
 score card for rating fairly and accurately 
 this class of dairy products. Much interest 
 was shown in this contest from the beginning, 
 and exhibits were sent from thirteen different 
 states. The results according to the published 
 report were most gratifying, one of the most 
 striking being the demonstration of the fact 
 that clean milk, held at a low temperature, 
 could be shipped a thousand miles across the 
 country and kept sweet for a period of over 
 five weeks. 
 
 It is to be hoped that this co-operation of 
 municipal, state and national boards of health 
 may be rewarded eventually in the saving of 
 millions of babies' lives. 
 
 Notwithstanding the agitation by vegetar- 
 ians, this country is still a meat-eating nation, 
 the per capita consumption being 180 pounds 
 per annum, amounting to 30 per cent, of the 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 427 
 
 cost of living. Since the meat-producing 
 animals are subject to disease which may be 
 transmitted to man, the careful inspection of 
 meat becomes of great sanitary importance. 
 An Inspection Act passed Congress in 1891, 
 but that its provisions were not stringent 
 enough is shown by the revelations in the meat 
 scandal which attracted so much public notice. 
 Because of this revelation and because foreign 
 countries refused to purchase our surplus 
 uninspected meat products, Congress was led, 
 in 1906, to pass the present rigid law which 
 empowers federal inspectors to assume super- 
 vision not only of the slaughtering but also 
 of the care, curing and shipping of all edible 
 products in those establishments operating 
 under federal inspection. 
 
 The following description of the process is 
 summarized from a recent health report: 
 
 "This supervision consists, first, in ante- 
 mortem inspection of the animals to be slaugh- 
 tered; second, in a macroscopic inspection of 
 all carcasses at the time of slaughter, and, 
 third, in a close supervision of the curing, 
 processing and marking of all meats handled 
 in the establishment. 
 
428 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 "The ante-mortem inspection consists in 
 having all animals destined to establishments, 
 operating under Federal inspection, inspected 
 by skilled men for evidence of any disease 
 that might render the flesh miwholesome for 
 food; and in case an animal is found to be 
 so diseased, it is tagged for identification, and 
 a notice is forwarded to the inspector conduct- 
 ing the post-mortem inspection, giving the 
 reasons for tagging the animal and such other 
 information as may be deemed advisable. 
 Such animals are killed separate from others 
 and are disposed of in accordance with the 
 pathological lesions presented, in connection 
 with the information obtained through the 
 ante-mortem inspection. 
 
 "The post-mortem inspection consists in 
 making a close macroscopic or digital exami- 
 nation, of, first, the lymph glands of the head 
 and throat; second, the viscera and accom- 
 panying lymph glands; and third, an exam- 
 ination of the serous membranes, the verte- 
 brae, etc., after the carcass has been split. In 
 case lesions or conditions are discovered that 
 render the carcass or a part thereof unwhole- 
 some or unfit for food, it is condemned and 
 destroyed for food purposes. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 429 
 
 "A meat inspector is placed in the cutting 
 room to see that the work is done in a cleanly 
 manner and to secure and condemn any meats 
 that are allowed to become dirty, or diseased 
 parts that may have escaped detection on the 
 killing floor; other employes are stationed 
 in the pickling and smoking departments to 
 to see that the work is done in a cleanly man- 
 ner, that no deleterious preservatives are used 
 and to inspect the meats being shipped from 
 these departments in order to detect and con- 
 demn such as may have undergone deteriora- 
 tion during the curing processes ; similar super- 
 vision is given to the canning and sausage 
 departments to see that the products are 
 handled in a cleanly and sanitary manner, 
 and that no spoiled or diseased meats are 
 used, and that all products are branded what 
 they are. Strict supervision is exercised over 
 the rendering and refining departments to 
 see that none but clean, sweet, wholesome 
 fats are used, and that the products are prop- 
 erly branded. 
 
 "The sanitary conditions of the establish- 
 ment are looked after and it is required that 
 all of the work of handling and caring for the 
 
430 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 meats and meat food products be done in a 
 cleanly manner by clean workmen, using clean 
 utensils. Proper facilities for the thorough 
 disinfection of the workmen's hands and tools 
 that may become contaminated in the hand- 
 ling or cutting of diseased tissues, and suitable 
 dressing rooms and toilet facilities for the 
 employes are required." 
 
 This is good so far as it goes, but it must be 
 remembered that under our system of govern- 
 ment only such packing houses as have inter- 
 state traflSc are subject to federal inspection. 
 That leaves all abattoirs in small towns and 
 country districts without such beneficial legis- 
 lation, except as the state or local authorities 
 may enforce the law. Because of this, two- 
 fifths of all the meat used is without federal 
 inspection, because not shipped out of the 
 state. 
 
 The underlying principle of all pure food 
 legislation is found in this statement from a 
 message by President Roosevelt, "That the 
 public welfare outweighs the right to private 
 gain and that no man may poison the people 
 for his private profit.'* 
 
 For over twenty years the Bureau of Chem- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 431 
 
 istry has carried on investigations relative to 
 the adulteration of foods. The cause which 
 led to this activity is found in the then com- 
 mon practice of substituting glucose for honey 
 and oleomargarine for butter. The important 
 results of the investigations concerning such 
 adulterations led to the passage of the "pure 
 food law" in 1906, which law forbids the im- 
 portation into the United States, the exporta- 
 tion from the United States, the introduction 
 into inter-state commerce, and the manufac- 
 ture and sale in the District of Columbia and 
 the territories of misbranded and adulterated 
 food and drugs. 
 
 The law is administered under the direction 
 of the Secretary of Agriculture and provides 
 that the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secre- 
 tary of Agriculture and the Secretary of 
 Commerce and Labor shall make uniform 
 rules and regulations for carrying out its 
 provisions. 
 
 The description of the workings of this law 
 is summarized from the national reports : 
 
 The organization charged with the enforce- 
 ment of the law includes inspectors who pro- 
 cure samples for analysis and information 
 
432 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 regarding the manufacture and sale of food 
 and drugs ; chemists and clerks, in the labora- 
 tories of the Bureau of Chemistry in Washing- 
 ton and in the branch laboratories in other 
 cities, of which sixteen are now in operation 
 and three are being installed; the Board of 
 Food and Drug Inspection, whose duties are 
 to consider all questions arising in the enforce- 
 ment of the Food and Drug Act of June SO, 
 1906, upon which the decision of the Secretary 
 of Agriculture is necessary; to consider and 
 supervise all correspondence involving inter- 
 pretations of the law, and to conduct all hear- 
 ings based upon alleged violations of the Food 
 and Drug Act of June 30, 1906. 
 
 Information secured by the inspectors and 
 laboratories regarding violations of the law 
 is reported by the Chief of the Bureau of 
 Chemistry to the Board of Food and Drug 
 Inspection, which, when the charges appear 
 to be sustained, makes recommendations to 
 the Secretary of Agriculture regarding the 
 exclusion of adulterated and misbranded food 
 and drugs offered for importation, and prose- 
 cutions for the sale of domestic goods in vio- 
 lation of the law. All persons charged with 
 
 ^ 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 433 
 
 violations of the law are afforded a hearing at 
 which they may introduce testimony. 
 
 One way of testing the deleterious effects of 
 adulterated foods is by means of the '*poison 
 squad," which consists of young men who 
 volunteer to eat these foods during a certain 
 length of time, the evil effects being carefully 
 noted. Much of the success in enforcing this 
 law is due to the careful scientific work carried 
 on by Dr. H. W. Wiley, the chief of the Bureau 
 of Chemistry. This man is honored through- 
 out the nation for his twenty-five years of 
 faithful altruistic services in behalf of the 
 people, notwithstanding the desperate efforts 
 on the part of manufacturers of adulterated 
 food and drugs to vilify him and destroy his 
 power. The reason for this is made evident 
 by the report of Dr. Wiley. *'The progress 
 of this work," he writes in the Saturday Even- 
 ing Post, "led to the most surprising revela- 
 tions as to the vast extent and character of 
 food adulteration. It was seen that there 
 was scarcely any article of food which had 
 not been more or less tampered with for im- 
 proper purposes — ^for it must be admitted, it 
 seems to me, that all adulteration of food 
 
434 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 products is improper. The data obtained 
 revealed the fact that food adulteration was 
 generally accomplished in one of the following 
 ways: 
 
 "First, the abstraction of some valuable 
 ingredient with or without the substitution 
 of a less valuable material. An illustration 
 of this form of adulteration is seen in the par- 
 tial skimming of milk and selling the product 
 as 'whole milk.' 
 
 "Second, the addition of an ingredient to a 
 food product for the purpose of increasing 
 its bulk with a less costly ingredient. An 
 illustration of this is seen in the practice of 
 adding water to milk. 
 
 "Third, the imitation of a food product by 
 the use of a substance entirely different in its 
 nature and properties. This form of adul- 
 teration is seen in the substitution of oleo- 
 margarine for butter, or glucose for honey, 
 and melted sugar for maple syrup. 
 
 "Fourth, the coloring of a food product so 
 as to make it appear of a better quality than 
 it really is, or at least to induce the consumer 
 to regard it as more valuable. This form of 
 adulteration is illustrated by the coloring of 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 435 
 
 white butter so as to make it a deep yellow; 
 by the addition of aniline dyes to colored mix- 
 tures to make them resemble the natural color 
 of fruit, as in the manufacture of artificial 
 jams, jellies and marmalades; and the addi- 
 tion of sulphate of copper to green peas and 
 beans. 
 
 "Fifth, the addition to a food product of a 
 chemical antiseptic having, in the quantity 
 used, no perceptible taste or odor, and thus 
 not revealing itself in any way to the consumer. 
 This form of adulteration is seen in the very 
 common use of such chemical antiseptics as 
 salicylic acid and its compound borax and 
 boric acid, sulphurous acid and its compounds, 
 benzoic acid and its compounds, formaldehyde 
 chlorides and other substances. The addition 
 of such antiseptics to foods tends to preserve 
 them from decay. 
 
 "Then there is the misbranding of a food 
 package, either in respect of the country or 
 place where made or the contents of the 
 package. This form of adulteration is illus- 
 trated by the labeling of maple syrup made 
 in other states as pure Vermont maple syrup; 
 by labeling brands of olive oil not made at 
 or near Lucca as Lucca olive oil.'* 
 
436 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 The battle for pure food is not yet won, but 
 assisted by state and municipal laws the 
 possibility of poisoning from adulterated food 
 is becoming more and more remote. 
 
 Dr. Wiley has sought to determine how long 
 it is safe to keep food in cold storage. These 
 experiments were carried on in a room in two 
 cold storage warehouses, one in Philadelphia 
 and another in Washington, the methods of 
 which are described as follows: In the com- 
 partments of each room were placed, when they 
 were in season and most abundant, various 
 animal foods. In quail season Dr. Wiley 
 stored one hundred and forty-four quail of 
 the same age and especially shot under his 
 supervision. He stored them, half drawn and 
 half undrawn, after putting aside a dozen 
 to be served to a jury of men who are to com- 
 pare the flavor of these fresh birds with that 
 of the remainder, kept on ice. Of these latter, 
 twelve or eighteen to be taken out of storage 
 every three months. Some to be analyzed, 
 some examined for microbes and ptomaines, 
 and some cooked and served to the same jury 
 which noted the flavor of the fresh quail. 
 Every three months the experiment was to 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 437 
 
 be repeated until the jury found the quarterly 
 installment too *'gamey," or until poisonous 
 microbes or ptomaines appeared. The same 
 tests were made with poultry, fish, and meats. 
 
 The government is not satisfied to guard the 
 food supplies only but the nutrition experts 
 of the Agriculture Department are teaching 
 the home-makers the value of foods and the 
 best methods of preparing them. This work 
 in home economics is of value to every home 
 in the land. 
 
 The Office of Experiment Stations reports 
 that "the interest in the scientific study of 
 home problems is a growing one, as is 
 shown, for instance, by the important place 
 such problems occupy in the programmes 
 of women's club work, in the popular press, 
 in farmers' institute and university extension 
 work, in the plans of settlement workers and 
 similar organizations for home betterment, 
 in the extension of courses in home economics 
 branches in schools and colleges, and the 
 recognition of such lines of work as possessing 
 true educational value, as well as by the 
 increasingly large number of trained investi- 
 gators in agricultural colleges, medical col- 
 
438 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 leges, universities, state boards of health, and 
 similar institutions, who are giving their 
 attention to the solving of the many complex 
 problems pertaining to food and nutrition. 
 
 "In connection with the nutrition investi- 
 gations of this Office a large fund of informa- 
 tion has been collected regarding the relative 
 value of different foods produced on the farm, 
 ranch and garden, and the effect on nutritive 
 value of milling and other manufacturing 
 processes; the comparative digestibility; the 
 relative merits of different methods of com- 
 bining foods to secure a rational and palatable 
 diet; the comparative economy of different 
 methods of cooking and preparing foods; the 
 effect of different methods of storing and hand- 
 ling food in the home, palatability, wholesome- 
 ness, and nutritive value, and on related 
 questions. As a result of these investigations 
 some sixty technical bulletins have been pre- 
 pared reporting the details of the experimental 
 work, as well as some thirty-five farmers' 
 bulletins and similar publications, in which 
 the practical results and general information 
 along similar lines are set forth in such a way 
 that they may be useful to home makers and 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 439 
 
 others interested in general questions of food 
 nutrition and home management. That the 
 technical bulletins are appreciated is shown 
 by the demand which is made for them by- 
 investigation in the United States and else- 
 where, and by the extended use which is made 
 of the results reported by writers of text-books, 
 and reference works, and by scientific workers 
 in general. That the popular bulletins are 
 used extensively by the people is shown by 
 the fact that 3,000,000 copies of the sixteen 
 farmers* bulletins on nutrition topics now 
 available have been distributed, and it should 
 be said in this connection that these publica- 
 tions are not sent out broadcast, but are dis- 
 tributed only on request." 
 
 In this way the government is coming into 
 very close contact with the people, showing 
 that it is surely in the work of human uplift. 
 What Dr. Wiley and others have done for 
 pure food, Anthony Comstock has done for 
 purity of morals. As an oflScer of the 
 government, his work has been to prevent the 
 use of the mails to carry indecent matter, 
 books, pamphlets and pictures, intended to 
 corrupt the youth. Many tons of printed 
 
440 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 matter and plates have been destroyed through 
 his eflforts, thus saving thousands of children 
 from the debasing influences of the vile and 
 offensive matter. 
 
 While there are many who are studying the 
 question of conserving our natural resources, 
 there are also those who are giving much 
 thought to the conservation of our human 
 resources. Agitation concerning child saving 
 is at last attracting the attention of the 
 government and the time is not far distant 
 when the federal government will give for the 
 conservation of child life as much money as it 
 does to improve the breed of cattle or to des- 
 troy the Gypsy moth. 
 
 The child of today is the citizen of tomorrow. 
 We have no right "to squander our incalculable 
 treasure of childhood through child labor, 
 slum conditions, lack of education, or incar- 
 ceration in institutions where the ideal is to 
 stifle all individuality and turn the children 
 out formed in one mold." Strongly believing! 
 in this sentiment. President Roosevelt sum-! 
 moned a Conference on Dependent Children' 
 which met at the White House in January, 
 1909. Great as has been the success of the' 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 441 
 
 Conservation Congresses held in Washington, 
 they were not more far-reaching then this 
 one. Social workers from all over the nation 
 gathered at his bidding. This body repre- 
 sented divergent religious beliefs and methods 
 of child care, yet all agreed with the President 
 that "each of these dependent children repre- 
 sents either a potential addition to the pro- 
 ductive capacity and the enlightened citizen- 
 ship of the nation, or, if allowed to sufiFer 
 from neglect, a potential addition to the des- 
 tructive forces of the community." This 
 memorable gathering after free and open 
 discussions for two days, finally united in a 
 most remarkable set of resolutions. Although 
 representing institutions containing nearly 
 10,000 dependent children, this conference 
 declared against institutional life only as a 
 temporary expedient, and then by the use 
 of the cottage system, rather than by the con- 
 gregate plan, urging home care under state 
 supervision as a substitute. The report of the 
 Conference says in part: 
 
 "Home life is the highest and finest product 
 of civilization. It is the great moulding force 
 of mind and of character. Children should 
 
442 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 not be deprived of it except for urgent and 
 compelling reasons. Children of parents of 
 worthy character, suffering from temporary 
 misfortune, and children of reasonably efficient 
 and deserving mothers who are without the 
 support of the normal breadwinner, should, 
 as a rule, be kept with their parents, such aid 
 being given as may be necessary to maintain 
 suitable homes for the rearing of children. 
 This aid should be given by such methods 
 and from such sources as may be determined 
 by the general relief policy of each community, 
 preferably in the form of private charity, 
 rather than of public relief. Except in unus- 
 ual circumstances, the home should not be 
 broken up for reasons of poverty, but only 
 for considerations of inefficiency or immorality. 
 **The most important and valuable phil- 
 anthropic work is not the curative, but the 
 preventive — to check dependency by a thor- 
 ough study of its causes and by effectively 
 remedying or eradicating them, should be the 
 constant aim of society. Along these lines 
 we urge upon all friends of children the pro- 
 motion of effective measures, including leg- 
 islation, to prevent blindness, to check tuber- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 443 
 
 culosis and other diseases in dwellings and 
 work places, and injuries in hazardous occu- 
 pations, to secure compensation or insurance 
 so as to provide a family income in case of 
 sickness, accident, death, or invalidism of the 
 bread-winner; to promote child labor reforms, 
 and generally, to improve the conditions sur- 
 rounding child life. To secure these ends we 
 urge efficient co-operation with all other 
 agencies for social betterment. 
 
 "As to the children who for sufficient reasons 
 must be removed from their own homes, 
 or who have no homes, it is desirable that, 
 if normal in mind and body, and not requiring 
 special training, they should be cared for in 
 families whenever practicable. The carefully 
 selected foster home is for the normal child 
 the best substitute for the natural home. 
 Such homes should be selected by a most 
 careful process of investigation, carried on by 
 skilled agents, through personal investigation, 
 and with due regard to the religious faith of 
 the child. After children are placed in homes, 
 adequate visitation, with careful consideration 
 of the physical, mental, moral and spiritual 
 training and development of each child. 
 
444 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 on the part of the responsible home-finding 
 agency, is essential." 
 
 This Congress urged upon the Federal Con- 
 gress the passage of a bill creating the Child- 
 ren's Bureau in the Department of the Interior 
 to collect and disseminate information affecting 
 the welfare of the children. Later, in the 
 message to Congress, President Roosevelt 
 redeemed his pledge to the White House Con- 
 gress by sending a message urging the passage 
 of the bill. While reported favorably, the 
 bill has not yet been enacted into law. 
 The bill provides : 
 
 "That the said Bureau shall be under the 
 direction of a chief, to be appointed by the 
 President, by and with the advice and consent 
 of the Senate, and who shall receive an annual 
 compensation of five thousand dollars. The 
 said Bureau shall investigate and report upon 
 all matters pertaining to the welfare of child- 
 ren and child life, and shall especially inves- 
 tigate the question of infant mortality, the 
 birth rate, physical degeneracy, orphanage, 
 juvenile delinquency and juvenile courts, 
 desertion and illegitimacy, dangerous occupa- 
 tions, accidents, and diseases of children of the 
 
t 
 
 Statue of Liberty on Dome of Capitol, Washington, D.C. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 445 
 
 working classes, employment, legislation af- 
 fecting children in the several states and terri- 
 tories, and such other facts as have a bearing 
 upon the health, eflBciency, character and 
 training of children. The chief of said Bureau 
 shall from time to time, publish the results 
 of these investigations." 
 
 While not enacted into law, the importance 
 of the measure is so great that the child work- 
 ers of the nation will not cease their labors 
 until the bill is finally passed. 
 
 On April 1, 1909, what was known as the 
 children's charter became effective in Great 
 Britain.* As this is an administrative law, 
 it is a far stronger measure than that embodied 
 
 *"Baby farming" is subjected to strict supervision, and no 
 child may be kept on premises that are overcrowded, dangerous 
 or insanitary. 
 
 Foster-parents found to be negligent, ignorant, drunken, im- 
 moral or criminal will be deprived of their charges. Insur- 
 ance companies are forbidden to insure the life of a nursing child. 
 
 Any person convicted of cruelty resulting in the death of a 
 child in which the person is financially interested may be fined 
 200 pounds sterling ($1,000) with five years' penal servitude. 
 
 Severe punishment is provided for death by overlying while 
 the parents are under the influence of drink. 
 
 Children under 7 years may not be left in a room containing 
 an open fire insufficiently protected. 
 
 Begging or receiving alms on the street is unlawful. Juvenile 
 smoking is supressed. Policemen must confiscate cigarettes 
 aiid cigarette papers found in the possession of persons under 
 sixteen years of age, and tobacconists selling such property to 
 them are liable to a fine. Anyone keeping slot machines is 
 
446 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 in the Childrens' Bureau Bill, which is only 
 advisory. Yet careful investigation and ad- 
 vice by the federal government is preferable 
 to the old way of ignorance and lack of res- 
 ponsibility for the care of dependent, destitute 
 and delinquent children. 
 
 In the future conservation will be a word of 
 fuller meaning and the best thought of the 
 nation without doubt will be turned to the 
 
 liable to be fined one pound sterling ($5.00 ) if a boy get cig- 
 arettes from them. 
 
 Reformatories and industrial schools are established to deal 
 with youthful offenders, and incorrigible children may be placed 
 under the supervision of probation officers. 
 
 No person under fourteen years may be sentenced to death. 
 
 In heu thereof, the court shall sentence the child or young 
 person to be detained during Parliament's pleasure. 
 
 No child may be sentenced to imprisonment or penal servitude 
 for any offence of any default in the payment of fines, damages or 
 costs. 
 
 Places for the detention of youthful criminals are to be opened 
 in all the petty sessional divisions; special juvenile courts, de- 
 tached from any building or room in which the ordinary sittings 
 of the court are held, are to be provided, and every effort is to 
 be made both before and after the trial to prevent the association 
 of children with adult criminals. 
 
 Parents and guardians may be compelled to pay fines, costs 
 or damages imposed upon children. 
 
 Pawnbrokers are forbidden to take any article from a person 
 apparently under fourteen years. 
 
 Child vagrancy is abolished. 
 
 The prevailing practice of giving infants intoxicating liquor 
 comes under heavy penalties and children are forbidden to enter 
 saloons. 
 
 There are rigid regulations against overcrowding at children's 
 entertainments. 
 
 Parents permitting their children to appear in school in an 
 unclean condition may be brought before the magistrates. 
 
I 
 
 THE BETTER COUNTRY 447 
 
 conservation and development of both nat- 
 ural and human resources. As a part of this 
 larger work the nation cannot neglect that 
 other line of service which expresses itself in 
 the development of that which is aesthetic 
 and beautiful for it is "the country beautiful 
 that retains the love of its citizens." Says 
 a writer in the Outlook, "We are to conserve 
 the soil, the forests, the minerals, and the 
 waters; we can, if we will, and if we plan to 
 that end, at the same time and with complete 
 economy preserve and increase the beauty, 
 healthfulness, and habitability of our country. " 
 
 We have not always done so, for while as 
 business men we have been commended for our 
 thrift, we have also been prodigal of the gifts 
 of nature and the beauty of landscape which 
 was ours by inheritance. The thought that 
 "beauty pays" a nation as well as a city, is 
 turning the attention of the people toward 
 making America beautiful in all its parts. 
 
 Augustus Saint Gaudens well expressed 
 the higher artistic thought of the day when 
 he said, "The love of beauty makes for nobility 
 and elevation of life, character and dignity in 
 our surroundings, as truly in the halls of law 
 and government as in our homes." 
 
448 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 That George Washington was actuated by 
 high ideals is evidenced by the genius displayed 
 in the laying out of the federal city and in 
 erection of permanent buildings. When Con- 
 gress had ordered the planning of the City of 
 Washington, in the District of Columbia 
 President Washington selected Major Pierre 
 Charles L'Enfant to make the plan. Major 
 L'Enfant was a French engineer of great 
 promise and recognized as a man of exquisite 
 taste and consummate skill in his profession, 
 yet much of the success of the completed plan 
 is due to the constant direction and minute 
 supervision of Washington and his Secretary 
 of State, Jefferson. All that goes to make a 
 city a work of art was wrought into these 
 plans, after studying all the great models of 
 the world. "From his well-stocked library, 
 Jefferson sent to L'Enfant plans *on a large 
 and accurate scale' of Paris, Amsterdam, 
 Frankfort, Carlsruhe, Strasburg, Orleans, 
 Turin, Milan, and other European Cities." 
 
 The plan was an extensive one intended for a 
 magnificent seat of government, yet its 
 development was so slow that the federal city 
 became the laughing stock of the world. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 449 
 
 jokingly called "The city of magnificent dis- 
 tances." 
 
 During the first fifty years of the Republic, 
 the Presidents and their oflScial families strove 
 to maintain the beautiful in every building 
 and monument and statue erected. Architects 
 and sculptors of great renown, brought from 
 all lands, entered into competition for the 
 beautifying of the federal city. The legislative 
 branch of the government was opposed to this 
 custom of selecting by merit, so that during 
 the next forty years this work fell too often 
 into the hands of politicians who, lacking the 
 vision, spoiled much of the original plan, erect- 
 ing great buildings without regard to their 
 relationship to others. 
 
 The revival of national interest in civic 
 architecture and city planning following the 
 Chicago Exposition led up to the passage of 
 the Tarsney Bill, which gave the Secretary of 
 the Treasury power to select the best archi- 
 tects by competition for future federal build- 
 ings. This law was first put in operation 
 by Lyman J. Gage, Secretary of the Treasury, 
 who inaugurated the new regime of federal 
 art. At the suggestion of the American 
 
450 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Institute of Architects, the senate appointed 
 a commission to study and report upon the 
 future development of Washington City. The 
 commission was composed of Daniel H. Burn- 
 ham, Chas. F. McKim, Frederick Law Olm- 
 sted Jr., and Augustus Saint Gaudens, "men 
 of broad experience and great artistic ability, 
 who had proved themselves equals of the 
 great artists of the world." Their report 
 embodied some changes and suggestions but 
 for the most part it was a reinstatement and 
 development of the original plan of L'Enfant. 
 The Commission will be satisfied if all of their 
 recommendations are carried out within fifty 
 years, but every change made to conform to 
 the plan is a step toward making Washington 
 the city beautiful. That all ugly spots will 
 be eliminated and the city made to be a model 
 for all other cities is the belief of the lovers of 
 the federal city. This would involve absolute 
 cleanliness, the abolition of the slums, a high 
 standard of both municipal and private im- 
 provements and a splendid development of 
 all forms of civic beauty. 
 
 The government is even more widely in- 
 fluencing art and architecture throughout the 
 
i 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 451 
 
 nation by the erection of all of its public 
 buildings, not only in a substantial manner 
 fitted to last through centuries, but by adopt- 
 ing a general classic form which has displaced 
 the haphazard method of years gone by. 
 Thus the position of supervising architect 
 in the Treasury Department becomes a very 
 important oflSce. As an aid to this oflScial and 
 a guide to Congress in all matters pertaining 
 to federal structures. President Roosevelt 
 at the suggestion of the American Institute 
 of Architects, appointed an unoflScial ministry 
 of fine arts to whom will be referred for advice 
 all matters embracing architecture, selection 
 of sites, landscape work, sculpture and paint- 
 ing.* 
 
 *The membership of this Council is as follows: 
 Architects. 
 Cass Gilbert George B. Post 
 
 C. Grant La Farge Arnold W. Brunner 
 Walter Cook Robert S. Peabody 
 William A. Boring Charles F. McKim 
 S. B. P. Trowbridge William S. Eames 
 John G. Howard James Rush Marshall 
 Glenn Brown Abram Garfield 
 Thomas R. Kimball Frank Miles Day 
 John L. Mauran William B. Mundie 
 
 D. H. Bumham C. Howard Walker 
 
 John H. M. Donaldson 
 
 Footnote oontinued os page iS8* 
 
452 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 The interest in the things beautiful has 
 spread to the insular possessions and an effort 
 is being made by the nation to redeem the 
 ugly in every place under federal control. 
 On a trip around the world, Mr. Bumham 
 was asked to stop at Manila and make a plan 
 for the reconstruction of that city. This 
 he did with marked ability and all improve- 
 ments are now being made in accordance with 
 this plan. Streets are being straightened, 
 shade-trees and tropical foliage planted and 
 waste places made into beautiful parks. The 
 military authorities in every island are seeking 
 to bring up every post and garrison to the 
 ideal set for them in the Capital City. In 
 this way the original Bumham plan becomes 
 the type of the entire archipelego. 
 
 But beauty is not necessarily artificial, 
 for the best examples of beauty are shown in the 
 preservation of natural scenery, untouched 
 
 Painters 
 John La Farge E. H. Blashfield 
 
 F. D. Millet Kenyon Cox 
 
 Sctdptors 
 Daniel C. French H. A. MacNeil 
 
 Herbert Adams K. T. Bitter 
 
 Landscape Architect 
 Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 453 
 
 by the hands of man. Only within the last 
 quarter of a century has the nation recognized 
 its duty in such conservation, and by act of 
 Congress set aside certain great tracts of land 
 which shall forever be used as public parks 
 and pleasure-grounds for the benefit and enjoy- 
 ment of the people and as game preserves. 
 When relieved from the fear of man, the 
 bear and antelope become as tame as the 
 watchdog or the animals in a private pasture. 
 The principal parks thus set aside are, the 
 Yellowstone, located in Wyoming, Montana 
 and Idaho, having an area of 2,14£,720 acres, 
 and an average altitude of 8,000 feet, and 
 noted for its wonderful scenery, geysers and 
 hot springs; the Yosemite in California, con- 
 taining 719,622 acres, embracing a valley of 
 most wondrous beauty; the Mount Rainer 
 in Washington, with an area of 207,360 acres, 
 preserving for all time the grand scenery of the 
 mountain for which the park is named. The 
 Sequoia, 160,000 acres, and the smaller Gen- 
 eral Grant Park are located in California and 
 are set aside not only to preserve the natural 
 scenery, but to protect the great sequoia trees 
 from the ruthless axe of the woodman. It 
 is to be hoped that every one of the ten groves 
 
454 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 of giant, centuries-old sequoias may be brought 
 under government control and thus kept from 
 destruction. The President of the United 
 States under a recent law was enabled to create 
 out of the public and unreserved lands, nine 
 national monuments, among them being the 
 Petrified Forest in Arizona, The Natural 
 Bridges in Utah, and the Muir Woods in 
 California. For an entirely different purpose, 
 about four years ago. Congress created the 
 Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, \\dth 
 an area on 41,920 acres. The act authorizes 
 the Secretary of the Interior to maintain such 
 a service as is necessary for the preservation 
 from injury or spoliation of the ruins and other 
 works and relics of prehistoric or primitive 
 man within the limits of the reservation, and 
 to grant permits for the examination, exca- 
 vation, and gathering of objects of antiquity 
 by any person or persons deemed properly 
 qualified to conduct the same, provided they 
 are undertaken only for the benefit of some 
 reputable museum, university, college, or 
 other recognized scientific or educational in- 
 stitution, with a view to increasing the know- 
 ledge of such objects and aiding the general 
 advancement of archaeological science. 
 
^THE BETTER COUNTRY 465 
 
 The act also provides that all prehistoric 
 ruins situated within five miles of the boun- 
 daries of the park, or Indian and public lands 
 not alienated by patent from the ownership 
 of the United States, shall be under the cus- 
 todianship of the Secretary of the Interior, 
 to be administered by the same service. The 
 latest parks to be established by the govern- 
 ment are; the Glacier National Park, a tract 
 of sixty miles in northwestern Montana on 
 the Canadian boundary line, the apex of the 
 continent and a country full of glaciers, lakes 
 and dense forests; and the Wheeler National 
 Park in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. 
 
 In every part of the land, commercialism 
 has been threatening the magnificent natural 
 attractions of the country, such as Niagara 
 Falls, the highlands of the Hudson, and the 
 Appalachian Mountains. In order to preserve 
 this scenery for the people, the federal govern- 
 ment will need at once to secure control of 
 these lands and set them apart as forests, 
 parks, and monuments. In these and in many 
 other new ways this nation, already at work 
 in human uplift, will have increasing oppor- 
 tunities for service to all the people. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Army of Peace 
 
 The struggle of the jungle did not cease 
 when the jungle dwellers were united into 
 tribes and the tribes, conquered by stronger 
 peoples had become nations. The staple of 
 history has always been war. ''Exhibiting 
 the most forceful as well as the most brutal 
 activity of men, it has shaped most of the pri- 
 mary conditions of life for all communities of 
 the human race. In some way it has de- 
 termined the career of most nations, from be- 
 ginning to end." 
 
 Because it has so completely dominated the 
 thought and life of the world, it has always 
 been an obstacle in the way of the truest pro- 
 gress. War has taken its heavy toll from 
 every nation, not only of money but of lives. 
 A careful statistician claims for eleven of the 
 great wars, a cost of $11,105,000,000, and 
 of 3,081,000 lives. But what census taker 
 will ever be able to express in figures the social 
 cost as revealed in broken homes, diverted 
 
Were half the power that fills the world with 
 
 terror, 
 Were half the wealth bestowed on camps 
 
 and courts. 
 Given to redeem the human mind from error, 
 There were no need of arsenals or forts. 
 
 Longjellov). 
 
458 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 plans, vices developed, brutal passions aroused 
 and industry retarded? What country will 
 ever be able to pay in money for the disease 
 and pain and lost character, the sure results 
 of every campiagn? If this cost could be 
 expressed in dollars, it might be an amount 
 which would beggar a nation. 
 
 It may be true that war for war's sake has 
 ceased among the civilized peoples, but the 
 armed neutrality of every nation as represented 
 by its standing army and its ships of war 
 almost equals the expenditure devoted to 
 civil government. The workers of Europe are 
 called upon yearly to give 4,000,000 of their 
 stalwart sons for the army and the navy. 
 These young men who might have been en- 
 gaged in productive industry, and in the build- 
 ing of homes are drawn away from this 
 constructive work to be trained in the fearful 
 art of killing. To maintain these military 
 establishments in time of peace, the annual 
 cost is one billion and a half of dollars, obtained 
 through the governmental revenues and the 
 direct taxes. 
 
 In feverish haste, every nation is building 
 its dreadnaughts costing from $5,000,000 to 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 459 
 
 $15,000,000. The search for denser armor, 
 for stronger guns and more powerful projec- 
 tiles is more strenuous than the search for 
 gold. Warships for the air and torpedo boats 
 for the deep sea will make war more terrible 
 and more costly. Our own land is not free 
 from these bankrupting tendencies. Read 
 the war expense for one year of peace as shown 
 in the supply bills of the United States: 
 
 Army $101,197,470.34 
 
 Fortifications 8,170,111.00 
 
 Military Academy 2,531,521.33 
 
 Navy 136,935,199.05 
 
 Think for a moment what might be a 
 accomplished if this vast amount could be 
 diverted to the constructive side of the work 
 of nation building. 
 
 The contention of this chapter is that the 
 time is rapidly coming when war will cease, 
 and we will have an organized army of peace 
 to do the great things worth doing, digging the 
 canals, draining the swamps, dredging the 
 harbors and waterways, reclaiming the desert, 
 cleansing the tropics, and bearing the white 
 man's burden, in many lands where the people 
 are struggling upward toward the light. 
 
460 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Yet a vast amount of work must be done 
 before this ideal shall find fulfillment, and the 
 horrors of war shall be supplanted by the 
 glories of peace. Education, formation of 
 public opinion, and world organization are 
 methods by which ethical sentiments may be 
 transformed into the dynamos of action, and 
 discussion brought to the stage of accompHsh- 
 ment. 
 
 We call this process a movement, a great 
 peace movement, and as such it is well worthy 
 of careful study by everyone who wishes to 
 have a part in the making of history. We of 
 the 20th Century are not the first to realize 
 the evils of war and pray for the coming of 
 peace. Noble souls throughout the centuries 
 have felt the truth of the saying of Horace 
 Mann. "If a thousandth part of what has 
 been expended in war and preparing its mighty 
 engines had been devoted to the development 
 of reason and the diffusion of Christian prin- 
 ciples, nothing would have been known for 
 centuries past of its terrors, its sufferings, its 
 impoverishment, and its demoralization, but 
 what was learned from history." 
 
 Let us review the story of the work of the 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 461 
 
 great peace-inspired souls; of the dreamers 
 as well as the doers. Nearly seventy years 
 ago, there began a most remarkable series of 
 Peace Congresses led by such men as Elihu 
 Burrett, Amasa Walker, John Bright, Rich- 
 ard Cobden and Victor Hugo. These Con- 
 gresses were held at London in 1843; Brussels 
 in 1848; Paris in 1849; Frankfort in 1850; 
 London in 1851; Edinburgh in the spring 
 of 1853, and in Glasgow in the fall of the same 
 year. 
 
 The Civil War and the Crimean War stopped 
 the agitation for peace and it was not until 
 the Paris Exposition in 1878 that the subject 
 of peace again received public attention. 
 Beginning again in 1889, Peace Congresses 
 have become almost an annual event, having 
 been held in Paris, London, Rome, Berne, 
 Chicago, Antwerp, Budapest, Hamburg, Paris 
 Glasgow, Monaco, Rouen, Boston and Lucerne. 
 
 Another powerful agent for peace has been 
 the Inter-parliamentary Union, originated 
 by Hon. Wm. Randolph Cremer, the English 
 Carpenter and Trade Unionist, member of the 
 British Parliament, and Secretary of the 
 International Arbitration League. Mr. Cre- 
 
462 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 mer in 1887 was the bearer of a memorial 
 from England to the President and Congress 
 of the United States in support of an arbitra- 
 tion treaty. Failing in this mission, in the 
 following year he gathered in Paris a few 
 members of the pariiaments of Great Britain 
 and France for further discussion of arbitra- 
 tion as a means for the preservation of the 
 peace of the worid. This resulted in the 
 formation of an association known as the 
 Inter-pariiamentary Union, with the celebrated 
 peace worker, Frederick Passy, as president. 
 This Union has grown in numbers until it is 
 the unofficial representative of all of the parlia- 
 ments of the worid, with a membership of 
 over 2,000 men. The meetings are usually 
 held in the pariiament buildings of the various 
 nations. The Honorable Richard Barthold, 
 member of Congress from Missouri is presi- 
 dent of the American group, and author of the 
 resolution asking the President of the United 
 States to call a conference of nations. After 
 years of discussion of peace topics, the Union 
 has adopted a platform with the following 
 planks: a regular international parliament, a 
 general arbitration treaty, the limitation 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 46S 
 
 of national armaments, the immunity of all 
 unoffending private property at sea in time of 
 war, report by an impartial commission upon 
 contested issues between nations not settled 
 by diplomacy or arbitration, before any hos- 
 tilities, and provision by governments them- 
 selves for the promotion of the cause of peace 
 and mutual understanding between nations. 
 Among the early leaders of peace should be 
 mentioned the Baroness Bertha Von Suttner, 
 who by her book "Lay Down Your Arms" 
 inspired many others to labor for the salvation 
 of the world from the horrors of war. She 
 founded the Austrian Peace Society and ever 
 labored in her own and other lands for the 
 cause so near her heart. Through the reading 
 of "Lay Down Your Arms," Mr. Alfred Nobel, 
 the manufacturer of explosives, gave his 
 entire fortune to the cause of peace. Out of 
 the income from this great gift, $40,000 each 
 year is granted to the person who has done 
 the greatest work during the past twelve 
 months in forwarding this cause. The first 
 year the prize went to the venerable Frederick 
 Passy, the second to Mr. Cremer and the third 
 to the Baroness Von Suttner, whom Frederick 
 
464 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Passy has called the "General-in-chief of the 
 World's Army of Peace." The prize then 
 came to President Roosevelt, for his services 
 in bringing about the Treaty of Peace at 
 Portsmouth, N. H., between Japan and Russia. 
 President Roosevelt immediately gave the 
 amount of the prize to the cause of bringing 
 about industrial peace. 
 
 It is to the Czar of Russia that the credit 
 goes for the calling of the First Peace Confer- 
 ence at the Hague, although suggested to him 
 by the work of the Parliamentary Union. The 
 following communication was handed by the 
 Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs to all the 
 foreign representatives in St. Petersburg: 
 
 "The maintenance of general peace and the 
 possible reduction of the excessive armaments 
 which weigh upon all nations present them- 
 selves in existing conditions to the whole 
 world as an ideal toward which the endeavors 
 of all governments should be directed. 
 
 "The humanitarian and magnanimous ideas 
 of his Majesty the Emperor, my august master, 
 have been won over to this view in the con- 
 viction that this lofty aim is in conformity with 
 the most essential interests and legitimate 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 465 
 
 views of all the powers; and the imperial 
 government thinks the present moment would 
 be very favorable to seeking the means. 
 
 "International discussion is the most ef- 
 fectual means of insuring all peoples' benefit — 
 a real, durable peace, above all, putting an 
 end to the progressive development of the 
 present armaments. 
 
 "In the course of the last twenty years 
 the longing for general appeasement has grown 
 especially pronounced in the consciences of 
 civilized nations; and the preservation of 
 peace has been put forward as an object of 
 international policy. It is in its name that 
 great states have concluded between them- 
 selves powerful alliances. 
 
 "Nevertheless, all these efforts have not yet 
 been able to bring about the beneficient result 
 desired — pacification. 
 
 "The financial charges following the upward 
 march strike at the very root of public pros- 
 perity. The intellectual and physical strength 
 of the nation's labor and capital are mostly 
 diverted from their natural application and 
 are unproductively consumed. 
 
466 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 "Hundreds of millions are devoted to ac- 
 quiring terrible engines of destruction, which, 
 though today regarded as the last word of 
 science, are destined tomorrow to lose all their 
 value in consequence of some fresh discovery 
 in the same fields. 
 
 "National culture, economic progress, and 
 the production of wealth are either paralyzed 
 or checked in development. Moreover, in 
 proportion as the armaments of the powers 
 increase, they less and less fulfill the objects 
 the governments have set before themselves. 
 
 "The economic crisis, due in great part to 
 the system of armaments a outrance, and the 
 continual danger which lies in this massing of 
 war material, are transforming the armed 
 peace of our days into a crushing burden 
 which the people have more and more diflS- 
 culty in bearing. 
 
 "It appears evident that if this state of 
 things were to be prolonged it would inevita- 
 bly lead to the very cataclysm it is desired to 
 avert, and the horrors whereof make every 
 thinking being shudder in advance. 
 
 "To put an end to these incessant arma- 
 ments and to seek the means of warding oflF 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 467 
 
 the calamities which are threatening the whole 
 world — such is the supreme duty today im- 
 posed upon all states. 
 
 'Tilled with this idea, his Majesty has been 
 pleased to command me to propose to all the 
 governments whose representatives are cred- 
 ited to the Imperial Court, the assembling of a 
 conference which shall occupy itself with this 
 grave problem. 
 
 "This conference will be, by the help of God, 
 a happy presage for the century which is about 
 to open. It would converge into one power- 
 ful focus the efforts of all states sincerely seek- 
 ing to make the great conception of universal 
 peace triumph over the elements of trouble 
 and discord, and it would, at the same time 
 cement their agreement by a corporate con- 
 secration of the principles of equity and right 
 whereon rest the security of states and the 
 welfare of peoples." 
 
 This conference composed of one hundred 
 delegates representing twenty-six powers, as- 
 sembled in The Hague, May 18, 1899, con- 
 tinuing till July 29. The United States was 
 represented by Honorable Andrew Dickson 
 White, Honorable Seth Low, Hon. Stanford 
 
468 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Newell, Hon. Frederick Wm. Holds, Capt. 
 Alfred T. Mahan and General Wm. Crozier. 
 Other countries represented were, Germany, 
 Austria-Hungary, Belgium, China, Denmark, 
 Spain, Mexico, France, Great Britain, Greece, 
 Italy, Japan, Luxemburg, Montenegro, the 
 Netherlands, Persia, Portugal, Roumania, 
 Russia, Servia, Siam, Sweden and Norway, 
 Switzerland, Turkey and Bulgaria. 
 
 While the net results of this conference were 
 not great in regard to the immediate disarma- 
 ment of the nations, the creation of the perma- 
 nent Court of Arbitration by this conference 
 paved the way for the coming of the future 
 Parliament of Man. 
 
 Our government has stood for the establish- 
 ment of such a court for many years. In 1 872, 
 Mr. Sumner introduced in the Senate a resolu- 
 tion proposing a permanent court to be 
 clothed with such authority as to make it a 
 complete substitute for war. 
 
 In 1889 the United States government 
 called a conference of representatives from 
 the states of North and South America to 
 discuss arbitration, and the delegates to the 
 Hague Peace Conference received instructions 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 469 
 
 from Secretary Hay to propose a plan for such 
 an international tribunal. This Hague Court 
 is described by a writer as resembling some- 
 what the supreme court of the state of New 
 York, the members of which never sit all 
 together, but singly, or in groups, as the 
 occasion may demand. All the governments 
 which originally signed The Hague Conven- 
 tion, and all those who shall adhere to it, are 
 entitled to appoint four members of the 
 permanent court. The four American mem- 
 bers of the permanent court were Chief Justice 
 Fuller, Hon. John W. Griggs, Hon. George 
 Gray, and Hon. Oscar S. Straus. Twenty- 
 two governments appointed representatives, 
 though in come cases less than four, making in 
 all a permanent bench of seventy-two judges, 
 from whom are chosen one or more arbitrators 
 who sit as a court in each particular case. 
 
 The jurisdiction of the tribunal, as fixed by 
 The Hague Convention, is confined to legal 
 questions and especially to those involving 
 treaties. But in the convention is a recom- 
 mendation to the powers having international 
 differences involving neither honor nor vital 
 interests, and arising from a diflFerence of 
 
470 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 opinion on points of fact, that they institute 
 an International Commission of Inquiry to 
 facilitate a solution of these differences. 
 
 The United States government was the first 
 to make use of this tribunal at The Hague, 
 for settlement the Pious Fund Claims, between 
 this nation and Mexico, the award being in 
 favor of the United States. Other controver- 
 sies that have been settled by this court of 
 Arbitration and thus saving possible war were 
 the Japanese House Tax case between Japan 
 on the one side and Great Britain, France and 
 Germany on the other; the Venezuelan Prefer- 
 ential Payment case, between the three powers 
 which blockaded the ports of Venezuela and 
 the seven pacific powers having claims against 
 the Venezuelan government; the Muscat con- 
 troversy between Great Britain and France 
 over their respective treaty rights in that 
 country, and the trouble between Great 
 Britain and Russia caused by the Russian 
 Black Sea fleet firing on British fishermen. 
 It is hoped that international cases in increas- 
 ing numbers may be referred to this court. 
 One result of the creation and use of this 
 tribunal has been the signing of arbitration 
 
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THE BETTER COUNTRY 471 
 
 treaties between nearly all of the leading 
 nations."* 
 
 In order properly to house this Hague 
 Court, Mr. Andrew Carnegie, who has always 
 been a strong advocate for peace, gave the 
 Dutch government in trust $1,500,000 to build 
 at the Hague a peace palace. Holland ac- 
 cepted the gift and bought sixteen acres near 
 the heart of the city on which the palace was 
 to be built, donating this site to the Carnegie 
 Fund. After competition by two hundred and 
 seventeen architects from almost every coun- 
 try of the world, the award for the best plan 
 was made to L. M. Cordonnier of Lille, France, 
 who received the prize of $4,800. At the lay- 
 ing of the corner stone, the president of the 
 
 *FROM ADDRESS BY SECRETARY OF STATE KNOX 
 TO VISITING JAPANESE COMMERCIAL COMMIS- 
 SIONERS AT WASHINGTON IN OCTOBER, 1909. 
 But the great modem movement of accord and good under^ 
 standing between nations are, after all, the lofty achievements 
 and the crown of all international relations. 
 
 The controlling principle of these movements is peaceful and 
 beneficial intercourse and the peaceful settlement by arbitration 
 of differences and controversies — extending that principle by 
 friendly diplomacy as rapidly as possible to embrace an increasing 
 number and variety of disputes, and ultimately, by voluntary 
 international compacts, making peaceful settlements of all differ- 
 ences compulsory, or practically so. 
 
472 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 day concluded his address with these words: 
 
 "This is to be a palace of international 
 justice founded as an outcome of the need of 
 every civilized community to institute the 
 rule of right for the rule of might. In this 
 palace no one will be stronger or no one weaker 
 than the other, and no other blade except the 
 sword of justice will be placed in the scale." 
 That this peace palace may become the capital 
 of the world, is the hope of many, for they 
 think they see in forming "The United States I 
 of the World," and they are looking forward 
 to the time of which Tennyson spoke in 
 Locksley Hall when 
 
 "The war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the 
 
 battle-flags were furl'd 
 In the parliament of man, the federation of the 
 
 world." 
 
 When the First Hague Conference ad- 
 journed in 1899, it was expected that the Czai 
 would call another world Conference in a vei 
 short time, but the Japanese war made thij 
 impossible. The Inter-Parliamentary Unioi 
 then urged that President Roosevelt take th< 
 initiative and he responded by sounding th( 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 473 
 
 representatives of the various nations on the 
 matter, receiving favorable answers from a 
 number. Russia begged for delay until the 
 close of her war, and not only was this request 
 granted, but President Roosevelt yielded to 
 the Czar the honor of calling the Second Hague 
 Conference. The response was hearty and in 
 June, 1907, the representatives of forty-five 
 independent powers met at the Hague and for 
 four months continued to discuss without 
 animosity some of the most delicate inter- 
 national questions. Although this conference 
 did not declare for entire disarmament of the 
 nations as many hoped it would do, enough 
 was accomplished to demonstrate that a 
 universal congress of this character is possible 
 and that certain great principles of construc- 
 tive action are now beyond dispute. A 
 writer in the Review of Reviews specified the 
 following propositions as established by this 
 Conference, viz.: "that peace is the normal 
 and war the abnormal condition of civilized 
 nations; that the relations of sovereign states 
 are properly based on principles of justice, 
 and not upon force; that really sovereign 
 states should have equal rights before the bar 
 
474 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 of international justice, independently of their 
 size or military strength; that disputes between 
 governments should be settled, as far as possi- 
 ble, by judicial methods, and not by war; and 
 that war, if inevitable, is an evil whose disas- 
 trous consequences — especially as regards 
 neutrals, non-combatants, the sick and the 
 woimded — should by general agreement be 
 reduced to a minimum." 
 
 This Conference recommended the crea- 
 tion in addition to the tribunal of justice, of a 
 Court of Arbitral Justice. The distinction 
 between the two bodies was stated by Secre- 
 tary of State Root in his instructions to the 
 delegation to urge the measure at the Hague. 
 He said, "It has been a very general practice 
 for arbitrators to act, not as judges deciding 
 questions of fact and law upon the record 
 before them imder a sense of judicial respon- 
 sibility, but as negotiators effecting settle- 
 ments of the questions brought before them 
 in accordance with the traditions and usages 
 and subject to all the considerations and in- 
 fluences, which affect diplomatic agents. If 
 there could be a tribunal which would pass 
 upon questions between nations with the same 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 475 
 
 impartial and impersonal judgment that the 
 Supreme Court of the United States gives to 
 questions arising between citizens of the 
 different states or between foreign citizens and 
 the citizens of the United States, there can be 
 no doubt that nations would be much more 
 ready to submit their controversies to its 
 decision than they are now to take the chances 
 of arbitration." 
 
 The United States has taken the first step 
 looking toward the establishment of this Court 
 by the appointment of a special counsel who 
 will hasten the movement. The third con- 
 ference, it is almost universally believed, will 
 agree upon this subject and will take a forward 
 stand on making arbitration obligatory, on 
 demanding at least gradual disarmament and 
 will it is hoped call for a world organization 
 with some form of world executive backed by a 
 world Congress or Parliament, to meet in the 
 Palace of Peace. That this is no mere dream 
 for the future is the belief of the thousands 
 of peace lovers assembled in national peace and 
 arbitration societies and of the increasing 
 number annually meeting at the Lake Mohonk 
 Conference, and in the various international 
 peace gatherings. 
 
476 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 The year 1915 will go down in history as a 
 memorable date, for in that year will meet 
 this Third Hague Conference and the Panama 
 Canal will be finished, changing the course of 
 commerce of the world and forwarding the 
 cause of peace through bringing all nations 
 into a closer fellowship. 
 
 Although it has a war record that stains the 
 pages of history with blood, still the United 
 States is a peace-making nation. *'Two gen- 
 erations ago it was the American delegates in 
 European peace congresses who, when nobody 
 else then did it, talked persistently of a w orld 
 court; and the plan was known in popular 
 European parlance as 'the American plan'. 
 Baron D'Estournelles has said often and 
 strongly that it was because America took 
 the Hague Tribunal seriously and first put it 
 to use, that it came so quickly to honor and 
 power. Other governments might have medi- 
 ated between Russia and Japan, but the 
 American government did it, and the most 
 terrible of modern wars, there on the plains of 
 Asia, was brought to an end at Kittery Navy 
 Yards." 
 
 Through the good oflSces of this nation three 
 
 M 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 477 
 
 Pan-American Conferences have been held, 
 one in Washington, the second in Mexico, the 
 third in Rio Janeiro and the fourth is to be held 
 in Buenos Aires. This conference at Rio 
 Janeiro was especially helpful because of 
 the presence of Secretary of State Root who 
 swayed the people through his oratory and 
 brought together contending nations through 
 his diplomacy. A writer describing the con- 
 ference, says : "Secretary Root's trip thereafter 
 through the Continent became a triumph, and 
 everywhere he left behind him a new under- 
 standing, a new national friend and new hopes. 
 Already the result of this is shown in increased 
 commercial intercourse, in plans for education 
 and mutual development along harmonious 
 lines. Treaties, compacts, and agreements 
 have followed or will follow that visit for 
 years to come. And the Bureau of South- 
 American Republics today is a living, practi- 
 cal, valuable establishment for the common 
 weal of sixteen western countries." 
 
 Knowing of the wars between the central 
 American states, Secretary Root devised a 
 plan and persuaded the states to inaugurate 
 at Cartugo a central American court of 
 
478 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 justice. "In other words, the Secretary of 
 State had practically given to the countries a 
 system of international law and procedure by 
 which wars became unlikely and revolutions 
 unprofitable. The court has been tested and 
 its mandates obeyed." 
 
 There is no greater guarantee of Pan- 
 American peace than that shown in the erec- 
 tion of the new building of the Bureau of 
 American Republics, not far from the White 
 House in Washington. This will be "the 
 first international temple of peace, friendship 
 and commerce; the tangible evidence of the 
 desire of the twenty-one American Republics 
 that war shall be no more in the Western world 
 and that material prosperity promoted by 
 international trade shall take its place." 
 Mr. Andrew Carnegie has given $750,000 for 
 the building fund and each of the republics has 
 added an appropriation. This temple is to 
 be made the centre of a continuous campaign 
 of education, where one country may obtain 
 accurate and recent information of any other. 
 A library on all subjects American is to be 
 secured, and by every possible means the 
 American governments are to be brought 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 479 
 
 closer together with intimate acquaintance- 
 ship. This building will contain the "Hall of 
 American Ambassadors" which will provide a 
 room for international conventions, receptions 
 to distinguished foreigners, and for diplomatic 
 and social events. Truly may it be said that 
 "peace is the sister of freedom, the guardian 
 of democracy, the handmaid of progress." 
 
 This century may yet witness the closing of 
 the gates of the Temple of Janus to open no 
 more throughout the ages. 
 
 While the organized societies of the world 
 are doing their work for peace, much is being 
 done in other ways for constructive peace. 
 We recall the remark of Dr. Hale when he 
 said that the government which has a Secre- 
 tary of War and not a Secretary of Peace will 
 not be considered fit for civilized society. 
 Perhaps it was this thought which led up to 
 the introduction into the Massachusetts legis- 
 lature of a resolution urging Congress to es- 
 tablish at Washington an educational institu- 
 tion for the study of international law, its 
 purpose to be, "increasing knowledge of 
 international relations, and to promote inter- 
 national comity to the end that friendship with 
 
480 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 all nations may be furthered, in order that the 
 vast sums of money now wastefully used in 
 the maintenance of a great military establish- 
 ment may largely be saved for the well-being of 
 the people." 
 
 Quarrels between neighbors are passing; 
 feuds are considered barbaric; duels between 
 gentlemen are nearly ended; fighting between 
 nations will soon be considered as disgraceful 
 as fighting between individual men. Some of 
 the facts which will back up this assurance of 
 the coming of permanent peace readily occur 
 to the mind of any thoughtful student. The 
 airship may mean an end of the armies in ten 
 years, for its use will make the great engines of 
 war as useless as the battering ram. Further- 
 more, Prof. Graham Taylor points out that 
 there is an industrial basis for international 
 peace. *'War becomes more and more im- 
 possible, peace more and more necessary, as 
 nation becomes more and more dependent 
 upon nation not only for its profits but for its 
 very living." 
 
 Harold Bolce, in his "New International- 
 ism," says, "As international trade grows and 
 credit expands, as the commitments of finan- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 481 
 
 ciers in different lands multiply, and as in- 
 dustrial connections ramify across the oceans, 
 the resulting panic when war disturbs one 
 nation will be so disastrous to all nations that 
 financiers, who control statesmen, will forbid 
 the declaration of war." 
 
 The world is growing smaller — the telegraph 
 and cable make of us all next door neighbors. 
 Every new steamship line makes it easier to 
 know the Antipodes. The missionary and the 
 globetrotter are ever ready to describe the 
 characteristics of unknown peoples while 
 visiting commissions, exchange of teachers, 
 and students studying in foreign schools all 
 make for a larger fellowship and a world-wide 
 brotherhood. "If nations become interested 
 in one another, war must soon become an 
 anachronism," says a recent writer, "for the 
 triumph of rival dynasties, or even the successes 
 of rival churches do not interest the common 
 people today as much as do the great social 
 questions of a living wage, a good school, a 
 home-site and an equality of opportunity. 
 To them the wreckage of war only retards the 
 movement which is dearer to them than 
 victories of battle." 
 
482 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 The knowledge of the horrors of war has 
 aroused a strong aversion to militarism in all 
 lands, and the demand to arbitrate rather 
 than to fight is insistent, especially on the 
 part of the common people. 
 
 Universal brotherhood is illustrated in the 
 great international gatherings so common in 
 these later years. The International Insti- 
 tute of Agriculture, inaugurated by the king 
 of Italy at the suggestion of Mr. David Lubin 
 of California; the International Postal Union 
 which has accomplished much for the inter- 
 communication of the peoples of the world; 
 the Society of International law, copying and 
 making uniform the laws, world-wide in appU- 
 cation — these, and many other similar organi- 
 zations are surely hastening the coming of the 
 federation of the world. 
 
 Not many years ago Chili and Argentina 
 were about to be embroiled in war. There 
 were disputes and bitter feelings and military 
 preparations for war on the part of both na- 
 tions. The peace-lovers plead for arbitration 
 and their request was granted. The settle- 
 ment of this dispute was more far-reaching 
 than was dreamed of by the arbitrators for 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 483 
 
 it not alone brought peace to contending 
 nations but it enthroned a new ideal of peace, 
 and brotherhood — they who were prepared for 
 war, were now ready for peace. Melting the 
 cannon, they cast the bronze into a mighty 
 statue of the Christ and placed it on the 
 highest summit of the Andes. From that 
 lofty height, the Prince of Peace will through 
 the centuries send forth his message of "peace 
 on earth, good will toward men." 
 
 Have not our friends in the southern conti- 
 nent given us an example worthy to be fol- 
 lowed? We have erected statues to the 
 followers of Mars in every plaza in every 
 town; but as yet few have been erected to the 
 heroes of peace. If ideals have their value, 
 then let there be statues and stories of the 
 "work-a-day" heroes. Carnegie's hero fund 
 is of greater value to the nation than are the 
 warships built at the cost of millions of dollars. 
 The man who carried the message to Garcia, 
 and Eben Brewer, who sent the soldiers' letters 
 home from Cuba, are rightly honored. Be- 
 cause of this **Hero Fund," many heroes of 
 everyday life receive the honor worthy of their 
 deeds of valor. 
 
484 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 A new education of children in the ideals of 
 peace has many advocates. School histories 
 are largely the record of the details of wars, 
 giving an impression that war is the most 
 glorious form of human activity. Mr. Brown 
 in his report as Commissioner of Education, 
 says: "Governments, in striving to maintain 
 an honorable peace, require the reinforcement 
 of popular sentiment, and it is of the utmost 
 importance that such public sentiment should 
 steadily demand a peace which makes for 
 righteousness, and no other peace than that 
 which will make for righteousness. A public 
 sentiment calling for such peace will be stable 
 only when it rests upon an appreciative under- 
 standing of other nations. In this there is a 
 great work for education the world over, that 
 it may help the nations to understand one 
 another. Whatever the schools may do to 
 this great end will count for real education. 
 Can any form of learning, in fact, be more 
 liberalizing, more expanding, more tonic, than 
 the insight gained through knowledge of other 
 peoples, our contemporaries, who with us are 
 the makers of modern history? 
 
 "Already a considerable movement is under 
 
to 
 
 (U 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 485 
 
 way looking to the annual commemoration in 
 the schools of the United States of the opening 
 of the first Hague Conference, which occurred 
 on the 18th day of May, 1899. Such a cele- 
 bration seems eminently desirable, by way of 
 laying due emphasis in the schools upon the 
 vital relations of modern peoples one to 
 another." 
 
 Resolutions passed at the International 
 Congress at Liege, Belgium, in 1905, in answer 
 to the question, "What can the schools con- 
 tribute to the spread of the peace idea.^" con- 
 tain these words: 
 
 "Instruction in history should be of a kind 
 to show the great law of solidarity which unites 
 all men, all the intellectual and spiritual 
 workers of the past. Through geographical 
 instruction it should be shown how the living 
 generation works in the same way, how the 
 lines of trade and communication are estab- 
 lished and multiplied, how the exchange of the 
 products of all lands secures a common life on a 
 broader and more comfortable basis." 
 
 Although we have an army of war, yet for a 
 great part of the time this mighty organiza- 
 tion is doing the work of an army of peace. 
 
486 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Its work of reconstruction, of education, of re- 
 habilitation, of sanitation in the PhiHppines,* 
 in Cuba, Porto Rico and Guam, are but ex- 
 amples of the great work which might be done 
 in every land, if the organized destructive 
 forces were made constructive, humanizing 
 and civihzing. This is the contention of this 
 chapter, that as war shall cease, the organized 
 
 * (FROM REPORT OF SECRETARY OF WAR, TAFT, 1908. ) 
 "Mr. Bumham, the well-known landscape architect of Chicago, 
 BOme years ago, without compensation, visited the Philippines 
 and mapped out a plan for the improvement of the city, and laid 
 out a plan of construction for Baguio in Benguet as the summer 
 capital and health resort. To both of these plans, all improve- 
 ments which have been attempted in the city have conformed, 
 and if the present eflficient city government continues, there is 
 every reason to believe that Manila will become a most attractive 
 city. A contract has been made for the leasing of ground im- 
 mediately upon the Luneta and facing the bay, to a firm of 
 capitalists for the construction of a hotel to cost 500,000 pesos. 
 It is doubtful, however, whether this capital can be raised at the 
 present time, and if it falls through it is proposed, and I think 
 with wisdom proposed, that the government shall erect a hotel as 
 a public investment for the development of the city and the is- 
 lands, and lease it to the best bidder. 
 
 There is no city in the world better governed than Manila. 
 The streets are well cleaned, are well policed, there is a most 
 excellent fire department. The parks are being enlarged and im- 
 proved, the street car system is as good as ansrwhere, and with 
 the improvements in the water supply, the sewerage system and 
 esteros or canals, which are now under foot and part of which are 
 nearly accomplished, the face which the Filipinos turn toward 
 the world in the city of Manila will be a most pleasing one." 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 487 
 
 forces will still continue, but will do the great 
 things needing to be done that make for better 
 living and for the establishment of righteous- 
 ness and justice in the whole world. 
 
 No experiment has ever had greater success 
 than that of the Iwahig Penal Colony in the 
 Philippines. This was founded after a careful 
 study of the George Junior Republic. The 
 right man was found to conduct it, and prison- 
 ers who gave hope of reformation were taken 
 from Bilibid Prison to an island, at that time 
 only a mangrove swamp. Here freed from 
 the restriction of prison life, these Filipinos 
 were given a chance to become men. The 
 following description* shows what can be 
 done for human uplift when a nation or- 
 ganizes to do good even to the weakest: 
 
 "A number of colonists have by their work 
 and good conduct earned the reward of a small 
 farm with a small house and the privilege of 
 having their families with them. A pre- 
 
 *The number of prisoners employed in the different divisions 
 of the colony on June 30, 1908, was as follows: 
 
 Farming, 101; Construction, 61; Forestry, 68; Roads, 30; 
 Transportation, 29; Serving, 49; Executive, 16; Health, 12; 
 Out Stations, 54; Sick in hospital, 21; Police, 20; In Puerto 
 Princess, 5. Total strength of Colony, 466. 
 
488 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 scribed allowance of food, clothing, and money 
 enables them to live until their farms have 
 become suflSciently productive to support 
 themselves and their families. As the farms 
 increase in productiveness the government 
 support is gradually withdrawn. The colony 
 is divided up into hunters, farmers, lumber- 
 men, road-builders, cattle-raisers, hog-raisers. 
 There is a police force, but not a firearm on the 
 reservation. The word 'prisoner' or * convict' 
 is never heard or used, and to an observer it 
 would appear that these men were cultivating 
 a big hacienda. The faculties necessary for 
 handling these men are honesty, sincerity, 
 patience, firmness, fearlessness, and a fine 
 sense of justice — about the same qualities that 
 are needed for the handling of prisoners of any 
 nationality. The essential idea of the colony 
 is that of enforced industry combined with the 
 discipline of decreased restraint and increased 
 self-dependence. The result is that prisoners 
 cease to be a cost to the government and be- 
 come self-supporting. Among the many in- 
 centives, in addition to the large degree of 
 personal liberty allowed, is that of earning a 
 conditional parole, with the choice of return- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 489 
 
 ing to their homes or remaining in Iwahig and 
 becoming farmers of colonies. If a paroled 
 man remains on the reservation, he will 
 receive, in addition to his accumulated earn- 
 ings, a farm and house, seeds, advice, and all 
 help possible, in return for which he must 
 obey the laws of the colony in the same manner 
 as any citizen would obey the laws of a muni- 
 cipality." 
 
 While the army has been successfully work- 
 ing out experiments in the tropics the work of 
 the Engineers' department gives the best 
 illustration of what may be accomplished by 
 an army of peace. The duties devolving 
 upon the oflScers of the corps of engineers have 
 been increasing year by year, and are now 
 greater than ever before in its history. These 
 duties at present include the construction of 
 fortifications, superintendence and execution 
 of works of river and harbor improvements, 
 and the construction and repair of light- 
 houses, both in the United States and in the 
 island possessions; the water supply, municipal 
 engineering, care of public buildings and 
 grounds, and a share in the government of the 
 capital city of the United States; the improve- 
 
400 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 ment of the Yellowstone National Park; the 
 survey of the northern and northwestern 
 lakes ; the mining and debris commission in the 
 State of California; the chairmanship and 
 majority membership of the Panama Canal 
 Commission and work under this commission, 
 all of which involve the expenditure of many 
 millions annually. 
 
 After several trials, the government found it 
 necessary to give the direction of the building^ 
 of the Panama Canal into the hands of CoL 
 Geo. W. Geothals, an army engineer, wh< 
 could not resign or ask leave to accept 
 position with larger pay. With the disciplincj 
 of the army, the work of building the Panamj 
 Canal is being hastened to a completion in 
 1915, while with the zeal of the surgeons in th< 
 Japanese War, Col. Gorgas is doing a work ii 
 prophylaxis never witnessed in the tropics 
 outside of this zone. 
 
 In an early history descriptive of the work^ 
 of the army engineers, we find the following 
 facts concerning the usefulness of these sol- 
 diers of peace. 
 
 In the earliest days of West Point, people 
 hesitated at expenditures for purely militai 
 
u 
 -a 
 
 cr 
 
 4> 
 
 c 
 
 < 
 
 5 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 491 
 
 purposes, and proposed to employ these 
 officers in time of peace in various useful 
 undertakings. President Jefferson who was 
 **no great lover of military affairs, but a warm 
 friend of science,'* signed the Act, establishing 
 the military academy, contemplated an insti- 
 tution which would supply the country with 
 engineers for civil as well as military purposes, 
 an institution which would serve as a model 
 for training in the practical sciences. 
 
 Because West Point antedated all technical 
 schools by twenty-three years, naturally this 
 school furnished teachers for other schools, 
 and a type for their establishment. The 
 graduates became the great explorers of the 
 country, mapping and charting the rivers. 
 The officers of the War Department from the 
 earliest years of this last century, from the 
 days of Pike and Long, and Lewis and Clarke, 
 and Bonneville, have borne the hardships and 
 exposures of the preliminary examinations and 
 surveys, when the region was an unknown 
 wilderness, and have gone on improving their 
 surveys from time to time by more accurate 
 methods as the improvement in instruments 
 or their transportation has increased. 
 
492 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 The railroad was bom in England in 1825. 
 A fever for railroads immediately attacked 
 this country, but at that time there were no 
 competent men with experience sufficient to 
 locate and construct them. There were a 
 few graduate military engineers, whom the 
 government with liberal policy lent to the 
 railroad promoters for this purpose. The 
 Baltimore and Ohio, and scores of other roads 
 were thus built. 
 
 The army engineers now assigned to the 
 rivers and harbors are doing a work of far- 
 reaching importance to the nation. The need 
 for their services will increase as the govern- 
 ment's plan for waterways reaches the active 
 stage. The work of U. S. Engineer, Amos A. 
 Fries, in developing the great harbor at Los 
 Angeles is illustrative of the far-reaching work 
 of this part of the army. In addition to his 
 noteworthy success in the building of this 
 breakwater, the aid which he rendered the 
 city of Los Angeles in saving the harbor for 
 the people in their contest with the great cor- 
 porations will never be forgotten by those who 
 are interested in the success of all measures 
 for the common good. 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 493 
 
 War may cease, but will we not always need 
 trained engineers with an army behind them 
 to dig the waterways and harbors, drain the 
 swamps, build the railroads and reclaim the 
 arid lands? An organized army, working six 
 hours a day, with special drill would not only 
 do the work, but would be in the best of 
 training if defense was necessary. When the 
 Panama Canal is finished, the plant and organ- 
 ization ought to be put to use in digging and 
 dredging the great canals and deep waterways, 
 giving interior states harbors for ocean-going 
 ships. 
 
 Under a magazine picture showing the 
 landscape about Mukden furrowed by the 
 plowshares of war, occur these words: "The 
 amount of work devoted to the altering of 
 nature for the purposes of war would build 
 an irrigation system that would make a vast 
 arid region fertile, construct a line of railroads 
 or create a great commercial harbor." 
 
 This nation has an army prepared for war, 
 but enough has been said to show that it is 
 slowly being transformed into an army of 
 peace, and that new ideals of patriotism and 
 service to one's country are taking the place 
 
404 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 of the older thought that the highest service 
 was to die for one's nation, while fighting at 
 the front where the battle raged the fiercest. 
 It may be ours to have the vision of Ossian, 
 when he sang of that time to come, when 
 "The battle ceased along the plains, for the 
 bards had sung the songs of peace." 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 More Democracy 
 
 Democracy is not a new idea born of the 
 twentieth century. The rule of the people 
 existed away back in the days of ancient 
 Greece, in which land the word democracy 
 itself was coined. "Demos'* was then a term 
 of greater import than king or lord ; but to the 
 Grecians "the people" did not mean all the 
 people, for the slaves were many, the captives 
 of many wars, ofttimes educated and refined, 
 yet without voice or vote. 
 
 The end of the struggle of the centuries has 
 been not only that the people might rule in 
 place of king or aristocrat, but that all the 
 people, — freed from bondage, educated and 
 lifted out of dire poverty, might be fitted for 
 the noble duties of citizenship. If demo- 
 cracy means the rule of the people, the rule of 
 all the people, then the weaker must be aided 
 and educated by the stronger, until every 
 vote shall be an honest and intelligent vote. 
 
496 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 Such a hope may seem Utopian in an age of 
 greed and graft, yet it has never died out in 
 the human heart but has rather grown stronger 
 as the centuries have slipped by with their 
 ever-increasing Hght and Hberty. 
 
 Perhaps it is only natural that the strong 
 should seek to rule the weak, and history re- 
 cords it as a fact in every land. Sometimes 
 it is the rule of royalty, sometimes the rule of 
 bureaucrats, sometimes that of industrial 
 lords, but whatever form it assumes, it always 
 results in the exploitation of the weak by 
 those who have grown strong at their ex- 
 pense. Read the story of the early struggles 
 for life and liberty, and you will find that the 
 objects sought for are in substance the same 
 as the demands of today, although the names 
 may be changed. 
 
 The Republics of Greece became the teachers 
 of the world in democratic ideas, although 
 they could not rise entirely above the belief 
 that a poor man was unfitted for citizenship. 
 Among the German tribes, all freeman were 
 citizens in a democratic society, but gradually 
 as feudalism grew in power, the majority of the 
 freeborn people became subject to the nobles, 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 497 
 
 and were scarcely to be distinguished from the 
 serfs of the land. The nobility branded these 
 masses as "the common people," "the canaille^'' 
 who were once known as "the people," free 
 citizens of a free republic. Those who ruled 
 were either warriors or possessors of land 
 granted for valor in war. Dark ages followed 
 one another in which the cause of rule of the 
 people was eclipsed, but the rise of the city 
 and the beginnings of industrialism brought 
 a change. Leaders in commerce demanded 
 their rights and received them ; then the trades 
 or guilds asserted their claims for recognition, 
 and after many bloody contests were victori- 
 ous. The agriculturalists were less able to 
 gain recognition, and were held in serfdom long 
 years after their brothers in the cities were 
 made freemen. Although the democratic prin- 
 ciple was gaining recognition through a larger 
 number being included in the ruling body, yet 
 the great mass outside were still looked down 
 upon as the common herd. The French 
 Revolution wrought a change throughout 
 Europe, and "Liberty, fraternity and equality" 
 became the rallying cry in every land, and the 
 people began to claim rights as against the 
 aristocracy. 
 
498 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 The settlement of America seemed to furnish 
 the place for the final working out of the ideals 
 of democracy; here was to be witnessed the 
 rise of the common people; the uplift of the 
 average of humanity was now to be made 
 possible; for aristocracy, that foe to the com- 
 mon good, was to be left behind, and the desire 
 for civil liberty was to be strengthened by the 
 passion for religious liberty. 
 
 The Pilgrim Fathers sought to create a state 
 of society where equality in all things might 
 become permanent. Later the Declaration of 
 Independence embodied the best thought of 
 the worid in the statement of the belief in 
 human equality, and here and now democracy 
 was seen to have a free field to work out the 
 salvation of the people, both from the evils 
 of monarchy and aristocracy. The Fathers 
 planned and labored well, and civil and religi- 
 ous liberty seemed assured in America — the 
 land of the free. Political democracy, al 
 though not absolute, but only representative 
 might here have become a greater success had 
 not the growth of modern industrialism, at 
 first with its intense individualism, and then 
 with its mighty combinations, wrought havoc 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 49d 
 
 with the earlier ideals of liberty and equality. 
 A new feudalism of capital was established, 
 and the lords of the money power looked upon 
 the masses as did the feudal lords of the 
 middle ages, and called them "the people." 
 The Fathers were not willing to trust the people 
 with the rights of a true democracy, as was 
 done in lands where all the people ruled di- 
 rectly, as in Switzerland, or ancient Athens, 
 and so they established the device of rep- 
 resentative democracy, according to which the 
 representatives spoke and acted for the people 
 who chose them. Because of this method, 
 the lords of misrule have been able, by the use 
 of gold, too often to win the support of those 
 whom the people trusted. Within the last 
 quarter century, there has been formed within 
 this nation an aristocracy of wealth even more 
 baneful than the old world aristocracy of 
 birth. Power has become concentrated in the 
 hands of the few, and they have used this 
 power of the dollar to nullify laws, defeat 
 justice, defy the government, and corrupt the 
 ballot-box. What matters it if there is less of 
 wretched poverty in this favored land than in 
 other lands, if political and industrial democ- 
 
500 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 racy are in danger of being overthrown! 
 What profits it if in the place of the rule of the 
 people, privileged wealth is to sit in the seat 
 of government, and through protected in- 
 terests, under the lead of corrupt bosses, and 
 upheld by a venal press, make the laws for a 
 nation in bondage! History is at last repeat- 
 ing itself, and the people deprived of their 
 rights are again demanding that their name 
 shall be written large; and that power, once 
 wrested from them shall be restored to their 
 hands. 
 
 Notwithstanding the existence of social 
 immorality, dishonesty, graft, and exploita- 
 tions of various kinds, because of the recup- 
 erative power of democracy, the people once 
 awakened are sure to win, for "though theyj 
 may blunder on the way, they are ultimately 
 right." The spoiling of the weak by the] 
 strong cannot long continue in a democratic! 
 nation, when the people speak. With Del 
 Tocqueville, we hold that "the cure of th< 
 evils of democracy is more democracy.' 
 Trust the people, give them greater power to 
 rule. If a representative government is nec- 
 essary, then make the representatives more 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 501 
 
 intimately responsible to their constituents, 
 and closer to the electors, that the power of 
 sympathetic public opinion may influence 
 their every action. 
 
 The past decade has witnessed an agitation 
 as active in its propaganda against the evils 
 of modern industrialism and its allied misrule 
 as was that against monarchy and its evils 
 before the French Revolution. And just as 
 sure as that agitation resulted in the overthrow 
 of the old, so will the social unrest of this day 
 result in a revolution, peaceful yet mighty, 
 which will lead to the overthrow of injustice, 
 and the establishment of the rights of the 
 people. There is on every hand a revival 
 of public spirit on the part of those who had 
 lost hope and who had neglected the ballot- 
 box; and because the people are aroused, 
 success is assured. 
 
 For the past ten years a moral wave has 
 been sweeping over the land. The people 
 are growing in a sense of spiritual values, 
 and the purely material conception of life 
 is losing its hold. Men everywhere are being 
 moved by a **religion of democratic aspira- 
 tion." This religion of patriotism is calling 
 
502 
 
 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 its followers to live for their country, to work 
 not in the spirit of blind revenge against the 
 over-lords of society, but through the educa- 
 tion of the consciences of the people, seeking, 
 not for spasmodic reform, but for the re-es- 
 tablishment of our governmental system on 
 strong, permanent, democratic foundations. 
 First agitate, then educate, then inspire, is 
 a method which will always bring good results. 
 Along with the moral awakening of the people 
 comes the turning of the light on existing 
 conditions. Perhaps no stronger arraignment 
 of the evils of the present political situation 
 has ever been given, than that contained in 
 an analysis of the new tariff law, in the Outlook 
 for August 14th, 1909, part of which is as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 **Special interests control both the House 
 and the Senate. Some interests have a greater 
 control in one body, some in the other. 
 Only a comparatively small body of statesman 
 in either branch of Congress are controlled 
 by the consideration of what is demanded by- 
 the general interest of the nation. This is 
 natural, perhaps unavoidable, since the repre- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 503 
 
 sentative is elected to represent his district 
 and the senator his state. Neither is elected 
 to represent the nation, and, with some shining 
 exceptions, neither representatives nor senators 
 know much about national desires and nat- 
 ional opinion. The President is the only per- 
 son concerned in this legislation who has been 
 elected by the nation, and to whom the in- 
 terests of all sections and states send their 
 complaints and requests. In Congress the 
 representatives are elected by the people, 
 and are therefore more responsive to the pop- 
 ular will; the senators, in some cases practi- 
 cally elected by the special interests, are more 
 responsive to those interests than to public 
 opinion." 
 
 Such conditions demand a change. The 
 optimist says that relief is near at hand, and 
 who could be else than an optimist, as he 
 stands in the presence of an aroused citizen- 
 ship ? Here are some of the methods by which 
 special privileges are to be overthrown and 
 equal rights for all established in government 
 and industry. The direct primary; direct 
 legislation through the initiative and referen- 
 
504 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 dum; the recall; choosing the senators by 
 the people; non-partisan city government; 
 new city charters — these are among the dem- 
 ocratic devices which are putting the power to 
 rule back again in the hands of the people. 
 And surely this is the way to create **the right 
 environment for freedom and democracy." 
 
 Direct legislation is the latest American 
 approach to the communal voting of th( 
 Greek republics, the Swiss cantons, and th( 
 New England town meeting. The immensi 
 stretch of country, and the density of popula- 
 tion, will probably make absolute democracy 
 an impossibility in this land, yet the device of 
 direct legislation will put the power of control 
 where it rightly belongs, as it is expressed ii 
 the definition, "The initiative enables the 
 people to enact, by direct popular vote, d( 
 sirable measures, ignored, pigeonholed, oi 
 defeated by their representatives. The refer- 
 endum is the power of veto, by direct populai 
 vote, of acts of the representatives." 
 
 The control thus put into the hands of tb 
 people in questions of legislation is duplicate( 
 in the recall, in the control over the men elect< 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 505 
 
 to oflSce. The founders of the nation intro- 
 duced the recall in the articles of confedera- 
 tion.* By means of the recall, bad men or 
 incompetent can be replaced by efficient men 
 who truly represent the people. By means of 
 all of these measures, "It is proposed to shift 
 from the representatives the excess of power 
 which is engulfing them to the body of voters 
 who have not enough power to enable them 
 to retain their self-respect, to say nothing of 
 securing life, liberty and happiness. This 
 may well prove to be the salvation of represen- 
 tative government and hence of popular 
 government." 
 
 That the fathers of this nation foresaw the 
 possible need for such legislation is illustrated 
 by the following quotation from the Bill of 
 Rights in the Constitution of Massachusetts. 
 
 "Article V. All power residing originally in 
 the people, and being derived from them, the 
 
 *ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 
 Article V. "For the more convenient management of the 
 general interests of the United States, delegates shall be annually 
 appointed in such manner as the legislature of each state shall 
 direct, to meet in Congress on the first Monday in November in 
 every year, with a power reserved to each state to recall its dele- 
 gates, or any of them, at any time, for the remainder of the 
 year." 
 
506 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 several magistrates and officers of government, 
 vested with authority, whether legislative, 
 executive, or judicial, are their substitutes 
 and agents, and are at all times accountable to 
 them. 
 
 "Art. VI. Government is instituted for 
 the common good; for the protection, safety, 
 prosperity and happiness of the people; and 
 not for the profit, honor, or private interest 
 of any one man, family, or class of men: there- 
 fore the people have an incontestable, una- 
 lienable, and indefeasible right to institute 
 government; and to reform, alter, or totally 
 change the same, when their protection, safety, 
 prosperity, and happiness require it. 
 
 "Art. VII. In order to prevent those who 
 are vested with authority from becoming 
 oppressors, the people have a right, at such 
 periods and in such manner as they shall 
 establish by their form of government, to 
 cause their public officers to return to private 
 life; and to fill up vacant places by certain 
 and regular elections and appointments." 
 
 As a way out from some of the intolerable 
 evils of our present system, two further sug- 
 gestions have been made; namely, a heavily 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 507 
 
 graded progressive inheritance tax, bearing 
 heaviest on absentees, is the recommendation 
 of Theodore Roosevelt and one which many 
 states have adopted; also President Taft's 
 proposed amendment to the Federal Consti- 
 tution on which the states are asked to vote, 
 reading as follows: "The Congress shall have 
 power to lay and collect direct taxes on incomes 
 without apportionment among the several 
 states according to population. '* 
 
 Great Britian is moving along similar lines 
 toward a greater democracy. British inheri- 
 tance taxes, drawn from a population of 
 44,000,000 yield $90,000,000 to $95,000,000 
 annually, out of a total internal revenue of 
 $470,000,000 to $480,000,000, thus lifting some 
 of the burden of taxation from the common 
 people. A revolutionary change has come 
 over the spirit of the British politics, according 
 to the Hon. J. Kerr Hardie, M.P., who says, 
 "Not only is laissez faire dead and forgotten, 
 but out of its ashes has arisen an entirely new 
 creation. The old theory that the state was 
 an unclean thing to be kept as far away as 
 possible from the lives of the people has given 
 place to a new concept in which the aid of the 
 
508 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 state is being invoked for purposes which 
 would have made the blood of the men run 
 cold who were at the helm fifty years ago. 
 Four years ago whilst it was known that there 
 were tens of thousands of destitute hungry 
 children attending school, nearly a million old 
 persons without any means of support, and 
 whilst also unemployment from time to time 
 played sad havoc with the comfort of great 
 multitudes of working people and reduced 
 them to a state of actual hunger, there was no 
 state machinery for dealing with these. Now, 
 however, educational authorities may provide 
 out of public funds food for school children; 
 persons of both sexes over seventy years of 
 age receive an old age pension provided from 
 the national exchequer; and the state recog- 
 nizes its liability, financial and other, to make 
 provision for the people out of work. The 
 House of Commons has also carried through 
 all its stages a bill for regulating the hours of 
 labor in mines to eight per day, and has also 
 carried a workmen's compensation law which 
 includes every class of worker, even casual 
 laborers and domestic servants." More re- 
 cent legislation points to the acceptance of far 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 509 
 
 more revolutionary measures in the interests 
 of the common people, as over against that of 
 the lords and their vested rights. 
 
 "It is evident in every land that for the 
 future, democracy is not merely to be a scheme 
 of governmental administration, but an ethical 
 system applying to all departments of life. 
 It involves a larger degree of public service, 
 designed to meet new and pressing common 
 needs. It holds to the principle of equal 
 opportunity to all for the proper development 
 of the physical and spiritual powers. It is 
 moving toward a more highly organized and 
 more productive type of industry. 
 
 Writers and speakers there are without 
 number who not only believe but express 
 their beliefs in strong words like these: '*Co- 
 operation through the agency of great corpo- 
 rations has done much for modern develop- 
 ment. This form of industrial co-operation 
 will be supplemented by certain forms of 
 co-operation through government. The col- 
 lectivism of the corporation will not be done 
 away with, but it will not monopolize the 
 field of effort. Collectivism through govern- 
 ment will have its part to play. We are on 
 
610 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 the eve of great movements intended for the 
 advancement of man. The public service 
 will constantly improve, the public servant 
 will advance in efficiency, in disinterested- 
 ness, and in patriotic integrity. The gov- 
 ernment will not simply be a machine to rule 
 but it will be a machine to administer, and 
 the constantly increasing intelligence of the 
 voters of the country will see to it that such 
 administration of government by all the| 
 people will be for the best interests of allj 
 the people." 
 
 Let us read carefully the words of that man] 
 of the people, Gifford Pinchot — a follower of 
 Roosevelt, of whom it has been said that he| 
 found the American people in thought, inj 
 conduct, and in aspirations, veering away 
 from the good old standards, and he called 
 them back. Gifford Pinchot, in a speech 
 before the Irrigation Congress at Spokane, 
 said: *'We are coming to see that the plain' 
 American citizen is the man to work for. The I 
 imagination is staggered by the magnitude 
 of the price for which we work. If we succeed 
 there will exist upon this continent a sane, 
 strong people living through the centuries in a] 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 511 
 
 land subdued and controlled for the service of 
 the people, its rightful masters, owned by the 
 many and not by the few. If we fail, the great 
 interests, increasing their control of our natu- 
 ral resources, will thereby control the country 
 more and more, and the rights of the people 
 will fade into the privileges of concentrated 
 wealth. The man who really counts is the 
 plain American citizen. This is the man for 
 whom the Roosevelt policies were created, and 
 his welfare is the end to which the Roosevelt 
 policies lead. 
 
 **I stand for the Roosevelt policies because 
 they set the common good of all of us above 
 the private gain of some of us, because they 
 recognize the livelihood of the small man as 
 more important to the nation than the profit 
 of the big man ; because they oppose all useless 
 waste at present at the cost of robbing the 
 future; because they demand the complete, 
 sane, and orderly development of all our natu- 
 ral resources, not forgetting our rivers; because 
 they insist upon equality of opportunity and 
 denounce monopoly and special privilege; be- 
 cause discarding false issues, they deal directly 
 with the vital questions that really make a 
 
512 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 diflFerence with the welfare of us all — the most 
 of all, because in them the plain American 
 always and everywhere holds the first place. 
 And I propose to stand for them while I have 
 the strength to stand for anything." 
 
 Much remains to be done, but here again 
 will agitation, education and inspiration aid 
 the people in coming to their own. In- 
 spirational leaders there are, counted now by 
 the hundreds; of constructive leaders, too, 
 there are many, who are organizing, directing, 
 and training the people. There are also in- 
 surgents in Congress who will not yield to the 
 party-whip, and they are increasing in number 
 every year. Of educators in the school of 
 citizenship there is a large host, who are train- 
 ing the youth and the foreigner in the higher 
 ideals of democracy. The People's Lobby in 
 many legislatures has come to stay, a sleepless 
 guard in the interest of the many. 
 
 As we draw near to the democratic ideal, we 
 find that although this is a representative 
 government, we, the people, can educate our 
 congressmen, and make it possible for them to 
 serve the people more wisely and eflBciently. 
 If the humblest citizen will write his repre- 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 513 
 
 sentative at Washington, expressing his views 
 on all important questions, and do this before 
 pledges have been made, and lines closely 
 drawn, but only, of course, after the writer 
 has given the subject the most careful thought 
 and study, the result of such correspondence 
 in the education of the law-maker cannot fail 
 to be beneficial.* He will realize that he is 
 elected, not for the spoils of oflSce, not to use 
 his position as a means for graft, but rather to 
 represent the best thought of his constituents 
 on all subjects affecting the common good. 
 When the people do their part, there will be 
 less reason for demanding the referendum or 
 instituting the recall. 
 
 It has been necessary to use dark colors in 
 painting the picture of present conditions, but 
 the black cloud may make the silver lining more 
 striking, and the sunburst seem more glorious. 
 
 * Write to your Congressman. 
 
 The Outlook urgently recommends to its readers, in all parta 
 of the country, to watch for the President's message, and when it 
 appears, to write to their respective Senators and Representatives 
 urging upon them co-operation in securing the necessary legisla- 
 tion. The special interests will be busy urgmf^ their private clainiB 
 on Congress. The public must also be busy m urgmg the public 
 claims on Congress. Remember also that private personal let- 
 ters are worth immeasurably more than general petitions or 
 signatures attached to printed or typwritten copies of the 
 same letter. 
 
 OuOook, Nov. 27, 1909 
 
514 THE BETTER COUNTRY 
 
 The evils of democracy are disappearing as 
 the people call for more democracy. De- 
 structive competition is giving way to co- 
 operation. Collectivism through trusts and 
 corporations is being merged into collectivism 
 through government. The people are aroused, 
 politics are being purified, honest, eflBcient 
 men are everywhere being placed in office by 
 determined electors. The good of the many 
 and not the enrichment of the few is the new 
 ideal. A venal press is being replaced by 
 journals of highest purpose, whose editors can- 
 not be bought nor bribed by big business 
 interests, or by the poHtical machine. De- 
 mocracy — the rule of the people — in state and 
 in industry, is emerging from the realm of 
 theory and is entering the realm of the actual. 
 Conscience, courage, and co-operation will 
 bring the realization of the ideal. 
 
 This volume is but **a book of beginnings," 
 yet all who have ever traced world movements 
 from small beginnings to successful termina- 
 tions will be able to foresee the future scope of 
 national activities, even though but suggested 
 by what has already been undertaken. 
 
 Optimists, we must be, when we consider 
 
THE BETTER COUNTRY 515 
 
 that our government is in social service; and 
 that this nation as a nation is at work in 
 human uplift. 
 
 With so much evidence of the coming of a 
 new day, hope cannot die, and all citizens ought 
 surely to take courage and act as men, at a 
 time when it means more to live for one's 
 country than to die for it. 
 
 (The End.) 
 
APPENDIX I 
 
 FAMOUS ACT THAT AUTHORIZES RECLAMATION 
 WORK 
 
 An act appropriating the receipts from the sale and disposal 
 of public lands in certain states and territories to the construc- 
 tion of irrigation works for the reclamation of arid lands. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
 United States of America in Congress assembled. That all moneys 
 received from the sale and disposal of public lands in Arizona, 
 Calif ornia,Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, 
 New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, 
 Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, beginning with the fiscal year 
 ending June 30, 1901, including the surplus of fees and commis- 
 sions in excess of allowances to registers and receivers, and except- 
 ing the 5 per centum of the proceeds of the sales of public lands 
 in the above states set aside by law for educational and other 
 purposes, shall be, and the same are hereby, reserved, set aside 
 and appropriated as a special fund in the Treasury to be known 
 as the "Reclamation Fund," to be used in the examination and 
 survey for and the construction and maintenance of irrigation 
 works for the storage, diversion and development of waters for 
 the reclamation of arid and semi-arid lands in the said states and 
 territories, and for the payment of all other expenditures provided 
 for in this act. Provided, That in case the receipts from the sale 
 and disposal of lands referred to in this section are insufficient 
 to meet the requirements for the support of agricultural colleges 
 in the several states and territories, under the act of August 30, 
 1890, entitled "An act to apply a portion of the proceeds of the 
 public lands to the more complete endowment and support of the 
 colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts, 
 established under the provisions of an act of Congress approved 
 July 2, 1862," the deficiency, if any, in the sum necessary for the 
 support of the said colleges shall be provided for from moneys 
 in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 
 
 Section 2. That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby au- 
 thorized and directed to make examinations and surveys for, and 
 to locate and construct, as herein provided, irrigation works for 
 the storage, diversion and development of waters, including 
 
518 APPENDIX 
 
 artesian wells, and to report to Congress at the beginning of each 
 regular session as to the results of such examinations and surveys, 
 giving estimates of cost of all contemplated works, the quantity 
 and location of the lands which can be irrigated therefrom, and 
 all facts relative to the practicability of each irrigation project; 
 also the cost of works in process of construction as well as of those 
 which have been completed. 
 
 Section 3. That the Secretary of the Interior shall, before 
 ^ving the public notice provided for in section four of this act, 
 withdraw from pubUc entry the lands required for any irrigation 
 works contemplated under the provisions of this act, and shall 
 restore to public entry any of the lands so withdrawn when, in hia 
 judgment, such lands are not required for the purposes of this 
 act; and the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, at or 
 immediately prior to the time of beginning the surveys for any 
 contemplated irrigation works, to withdraw from entry, except 
 under the homestead laws, any pubUc lands believed to be sus- 
 ceptible of irrigation from said works. Provided, That all lands 
 entered and entries made under the homestead laws within areas 
 so withdrawn during such withdrawal shall be subject to all the 
 provisions, Umitations, charges, terms, and conditions of this act : 
 that said surveys shall be prosecuted diUgently to completion, and 
 upon the completion thereof, and of the necessary maps, plans 
 and estimates of cost, the Secretary of the Interior shall determine 
 whether or not said project is practicable and advisable, and if 
 determined to be impracticable or unadvisable he shall thereupon 
 restore said lands to entry; that public lands which it is proposed 
 to irrigate by means of any contemplated works shall be subject 
 to entry only under the provisions of the homestead laws in tracts 
 of not less than forty nor more than one hundred and sixty acres, 
 and shall be subject to the limitations, charges, terms and condi- 
 tions herein provided. Provided, That the commutation provi- 
 sions of the homestead laws shall not apply to entries made under 
 this act. 
 
 Section 4. That upon the determination by the Secretary 
 of the Interior that any irrigation project is practicable, he may 
 cause to be let contracts for the construction of the same, in such 
 portions or sections as it may be practicable to construct and com- 
 plete as parts of the whole project, providing the necessary funds 
 for such portions or sections are available in the Reclamation 
 Fund, and thereupon he shall give public notice of the lands irri- 
 gable under such project, and limit of area per entry, which Umit 
 shall represent the acreage which, in the opinion of the Secretary, 
 may be reasonably required for the support of a family upon the 
 
APPENDIX 519 
 
 lands in question ; also of the charges which shall be made per acre 
 upon said entries, and upon lands in private ownership which may- 
 be irrigated by the waters of the said irrigation project, and the 
 number of annual installments, not exceeding ten, in which such 
 charges shall be paid and the time when such payments shall com- 
 mence. The said charges shall be determined with a view of re- 
 turning to the Reclamation Fund the estimated cost of construction 
 of the project, and shall be apportioned equitably. Provided, 
 that in all construction work eight hours shall constitute a day's 
 work, and no MongoUan labor shall be employed thereon. 
 
 Section 5. That the entiyman upon lands to be irrigated by 
 such works shall, in addition to comphance with the homestead 
 laws, reclaim at least one-half of the total irrigable area of his 
 entry for agricultural purposes, and before receiving patent for 
 the lands covered by his entry shall pay to the government the 
 charges apportioned against such tract, as provided in section 
 four. No right to the use of water for land in private ownership 
 shall be sold for a tract exceeding one hundred and sixty acres 
 to any one landowner, and no such sale shall be made to any land- 
 owner unless he be an actual bona fide resident on such land, or 
 occupant thereof residing in the neighborhood of said land, and 
 no such right shall permanently attach until all payments therefor 
 are made. The annual installments shall be paid to the receiver of 
 the local land oflSce of the district in which the land is situated, 
 and a failure to make any two payments when due shall render 
 the entry subject to cancellation, with the forfeiture of all rights 
 under this act, as well as of any moneys alreadv paid thereon. 
 All moneys received from the above sources shall be paid into the 
 Reclamation Fund. Registers and receivers shall be allowed the 
 usual commissions on all moneys paid for lands entered under this 
 act. 
 
 Section 6. That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby author- 
 ized and directed to use the Reclamation Fund for the operation 
 and maintenance of all reservoirs and irrigation works constructed 
 under the provisions of this act : Provided, That when the pay- 
 ments required by this act are made for the major portion of the 
 lands irrigated from the waters of any of the works herein provided 
 for, then the management and operation of such irrigation works 
 shall pass to the owners of the lands irrigated thereby, to be main- 
 tained at their expense under such form of organization and under 
 such rules and regulations as may be acceptable to the Secretary 
 of the Interior: Provided, That the title to and the management 
 and operation of the reservoirs and the works necessary for their 
 protection and operation shall remain in the government until 
 otherwise provided by Congress. 
 
590 APPENDIX 
 
 Section 7. That where in carrying out the provisions of this 
 act it becomes necessary to acquire any rights of property, the 
 Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to acquire the same 
 for the United States by purchase or by condemnation under ju- 
 dicial process, and to pay from the Reclamation Fund the sums 
 which may be needed for that purpose, and it shall be the duty 
 of the Attorney-General of the United States upon every applica- 
 tion of the Secretary of the Interior under this act, to cause pro- 
 ceedings to be commenced for condemnation within thirty days 
 from the receipt of the application at the Department of Justice. 
 
 Section 8. That nothing in this act shall be construed as af- 
 fecting or intended to affect or in any way interfere with the laws 
 of any state or territory relating to the control, appropriation, 
 use, or distribution of water used in irrigation, or any vested right 
 acquired thereunder, and the Secretary of the Interior, in carry- 
 ing out the provisions of the act, shall proceed in conformity with 
 such laws, and nothing herein shall in any way affect any right 
 of any priator, or user of water in, to, or from any interstate 
 stream or the waters thereof: Provided, That the right to the use 
 of water acquired under the provisions of this act shall be appur- 
 tenant to the land irrigated, and beneficial use shall be the basis, 
 the measure, and the limit of the right. 
 
 Section 9. That it is hereby declared to be the duty of the 
 Secretary of the Interior in carrying out the provisions of this 
 act, so far as the same may be practicable and subject to the ex- 
 istence of feasible irrigation projects, to expend the major por- 
 tion of the funds arising from the sale of public lands within each 
 state and territory herein before named for the benefit of arid and 
 semi-arid lands within the limits of such state or territory: Pro- 
 vided, that the Secretary may temporarily use such portion of said 
 funds for the benefit of arid or semi-arid lands in any particular 
 state or territory hereinbefore named as he may deem advisable, 
 but when so used the excess shall be restored to the fund as soon 
 as practicable, to the end that ultimately, and in any event, 
 within each ten-year period after the passage of this act, the ex- 
 penditures for the benefit of the said states and territories shall be 
 equalized according to the proportions and subject to the condi- 
 tions as to practicability and feasibility aforesaid. 
 
 Section 10. That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby au- 
 thorized to perform any and all acts and to make such rules and 
 regulations as may be necessary and proper for the purpose of 
 carrying the provisions of this act into full force and effect. (32 
 Stat. L., 388. ) 
 
 Approved, June 17, 1902. 
 
APPENDIX n 
 
 RECLAMATION PROJECTS 
 
 The following selections from the government report on re- 
 clamation projects will show something of the magnitude of the 
 work now in progress. 
 
 COLORADO, UNCOMPAHGRE VALLEY PROJECT 
 
 This project provides for the diversion of waters of Gunnison 
 River by means of a tunnel 30,583 feet in length, cross section 
 ten and one half by eleven and one half feet, cement Uned, with 
 a capacity of 1,300 second feet. The tunnel passes through a 
 range of mountains and carries the water to Uncompahgre Valley, 
 where it will be used to supplement the local supply and extend 
 the irrigable area to about 150,000 acres of land. Work on the 
 tunnel was commenced in 1904 and it is expected that it will 
 carry water during the present season. There are 108 miles of 
 main canals in the distributing system. 
 
 The lands to be irrigated lie in Montrose and Delta Counties, 
 township 15 S., ranges 94 to 96 W., 6th P.M., and townships 48 to 
 61 north, ranges 7 to 12 W., N.M.M. The general elevation is 
 5,000 to 6,400 feet above sea level and the temperature ranges 
 from 20 degrees below to 98 degrees above zero. The watershed 
 area is 3,850 square miles, and the estimated run-off of watershed 
 is 1,500,000 acre-feet. The rainfall on the irrigable area is from 
 6 to 12 inches, and the rainfall on the watershed ranges from 7 
 to 20 inches. 
 
 The lands for which water is now available are all in private 
 ownership, but upon the completion of the works about 15,000 
 acres will be opened to entry. The farm unit varies from 40 to 
 80 acres, and the duty of water is one second-foot at headgateo 
 per 80 acres. About 60,000 acres are suitable for raising first- 
 class apples and peaches. Orchard lands produce as high as 
 $500 per acre net m the valley. The bottom lands, comprising 
 from 80,000 to 90,000 acres, are adapted to the growing of alfalfa 
 and sugar beets. Farmers make as nigh as $80 per acre net from 
 the latter crop, and from $100 to $200 per acre from potatoes. 
 The Denver and Rio Grande railroad traverses the tract, with 
 stations at Montrose, Olathe and Delta. The principal markets 
 are Denver and the local mining camps, although the apples are 
 shipped also to eastern markets. 
 
522 APPENDIX 
 
 IDAHO, MINIDOKA PROJECT. 
 
 The irrigable area under the Minidoka project consists of about 
 84,200 acres under the gravity system (77,320 acres being public, 
 6,680 state, and 200 acres private land, ) and 49,900 acres under 
 the pumping svstem. The lands he on both sides of Snake River, 
 in Lincoln and Cassia counties. 
 
 The engineering work involves the construction of a storage 
 reservoir at Jackson Lake, Wyoming, on the headwaters of 
 Snake River; a diversion, power and storage dam on Snake 
 River, at a point about 6 miles south of Minidoka, Idaho; and 
 two canal systems, one on each side of the river, heading at the 
 diversion dam and covering lands in the vicinity of Acequia, 
 Rupert, and Heyburn. Power is being developed at the diver- 
 sion dam for generating electrical energy for pumping water to 
 lands on the south side of the river too high to be reached by a 
 Kravity system. A temporary dam impounding 300,000 acre- 
 feet of water has been erected at Jackson Lake, the diversion and 
 power dam and the distributing canals for the gravity system are 
 finished, and the power and pumping plants and canals for the 
 pumping system are under construction. Both dams are earth 
 and rock-fill type. The storage dam is 50 feet high, and 4,300 
 feet long, and the diversion dam has a height of 52 feet and a 
 length of 600 feet. The gravity system has 130 miles of main 
 canal and 190 miles of laterals, and there are 70 miles of main 
 canal and 60 miles of laterals under the pumping system. The 
 power transmission Unes will have a length of from 13 to 20 miles. 
 
 The soil is sandy loam and volcanic ash, free from alkali and 
 exceedingly fertile. The sandy soil is particularly adapted to 
 the raising of alfalfa, potatoes, beet and other root crops, as well 
 as melons, strawberries, etc. It is also especially adaped to 
 the cultivation of sugar beets. The ashy formation is better 
 adapted to grain, orchards, etc. Noting the success of farmers on 
 the nearest cultivated land the settlers under the Minidoka pro- 
 ject planted more than a thousand acres to apples in 1908. It is 
 believed that all fruits of a hardy variety will produce abundantly 
 in this section. 
 
 The general elevation is 4,200 feet above sea level, and the 
 climate delightful. There is an ample water supply. The water- 
 shed area is 17,900 square miles, and the estimated annual run-off 
 is 7,200,000 acre-feet. The average annual rainfall on the irri- 
 gable area is 15 to 19 inches. 
 
 The cost of water right is $30 per acre, payable in ten annual 
 installments, and the operation and maintenance charge for 1909 
 is 60 cents per acre for the gravity system. The building, opera- 
 
APPENDIX 623 
 
 tion and maintenance charges for the high areas to which water 
 must be pumped have not been fixed. 
 
 The Oregon Short Line railway traverses the tract, with sta- 
 tions at the three government town sites, Heybum, Rupert and 
 Acequia, and also at Minidoka and Burley. The markets at 
 present are the local towns and Montana. The fann unit is 40 
 acres within a radius of li miles from the center of each of the 
 government town sites, and 80 acres on other lands. 
 
 WYOMING, SHOSHONE PROJECT: 
 
 This project involves the construction of an impounding dam 
 at the head of the canyon of the Shoshone River in northern 
 Wyoming, and the diversion of the waters for the irrigation of 
 about 150,000 acres of public land. Fifteen thousand acres were 
 opened to entry in 1908, and so rapidly were the lands taken up 
 that work has been pushed on the second unit and it is expected 
 that about 14,000 acres will be opened on May 22. 1909. 
 
 The elevation is about 4,500 feet above sea level, and the tem- 
 perature ranges from 20 degrees below to 95 degrees above zero. 
 The cUmate is dry and delightful and the soil of hght, sandy and 
 clay loam, produces abundantly when water is applied. Hay, 
 wheat, oats, barley, and the hardier vegetables can be grown, also 
 potatoes, sugar beets and hardy fruits. Large numbers of cattle 
 and sheep are pastured on the surrounding ranges during the 
 greater part of the year, but require feeding in the winter months, 
 80 that there is always a good home market for hay. Hog and 
 poultry raising are also very profitable. 
 
 The farm unit varies from 40 to 80 acres of irrigable land. 
 The building charge is $46 per acre of irrigable land, payable in 
 ten annual installments. The annual maintenance and opera- 
 tion charge at present is $1 per acre. One-tenth of the building 
 charge and one year's maintenance charge, or $5.60 per acre, are 
 due at the time of filing. The tract is traversed by the Chicago, 
 Burlington and Quincy railroad, and haa good transportation 
 facilities to the big markets of the Mississippi Valley and the 
 Pacific coast. 
 
 The watershed area is 1,380 square miles, the average annual 
 rainfall on watershed 15 inches, and the estimated annual run-oflF 
 is 1,000,000 acre-feet. The rainfall on the irrigable area is from 
 6 to 10 inches. 
 
 Considerable interest attaches to the engineering work on this 
 
 E reject, as the Shoshone dam will be the highest structure of its 
 ind in the world. It will be 328^ feet high from bed rock to top 
 of parapet walls, 108 feet thick on the bottom and only 200 feet 
 
5«4 APPENDIX 
 
 lone on top. The reservoir created by it haa an area of 6,600 acres 
 and a capacity of 456,000 acre-feet. The diversion dam, which 
 turns the waters of the river through a tunnel 3 J miles long, into 
 the main canal, is a reinforced gravity structure 18 feet high and 
 400 feet long. 
 
 Four flourishing towns, Cody, Garland, Powell, and Ralston are 
 located on the project. They contain schools, churches, banks, 
 newspapers, manufacturing establishments, hotels, stores, etc.. 
 and o£fer opportunities for professional and business men ana 
 artisans. 
 
 The surrounding mountains are covered with spruce and fir, and 
 supply the farmers with timber and the stockmen with summer 
 range. Coal mines located in the vicinity supply cheap fuel for 
 domestic and manufacturing purposes. Well water of good 
 quality is found at depths varying from 30 to 50 feet. 
 
 MONTANA, SUN RIVER PROJECT. 
 
 The lands under this project are located in Teton, Lewis and 
 Clark, Choteau and Cascade counties, about 25 miles from Great 
 Falls. Sun River Valley is about 70 miles long and from one to 
 five miles wide. The ultimate development of the project involves 
 the reclamation of 276,000 acres of land. A compact body of 
 17,000 acres, known as the Fort Shaw unit has been opened to 
 entry and is being rapidly settled. 
 
 The soil is a sandy loam, clay, adobe, and alluvium. There is 
 no sage or other brush to be cleared. The principal crops are 
 alfalfa, hay, grain, vegetables and sugar beets. The general 
 elevation is 3,700 feet above sea level and the temperature ranges 
 from 40 degrees below to 100 degrees above zero. Fine grazing 
 lands surround the project. The farm units vary from 40 to 
 160 acres of irrigable land. Wherever practicable, a tract of 
 grazing land is included in the farm unit. 
 
 The watershed area consists of 850 square miles on Sun River 
 and 290 square miles on Teton River, and the estimated annual 
 runoff varies from 400,000 to 1,000,000 acre-feet. The average 
 annual rainfall on the irrigable area is 12 inches. 
 
 Farms under this project are obtainable under the homestead 
 law, subject to the charges of actual cost of water upon the land. 
 This charge has been fixed at $30 per acre of irrigable land in 
 not less than five nor more than ten annual installments. At pre- 
 sent the operation and maintenance charge is 50 cents per acre 
 per annum, and the sum of $3.50 is due and payable at the time 
 of making entry. 
 
 An interesting feature in connection with this project is the 
 
APPENDIX 525 
 
 establishment of villages every six miles. In connection with the 
 Fort Shaw imit already opened the villages of Fort Shas and 
 Simms have been established and town lots may be purchased 
 at the local land ofl&ce at Great Falls. 
 
 NEVADA, TRUCKEE-CARSON PROJECT. 
 
 This project is located in Western Nevada, in Churchill, Lyon, 
 and Storey counties, townships 16 to 24 north, ranges 21 to 31 
 east, M.D.M. The first unit of the project was opened in 1907 
 and lands are now subject to homestead entry. In addition to 
 the land office filing fee, each settler is required to pay $3 per acre 
 annually for ten years, without interest on deferred payments. 
 An annual maintenance fee of 60 cents per acre is charged in 
 addition. The first payment of $3.60 per acre must be paid at 
 the time of filing on the land. The farm unit is 80 acres. 
 
 The climate in this valley is healthful and mild. The eleva- 
 tion above sea level is about 4,000 feet, and the temperature 
 ranges from 12 degrees below to 112 degrees above zero. It is so 
 dry, however, that the extremes, which seldom occur, are not m- 
 jurious. The average rainfall on the irrigable area is 4 inches 
 per annum. The soil is sandy loam, clay loam, and volcanic aah, 
 requiring 3 acre-feet of water per annum for each acre. The 
 valley will produce every variety of crop grown in the north tem- 
 perature zone. Alfalfa, wheat, barley, and oats grow luxuriantly, 
 and com is also a profitable crop. Apples, pears, peaches, apri- 
 cots, cherries, potatoes, and garden vegetables do well and find 
 a ready market in the nearby mining towns. The Southern 
 Pacific and Nevada and California railroads traverse the tract 
 and furnish transportation to the markets of the countrv. 
 
 The watershed area is 3,450 square miles, the annual rainfall 
 on the watershed, 25 inches, and the estimated nm-oflf, 1,000,000 
 acre-feet. 
 
 A dam has been built on Truckee River, near Wadsworth, to 
 turn the flow of the stream into a canal 31 miles long, which carries 
 the waters to Carson River. Here a diversion dam turns the 
 waters as needed into two main canals. The first unit of this 
 project, which is now complete, involves more than 600 miles of 
 canals and laterals, 50,000 feet of dikes and the dams on Truckee 
 and Carson Rivers. The project in its entirety will irrigate about 
 400,000 acres of land and will involve the construction of several 
 storage reservoirs and the development of power. 
 
APPENDIX III 
 
 METHOD OF OBTAINING HOMESTEAD LANDS 
 
 The General Land OflBce does not issue maps showing the 
 location of vacant public land subject to entry. This information 
 can be reliably obtained only from the records of the various dis- 
 trict land offices, which are located as follows: 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Idaho 
 
 Montgomery 
 
 Blackfoot 
 
 Alaska 
 
 Boise 
 
 
 Coeur d'Alene 
 
 Juneau 
 
 Halley 
 
 Nome 
 
 Lewiston 
 
 Arizona 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Phoenix 
 
 Des Moines 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Kansas 
 
 Camden 
 
 Dodge City 
 
 Harrison 
 
 Topeka 
 
 Little Rock 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 California 
 
 Natchitoches 
 
 Eureka 
 
 New Orleans 
 
 Independence 
 
 Michigan 
 
 Los Angeles 
 Oakland 
 
 Marquette 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 Redding 
 
 Cass Lake 
 
 Sacramento 
 
 Crookston 
 
 Susan ville 
 
 Duluth 
 
 VisaUa 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Colorado 
 
 Jackson 
 
 Del Norte 
 
 Missouri 
 
 Denver 
 
 Springfield 
 
 Durango 
 
 Montana 
 
 Glenwood Springs 
 
 Billings 
 
 Hugo 
 
 Bozeman 
 
 Lamar 
 
 Glasgow 
 
 Lead ville 
 
 Great Falls 
 
 Montrose 
 
 Helena 
 
 Pueblo 
 
 Kalispell 
 
 Sterling 
 
 Lewiston 
 
 Florida 
 
 Miles City 
 
 Gainesville 
 
 Missoula 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 $^7 
 
 Nebraska Soxdh Dakota 
 
 Alliance Aberdeen 
 
 Broken Bow Bellefourche 
 
 Lincoln Chamberlain 
 
 North Platte Gregory 
 
 O'Neill Lemmon 
 
 Valentine Pierre 
 
 Nevada Rapid aty 
 
 Carson City Utah 
 
 New Mexico Salt Lake City 
 
 Clayton Vernal 
 
 Las Cruces Washington 
 
 Roswell North Yakima 
 
 Santa F^ Olympia 
 
 Tucumcari Seattle 
 
 North Dakota Spokane 
 
 Bismarck Vancouver 
 
 Devils Lake Walla Walla 
 
 Dickinson Waterville 
 
 Fargo Wisconsin 
 
 Minot Wausau 
 
 WilUston Wyoming 
 
 Oklahoma Bufifalo 
 
 El Reno Cheyenne 
 
 Guthrie Douglas 
 
 Lawton Evanston 
 
 Woodward Lander 
 
 Oregon Sundance 
 
 Burns 
 
 LaGrande 
 
 Lakeview 
 
 Portland 
 
 Roseburg 
 
 The Dalles. 
 
 No specific descriptions of the character of the land, climate, 
 water, or timber can be given by the General Land oflfice. 
 
 Unoccupied public lands, subject to settlement and entry, are 
 to be found in all the states and territories west of the Mississippi 
 River, except Iowa and Texas. There is also considerable vacant 
 public land in the States of Michigan, Florida, Alabama, and 
 Mississippi. 
 
 Persons who desire to make homestead entry should first decide 
 where they wish to locate, then go or write to the local land oflSce 
 of the district in which the lands are situated, and obtain from 
 the records diagrams of vacant lands. 
 
528 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 A personal inspection of the lands should be made to ascertain 
 if they are suitable, and, when satisfied on this point, entry can 
 be made at the local land oflBce in the manner prescribed by law, 
 under the direction of the local land officers, who will give the 
 applicant full information. Should a person desire to obtain 
 information in regard to vacant lands in any district before goine 
 there for a personal inspection, he should address the register and . 
 receiver of the proper local land oflfice, who will give him full] 
 information. 
 
 A list showing the general character of all the public lane 
 remaining unentered in the various counties of the public-land 
 states on the 30th day of the preceding June may be obtained atl 
 any time by addressing "The Commissioner of the General Land! 
 Office, Washington, D. C." 
 
APPENDIX IV 
 
 REPORT ON FORESTS— SECOND GOVERNORS' 
 CONFERENCE. 
 
 The United States now has 550,000,000 acres of forested lands, 
 or about one-fourth of the total land area of continental United 
 States. The original forests covered not less than 850,000,000 
 acres. Publicly owned forests cover one-fourth of the total and 
 contain one-fifth of the timber standing; privately owned forests 
 cover the remaining area and contain the remamder of timber 
 standing. Scientific forestry is now practiced on seventy per cent, 
 of the publicly owned forests and on less than one per cent of the 
 privately owned forests. The total yearly growth of our forests is 
 less than seven bilUons of cubic feet; we take from the forests 
 each year, including waste in logging and manufacture. 
 23,000,000,000 cubic feet, or more than three times the annual 
 production. We use annually 100,000,000 cords of firewood; 
 40,000,000,000 feet of lumber; more than 1,000,000,000 posts, 
 poles and fence rails; 118,000,000 hewn ties; 1,500,000,000 staves; 
 133,0000,000 sets of heading; 500,000,000 barrel hoops; 3,000,000 
 cords of native pulpwood; 165,000,000 cubic feet of round mine 
 timbers, and 1,250,000 cords of wood for distillation. Not less 
 than 50,000,000 acres of forest land is burned over annually, and 
 since 1870 forest fires have each year destroyed an average of 
 fifty fives and $50,000,000 worth of timber. One-fourth of the 
 standing timber is left or otherwise lost in logging: the boxing of 
 long-leaf pine for turpentine has destroyed one-fiftn of the forests 
 worked; the loss in the mill is from one-third to two-thirds of the 
 timber sawed and the loss in the mill product, from seasoning and 
 fitting for use, is from one-seventh to one-fourth. In other words, 
 only 320 feet of lumber is used for every 1 ,000 feet that stood in the 
 forests. Our lumber cut has increased less than fifteen per cent in 
 the last seven years, but the average price at the mill, for all 
 kinds of lumber, has risen forty-nine per cent, and the rise contin- 
 ues. We invite by over-taxation the misuse of our forests, and 
 we destroy by fire in one year timber enough to supply the whole 
 nation for three months. We should plant, to protect farms from 
 Wind and to make stripped and treeless lands productive, an area 
 larger than that of the States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West 
 Virginia combined ; so far, lands planted to trees make a total area 
 less than Rhode Island. By reasonable thrift we can produce a 
 
580 APPENDIX 
 
 conetant timber supply beyond our present needs, and with it con- 
 serve the usefuhiess of our streams for navigation, power, irriga- 
 tion, and water supply. The conservation of pubUc forests is the 
 smaller task before the nation and the states; the larger task is to 
 induce private owners — three millions of men — to take care of 
 what they have, and to teach woodusers how not to waste. We 
 must stop forest fires; we must, by careful logging and other 
 methods, reduce waste and leave cutover lands productive; we 
 must make the timber logged go further, by preservative treat- 
 ment; we must avoid needless waste in the mill, the factory, and in 
 use. We must plant up those lands, now treeless, which will be 
 most useful under forests; we must so adjust taxes that cut-over 
 lands can be held for a second timber crop, and we must recognize 
 the fact that timber costs no less to grow than to log and saw. 
 We must continue and perfect, by states and nation, the preserva- 
 tion by wise use of the forests already publicly owned, and we must 
 extend the same treatment to other mountain forests more valu- 
 able /or the permanent benefit of the many than for the profit of the 
 few. 
 
APPENDIX V 
 
 SCHOOLS OF FORESTRY 
 PostrGraduate Schools 
 
 YALE UNIVERSITY, FOREST SCHOOL, NEW HAVEN, 
 
 CONN. — A two years' post-graduate course, leading to the 
 degree of Master of Forestry. Under the direction of the oflBcera 
 of the Yale Forest School, a two months' summer course, July and 
 August, is conducted at Milford, Pike County, Pa. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, FOREST SCHOOL (Part 
 of the general department of literature, science, and the arts, ) 
 ANN ARBOR, MICH. — A two years' post-graduate course, 
 leading to the degree of Master of Science in Forestry. A six 
 weeks' summer course, in July and August, is conducted on the 
 state reserve at Roscommon. 
 
 HARVARD UNIVERSITY, FOREST SCHOOL, CAM- 
 BRIDGE, MASS. — A two years' graduate course, in connection 
 with the Graduate School of AppUed Science. 
 
 Undergraduate Schools 
 
 BILTMORE FOREST SCHOOL, BILTMORE, N. C— 
 Coiu^e covers one full year, leading to the degree of Bachelor of 
 Forestry, and, with two years of practical forest work, the degree 
 of Forest Engineer. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, SCHOOL OF FOR- 
 ESTRY, ST. ANTHONY PARK, MINN.— A four years' under- 
 graduate course leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science in 
 forestry. A six weeks' summer course, in July and August, if 
 conducted at the Itasca State Forest. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA, DEPARTMENT OF 
 FORESTRY, LINCOLN, NEBR.— A four years' undergraduate 
 course, leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science. 
 
 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, DE- 
 PARTMENT OF FORESTRY, EAST LANSING, MICH.— A 
 four years' undergraduate course, leading to the degree of Bach- 
 elor of Science. 
 
5S2 APPENDIX 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA STATE COLLEGE, FOREST SCHOOL, 
 STATE COLLEGE, PA.— A four years' undergraduate course, in 
 connection with the State Department of Agriculture, leading to 
 the degree of Bachelor of Science. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, SCHOOL OF FOR- 
 ESTRY, SEATTLE, WASH.— A four years' undergraduate 
 course leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science in forestry. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, DEPARTMENT OF FOR- 
 ESTRY, ATHENS, GA.— A four years' undergraduate course, 
 leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science in Forestry. 
 
 COLORADO SCHOOL OF FORESTRY, COLORADO 
 SPRINGS, COLO. — A three years' undergraduate course, leading 
 to the degree of Bachelor of Forestry. No entrance requirements. 
 A summer course is conducted at Manitou Park from July 15 to 
 September 15. 
 
 THE MONT ALTO FORESTRY ACADEMY, MONT 
 ALTO, PA. — Maintained by the Pennsylvania Department of 
 Forestry for the training of young men of the state for work on 
 the state forest reserves. 
 
 Courses in forestry are now given at the University of Maine, 
 Orono, Me., Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa; Mississippi Agricul- 
 tural and Mechanical College, Agricultural College, Miss.; Purdue 
 University, Lafayette, Ind.; Berea College, Berea, Ky.; College 
 of Washington, Pullman, Wash.; Winona Agricultural Institute, 
 Winona Lake, Ind. ; North Dakota School of Forestry, Bottineau, 
 N. Dak. 
 
 A course of lectures is given annually at the Massachusetts 
 State Agricultural College, Amherst; at the Maryland Agricul- 
 tural College, College Park; at the University of Wisconsin, Madi- 
 son; at the Agricultural College of Utah. Logan; at the Connecti- 
 cut Agricultural College, Storrs; and at tne State Agricultural Col- 
 lege of Colorado, Fort CoUins. 
 
 (Taken from government report. ) 
 
APPENDIX VI 
 
 (a) 
 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND OTHER INSTITU- 
 TIONS IN THE UNITED STATES HAVING COURSES 
 IN AGRICULTURE 
 
 College instruction in agriculture is given in the colleges and 
 universities receiving the benefits of the acts of Congress of 
 July 2, 1862, and August 30, 1890, which are now in operation in 
 all the states and territories, except Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto 
 Rico. The total number ot these institutions is sixty-five, of 
 which sixty-three maintain courses of instruction in agriculture. 
 In twenty-one states the agricultural colleges are departments 
 of the state universities. In fifteen states and territories separate 
 institutions having courses in agriculture are maintained for the 
 colored race. All of the agricultural colleges for white persona 
 and several of those for negroes offer four-year courses m agri- 
 culture and its related sciences leading to bachelors' degrees, and 
 many provide for graduate study. About fifty-nine of these 
 institutions also provide special, short, and correspondence 
 courses in the different branches of agriculture, including agro- 
 nomy, horticulture, animal husbandry, poultry raising, cheese 
 making, dairying, sugar making, rural engineering, farm me- 
 chanics, and other technical subjects. The officers of the agri- 
 cultural colleges engage quite largely in conducting farmers' insti- 
 tutes and various other forms of college extension. The agri- 
 cultural experiment stations with very few exceptions are 
 departments of the agricultural colleges. The total number of 
 persons engaged in the work of education and research in the land- 
 grant colleges and the experiment stations in 1907 was 6,243: 
 the number of students in these colleges, 66,193; the number of 
 students (white ) in the four-year college courses in agriculture, 
 3,738; in short and special courses, 6,334. There were also 
 1,659 students in agriculture in the separate institutions for 
 negroes. With a few exceptions, each of these colleges offers 
 free tuition to residents of the state in which it is located. In 
 the excepted cases scholarships are open to promising and ener- 
 getic students; and, in all, opportunities are found for some to 
 earn part of their expenses by their own labor. The expenses are 
 from $125 to $300 for the school year. 
 
APPENDIX VI 
 
 ib) 
 FARMERS' BULLETINS 
 
 The following is a list, by number, of the farmers' bulletins 
 available for distribution. The bulletins entitled "Experiment 
 Station Work" give in brief the results of experiments performed 
 by the state experiment stations. Bulletins in this list will be 
 sent free to any address in the United States on appUcation to 
 your senator, representative, or delegate in Ck)ngress, or to the 
 Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
 
 22, The Feeding of Farm Animals, P. 40; 24, Hog Cholera and 
 Swine Plague, P. 16; 27, Flax for Seed and Fiber, P. 16; 28, Weeds 
 And How to Kill Them, P. 30; 30, Grape Diseases on the Pacific 
 Coast, P. 15; 32, Silos and Silage, P. 30; 33, Peach Growing for 
 Market, P. 24; 34, Meats: Composition and Cooking, P. 31; 35, 
 Potato Culture, P. 24; 36. Cotton Seed and Its Products, P. 16; 
 42, Facts About Milk. P. 32; 44, Commercial Fertilizers, P. 38; 
 47, Insects Affecting the Cotton Plant, P. 32; 48, The Manuring 
 of Cotton, P. 16; 51, Standard Varieties of Chickens, P. 48; 
 62, The Sugar Beet, P. 48; 54, Some Common Birds, P. 48; 55, 
 The Dairy Herd, P. 30; 56, Experiment Station Work, I, P. 30; 
 68, The Soy Bean as a Forage Crop, P. 24; 59, Bee Keeping, P. 48; 
 60, Methods of Curing Tobacco, P. 24; 61, Asparagus Culture, P. 
 40; 62, Marketing Farm Produce, P. 31 ; 63, Care of Milk on the 
 Farm, P. 40; 64, Ducks and Geese, P. 55; 65, Experiment Station 
 Work, II, P. 32; 66, Meadows and Pastures, P. 30; 69, Experi- 
 ment Station Work, III., P. 32; 71, Essentials in Beef Produc- 
 tion, P. 24; 72, Cattle Ranges of the Southwest, P. 32; 73, Experi- 
 ment Station Work, IV., P. 32; 74, Milk as Food, P. 39; 77, The 
 Liming of Soils, P. 24; 78, Experiment Station Work, V., P, 32; 
 79, Experiment Station Work, VI., P. 27; 80, The Peach Twig- 
 Borer, P. 16; 81, Com Culture in the South, P. 24; 82, The 
 Culture of Tobacco, P. 22; 83, Tobacco Soils, P. 23; 84, Experi- 
 ment Station Work, VII., P. 32; 85, Fish as Food, P. 32; 86, 
 Thirty Poisonous Plants, P. 32; 87, Experiment Station Work, 
 VIII., P. 32; 88, Alkali Lands, P. 23; 91, Potato Diseases and 
 Treatment, P. 15; 92, Experiment Station Work, IX., P. 30; 93, 
 Sugar as Food, P. 31; 97, Experiment Station Work, X., P. 32; 
 98, Suggestions to Southern Farmers, P. 48; 99, Insect Enemies 
 
 J 
 
APPENDIX 535 
 
 of Shade Trees, P. 30; 100, Hog Raising in the South, P. 40; 
 101, Millets, P. 30; 102, Southern Forage Plants, P. 48; 103, 
 Experiment Station Work, XL, P. 30; 104, Notes on Frost, P. 31; 
 105, Experiment Station Work, XXL, P. 32; 106, Breeds of Dairy 
 Cattle, P. 48; 107, Experiment Station Work, XIII., P. 32; 
 108, Saltbushes, P. 20; 110, Rice Culture in the United States, 
 P. 28; 112, Bread and Bread-Making, P. 40; 113, The Apple and 
 How to Grow it, P. 32; 114, Experiment Station Work, 5aV., P. 
 28; 116, Irrigation in Fruit Growing, P. 48; 118, Grape Growing 
 in the South, P. 32; 119, Experiment Station Work, XV., P. 30: 
 120, Insects Affecting Tobacco, P. 32; 121, Beans, Peas, ana 
 Other Legumes as Food, P. 38; 122, Experiment Station Work, 
 XVL, P. 32; 124, Experiment Station Work, XVIII. P. 32; 
 125, Protection of Food Products from Injurious Temperatures, 
 P. 24; 126, Practical Suggestions for Farm Buildings, P. 48; 
 127, Important Insecticides, P. 46; 128, Eggs and Their Uses as 
 Food, P. 40; 131, Household Tests for Detection of Oleomar- 
 garine and Renovated Butter, P. 10; 132, Insect Enemies of 
 Growing Wheat, P. 38; 133, Experiment Station Work, XVIIL, 
 P. 32; 134, Tree Planting in Rural School Grounds, P. 32; 135, 
 Sorghum Sirup Manufacture^ P. 40; 137, The Angora Goat, P. 48; 
 138, Irrigation in Field and Garden, P. 40; 139, Emmer: A Grain 
 for the Semi-arid Regions, P. 16; 140, Pineapple Growing, P. 48; 
 142, Principles of Nutrition and Nutritive Value of Food, P. 48; 
 144, Experiment Station Work, XIX., P. 32; 145, Carbon Bi- 
 sulphide as an Insecticide, P. 28; 147, Winter Forage Crops for 
 the South, P. 40; 149, Experiment Station Work, XX., P. 32; 
 150, Clearing New Land, P. 24; 151, Dairying in the South, P. 48; 
 152, Scabies in Cattle, P. 32; 154, The Home Fruit Garden: 
 Preparation and Care. P. 16; 155, How Insects Affect Health in 
 Rural Districts, P. 19; 156, The Home Vineyard, P. 22; 157, 
 The Propagation of Plants, P. 24; 158, How to Build Small 
 IrrigationDitches, P. 28; 159, Scab in Sheep, P. 48; 161, Practi- 
 cal Suggestions for Fruit Growers, P. 30; 162, Experiment 
 Station Work, XXL, P. 32; 164, Rape as a Forage Crop, P. 16; 
 165, Silkworm Culture, P. 32; 166, Cheese Making on the Farm, 
 P. 16; 167, Cassava, P. 32; 168, Pearl Millet, P. 16; 169, Experi- 
 ment Station Work, XXIL, P. 32; 170, Principles of Horse Feed- 
 ing, P. 44; 172, Scale Insects and Mites on Citrufl Trees, P. 43; 
 173, Primer of Forestry, P. 48; 174, Broom Com, P. 30; 175, 
 Home Manufacture and Use of Unfermented Grape Juice, P. 16, 
 176, Cranberry Culture, P. 20; 177, Squab Raising, P. 32; 178, 
 Insects Injurious in Cranberry Culture, P 32; 179, Horseshoe- 
 ing, P. 30; 181, Pruning, P. 39; 182, Poultry as Food, P. 40; 
 183, Meat on the Farm: Butchering, Curing, and Keeping, P. 37; 
 
SS8 APPENDIX 
 
 185, Beautifying the Home Grounds, P. 24; 186, Experiment 
 Station Work, XXIIL, P. 32; 187, Drainage of Farm Lands, P. 
 38; 188, Weeds Used in Medicine, P. 45; 190, Experiment Station 
 Work, XXIV., P. 32; 192, Barnyard Manure, P. 32; 193, Ex- 
 periment Station Work, XXV., P. 32; 194, Alfalfa Seed, P. 14; 
 195, Annual Flowering Plants, P. 48; 196, Usefulness of the 
 American Toad, P. 16; 197, Importation of Game Birds and Eggs 
 for Propagation, P. 30; 198, Strawberries, P. 24; 199, Com Grow- 
 ing, P. 32; 200, Turkeys, P. 40; 201, Cream Separator on Western 
 Farms, P. 23; 202, Experiment Station Work, XXVI., P. 32; 203, 
 Canned Fruits, Preserves and Jellies, P. 32; 204, The Cultivation 
 of Mushrooms, P. 24; 205, Pig Management, P. 45; 206, Milk 
 Fever and Its Treatment, P. 16; 208, Varieties of Fruits Recom- 
 mended for Planting, P. 48; 209, Controlling the Boll Weevil in 
 Cotton Seed and at Ginneries, P. 32 ; 210, Experiment Station Work, 
 XXVII., P. 32; 211, The Use of Paris Green in Controlling the 
 Cotton Boll Weevil. P. 23; 213, Raspberries, P. 38; 215, Alfalfa 
 Growing, P. 40; 217, Essential Steps in Securing an Early Crop of 
 Cotton, P. 16; 218, The School Garden, P. 40; 219, Lessons from 
 the Grain Rust Epidemic of 1904, P. 24; 220, Tomatoes, P. 32; 
 221, Fungous Diseases of the Cranberry, P. 16; 222, Experiment 
 Station Work, XXVIII., P. 32; 223, Miscellaneous Cotton In- 
 sects in Texas, P. 24; 224, Canadian Field Peaa, P. 16; 225, 
 Experiment Station Work, XXIX., P. 32; 226, Relation of 
 Coyotes to stock Raising in the West, P. 24; 227, Experiment 
 Station Work, XXX., P. 32; 228, Forest Planting and Farm 
 Management, P. 22; 229, The Production of Good Seed Com, 
 P. 24; 231, Spraying for Cucumber and Melon Diseases, P. 24; 
 232, Okra: Its Culture and Uses, P. 16; 233, Experiment Station 
 Work, XXXI., P. 32; 234, The Guinea Fowl, p. 24; 235, Prepa- 
 ration of Cement Concrete, P. 32; 236, Incubation and Incuba- 
 tors, P. 32; 237, Experiment Station Work, XXXII., P. 32; 
 238, Citrus Fruit Growing in the Gulf States, P. 48; 239, The 
 Corrosion of Fence Wire, P. 32; 241, Butter Making on the Farm, 
 P. 32; 242, An Example of Model Farming, P. 16; 243, Fungi- 
 cides and Their Use in Preventing Diseases of Fruits, P. 32; 
 244, Experiment Station Work, XXXIII., P. 32; 245, Renova- 
 tion of W^om-Out Soils, P. 16; 246, Saccharine Sorghums for 
 Forage, P. 37; 248, The Lawn, P. 20; 249, Cereal Breakfast 
 Foods, P. 36; 250, The Prevention of Wheat Smut and Ix)ose 
 Smut of Oats, P. 16; 251, Experiment Station Work, XXXIV., 
 P. 32; 252, Maple Sugar and Sirup, P. 36; 253, The Germination 
 of Seed Com, P. 16; 254, Cucumbers, P. 30; 255, The Home 
 Vegetable Garden, P. 47; 256, Preparation of Vegetables for the 
 Table, P. 48; 257, SoU FertiUty, P. 39; 258, Texas or Tick Fever 
 
APPENDIX 537 
 
 and Its Prevention, P. 45; 259, Experiment Station Work, 
 XXXV,. P. 32; 260, Seed of Red Clover and Its Impurities, P. 24 ; 
 241, The Cattle Tick, P. 22; 262, Experiment Station Work, 
 XXXVI., p. 32; 263, Practical Information for Beginners in 
 Irrigation, P. 40; 264, The Brown-Tail Moth and How to 
 Control It, P. 22; 266, Management of Soils to Conserve Moisture, 
 P. 30; 267, Experiment Station Work, XXXVII, P. 32; 268, 
 Industrial Alchohol: Sources and Manufacture, P. 45; 269, 
 Industrial Alcohol: Uses and Statistics. P. 29; 270, Modern 
 Conveniences for the Farm Home, P. 48; 271, Forage Crop Prac- 
 tices in Western Oregon and Western Washington, P. 39; 272, 
 A Successful Hog and Seed-Com Farm, P. 16; 273, Experiment 
 Station Work, XXXVIII, P. 32; 274, Flax Culture, 36; 275, 
 The Gypsy Moth and How to Control it, P. 22; 276, Experiment 
 Station Work, XXXIX, P. 32; 277, The Use of Alcohol and 
 Gasoline in Farm Engines, P. 40; 278, Leguminous Crops for 
 Green Manuring, P. 27; 279, A Method of Eradicating Johnson 
 Grass, P. 16; 280, A Profitable Tenant Dairv Farm, P. 16; 281, 
 Experiment Station Work, XL, P. 32; 282, Celery, P. 36; 283, 
 Spraying for Apple Diseases and the CodUng Moth in the Ozarks, 
 P. 42; 284, Insect and Fungous Enemies of the Grape East 
 of the Rocky Mountains, P. 48; 285, The Advantage of 
 Planting Heavy Cotton Seed, P. 16; 286, Comparative Value 
 of Whole Cotton Seed and Cotton-seed Meal in Fertilizing Cotton, 
 P, 14; 287, Poultry Management, P. 48; 288, Nonsaccharine 
 Sorghums, P. 28; 289, Beans, P. 28; 290, The Cotton Boll worm. 
 P, 32; 291, Evaporation of Apples, P. 38; 292, Cost of Filling 
 Silos, P. 15; 293, Use of Fruit as Food, P. 38; 291, Farm Practice 
 in the Columbia Basin Uplands, P. 30; 295, Potatoes and Other 
 Root Crops as Food. P. 45; 296, Experiment Station Work, XLl, 
 P. 32; 297, Methods of Destroying Rats, P. 8; 298, The Food 
 Value of Com and Com Products, P. 40; 299, Diversified Farm- 
 ing Under the Plantation System, P. 14; 300, Some Important 
 Grasses and Forage Plants for the Gulf Coast Region, P. 15; 
 301, Home-Grown Tea, P. 16; 302, Sea Island Cotton: Its Cul- 
 ture, Improvement, and Diseases, P. 48; 303, Corn Harvesting 
 Machinery, P. 32; 304, Growing and Curing Hops, P. 39; 305 
 Experiment Station Work, XLII, P. 32; 306, Dodder in Relation 
 to Farm Seeds, P. 27„ 307, Roselle: Its Culture and Uses, P. 16, 
 308, Game Laws for 1907, P. 52; 309, Experiment Station Work, 
 XLIII, P. 32; 310, A Successful Alabama Diversification Farm, 
 P. 24; 311, Sand-Clay and Bumt-Clay Roads, P. 19; 312, A 
 Successful Southern Hay Farm, P. 15; 313, Harvesting and 
 Storing Cora, P. 29; 314, A Method of Breeding Early Cotton to 
 Escape Boll-Weevil Damage, P. 28; 315, Progress in Legume 
 
538 APPENDIX 
 
 Innoculation, P. 20; 316, Experiment Station Work, XLIV, P. 32; 
 317, Experiment Station Work, XLV, P. 32; 318, Cowpeas, P. 28; 
 319, Demonstration Work in Cooperation with Southern Farmers, 
 P. 22; 320, Experiment Station Work, XLVI, P. 32; 321, The 
 Use of the Spht-Log Drag on Earth Roads, P. 14; 322, Milo 
 OB a Dry- Land Grain Crop, P. 23; 323, Clover Farming on the 
 Sandy Jack-Pine Lands of the North, P. 24; 324, Sweet Potatoes, 
 P. 39; 325, Small Farms in the Com Belt, P. 29; 326, Building 
 up a run-down Cotton Plantation, P. 22; 327, The Conservation 
 of Natural Resources, P. 12. 
 
APPENDIX VI 
 
 (c) 
 THE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS 
 
 ALABAMA — College Station: Auburn; Canebrake Station: 
 Uniontown; Tuskegee Station: Tuskegee Institute. 
 
 ALASKA— Sitka. 
 
 ARIZONA— Tucson. 
 
 ARKANSAS— Fayetteville. 
 
 CALIFORNIA— Berkeley. 
 
 COLORADO— Fort ColUns. 
 
 CONNECTICUT— State Station: New Haven; Storre Station : 
 Storrs. 
 
 DELAWARE— Newark. 
 
 FLORIDA— Gainesville. 
 
 GEORGIA— Experiment. 
 
 HAWAII— Federal Station: Honolulu; Sugar Planters' Station: 
 Honolulu. 
 
 IDAHO— Moscow. 
 
 ILLINOIS— Urbana. 
 
 INDIANA— Lafayette. 
 
 IOWA — Ames. 
 
 KANSAS— Manhattan. 
 
 KENTUCKY— Lexington. 
 
 LOUISIANA— State Station: Baton Rouge; Sugar Station: 
 Audubon Park, New Orleans; North Louisiana Station. 
 Calhoun. 
 
 MAINE— Orono. 
 
 MARYLAND— College Park. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS— Amherst. 
 
 MICHIGAN— East Lansing. 
 
 MINNESOTA— St. Anthony Park, St. Paul. 
 
 MISSISSIPPI— Agricultural College. 
 
 MISSOURI— College Station: Columbia; Fruit Sution: Moun- 
 tain Grove. 
 
540 APPENDIX 
 
 MONTANA— Bozeman. 
 
 NEBRASKA— Lincoln. 
 
 NEVADA— Reno. 
 
 NEW HAMPSHIRE— Durham. 
 
 NEW JERSEY— New Brunswick. 
 
 NEW MEXICO— Agricultural College. 
 
 NEW YORK— State Station: Geneva; Cornell Station : Ithaca. 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA— College Station: West Raleigh; State 
 
 Station: Raleigh. 
 NORTH DAKOTA— Agricultural College. 
 OHIO— Wooster. 
 OKLAHOMA— Stillwater. 
 OREGON— Corvallis. 
 PENNSYLVANIA— State College; State College: Institute of 
 
 Animal Nutrition, 
 PORTO RICO— Mayaguez. 
 RHODE ISLAND— Kingston. 
 SOUTH CAROLINA— Clemson College. 
 SOUTH DAKOTA— Brookings. 
 TENNESSEE— Knoxville. 
 TEXAS— College Station. 
 UTAH— Logan. 
 VERMONT— Burlington. 
 VIRGINIA— Blacksburg. 
 WASHINGTON— Pullman. 
 WEST VIRGINIA— Morgantown. 
 WISCONSIN— Madison. 
 WYOMING— Laramie. 
 
APPENDIX VII 
 
 FILIPINO STUDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 At the date of the annual government report, October 31, 1907, 
 123 Filipino students were being educated in the United States at 
 the expense of the PhiUppine government, and one student, under 
 the direction of the bureau, was being educated at his own expense. 
 These students were attending institutions as shown in the follow* 
 ing Ust: 
 
 Boulder, Colo. 
 
 University of Colorado ... 1 
 New Haven, Conn. 
 
 Yale University 1 
 
 District of Columbia. 
 Georgetown University. . . 1 
 George Washington Uni- 
 versity 1 
 
 Chicago, 111. 
 
 University of Chicago ... 3 
 Rush Medical College . . .2 
 College of Physicians and 
 
 Surgeons 7 
 
 Lewis Institute 1 
 
 Armour Institute 2 
 
 Northwestern University 
 
 Law School 1 
 
 Northwestern University 
 
 School of Pharmacy.. . . 1 
 Northwestern University 
 
 Medical School 2 
 
 Manhattan, Kans. 
 State College of Agricul- 
 ture 7 
 
 Boston, Mass. 
 Massachusetts Institute 
 
 of Technology 1 
 
 Lowell, Mass. 
 
 Lowell Textile School .... 1 
 Lansing, Mich. 
 State Agricultural College 2 
 
 St. Paul, Minn. 
 
 College of St. Catherine. .2 
 St. Louis, Mo. 
 
 St. Louis University 1 
 
 Lincoln, Neb. 
 
 University of Nebraska.. .6 
 De Kalb, 111. 
 
 Northern Illinois State 
 
 Normal School 2 
 
 Macomb, 111. 
 
 State Normal School 6 
 
 Normal, 111. 
 
 State Normal School 1 
 
 Urbana, 111. 
 
 University of Illinois ... 10 
 Bloomington, Ind. 
 
 Indiana University 3 
 
 Lafayette, Ind. 
 
 Purdue University 11 
 
 Notre Dame, Ind. 
 
 St. Mary's Academy 2 
 
 Ames, Iowa 
 
 State College of Agricul- 
 ture 6 
 
 Iowa City^ Iowa. 
 
 University of Iowa 4 
 
 Trenton, N. J. 
 
 State Normal School 1 
 
 Ithaca, N. Y. 
 
 Cornell University 9 
 
 Columbus, Ohio. 
 
542 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Ohio State University 8 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa. 
 University of Pennsyl- 
 vania 2 
 
 Drexel Institute 3 
 
 Woman's Medical College 2 
 Providence, R. I. 
 
 Providence Technical 
 
 High School 1 
 
 Madison, Wis. 
 
 University of Wisconsin . 9 
 
 The courses followed were as follows: — 
 
 Agriculture 21 
 
 Architecture 2 
 
 Chemistrj' 2 
 
 Civil engineering 35 
 
 Electrical engineering 1 
 
 Mechanical engineering . . 12 
 Law 10 
 
 Medicine 17 
 
 Normal (teaching ) 17 
 
 Pharmacy 1 
 
 Science 3 
 
 Textile weaving 1 
 
 Mining engineering 1 
 
APPENDIX Vin 
 
 Extract From Naturalization Laws 
 
 Section 4. That an alien may be admitted to become a citizen 
 of the United States in the following manner and not otherwise: 
 
 First. He shall declare on oath before the clerk of any court 
 authorized by this act to naturaUze aUens, or his authorized 
 deputy, in the district in which such ahen resides, two years at 
 least prior to his admission, and after he has reached the age of 
 eighteen years, that it is bona fide his intention to become a citizen 
 of the United States, and to renounce forever all allegiance and 
 fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, 
 and particularly, by name, to the prince, potentate, state, or 
 sovereignty of which the alien may be at the time a citizen or sub- 
 ject. And such declaration shall set forth the name, age, occu- 
 pation, personal description, place of birth, last foreign residence, 
 and allegiance, the date of arrival, the name of the vessel, if any. 
 in which he came to the United States, and the present place ot 
 residence in the United States of said alien; PROVIDED, 
 However, That no alien who, in conformity with the law in force 
 at the date of his declaration, has declared his intention to become 
 a citizen of the United States shall be required to renew such de- 
 claration. 
 
 Second. Not less than two years nor more than seven years 
 after he has made such declaration of intention he shall make and 
 file, in duplicate, a petition in writing, signed by the appUcant in 
 his own handwriting and duly verified, in which petition such 
 appUcant shall state his full name, his place of residence (by 
 street and number, if possible, ) his occupation, and, if possible, 
 the date and place of his birth; the place from which he emigrated, 
 and the date and place of his arrival in the United States, and, if 
 he entered through a port, the name of the vessel on which he 
 arrived ; the time when and the place and name of the court where 
 he declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States; 
 if he is married he shall state the name of his wife, and, if possible, 
 the country of her nativity and her place of residence at the time of 
 filing his petition; and if he has children, the name, date, and 
 place of birth and place of residence of each child living at the 
 time of the filing of his petition; PROVIDED, That if he has filed 
 his declaration before the passage of this act he shall not be re- 
 Quired to sign the petition in his own handwriting. 
 
544 APPENDIX 
 
 The petition shall Bet forth that he is not a disbeliever in or 
 opposed to organized government, or a member of or affiliated 
 with any organization or body of persons teaching disbelief in or 
 opposed to organized government, a polygamist or believer in the 
 practice of polygamy, and that it is his intention to become a 
 citizen of the United States and to renounce absolutely and for- 
 ever all allegiance and fideUty to any foreign prince, potentate, 
 state, or sovereignty, and particularly by name to the prince, 
 potentate, state, or sovereignty, of which he at the time of filing 
 of his petition may be a citizen or subject, and that it is his inten- 
 tion to reside permanently within the United States, and whether 
 or not he has been denied admission as a citizen of the United 
 States, and, if denied, the ground or grounds of such denial, the 
 court or courts in which such decision was rendered, and that the 
 cause for such denial has since been cured or removed, and every 
 fact material to his naturalization and required to be proved upon 
 the final hearing of his apphcation. 
 
 The petition shall also be verified by the affidavits of at least 
 two credible witnesses, who are citizens of the United States, 
 and who shall state in their affidavits that they have personally 
 known the applicant to be a resident of the United States for a 
 period of at least five years continuously, and of the state, terri- 
 tory, or district in which the application is made for a period of 
 at least one year immediately preceding the date of the filing of 
 his petition, and that they each have personal knowledge that the 
 petitioner is a person of good moral character, and that he is in 
 every way qualified, in their opinion, to be admitted as a citizen 
 of the United States. 
 
 At the time of fifing his petition there shall be filed with the 
 clerk of the court a certificate from the Department of Commerce 
 and Labor. If the petitioner arrives in the United States after 
 the passage of this act, stating the date, place, and manner of his 
 arrival in the United States, and the declaration of intention of 
 such petitioner, which certificate and declaration shall be attached 
 to and made a part of said petition. 
 
 Third. He shall, before he is admitted to citizenship, declare 
 on oath in open court that he will support the Constitution of the 
 United States, and that he absolutely and entirely renounces and 
 abjures all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, 
 state, or sovereignty of which he was before a citizen or subject; 
 that he will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the 
 United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and bear 
 true faith and allegiance to the same. 
 
 Fourth. It shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the 
 court admitting any ahen to citizenship that immediately pre- 
 
APPENDIX 645 
 
 ceding the date of his application he has resided continuously with- 
 in the United States five years at least, and within the state or 
 territory where such court is at the time held one year at least, 
 and that during that time he has behaved as a man of good moral 
 character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the 
 United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness 
 of the same. In addition to the oath of the applicant, the testi- 
 mony of at least two witnesses, citizens of the tjnited States, as 
 to the facts of residence, moral character, and attachment to the 
 principles of the Constitution shall be required, and the name, place 
 of residence, and occupation of each witness shall be set forth in 
 the record. 
 
APPENDIX IX 
 
 PROVISION REGARDING THE EXCLUSION OF FLIESl 
 
 From the Banitary code, that section regarding flies suggf 
 a plan of construction which is worthy of imitation by evei 
 large employer of labor. 
 
 The most imj>ortant sanitary provision in connection wil 
 camps is that of exclusion of flies from cook tents, mess tent 
 and privy vaults; yet this is the very provision which is mc 
 frequently overlooked. According to the report of the comm 
 sion appointed by President McKinley to investigate into tl 
 occurrence of typhoid fever among the soldiers during the Span 
 War, almost every outbreak which occurred was due to the h 
 of suflScient protection against flies. Therefore special care shoi 
 be taken to exclude flies from all places in which food stuffs are' 
 exposed, and, if necessary, in the large camps a man should be 
 detailed to accompUsh this purp>ose. 
 
 Mess and cook tents or houses should be provided with screens 
 at all windows, and each door which leads into the outer air 
 should be provided with a vestibule about four feet square, con- 
 structed in the following manner: The dividing partition and 
 the door between the cook or mess tent and the vestibule should 
 be of wood, as well aa the side walls of the vestibule, for a dis- 
 tance of about one foot from the dividing wall. The door and 
 walls should be painted black or some dark color. The remainder 
 of the vestibule should be of durable wire netting and the door 
 leading out from the vestibule of the same material. With such 
 a provision the flies which enter the outer screen door during the 
 time when people are passing through will be caught in the ves- 
 tibule and will congregate upon the wire part of the vestibule in 
 preference to the dark colored wood next to the cook or mess tent, 
 and only a very small proportion of the flies entering the vestibule 
 will under Buch conditione escape into the larger apartment. 
 
APPENDIX X 
 
 TYPHOID 
 
 Tjrphoid fever is due to a very small vegetable organism, the 
 typhoid bacillus. These little germs grow in the human body in 
 countless millions, and as they die and disintegrate they set free 
 a poison which causes the symptoms of typhoid fever. The 
 typhoid fever germs are thrown ofif from a typhoid patient in all 
 the excretions. Hence all these excretions are to be regarded as 
 highly infectious, that is, they are full of typhoid germs. 
 
 Good management of a typhoid fever case has for its object 
 the prevention of these germs reaching other people and pro- 
 ducing other cases of typhoid. To this end the excretions, that 
 is the urine and stools, of typhoid patients should all be either 
 promptly emptied into the city sewer, or, where there is no sewer 
 connection , disinfected by the addition of ten per cent, formalin 
 equal in quantity to the amount of the material to be disinfected, 
 and left to stand two hours, before final disposition. 
 
 All carpets, rugs, etc., should early be removed from the sick 
 room. 
 
 Eating utensils used by the patient, should be removed from 
 the room after each meal, in a dish pan, and the pan immediately 
 filled with boiling water and left to stand fifteen to twenty minutes 
 before washing. 
 
 Soiled bed linen, night gowns, etc., should be moved from the 
 room in a large vessel, say a zinc pail or tub, and covered with 
 boiUng water. Better still, set them on the stove and let them 
 boil awhile. 
 
 Typhoid fever patients are never a source of danger to others, 
 when such precautions are thoroughly observed. 
 
 But if they are neglected, what may happen? The typhoid 
 bacillus is a living organism, possessed of stronj^ vitality, and 
 capable of self-propagation, under favorable conditions, even out- 
 side the human body. The favorable conditions are moisture, 
 warmth and filth. When it is not destroyed, it is far more apt 
 to find these conditions than any other. The privy vault, tne 
 cess-pool, the house-drain, the garbage heap, the slop-puddle of 
 the back-yard, and even the earth, will afford a suitable soil for 
 its reproduction and growth. Into some one of these places it is 
 almost sure to go, and to maintain a vigorous existence for an 
 indefinite time. If it remain^ in these places it would still be 
 
548 APPENDIX 
 
 harmless. But it does not remain there; on the other hand, it 
 shows a most remarkable and persistent tendency to get into and 
 infect the water supplies. Only a few years ago there were more 
 than fifty cases of the disease in Waterbury, Conn., among the 
 customers of a single dairyman, in consequence of the well in his 
 bamyard becoming infected from a hired farm hand sick with 
 typhoid fever. Another more extensive epidemic appeared in 
 Stamford, traced to a polluted well in the barnyard of another 
 dairyman, among whose customers there were more than three 
 hundred and fifty victims. 
 
 The remarkable epidemic among the students of the Wesleyan 
 University at Middletown illustrates another source of danger. 
 
 In this instance the medium of infection was raw oysters taken 
 from the river at Fair Haven, near the mouth of a private sewer, 
 which had received the non-disinfected dejections of typhoid 
 fever patients. The use of milk from a certain dairy caused the 
 loss of many lives at Stanford University. 
 
 The instances in which drinking water from wells and reser- 
 voirs has carried the disease are innumberable. 
 
 (Arranged from state and government reports. ) 
 
APPENDIX XI 
 
 FLORIDA STATE BOARD OF HEALTH 
 HOOKWORM DISEASE 
 
 Treatment 
 
 The manner of administering thymol is very important. It 
 has given been in the following ways: (a ) as a dry powder; (6 ) 
 in a syrup of acacia; (c) in capsules; (d) in cachets; (e) in 
 pills. 
 
 As a dry powder it is very unpleasant to take and has won for 
 itself in certain sections of the state (Florida), the local name of 
 "hot powder." In syrup of acacia it may be given, but is still 
 somewhat disagreeable. When given in capsules, they should 
 be loosely filled and filled only when ready to use, for unless these 
 precautions are taken the thymol will, in many instances, pass 
 through the bowel in masses. Perhaps the most satisfactory 
 method of administration is in cachets. By mixing equal quanti- 
 ties of the milk sugar with thymol, and pulverizing, cachets can 
 be made up and kept on hand indefinitely. A convenient quan- 
 tity for each cachet is ten grains of thymol and ten ^ains of milk 
 Bugar. Few patients will experience any difficulty m swallowing 
 this morsel, which, when wet, partakes of the physical properties 
 of an oyster. Thymol acts directly upon the parasite itself, 
 killing it and causing it to let go and be expelled. This action 
 is exerted in the crystalline form, for it is only slightly soluble in 
 the intestines. It is therefore seen that in order to exert its maxi- 
 mum effect upon the worms, it must reach them in a finely divided 
 Btate, and should remain in contact with them for some time. 
 
 It has accordingly been found best to administer the thvmol 
 on going to bed instead of in the morning as was formerly aone. 
 Let the patient take a sahne purge in the early afternoon, take no 
 supper, except perhaps a cup of tea, and an hour before going to 
 bed give half the quantity of thymol, and on retiring, give the 
 other half. In the morning give another saUne purge, and look 
 for the parasites. This has several advantages over giving it in 
 the morning. It does not seem to disturb the sleep, and if any 
 unpleasant symptoms should be experienced, it is while the patient 
 is in bed, and it keeps the thymol in contact with the worms longer 
 by several hours than when given in the morning. 
 
560 APPENDIX 
 
 Under this method of administering the dosage it is our experi- 
 ence that about forty per cent, of the cases expel all the worms 
 with the first treatment. If eggs are found in the stools after 
 three or four days, it shows that some of the worms have not been 
 expelled, and the dose should be repeated. It not infrequently 
 happens that the dose has to be repeated several times. It some- 
 times happens that in very chronic cases, it takes ten or twelve 
 treatments, once a week, before the worms are all expelled. 
 
 The maximum doses of Thymol to be administered are as follows : 
 
 Under 5 years 7i grains. 
 
 5 to 10 years 15 
 
 10 to 15 years 30 
 
 15 to 20 years 45 
 
 20 to 60 years. 60 
 
 Above 60 years 45 
 
APPENDIX Xn 
 
 A Portion of the Davis BiU. 
 
 A BILL to provide an appropriation for agricultural and in- 
 dustrial instruction in secondary schools, for normal instruction 
 in agricultural and industrial subjects in normal schools, and for 
 branch agricultural experiment stations, and regulating the 
 expenditure thereof. 
 
 BE IT ENACTED BY THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF 
 REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF 
 AMERICA IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, That commencing 
 with the fiscal year beginning July first, nineteen hundred and 
 eleven, there shall be, and hereby is, annually appropriated, to 
 be paid as hereinafter provided, to each state and territory and to 
 the District of Columoia, for the maintenance of instruction in 
 agriculture and home economics in agricultural schools of second- 
 ary grade and instruction in mechanic arts and in home economics 
 in city schools of secondary grade, a sum of money equal to not 
 more than ten cents per capita of the population of each state and 
 territory and the District of Columbia, respectively, as shown in 
 the last preceding federal or state census: PROVIDED, That 
 in any state with less than five counties and in any state or terri- 
 tory with less than one hundred thousand rural population there 
 may be one agricultural secondary school, which shall receive not 
 more than eight thousand dollars annually under the provisions 
 of this act: PROVIDED, That commencing with the fiscal 
 year beginning July first, nineteen hundred and eight, there 
 shall be, and hereby is, annually appropriated to each state and 
 territory and the District of Columbia, for the maintenance of 
 normal instruction in agriculture, home economics, and mechanic 
 arts in state and territorial normal schools now established or 
 which may be hereafter established, an additional sum of money 
 equal to not more than one cent per capita of the population of 
 each state and territory and the District of Columbia, respectivelv 
 as shown by the last preceding federal or state census: AND 
 PROVIDED FURTHER, That the amount appropriated to any 
 state or territory for normal schools shall be not less than the sum 
 of two thousand dollars annually. 
 
 Section 2. That the funds thus appropriated for instruction 
 shall be used only for distinctive studies in agriculture and borne 
 
552 APPENDIX 
 
 economics in agricultural secondary schools, and for distinctive 
 studies in mechanic arts and home economics in city schools, and 
 for distinctive normal courses in agriculture, home economics, 
 and mechanic arts in state and territorial normal schools, and that 
 all states, territories, and the District of Columbia accepting these 
 funds shall provide other funds with which to pay the cost of pro- 
 viding the necessary lands and buildings and to pay the cost of 
 instruction in such other general studies as will complete a well- 
 rounded secondary or normal school curriculum suited to the 
 needs of the respective sections of the Union. 
 
 Section 3. That the Secretary of Agriculture shall annually 
 estimate to Congress the allotments to be made to the respective 
 states and territories and the District of Columbia under the pro- 
 visions of this act and shall annually designate to the Secretary 
 of the Treasury the sum apportioned, at not more than ten cents 
 per capita on the p)opulation, to each incorporated city, town, or 
 village containing not less than two thousand inhabitants for 
 instruction in mechanic arts and home economics, and the sum 
 apportioned, at not more than ten cents per capita, to the total 
 rural and other population not included in said cities, towns, and 
 villages of the respective states and territories for instruction in 
 agriculture and home economics. 
 
 Section 4. That there shall be, and hereby is, annually appro- 
 priated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropria- 
 ted, to be paid as hereinafter provided, to each state and territory 
 for the maintenance of branch agricultural experiment stations on 
 the farms of the agricultural secondary schools appropriated for 
 in this act a sum equal to one-fourth of the sum allotted to it 
 under this act for agricultural secondary schools, said branch agri- 
 cultural experiment stations to be under the direction of the state 
 agricultm*al experiment stations now established or which may 
 hereafter be established in the respective states and territories in 
 accordance with the act of Congress approved March second, 
 eighteen hundred and eighty-seven: PROVIDED, That no 
 state or territory shall be entitled to the benefits of this section 
 of this act until its legislature shall by law have provided for the 
 establishment and the equipment of such branch stations and 
 shall have provided for the annual maintenance of such branch 
 stations a sum at least equivalent to that appropriated annually 
 to the state or territory under this section of this act; and the 
 sum paid to each state or territory under this section of this act 
 shall be appUed only to paying the necessary expenses of conduct- 
 ing by such branch experiment stations experiments bearing 
 directly upon the agricultural industry of the United States, hav- 
 ing due regard to the varjdng conditions and needs of the respec- 
 tive states and territories. 
 
APPENDIX XIII 
 
 The Excluded classes 
 
 Section 2. That the following clafises of aliens shall be excluded 
 from admission into the United States: All idiots, imbeciles, 
 feeble-minded persons, epileptics, insane p)ersons, and persons who 
 have been insane within five years previous; persons who have 
 had two or more attacks of insanity at any time previously: 
 paupers; persons hkely to become a public charge; professional 
 beggars; persons afflicted with tuberculosis or with a loathsome 
 or dangerous contagious disease; persons not comprehended 
 within any of the foregoing excluded classes who are found to be 
 and are certified by the examining surgeon as being mentally 
 or physically defective, such mental or physical defect being of 
 a nature which may affect the ability of such alien to earn a li vmg : 
 persons who have been convicted of or admit having committed 
 a felony or other crime or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude; 
 polygamists, or persons who admit their belief in the practice of 
 polygamy, anarchists, or persons who believe in or advocate the 
 overthrow by force or violence of the government of the United 
 States, or of all government, or of all forms of law, or the assas- 
 sination of public officials; prostitutes, or women or girls coming 
 into the United States for the purpose of prostitution or for any 
 other immoral purpose; persons who procure or attempt to bring 
 in prostitutes or women or girls for the purpose of prostitution 
 or for any other immoral purpose: persons hereinafter called 
 contract laborers, who have oeen inauced or solicited to migrate 
 to this country by offers or promises of employment or in conse- 
 quence of agreements, oral, written or printed, express or implied, 
 to perform Tabor in this country of any kind, skilled or unskilled ; 
 those who have been, within one year from the date of applica- 
 tion for admission to the United States, deported as having been 
 induced or solicited to migrate as above described : any person 
 whose ticket or passage is paid for with the money ot anotner, or 
 who is assisted by others to come, unless it is affirmatively and 
 satisfactorily shown that such person does not belong to one of 
 the foregoing excluded classes, and that said ticket or passaf^ 
 was not paid for by any corporation, association, society, munici- 
 pality, or foreign government, either directly or indirectly; all 
 children under sixteen years of age, imaccompanied by one or 
 
554 APPENDIX 
 
 both of their parents, at the discretion of the Secretary of Com- 
 merce and Labor or under such regulations as he may from time 
 to time prescribe: PROVIDED, That nothing in this act shall 
 exclude, if otherwise admissible, persons convicted of an offense 
 purely poHtical, not involving moral turpitude; PROVIDED 
 FURTHER, That the provisions of this section relating to the 
 payments for tickets or passage by any corporation, association, 
 society, municipahty, or foreign government shall not apply to 
 the tickets or passage of aliens in immediate and continuous 
 transit through the United States to foreign contiguous territory : 
 AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That skilled labor may be im- 
 ported if labor of Uke kind unemployed can not be found in this 
 country: AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That the provision 
 of this law applicable to contract labor shall not be held to exclude 
 professional actors, artists, lecturers, singers, ministers of any 
 reUgious denomination, professors for colleges and seminaries, 
 persons belonging to any recognized learned profession, or per- 
 sons employed strictly as personal or domestic servants. 
 
APPENDIX XIV 
 
 Origin and form of Government of the District of Columbia 
 
 The District of Columbia was established under the authority 
 and direction of acta of Congress approved July 16, 1790, and 
 March 3, 1791. 
 
 The local government of the District of Columbia is a municipal 
 corporation having jurisdiction over the territory which "was 
 ceded by the State of Maryland to the Congress of the United 
 States for the permanent seat of the government of the United 
 States." 
 
 This government is administered by a board of three commis- 
 sioners having in general equal powers and duties. 
 
 Two of these commissioners, who must have been actual resi- 
 dents of the district for three years next before their appointment 
 and have during that period claimed residence nowhere else, are 
 appointed from civil life by the President of the United States 
 and confirm^ by the Senate of the United States for a term of 
 three years each and until their successors are appointed and 
 qualified. 
 
 The other commissioner is detailed from time to time by the 
 President of the United States from the engineer corps of the 
 United States army, and shall not be required to perform any other 
 duty. This commissioner shall be selected from among the cap- 
 tains or oflBcers of higher grade having served at least fifteen 
 years in the corps of engineers of the army of the United Sates. 
 
 The salary of each of the commissioners is $5,000 per annum. 
 
 One of the said commissioners shall be chosen president of the 
 Board of Commissioners at their first meeting, and annually and 
 whenever a vacancy shall occur thereafter. 
 
 The commissioners are in a general way vested with jurisdic- 
 tion covering all the ordinary features of municipal government. 
 
 Congress has by sundry statutes empowered the commissioners 
 to make building regulations; plumbing regulations; to make and 
 enforce all such reasonable and usual police regulations as they 
 may deem necessary for the protection of lives, limbs, health, 
 comfort, and quiet of all persons, and the protection of all proper- 
 ty within the district, ana other regulations of a municipal nature. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Pag9 
 
 Agricultural Colleges 352 
 
 Hatch Act 352 
 
 Morrill Act 352 
 
 Davis Bill 350 
 
 Experiment Stations 350 
 
 Appalachian Forests 119 
 
 Australia Solving Social Problems 67 
 
 Alfred Nobel 461 
 
 Back to the Farm 191 
 
 Bureau of Animal Industry 144 
 
 Bureau of Entomology 146 
 
 Bureau of Immigration 194 
 
 Division of Information 394 
 
 Terence V. Powderly, plana of 391 
 
 Bureau of Standards 412 
 
 Boards of Health 266 
 
 Baroness Von Suttner 461 
 
 Caraegie Institute 348 
 
 Christ of the Andes 481 
 
 Civic Service, lists of 21 
 
 Captains of Industry in Social Service 24 
 
 City Departments in Social Service 29 
 
 Conservation 
 
 Early Waste of Resources 98 
 
 Corporation Control 99 
 
 Grants made to Railroads 100 
 
 Conservation Congress, held in Washington 108 
 
 Coal, its waste and conservation 116 
 
 Commonwealths their real wealth 64 
 
INDEX 
 
 Page 
 
 Co-operation 135 
 
 Country Life Commiflsion, report of 195 
 
 Census OflBce 411 
 
 Children's Bureau 437 
 
 Children's Charter 443 
 
 Contract Law Labor 372 
 
 Department of Education, its organization 308 
 
 Department of Commerce and Labor 406, 194 
 
 Bureau of Labor 407 
 
 Bureau of Corporations 409 
 
 Dr. H. W. Wiley 430 
 
 Department of the Interior 194 
 
 Devine, Dr., quotation 187 
 
 Dry Farming 154 
 
 Department of Agriculture 133 
 
 Direct Legislation 602 
 
 Education in Alaska 317 
 
 Electricity, its Departments from Water Power 125 
 
 England Solving Social Problems 46 
 
 Fertilizing Land 152 
 
 Farming, its history and development 140 
 
 Fisheries Commission 162 
 
 Factory Removal 179 
 
 Farm Unit City on Reclamation Projects 197 
 
 Government Ownership 415 
 
 Government Hospitals 282 
 
 A Study of Typhoid 286 
 
 Warring on FHes 297 
 
 Mosquitoes 291 
 
 Rata 298 
 
 Hookworm 300 
 
 Good Roads, the need for 230 
 
 U. S. Government Building 234 
 
 Division of 198 
 
 Governor Folk, quotation from 18 
 
 Governor Hughes, quotation from 34 
 
INDEX 
 
 Pao$ 
 
 Gennany Solving Problems 52 
 
 Hero Fund 482 
 
 Interparliamentary Union 459 
 
 Iwahig Penal Colony 485 
 
 International Congresses 315 
 
 Indian Education 220 
 
 Porto Rico 882 
 
 Hawaii 336 
 
 Philippines 338 
 
 Interstate Commission 416 
 
 Immigration 361 
 
 Its History 363 
 
 Head Tax 365 
 
 Excluded Classes 367 
 
 Immigrant 
 
 In ElUs Island 388 
 
 Distribution of 391 
 
 Education of 401 
 
 North Carolina Colony 392 
 
 Individualism 9 
 
 Irrigation 
 
 Its History 78 
 
 Failures in 77 
 
 Japan Regulates Monopoly 65 
 
 Jewish Removal Ofl5ce 177 
 
 L'enfant's Plan of Washington 446 
 
 Leper Colony in the Philippines and Hawaiian Islands. . 208 
 
 Lighthouse Board, its history 200 
 
 Life Saving Service, its history 200 
 
 Ministry of Fine Arts 449 
 
 Municipal Farm 33 
 
 Mexico Controls Railways 56 
 
 National Parks 460 
 
 NaturaUzation Laws 404 
 
 National Health 269 
 
 Navy Department 274 
 
INDEX 
 
 Page 
 
 U. S. Anny 275 
 
 Marine Hospital Service 276 
 
 National University 344 
 
 National Forests 
 
 Their Uses 102 
 
 Forest Ranges 104 
 
 New Zealand Solving Social Problenas 57 
 
 Newlands Reclamation Bill 86 
 
 Newell, Frederick H., Head of Reclamation Service 82 
 
 Office of Experiment Station 434 
 
 Oil and Natural Gas Development 113 
 
 Peace Congresses 459 
 
 Peace Conference at The Hague 462 
 
 Peace Palace 470 
 
 Pan-American Conferences 475 
 
 Postal Savings Banks 220 
 
 In England 221 
 
 In the Philippines 222 
 
 Parcels Post 210 
 
 Postal Service 207 
 
 Public School, its development 306 
 
 Panama, care of laborers 226 
 
 Patent Office 411 
 
 Pure Food 423 
 
 Plant Industry 355 
 
 Poverty, Crime, Disease Preventable 9 
 
 Pubhc School, new methods 31 
 
 People's Agricultural High Schools 36 
 
 PubUc Ownership 60 
 
 Pubhc Land, its proper distribution 
 
 Methods Used 66 
 
 Pre-emption 65 
 
 Homestead 67 
 
 Stone and Timber 67 
 
 Carey Act 79 
 
 Desert Land Law 79 
 
INDEX 
 
 Page 
 
 Powell, Major John W., a pioneer in irrigation 82 
 
 Pinchot, Gifford, quotation from 167 
 
 Roosevelt Policies 508 
 
 Roosevelt Dam 91 
 
 Roosevelt, Ex-president, quotation from 112 
 
 Rural Delivery 208 
 
 Research by Students 310 
 
 Reindeer in Alaska 323 
 
 Railway Accidents Preventable 64 
 
 Rochdale Co-operation 46 
 
 Riis, Jacob 165 
 
 Swamp Drainage Bill • 06 
 
 Area of Swamp Lands 
 
 Smythe, William C, Promoter of National Irrigational 
 
 Congress 84 
 
 Switzerland, Most Democratic Country 66 
 
 Sweden Solving Social Problems 64 
 
 Socialized Capitalists, a new name applied 26 
 
 Social Service, the new ideal 7 
 
 Smithsonian Institute 346 
 
 Steamboat Inspection 261 
 
 Safeguarding Mines 262 
 
 Experiment Station 266 
 
 The Cost of War 267 
 
 The Slum, financial loss 43 
 
 A National Asset 82 
 
 Tenement Houses 170 
 
 Votes for Women 63 
 
 WUd Birds 163 
 
 Water Power 120 
 
 Waterways 122 
 
 Warehousing ••••• 184 
 
 Union High Schools ••.••.. 198 
 
 U. S. Geological Survey 412 
 
 Weather Bureau 354 
 
 How It Serves the People 242 
 
 Waste Labor on Waste Land 904 
 
The Garden Series 
 
 By CAERO FRANCES WARREN 
 
 Whea eompleted wOl comprise SIX of the most faadnating, 
 and at the same time uplifting and instructive stories for 
 children ever written. The titles are: 
 
 (1) Little Betty Marigold and Her Friends. 
 
 (2) Little Polly Primrose and Her Friends. 
 (8) Little Goldie Goldenrod and Her Friends. 
 
 (4) Little Danny Dandelion. 
 
 (5) Little Peter Pansy. 
 
 (6) Little Topsy Thistle. 
 
 Of these the first three have already been issued and 
 Number Four will make an early appearance. 
 
 Each volume will contain a page showing all the flowers 
 mentioned in the stoiy in all the beauty of their natural 
 colors. These nature studies will be of great interest 
 and value to every child reader. 
 
 The many colored illustrations and handsome blmfiBg 
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 books for the children. Thej will be sold at a onlfom 
 priot of 75 cents each. 
 
 Ai aa BoeksJUn m md podpaid iy 
 
 The a M. Clark Publishing Co. 
 211 Tbxiioiit SrBXvr :: BonoM, IIam. 
 
SELECTIONS PROM LIST OF 
 
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 •tory is one which will linger in the memory long after many a 
 lighter tale is forgotten. — Boston Times. 
 
 A KNIGHT IN HOMESPUN. By John Charfea Spoth. 
 
 Illustrated. Cloth, Price^ $1.50. 
 A homely little tale of wholesome sentiment, bearing the title, 
 "A Knight In Homespun," has its scene mainly in and about 
 Pocono Mountains in Eastern Pennsylvania. It is told through the 
 medium of the old clock, which for many years had ticked off the 
 time in the hall of the home of Dr. Henry Boosch, while it watched 
 the development of the human drama which went on in the house- 
 hold. — New York Times. 
 
 UNCLE SIM. By Fred Perrine Lake. 
 
 Illustrated. Cloth. Price, $1.50, 
 A story with a charming rural setting is " Uncle Sim." It 
 gives admirable portraiture of the types to be found in a country 
 village — pleasant, kindly, royal-hearted folk, whose aquaintance 
 is well worth the reader's while— Borton Times. 
 
 AT THE SIGN OF THE BLUE ANCHOR. By Grace R. Osgood. 
 
 Illustrated. Cloth. Price, $1.50. 
 This tale of Colonial Days in New Jersey Ukes one among 
 charmint,> people, through delightful and romantic scenes both in 
 the Old World and New. 
 
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 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO 50 CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
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 OVERDUE. 
 
 DEC -^ ^934 
 
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 8Sep'53BW 
 
 
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