THEODORE ROOSEVELT 553 



principally in the South, where the land and its running water. He doubt- 

 farmers have been paying no attention less said to himself : "Why not take the 

 to the matters of fertilization or rota- trouble to get ready for their highest 

 tion of crops, it has actually been dem- use the incomparable waterways of the 

 onstrated that the soil of the United North American Continent, into the 

 States, as a whole, is gaining in fer- very heart of which it is possible to 

 tility. The outside limit of lands ca- extend the coast-line and ocean ship- 

 pable of cultivation in the United States ping? How much better that certain 

 is twice the present area under cultiva- billions of tons of fresh water, instead 

 tion. There is nothing to limit the pop- of destroying farms, should make 

 ulation of the United States to twice, or farms; instead of carrying away soil 

 even ten times, its present number, and should deposit soil ; instead of blocking 

 as the farm crops are increasing much navigation should extend navigation ; 

 more slowly than population, and as instead of destroying life should sup- 

 there is an immediate limitation to the port life !" 

 acreage available, and practically no This was his secret, 

 limit to the possible population, and in- 

 asmuch as all the best lands are taken, the waterway idea 

 and those now available are more or less 



uncertain in their value, the increase in The Roosevelt waterways idea in- 



the yield per acre becomes a problem volves a project no less imposing than 



which the Nation must solve, and that the fundamental rearrangement of the 



at once. Over and above the lands pos- New World. 



sible for home-making, there are other The cutting of the Isthmian Canal is 

 areas containing mineral, water, and ^ geographical event of the first mag- 

 timber supply, which the Nation must nitude and of first importance; while 

 hold in its own possession and maintain the more useful, if less attractive, 

 in efficient condition owing to the inti- scheme for the artificialization, the con- 

 mate relations they sustain to the other trol and use of the Mississippi River 

 lands of the United States. But all and its tributaries, and the coordination 

 these lands, old and new, made and un- of all the problems related thereto, pre- 

 made, are capable, under the new sents a scheme in scientific government 

 science of agriculture, and under the ^s brilliant as anything of the kind ever 

 new idea of national conservation, of before presented to the human mind, 

 being increased in their productive ca- The conception involves a project for 

 pacity manyfold. the artificialization, the control and use 

 When Mr. Roosevelt looked out over ^nder one great engineering scheme, of 

 the broad domain of the United States, not only the whole Mississippi River 

 he also looked ahead to the needs of the system, with its 16,000 miles of navi- 

 future population of the United States, gable deep waterways and countless un- 

 If the founders of the country built for navigable tributaries; but, connected 

 the future, and for those generations ^^ith the problems of this continental 

 then unborn, one of which is ourselves, artery called the Mississippi River, is 

 and thereby earned our everlasting that of its own canalization and the 

 gratitude, why should not present-day canalization of one of its own tribu- 

 statemanship lay scientific foundations taries, namely, the Illinois River, and 

 for making a greater people in the fu- the deepening of the Chicago Drainage 

 ture with a happier lot in life? Sev- Canal through to Lake Michigan, 

 eral things were obvious to his intensely There are a few geological points of 

 practical mind. That they had not oc- some interest in connection with the 

 curred to any former President or any past and future of this scheme. Probably 

 former Congress, or, we may say, to before the waters of the upper Missis- 

 any former American statesman, was sippi River found their way into Hud- 

 no deterrent to his audacious dream, son's Bay, the waters of the Great 

 He saw the vast possibilities in the Lakes, when the great glacier lay across 



