447 



Great progress has already been made among farmers by the 

 creation of farmers' institutes, of dairy associations, of breeders' 

 associations, horticultural associations and the like. A striking 

 example of how the Government and the farmers can cooperate is 

 shown in connection with the menace offered to the cotton growers 

 of the Southern States by the advance of the boll weevil. The 

 Department is doing all it can to organize the farmers in the 

 threatened districts, just as it has been doing all it can to organize 

 them in aid of its work to eradicate the cattle fever tick in the 

 South. The Department can and will cooperate with all such asso- 

 ciations, and it must have their help if its own work is to be done 

 in the most efficient style. 



IRKIGATION AND FOREST PRESERVATION. 



Much is now being done for the States of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains and Great Plains through the development of the national 

 policy of irrigation and forest preservation ; no Government policy 

 for the betterment of our internal conditions has been more fruit- 

 ful of good than this. The forests of the White Mountains and 

 Southern .Appalachian regions should also be preserved ; and they 

 cannot be unless the people of the States in which they lie, through 

 their representatives in the Congress, secure vigorous action by 

 the National Government. 



HAWAII. 



The needs of Hawaii are peculiar ; every aid should be given 

 the islands ; and our efforts should be u.nceasing to develop them 

 along the lines of a community of small freeholders, not of great 

 planters w-ith coolie-tilled estates. Situated as this Territory is, 

 in the middle of the Pacific, there are duties imposed upon this 

 small community which do not fall in like degree or manner upon 

 any other ;\merican communitv. This warrants our treati;ig it 

 differently from the way in which we treat Territories contiguous 

 to or surrounded by sister Territories or other States, and justifies 

 the setting aside of a portion of our revenues to be expended for 

 educational and internal improvements therein. Hawaii is now 

 making an effort to secure immigration fit in the end to assume 

 the duties and burdens of full American citizenship, and whenever 

 the leaders in the various industries of those islands finally adopt 

 our ideals and heartily join our administration in endeavoring to 

 develop a middle class of substantial citizens, a w^ay will then be 

 found to deal with tlie commercial and industrial problems which 

 now appear to them so serious. The best Americanism is thai 

 which aims for stability and permanency of prosperous citizenship, 

 rather than immediate returns on large masses of capital. 



