152 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



a simple plan by which Tennessee can be 

 reforested. It is to remit the taxes for 

 twenty years on all lands where trees are 

 cultivated, that is land set aside for trees 

 and protected from stock and fire. At 

 the end of twenty years this land will be 

 very valuable to the farmer and can then 

 be taxed. This would probably not be 

 practicable in the large lumbering dis- 

 tricts of the northwest, but for small farms, 

 such as Tennessee mostly consists of, 

 would be eminently so. As Major Van- 

 derford says, on almost every farm there 

 is a small patch that is not suitable for 

 cultivation, and yet has to be taxed, but 

 if this portion were planted in trees and 

 the taxes remitted on it for twenty years, 

 it would then be worth a great deal, and 

 the remitment of taxes would be an incent- 

 ive for the farmer to raise trees. 



Certainly the plan is worthy of investi- 

 gation. 



The excitement concerning 

 the Spanish question has 

 brought before the eyes of the public the 

 inadequacy of our navy. It has been well 

 said that the best way to avoid war is to 

 be so well prepared for it that foreign pow- 

 ers will fear to engage in combat with us. 

 The United States is a great and mighty 

 nation; her situation is such as to give 

 her the same natural advantages in a strug- 

 gle as Russia possesses, but at the same 

 time we cannot go to war without prepara- 

 tion, and the fact that we are so "big" is 

 no guarantee that we will never have to 

 fight. Assistant Secretary Roosevelt con- 

 tributed an article to the, January number 

 of Gunton's Magazine in which he dis- 

 cussed in an able manner "The Need of a 

 Navy." So sensible are his views that we 

 regret not being able to quote the whole. 

 He says in part: "One of the penalties of 

 desiring to speak one's mind is that the 

 man so speaking it must be ready to back 

 up his words by acts, unless he is willing 

 to find himself in a very humilating posi- 

 tion. This applies just as much to a na- 

 tion as to an individual If, as is the 



case of the United States, there is no great 



military empire abutting on the country 

 in question, then it must look primarily 

 to its navy as the means of carrying out 



any policy on which it has resolved 



Aside from Great Britain, however, prac- 

 tically every other nation which could by 

 any possibility have trouble with us would 

 have to meet us at sea. This of course 

 means that if the United States is to have 

 any foreign policy whatever it must pos- 

 sess a thoroughly efficient navy." No one 

 but a man devoid of either knowledge or 

 patriotism would assert that we ought not 

 to have any foreign policy, at all, as that 

 would give us the unenviable reputation 

 of either having no opinion of our own 

 concerning questions regarding other na- 

 tions, or else having one and fearing to 

 express it. Mr. Roosevelt expresses truth 

 in a nut shell when he says: "If we build 

 and maintain an adequate navy, and let it 

 be understood that while we haven't the 

 slightest desire to bluster or to commit 

 any wrong, yet that we are perfectly ready 

 and willing to fight for our rights, then 

 the chances of war will become infinites- 

 imal, and no power will dream of protest- 

 ing against the Monroe doctrine." 



To the one who measures ev- 

 erything on a dollar and cent 

 basis, whose first question regarding a 

 new discovery or invention is "What is it 

 worth?" not to the general public but its 

 money value to the owner it will be hard 

 to give a satisfactory explanation of why 

 men desire to reach the north pole. Tell 

 him there are valuable mines, or lands 

 where crops may be grown and he can 

 realize why men risk so much in the en- 

 deavor to reach it; but to tell him that 

 noble minded, unselfish men are willing to 

 undergo all the perils of ice and snow and 

 cold solely in the interest of the science 

 they love, would be like speaking to him 

 in an unknown tongue. Scientific re- 

 search for its own sake, with no hope of 

 personal gain, is beyond his comprehen- 

 sion. But there are many who can under- 

 stand. It was the motive which animated 

 the men of the past men who spent their 



The Frozen 

 North. 



