EDITORIAL 435 



Russia, is portentous. The attempt of promoting social and economic peace 



the Gracchi to place landless men upon and tranquillity. 



land largely unused brought civil strife. v* yt i& 



Modern civilization to-clav faces con- 



', 11 rresident Hill on Conservation 

 gestion m great cities, and a problem 



of unemployment imperatively demand- \1 7ISE words were those uttered by 

 ing solution. Upon the arid and semi- * * Mr. James J. Hill at the opening 

 arid lands of western America, not to of the Alaska- Yukon-Pacific Exposi- 

 mention swamp lands easily susceptible tion on June i. "The idea of a federa- 

 of reclamation are opportunities which tion of the world," said he, "comes near 

 might readily provide for millions of its realization in the great expositions 

 human beings, relieve economic press- that assemble actual evidences of man's 

 ure, and transmute discontent into sat- progress in self-development and to- 

 isfaction and acute misery into happi- ward his development of the earth, 

 ness. In this viewpoint, the reclama- This exposition may be regarded as the 

 tion of our western wilderness consti- laying of the last rail, the driving of the 

 tutes an appeal of the first order to the last spike, in unity of mind and purpose 

 citizenship and statesmanship of to-day, between the Pacific Coast and the conn- 

 Mr. Arthur Hooker, secretary of the try east of the mountains. It is the 

 board of control, will present a reso- witness of a constantly broadening tie 

 lution memorializing Congress to issue which is both the price we pay for 

 three per cent gold bonds, running 100 civilization and the boon that it confers 

 years, to the amount of $5,000,000,000, upon us. As it was the com- 

 or as much thereof as may be necessary, monwealths of the Middle West and 

 for the following purposes : Northwest that, in their rise, swung 

 One billion dollars for drainage of the Nation, like a ship swaying with 

 100,000 square miles of overflowed and the tide, slowly but surely toward the 

 swamp lands. ideals of freedom and union that have 

 One billion dollars for the irrigation molded us to what we are. so it may 

 of 40,000,000 acres of arid and semi- well be that the destiny of the United 

 arid lands. States will be decided in some great 

 One billion dollars to construct and crisis hereafter by the men, the wealth, 

 improve deep waterways. the industry, the ideas to be born gen- 

 One billion dollars for good roads erations .hence in the wide spaces, un- 

 and natienal highways. der the clear skies, amid the bracing 

 One billion dollars for forest protec- airs of our giant child of the North that 

 tion, reforestation, and conservation of occuoies the place of honor here to- 

 the forest resources. day." 



To provide the funds for the above- Speaking of the influence of the 

 named projects, or any of them, other West. Mr. Hill said: "No less weighty 

 methods than those of bond issues should be its contribution to the forma- 

 might be conceived : furthermore, such tion of national ideals, the shaping of 

 an enterprise, because of its very mag- national ambitions, the direction of na- 

 nitude, will impress some as chimerical, tional policies. Out of the West have 

 Nevertheless, it will be recalled that come formative impulses that enriched 

 President-elect Taft, in his Belasco- the history of the country. It is the goal 

 theater speech, conceded the possible of the enterprising and fearless. While 

 wisdom of bond issues for conservation others deliberate, it acts. While they 

 purposes; furthermore, properly ban- count consequences, it looks upon re- 

 died, such an enterprise might repre- suits as already nearing accomplish- 

 sent to the Nation not a mountain of ment. If the star of empire in history 

 debt, but a great and highly profitable has moved westward, it followed rather 

 investment, not only yielding large pe- than led those bold spirits by which em- 

 cuniary returns, but, for years to come, pires are made and upheld. Here, on 



