64. 



The National Geographic Magazine 



applying all the knowledge you can draw 

 from sciences like geology, botany, and 

 meteorology. 



Your National Geographic Society has 

 fortunately a very great and wide field 

 open to it on this continent of North 

 America. You and the Republic of 

 Mexico, whose representative, my friend, 

 Mr Creel, I am glad to see present to- 

 night, have on this vast continent of 

 North America, as we have also up in 

 Canada, an enormous field open in which 

 to conduct a minute scientific study, and 

 the National Geographic Society may 

 look forward to many, many years or cen- 

 turies of useful activity in tracing down 

 the geographical conditions, the natural 

 history, and the resources and the rain- 

 fall and other climatic conditions of this 

 enormous territory. 



GEOGRAPHICAL SURGERY 



You have also a new field open which 

 seems to be one of peculiar, and indeed 

 novel, interest. I do not quite know what 

 to call it, whether to call it "Remedial 

 Geography" or "Geographical Surgery." 

 It is the taking of the surface of our 

 earth and executing upon it various sur- 

 gical operations intended to improve it 

 and make it more useful for the serv- 

 ice of man. You have embarked in some 

 enormous works on this continent of that 

 nature. You have dealt with the lower 

 course of the great River Colorado, and 

 have contemplated the making of an in- 

 land sea in a region which lies a little 

 below the level of the ocean near that 

 stream. You are meditating an enormous 

 enterprise in the improvement of your in- 

 ternal navigation, proposing to construct 

 a great canal and to improve that gigantic 

 river which intersects the middle of your 

 continent — endeavoring to turn it into a 

 more complete and deeper channel for 

 navigation than it has heretofore been. 

 If you accomplish that work, you will 

 have done a thing of which earlier ages 

 might indeed have dreamed, but which 

 nothing but your wealth and the resourses 

 of modern science could have rendered 

 possible. 



And, lastly, you have embarked on that 

 splendid enterprise in the Isthmus of 



Panama. One may say that all these proj- 

 ects come under the head of what may 

 be called "Creative Geography." In at- 

 tempting this creative policy you are 

 making the world more habitable and 

 profitable for all men. The world is no 

 doubt using np its capital at a very rapid 

 rate. Everywhere minerals and forests 

 are being exploited, perhaps too fast and 

 too recklessly. Here the forests are dis- 

 appearing swiftly, and the same holds 

 true of Norway. So both you here and 

 we in Britain are using up our metals and 

 our coals very fast. It is quite time that 

 scientific geographers should come in and 

 take stock of these resources and warn 

 the nation, as I am happy to see that the 

 President has already done in very em- 

 phatic, but not too emphatic, language, of 

 the necessity of conserving all your nat- 

 ural resources and replacing those which, 

 like the forests, can be replaced. 



These are great functions for the Na- 

 tional Geographic Society. It has a wide 

 and useful field before it which it has 

 shown that it knows how to work for the 

 benefit of science and of the nation. 



I appreciate the honor of having been 

 called to address you and I thank you on 

 behalf of your guests of tonight. I will 

 venture to wish all prosperity and success 

 to the National Geographic Society. 



THE TOASTMASTER 



The American forests are under the 

 charge of the Agricultural Department. 

 The American forests include areas that 

 in themselves alone are sufficient to sup- 

 port a mighty empire. The Department 

 of Agriculture controls this vast domain, 

 conserves it and protects it, and also has 

 many other important functions : It fights 

 the ravages of insect pests that I do not 

 hesitate to say would be more destructive 

 than the ravages of the army of almost 

 any invading foe. It guards the purity 

 of our food supply. It studies the dis- 

 eases of plants and animals and checks 

 them. It sends its explorers into the far 

 reaches of the earth to gather plants and 

 animals that may be made economical 

 and profitable to the American people. It 

 develops and it teaches improved methods 

 of husbandry that add hundreds of mil- 



