The United States is a vast domain. Its material resources are enormous. Its fertile and easily tilled soil, its magnificent forests, its great stores of ore, coal, oil and gas; its fine water-power sites and its temperate and healthful climate have all contributed to the making of a prosperous and progressive nation. Without these natural resources the United States could not be what it is.
The waste of some of these resources is almost beyond belief. In mining, one-half the anthracite and one-third the soft coal is left in the ground in such a manner that it may never be economically recovered. A ton of coal will produce 1,400 pounds of coke, worth $1.50, and 20 pounds of sulphate of ammonia, worth 50 cents. If all the nitrogen in coal which is turned into coke in Pennsylvania were recovered, it would furnish enough of this element to supply the needs of every acre of tillable soil in that state. Only about 44% of the wood in the trees now harvested in the United States is incorporated into buildings, apparatus and furniture. The rest is wasted in the process of cutting, sawing and manufacturing into the finished products.
Facts like these have led the nation to realize that the conservation of our natural resources is an immediate and pressing problem. The United States has, however, a greater inheritance than these great and beneficent gifts of nature and a more fundamental problem than the preservation and efficient use of them. In a single sentence, the greatest inheritance of the American people is their Puritan ancestry. The word Puritan is here used to apply not only to the New England Pilgrims, but to all our early forefathers, whose traditions and practices have served to set this country apart from the other countries of the world. Because of the traditions which have been handed down to us, we are healthier-bodied and cleaner-minded men and women. We are more efficient, not merely in making money, but in everything that goes to make a full and well-rounded life.
It is well to realize the resources of other nations. The agricultural possibilities of France appear to the casual observer to compare favorably with any equal area in the United States. One may see farm land in Italy which has been cultivated for at least two thousand years which is evidently as fertile as any of the limestone valleys of the Atlantic States, the prairies of the Mississippi valley or the Palouse district of the Northwest. Russia has enormous areas of fertile soil. Careful observers report that in Manchuria there are great stretches of country, which today possess natural opportunities similar to those which the Mississippi valley offered one hundred years ago. The recent stories of the deposits of coal and mineral wealth in China are almost fabulous. Europe has rich mines, great forests and unrivaled water-power.
Some years ago a native of Argentina and a native of the United States were dining together. The Argentinian had served his government as consul to Canada. He related that he had recently written an official letter in which he had occasion to refer to the people of Canada and to those of this country. He explained that in alluding to the former he could say the Canadians, but the latter he could not call Americans, since his people were also Americans. After due consideration he referred to us as the Yankees. But, turning to his hearer, he said, with great emphasis, I do not look upon the people of the United States as a nation, but as a new civilization. In other words, our nation is not simply one of fertile farms, enormous mines, great forests, unparalleled railroad systems, palatial stores, or wealthy cities, but he saw that we are a people of different economic, political, educational, social, moral and religious ideals.
There are in every rural neighborhood certain forces whose objects are to increase the educational advantages, the social opportunities and the moral aspirations of the people. This subject need not be discussed merely in the abstract. There are in every community concrete evidences of these forces. There is the rural church. There is the rural school. In many localities are to be found, also, buildings, for social and fraternal purposes, as grange halls, structures for holding fairs and picnics. These are tangible evidences that there are rural agencies at work in the community whose chief purpose is to increase the educational advantages, the social opportunities and the moral aspirations of the people.
How are these existing rural forces to be made more effective? If co-operation in financial affairs is essential under modern conditions, it is more needed in social matters. Such co-operation does not imply that these separate forces shall be fused into a single one. Each of them has its particular and peculiar work to do, but each should work in harmony and not in the spirit of antagonism with the others.
There should be formed in each locality a committee for which the following name is proposed: The Community Committee of Rural Forces. Emphasis should be placed upon the word community. Like all moral movements, progress must come from within, and not from without. The movement must be adapted to its environment. Like the plants that grow there, it must be indigenous to the soil.
Jared Van Wagenen, Jr., has a son Jared, 3d, who is the fifth of the name that has lived upon a farm of 224 acres at Lawyerville, N. Y. Mr. Van Wagenen graduated from Cornell University in 1891, and is a noted farmers institute lecturer. He has taken great interest in the country church and the betterment of the rural community. The view shows the pond that furnishes the power for the farms electric light plant. The plant was installed by Mr. Van Wagenen with his own hands and has proved a really satisfying success.