The Fight for Conservation | Page 6

for. More than that, we are
coming to see that the plain American citizen is the man to work for.
The imagination is staggered by the magnitude of the prize for which
we work. If we succeed, there will exist upon this continent a sane,
strong people, living through the centuries in a land subdued and
controlled for the service of the people, its rightful masters, owned by
the many and not by the few. If we fail, the great interests, increasing
their control of our natural resources, will thereby control the country
more and more, and the rights of the people will fade into the privileges
of concentrated wealth.
There could be no better illustration of the eager, rapid, unwearied
absorption by capital of the rights which belong to all the people than
the water-power trust, perhaps not yet formed but in process of
formation. This statement is true, but not unchallenged. We are met at
every turn by the indignant denial of the water-power interests. They
tell us that there is no community of interest among them, and yet they
appear by their paid attorneys, year after year, at irrigation and other
congresses, asking for help to remove the few remaining obstacles to
their perpetual and complete absorption of the remaining water-powers.
They tell us it has no significance that there is hardly a bank in some
sections of the country that is not an agency for water-power capital, or
that the General Electric Company interests are acquiring great groups
of water-powers in various parts of the United States, and dominating
the power market in the region of each group. And whoever dominates
power, dominates all industry.

Have you ever seen a few drops of oil scattered on the water spreading
until they formed a continuous film, which put an end at once to all
agitation of the surface? The time for us to agitate this question is now,
before the separate circles of centralized control spread into the
uniform, unbroken, Nation-wide covering of a single gigantic trust.
There will be little chance for mere agitation after that. No man at all
familiar with the situation can doubt that the time for effective protest
is very short. If we do not use it to protect ourselves now, we may he
very sure that the trust will give hereafter small consideration to the
welfare of the average citizen when in conflict with its own.
The man who really counts is the plain American citizen. This is the
man for whom the Roosevelt policies were created, and his welfare is
the end to which the Roosevelt policies lead.
I stand for the Roosevelt policies because they set the common good of
all of us above the private gain of some of us; because they recognize
the livelihood of the small man as more important to the Nation than
the profit of the big man; because they oppose all useless waste at
present at the cost of robbing the future; because they demand the
complete, sane, and orderly development of all our natural resources;
because they insist upon equality of opportunity and denounce
monopoly and special privilege; because, discarding false issues, they
deal directly with the vital questions that really make a difference with
the welfare of us all; and, most of all, because in them the plain
American always and everywhere holds the first place. And I propose
to stand for them while I have the strength to stand for anything.
CHAPTER III
BETTER TIMES ON THE FARM
Ever since I came to have first-hand knowledge of irrigation, I have
been impressed with the peculiar advantages which surround the
irrigation rancher. The high productiveness of irrigated land, resulting
in smaller farm units and denser settlement, as well as the efficiency
and alertness of the irrigator, have combined to give the irrigated

regions very high rank among the most progressive farming
communities of the world. Such rural communities as those of the
irrigated West are useful examples for the consideration of regions in
which life is more isolated, has less of the benefits of coöperation, and
generally has lacked the stimulus found in irrigation farming.
The object of education in general is to produce in the boy or girl, and
so in the man or woman, three results: first, a sound, useful, and usable
body; second, a flexible, well-equipped, and well-organized mind; alert
to gain interest and assistance from contact with nature and coöperation
with other minds; and third, a wise and true and valiant spirit, able to
gather to itself the higher things that best make life worth while. The
use and growth of these three things, body, mind, and spirit, must all be
found in any effective system of education.
The same three-fold activity is equally necessary in a group of