dities cheaply from place to place, is a task upon the successful
accomplishment of which the future of the Nation depends in a peculiar
degree. We are accustomed, and rightly accustomed, to take pride in the
vigorous and healthful growth of the United States, and in its vast
promise for the future. Yet we are making no preparation to realize what
we so easily foresee and glibly predict. The vast possibilities of our
great future will become realities only if we make ourselves, in a
sense, responsible for that future. The planned and orderly development
and conservation of our natural resources is the first duty of the
United States. It is the only form of insurance that will certainly
protect us against the disasters that lack of foresight has in the past
repeatedly brought down on nations since passed away.

CHAPTER II

HOME-BUILDING FOR THE NATION

The most valuable citizen of this or any other country is the man who
owns the land from which he makes his living. No other man has such a
stake in the country. No other man lends such steadiness and stability
to our national life. Therefore no other question concerns us more
intimately than the question of homes. Permanent homes for ourselves,
our children, and our Nation--this is a central problem. The policy of
national irrigation is of value to the United States in very many ways,
but the greatest of all is this, that national irrigation multiplies the
men who own the land from which they make their living. The old saying,
"Who ever heard of a man shouldering his gun to fight for his boarding
house?" reflects this great truth, that no man is so ready to defend his
country, not only with arms, but with his vote and his contribution to
public opinion, as the man with a permanent stake in it, as the man who
owns the land from which he makes his living.

Our country began as a nation of farmers. During the periods that gave
it its character, when our independence was won and when our Union was
preserved, we were preeminently a nation of farmers. We can not, and we
ought not, to continue exclusively, or even chiefly, an agricultural
country, because one man can raise food enough for many. But the farmer
who owns his land is still the backbone of this Nation; and one of the
things we want most is more of him. The man on the farm is valuable to
the Nation, like any other citizen, just in proportion to his
intelligence, character, ability, and patriotism; but, unli