Annual Address of the President.

BY HON. J. H. RICHARDS, BOISE, IDAHO.

This hour has been set apart with a view to placing before you the reasons justifying the existence and support of such a national organization as the American Mining Congress. Whether wisely or unwisely, I have been selected to perform this duty.

At the dawn of our nation's life the American people set forth in clarion notes the purposes sought to be achieved by the aid of our form of government. These purposes, sc noble in sentiment, can only be accomplished through availing ourselves of our opportunities, and when wrought out in harmony with such national purposes, they bring to our nation the enduring qualities of permanency and stability.

Our national upbuilding through industrial, political, educational and social activities, must ever rest upon the use we make of the natural resources abounding in the United States, such as soil, climate, forests, minerals and water. These resources are generally known to abound under two heads-first, agriculture, which includes production through growth; second, mining, which includes those products now ready for use.

Consider the declaration of purposes set forth in the preamble to the American constitution in connection with these forces of nature called natural resources, together with our relations to other nations of the earth, and a flood of light is thrown upon the use that can be made of these forces in bringing into actual expression these declared purposes underlying, overlying and encompassing the opportunities these conditions place before us. Other nations have sought progress through a destruction of their neighbors or by controlling them by force. But the character of our nation; the form and purpose of our government; our ideas of justice; our concepts of liberty; our understanding of the basis of enduring progress; the abundance of natural

resources; our love of knowledge; our genius in exercising dominion over the forces of nature; our respect for human rights, and the grandeur of our moral concepts as a nation, all demand that development through internal industry, and not through external plunder, shall ever be the basis of our country's hopes.

We are beginning to understand nationally and individually that

"The drying up of a single tear has more

Of honest fame than shedding seas of gore."

Internal industry should mean in our country such a scientific and co-ordinating use of our natural resources as result from a comprehension of our opportunities in the light of the purposes of our government and our relations to other nations. The purposes of our government we all understand, but no true and lasting national development can take place in our country that does not tend to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. The spirit of these declarations of purpose should ever be the directing forces in all true national development. The peculiar character of our government in purpose and action keeps it so close to the people that from necessity it becomes a vital factor of co-operation in giving direction to effort.

The natural forces at our command, and through the use of which all development must come, are such as our relations to other countries; the markets of the world; our shore lines and inland water ways for commerce; abundance of fertile soil; vast forests; water for reclamation and power, and vast mineral deposits. In a general sense, all the raw material through the use of which all industrial development must take place, comes from the two basic sources of agriculture and mining. Agriculture produces those things that are constantly supplied through growth; mining produces those things which are not being renewed by growth. While agriculture is the primal impulse to hum

an effort, because the source of food, yet the real vitality underlying all industrial development largely rests with mining, whose products are generally more enduring than the products of agriculture and afford such opportunities for varied and permanent development through manufacture and commerce, that the real progress of this nation largely finds its underlying impulse in mining. The impulse that followed the discovery and use of our great deposits of coal, oil, gas, zinc, copper, lead, iron, gold, silver, and water powers, has not only given vitality to agriculture but has placed our country first in wealth and capacity to achieve.

To the credit of the American farmer, he felt the need of governmental co-operation in bringing from the soil the possibilities which intelligence could reveal. The multitude of farmer constituents compelled such co-operation, and by this governmental co-operation through the Agricultural Department, agriculture is becoming a science; farming is becoming more attractive, because more profitable and success more certain; the treatment of the soil and its needs are better understood; plant and animal life are responding to intelligent care; insect pests are being destroyed; animal disease exterminated; waste prevented; quantity of production increased; quality improved; markets found; citizenship improved, and home life on the farm made more attractive. In fact, the purposes of our government as set forth in the preamble to our constitution, are finding expression through thus promoting the general welfare.

In mining a fearful waste is going on. Only a small percentage of the effective use of coal mined is obtained; millions of tons of coal are being wasted from false mining methods; unlimited quantities of natural gas destroyed and lost; great waste has taken place in placer methods; in concentrating processes, reduction systems, and mining methods; the health of the underground miners impaired; thousands killed; more maimed, and conditions making for bad citizenship permitted.

of those interested in mining, a sufficient constituency could be aroused to induce government co-operation in improving mining conditions in a manner similar to the improvement that has thus far been made in agricultural conditions?

The American Mining Congress has been thundering at the doors of Congress for years, trying to arouse it to the needs of the hour. How many years will it yet take to secure efficient action in this respect? The President recommended legislation; the House heeded his message; the Senate ignored it. Both the great national parties have recognized this issue in their national platforms this year.

Nature has been generous to the American people and it needs a generous heart to understand and co-operate with her in bringing to the American people that character of development which insures permanency and stability through intelligent co-ordination and co-operation. There would seem to be no reason why the nation, the states, cities, corporations and individuals, may not co-operate in bringing out of the conditions that now confront us, that permanent and stable national development which is so essential to enduring prosperity and happiness. The American people have arrived at that stage in human progress when less attention should be given to governing them than to directing their development. A busy people whose ever increasing wants are supplied, need little governing.

In his first inaugural address, President Jefferson in expressing his idea of the purposes of our government, used these words: "A wise and frugal government which shall restrain men from injuring one another, and leave them otherwise free." But showing people how to arrive at right methods of development in harmony with the purposes of our government as set forth in the preamble to our constitution, will be much more effective for good than in trying to restrain them from injuring one another through penal statutes.

The prodigal use of nature's bounties in this country has begotten wasteful habits and tendencies which have