Chapter XI: Section VIII: The Congress shall have power (1)

Par. 1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.

Par. 3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes.

It has been held by some that the powers of the National Government, relating to public health, are restricted to paragraph 3, which gives the right to Congress to regulate commerce, and, in regulating commerce, to so regulate it as to prevent its being a carrier of disease. Others have held that under the general welfare clause, in paragraph 1, Congress has the right to legislate for the public health.

Should the latter interpretation be the correct one, Congress could establish the national health control over States and municipalities with regard to municipal and domestic sanitation, with all details as to house drainage, plumbing, sewerage, and disposal of garbage, water supply, ventilation, school houses and public buildings ventilation, examination of milk supply, food and drugs, disposal of the dead, disinfection of dwellings, etc. Would it be desirable for the National Government to have such authority? Would it be tolerated by the people? It is a fact that the American people have already decided this question when the old National Board of Health was abolished.

The National Board of Health was created by an act of Congress, approved March 3, 1879. Another act was approved June 2, 1879, clothing the board with certain quarantine powers, but this last act was limited to a period of four years, at the expiration of which time Congress declined to renew it. The National Board of Health, therefore, had an active existence from 1879 to 1883. The act establishing the board remained upon the statute books until February 15, 1893, when it was formally repealed by Congress.

To state the case concisely, the National Board of Health was not in accord with the spirit of American government, and the people rejected it. Now, what do the American people want? I will not attempt to answer this question, but will suggest that they want a general sanitary administration which is capable of steady development, and yet may be subject to such modifications as the changing conditions of our country may necessitate, a sanitary policy which can be made to expand until it will answer the public needs not only for the present but even for decades to come.

Its direct aim should be the ultimate intelligence and education of the average citizen in matters relating to his personal health, and the health of his commonwealth. No better plan for sanitary government appears at the present time than one modeled upon the structure of the general government itself. Broadly stated, this sanitary policy expects of each State a sanitary autonomy whose influence should be appreciated by every individual in every hamlet, however small, in its domain. It contemplates a State pride in the development of sanitation, a self-reliance and an unwillingness to surrender functions or call for aid from the general government excepting after the clearest convictions of propriety or necessity. This policy expects from the general government that since it controls commerce, both maritime and interstate, it will prevent commerce from conveying disease; that it will respect the sanitary institutions of the States; that it will have such organizations and establishments as properly belong to its sphere of action to supplement where States fail, and to enable it to wield its peculiar power when urgency demands.

As an apt illustration of this conception of authority in health control, let us consider the present activities of our Federal Public Health Service. These are as follows:

1. The prevention of the introduction of infectious and contagious diseases.

2. The sanitary regulation of foreign commerce.

3. The observance of international sanitary treaties.

4. The prevention of the spread of infectious and contagious diseases from one State to another through co-operation with State and municipal health authorities.

5. The collection and dissemination of sanitary information.

6. The conduct of scientific research in matters pertaining to the public health.

7. The enforcement of sanitation in Federal territory and in connection with Federal administrative affairs.

THE PREVENTION OF THE INTRODUCTION OF INFECTIOUS AND CONTAGIOUS DISEASES.

The chief national quarantine law is that approved February 15, 1893, amended and extended by acts of Congress approved August 12, 1894, March 2, 1901, and June 19, 1906.

Under these acts the maritime quarantine administration has become national, many state stations having been voluntarily surrendered to the Government, others supplanted by the General Government, because of failure to comply with government regulations, and others superseded by direct authority of law.

The diseases excluded from the country by the national quarantine establishment are cholera, yellow fever, smallpox, typhus fever, leprosy and plague.

Some quarantine stations are inspection stations only, but many are large institutions, comprised of hospitals, quarters, barracks for detention of crews and passengers, wharves and disinfecting machinery, and boarding vessels, all requiring good administrative ability on the part of the commanding officer, who must also be expert in the detection of disease.

When a ship from a foreign port arrives off a port of the United States, it is met by a quarantine officer for inspection under the national regulations. Fifty medical officers of the service are engaged in this work at forty-seven separate stations, extending along the Pacific, the Gulf and Atlantic coasts from Alaska to Portland, Me. Without the quarantine certificates given these officers and the bill of health obtained at the foreign port, the ship would not be allowed entry by the collector of customs and without his permit it would be unlawful for the ship to unload its cargo.

At a few ports, not more than three or four in number, this inspection is made by a State quarantine officer, a relic of the system which prevailed prior to 1893, when quarantine was considered a State rather than a National function. They are obliged, however, to enforce the National regulations, and are subject to inspection by the Federal officers, and if they fail or refuse to comply with the United States regulations the President is authorized to detail an officer of the Government for that purpose.

In addition to the diseases remanded by quarantine, others are excluded under laws relating to immigration, and for this purpose at the principal ports of entry there are also stationed seventy medical officers, who, during the past year, for example, examined more than 1,280,000 immigrants, certifying more than 30,000 of them on account of physical and mental defects. The immigration laws exclude persons afflicted with any loathsome or any dangerous contagious disease, or having mental or physical defects which may affect their ability to earn a living.

Humanity requires the treatment in hospital of immigrants arriving sick with ordinary as well as prohibitive diseases, and the large hospitals connected with the stations are under the professional conduct of service officers.

Although the immigration stations are under the control of commissioners attached to the Department of Commerce and Labor, nevertheless the medical officers are subject in their professional work to supervision by the Public Health Service, and their instructions as to the medical inspection of aliens are prepared by the Surgeon-General and approved by the Secretary of the Treasury.

THE SANITATION OF FOREIGN COMMERCE.

At certain foreign ports and at certain times, depending upon the presence of the various quarantinable diseases, either in the foreign ports of departure or in the country contiguous thereto, officers of the Public Health Service are detailed by the President to serve in the offices of the American consuls, to assist them in enforcing the quarantine regulations for foreign ports. These officers keep themselves informed of the prevalence of contagious disease in these cities and the surrounding country. They sign a bill of health which certifies that all the regulations required to be enforced at foreign ports on vessels leaving for the United States have been complied with.

This involves a knowledge of the point of origin of the freight and passengers, disinfection of material from an infected locality, the personal inspection of passengers, particularly steerage passengers, and their detention if necessary. The power of enforcement of these regulations lies in the above mentioned act of Congress approved February 15, 1893, which imposes a penalty of $5,000 upon any vessel from a foreign port seeking to enter a port of the United States without this consular bill of health. The consul can legally refuse a bill of health if the regulations are not complied with.

In this connection it may be said that officers of the Public Health Service are stationed constantly at such ports as Hongkong, Shanghai and Amboy, in China; Yokohama and Kobe in Japan; Salina Cruz, Manzanillo and Puerto Mexico in Mexico; Guayaquil, Ecuador; La Guaira, Venezuela, and Havana, Cuba. During the summer of 1911, on account of cholera conditions prevailing in Italy, Russia and France, there were officers of this service detailed in the offices of the American consul at Naples, Genoa, Palermo, Messina and Catania, in Italy, at Libau in Russia, and at Marseilles, France. In addition to this, officers were ordered to several other foreign ports of departure, there to confer with the American consular officers as to the enforcement of the regulations for foreign ports, and for the purpose of insuring uniformity of procedure.

The State Department has done much to assist in the quarantine and sanitary work in foreign ports, through the interest it has aroused in the said work on the part of its consular corps.

THE OBSERVANCE OF INTERNATIONAL SANITARY TREATIES.

These treaties or conventions establishing them have been ratified by the Senate of the United States, as well as by the other governments.

The International Sanitary Bureau of American Republics at Washington was founded by the International Conference of American States held in the City of Mexico in 1901. That conference also called for international sanitary conventions, which are now held every two years. Two have been held in Washington. The object of the conventions is to freely discuss all matters relating to the public health and particularly those which affect the American Republics, and the purpose of the international Sanitary Bureau is to encourage the execution of the resolutions or agreements decided upon by the conventions. The convention held in Washington in 1905 drew up a treaty with regard to the quarantine treatment of cholera, plague and yellow fever, which was signed ad referendum by the official delegates, and has been confirmed by practically all of the American Republics. At the meeting in Mexico in December, 1907, action was taken which has brought the International Sanitary Bureau at Washington into relations with the International Office of Public Hygiene at Paris.

The International Office of Public Hygiene at Paris was formally inaugurated December 9, 1907. It is the outgrowth of international sanitary conferences at Rome, Venice and Paris, with regard to the bubonic plague. The following governments are represented: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, British India, Bulgaria, Egypt, Canada, France, Great Britain, Holland, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Persia, Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Servia, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, Tunis, Turkey and the United States.

Each of these governments has agreed to pay its pro rata of the expenses necessary to maintain the international office. The principal object of the office is to collect and bring to the knowledge of the participating States facts and documents of a general character relating to public health, especially as concerns infectious diseases—notably cholera, plague and yellow fever—as well as the measures taken to combat these diseases.

PREVENTION OF THE SPREAD OF INFECTIOUS AND CONTAGIOUS DISEASES.

These operations are conducted under two laws. One is the national quarantine act of 1893, already referred to, which contains practically the same provisions for interstate as for maritime quarantine. The other is the annual law passed by Congress appropriating an “epidemic fund” which contains a provision that it may be used in aid of State and local boards of health in the enforcement of their quarantine regulations, as well as those of the national service—to be used, however, only against certain specified epidemic diseases, viz., cholera, yellow fever, smallpox, typhus fever and bubonic plague.

Now, with these two laws in hand, and when the appearance of any of the above-named diseases in any State so require, the officers of the Public Health Service are at once upon the scene with the double object of seeing that the Treasury Interstate Quarantine Regulations are enforced by the State or local authorities and to offer aid, as authorized by law.

When aid is extended, the Government’s funds must be expended by its own officers, and the latter are therefore placed in charge and have the co-operation and assistance of the State or local authorities. They have, therefore, the support of the State and local laws and regulations, as well as those of the Federal Government. This is fortunate, since experience has shown the importance, in a Republic like ours, of local sympathy and support.

THE COLLECTION AND DISSEMINATION OF SANITARY INFORMATION.

The Public Health Bureau, through its Division of Sanitary Reports and Statistics, compiles and publishes each week a pamphlet called the Public Health Reports. It contains a statistical report from all cities in the United States of more than 10,000 inhabitants, and some others, giving the morbidity and mortality in each city with regard to twelve diseases and the total mortality from all diseases. It contains also a statement of the weekly mortality in some 120 foreign cities from thirteen communicable diseases. It gives special information concerning quarantinable diseases and sanitary measures in the United States and foreign countries. The foreign information is received through the United States consuls and service officers abroad.

Collective investigations are being made of the prevalence of pellagra, infantile paralysis and leprosy.

A compilation has been prepared of state laws bearing upon reporting diseases, with a view to increasing the collection of morbidity statistics and bringing about improved methods and greater uniformity in their collection.

CONDUCT OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH.

In the District of Columbia, in a commodious building, the Public Health Service has its hygienic laboratory, a research laboratory exclusively for public health investigations. It is conducted in four divisions, viz., bacteriology and pathology, chemistry, zoölogy and pharmacology. This organization brings under the same roof, and in intimate association, scientific workers in each of these several branches, interesting facts developed in one line of investigation being made freely known to the investigators in other lines of research.

Officers are detailed to receive instruction in this laboratory, thus enhancing the scientific attainments of the corps and giving opportunity for selection of those best qualified for permanent detail in research work. In this manner specialists have been and are being developed on various subjects, such as typhoid fever, pellagra, hookworm disease, infantile paralysis, scientific disinfection, etc.

Public Health Service officers may be found in the States investigating other diseases than those named in the epidemic law, viz., typhoid fever, infantile paralysis, cerebro-spinal meningitis, hookworm disease, malaria, pellagra, dengue fever, milk sickness, etc. These investigations are usually made at the request of State health authorities. The bureau at Washington, on receiving a request from a city or locality for expert aid, invariably refers the request to the State Board of Health before compliance.

The laws permitting these investigations are, first, the interstate section of the quarantine law of 1893; and second, the act of Congress approved March 3, 1901, providing a building for the hygienic laboratory for investigations of contagious and infectious diseases and matters relating to the public health. As the investigations require laboratory examinations, they come within this last named law and the appropriation which supports it.

In various States of the Union, there are thirteen establishments engaged in the production of vaccines, antitoxins and serums, which play so important a part in modern therapy. The variation in the potency and the occasional impurity of these products caused Congress to pass an act July 1, 1902, requiring a license for their manufacture for sale in interstate traffic.

ENFORCEMENT OF SANITATION IN FEDERAL TERRITORY.

In the Philippine Islands, where the government is by commission and a legislature, much work of value to the public health is performed in the bureau of science under the insular government. There are, however, in the several ports of the Philippines medical officers of the Public Health Service under appointment from the Treasury Department in Washington, engaged in the transactions of both incoming and outgoing quarantine. Two of these officers, in addition to their supervision of the national quarantine, are also director and assistant director, respectively, of the public health of all the Philippines.

In Hawaii you will also find medical officers conducting the national quarantine. They are also assisting the territorial health board in preventing the recurrence of plague by the extermination of rats and continuous bacteriological examination of those captured. One of these officers is the official sanitary adviser of the Governor of Hawaii, and is carrying on a campaign for the eradication of disease-bearing mosquitoes.

Here also may be observed the leprosy investigation station, also controlled by our officers, both on the island of Molokai, where hospital and other accommodations have been erected under the law of March 3, 1905, appropriating $100,000 for this purpose, and at the receiving station at Honolulu, where cases are seen in the earlier stages.

In Porto Rico public health officers are enforcing the United States quarantine regulations under the acts of Congress relating to Porto Rico and national quarantine. The campaign which has practically eradicated plague from San Juan is being conducted by the Federal Public Health Bureau.

In the Canal Zone you will find two commissioned officers enforcing quarantine regulations at Ancon on the Pacific and Colon on the Atlantic. These officers are loaned to the Isthmian Canal Commission. This is an important adjunct to the work of the canal, because it would be useless to clean the zone if fresh importations of disease were permitted.

I will now devote a few words to the Health Bureau organization in Washington by means of which all the functions or activities above described are administered under one head.

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE BUREAU OF PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE.

The law which changed the name of the Marine Hospital Service and made it a Public Health Service was approved July 1, 1902. This law fixed the status of the officers, enlarged the hygienic laboratory and gave it an advisory board, provided for the conferences with the State and Territorial Boards of Health, provided for compilation and publication of statistics, and directed that the President should prescribe rules for the conduct of the service and the uniforms of its officers and employes.

It also provided for a Public Health and Marine Hospital Bureau at Washington.

By an act of the Congress approved August 14, 1912, the name of the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service was changed to Public Health Service. The public health functions and duties of the service were extended and certain changes were made in the salaries of the officers.

The Public Health Service is under the supervision of the Secretary of the Treasury, and is in charge of the Surgeon-General, who has six Assistant Surgeons-General in charge of the Bureau Divisions. These divisions are as follows:

1. Foreign and Insular Quarantine and Immigration.

2. Domestic (Interstate) Quarantine.

3. Personnel and Accounts.

4. Marine Hospitals and Relief.

5. Scientific Research and Sanitation.

6. Sanitary Reports and Statistics.

The above lengthy description of our present public health activities has been necessary not only in order to demonstrate their character, and scope, but also as an illustration of the variety of legal authority existing for the enactment on the part of the general Government of public health work.

This paper will not admit of the incorporation into it of the national laws relating to public health which are now operative, but a careful inspection of these laws will demonstrate that they will admit of such interpretation as would make possible an almost unlimited amplification of our present public health activities, the limit being only one of appropriations and officers.

Careful analysis of the present health laws and activities will also show that the Government is seeking to control nothing which any other public health organization would wish to control. The foundation of the national public health service is in the quarantine law of February 15, 1893, referred to above. The quarantine service is today almost entirely national, notwithstanding a local sentiment for State or municipal control, which exists in two or three cities only, and which it is believed is destined to a short tenure for the following reasons:

It must be admitted that maritime quarantine should be a national affair. It is a concomitant to commerce, over which under the Constitution the national government has absolute control, and it naturally belongs to that department of the government regulating commerce in other respects. In other words, it seems especially appropriate that quarantine should be one of the functions of the Treasury Department which registers, licenses and enrolls all merchant vessels of the United States, inspects the hulls, boilers and machinery of such vessels, determines the number of passengers which said vessels may carry and provides for the housing and rations of the crews.

Besides this, it carefully examines all pilots upon American vessels and determines upon granting them licenses. It enforces the navigation laws and aids vessels in distress by an efficient revenue cutter service. It also provides for the care of the sick of our merchant marine. Then why should it relegate to a State authority, or health officer of some small port, the one remaining act of surveillance over vessels, namely, the determination as to whether they may be admitted to entry from a sanitary standpoint? Why should it be left to a local appointee, responsible only to a mayor or governor, the power to determine whether all the people and the merchandise on vessels destined for all ports of the United States, shall be permitted to enter without detention; and why should it give this local officer power to detain such vessels; and further than that, why should such local officers desire that power?

In the same way, the other activities of the Public Health Service conflict in no way with the functions and prerogatives of the State and local boards of health. Therefore, the term “national health control” is a misnomer. The term “national health co-operation” would be much more descriptive of the conditions actually existing. The interstate health activities above described must of necessity be governmental functions. The duties and responsibilities connected with them could not be discharged by States with any degree of uniformity. Therefore, interstate commerce laws are considered as appropriate national enactments, and their operation encroaches upon no State or municipal rights.

It may be said with a feeling of conviction that the health control in the United States today is just exactly in accordance with the desires of the people. The people know that their State and municipal boards are being aided by the health activities of the national government rather than being encroached upon. In addition to this the Federal Public Health Service and the State and municipal boards are acting in harmony to the following ends: They are controlling commerce, in order that commerce may not be clogged, and where necessary they are laying the net of healthful restraint for purposes of good.

The government is receiving the good-will and co-operation of the State and local health authorities in its work of catching and throwing back the diseased persons who seek entrance to our shores in the great Waves of immigration. They stand together to check the merchant or the manufacturer when he is ready or willing to risk the lives of the people by furnishing improper or impure food or drug products. They stand together to frustrate the lawyer who seeks by illegal technicality in the behalf of an individual, or steamship company perhaps, to force a way around a sanitary barrier erected for the protection of the people at large. Again, the municipal, State and government health authorities are standing together to stimulate the knowledge of our legislators in public health needs and are combining their knowledge to insure reasonable appropriations for the carrying out of general public health projects.

The mission of the three classes of sanitarians above mentioned may go still further. It may go to the extent of prodding the conscience of the tardy doctor, and even to the sweeping aside of the sentimental obstructions which the unenlightened are able to put in the path of the conservation of life. There is ample law for present and probably for future needs, and the control of national health remains, after all, today where it has remained in the past, and where it always will remain, that is, with the American people, not solely with the government, nor with the State or municipal health agencies. Each of the great nations of the world has gone about the direction of its public health work in its own way, and always with the realization that the ideal is not necessarily the practical, and what is best today may be supplanted by better tomorrow.

To summarize the situation, we have today State boards of health in control of State sanitation, operating under proper and ample State law. We have municipal health organizations operating under their own legal authority, and finally we have the United States Public Health Service, operating under several laws, as stated before, more far-reaching in their scope than is indicated by the activities pursued under their authority. The people, apparently, are satisfied so far as the Public Health Service is concerned. When the people want anything more they will demand it, and if available appropriations will not admit of compliance with such requests they will be forthcoming. Therefore, I am at a loss to suggest what additional health legislation is necessary or desirable to be engrafted upon that already existing in this country, and I am unable to see the necessity for any different plan of organization so long as the people, in whose behalf the organization is being maintained, are satisfied.

In closing, I wish to say that I have endeavored simply to place various facts before this Congress, and while I do not pretend to have exhausted this branch of the subject, I fear that I can not say the same with regard to your patience.

President White here requested Dr. Henry Wallace, of Des Moines, Iowa, to take the Chair.

Chairman WALLACE—We are now ready to hear the report of the Committee on Lands and Agriculture. The first speaker will be Dr. George E. Condra, of Lincoln, Neb., whose subject is “Land Frauds, or Get-Rich-Quick Schemes.”

Dr. CONDRA—Mr. President and Delegates: Some of you may recall the fact that the speaker has briefly outlined this subject at each of the preceding Congresses, under the head, “Conservation of Business.” The discussion offered at this time is based on reliable information secured from many States. It is largely the result of field work. The data are presented according to the viewpoint of Conservation and should be so considered.

Do you fully realize that the principles of Conservation are permeating every department of human industry, improving the processes, increasing efficiency, and promoting common honesty, that the idea of equity is increasing in force? That it is being extended to business not for the purpose of holding it in check, but primarily for protection against fraud? This movement for square dealing certainly is in order for business is sore with graft and tracked by fraud at every turn. Plain it is that many transactions in the realm of commerce fall outside the sphere of true business. They grade from those that are doubtful on through to those that are plainly fraudulent and therefore criminal. The term “business,” however, has a splendid meaning which should be conserved. It symbolizes honesty, stability, honor and reliability. Sharp practice, double dealing and doubtful promotion are but parasites and should be so regarded. They have no legitimate place in business and are being eliminated.

Several persons have spoken in this Congress on pure food, eugenics, etc. Their messages will tend to make people healthier and better fit to be fathers and mothers. All this is good. Dr. Wiley and others have emphasized the importance of pure food and health laws, but how many go back of this matter of health and food to the land, or source of our food and raiment and show the great need for pure land laws? (Applause.) The State trains its sanitary engineers, lawyers and physicians for their life work. It examines the lawyers and doctors before permitting them to practice, but how about land agents? They are good and bad. Many of them have no special qualifications for their work and should not be permitted to do about as they please without restriction, promoting this and that deal which may or may not have merit. Grant me your closest attention and I will point out certain classes of fraud that operate in connection with the development of mineral lands, irrigation, fruit lands, eucalyptus culture, drainage, dry land farming and the small tract propositions.

_Promotion of Mineral Land._—The amount of money sent from the country and town and city to doubtful mine promoters is enormous. The return for this outlay is small, in some places less than one cent for each dollar. Yet the public does not fully realize that nearly all reasonably sure propositions are not available for wanton promotion, that a mere prospect is not a mine, and that fraudulent promoters are hurting the mining business.[3]

_Oil and Gas Promotion._—The excitement caused by a developing oil field is intense. Agriculture gives way to a spirit of speculation and overvaluation and everything looks good to an investing public. Fabulous returns appear to be in sight for all who invest in time. This gives opportunity for professional promoters to do their work, sometimes on a large scale. They claim a sure thing even when wildcatting. So they send unwarranted prospectuses broadcast and the money harvest is on. It is difficult to place the criminality of such procedure. We only know that it works out badly as a rule. You should know that it is bad business to accept the unqualified statements of most oil and gas promotion concerns as a basis for investment. These persons and concerns interfere with legitimate development and should be brought under control.

_Irrigation Schemes._—The Federal Government spends vast sums in developing the irrigation resources of several dry land States. Such reclamation is of economic importance. Furthermore, many reliable individuals and private companies do as well and even better in developing some projects. As a result of successful irrigation thousands of happy homes are made where once was only dry land. Notwithstanding this fact there are fraudulent irrigation promoters. Scheming individuals sell illegitimate propositions which can not succeed because of lack of water, unsuitable land or heavy graft. Such promotion has gone on to such an extent as to call for severe criticism by many practical irrigationists of the West, and the Reclamation Department of the Federal Government is increasing its diligence in checkmating the work of persons who attempt to promote bad projects.

_Fruit Land Promotion._—Have you visited the great fruit districts of Oregon, Washington and other Northwestern States? Do you know what care is there given to the cultivation and marketing of apples especially? The fruit is so perfect in form and color. It is accurately graded for the Eastern and foreign markets. These splendid successes are widely known and are taken advantage of by scheming persons who promote the sale of any and all kinds of land in and near fruit districts. One of the leading fruit men of Washington says that thousands and thousands of dollars are going into the hands of concerns that are sure to fail and that the fruit business is being hurt by such operations. The trouble of it is that the average investor does not know that the fruit business is highly specialized, and that many matters concerning soil, exposure, climate, markets, etc., not known to him, are the features that determine success and failure. Furthermore, the fraudulent promoter does not know, neither does he care.

Doubtful promotion of this kind is not confined to the Northwest alone. It has hurt the South and may do damage to New York and other States in which are lands well suited for fruit raising, if the proper authorities do not conserve the larger interests of the industry and State against promoters.

_Eucalyptus Promotion._—For many years the forests of the United States have been in process of depletion. Some have seen in this, and with good reason, an approaching timber famine. The alarm has been sounded, and the demand has gone forth for better methods in timber utilization, for fire protection, and tree planting. This is the right thing without doubt, but it affords a loop-hole for promoters. It is understood, also, that some trees grow faster and are more all-purpose than others. The eucalyptus are of this kind. They are of many kinds. Such trees can not be grown on any and every type of soil and are limited somewhat by climate. It so happens that California, because of its soil and climate, is the leading State in culture of eucalyptus. It has several successful groves and larger plantings, yet the situation is promoted for all it is worth, and perhaps more. The public (in the Central and Western States) is worked by carefully-planned selling schemes. The fact is that there is too much graft in some of them. The process has gone on to such an extent as to cause the friends of eucalyptus planting to sound a warning against such procedure. This should cause investors to make a more careful inquiry of reliable persons, not controlled by the promoters, before parting with money. The trees must have suitable soil, climate, and care.

_Drainage Schemes._—One of the largest lines of development in the United States is in the field of drainage, whereby swamp and flood lands are improved. The amount of land that either has or can be reclaimed by drainage is said to be about 75,000,000 acres. The Federal Government, various States, companies, and individuals, are doing this work. Much of such development is well founded, yet there are bad deals, which might be called deliberate steals in some cases. Examples of these exist in a few States and much money has been squandered on projects that can never succeed. Teachers, ministers, farmers, merchants and others are victimized. In the language of one of Florida’s representatives at the National Irrigation Congress of this year, “Persons selling certain wet lands of Florida are practicing fraud and should be prosecuted as criminals. They are hurting the good name of Florida and swindling people in the North.” This person severely criticized certain cities of the North as being promotion centers. Further comment is not necessary.

_Dry Land Deals._—Much dry land promotion is fraudulent, caused in part by misinformation on the part of agents, but due to some extent to deliberate misrepresentation. For instance, there are places in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, western Nebraska, Wyoming, and other States subject to such promotion. The fact is that a part of the land in the dry area of each State named is well suited for dry farming, but that unscrupulous agents sell anything and everything to unsuspecting persons as being good, awaiting the plow and successful development. So it is that geographic position has been overworked. The following points are sometimes overdrawn in securing sales:

a. The idea that nearly all agricultural land is under cultivation.

b. The notion that dry farming methods are successful on almost any kind of dry land.

c. That the climate, referring to the rainfall especially, is becoming more favorable for agriculture in dry regions as the years go by. This notion, used in deceiving thousands of people, is greatly in error.

d. Advantage is taken of such fluctuations in rainfall as occur from year to year and at more or less regular periods, ten to twelve years apart. During the wet years the country is boomed; at dry times the people move out and industry wanes. These ups and downs are recurring features on certain areas not permanently suited for farming. The process works havoc with the misguided settlers, hurts a State that encourages it, and brings no lasting beneficial results to land men who manage the operation.

Apparently, Nature is no respecter of persons, especially so on the dry, sandy lands. It is coming to be known that there is no permanent change for the better in rainfall, frost belts or any thing of the kind. Some lands are better suited for grazing than for ordinary farming and should be so managed.

The speaker is pleased to be the servant of a State that stands strongly against misrepresentation of land values. Such a policy works out the greatest good in the long run. It breeds a healthy demand for a fact basis of development and minimizes the tendency to “stand up” for the home State by unwarranted “boostings.”

_Land Schemes in General._—There are many other land projects. The public has invested largely in small tract propositions in Florida, Texas, and other States. Much of this promoted land has considerable value, but some of it is over-estimated, and many investors are quite apt therefore to lose all or nearly all of their money. Certain kinds of land look more inviting during one season of the year than at another. For example, there are places in Texas and Mexico to which the promoters take their victims in the dry season and to other lands during the wet season. This year the speaker heard a Texas representative declare, in a national meeting, that many of the small tract propositions, together with certain other land schemes of his State, are filled with fraud. He criticized northern people for promoting Texas. This should serve at least as a warning to unthoughtful investors. The good agricultural propositions of Texas and elsewhere are handled by responsible land agents.

The movement for the reclamation of the so-called abandoned lands of some of the older States is quite apt to be hurt by unreliable promoters.

_Misrepresentation and Overvaluation._—Not only do some promoters misrepresent propositions for the purpose of receiving gain therefrom, but they often advance the sale price unduly. Many examples of this kind have come to my attention. Two weeks ago I received a prospectus from Oklahoma, advertising lead and zinc land for sale at $6.00 a block, twenty feet square, making 1,089 blocks in the tract of ten acres. This would be $6,534 for the land. I happen to know the region and own land close to the small tract. The fact is that one can purchase such a place at $10.00 or less an acre, or at not to exceed $100 for ten acres. So the difference between $100 and $6,534 is too much of an advance for those who invest. What do you think of such a deal? The persons handling it use the general statement of a geologist which recites the fact that the geological formation that contains zinc and lead in the Joplin District, some thirty miles distant, extends through the promoted land. This statement has no specific importance, but is sufficient for persons who accept the “get-rich-quick” bait. It is my judgment that Oklahoma should not permit such a clean-up. (Applause.)

The public craze for land makes it easy for promoters to do their work. Many farmers, dominated by a spirit of consideration for their children, accept the “spiel” and assurance of the “dopster,” sell in agricultural regions and move onto nearly worthless land, believing that it will become about like the old home place in time, and that each child will then have a farm and home. May we not say that he who deceives a family in this way is a mean man? (Applause.) Can you think of a worse service to a community? Certain railroads are not free from blame in that they promote this traffic. The farmer who accepts the bad “dope” is also to blame. It has taken a long time for the people to learn that mere belief, opinion, and sentiment are not strong enough forces to overcome the influence of land not suited for agriculture.

If our land seekers could realize how important and far-reaching is this matter of choosing favorable places for home building, they would be less easily led astray. They would consider soil, climate, water supplies and other necessary conditions of success, as they actually exist, and be governed less by the old arguments and slogans so often used for land development in general. They would pay less attention to deceptive literature written for the special purpose of securing emigrants and sales. They would inquire into the methods whereby this phase of the land business is carried on, and avoid being carried off of their feet, especially when on “home-seekers’” excursions and worked by a well-organized plan.

Formerly, the newer States encouraged the work of grafting land men. Time has shown, however, that this was bad business and really a drawback to permanent development. The present trend is to conserve the interests of those who go onto and manage the land, making it easier for them to succeed. They are assisted by the publicity of useful facts and the censure of fraud. Furthermore, it is coming to be recognized that State emigrant agents, agricultural experiment stations, soil surveys and Conservation Commissions should not lend their support to any interest other than that which brings the best results to the people of the State. They should stand for the policies that insure permanent development and do so as their plain duty. Do you know how public men are urged and tempted to further the interests of promotion concerns and that there are plenty of opportunities to sell one’s influence? That it requires diligence and courage to rightly serve the State? Happily, our public-spirited citizens who have at heart the best and largest interests of their States, stand strongly against misrepresentation whether unintentional or not. They claim that doubtful promotion serves only in closing deals, and in directing settlers to the land, but that in the long run the process works a positive harm to the misguided people and to the State as well, if the land is not suited for habitation. Fortunately, most States are coming to this viewpoint. They have learned that it pays to tell the truth when transplanting a population and directing the permanent development of a State.

Where do you delegates stand on this proposition, and what is to be the attitude of your States?

_Promoters’ Methods._—Do you know the signs of fraud? They are exposed in the method used in securing money from the community. The plan is about as follows: A selling scheme is perfected. It is constructed in a way that leaves no flaws, apparently. Each agent learns the scheme; he becomes skilled in applying it to the different types of individuals. Too often it is of little concern whether the project has merit or not. The chief object is to get money. Extravagant claims are made in which returns of 100 per cent. or more a year are said to be a sure thing. The influence of nationality, church, and fraternal orders are brought to bear in securing sales. The support of persons with good standing in the community is secured. Those who assist the promoter are given a reduction for their influence. The dope is given them often and systematically. So they soon realize the greatness of the project. This is promotion psychology. The land is offered at high enough price to permit reduction for quick sale, which bait works in many cases. Persons filled with greed for money are easy victims. The above kind of thing, though less common than formerly, is practiced in most States, and the wonder of it is that it can continue and why it is permitted to continue. It is fraudulent and should be stopped entirely if we are to conserve the interests of good people.

_Effects of Land Fraud on Local Business._—Many families lose enough through fraudulent entanglements to give a college education to the son, a piano to the girls, and general improvements for the home or farmstead. The drain is away from home and school. Perhaps the greatest loss is the people who are lured to places where in many cases they are less well off than in the old home. Persons who lose in bad deals become suspicious of real business done by reliable men in the community. They refuse to invest in local developments in which the returns are sure, though smaller than those promised by promoters. Many are put out of business entirely by land frauds.

Do you agree with me in that it is not good business to farm the land, cash in its fertility and then scatter the proceeds among grafters? Let us quit chasing the ends of the rainbow, and turn our attention more towards the right use of the fruits of our labor in education and home building. (Applause.)

_Regulation._—There are many laws for the conservation of business. The Federal Government prosecutes persons who make fraudulent use of the mails. There is opportunity under the law to recover on account of misrepresentation; but these laws are not sufficient. Public sentiment is now ripe for the enactment of special laws to conserve business against land frauds. Nebraska has made a special study of the subject, reduced fraudulent procedure by the force of publicity and public opinion, and will pass special conservation laws in its next Legislature. Kansas has gained distinction by the enactment of the well-known “Blue Sky Law.” This is good so far as it goes. It provides for registration, reports, supervision and penalties. Many States, as, for example, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Texas, are to undertake legislation of this kind at the next sessions of their Legislatures.

Provision should be made in the special act against land frauds for field examination and report upon properties offered for sale. This field work might be done by the State Soil Survey, or the State Conservation Commission.

An essential feature of the act will be the registration of realty agents and the furnishing of proof that they are competent and reliable. This will reduce the number of land agents and insure the responsibility of those permitted to do business. The Western realty men are now framing a law of this kind to meet the needs of the various States.

Apparently there is no opposition to the proposed legislation for it is to conserve business and eliminate fraud. It is sure to receive the support of all unless we except those who make gain through doubtful promotion. If opposition appears before the various Legislatures it will have the embarrassing position of being on the side of fraud.

_Summary._—Let me close this report with the following statements:

1. This discussion, though favorable to reliable land agents is against doubtful promoters.

2. Realty agents should have a practical knowledge of land classification, soil types and the land business.

3. Reliable and competent real estate agents have an important place in the State. They are against promoters and promotion values.

4. No one should deal with an agent who is not favorably known and is not good at the bank.

5. See the land you purchase. Also get a reliable report upon it from a competent, disinterested party. Base your transaction on facts—not on opinions. Get a good title and not a mere promise to deliver.

6. Keep out of the “get-rich-quick” schemes. Quit chasing the ends of the rainbow. If your fever gets too high, consult a banker.

7. As a rule, it is best to avoid the “home seekers’” excursions and “boom” literature, unless you are sure of your footing.

8. Consult disinterested old-time residents whose places show that they are actual, successful tillers of the soil in the locality where you are to buy. They will give you the farm value, and not the promotion value.

Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to support in this important movement? (Applause.)

Chairman WALLACE—I am sorry we haven’t half an hour longer to give Dr. Condra to skin those skunks.

We will hear from Mr. Charles S. Barrett, President of the Farmers’ Union, and finally from Mrs. Lund, of California. I want these speakers to show their appreciation, their gallantry, by giving her the last five minutes, and I am going to call them down unless they do.

Dr. CONDRA—It has been suggested that we close this discussion in one minute. I am very sorry that neither Mr. Barrett, or Dr. Bateman can be heard.

My friends, when a State puts upon its statute book an adequate law, no fake concerns will seek to do business in that State. That is true. Now, we ask that your committee be continued to the end that we may report the conditions of the soil and the development of the soil. I thank you and give ten minutes additional time to the lady.

Chairman WALLACE—It is my great pleasure to introduce Mrs. Haviland H. Lund, of California, whose subject is the “Conservation of Land and the Man.”

Mrs. LUND—It is a great pleasure to follow Dr. Condra, because his speech is such a good precedent for what I have to say.

If the masses of the American people knew what one man could accomplish for himself, physically and financially, upon from one to five acres of land, this knowledge would revolutionize the life of the Nation. The congestion in our cities is more than a country-wide menace. It is an unnecessary outrage. There is land, good, health-giving land, enough for all the people.

The conservation of the man has been too long overlooked. The commercial policy of the Nation could scarcely be called far-sighted—so wasteful have we been of all natural resources.

We have despoiled our forests, impoverished our soil, given away the public domain. Our labor conditions in many respects shame us in comparison with other nations. Looking about today, it would seem that our thought has been “Get all we can, no matter how, and waste it as we will, for after us, the deluge!” But a new commercial and political spirit is being born; a renaissance of righteousness is setting in, and the commercial leaders of the country are taking stock, as it were, of the actual situation.

Big business men are realizing that a healthy man is worth more in dollars and cents than a half sick one; it is recognizing that sanitation is a good investment. It is beginning to wake up to the fact that the children are more valuable producing machines when they are well protected, housed, fed and educated. The cry of the philanthropist to give because it was right and necessary that these conditions be ameliorated, has met with only sporadic response, but this new call to do the right thing because it pays in dollars to do it, is meeting a greater answer from the people.

Little Farms Magazine found it impossible to evade the responsibility imposed upon it by its readers. We roused them to a desire to go out upon the land—to try the new condition. They came to us for information. We could not go into the land business. We decided to form “Forward-to-the-Land Leagues” in all principal cities.

Moneyed men are not asked to contribute alms but only to invest their money at a nominal rate of interest, which the workingman with his own home and garden, with health and a living assured, is willing and able to pay. This has been proved where the experiment has been tried in the manufacturing cities in England, and in such communities as San Ysidro, Southern California, in our own country.

The work of the Little Farms Magazine in the founding of these Forward-to-the-Land Leagues has been unique and necessary. And its purposes two fold.

In the first place, it was of the utmost importance in meeting the grave problems confronting the nation, particularly that of the bringing our ratio of agricultural production where it safely balances the ratio of population, to have a medium by which knowledge of the intensive methods of agriculture could be brought to the individual.

The widespread interest in the forward-to-the-land movement, which has been taken up alike by press and magazine, has created a hunger for specific information which occasional columns of general news can not satisfy. Little Farms Magazine tells, specifically, how a small acreage will yield and has yielded, industrial independence. It quotes stories of those who have made good after leaving the old work of bookkeeping and clerking and taken a “little farm.”

The problem which the farm presents today is not the same as that of yesterday. The loneliness and isolation no longer obtains. The message that the Little Farms Magazine takes to the world today is that _scientific agriculture makes the acreage necessary for individual maintenance so small that social life can be developed on the farm in the most ideal manner_. The magazine advocates the upbuilding of the social center, with its library, its clubhouse and gymnasium, its moving pictures and mechanical music.