a representative body of Minnesota farmers. This address
presented for the first time in popular form a remarkable collection of
economic facts, which formed the basis of conclusions as startling as
they were new. Let me attempt a brief summary of its contents.

The natural resources, to which the Conservation policy relates, may be
divided into two classes: the minerals, which when used cannot be
replaced, and things that grow from the soil, which admit of
indefinitely augmented reproduction. At the head of the former category
stands the supply of coal and iron. This factor in the nation's industry
and commerce was being exhausted at a rate which made it certain that,
long before the end of the century, the most important manufactures
would be handicapped by a higher cost of production. The supply of
merchantable timber was disappearing even more rapidly. But far more
serious than all other forms of wastage was the reckless destruction of
the natural fertility of the soil. The final result, according to Mr.
Hill, must be that within a comparatively brief period--a period for
which the present generation was bound to take thought--this veritable
Land of Promise would be hard pressed to feed its own people, while the
manufactured exports to pay for imported food would not be forthcoming.
It should be added that this sensational forecast was no purposeless
jeremiad. Mr. Hill told his hearers that the danger which threatened the
future of the Nation would be averted only by the intelligence and
industry of those who cultivated the farm lands, and that they had it in
their power to provide a perfectly practicable and adequate remedy. This
was to be found--if such a condensation be permissible--in the
application of the physical sciences to the practice, and of economic
science to the business, of farming.

In spite of the immense burden of great undertakings which he carried,
Mr. Hill repeated the substance of this address on many occasions. Lord
Rosebery once said that speeches were the most ephemeral of all
ephemeral things, and for some time it looked as if one of the most
important speeches ever delivered by a public man on a great public
issue was going to illustrate the truth of this saying. It seems
strange that his facts and arguments should have remained unchallenged,
and yet unsupported, by other public men. Perhaps the best explanation
is to be found in a recent dictum of Mr. James Bryce. Speaking at the
Univers