Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/137

 CHANGING CONDITIONS IN KENTUCKY 131

ing. Most of the mineral rights have been bought by outside capital, much for $1.50 per acre, and in some cases for $.50. Sometimes the mountain people made the further mistake of giving up the farming rights also. At Jenkins the wives were paying high prices at the com- pany stores. Twenty miles from one of the new mining towns, a moun- tain girl, grown coarse by contact with the frontier of civilization, boarded our train and by her lewdness shocked, among others, two re- fined young women of tbe hills to such an extent that one of them said : " I am ashamed that I am a woman," and was answered by her comrade : "ril hush forever on the train." The rapid exploitation of the natural resources of a region by outside capital tends to harm the native, es- pecially if his civilization is not modern. In this case the outcome is in the balance.

The Future

If exploitation pure and simple continues, twenty-five years will bid fair to bring about the following results: The disappearance of this race of true Americans as a unit ; the passing of the valuable timber ; numerous forest fires in the region slashed over; greatly increased erosion of the steep hillsides with their soil already thin ; short periods of flood within and below the region; long intervals of low water within and below the region; the reduction of fish and game; the introduction of a foreign mining element, also a foreign manufacturing body; and a district of great natural beauty changed to a region of squalidness. Presently, with the increase of population and the value of land in the United States, the wastes may be reclaimed at great cost.

Outside aid might do the following things: Regulate the exploita- tion of the coal and timber so that it will be gradual; aid the counties in building good roads; assist in educating the mountain people along broad lines to close the gap between them and us; help them to de- velop stock-raising, fruit-growing, scientific agriculture and scientific forestry. Some of the results would be: The saving of the mountain race as a unit ; the addition of a happy, prosperous, food-supplying area to the United States; the prevention of the disasters of soil erosion and of flood ; and the utilization of water power.

There is one thing more which might be done. It is being pointed out that men break down under the tension of modern industrialism, unless they, somewhow, are brought into contact with the beautiful, and get away for frequent moments of change and recreation. The government owns our national parks ; but they are far out west, beyond the financial reach of the average worker. The government might also establish numerous small parks in the Southern Appalachian High- lands, which would become the recreation ground of millions of workeis east of the Mississippi River.

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