3 i4 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



and dissipation of our national wealth is not one which quickly im- 

 presses itself on the people of the older communities, because its most 

 obvious instances do not occur in their neighborhood, while in the newer 

 part of the country, the sympathy with expansion and development is 

 so strong that the danger is scoffed at or ignored. Among scientific men 

 and thoughtful observers, however, the danger has always been present; 

 but it needed some one to bring home the crying need for a remedy of 

 this evil so as to impress itself on the public mind and lead to the 

 formation of public opinion and action by the representatives of the 

 people. Theodore Eoosevelt took up this task in the last two years of 

 his second administration, and well did he perform it. 



As president of the United States, I have, as it were, inherited this 

 policy, and I rejoice in my heritage. I prize my high opportunity to do 

 all that an executive can do to help a great people realize a great na- 

 tional ambition. For conservation is national. It affects every man of 

 us, every woman, every child. What I can do in the cause I shall do, 

 not as president of a party, but as president of the whole people. 



Conservation is not a question of politics, or of factions, or of per- 

 sons. It is a question that affects the vital welfare of all of us — of our 

 children and our children's children. I urge that no good can come 

 from meetings of this sort unless we ascribe to those who take part in 

 them, and who are apparently striving worthily in the cause, all proper 

 motives, and unless we judicially consider every measure or method 

 proposed with a view to its effectiveness in achieving our common pur- 

 pose, and wholly without regard to who proposes it or who will claim 

 the credit for its adoption. The problems are of very great difficulty 

 and call for the calmest consideration and clearest foresight. Many of 

 the questions presented have phases that are new in this country, and 

 it is possible that in their solution we may have to attempt first one 

 way and then another. What I wish to emphasize, however, is that a 

 satisfactory conclusion can only be reached promptly if we avoid acri- 

 mony, imputations of bad faith, and political controversy. 



The public domain of the government of the United States, in- 

 cluding all the cessions from those of the thirteen states that made 

 cessions to the United States and including Alaska, amounted in all 

 to about 1,800,000,000 acres. Of this there is left as purely government 

 property outside of Alaska something like 700,000,000 of acres. Of 

 this the national forest reserves in the United States proper embrace 

 144,000,000 acres. The rest is largely mountain or arid country, offer- 

 ing some opportunity for agriculture by dry farming and by reclamation, 

 and containing metals as well as coal, phosphates, oils and natural gas. 

 Then the government owns many tracts of land lying along the margins 

 of streams that have water power, the use of which is necessarily in the 

 conversion of the power into electricity and its transmission. 



