332 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



I have referred to the course of the last administration and of the 

 present one in making withdrawals of government lands from entry 

 under homestead and other laws and of congress in removing all doubt 

 as to the validity of these withdrawals as a great step in the direction 

 of practical conservation. But it is only one of two necessary steps to 

 effect what should be our purpose. It has produced a status quo and 

 prevented waste and irrevocable disposition of the lands until the 

 method for their proper disposition can be formulated. But it is of 

 the utmost importance that such withdrawals should not be regarded 

 as the final step in the course of conservation, and that the idea should 

 not be allowed to spread that conservation is the tying up of the natural 

 resources of the government for indefinite withholding from use and 

 the remission to remote generations to decide what ought to be done 

 with these means of promoting present general human comfort and 

 progress. For, if so, it is certain to arouse the greatest opposition to 

 conservation as a cause, and if it were a correct expression of the pur- 

 pose of conservationists it ought to arouse this opposition. Beal con- 

 servation involves wise, non-wasteful use in the present generation with 

 every possible means of preservation for succeeding generations; and 

 though the problem to secure this end may be difficult, the burden is on 

 the present generation promptly to solve it and not to run away from it 

 as cowards, lest in the attempt to meet it we may make some mistake. 

 As I have said elsewhere, the problem is how to save and how to utilize, 

 how to conserve and still develop; for no sane person can contend that 

 it is for the common good that nature's blessings should be stored only 

 for unborn generations. 



I beg of you, therefore, in your deliberations and in your informal 

 discussions, when men come forward to suggest evils that the promotion 

 of conservation is to remedy, that you invite them to point out the 

 specific evils and the specific remedies; that you invite them to come 

 down to details in order that their discussions may flow into channels 

 that shall be useful rather than into periods that shall be eloquent and 

 entertaining, without shedding real light on the subject. The people 

 should be shown exactly what is needed in order that they make their 

 representatives in congress and the state legislature do their intelligent 

 bidding. 



