lOO 



CONSERVATION 



into private ownership. We have 

 wasted, like a royal profligate, the re- 

 sources of mines that a few short years 

 ago were considered inexhaustible, un- 

 til we are now within sight of the end 

 of our coal resources, oair iron re- 

 sources, and other mineral wealth upon 

 which the abiding prosperity of a man- 

 ufacturing nation must primarily rest. 

 We have allowed our waterways to go 

 to ruin : we have neglected the most 

 magnificent river system that ever 

 blessed any nation ; we have given no 

 heed to the wasting water-powers of the 

 land, sufiicient in number and volume 

 to turn every wheel, operate every mill 

 and factory, and drive every train and 

 vessel within the confines of the Nation, 

 with power to spare. We have per- 

 mitted our soils to wash, unchecked, 

 into the rivers and thence into the 

 ocean : and we are now face to face with 

 the consequences of our criminal negli- 

 gence. We are now face to face with 

 the conditions that confront France ; we 

 are face to face with the conditions 

 that have made of the greater part of 

 China a howling waste; we are face to 

 face with the conditions that inevitably 

 confront the nation that does not take 

 heed for the morrow — that morrow that 

 comes sooner or later to the sons of 

 men who waste and ravage and destroy 

 with criminal heedlessness the slowly 

 replaced, or the unreplaceable, re- 

 sources of nature. 



«? 



^ 



What Are Wc Going to Do About It? 



AND now, what are we going to do 

 about it? We know now the con- 

 dition of our natural resources. For 

 years men of science have been preach- 

 ing the gospel of conservation, have 

 been shouting from the housetops the 

 story of our awful wastefulness. For 

 years the warning has been given ; given 

 to ears that heeded not, to eyes that 

 saw not, and to men who believed not. 

 "Empty theorizing," people called it. 

 But now it is "a condition, not a theory, 

 that confronts us." It will not do to 



throw aside the statements and the fig- 

 ures that show to w'hat extent our re- 

 sources have been wiped out. Simple 

 contradiction will not do ; it has done 

 for years, but its day is past, and the 

 enemies of resource conservation will 

 have now to resort to other means. The 

 question is up to the people of this 

 great country; it is for them to say 

 what shall be done. 



^ ^ ^ 



Keep What We Have 



OUR timberlands are mostly gone, 

 save those that are still owned by 

 the several States and the general gov- 

 ernment, in the National Forests. Our 

 luineral lands — our resources of coal 

 and iron — have passed from public to 

 private ownership, and are beyond con- 

 trol. But we have still a resource the 

 value, which must be kept within the 

 control of the people. Let us keep 

 these, and we will have done well, even 

 if our other resources have been wasted. 

 But there is work to do — work for 

 every thinking, patriotic man and wom- 

 an of America. This one remaining 

 national asset will have slipped out of 

 our grasp if we fail to guard our birth- 

 right. Ask the Forest Service, and the 

 Reclamation Service, and the Depart- 

 ment of the Interior, as to the activities 

 of certain of the great corporations. Ask 

 the heads of these departments what is 

 the gravest problem now confronting 

 them; they will tell you, "The problem 

 of how to keep certain corporations 

 from grasping the water-powers of the 

 country." As recently as last autumn 

 one single power-producing corporation 

 was under indictment, on nearly fifty 

 counts, in the State of California alone, 

 for fraudulent entry of water-power 

 sites. At this present time over 200 

 cases are being investigated in which 

 wealthy corporations are known to have 

 resorted to fraud in securing water- 

 power sites, the value of which is in- 

 calculable Not only are these corpor- 

 ations active in the West ; the East, as 

 well, is the scene of their resourceful 

 activity. The entire resources of the 



