io8 



CONSERVATION 



National Government are inadequate to 

 checkmake them ; the help of every 

 public-spirited citizen is needed if we 

 are to keep what we have. 



Eternal Vigilance 



CORPORATIONS do not die; 

 v_> neither do they neglect any oppor- 

 tunities. The resources of the Govern- 

 ment, kept by designing politicians to 

 the lowest possible figure, are often in- 

 sufficient to uncover and to secure 

 proofs of corporate villainies. There- 

 fore it behooves all who love their 

 country, and who have a real interest 

 in that country's future, to be equally 

 vigilant. "Eternal vigilance is the price 

 of liberty ;" and eternal vigilance is the 

 price of freedom from corporation 

 ownership of our sole remaining natu- 

 ral resource that is of real and abiding 

 value. We must work for reforesta- 

 tion wherever it is needed — and where 

 does the need not exist? — we must 

 work for the conservation, by rational 

 development and exploitation, of our 

 forests and our mines ; we must prevent 

 the terrible waste and loss of produc- 

 tiveness of our farming lands, due to 

 soil erosion ; but we must also, with 

 sleepless and never-ceasing vigilance, 

 guard from the hand of the pillager the 

 waterways and the water-powers of the 

 country. The day will come when our 

 coal will be gone, when the mines will 

 be emptied and when fuel for power- 

 production and for the generation of 

 heat and light will be practically at an 

 end. On that day the people of this 

 country will turn to the water-powers 

 for salvation. If we, the people of to- 

 day, do not take steps, do not do all 

 within the power of mortals, to safe- 

 guard those water-powers we and our 

 children and our children's children 

 will sufTer for our criminal neglect and 

 blind fatuitv. 



Two Striking Comments 



BELOW we reprint two editorials,, 

 clipped from recent issues of two 

 metropolitan daily newspapers. The 

 editorials are printed just as they ap- 

 peared, with their original headings ;. 

 they show with what unanimity the 

 really strong newspapers agree on the 

 subject of natural resource conserva- 

 tion. The first is from the Washington 

 Post, the second from the JVashington 

 Herald. 



^ ^ iH 



A Nation's Prodigal Waste 



IF THE National Conservation Com- 

 mission were to dissolve to-day,. 

 without doing anything more, it 

 would still deserve the gratitude of 

 every thinking man in the United States 

 for drawing up the indictment of the 

 whole people for the crime of waste. 

 The report forwarded to Congress by 

 the President is commanding in its 

 warning to the country. The figures 

 presented are of astounding propor- 

 tions. Evidently, the United States is 

 a Colossus in profligate waste, as it is 

 in other respects. But there is an end 

 to every excess, and no fortufie is so 

 great that a spendthrift cannot squan- 

 der it. 



With a useless waste of $1,000,000 a 

 day in mineral products, $1,000,000, a 

 day in preventable fires, $2,000,000 a 

 day through the ravages of insects, $1,- 

 500,000 a day in soil erosion, and other 

 waste and losses running into mil- 

 lions a day through plant disease, forest 

 fires, floods, animal depredations, soil 

 deterioration, etc., etc., it is possible to 

 understand why the United States, the 

 richest land under the sun, with the 

 most enterprising and energetic peo- 

 ple, finds itself facing the exhaustion 

 of many of its resources while still in 

 its youth. It is living upon its cajMtal. 

 "Neither the increase in acreage nor the 

 yield per acre has kept pace with our 

 increase in population," says the Com- 

 mission. This statement, taken in con- 



