172 CONSERVATION 



heavy handicap, from which govern- history and our intelHgence." Such 



ment, state or National, is exempt. conduct on the part of those in places 



If the indifference of the public, or its of power and responsibility, we may 



representatives, to public interests be add, would be comparable to "Nero's 



urged, the reply must be that no gov- fiddling while Rome burned." 



ernment will run itself ; that as the An ever present excuse for inaction 



stream can rise no higher than its in such matters is, however, found in 



source, popular government cannot per- alleged "scarcity of funds.'' Bricks, 



manently represent a higher degree of we are always assured, cannot be made 



intelligence and practical capacity than without straw, and bills cannot be paid 



does the average of its citizenship ; and without cash. In the existing crisis, it 



that, therefore, a fundamental concern is especially convenient to point to the 



in the promotion of the movement for great and growing treasury deficit as a 



conservation, whether of forests alone, triumphant proof that nothing can, by 



or of all natural resources, must be the any possibility, be done by the National 



informing and arousing of the people. Government. 



As the National Conservation Commis- What is this policy of inaction cost- 



sion says in its report : "For the preven- ing the American people ? Let us glance 



tion of waste the most effective means at a few, only, of the facts and figures 



will be found in the increase and dif- presented by the National Conservation 



fusion of knowledge, from which is sure Commission in its report now in the 



to result an aroused public sentiment hands of Congress : 



demanding prevention. The people In the year 1907 the waste in the 



have the matter in their own hands, extraction and treatment of mineral 



They may prevent or limit the de- products was equivalent to more than 



struction of resources and restrain mis- $300,000,000. 



use through the enactment and enforce- During the same year the direct and 



ment of appropriate state and federal indirect losses from fire approximated 



laws." $450,000,000. Of this loss, four-fifths, 



The ultimate remedy lies with the or an average of $1,000,000 per day, 

 people, but the immediate duty rests could be prevented, 

 upon those whose eyes are already The loss to farm products due to 

 opened to the situation. They must injurious mammals is estimated at 

 push the educational work that appro- $130,000,000 annually; the loss through 

 priate agencies may be devised, and plant diseases reaches several hundred 

 adequate measures taken ; and, this million dollars, and the loss through in- 

 done, they must exercise that eternal sects is reckoned at $659,000,000. 

 vigilance which is not more truly the Since 1870 forest fires have destroyed 

 price of liberty than it is of good and a yearly average of fifty lives and 

 efficient government. $50,000,000 worth of timber. Not 

 )<ti ^ ^ less than 50,000,000 acres of forest is 



c J r i" ^- burned over yearly. 



runds for Conservation rr-i i- . 1 1 1. a ^ 



The direct yearlv damage by Hoods 



HE need for action, immediate, vig- sj^ce 1900 has increased steadily from 



orous, and on an enormous scale, if $43,000,000 to over $238,000,000. 



the existing unpardonable waste of our ^he annual loss to farms alone from 



resources is to be checked and the resi- g^ji erosion is fully $500,000,000. 



due properly conserved and developed j]^^ economic gain^ from the mitiga- 



is, to every one even fairly familiar with tion of preventable disease in the United 



the facts, obvious and imperative. The States, the Commission estimates, 



disposition, in whatever quarter, "to would exceed $1,500,000,000 a year, 



shut our eyes to these facts, or attempt Here we have an annual economic 



to laugh them out of court," "would be," loss running well into the billions of 



as the President says, "unworthy of our dollars. As a small beginning in the 



T 



