504 



CONSERVATION 



ways ; and that, in every such contest, 

 the people themselves, in the long run, 

 constitute a significant, if not the deter- 

 mining factor. For example, it is gen- 

 erally understood that Germany's sys- 

 tem of popular education has weighed 

 mightily in her favor in her long compe- 

 tition with France. Again, the long- 

 continued and fatuous persecution by 

 French monarchs of the Huguenots, 

 culminating in 1685 in the revocation, 

 by Louis XIV, of the Edict of Nantes, 

 in consequence of which France lost 

 more than a million of her most intelli- 

 gent, enterprising and industrious citi- 

 zens, is recognized as a chief cause of 

 national weakness long enduring. 



In the light of such historical evi- 

 dence, Avhich might be multiplied at will, 

 it should seem superfluous to argue that 

 the conservation of human resources is 

 a national duty of the first magnitude. 

 Nevertheless, from the standpoint of 

 the laissc:: fairc statesman, no such duty 

 exists. Unemployment, unskill, pov- 

 erty, misery, disease, are matters of in- 

 dividual concern with which lawmakers 

 wrestling with the mighty problems of 

 tariff and currency have little concern. 



Fortunate it is that President Roose- 

 velt, shortly before retiring from office, 

 established here, as in so many other 

 regards, a new precedent. On January 

 25-6 last there assembled in Washing- 

 ton, on the invitation of the President, a 

 conference on the care of dependent 

 children. In this the President took 

 the most lively interest, following its ad- 

 journment with a special message to 

 Congress declaring that "the interests of 

 the Nation are involved in the welfare 

 of this army of children no less than in 

 our great material afifairs," urging the 

 establishment of a Federal children's 

 bureau, "which shall investigate and re- 

 port upon all matters pertaining to the 

 Vvclfare of children and child life, and 

 shall especially investigate the questions 

 of infant mortality, the birth rate, physi- 

 cal degeneracy, orphanage, juvenile de- 

 linquency and juvenile courts, desertion 

 and illegitimacy, dangerous occupations, 

 accidents, and diseases of children of 

 the working classes, employment, legis- 

 lafion afifecting children in the several 



states and territories, and such other 

 facts as have a bearing upon the health, 

 efficiency, character and training of chil- 

 dren," pointing to the fact that "the 

 Slate has always jealously guarded the 

 iiitcrests of children whose parents have 

 been able to leave them property 

 by requiring the appointment of a 

 guardian," and pointing out that "the 

 interests of the child who is not only an 

 orphan, but penniless, ought to be no 

 less sacred than those of the more for- 

 tunate orphan who inherits property." 



In the same spirit is the more recent 

 utterance of Prof. Graham Taylor : 



"The child is coming to be as much 

 of a civic problem as it ever has been a 

 family problem. Upon the normality 

 of its children the strength and perpe- 

 tuity of the state depend, as surely as 

 the dependency and delinquency of its 

 children undermine the prowess and 

 menace the life of the state. The educa- 

 tion and discipline, the labor and recrea- 

 tion of the child figure larger all the 

 while in our legislation and taxes, our 

 thinking and literature." 



For all of such utterances we may be 

 p.rofoundly grateful as evidences of a 

 growing recognition of the importance, 

 i-om the priblic standpoint, of the life, 

 health, well being and normal develop- 

 ment of the citizen, and of the propriety 

 and necessity of legislation and admin- 

 istration, municipal, state and national, 

 to promote the highest well-being of 

 every man, woman and child in the 

 Republic. 



!^' 5^ i^ 



Where Is Conservation to Stop 



'T' HE conservation idea grows by what 

 "■^ it feeds upon. We began in this 

 country by conserving forests, then we 

 took up irrigation, waterways and the 

 like until the moveujcnt was launched 

 a year ago for conserving all natura; 

 resources. 



Attention thus far seems to have been 

 given chiefly to material, subhuman 

 resources. Yet at the White House 

 Conference Mr. MacFarland urged the 

 conservation of beauty, quoting Mayor 

 McClellan that. "It is the country beau- 



I 

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