472 



CONSERVATION 



power, far beyond that of the hundreds 

 of millions of tons of coal consumed 

 each year, of which but a fraction is 

 harnessed — and most of that monopo- 

 lized. Their freshets due to defores- 

 tation destroy houses and goods to the 

 value of $150,000,000 annually; their 

 increasing impurities cost lives in thou- 

 sands ; their myriad feeders lick the 

 cream of the soil from the Nation's 

 fields to the measure of a billion tons a 

 year, cutting down the annual crop- 

 yield grievously — say from $8,000,000,- 

 000 to $7,000,000,000. The destruction 

 wrought by waters running wild is 

 vast ; the half of an average year's loss 

 applied over a decade of judicious im- 

 provement would tame them forever, 

 terminate the destruction for all time, 

 and bring the Nation's richest re- 

 source under complete control. How 

 long will the folly of sluggardly som- 

 nulence continue? How long will the 

 People permit the penny-wise pound- 

 foolish policy to persist? How long — 

 — how long ! 



When the lotus-eaters forgot the 

 travail of the Nation's birth, and con- 

 demned their own posterity to perdi- 

 tion unknown, national spirit oozed out 

 of their idle fingertips. They wasted 

 what Nature saved through the ages, 

 scattered that which their sires garn- 

 ered, ceased to consider the fate or 

 even the fact of posterity — so that the 

 very blood of the birthright Land is 

 become of alien tincture, and homes are 

 given over to foreign Lares and 

 Penates Thus unity grew lax, and 

 patriotism weakened ; standards of mo- 

 rality sank below normal instead of ris- 

 ing steadily as is their wont ; and the 

 budding notion of national efficiency 

 was chilled back. Monopoly sought to 

 enslave citizens to its sordid behest, and 

 workers retaliated by restricting their 

 own capacity to that of the most in- 

 competent of their class, whereby ac- 

 tual efficiency — which grows by exer- 

 cise — was lowered. The industrial 

 twins. Labor and Capital, quarreled and 

 disturbed the national household by 

 their bickerings and the anathemas of 



each against the Mother of the other ; 

 and from darker corners Anarchy 

 thrust a hideous head. Yet, as deeper 

 darkness presages dawn, the enfeeble- 

 ment of national spirit but made way 

 for the new era in which Patriotism 

 looms loftier and larger than ever be- 

 fore — and with farther foresight. No 

 longer able to dispense acres equally to 

 all, the National instead affords equal 

 opportunity for all to develop a wider 

 range of resources. To-day there are 

 four foundations for prosperity in lieu 

 of one. The Land remains, and in in- 

 creased worth by reason of intensive 

 treatment rather than extension of set- 

 tlement ; the Forests accumulated above- 

 ground during the centuries and the 

 Minerals below-ground during the ages 

 have acquired worth through the 

 orderly growth and natural develop- 

 ment of the country ; and Water is 

 coming within ken as the basis of prime 

 values on which all others must depend, 

 and as an inalienable birthright of the 

 People — a common heritage for the 

 common interest, to be administered by 

 Nation and States jointly as befits its 

 interstate character, but never to be 

 withdrawn or withheld from direct con- 

 trol by citizens for their own common 

 good. 



Just as the Land for which the Fath- 

 ers fought was at once the tangible 

 basis and the inspiration for patriotism 

 in an earlier day, so in this day the 

 birthright Land, the soil-making For- 

 ests, the native Minerals, and the life- 

 giving Waters inspire Patriotism anew. 

 Each is well worthy of story and song 

 and shrine ; and each inspiration is 

 warmer and the whole are knit in closer 

 union by reason of each other. 



In 1776 the Fathers of the United 

 States joined in a Declaration of Ameri- 

 can Independence; in 1908 the Gov- 

 ernors of the United States joined in a 

 Declaration of American Interdepend- 

 ence. The first Declaration marked an 

 epoch in world-progress through exten- 

 sion of free institutions. Can the sec- 

 ond do less in its intensifying of the 

 spirit of such institutions ? 



