198 



CONSERVATION 



ous about preserving any species we 

 must preser\c, in generous measure, its 

 communit}' of plant and animal life. 

 Can we, in our own larger community 

 of fierce competition for space, justify 

 this? 



Sentiment, of course, draws scorn 

 from the practical-minded. But I 

 doubt if sentiment is as fragile a defense 

 as we think. How cheaply would the 

 toughest-minded sell the loyalty and 

 pride of those who serve with him in 

 factor}', field or countinghouse? How 

 great can a commonwealth become, 

 how long can it endure, if it measures 

 ever)thing by a price tag? 



There exists, I suppose, such a thing 

 as fundamental decency and gratitude 

 and there are ways to acknowledge it. 

 The Mormons have their monument 

 to the gulls which saved them from the 

 locusts. The Lord Chancellor sits upon 

 a woolsack, memento of the source of 

 England's early economic power. 

 Many of us have seen the block ex- 

 pressing gratitude to the boll weevil 

 which first obliged the South to begin 

 diversifying its crops— a curious but 

 impressive tribute. 



We are, and rightly, generous in 

 our regard for the group of most un- 

 usual men who made possible our Na- 

 tion and planned its greatness. But we 

 ought to remember, too, that in large 

 measure our power and leadership are 

 based upon the lavishncss of Nature, 

 building undisturbed through millen- 

 iums. The ancients thought it not un- 

 worthy to worship the gods who gave 

 them grain— rice, wheat, maize. Is it 

 unworthy in our enlightened day to 

 commemorate, by generous preserva- 

 tion, the natural wealth which has been 

 the lifeblood of our economy? I, for 

 one, do not think so. To me it seems 

 a matter of ethics and national self- 

 respect. 



An American commander in east- 

 em Europe told me that he gave per- 

 mission to the cold and hungr)' people 



of a city to help themselves to the trees 

 in their ancient forest-park. This they 

 refused to do, and the hard-headed 

 general was deeply moved by their de- 

 cision. It will not do to write off senti- 

 ment. 



There is also, in the need for gen- 

 erous natural areas, the question of 

 important scientific knowledge. The 

 undisturbed community of plants and 

 animals is a beautifully organized dy- 

 namic system, employing energy from 

 the sun for the use and re-use of water, 

 air and minerals in sustaining abund- 

 ant life, while keeping its own organi- 

 zation going. Technicallv this presents 

 an exceedinglv important phenomenon, 

 the approximation of a stcadv state. 

 Our knowledge of this phenomenon 

 can do with considerable improvement, 

 and again we need generous examples 

 for its studv. When men are beginning 

 to talk rather seriouslv of raising some 

 billions for the exploration of space, we 

 ought not to neglect a more immediate, 

 and definitely hopeful, source of knowl- 

 edge. Knowledge for its own sake, like 

 sentiment, is not lightly to be written 

 off by a civilized nation. 



It happens, however, that although 

 the knowledge thus obtained is not 

 likely to be patentable as a source of 

 direct profit, its benefits diffused over 

 the land-use pattern of our Nation 

 should be ver)^ great. The studies of 

 Dr. John E. Weaver of the University 

 of Nebraska, carried on through the 

 years on a pitiful remnant of rented 

 prairie, are of growing significance to 

 the economv of the great grasslands of 

 North America. 



Just as the engineer in machine and 

 industrial design must have at hand 

 his theoretical apparatus of calculation, 

 so the biologist and others who would 

 design intelligent land-use, must have 

 their norms or standards of measure- 

 ment. And these norms, to a large de- 

 gree, are to be found in the complex 

 pattern of interrelationship repre- 



