HARRY A. CURTIS 81 



Commandments the uproar in business circles and in the Congress 

 could scarcely have been more violent. The good "American way of 

 life" was being flouted by a willful President. 



So I express my belief that the 1908 Governors' Conference not 

 only dealt with real problems but marked a milestone in changing 

 public attitude toward natural resources. 



In reading Dr. Nolan's paper I get the impression, perhaps to a 

 greater extent than he intended a reader should, that, in his opinion, 

 all the problems concerning the conservation of natural resources 

 have now been solved or the methods of solution clearly indicated. It 

 seems that we have plenty of petroleum left underground to say noth- 

 ing of the oil shales. Also we have plenty of high-grade iron ores, 

 more fertile soil than farmers need — to say nothing of hydroponics, 

 plenty of water in or on the land and a lot more in the ocean if we 

 ever need it, plenty of timber, plenty of most everything. I am unable 

 to arrive at such a happy haven of thinking. Maybe it is my own 

 fault that I am still unhappy over many of the situations now pre- 

 vailing with respect to natural resources. If there are no longer any 

 problems with respect to water supplies, surely this glad news should 

 be passed along to a hundred or so of our American cities. To be 

 sure Dr. Nolan doesn't quite say that there is no noticeable shortage 

 of water here and there in the United States, but he takes comfort in 

 quoting Luna Leopold to the effect that it is only a matter of eco- 

 nomics. It surely is just that, and therein lies the trouble, not only 

 with respect to water supply, but with respect to the utilization of all 

 natural resources. Our standards of living are all hedged about by 

 problems of economics, and do not rest on the technical feasibility of 

 using a natural resource but with the economy with which it can be 

 utilized. Perhaps my main dissent stems from my conviction that Dr. 

 Nolan's paper pays too little attention to economics and the role it 

 plays in maintaining standards of living. 



Water? Surely there is plenty of water in the seven seas and we 

 only need to purify it, as chemists have known how to do for at least 

 two hundred years. It is, as Leopold says, only a little matter of eco- 

 nomics and some day the economy of the purification process may be 

 such that anyone could afford to take a bath occasionally. 



Hydroponics? This is another art that has been well known for 



