CHAPTER III 

 SAVING UNCLE SAM'S BIGGEST BANK ACCOUNT 



IT is no exaggeration to say that the American nation 

 is the most extravagant in the world. Endowed by 

 Nature with wonderful resources, forests apparently 

 boundless, rivers and lakes without number, possess- 

 ing agricultural land of marvelous richness and extent 

 and with mineral deposits of great variety, it is no 

 wonder that as a people we believed our riches to be 

 inexhaustible. This feeling, so often expressed, has 

 given rise to a policy of wastefulness in managing our 

 resources that is without parallel in the history of the 

 world ; and none too soon have we learned that all things 

 have an end. The conservation movement of which 

 so much has been heard during the past ten years is 

 a nation-wide effort to secure efficient and economical 

 use of our natural wealth so that we will not pass an 

 impoverished country to our descendants. Conservation 

 does not mean locking up the resources. Conservation 

 means proper use. 



One of the most frequent arguments which has 

 been used against the conservation policy in general 

 and the Forest Service plan in particular is that it 

 meant locking up resources for the present in order 

 that they may be used some time in the distant future. 

 Nothing could be further from the truth. The present 

 generation has rights which cannot be taken away and 

 to deprive the citizens of today of the use of mineral 

 deposits, forests, etc., would be a foolish thing to at- 

 tempt. Conservation means using our substance with- 



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