SECOND EDITION. 



CONSERVATION OF NATURAL 

 RESOURCES. 



INTRODUCTORY BY THE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 

 A Word to the People of California. 



My friends, during the past year I have become possessed by the 

 idea that the largest, the most truly patriotic, the most vitally important 

 movement in this nation to-day is the one looking to the Conservation 

 of our Natural Resources. This has been large enough to call together 

 Conferences of Governors, to cause the appointment of National and 

 State Commissions, and to engage the earnest attention, the gravest 

 concern, of the greatest and most brilliant minds of our continent. It 

 is patriotic, for it looks to the preservation of our fatherland into the 

 future with its power and glory undimmed. It is vitally important,, 

 for without it our nation is doomed to go down to poverty and weak- 

 ness. It is unselfish, for it looks forward to the welfare of those who 

 come after us, rather than for our own little personal benefit now. It 

 is a vital and a worthy thing, however we view it. 



I have become possessed by the idea, too, that it is highly important 

 for the school people of this State to join in this movement; for them 

 to grasp its significance, appreciate its momentum, take hold of it 

 strongly and intelligently. Such a movement as this must fail unless 

 it can be projected into the future. It can only be projected into the 

 future through the children of the nation. If it would really get per- 

 manently into the hearts of the People, it must filter through the 

 Children. 



I conceive it to be a patriotic duty resting upon every teacher, every 

 superintendent, every school officer, to take his share of responsibility 

 in this thing; to read, to talk, to think, to inform himself about this 

 great movement for Conservation and then to pass the spirit of it all 

 along to the Children. In no other state or country is such variety and 

 wealth of natural resources to be found as in California. Nowhere else 



