Conservation of Natural Resources in California. 



We have carried over that point of view into a time when the dread of 

 monopoly of this kind ought to be in the mind of the average man 

 everywhere. That is an instance of a resource neglected from the point 

 of view of the public. 



A New Point of View. 



But this is a time to consider not one resource, but all resources 

 together. Already here and there small associations of citizens have 

 become possessed of certain facts, and have begun to work at certain 

 sides of what is fundamentally one great problem. We have a drainage 

 association, whose object is to make habitable millions upon millions of 

 acres now lying waste in swamps all over the country, but capable of 

 supporting in comfort millions of people. We have forestry associa- 

 tions, waterway associations, irrigation associations, associations of 

 many kinds touching this problem of conservation at different points, 

 each endeavoring to benefit the common weal along its own line, but 

 eaeh interested only in its own particular piece of the work and 

 unaware that it is attacking the outside, not the heart of the problem. 

 Now a greater thing is opening out in the sight of the people. This 

 problem of the conservation of natural resources in a single question. 

 Each of these various bodies that have been working at different phases 

 of it must come together on conservation as a common platform. By 

 the joining of these units we shall have a mass of intelligent, interested, 

 public-spirited citizens anxious to adopt a new point of view about this 

 country of ours. 



That is the crux of the whole matter a new point of view about our 

 country. We have been so busy getting rich, developing and growing, 

 so proud of our growth, that we have let things go on until some 

 intolerable abuse has driven us to immediate action. It is time that we 

 put an end to this kind of opportunism, of mere drifting. We must 

 take the point of view taken by the average prudent business man, or 

 man in any walk of life who has property and is interested in it. What 

 the average man does in his own affairs is to foresee trouble and avoid it 

 if he can. What this nation of ours is doing in this fundamental 

 matter of natural resources is to run right into trouble head down and 

 eyes shut, and so make that trouble inevitable before taking any step 

 to prevent it. But it should not take long to reach the stage of national 

 thought where we shall deliberately plan to avoid the difficulties which 

 can be foreseen, if only we can bring together all who have already 

 begun to concern themselves with one or another aspect of the conserva- 

 tion problem. 



