Conservation of Natural Resources in California. 61 



demand upon our nonrenewable supplies of iron ore, and the use of the 

 rail instead these are other items in the huge bill of particulars of 

 national waste. 



The Disregard of the Future. 



We have a well-marked national tendency to disregard the future, 

 and it has led us to look upon all our natural resources as inexhaustible. 

 Even now that the actual exhaustion of some of them is forcing itself 

 upon us in higher prices and the greater cost of living, we are still 

 -asserting, if not always in words, yet in the far stronger language of 

 action, that nevertheless and in spite of it all, they still are inex- 

 haustible. 



It is this national attitude of exclusive attention to the present, this 

 absence of foresight from among the springs of national action, which 

 is directly responsible for the present condition of our natural resources. 

 It was precisely the same attitude which brought Palestine, once rich 

 -and populous, to its present desert condition, and which destroyed the 

 fertility and habitability of vast areas in northern Africa and elsewhere 

 in so many of the older regions of the world. 



The conservation of our natural resources is a question of primary 

 importance on the economic side. It pays better to conserve our natural 

 resources than to destroy them, and this is especially true when the 

 national interest is considered. But the business reason, weighty and 

 worthy though it be, is not the fundamental reason. In such matters, 

 business is a poor master but a good servant. The law of self-preserva- 

 tion is higher than the law of business, and the duty of preserving the 

 nation is still higher than either. 



The American Revolution had its origin in part in economic causes, 

 and it produced economic results of tremendous reach and weight. The 

 Civil War also arose in large part from economic conditions, and it has 

 had the largest economic consequences. But in each case there was a 

 higher and more compelling reason. So with the third great crisis of 

 our history. It has an economic aspect of the largest and most perma- 

 nent importance, and the motive for action along that line, once it is 

 recognized, should be more than sufficient. But that is not all. In this 

 case, too, there is a higher and more compelling reason. The question 

 of the conservation of natural resources, or national resources, does not 

 stop with being a question of profit. It is a vital question of profit, 

 but what is still more vital, it is a question of national safety and 

 patriotism also. 



We have passed the inevitable stage of the pillage of natural resources. 

 The vast wealth we found upon this continent has made us rich. We 

 have used it, as we had a right to do, but we have not stopped there. 



