longer support the people. Disturbances within are 

 more to be feared than attacks from without. Our 

 government is built upon the assumption of a fairly 

 contented, prosperous and happy people, capable of 

 ruling their passions, with power to change their insti- 

 tutions when such change is generally desired. It 

 would not be strange if they should in their desire for 

 change attempt to pull down the pillars of their na- 

 tional temple. Far may this day be from us. But 

 since the unnecessary destruction of our land will bring 

 new conditions of danger, its conservation, its improve- 

 ment to the highest point of productivity promised by 

 scientific intelligence and practical experiment, appears 

 to be a first command of any political economy worthy 

 of the name. 



I have endeavored to outline some of the principal 

 issues at stake in the better conservation of our na- 

 tional resources, and especially that one about which 

 all the others revolve and by whose fortunes we shall 

 eventually stand or fall the land itself. They are for 

 us quite literally the issues of national existence. The 

 era of unlimited expansion on every side, of having but 

 to reach out and seize any desired good, ready pro- 

 vided for us by the Hand that laid the foundations of 

 the earth, is drawing to a close. The first task, it seems 

 to me, must be to force home the facts of the situation 

 into the public consciousness; to make men realize their 

 duty toward coming generations exactly as the father 

 feels it a duty to see that his children do not suffer 

 want. In a democracy this is a first essential. In 



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