80 THE TREE PLANTERS OF AMERICA 



PUBLIC OPINION 



E. C. Bishop, Superintendent, Department of Public Instruction, 

 State of Nebraska, Lincoln. 



Concerning the "Tree Planters of America," I am very much 

 interested in the work, and shall be glad to encourage it wherever 

 I can. I would like especially to have it adapted in some way so 

 that our boys' and girls' clubs, through the public schools, may 

 become interested. We have in this State about 32,000 young 

 people organized into boys' and girls' clubs. I would like to give 

 them the "Tree Planters' Idea" and help extend the work through 

 the public schools. 



Colonel Robert J. Lowry, President Lowry National Bank, 

 Atlanta, Ga. 



I know of no question before our thinking people today that is 

 of greater importance than the question of conservation of our 

 resources, and the most important branch of that subject is the 

 question of the re-establishment and maintenance of our forests. 



This being a new country, so to speak, we have been disposed 

 in the past to be lavish in using resources in its rapid development. 

 We have magnificent cities, but some of them exist at the expense 

 of natural resources of the section surrounding them. Pursuant 

 to the demand for the very best quality of everything, much good 

 stock is thrown away that might serve a less aesthetic taste with 

 perfect satisfaction. It has been said that every family in the 

 United States wastes enough to feed another one, and the products 

 of our mines and forests have not been properly conserved in the 

 past. 



We should bring ourselves to a realization of the fact that 

 we are not the only people who are to occupy this soil, and that it 

 is the duty of every generation to conserve and preserve and propa- 

 gate resources for the use and benefit of succeeding generations. 

 We should teach our boys that wastefulness sooner or later brings 

 want, and that all their acts should be constructive instead of 

 destructive. Future generations will need our forests, and, as we 

 utilize virgin resources at hand, we should replace these, where 

 possible, that succeeding generations may not only have as good a 

 basis of commerce as we have enjoyed, but that their supply may be 

 greater to meet the demands of the increased population. 



I especially commend the efforts of the League along the line 

 of reforestation of the United States. It is a burning question of 

 great importance, and particularly does it concern those to come 

 after us. The little pamphlet, "The Tree Planters of America," I 

 have perused with a great deal of pleasure, and it is just such 

 effective literature as this that will bring before "Young America" 

 the necessity of the daily practice of conservation. 



