166 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



children and grandchildren. It is our duty to stay 

 the hand that strives to apply the torch. 



We received from the hand of Nature a marvel- 

 ous continent, overflowing with an abundance of 

 wild life. But we do not own it all; and it is not 

 all ours to destroy if we choose. Nature was a 

 million years, or more, in developing the pictur- 

 esque moose, the odd mountain goat and the unique 

 antelope. Shall we destroy and exterminate those 

 species in one brief century? The young Ameri- 

 cans of the year 2014 will read of those wonderful 

 creatures, and if they find none of them alive how 

 will they characterize the men of 1914? I, for one, 

 do not wish in 2014 to be classed with the swine of 

 Mauritius that exterminated the dodo. 



The most advanced educators of America are 

 awake to the vital necessity of forest conservation. 

 The twenty-one forestry schools now in existence 

 in our country have for their foundations the neces- 

 sity for forest conservation. Educators and states- 

 men, and the men of means who support good 

 works, all are awake to the vital necessity of syste- 

 matic effort in arresting the march of forest destruc- 

 tion and providing for the perpetuation of our 

 forest wealth. If by neglect of duty we were to 

 allow the vandals to sweep off all timber from the 

 United States during the present century, we 

 would be regarded as monsters. Fifty years hence, 

 our children would blush for their parents. And 

 yet, in effect, through our mistaken principles and 



