166 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



water power or human health, is the moral element in it. 

 And that moral element is conspicuously illustrated 

 today in the comparative strength of the nations who 

 are contending for domination, for rule, for power in 

 Europe. 



Conservation is built upon frugality, upon saving the 

 tendency in the mind and heart of the individual to post- 

 pone a present pleasure, a momentary gratification today 

 or at this moment for the welfare of somebody in the 

 future. Now that frugality is the very opposite of our 

 America? wastefulness in the treatment of American 

 resources a wastefulness which has characterized all 

 the pioneer movements across our continent from the 

 beginning. What wonderful and universal frugality has 

 been shown by the French people. It enabled that nation 

 to meet the terrible disasters of 

 the Franco-Prussian war. It 

 disappointed the German con- 

 querors just because of the fru- 

 gality of the French people. 

 Bismarck thought he had bled 

 France white, and that was a 

 very good metaphor for what 

 he thought he had done. But he 

 had not "bled France white," 

 as shown by the ease with which 

 the immense indemnity was 

 paid, and by the immediate re- 

 covery not only of political 

 France, but also of commercial 

 and manufacturing France. The 

 same thing is being manifested 

 today. The moral quality of 

 the French people is built on 

 two things their frugality and 

 their sense of public honor. 



Now, our history has been just 

 the opposite. Our people are 

 characterized today by wasteful- 

 ness, by extravagant expenditures for the enjoyment of 

 the moment, without regard to the welfare of succeeding 

 generations. We want to utilize today all possible re- 

 sources without regard to the well being of the generations 

 that are to succeed to the possession of this soil and this 

 wide continent. 



Thus I find the moral significance of these conserva- 

 tion efforts to be deep and broad. Their chief significance 

 for one whose life has been devoted to public education is 

 this moral significance. But then there are many other 

 movements on behalf of conservation with which those 

 promoting the conservation of our forests and the con- 

 servation of our water powers must necessarily sympa- 

 thize, and I find that the various movements for the 

 conservation of the public health of our people are all 

 in line of this movement for the conservation of our for- 

 ests, for the perpetuation of features of natural beauty, 

 for giving access to the forest parts of our country for 

 the purposes of outdoor enjoyments. 



There are those who say that the conservation of the 



health of the people and the conservation of the breathing 

 powers of the people are the most important of all 

 conservation movements ; and indeed we may well admit 

 the place there is for preventive medicine and for all 

 efforts to promote and maintain public health, and the 

 capacity of the populace for enjoying the open air and 

 natural beauties. 



Many men in all parts of our country have devoted 

 much time and labor to this health conservation, and you 

 may add to this happiness conservation for the masses of 

 our people. This movement on behalf of the American 

 forests is part of a widespread and deep-stirring move- 

 ment for conservation in general of all those resources 

 and all those powers which promote the health and hap- 

 piness of our people. 



SEVENTEEN PALMS SPRING 



A famous water hole not in the Sahara, as one might imagine from the photograph but in the southern 



California desert. 



SEVENTEEN PALMS SPRING 



SEVENTEEN PALMS SPRING is a famous 

 water hole of the Southern California desert, the 

 revivifying water of which has brought renewed 

 life and hope to many desert travelers, while it has been 

 likewise the unreached goal of others whose bones have 

 bleached the old overland trails those who failed to get 

 through. The spring would be considered but a poor 

 enough watering place to those of us who know only the 

 humid region with its multitude of water supplies and 

 who would consider it an almost unbearable hardship to 

 travel afoot for a single day without water. But to those 

 who have gone several days and nights with no water 

 and under a brazen sun and the mercury at 120 or worse 

 in the shade the Seventeen Palms Spring is life itself. 

 The palms from which the place receives its name seem 

 to eke out a precarious existence and at present there are 

 no longer seventeen of them, some having died ; neverthe- 

 less, sickly as they appear, they are always a most wel- 

 come sight to man and beast traveling this desert route. 





