S 930 



ADDRESS DELIVERED BY 



MR. JAMES J. HILL 



AT THE 



NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONGRESS 

 SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA 



SEPTEMBER 5-9, 1910 



Every movement that affects permanently a na- 

 tion's life passes through three stages. First it is 

 the abstract idea, understood by few. Next it is 

 the subject of agitation and earnest general discus- 

 sion. Third, after it has w^on its way to a sure place 

 in the national life, comes the era of practical adap- 

 tation. Mistakes and extravagances due to the 

 enthusiasm of friends or the malice of enemies are 

 corrected, details are fitted to actual needs, the 

 divine idea is harnessed to the common needs of 

 man. In this stage, which the conservation move- 

 ment has now reached, the most difficult and im- 

 portant work must be done. 



In our own history and in that of other nations 

 we have seen this process many times repeated. 

 Public education was an abstract idea in the time 

 of Plato, a controversy of the Renaissance, and is 

 still only partly realized. Back of all written rec- 

 ords lived the man who first saw a vision of gov- 

 ernment universal, equal, free and just. But the 



