IMPROVEMENT OF OUR HERITAGE* 



BY 

 Gifford Pinchot, Forester of the U. S. Department of Agriculture 



MR. CHAIRMAN, LADIES AND GEN- States (and I mean by that all the peo- 



TXEMEX: pie of the United States) are exactl) 



I WANT to talk to you for just a few j n t! ? c ;" uatl " n t of , a young man wh< 

 1 moments this mornin about a s Jst come into his inheritance. He 



larger and more important piece of 



under the 



estay, 1 ieed not tell you, is the intelli- 

 gent and foresightcd use of a -Teat 

 natural resource. It has often been 

 said that the forest policy of the Xa- 

 tional Government is the longest look 

 ahead that the United States has ever 

 taken in any direction. And I think 

 this is true.' Foresight is the key of 

 the forest movement. \nd once the 

 Xation had he-mi to look forward 

 vigorously and intelligently at the use 

 of a single natural resource, it was 

 naturally only a question of time until 

 the same point of view should be 

 taken in considering all other natural 

 resources. The result was inevitable 

 and has just now come about. During 

 the past year the President of the 

 I'nited States has launched a move- 

 ment for the conservation of all nat- 

 ural resources, which he himself 

 speaks of as the most important prob- 

 lem now before the people of the 

 United States, and which is .uoin^ to 

 have consequences and results in our 

 economic and financial and sociologi- 

 cal conditions which perhaps none of 

 us are now able fully to realize. 



T mean to speak to you for just a 

 moment about the present condition 

 of our natural resources, and to fore- 

 cast a little what the results are likely 

 to be. Those of us who now have 

 charge of the area of the United 



*Adf]ress before tin- Annual Meeting 

 Wa-hington, January 29, 1908. 



_, J A.* C *j 1*1 j i 



fl i I " ," V' "if 



^ the future take Care f itsdf ' 



Now, in private hie we have come 



reall - v to understand that that second 

 course i- unwise, but private morality 

 an<1 private intelligence are always a 

 '"."^ way ahead, in the best examples. 

 ot " "'ti""al morality and national in- 

 telligence. And the result is that a 

 course which we would deprecate and 

 condemn in the case of any man who 

 was our friend, we are as a nation fol- 

 lowing step by step. In other words. 

 wc ' llavc 11()l :' ( l"l't<-'d the point of view 

 that tlliv is a valuable property which 

 ought to be conserved and which 

 ought to lie transmitted unimpaired to 

 our I'liil'lren. I'.ut we have said in 

 substance, we have said through care- 

 lessness and thoughtlessness, much 

 more than by intention : I will do what 

 T likc with ni . v own ; aftcr me the 



\\hat was the condition which we 

 found when we came to this conti- 

 nent '. Three million square miles of 

 the richest, most diversified, most fer- 

 tile and usable country that ever the 

 sun shone on. Xot alike all over, not 

 all usable, but so combined and con- 

 structed as to make the best field that 

 has ever been offered for the develop- 

 ment of a great civilization. Kvcry 

 nation that has found itself in any- 



the American KonMry Association, 



