COXSKKVATIOX 



59 



ter ; suppose \ve put off and procras- 

 tinate, sinning- away our day of grace, 

 and leaving the land impoverished, tax- 

 ridden, sterile, barren, devoid of forests, 

 with diminishing streams, the sport of 

 floods and inundations ; what then will 

 those who come after us say of the 

 generation of to-day? Can there be 

 more than one answer ? 



The Work Will Be Done 



BUT there will be, let us hope, no 

 more procrastination ; no more tem- 

 porizing, no more placating of diver- 

 gent political factions. The work will 

 be done. We shall set about develop- 

 ing our waterways ; we shall set about 

 caring for forested uplands, reforest- 

 ing devastated areas and protecting the 

 sources and the banks of the streams. 

 We will make channels in the Missouri 

 and the Mississippi, and the Ohio ; in 

 the Tennessee and the Wabash, and in 

 every river that is capable of bearing 

 traffic and is needed for that purpose. 

 We will in time construct storage reser- 

 voirs for the handling of flood waters, 

 and we will construct canals a deep 

 waterway from the head of Lake Michi- 

 gan down across the State of Illinois, 

 into the Mississippi and thence to the 

 Gulf. We will construct other canals, 

 wherever the necessity for them shall be 

 shown. \Ve will have the cooperation 

 of States and the Nation, because in 

 that way the work \vill be soonest and 

 best done. We will do these things, 

 because they are the right, and the wise, 

 and the logical things to do, and be- 

 cause we, as a people, have the wisdom 

 and the foresight to realize that they 

 are the right things. We need not wait 

 for the preparation of a complete plan 

 for internal improvement ; we can begin 

 on the work as soon as the people of 

 this Nation say the word. There are 

 things to do, as President Roosevelt 

 said, that will fit in with any right plan, 

 and we will do these things. We will 

 make a start, and millions now living 

 will see the great scheme well on the 

 way to completion. And millions yet 



unborn will look back to this genera- 

 tion, and the men who lived in it with 

 a reverence as great as, or greater than, 

 that with which we regard the men 

 who laid the foundations of our Nation. 

 The work of the Joint Conservation 

 Conference has begun to make ready 

 the way. Let us prepare to walk in it. 



The Appalachian Matter 



HpHERE rests with the House Com- 

 mittee on Agriculture a heavy 

 and definite responsibility, and one 

 which they can by no means evade, 

 for in the hands of the eighteen mem- 

 bers of this Committee lies the fate of 

 the Appalachian-White Mountain For- 

 est bill, carrying with it consequences 

 of the gravest importance to the Nation 

 and the Nation's future ! 



The hearing on the bill before the 

 Committee on December Qth seems 

 to show that this responsibility is 

 not realized by the Committee, for 

 questions asked, and suggestions made, 

 serve to show that the "masterly in- 

 activity" hitherto the Committee's 

 leading characteristic, will be main- 

 tained if possible, and that if any 

 action be had or is contemplated, it will 

 be along lines that are totally inadequate 

 to remedy the serious conditions, again 

 so clearly and forcefully shown by ad- 

 vocates of this legislation. There is 

 hope in the situation, however, al- 

 though it may take an optimistic eye 

 to see it, for the forest perpetuation 

 idea has gained such ground as the 

 thing that must be done, as a duty that 

 the Government owes to itself, as a 

 matter of plain common sense and com- 

 mon honesty, that we shall finally get, in 

 spite of the lack of foresight at present 

 existing in this Committee, not only the 

 most complete preservation of the Ap- 

 palachian-White Mountain region pos- 

 sible, but the preservation of forest 

 areas at the headwaters of important 

 streams wherever they may be consti- 

 tutionally established, under a syste- 

 matic and progressive forest policy 

 to which the Nation will finally come. 



