is eaten away. And not a living thing is seen in this dreadful wilder- 

 ness, nor will anything flourish there for years to come. 



This second picture discloses another scene of devastation ; a prim- 

 eval forest as it was left by lumbermen after they had taken out the 

 choice timber. What reckless barbarians these men have been ! Every- 

 where we see the unmistakable evidences of frightful waste. The 

 ground is covered with fragments of noble trees, and with young 

 saplings crushed to pieces by fallen timber. 



The next photographs show deforested hillsides and farm lands, 

 damaged by rainstorms which gnawed deep gullies into the naked 

 ground and carried away all fruitful soil. And here we have villages 

 and cities suffering by the flood of rivers. The water reaches into the 

 first and second stories. Mills and houses have been swept away and 

 landed in distant places. 



After that we look into a bird's nest, in which we see a heap of 

 young birds, dead from starvation. Another of these ghastly photo- 

 graphs affords a glance over rocky shores, strewn with the putrid 

 bodies of thousands and thousands of seal pups, who perished while 

 waiting in vain for the return of their slain mothers. 



And then we see horrible views showing long rows of human corpses, 

 distorted by explosions, burned by fire, crushed by fallen rocks, or 

 maimed by railway engines or street cars. 



There are dozens and dozens of such repulsive photographs. If 

 thrown as lantern slides upon a screen and explained by a lecturer, 

 this collection of views, maps, and figures would cause a cry of terror 

 among the panic-stricken audience, and many, shocked to the bottom 

 of their hearts, Avould leave, never to forget that horrible exhibition. 



You ask where these photographs have been taken and what the 

 whole collection means. As an American citizen, I feel ashamed to 

 say that all these views, without exception, were made from actual 

 scenes in the United States, and that, together with the maps and 

 statistical tables, they are incontrovertible and convicting evidences of 

 grave sins of which our nation is guilty. Some of the material has 

 been used in preparing my little book, "Our Wasteful Nation," which 

 is not an outcome of yellow journalism, dealing in sensations, but the 

 honest work of a man who loves this country fervently as any native- 

 born American, and who is inspired by the wish to help it along, that 

 it some day may gain the proud title, the best among all lands. 



Perhaps native-born American writers are so accustomed to the 

 extravagance of American life, that they fail to see the amazing 

 amount of our prodigality, which to the stranger becomes evident 

 at once. 



FUTURE OF MAN IN AMERICA 



One of the wisest and best informed men of our country is President 

 Van Hise of the University of Wisconsin. Since this work has been in 

 press he has printed in the World's Work Magazine a comprehensive 

 article on Conservation, which closes as follows: 



"It would be interesting, but idle, to prophesy as to the changes in 

 our social structure which will result when people begin to be pinched 



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