Pollard: Conservation, the National Issue 143 



it is to be noted that liberty of expression, the most cherished 

 feature of a popular government like our own, sometimes results 

 in obscuring the real issue. For example, business depression 

 and the increased cost of living have served as the foundation 

 for attacks upon the corporations, bitter denunciations of capi- 

 talists, and ill-judged criticism of certain fundamental recjuire- 

 ments of the Constitution. Yet those who adopt this course are 

 either wholly silent about the tariff or deprecate a reduction of 

 duties on the ground that the very business interests they are 

 attacking will suflfer. So also, the real issues of conservation are 

 obscured, on the one hand, by those who demand that the country 

 should be given over to agriculture, and on the other, by senti- 

 mentalists whose sole motto is, " Woodman, spare that tree." 

 Forestry teaches us that the only wise course, whether viewed 

 from the standpoint of national benefit or in the light of our own 

 duty to posterity, is fo conserve the tree until it reaches a maxi- 

 mum size and value; to sacrifice it then for the needs of the com- 

 munity, and either to replace it at once, or to cause the land upon 

 which it has grown to yield even greater returns. Thus we make 

 the best use of nature's gifts during our own brief lifetime, and 

 pass them down unimpaired and even multiplied, to the wiser and 

 better race that may henceforth rule upon the earth. 



