508 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1379 



Every public officer charged with selecting road 

 routes, is subject to enormous pressure to build 

 specific roads in aid of special industrial 

 groups or individual interests. This was 

 brought home to me when, during my service 

 as head of the Forest Service, we inaugurated 

 a large enterprise of public highways in the 

 ITational Forests. In working out a policy of 

 public highways the selection of projects and 

 planning of the roads were based upon studies 

 of all the various natural resources and of the 

 local economic needs. Every road was to ren- 

 der its highest service in aid of resource de- 

 velopment, in building up and maintaining 

 permanent communities; and in this we did 

 not overlook the encouragement of outdoor 

 recreation through conserving the scenic val- 

 ues along the routes. 



One of the most important problems before 

 our country to-day is to preserve and build up 

 a strong rural civilization. Every one at all 

 familiar with our economic history appreciates 

 the influence on our physical prosperity and 

 upon the moulding of American character of 

 the existence of a vast public domain contain- 

 ing a wealth of natural resources of great va- 

 riety and readily available for use. It was 

 through this surplus of resources that there was 

 developed among our people the qualities of 

 individuality, initiative, and self-reliance. 

 Our national strength lies in having a great 

 number of small land proprietors, of small 

 entrepreneurs in all industries, an army of 

 men dependent upon their own individual ef- 

 forts rather than upon mass organization. It 

 is for this reason that we are seriously con- 

 cerned by the movement away from the coun- 

 try to the industrial centers, and by the in- 

 crease of ratio of the industrial to the rural 

 population. Our public domain is now but a 

 fragment and is no longer available as a factor 

 in assimilating the great number of aliens that 

 are flocking to our shores. The resources that 

 can readily be developed by the individual are 

 approaching exhaustion; the surface cream of 

 our natural wealth has been skimmed off. 



"We still possess vast resources, but their de- 

 velopment involves new problems. The proc- 

 ess of exploiting the more accessible resources 



built up a rural organization. In many cases 

 this has broken down or its character has been 

 changed. The building up of a sound rural 

 civilization on a permanent basis depends first 

 of all on how we work out the new problems of 

 handling our natural resources. 



I would not in any degree minimize the 

 problem of conservation as it relates to the 

 supply and distribution of raw materials for 

 our various industries. The need of conser- 

 vation from this aspect has been borne in upon 

 our industries by the artificial shortage cre- 

 ated by conditions growing out of the war. 

 Less appreciated is the relation of conserva- 

 tion to the welfare of the localities where the 

 natural resources occur, and it is for that rea- 

 son that I have to-day laid stress upon that 

 special feature. 



The efforts in conservation to-day are scat- 

 tered among a large number of institutions, 

 organizations, and individuals. There is a 

 lack of unified purpose and direction in the 

 movement. Workers in separate fields fail 

 to give adequate consideration to the bearing 

 of the problems of other resources upon their 

 own. Oftentimes there is an actual conflict 

 of interests in the use and development of 

 two or more resources that is not being ad- 

 justed and is leading to public injury. In the 

 field of public policy many proposals are be- 

 ing made, each perhaps with a good purpose, 

 which are not in harmony as to principle and 

 often are in conflict, with resulting confusion 

 to the public and frequent failure to secure 

 the legislation requested. 



To-day there is no central agency, govern- 

 mental or otherwise, that is considering our 

 natural resources as a whole in their relation 

 to our economic, industrial, and social devel- 

 opment. There is no leadership in conserva- 

 tion in its larger aspects, that defines objec- 

 tives, assembles and interprets the basic data 

 regarding our resources, works out the prin- 

 ciples of harmonizing conflicting interests in 

 resource development, that furnishes, in short, 

 the economic background for conservation and 

 the principles that must underlie the public 

 action necessary to make our natural re- 

 sources render their best service; and there 



