A HALF CENTURY OF CONSERVATION 329 



forces which had been half a century in maturing; 

 fast not only because the time was ripe, but because 

 momentary opportunity facilitated the mechanics of 

 governmental co-operation. All of which came about 

 because, among the assemblage of earnest men and 

 women specialists, were some who had seen these 

 lines converging from afar, who realized their sig- 

 nificance, who foresaw their power in co-operation 

 when once they should coalesce, and who communi- 

 cated their vision to the ready minds of the assem- 

 bling delegates. 



It will be valuable to review this past in order 

 that we may follow the future open-eyed. 



Remote beginnings were within the active peri- 

 ods of none of those who organized this conference, 

 and before most of its delegates were born. Al- 

 ready, sixty years before, social workers were send- 

 ing waifs from the Five Points to discover trees, 

 flowers, cows, and pigs in the country. Already 

 George Bird Grinnell, pioneer of nature conserva- 

 tion, was spreading the gospel through his writings, 

 and leading groups of earnest workers to the de- 

 fense of Yellowstone despoiled, of forests threat- 

 ened, and of wild life dissipating. Already prophetic 

 sportsmen were crying halt to the senseless slaugh- 

 ter of big game. Already the prophet Johns, Muir 

 on the Pacific and Burroughs on the Atlantic, were 

 enthralling thousands with the charms of nature, 

 and Button was proving to geologists that rocks 

 were beautiful, also, and their stories thrilling 



