A HALF CENTURY OF CONSERVATION 333 



areas of historic or scientific value in the Federal 

 Lands. He discovered the West to the nation. He 

 promoted and secured Conservation Departments in 

 thirty-six states, and appointed a National Conser- 

 vation Commission. 



With this word, Conservation, the new era at- 

 tained self-consciousness and power. The people 

 rallied to it as to a flag. Popular organizations to 

 conserve forests, wild life, scenery, natural resources 

 of many kinds, sprang into existence in every cor- 

 ner of the country, following the leadership of the 

 Boone and Crockett Club, the pathfinder and pioneer 

 which Roosevelt himself had organized in 1887 and 

 of which he had been the first president. The steady 

 growth of popular organizations since has been little 

 less than phenomenal. Many hundreds of associa- 

 tions specializing in various conservational activi- 

 ties exist to-day, and many thousands formed for 

 other purposes have each its active Conservation 

 Committee. 



If this sketch were even a brief history of tHe 

 tidal phase of the conservation movement which be- 

 gan with Roosevelt, it would run to many times its 

 length, for in the years since he discovered to the 

 American people their own aspirations, hewed en- 

 trance through walls of opposition, and pointed the 

 path of progress, conservation has increasingly 

 flavored our national life. We can merely glance at 

 it here. Roosevelt did not distinguish then, because 

 the times were not ripe, between conservation for 



