32 TH Ee ASU'D U'BIO-N Be UL, Lanai 
THE QUIET CRISIS, by Stewart Udall. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc., 
383 Madison Avenue, New York, N. Y. 1963. $5.00. 
The introduction by John F. Kennedy illustrates the late President’s 
understanding of land use from Jeffersonian times, through Theodore 
Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt, to present-day use by multitudes. 
He remarked: “We must develop new instruments of foresight and protec- 
tion and nurture in order to recover the relationship between man and 
nature and make sure that the national estate we pass on to our multiply- 
ing descendants is green and flourishing.” 
Mr. Udall understands the feeling of Indians for their “Mother” earth, 
even as he understands the Anglo-Saxon desire to “own” acres. The state- 
ment of Jefferson’s land policy — that unoccupied land belongs to multi- 
tudes until occupied or claimed by an individual — was the first principle 
that allowed us to save exceptional portions of our country from private 
ownership and provided the foundation for establishment of National 
Parks, National Monuments, and wilderness reserves. 
After the unprecedented raids on our resources in the past 75 years, 
it was necessary “to pay the piper”: the buffalo were gone, almost exter- 
minated; the sea otter was nearly extinct; the salmon runs were decimated; 
the hydraulic mining of gold had polluted the rivers; top soil was plowed 
up and eventually blew away in dust. After natural resources were nearly 
eliminated, wisdom began to take over; Teddy Roosevelt was able to 
advance a conservation program (he even coined the word); George Perkins 
Marsh urged more research into land use; John Wesley Powell urged 
water rights in the West; Carl Schurz tried to save the national forests 
from land barons; and many more leaders through the years tried to make 
the public conscious of the wasting away of our natural bounty. 
But the urban population has spread and grown — subdivisions 
swarm over the landscape; selfish advertisers hide the scenery with bill- 
boards; detergents pollute our waters; smoke and smog dim our outlook, 
and litterbugs have become a national menace. The CRISIS may have been 
quiet in coming on the scene, but it is rapidly becoming less quiet. 
According to Mr. Udall, THE QUIET CRISIS will fail in its mission 
unless “an ever-widening concept and higher ideal of conservation will 
enlist our finest impulses and move us to make the earth a better home 
both for ourselves and for those as yet unborn.” . 
Lillian Lasch, 8937 Harms Road, Morton Grove, Ill. 
ff f ia ic 
Triolet to an Indigo Bunting 
Sing your summer serenade 
In the key of blue delight 
While I linger in the shade — 
Sing your summer serenade. 
Spring is vastly overplayed, 
I agree, wee feathered sprite. 
Sing your summer serenade 
In the key of blue delight. 
Emeline Ennis Kotula 
fl ff ft A 
