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diff --git a/old/11238-0.txt b/old/11238-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..31bbb08 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11238-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2497 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11238 *** + + + + + +THE FIGHT FOR CONSERVATION + +By + +GIFFORD PINCHOT + + + +1910 + + + + +CONTENTS + +Introduction + + I. Prosperity + II. Home-building for the Nation + III. Better Times on the Farm + IV. Principles of Conservation + V. Waterways + VI. Business + VII. The Moral Issue + VIII. Public Spirit + IX. The Children + X. An Equal Chance + XI. The New Patriotism + XII. The Present Battle + Index + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The following discussion of the conservation problem is not a systematic +treatise upon the subject. Some of the matter has been published +previously in magazines, and some is condensed and rearranged from +addresses made before conservation conventions and other organizations +within the past two years. + +While not arranged chronologically, yet the articles here grouped may +serve to show the rapid, virile evolution of the campaign for +conservation of the nation's resources. + +I am indebted to the courtesy of the editors of _The World's Work, The +Outlook_, and of _American Industries_ for the use of matter first +contributed to these magazines. + + + + +THE FIGHT FOR CONSERVATION + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +PROSPERITY + +The most prosperous nation of to-day is the United States. Our +unexampled wealth and well-being are directly due to the superb natural +resources of our country, and to the use which has been made of them by +our citizens, both in the present and in the past. We are prosperous +because our forefathers bequeathed to us a land of marvellous resources +still unexhausted. Shall we conserve those resources, and in our turn +transmit them, still unexhausted, to our descendants? Unless we do, +those who come after us will have to pay the price of misery, +degradation, and failure for the progress and prosperity of our day. +When the natural resources of any nation become exhausted, disaster and +decay in every department of national life follow as a matter of course. +Therefore the conservation of natural resources is the basis, and the +only permanent basis, of national success. There are other conditions, +but this one lies at the foundation. + +Perhaps the most striking characteristic of the American people is their +superb practical optimism; that marvellous hopefulness which keeps the +individual efficiently at work. This hopefulness of the American is, +however, as short-sighted as it is intense. As a rule, it does not look +ahead beyond the next decade or score of years, and fails wholly to +reckon with the real future of the Nation. I do not think I have often +heard a forecast of the growth of our population that extended beyond a +total of two hundred millions, and that only as a distant and shadowy +goal. The point of view which this fact illustrates is neither true nor +far-sighted. We shall reach a population of two hundred millions in the +very near future, as time is counted in the lives of nations, and there +is nothing more certain than that this country of ours will some day +support double or triple or five times that number of prosperous people +if only we can bring ourselves so to handle our natural resources in the +present as not to lay an embargo on the prosperous growth of the future. + +We, the American people, have come into the possession of nearly four +million square miles of the richest portion of the earth. It is ours to +use and conserve for ourselves and our descendants, or to destroy. The +fundamental question which confronts us is, What shall we do with it? + +That question cannot be answered without first considering the condition +of our natural resources and what is being done with them to-day. As a +people, we have been in the habit of declaring certain of our resources +to be inexhaustible. To no other resource more frequently than coal has +this stupidly false adjective been applied. Yet our coal supplies are so +far from being inexhaustible that if the increasing rate of consumption +shown by the figures of the last seventy-five years continues to +prevail, our supplies of anthracite coal will last but fifty years and +of bituminous coal less than two hundred years. From the point of view +of national life, this means the exhaustion of one of the most important +factors in our civilization within the immediate future. Not a few coal +fields have already been exhausted, as in portions of Iowa and Missouri. +Yet, in the face of these known facts, we continue to treat our coal as +though there could never be an end of it. The established coal-mining +practice at the present date does not take out more than one-half the +coal, leaving the less easily mined or lower grade material to be made +permanently inaccessible by the caving in of the abandoned workings. +The loss to the Nation from this form of waste is prodigious and +inexcusable. + +The waste in use is not less appalling. But five per cent, of the +potential power residing in the coal actually mined is saved and used. +For example, only about five per cent, of the power of the one hundred +and fifty million tons annually burned on the railways of the United +States is actually used in traction; ninety-five per cent, is expended +unproductively or is lost. In the best incandescent electric lighting +plants but one-fifth of one per cent, of the potential value of the coal +is converted into light. + +Many oil and gas fields, as in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and the +Mississippi Valley, have already failed, yet vast amounts of gas +continue to be poured into the air and great quantities of oil into the +streams. Cases are known in which great volumes of oil were +systematically burned in order to get rid of it. + +The prodigal squandering of our mineral fuels proceeds unchecked in the +face of the fact that such resources as these, once used or wasted, can +never be replaced. If waste like this were not chiefly thoughtless, it +might well be characterized as the deliberate destruction of the +Nation's future. + +Many fields of iron ore have already been exhausted, and in still more, +as in the coal mines, only the higher grades have been taken from the +mines, leaving the least valuable beds to be exploited at increased cost +or not at all. Similar waste in the case of other minerals is less +serious only because they are less indispensable to our civilization +than coal and iron. Mention should be made of the annual loss of +millions of dollars worth of by-products from coke, blast, and other +furnaces now thrown into the air, often not merely without benefit but +to the serious injury of the community. In other countries these +by-products are saved and used. + +We are in the habit of speaking of the solid earth and the eternal hills +as though they, at least, were free from the vicissitudes of time and +certain to furnish perpetual support for prosperous human life. This +conclusion is as false as the term "inexhaustible" applied to other +natural resources. The waste of soil is among the most dangerous of all +wastes now in progress in the United States. In 1896, Professor Shaler, +than whom no one has spoken with greater authority on this subject, +estimated that in the upland regions of the states south of Pennsylvania +three thousand square miles of soil had been destroyed as the result of +forest denudation, and that destruction was then proceeding at the rate +of one hundred square miles of fertile soil per year. No seeing man can +travel through the United States without being struck with the enormous +and unnecessary loss of fertility by easily preventable soil wash. The +soil so lost, as in the case of many other wastes, becomes itself a +source of damage and expense, and must be removed from the channels of +our navigable streams at an enormous annual cost. The Mississippi River +alone is estimated to transport yearly four hundred million tons of +sediment, or about twice the amount of material to be excavated from the +Panama Canal. This material is the most fertile portion of our richest +fields, transformed from a blessing to a curse by unrestricted erosion. + +The destruction of forage plants by overgrazing has resulted, in the +opinion of men most capable of judging, in reducing the grazing value of +the public lands by one-half. This enormous loss of forage, serious +though it be in itself, is not the only result of wrong methods of +pasturage. The destruction of forage plants is accompanied by loss of +surface soil through erosion; by forest destruction; by corresponding +deterioration in the water supply; and by a serious decrease in the +quality and weight of animals grown on overgrazed lands. These sources +of loss from failure to conserve the range are felt to-day. They are +accompanied by the certainty of a future loss not less important, for +range lands once badly overgrazed can be restored to their former value +but slowly or not at all. The obvious and certain remedy is for the +Government to hold and control the public range until it can pass into +the hands of settlers who will make their homes upon it. As methods of +agriculture improve and new dry-land crops are introduced, vast areas +once considered unavailable for cultivation are being made into +prosperous homes; and this-movement has only begun. + +The single object of the public land system of the United States, as +President Roosevelt repeatedly declared, is the making and maintenance +of prosperous homes. That object cannot be achieved unless such of the +public lands as are suitable for settlement are conserved for the actual +home-maker. Such lands should pass from the possession of the Government +directly and only into the hands of the settler who lives on the land. +Of all forms of conservation there is none more important than that of +holding the public lands for the actual home-maker. + +It is a notorious fact that the public land laws have been deflected +from their beneficent original purpose of home-making by lax +administration, short-sighted departmental decisions, and the growth of +an unhealthy public sentiment in portions of the West. Great areas of +the public domain have passed into the hands, not of the home-maker, but +of large individual or corporate owners whose object is always the +making of profit and seldom the making of homes. It is sometimes urged +that enlightened self-interest will lead the men who have acquired large +holdings of public lands to put them to their most productive use, and +it is said with truth that this best use is the tillage of small areas +by small owners. Unfortunately, the facts and this theory disagree. Even +the most cursory examination of large holdings throughout the West will +refute the contention that the intelligent self-interest of large owners +results promptly and directly in the making of homes. Few passions of +the human mind are stronger than land hunger, and the large holder +clings to his land until circumstances make it actually impossible for +him to hold it any longer. Large holdings result in sheep or cattle +ranges, in huge ranches, in great areas held for speculative rise in +price, and not in homes. Unless the American homestead system of small +free-holders is to be so replaced by a foreign system of tenantry, there +are few things of more importance to the West than to see to it that the +public lands pass directly into the hands of the actual settler instead +of into the hands of the man who, if he can, will force the settler to +pay him the unearned profit of the land speculator, or will hold him in +economic and political dependence as a tenant. If we are to have homes +on the public lands, they must be conserved for the men who make homes. + +The lowest estimate reached by the Forest Service of the timber now +standing in the United States is 1,400 billion feet, board measure; the +highest, 2,500 billion. The present annual consumption is approximately +100 billion feet, while the annual growth is but a third of the +consumption, or from 30 to 40 billion feet. If we accept the larger +estimate of the standing timber, 2,500 billion feet, and the larger +estimate of the annual growth, 40 billion feet, and apply the present +rate of consumption, the result shows a probable duration of our +supplies of timber of little more than a single generation. + +Estimates of this kind are almost inevitably misleading. For example, +it is certain that the rate of consumption of timber will increase +enormously in the future, as it has in the past, so long as supplies +remain to draw upon. Exact knowledge of many other factors is needed +before closely accurate results can be obtained. The figures cited are, +however, sufficiently reliable to make it certain that the United States +has already crossed the verge of a timber famine so severe that its +blighting effects will be felt in every household in the land. The rise +in the price of lumber which marked the opening of the present century +is the beginning of a vastly greater and more rapid rise which is to +come. We must necessarily begin to suffer from the scarcity of timber +long before our supplies are completely exhausted. + +It is well to remember that there is no foreign source from which we can +draw cheap and abundant supplies of timber to meet a demand per capita +so large as to be without parallel in the world, and that the suffering +which will result from the progressive failure of our timber has been +but faintly foreshadowed by temporary scarcities of coal. + +What will happen when the forests fail? In the first place, the business +of lumbering will disappear. It is now the fourth greatest industry in +the United States. All forms of building industries will suffer with it, +and the occupants of houses, offices, and stores must pay the added +cost. Mining will become vastly more expensive; and with the rise in the +cost of mining there must follow a corresponding rise in the price of +coal, iron, and other minerals. The railways, which have as yet failed +entirely to develop a satisfactory substitute for the wooden tie (and +must, in the opinion of their best engineers, continue to fail), will be +profoundly affected, and the cost of transportation will suffer a +corresponding increase. Water power for lighting, manufacturing, and +transportation, and the movement of freight and passengers by inland +waterways, will be affected still more directly than the steam railways. +The cultivation of the soil, with or without irrigation, will be +hampered by the increased cost of agricultural tools, fencing, and the +wood needed for other purposes about the farm. Irrigated agriculture +will suffer most of all, for the destruction of the forests means the +loss of the waters as surely as night follows day. With the rise in the +cost of producing food, the cost of food itself will rise. Commerce in +general will necessarily be affected by the difficulties of the primary +industries upon which it depends. In a word, when the forests fail, the +daily life of the average citizen will inevitably feel the pinch on +every side. And the forests have already begun to fail, as the direct +result of the suicidal policy of forest destruction which the people of +the United States have allowed themselves to pursue. + +It is true that about twenty per cent, of the less valuable timber land +in the United States remains in the possession of the people in the +National Forests, and that it is being cared for and conserved to supply +the needs of the present and to mitigate the suffering of the near +future. But it needs no argument to prove that this comparatively small +area will be insufficient to meet the demand which is now exhausting an +area four times as great, or to prevent the suffering I have described. +Measures of greater vigor are imperatively required. + +The conception that water is, on the whole, the most important natural +resource has gained firm hold in the irrigated West, and is making rapid +progress in the humid East. Water, not land, is the primary value in the +Western country, and its conservation and use to irrigate land is the +first condition of prosperity. The use of our streams for irrigation and +for domestic and manufacturing uses is comparatively well developed. +Their use for power is less developed, while their use for +transportation has only begun. The conservation of the inland waterways +of the United States for these great purposes constitutes, perhaps, the +largest single task which now confronts the Nation. The maintenance and +increase of agriculture, the supply of clear water for domestic and +manufacturing uses, the development of electrical power, transportation, +and lighting, and the creation of a system of inland transportation by +water whereby to regulate freight-rates by rail and to move the bulkier +commodities cheaply from place to place, is a task upon the successful +accomplishment of which the future of the Nation depends in a peculiar +degree. We are accustomed, and rightly accustomed, to take pride in the +vigorous and healthful growth of the United States, and in its vast +promise for the future. Yet we are making no preparation to realize what +we so easily foresee and glibly predict. The vast possibilities of our +great future will become realities only if we make ourselves, in a +sense, responsible for that future. The planned and orderly development +and conservation of our natural resources is the first duty of the +United States. It is the only form of insurance that will certainly +protect us against the disasters that lack of foresight has in the past +repeatedly brought down on nations since passed away. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +HOME-BUILDING FOR THE NATION + +The most valuable citizen of this or any other country is the man who +owns the land from which he makes his living. No other man has such a +stake in the country. No other man lends such steadiness and stability +to our national life. Therefore no other question concerns us more +intimately than the question of homes. Permanent homes for ourselves, +our children, and our Nation--this is a central problem. The policy of +national irrigation is of value to the United States in very many ways, +but the greatest of all is this, that national irrigation multiplies the +men who own the land from which they make their living. The old saying, +"Who ever heard of a man shouldering his gun to fight for his boarding +house?" reflects this great truth, that no man is so ready to defend his +country, not only with arms, but with his vote and his contribution to +public opinion, as the man with a permanent stake in it, as the man who +owns the land from which he makes his living. + +Our country began as a nation of farmers. During the periods that gave +it its character, when our independence was won and when our Union was +preserved, we were preeminently a nation of farmers. We can not, and we +ought not, to continue exclusively, or even chiefly, an agricultural +country, because one man can raise food enough for many. But the farmer +who owns his land is still the backbone of this Nation; and one of the +things we want most is more of him. The man on the farm is valuable to +the Nation, like any other citizen, just in proportion to his +intelligence, character, ability, and patriotism; but, unlike other +citizens, also in proportion to his attachment to the soil. That is the +principal spring of his steadiness, his sanity, his simplicity and +directness, and many of his other desirable qualities. He is the first +of home-makers. + +The nation that will lead the world will be a Nation of Homes. The +object of the great Conservation movement is just this, to make our +country a permanent and prosperous home for ourselves and for our +children, and for our children's children, and it is a task that is +worth the best thought and effort of any and all of us. + +To achieve this or any other great result, straight thinking and strong +action are necessary, and the straight thinking comes first. To make +this country what we need to have it, we must think clearly and directly +about our problems, and above all we must understand what the real +problems are. The great things are few and simple, but they are too +often hidden by false issues, and conventional, unreal thinking. The +easiest way to hide a real issue always has been, and always will be, to +replace it with a false one. + +The first thing we need in this country, as President Roosevelt so well +set forth in a great message which told what he had been trying to do +for the American people, is equality of opportunity for every citizen. +No man should have less, and no man ought to ask for any more. Equality +of opportunity is the real object of our laws and institutions. Our +institutions and our laws are not valuable in themselves. They are +valuable only because they secure equality of opportunity for happiness +and welfare to our citizens. An institution or a law is a means, not an +end, a means to be used for the public good, to be modified for the +public good, and to be interpreted for the public good. One of the great +reasons why President Roosevelt's administration was of such enormous +value to the plain American was that he understood what St. Paul meant +when he said: "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." To +follow blindly the letter of the law, or the form of an institution, +without intelligent regard both for its spirit and for the public +welfare, is very nearly as dangerous as to disregard the law altogether. +What we need is the use of the law for the public good, and the +construction of it for the public welfare. + +It goes without saying that the law is supreme and must be obeyed. +Civilization rests on obedience to law. But the law is not absolute. It +requires to be construed. Rigid construction of the law works, and must +work, in the vast majority of cases, for the benefit of the men who can +hire the best lawyers and who have the sources of influence in lawmaking +at their command. Strict construction necessarily favors the great +interests as against the people, and in the long run can not do +otherwise. Wise execution of the law must consider what the law ought +to accomplish for the general good. The great oppressive trusts exist +because of subservient lawmakers and adroit legal constructions. Here is +the central stronghold of the money power in the everlasting conflict of +the few to grab, and the many to keep or win the rights they were born +with. Legal technicalities seldom help the people. The people, not the +law, should have the benefit of every doubt. + +Equality of opportunity, a square deal for every man, the protection of +the citizen against the great concentrations of capital, the intelligent +use of laws and institutions for the public good, and the conservation +of our natural resources, not for the trusts, but for the people; these +are real issues and real problems. Upon such things as these the +perpetuity of this country as a nation of homes really depends. We are +coming to see that the simple things are the things to work for. More +than that, we are coming to see that the plain American citizen is the +man to work for. The imagination is staggered by the magnitude of the +prize for which we work. If we succeed, there will exist upon this +continent a sane, strong people, living through the centuries in a land +subdued and controlled for the service of the people, its rightful +masters, owned by the many and not by the few. If we fail, the great +interests, increasing their control of our natural resources, will +thereby control the country more and more, and the rights of the people +will fade into the privileges of concentrated wealth. + +There could be no better illustration of the eager, rapid, unwearied +absorption by capital of the rights which belong to all the people than +the water-power trust, perhaps not yet formed but in process of +formation. This statement is true, but not unchallenged. We are met at +every turn by the indignant denial of the water-power interests. They +tell us that there is no community of interest among them, and yet they +appear by their paid attorneys, year after year, at irrigation and other +congresses, asking for help to remove the few remaining obstacles to +their perpetual and complete absorption of the remaining water-powers. +They tell us it has no significance that there is hardly a bank in some +sections of the country that is not an agency for water-power capital, +or that the General Electric Company interests are acquiring great +groups of water-powers in various parts of the United States, and +dominating the power market in the region of each group. And whoever +dominates power, dominates all industry. + +Have you ever seen a few drops of oil scattered on the water spreading +until they formed a continuous film, which put an end at once to all +agitation of the surface? The time for us to agitate this question is +now, before the separate circles of centralized control spread into the +uniform, unbroken, Nation-wide covering of a single gigantic trust. +There will be little chance for mere agitation after that. No man at all +familiar with the situation can doubt that the time for effective +protest is very short. If we do not use it to protect ourselves now, we +may be very sure that the trust will give hereafter small consideration +to the welfare of the average citizen when in conflict with its own. + +The man who really counts is the plain American citizen. This is the man +for whom the Roosevelt policies were created, and his welfare is the end +to which the Roosevelt policies lead. + +I stand for the Roosevelt policies because they set the common good of +all of us above the private gain of some of us; because they recognize +the livelihood of the small man as more important to the Nation than the +profit of the big man; because they oppose all useless waste at present +at the cost of robbing the future; because they demand the complete, +sane, and orderly development of all our natural resources; because they +insist upon equality of opportunity and denounce monopoly and special +privilege; because, discarding false issues, they deal directly with the +vital questions that really make a difference with the welfare of us +all; and, most of all, because in them the plain American always and +everywhere holds the first place. And I propose to stand for them while +I have the strength to stand for anything. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +BETTER TIMES ON THE FARM + +Ever since I came to have first-hand knowledge of irrigation, I have +been impressed with the peculiar advantages which surround the +irrigation rancher. The high productiveness of irrigated land, resulting +in smaller farm units and denser settlement, as well as the efficiency +and alertness of the irrigator, have combined to give the irrigated +regions very high rank among the most progressive farming communities of +the world. Such rural communities as those of the irrigated West are +useful examples for the consideration of regions in which life is more +isolated, has less of the benefits of coöperation, and generally has +lacked the stimulus found in irrigation farming. + +The object of education in general is to produce in the boy or girl, +and so in the man or woman, three results: first, a sound, useful, and +usable body; second, a flexible, well-equipped, and well-organized mind; +alert to gain interest and assistance from contact with nature and +coöperation with other minds; and third, a wise and true and valiant +spirit, able to gather to itself the higher things that best make life +worth while. The use and growth of these three things, body, mind, and +spirit, must all be found in any effective system of education. + +The same three-fold activity is equally necessary in a group of +individuals. Take for example the merchants of a town, who have +established a Chamber of Commerce or Board of Trade. They have three +objects: first, sound and profitable business; second, organized +coöperation with each other to their mutual advantage, as in settling +disputes, securing satisfactory rates from railroads, and inducing new +industries to settle amongst them; and third, to make their town more +beautiful, more healthful, and generally a better place to live in. Take +a labor union as another example, and you will find the same three-fold +purpose. A good union admits only good workmen to membership in its +sound body; the members get from the Union the advantages of organized +coöperation in selling their labor to the best advantage; and in +addition they enjoy certain special advantages often of overwhelming +importance. + +The practical value of organization and coöperation is obvious, and they +are being utilized very widely in nearly every branch of our national +life. But what is the case with the farmer? The farmers are the only +great body of our people who remain in large part substantially +unorganized. The merchants are organized, the wage-workers are +organized, the railroads are organized. The men with whom the farmer +competes are organized to get the best results for themselves in their +dealings with him. The farmer is engaged, usually without the assistance +of organization, in competing with these organizations of other groups +of citizens. Thus the farmer, the man on whose product we all live, too +often contends almost single-handed against his highly organized +competitors. + +How have the agricultural schools and colleges and the Departments of +Agriculture of State and Nation met this situation? Largely by the +assertion, in word or in act, that there is only one thing to be done +for the farmer. So far as his personal education is concerned, they have +tried to give him a sound body, a trained mind, and a wise and valiant +spirit. But so far as his calling is concerned, they have stopped with +the body. They have said in effect: We will help the farmer to grow +better crops, but we will take no thought of how he can get the best +returns for the crops he grows, or of how he can utilize those returns +so as to make them yield him the best and happiest life. + +It is not wise to stop the education of a boy or a girl with the body, +and to neglect the mind and the spirit. But we have done the equivalent +of that in dealing with farm life. Along the line of better crops we +have done more for the farmer, and have done it more effectively, than +any other Nation. But we have done little, and far less than many other +Nations, for better business and better living on the farm. Hereafter we +shall need in State and Nation not only the work of Departments of +Agriculture such as we have now, but we shall need to have added to +their functions such duties as will make them departments of rural +business and rural life as well. Our Departments of Agriculture should +cover the whole field of the farmer's life. It is not enough to touch +only one of the three great country problems, even though that is the +first in time and perhaps in importance. + +Of course we all realize that the growing of crops is the great +foundation on which the well-being not only of the farmer but of the +whole Nation must depend. First of all we must have food. But after that +has been achieved, is there nothing more to be done? It seems to me +clear that farmers have as much to gain from good organization as +merchants, plumbers, carpenters, or any of the other trades and +businesses of the United States. After we have secured better crops, the +next logical and inevitable step is to secure better business +organization on the farm, so that each farmer shall get from what he +grows the best possible return. + +Consider what has been accomplished in Ireland through agricultural +coöperation. The Irish have discovered that it is not good for the +farmer to work alone. Since 1894 they have been organizing agricultural +societies to give the farmer a chance to sell at the right time and at +the right price. The result is impressive. In Ireland the coöperative +creameries produce about half the butter exported. There are 40,000 +farmers in the societies for coöperative selling, which, as we know in +this country, means better prices. There are about 300 agricultural +credit societies with a membership of 15,000 and a capital of more than +$200,000. In a word, in Ireland, which we have been apt to consider as +far behind us in all that relates to agriculture, there are nearly 1,000 +agricultural societies with a total membership of 100,000 persons. Since +1894 their total business has been more than $300,000,000. + +But, after the farmer has begun to make use of his right to combine for +his advantage in selling his products and buying his supplies, is there +nothing else he can do? As well might we say that, after the body and +the mind of a boy have been trained, he should be deprived of all those +associations with his fellows which make life worth living, and to which +every child has an inborn right. Life is something more than a matter +of business. No man can make his life what it ought to be by living it +merely on a business basis. There are things higher than business. What +is the reason for the enormous movement from the farms into the cities? +Not simply that the business advantages in the city are better, but that +the city has more conveniences, more excitement, and more facility for +contact with friends and neighbors: in a word, more life. There ought +then to be attractiveness in country life such as will make the country +boy or girl want to live and work in the country, such that the farmer +will understand that there is no more dignified calling than his own, +none that makes life better worth living. The social or community life +of the country should be put by the farmer--for no one but himself can +do it for him--on the same basis as social life in the city, through the +country churches and societies, through better roads, country +telephones, rural free delivery, parcels post, and whatever else will +help. The problem is not merely to get better crops, not merely to +dispose of crops better, but in the last analysis to have happier and +richer lives of men and women on the farm. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +PRINCIPLES OF CONSERVATION + +The principles which the word Conservation has come to embody are not +many, and they are exceedingly simple. I have had occasion to say a good +many times that no other great movement, has ever achieved such progress +in so short a time, or made itself felt in so many directions with such +vigor and effectiveness, as the movement for the conservation of natural +resources. + +Forestry made good its position in the United States before the +conservation movement was born. As a forester I am glad to believe that +conservation began with forestry, and that the principles which govern +the Forest Service in particular and forestry in general are also the +ideas that control conservation. + +The first idea of real foresight in connection with natural resources +arose in connection with the forest. From it sprang the movement which +gathered impetus until it culminated in the great Convention of +Governors at Washington in May, 1908. Then came the second official +meeting of the National Conservation movement, December, 1908, in +Washington. Afterward came the various gatherings of citizens in +convention, come together to express their judgment on what ought to be +done, and to contribute, as only such meetings can, to the formation of +effective public opinion. + +The movement so begun and so prosecuted has gathered immense swing and +impetus. In 1907 few knew what Conservation meant. Now it has become a +household word. While at first Conservation was supposed to apply only +to forests, we see now that its sweep extends even beyond the natural +resources. + +The principles which govern the conservation movement, like all great +and effective things, are simple and easily understood. Yet it is often +hard to make the simple, easy, and direct facts about a movement of this +kind known to the people generally. + +The first great fact about conservation is that it stands for +development. There has been a fundamental misconception that +conservation means nothing but the husbanding of resources for future +generations. There could be no more serious mistake. Conservation does +mean provision for the future, but it means also and first of all the +recognition of the right of the present generation to the fullest +necessary use of all the resources with which this country is so +abundantly blessed. Conservation demands the welfare of this generation +first, and afterward the welfare of the generations to follow. + +The first principle of conservation is development, the use of the +natural resources now existing on this continent for the benefit of the +people who live here now. There may be just as much waste in neglecting +the development and use of certain natural resources as there is in +their destruction. We have a limited supply of coal, and only a limited +supply. Whether it is to last for a hundred or a hundred and fifty or a +thousand years, the coal is limited in amount, unless through geological +changes which we shall not live to see, there will never be any more of +it than there is now. But coal is in a sense the vital essence of our +civilization. If it can be preserved, if the life of the mines can be +extended, if by preventing waste there can be more coal left in this +country after we of this generation have made every needed use of this +source of power, then we shall have deserved well of our descendants. + +Conservation stands emphatically for the development and use of +water-power now, without delay. It stands for the immediate construction +of navigable waterways under a broad and comprehensive plan as +assistants to the railroads. More coal and more iron are required to +move a ton of freight by rail than by water, three to one. In every case +and in every direction the conservation movement has development for its +first principle, and at the very beginning of its work. The development +of our natural resources and the fullest use of them for the present +generation is the first duty of this generation. So much for +development. + +In the second place conservation stands for the prevention of waste. +There has come gradually in this country an understanding that waste is +not a good thing and that the attack on waste is an industrial +necessity. I recall very well indeed how, in the early days of forest +fires, they were considered simply and solely as acts of God, against +which any opposition was hopeless and any attempt to control them not +merely hopeless but childish. It was assumed that they came in the +natural order of things, as inevitably as the seasons or the rising and +setting of the sun. To-day we understand that forest fires are wholly +within the control of men. So we are coming in like manner to understand +that the prevention of waste in all other directions is a simple matter +of good business. The first duty of the human race is to control the +earth it lives upon. + +We are in a position more and more completely to say how far the waste +and destruction of natural resources are to be allowed to go on and +where they are to stop. It is curious that the effort to stop waste, +like the effort to stop forest fires, has often been considered as a +matter controlled wholly by economic law. I think there could be no +greater mistake. Forest fires were allowed to burn long after the people +had means to stop them. The idea that men were helpless in the face of +them held long after the time had passed when the means of control were +fully within our reach. It was the old story that "as a man thinketh, so +is he"; we came to see that we could stop forest fires, and we found +that the means had long been at hand. When at length we came to see that +the control of logging in certain directions was profitable, we found it +had long been possible. In all these matters of waste of natural +resources, the education of the people to understand that they can stop +the leakage comes before the actual stopping and after the means of +stopping it have long been ready at our hands. + +In addition to the principles of development and preservation of our +resources there is a third principle. It is this: The natural resources +must be developed and preserved for the benefit of the many, and not +merely for the profit of a few. We are coming to understand in this +country that public action for public benefit has a very much wider +field to cover and a much larger part to play than was the case when +there were resources enough for every one, and before certain +constitutional provisions had given so tremendously strong a position to +vested rights and property in general. + +A few years ago President Hadley, of Yale, wrote an article which has +not attracted the attention it should. The point of it was that by +reason of the XIVth amendment to the Constitution, property rights in +the United States occupy a stronger position than in any other country +in the civilized world. It becomes then a matter of multiplied +importance, since property rights once granted are so strongly +entrenched, to see that they shall be so granted that the people shall +get their fair share of the benefit which comes from the development of +the resources which belong to us all. The time to do that is now. By so +doing we shall avoid the difficulties and conflicts which will surely +arise if we allow vested rights to accrue outside the possibility of +governmental and popular control. + +The conservation idea covers a wider range than the field of natural +resources alone. Conservation means the greatest good to the greatest +number for the longest time. One of its great contributions is just +this, that it has added to the worn and well-known phrase, "the greatest +good to the greatest number," the additional words "for the longest +time," thus recognizing that this nation of ours must be made to endure +as the best possible home for all its people. + +Conservation advocates the use of foresight, prudence, thrift, and +intelligence in dealing with public matters, for the same reasons and in +the same way that we each use foresight, prudence, thrift, and +intelligence in dealing with our own private affairs. It proclaims the +right and duty of the people to act for the benefit of the people. +Conservation demands the application of common-sense to the common +problems for the common good. + +The principles of conservation thus described--development, +preservation, the common good--have a general application which is +growing rapidly wider. The development of resources and the prevention +of waste and loss, the protection of the public interests, by foresight, +prudence, and the ordinary business and home-making virtues, all these +apply to other things as well as to the natural resources. There is, in +fact, no interest of the people to which the principles of conservation +do not apply. + +The conservation point of view is valuable in the education of our +people as well as in forestry; it applies to the body politic as well as +to the earth and its minerals. A municipal franchise is as properly +within its sphere as a franchise for water-power. The same point of view +governs in both. It applies as much to the subject of good roads as to +waterways, and the training of our people in citizenship is as germane +to it as the productiveness of the earth. The application of +common-sense to any problem for the Nation's good will lead directly to +national efficiency wherever applied. In other words, and that is the +burden of the message, we are coming to see the logical and inevitable +outcome that these principles, which arose in forestry and have their +bloom in the conservation of natural resources, will have their fruit in +the increase and promotion of national efficiency along other lines of +national life. + +The outgrowth of conservation, the inevitable result, is national +efficiency. In the great commercial struggle between nations which is +eventually to determine the welfare of all, national efficiency will be +the deciding factor. So from every point of view conservation is a good +thing for the American people. + +The National Forest Service, one of the chief agencies of the +conservation movement, is trying to be useful to the people of this +nation. The Service recognizes, and recognizes it more and more strongly +all the time, that whatever it has done or is doing has just one object, +and that object is the welfare of the plain American citizen. Unless the +Forest Service has served the people, and is able to contribute to their +welfare it has failed in its work and should be abolished. But just so +far as by coöperation, by intelligence, by attention to the work laid +upon it, it contributes to the welfare of our citizens, it is a good +thing and should be allowed to go on with its work. + +The Natural Forests are in the West. Headquarters of the Service have +been established throughout the Western country, because its work cannot +be done effectively and properly without the closest contact and the +most hearty coöperation with the Western people. It is the duty of the +Forest Service to see to it that the timber, water-powers, mines, and +every other resource of the forests is used for the benefit of the +people who live in the neighborhood or who may have a share in the +welfare of each locality. It is equally its duty to coöperate with all +our people in every section of our land to conserve a fundamental +resource, without which this Nation cannot prosper. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +WATERWAYS + +The connection between forests and rivers is like that between father +and son. No forests, no rivers. So a forester may not be wholly beyond +his depth when he talks about streams. The conquest of our rivers is one +of the largest commercial questions now before us. + +The commercial consequences of river development are incalculable. Its +results cannot be measured by the yard-stick of present commercial +needs. River improvement means better conditions of transportation than +we have now, but it means development too. We cannot see this problem +clearly and see it whole in the light of the past alone. + +The actual problems of river development are not less worthy of our +best attention than their commercial results. Every river is a unit from +its source to its mouth. If it is to be given its highest usefulness to +all the people, and serve them for all the uses they can make of it, it +must be developed with that idea clearly in mind. To develop a river for +navigation alone, or power alone, or irrigation alone, is often like +using a sheep for mutton, or a steer for beef, and throwing away the +leather and the wool. A river is a unit, but its uses are many, and with +our present knowledge there can be no excuse for sacrificing one use to +another if both can be subserved. + +A progressive plan for the development of our waterways is essential. +Pending the completion of that plan, which should neither be weakened by +excessive haste nor drowned in excessive deliberation, work should +proceed at once on some of the greater projects which we know already +will be essential under any plan that may be devised. First and +foremost of these by unanimous consent is the improvement of the +Mississippi River. A comprehensive and progressive plan of the kind we +need can be made in one way only, and that is by a commission of the +best men in the United States appointed directly by the President of the +United States. + +Such a plan must consider every use to which our rivers can be put, and +every means available for their control. It must deal with such great +questions as the relation of the States and the Nation in the +construction and control of the work, and with terminals and the +coordination of rail and river transportation. The engineering +difficulties may be larger than any we have yet solved. The adjustment +of opposite demands between conflicting interests and localities, and +other questions of large reach and often of great legal complexity will +tax the powers of the best men we have. No part of the work will require +greater temperance, wisdom, and foresight than certain questions of +policy and law. + +I have observed in the course of some experience that difficulties +originating with the law are peculiarly apt to foster misconceptions. It +happens that the Forest Service has recently supplied a typical example. + +Certain men and certain papers have said that the Forest Service has +gone beyond the law in carrying out its work. This assertion has been +repeated so persistently that there is danger that it may be believed. +The friends of conservation must not be led to think that before the +Forest Service can proceed legally with its present work all the hazards +and compromises of new legislation must be faced. + +Fortunately, the charge of illegal action is absolutely false. The +Forest Service has had ample legal authority for everything it has done. +Not once since it was created has any charge of illegality, despite the +most searching investigation and the bitterest attack, ever led to +reversal or reproof by either House of Congress or by any Congressional +Committee. Since the creation of the Forest Service the expenditure of +nearly $15,000,000 has passed successfully the scrutiny of the Treasury +of the United States. Most significant of all, not once has the Forest +Service been defeated as to any vital legal principle underlying its +work in any Court or administrative tribunal of last resort. Thus those +who make the law and those who interpret it seem to agree that the work +has been legal. + +But it is not enough to say that the Forest Service has kept within the +law. Other qualifications go to make efficiency in a Government bureau. +A bureau may keep within the law and yet fail to get results. + +When action is needed for the public good there are two opposite points +of view regarding the duty of an administrative officer in enforcing the +law. One point of view asks, "Is there any express and specific law +authorizing or directing such action?" and, having thus sought and +found none, nothing is done. The other asks, "Is there any justification +in law for doing this desirable thing?" and, having thus sought and +found a legal justification, what the public good demands is done. I +hold it to be the first duty of a public officer to obey the law. But I +hold it to be his second duty, and a close second, to do everything the +law will let him do for the public good, and not merely what the law +compels or directs him to do. + +It is the right as well as the duty of a public officer to be zealous in +the public service. That is why the public service is worth while. To +every public officer the law should be, not a goad to drive him to his +duty, but a tool to help him in his work. And I maintain that it is +likewise his right and duty to seek by every proper means from the legal +authorities set over him such interpretations of the law as will best +help him to serve his country. + +Let the public officer take every lawful chance to use the law for the +public good. The better use he makes of it the better public servant he +becomes. One man with a jack-knife will build a ladder. Another with a +full tool-chest cannot make a footstool. The man with the jack-knife +will often reach the higher level. I am for the man with the jack-knife. +I believe in the man who does all he can and the best he can, with the +means at his command. That is precisely what the Forest Service has been +trying to do with the money and law Congress has placed in its hands. + +Every public officer responsible for any part of the conservation of +natural resources is a trustee of the public property. If conservation +is vital to the welfare of this Nation now and hereafter, as President +Roosevelt so wisely declared, then few positions of public trust are so +important, and few opportunities for constructive work so large. Such +officers are concerned with the greatest issues which have come before +this Nation since the Civil War. They may hope to serve the Nation as +few men ever can. Their care for our forests, waters, lands, and +minerals is often the only thing that stands between the public good and +the something-for-nothing men, who, like the daughters of the +horse-leech, are forever crying, "Give, Give." The intelligence, +initiative, and steadfastness that can withstand the unrelenting +pressure of the special interests are worth having, and the Forest +Service has given proof of all three. But the counter-pressure from the +people in their own interest is needed far more often than it is +supplied. + +The public welfare cannot be subserved merely by walking blindly in the +old ruts. Times change, and the public needs change with them. The man +who would serve the public to the level of its needs must look ahead, +and one of his most difficult problems will be to make old tools answer +new uses--uses some of which, at least, were never imagined when the +tools were made. That is one reason why constructive foresight is one of +the great constant needs of every growing nation. + +The Forest Service proposes to use the tools--obey the law--made by the +representatives of the people. But the law cannot give specific +directions in advance to meet every need and detail of administration. +The law cannot make brains nor supply conscience. Therefore, the Forest +Service proposes also to serve the people by the intelligent and +purposeful use of the law and every lawful means at its command for the +public good. And for that intention it makes no apology. + +Fortunately for the Forest Service, the point of view which it worked +out for itself under the pressure of its responsibilities was found to +be that of the Supreme Court. In the case of the U.S. vs. Macdaniel (7 +Pet., 13-14), involving the administrative powers of the head of a +Department, the Supreme Court of the United States said: + + "He is limited in the exercise of his + powers by the law; but it does not + follow that he must show statutory + provision for everything he does. No + government could be administered on + such principles. To attempt to regulate, + by law, the minute movements + of every part of the complicated machinery + of government, would evince a + most unpardonable ignorance on the + subject. Whilst the great outlines of + its movements may be marked out, + and limitations imposed on the exercise + of its powers, there are numberless + things which must be done, that can + neither be anticipated nor defined, and + which are essential to the proper action + of the government." + +Congress has given to the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the +Forest Service, the specific task of administering the National +Forests, with full power to perform it, and has provided that he "may +make such rules and regulations and establish such service as will +ensure the objects of said reservations, namely, to regulate their +occupancy and use and to preserve the forests thereon from destruction." +Every exercise of the powers granted to the Secretary of Agriculture by +statute has been in accordance with the principles laid down by Chief +Justice Marshall ninety years ago in the case of McCulloch vs. Maryland +(4 Wheat., 421), when he said as to powers delegated by the Federal +Constitution to Congress: + + "Let the end be legitimate, let it be + within the scope of the Constitution, + and all means which are appropriate, + which are plainly adapted to that end, + which are not prohibited, but consist + with the letter and spirit of the Constitution, + are constitutional." + +After the transfer of the National Forests from the Interior Department +to the Forest Service in 1905, some things were done that had never been +done before, such as initiating Government control over water-power +monopoly in the National Forests, giving preference to the public over +commercial corporations in the use of the Forests, and trying to help +the small man make a living rather than the big man make a profit (but +always with the effort to be just to both). Always and everywhere we +have set the public welfare above the advantage of the special +interests. + +Because it did these things the Forest Service has made enemies, of some +of whom it is justly proud. It has been easy for these enemies to raise +the cry of illegality, novelty, and excess of zeal. But in every +instance the Service has been fortified either by express statutes, or +by decisions of the Supreme Court and other courts, of the Secretary of +the Interior, of the Comptroller, or the Attorney-General, or by +general principles of law which are beyond dispute. If there is novelty, +it consists simply in the way these statutes, decisions, and principles +have been used to protect the public. The law officers of the Forest +Service have had the Nation for their client, and they are proud to work +as zealously for the public as they would in private practice for a fee. + +So I think the ghost of illegality in the Forest Service may fairly be +laid at rest. But it is not the only one which is clouding the issues of +conservation in the public mind. Another misconception is that the +friends of conservation are trying to prevent the development of water +power by private capital. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The +friends of conservation were the first to call public attention to the +enormous saving to the Nation which follows the substitution of the +power of falling water, which is constantly renewed, for our coal, which +can never be renewed. They favor development by private capital and not +by the Government, but they also favor attaching such reasonable +conditions to the right to develop as will protect the public and +control water-power monopoly in the public interest, while at the same +time giving to enterprising capital its just and full reward. They +believe that to grant rights to water power in perpetuity is a wrongful +mortgage of the welfare of our descendants, and to grant them without +insisting on some return for value received is to rob ourselves. + +I believe in dividends for the people as well as taxes. Fifty years is +long enough for the certainty of profitable investment in water power, +and to fix on the amount of return that will be fair to the public and +the corporation is not impossible. What city does not regret some +ill-considered franchise? And why should not the Nation profit by the +experience of its citizens? + +There is no reason why the water-power interests should be given the +people's property freely and forever except that they would like to have +it that way. I suspect that the mere wishes of the special interests, +although they have been the mainspring of much public action for many +years, have begun to lose their compelling power. A good way to begin to +regulate corporations would be to stop them from regulating us. + +The sober fact is that here is the imminent battle-ground in the endless +contest for the rights of the people. Nothing that can be said or done +will suffice to postpone longer the active phases of this fight; and +that is why I attach so great importance to the attitude of +administrative officers in protecting the public welfare in the +enforcement of the law. + +From time to time a few strong leaders have tried to unite the people in +the fight of the many for the equal opportunities to which they are +entitled. But the people have only just begun to take this fight, in +earnest. They have not realized until recently the vital importance and +far-reaching consequences of their own passive position. + +Now that the fight is passing into an acute stage it is easily seen that +the special interests have used the period of public indifference to +manoeuvre themselves into a position of exceeding strength. In the first +place, the Constitutional position of property in the United States is +stronger than in any other nation. In the second place, it is well +understood that the influence of the corporations in our law-making +bodies is usually excessive, not seldom to the point of defeating the +will of the people steadily and with ease. In the third place, cases are +not unknown in which the special interests, not satisfied with making +the laws, have assumed also to interpret them, through that worst of +evils in the body politic, an unjust judge. + +When an interest or an enemy is entrenched in a position rendered +impregnable against an expected mode of attack, there is but one remedy, +to shift the ground and follow lines against which no preparation has +been made. Fortunately for us, the special interests, with a blindness +which naturally follows from their wholly commercialized point of view, +have failed to see the essential fact in this great conflict. They do +not understand that this is far more than an economic question, that in +its essence and in every essential characteristic it is a moral +question. + +The present economic order, with its face turned away from equality of +opportunity, involves a bitter moral wrong, which must be corrected for +moral reasons and along moral lines. It must be corrected with justness +and firmness, but not bitterly, for that would be to lower the Nation to +the moral level of the evil which we have set ourselves to fight. + +This is the doctrine of the Square Deal. It contains the germ of +industrial liberty. Its partisans are the many, its opponents are the +few. I am firm in the faith that the great majority of our people are +Square Dealers. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +BUSINESS + +The business of the people of the United States, performed by the +Government of the United States, is a vast and a most important one; it +is the house-keeping of the American Nation. As a business proposition +it does not attract anything like the attention that it ought. +Unfortunately we have come into the habit of considering the Government +of the United States as a political organization rather than as a +business organization. + +Now this question, which the Governors of the States and the +representatives of great interests were called to Washington to consider +in 1908, is fundamentally a business question, and it is along business +lines that it must be considered and solved, if the problem is to be +solved at all. Manufacturers are dealing with the necessity for +producing a definite output as a result of definite expenditure and +definite effort. The Government of the United States is doing exactly +the same thing. The manufacturer's product can be measured in dollars +and cents. The product of the Government of the United States can be +measured partly in dollars and cents, but far more importantly in the +welfare and contentment and happiness of the people over which it is +called upon to preside. + +The keynote of that Conservation Conference in Washington was +forethought and foresight. The keynote of success in any line of life, +or one of the great keynotes, must be forethought and foresight. If we, +as a Nation, are to continue the wonderful growth we have had, it is +forethought and foresight which must give us the capacity to go on as we +have been going. I dwell on this because it seems to me to be one of +the most curious of all things in the history of the United States +to-day that we should have grasped this principle so tremendously and so +vigorously in our daily lives, in the conduct of our own business, and +yet have failed so completely to make the obvious application in the +things which concern the Nation. + +It is curiously true that great aggregations of individuals and +organized bodies are apt to be less far-sighted, less moral, less +intelligent along certain lines than the individual citizen; or at least +that their standards are lower; a principle which is illustrated by the +fact that we have got over settling disputes between individuals by the +strong hand, but not yet between nations. + +So we have allowed ourselves as a Nation, in the flush of the tremendous +progress that we have made, to fail to look at the end from the +beginning and to put ourselves in a position where the normal operation +of natural laws threatens to bring us to a halt in a way which will +make every man, woman, and child in the Nation feel the pinch when it +comes. + +No man may rightly fail to take a great pride in what has been +accomplished by means of the destruction of our natural resources so far +as it has gone. It is a paradoxical statement, perhaps, but nevertheless +true, because out of this attack on what nature has given we have won a +kind of prosperity and a kind of civilization and a kind of man that are +new in the world. For example, nothing like the rapidity of the +destruction of American forests has ever been known in forest history, +and nothing like the efficiency and vigor and inventiveness of the +American lumberman has ever been developed by any attack on any forests +elsewhere. Probably the most effective tool that the human mind and hand +have ever made is the American axe. So the American business man has +grasped his opportunities and used them and developed them and invented +about them, thought them into lines of success, and thus has developed +into a new business man, with a vigor and effectiveness and a +cutting-edge that has never been equalled anywhere else. We have gained +out of the vast destruction of our natural resources a degree of vigor +and power and efficiency of which every man of us ought to be proud. + +Now that is done. We have accomplished these big things. What is the +next step? Shall we go on in the same lines to the certain destruction +of the prosperity which we have created, or shall we take the obvious +lesson of all human history, turn our backs on the uncivilized point of +view, and adopt toward our natural resources the average prudence and +average foresight and average care that we long ago adopted as a rule of +our daily life? + +The conservation movement is calling the attention of the American +people to the fact that they are trustees. The fact seems to me so +plain as to require only a statement of it, to carry conviction. Can we +reasonably fail to recognize the obligation which rests upon us in this +matter? And, if we do fail to recognize it, can we reasonably expect +even a fairly good reputation at the hands of our descendants? + +Business prudence and business common-sense indicate as strongly as +anything can the absolute necessity of a change in point of view on the +part of the people of the United States regarding their natural +resources. The way we have been handling them is not good business. +Purely on the side of dollars and cents, it is not good business to kill +the goose that lays the golden egg, to burn up half our forests, to +waste our coal, and to remove from under the feet of those who are +coming after us the opportunity for equal happiness with ourselves. The +thing we ought to leave to them is not merely an opportunity for equal +happiness and equal prosperity, but for a vastly increased fund of +both. + +Conservation is not merely a question of business, but a question of a +vastly higher duty. In dealing with our natural resources we have come +to a place at last where every consideration of patriotism, every +consideration of love of country, of gratitude for things that the land +and the institutions of this Nation have given us, call upon us for a +return. If we owe anything to the United States, if this country has +been good to us, if it has given us our prosperity, our education, and +our chance of happiness, then there is a duty resting upon us. That duty +is to see, so far as in us lies, that those who are coming after us +shall have the same opportunity for happiness we have had ourselves. +Apart from any business consideration, apart from the question of the +immediate dollar, this problem of the future wealth and happiness and +prosperity of the people of the United States has a right to our +attention. It rises far above all matters of temporary individual +business advantage, and becomes a great question of national +preservation. We all have the unquestionable right to a reasonable use +of natural resources during our lifetime, we all may use, and should +use, the good things that were put here for our use, for in the last +analysis this question of conservation is the question of national +preservation and national efficiency. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +THE MORAL ISSUE + +The central thing for which Conservation stands is to make this country +the best possible place to live in, both for us and for our descendants. +It stands against the waste of the natural resources which cannot be +renewed, such as coal and iron; it stands for the perpetuation of the +resources which can be renewed, such as the food-producing soils and the +forests; and most of all it stands for an equal opportunity for every +American citizen to get his fair share of benefit from these resources, +both now and hereafter. + +Conservation stands for the same kind of practical common-sense +management of this country by the people that every business man stands +for in the handling of his own business. It believes in prudence and +foresight instead of reckless blindness; it holds that resources now +public property should not become the basis for oppressive private +monopoly; and it demands the complete and orderly development of all our +resources for the benefit of all the people, instead of the partial +exploitation of them for the benefit of a few. It recognizes fully the +right of the present generation to use what it needs and all it needs of +the natural resources now available, but it recognizes equally our +obligation so to use what we need that our descendants shall not be +deprived of what they need. + +Conservation has much to do with the welfare of the average man of +to-day. It proposes to secure a continuous and abundant supply of the +necessaries of life, which means a reasonable cost of living and +business stability. It advocates fairness in the distribution of the +benefits which flow from the natural resources. It will matter very +little to the average citizen, when scarcity comes and prices rise, +whether he can not get what he needs because there is none left or +because he can not afford to pay for it. In both cases the essential +fact is that he can not get what he needs. Conservation holds that it is +about as important to see that the people in general get the benefit of +our natural resources as to see that there shall be natural resources +left. + +Conservation is the most democratic movement this country has known for +a generation. It holds that the people have not only the right, but the +duty to control the use of the natural resources, which are the great +sources of prosperity. And it regards the absorption of these resources +by the special interests, unless their operations are under effective +public control, as a moral wrong. Conservation is the application of +common-sense to the common problems for the common good, and I believe +it stands nearer to the desires, aspirations, and purposes of the +average man than any other policy now before the American people. + +The danger to the Conservation policies is that the privileges of the +few may continue to obstruct the rights of the many, especially in the +matter of water power and coal. Congress must decide immediately whether +the great coal fields still in public ownership shall remain so, in +order that their use may be controlled with due regard to the interest +of the consumer, or whether they shall pass into private ownership and +be controlled in the monopolistic interest of a few. + +Congress must decide also whether immensely valuable rights to the use +of water power shall be given away to special interests in perpetuity +and without compensation instead of being held and controlled by the +public. In most cases actual development of water power can best be done +by private interests acting under public control, but it is neither +good sense nor good morals to let these valuable privileges pass from +the public ownership for nothing and forever. Other conservation matters +doubtless require action, but these two, the conservation of water power +and of coal, the chief sources of power of the present and the future, +are clearly the most pressing. + +It is of the first importance to prevent our water powers from passing +into private ownership as they have been doing, because the greatest +source of power we know is falling water. Furthermore, it is the only +great unfailing source of power. Our coal, the experts say, is likely to +be exhausted during the next century, our natural gas and oil in this. +Our rivers, if the forests on the watersheds are properly handled, will +never cease to deliver power. Under our form of civilization, if a few +men ever succeed in controlling the sources of power, they will +eventually control all industry as well. If they succeed in controlling +all industry, they will necessarily control the country. This country +has achieved political freedom; what our people are fighting for now is +industrial freedom. And unless we win our industrial liberty, we can not +keep our political liberty. I see no reason why we should deliberately +keep on helping to fasten the handcuffs of corporate control upon +ourselves for all time merely because the few men who would profit by it +most have heretofore had the power to compel it. + +The essential things that must be done to protect the water powers for +the people are few and simple. First, the granting of water powers +forever, either on non-navigable or navigable streams, must absolutely +stop. It is perfectly clear that one hundred, fifty, or even twenty-five +years ago our present industrial conditions and industrial needs were +completely beyond the imagination of the wisest of our predecessors. It +is just as true that we can not imagine or foresee the industrial +conditions and needs of the future. But we do know that our descendants +should be left free to meet their own necessities as they arise. It can +not be right, therefore, for us to grant perpetual rights to the one +great permanent source of power. It is just as wrong as it is foolish, +and just as needless as it is wrong, to mortgage the welfare of our +children in such a way as this. Water powers must and should be +developed mainly by private capital and they must be developed under +conditions which make investment in them profitable and safe. But +neither profit nor safety requires perpetual rights, as many of the best +water-power men now freely acknowledge. + +Second, the men to whom the people grant the right to use water-power +should pay for what they get. The water-power sites now in the public +hands are enormously valuable. There is no reason whatever why special +interests should be allowed to use them for profit without making some +direct payment to the people for the valuable rights derived from the +people. This is important not only for the revenue the Nation will get. +It is at least equally important as a recognition that the public +controls its own property and has a right to share in the benefits +arising from its development. There are other ways in which public +control of water power must be exercised, but these two are the most +important. + +Water power on non-navigable streams usually results from dropping a +little water a long way. In the mountains water is dropped many hundreds +of feet upon the turbines which move the dynamos that produce the +electric current. Water power on navigable streams is usually produced +by dropping immense volumes of water a short distance, as twenty feet, +fifteen feet, or even less. Every stream is a unit from its source to +its mouth, and the people have the same stake in the control of water +power in one part of it as in another. Under the Constitution, the +United States exercises direct control over navigable streams. It +exercises control over non-navigable and source streams only through its +ownership of the lands through which they pass, as the public domain and +National Forests. It is just as essential for the public welfare that +the people should retain and exercise control of water-power monopoly on +navigable as on non-navigable streams. If the difficulties are greater, +then the danger that the water powers may pass out of the people's hands +on the lower navigable parts of the streams is greater than on the upper +non-navigable parts, and it may be harder, but in no way less necessary, +to prevent it. + +It must be clear to any man who has followed the development of the +Conservation idea that no other policy now before the American people is +so thoroughly democratic in its essence and in its tendencies as the +Conservation policy. It asserts that the people have the right and the +duty, and that it is their duty no less than their right, to protect +themselves against the uncontrolled monopoly of the natural resources +which yield the necessaries of life. We are beginning to realize that +the Conservation question is a question of right and wrong, as any +question must be which may involve the differences between prosperity +and poverty, health and sickness, ignorance and education, well-being +and misery, to hundreds of thousands of families. Seen from the point of +view of human welfare and human progress, questions which begin as +purely economic often end as moral issues. Conservation is a moral issue +because it involves the rights and the duties of our people--their +rights to prosperity and happiness, and their duties to themselves, to +their descendants, and to the whole future progress and welfare of this +Nation. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +PUBLIC SPIRIT + +Violent crises in the lives of men and nations usually produce their own +remedies. They grasp the attention and stir the consciences of men, and +usually they evolve leaders and measures to meet their imperious needs. +But the great evident crises are by no means the only ones of +importance. The quiet turning point, reached and passed often with +slight attention and wholly without struggle, is frequently not less +decisive. Great decisions are made or great impulses given or withheld +in the life of a man or a nation often so quietly that their critical +character is seen only in retrospect. It is only the historian who can +say just when some unnoticed, yet decisive and irrevocable, step was +actually accomplished. + +The United States has been in the midst of such a period of decision +since the Spanish War called into blossom the quiet growth of years, and +we are still face to face with questions of the most vital bearing upon +our future. The changes now in progress are accompanied by no +convulsions, yet the whole character of our civilization is being +rapidly crystallized anew as our country takes its inevitable place in +the world. + +So quietly are the great forces at work that some of our most vital +problems have remained almost unrecognized by the public until the last +two years. Yet the fact that these decisions are being made is almost +appalling in its magnitude, and their indescribable consequence not only +to the United States, but to all the nations of the earth, needs to be +vividly realized by every one of us, for it is one of the great +compelling reasons why the public spirit of young men is needed so +urgently and at once. And more specific reasons press upon us from every +side. + +Recently the attention of our people, thanks largely to President +Roosevelt, was focussed upon the presence or absence of the common +virtues and the common decencies in public life. The revelation of +corruption in politics, in business, and here and there in the public +service, is a testimony not of unwonted wickedness in high places, but +of unwonted sensitiveness in public opinion, and so far as it goes it is +a most hopeful sign; but it does not yet go far enough. + +The opportunity to set a new standard in political morality is here now. +Public sensitiveness on every subject ebbs and flows and must be taken +at the flood if the use of it is to be really effective. Decision made +now as to the character of our public life will be valid for many years, +for it is but seldom that the question comes so clearly before us. The +war for righteousness is endless, but this is one of the great battles, +and its results will endure. + +We are now in the throes of decision on the whole question of business +in politics, of politics for business purposes, and we must take our +share in determining whether the object of our political system is to be +unclean money or free men. The present strong movement to prevent the +political control of public men, law-courts, and legislatures by great +commercial enterprises will either flash in the pan or it will succeed; +it will leave either the man or the dollar in control. The decision will +be made by the young men, and it is not far ahead. + +The question of efficiency in public office has been brought to the +front as never before in the history of the Nation. As a whole, our +public service is honest, but we should be able to take honesty for +granted. What we lack is the tradition of high efficiency that makes +great enterprises succeed. The national house-keeping, the Government's +vast machinery, should be the cleanest, the most effective, and the best +in methods and in men, for its touch upon the life of the Nation at +every point is constant and vital. + +There is no hunger like land hunger, and no object for which men are +more ready to use unfair and desperate means than the acquisition of +land. Under the influence of this compelling desire, assisted by +obsolete land laws warped from their original purpose, we are facing in +the public-land States west of the Mississippi the great question +whether the Western people are to be predominately a people of tenants +under the degrading tyranny of pecuniary and political vassalage, or +free-holders and free men; and there is no exaggerating the importance +of the decision. + +We have been deciding, and the decision is not yet fully made, whether +the future shall suffer the long train of ills which everywhere has +followed, and must always follow, the abuse of the forest, or whether by +protecting the timberlands we shall assure the prosperity of all of the +users of the wood, the water, and the forage which our forests supply. +Nothing less than the whole agricultural and commercial welfare of the +country is in the balance. No other conservation question compares with +this in the vital intimacy of its touch on every portion of our national +life. + +Other great questions only less vital I cannot even refer to, but one of +the central ones remains--our whole future is at stake in the education +of our young men in politics and public spirit. The greatest work that +Theodore Roosevelt did for the United States, the great fact which will +give his influence vitality and power long after we shall all have gone +to our reward, greater than his great services in bringing peace, in +settling strikes, in preaching the crusade of honesty and decency in +business and in daily life, is the fact that he changed the attitude of +the American people toward conserving the natural resources, and toward +public questions and public life. The time was, not long ago, when it +was not respectable to be interested in politics. The time is coming, +and I do not believe it is far ahead, when it will not be respectable +not to be interested in public affairs. Few changes can mean so much. + +Among the first duties of every man is to help in bringing the Kingdom +of God on earth. The greatest human power for good, the most efficient +earthly tool for the future uplifting of the nations, is without +question the United States; and the presence or absence of a vital +public spirit in the young men of the United States will determine the +quality of that great tool and the work that it can do. This is the +final object of the best citizenship. Public spirit is the means by +which every man can help toward this great end. Public spirit is +patriotism in action; it is the application of Christianity to the +commonwealth; it is effective loyalty to our country, to the brotherhood +of man, and to the future. It is the use of a man by himself for the +general good. + +Public spirit is the one great antidote for all the ills of the Nation, +and greatly the Nation needs it now. In a day when the vast increase in +wealth tends to reduce all things, moral, intellectual and material, to +the measure of the dollar; in a day when we have with us always the man +who is working for his own pocket all the time; when the monopolist of +land, of opportunity, of power or privilege in any form, is ever in the +public eye--it is good to remember that the real leaders are the men who +value the right to give themselves more highly than any gain whatsoever. + +It is given to few men to serve their country as greatly as President +Roosevelt has done, yet vastly smaller services are still tremendously +worth while. I question whether there has ever been a time and place +(except in violent crises) when the demand for public spirit was greater +than now and the results of it more assured. Public spirit is never +needed more than in times of prosperity, and it is never more effective. +It is the boat which is floating easily and rapidly with the stream that +is most in danger of striking the rocks. + +The reasons why public opinion may be so effective in the United States +are not far to seek. The extreme sensitiveness of our form of government +to political control is one of the commonplaces that has real meaning. +We seldom realize that ours is actually what it pretends to be--a +representative government--and our legislatures are extraordinarily +sensitive to what the people, the politically effective people, really +want. The Senators and Representatives in Congress do actually and +accurately represent the men who send them there, and they respond like +lightning to a clear order from the controlling element at home. It is +in the power of public spirit to say whether men or money shall control. + +If public spirit is in the saddle, the fundamental purpose of all the +people, which is good, will govern. If not, the bosses and the great +private interests will have their way. Without the backing of the public +spirit of good men, even the President himself loses by far the greater +portion of his power. For the power to do what we hope to see +accomplished, we must look most of all to the public spirit of the young +men. + +But some one will say that great service is beyond his individual power. +I do not believe that great service is beyond the power of any young +man. This is not a matter in which obstacles decide. The man for whom +all the barriers to success have been broken down is not, as a rule, the +man who succeeds. On the contrary, conflict is the condition of +success. The quality of the man himself decides. The more I study men, +which is the daily occupation of every man in affairs, the more firmly I +am assured that the great fundamental difference between men, the reason +why some fail and some succeed, is not a difference in ability or +opportunity, but a difference in vision and in relentless loyalty to +ideals--vision to see the great object, and relentless, unwavering, +uninterrupted loyalty in its service. What young men determine to do at +whatever cost of effort, self-denial, and endurance, provided that their +objects are good and within the possibility of attainment, they will +surely accomplish in so large a proportion of cases that the failures +are negligible. If all that a man has or is, if his death and his daily +life, are wholly and relentlessly at the service of his ideal, without +hesitancy or reservation, then he will achieve his object. Either by +himself or his successors he will achieve it, for he disposes of the +greatest power to which humanity can attain. Under such conditions there +is no man among us who cannot render high service to our beloved +country. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +THE CHILDREN + +The success of the conservation movement in the United States depends in +the end on the understanding the women have of it. No forward step in +this whole campaign has been more deeply appreciated or more welcomed +than that which the National Society of the Daughters of the American +Revolution and other organizations of women have taken in appointing +conservation committees. + +Patriotism is the key to the success of any nation, and patriotism first +strikes its roots in the mind of the child. Patriotism which does not +begin in early years may, though it does not always, fail under the +severest trials. I say "not always," for many men and women have proved +their patriotic devotion to this country although they were born +elsewhere. Yet, as a rule, it must begin with the children. And almost +without exception it is the mother who plants patriotism in the mind of +the child. It is her duty. The growth of patriotism is first of all in +the hands of the women of any nation. In the last analysis it is the +mothers of a nation who direct that nation's destiny. + +The fundamental task of patriotism is to see to it that the Nation +exists and endures in honor, security, and well-being. Fortunately there +is no question as to our existing in honor, and little if any as to our +continuing to exist in security. + +The great fundamental problem which confronts us all now is this: Shall +we continue, as a Nation, to exist in well-being? That is the +conservation problem. + +If we are to have prosperity in this country, it will be because we have +an abundance of natural resources available for the citizen. In other +words, as the minds of the children are guided toward the idea of +foresight, just to that extent, and probably but little more, will the +generations that are coming hereafter be able to carry through the great +task of making this Nation what its manifest destiny demands that it +shall be. + +Women should recognize, if this task is to be carried out, one great +truth above all others. That this Nation exists for its people, we all +admit; but that the natural resources of the Nation exist not for any +small group, not for any individual, but for all the people--in other +words, that the natural resources of the Nation belong to all the +people--that is a truth the whole meaning of which is just beginning to +dawn on us. There is no form of monopoly which exists or ever has +existed on any large scale which was not based more or less directly +upon the control of natural resources. There is no form of monopoly that +has ever existed or can exist which can do harm if the people +understand that the natural resources belong to the people of the +Nation, and exercise that understanding, as they have the power to do. + +It seems to me that of all the movements which have been inaugurated to +give power to the conservation idea, the foresight idea, there is none +more helpful than that the women of the United States are taking hold of +the problem. We must make all the people see that now and in the future +the resources are to be developed and employed, yet at the same time +guarded and protected against waste--not for small groups of men who +will control them for their own purposes, but for all the people through +all time. + +The question of the conservation of our natural resources is not a +simple question, but it requires, and will increasingly require, +thinking out along lines directed to the fundamental economic basis upon +which this Nation exists. I think it can not be disputed that the +natural resources exist for and belong to the people; and I believe that +the part of the work which falls to the women (and it is no small part) +is to see to it that the children, who will be the men and women of the +future, have their share of these resources uncontrolled by monopoly and +unspoiled by waste. + +What specific things can the women of the Nation do for conservation? +The Daughters of the American Revolution have begun admirably in the +appointment of a Conservation Committee, and other organizations of +women are following their example. Few people realize what women have +already done for conservation, and what they may do. Some of the +earliest effective forest work that was done in the United States, work +which laid the lines that have been followed since, was that of the +Pennsylvania Forestry Association, begun and carried through first of +all by ladies in Philadelphia. One of the bravest, most intelligent and +most effective fights for forestry that I have known of was that of the +women of Minnesota for the Minnesota National Forest. It was a superb +success, and we have that forest to-day. I have known of no case of +persistent agitation under discouragement finer in a good many ways than +the fight that the women of California have made to save the great grove +of Calaveras big trees. As a result the Government has taken possession +of that forest and will preserve it for all future generations. + +Time and again, then, the women have made it perfectly clear what they +can do in this work. Obviously the first point of attack is the stopping +of waste. Women alone can bring to the school children the idea of the +wickedness of national waste and the value of public saving. The issue +is a moral one; and women are the first teachers of right and wrong. It +is a question of seeing what loyalty to the public welfare demands of +us, and then of caring enough for the public welfare not to set personal +advantage first. It is a question of inspiring our future citizens while +they are boys and girls with the spirit of true patriotism as against +the spirit of rank selfishness, the anti-social spirit of the man who +declines to take into account any other interest than his own; whose one +aim and ideal is personal success. Women both in public and at home, by +letting the men know what they think, and by putting it before the +children, can make familiar the idea of conservation, and support it +with a convincingness that nobody else can approach. + +However important it may be for the lumberman, the miner, the +wagon-maker, the railroad man, the house-builder,--for every +industry,--that conservation should obtain, when all is said and done, +conservation goes back in its directest application to one body in this +country, and that is to the children. There is in this country no other +movement except possibly the education movement--and that after all is +in a sense only another aspect of the conservation question, the seeking +to make the most of what we have--so directly aimed to help the +children, so conditioned upon the needs of the children, so belonging to +the children, as the conservation movement; and it is for that reason +more than any other that it has the support of the women of the Nation. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +AN EQUAL CHANCE + +The American people have evidently made up their minds that our natural +resources must be conserved. That is good, but it settles only half the +question. For whose benefit shall they be conserved--for the benefit of +the many, or for the use and profit of the few? The great conflict now +being fought will decide. There is no other question before us that +begins to be so important, or that will be so difficult to straddle, as +the great question between special interest and equal opportunity, +between the privileges of the few and the rights of the many, between +government by men for human welfare and government by money for profit, +between the men who stand for the Roosevelt policies and the men who +stand against them. This is the heart of the conservation problem +to-day. + +The conservation issue is a moral issue. When a few men get possession +of one of the necessaries of life, either through ownership of a natural +resource or through unfair business methods, and use that control to +extort undue profits, as in the recent cases of the Sugar Trust and the +beef-packers, they injure the average man without good reason, and they +are guilty of a moral wrong. It does not matter whether the undue profit +comes through stifling competition by rebates or other crooked devices, +through corruption of public officials, or through seizing and +monopolizing resources which belong to the people. The result is always +the same--a toll levied on the cost of living through special privilege. + +The income of the average family in the United States is less than $600 +a year. To increase the cost of living to such a family beyond the +reasonable profits of legitimate business is wrong. It is not merely a +question of a few cents more a day for the necessaries of life, or of a +few cents less a day for wages. Far more is at stake--the health or +sickness of little babies, the education or ignorance of children, +virtue or vice in young daughters, honesty or criminality in young sons, +the working power of bread-winners, the integrity of families, the +provision for old age--in a word, the welfare and happiness or the +misery and degradation of the plain people are involved in the cost of +living. + +To the special interest an unjust rise in the cost of living means +simply higher profit, but to those who pay it, that profit is measured +in schooling, warm clothing, a reserve to meet emergencies, a fair +chance to make the fight for comfort, decency, and right living. + +I believe in our form of government and I believe in the Golden Rule. +But we must face the truth that monopoly of the sources of production +makes it impossible for vast numbers of men and women to earn a fair +living. Right here the conservation question touches the daily life of +the great body of our people, who pay the cost of special privilege. And +the price is heavy. That price may be the chance to save the boys from +the saloons and the corner gang, and the girls from worse, and to make +good citizens of them instead of bad; for an appalling proportion of the +tragedies of life spring directly from the lack of a little money. +Thousands of daughters of the poor fall into the hands of the +white-slave traders because their poverty leaves them without +protection. Thousands of families, as the Pittsburg survey has shown us, +lead lives of brutalizing overwork in return for the barest living. Is +it fair that these thousands of families should have less than they need +in order that a few families should have swollen fortunes at their +expense? Let him who dares deny that there is wickedness in grinding +the faces of the poor, or assert that these are not moral questions +which strike the very homes of our people. If these are not moral +questions, there are no moral questions. + +The people of this country have lost vastly more than they can ever +regain by gifts of public property, forever and without charge, to men +who gave nothing in return. It is true that, we have made superb +material progress under this system, but it is not well for us to +rejoice too freely in the slices the special interests have given us +from the great loaf of the property of all the people. + +The people of the United States have been the complacent victims of a +system of grab, often perpetrated by men who would have been surprised +beyond measure to be accused of wrong-doing, and many of whom in their +private lives were model citizens. But they have suffered from a curious +moral perversion by which it becomes praiseworthy to do for a +corporation things which they would refuse with the loftiest scorn to +do for themselves. Fortunately for us all that delusion is passing +rapidly away. + +President Hadley well said that "the fundamental division of powers in +the Constitution of the United States is between voters on the one hand +and property-owners on the other." When property gets possession of the +voting power also, little is left for the people. That is why the unholy +alliance between business and politics is the most dangerous fact in our +political life. I believe the American people are tired of that +alliance. They are weary of politics for revenue only. It is time to +take business out of politics, and keep it out--time for the political +activity of this Nation to be aimed squarely at the welfare of all of +us, and squarely away from the excessive profits of a few of us. + +A man is not bad because he is rich, nor good because he is poor. There +is no monopoly of virtue. I hold no brief for the poor against the rich +nor for the wage-earner against the capitalist. Exceptional capacity in +business, as in any other line of life, should meet with exceptional +reward. Rich men have served this country greatly. Washington was a rich +man. But it is very clear that excessive profits from the control of +natural resources, monopolized by a few, are not worth to this Nation +the tremendous price they cost us. + +We have allowed the great corporations to occupy with their own men the +strategic points in business, in social, and in political life. It is +our fault more than theirs. We have allowed it when we could have +stopped it. Too often we have seemed to forget that a man in public life +can no more serve both the special interests and the people than he can +serve God and Mammon. There is no reason why the American people should +not take into their hands again the full political power which is theirs +by right, and which they exercised before the special interests began +to nullify the will of the majority. There are many men who believe, and +who will always believe, in the divine right of money to rule. With such +men argument, compromise, or conciliation is useless or worse. The only +thing to do with them is to fight them and beat them. It has been done, +and it can be done again. + +It is the honorable distinction of the Forest Service that it has been +more constantly, more violently and more bitterly attacked by the +representatives of the special interests in recent years than any other +Government Bureau. These attacks have increased in violence and +bitterness just in proportion as the Service has offered effective +opposition to predatory wealth. The more successful the Forest Service +has been in preventing land-grabbing and the absorption of water power +by the special interests, the more ingenious, the more devious, and the +more dangerous these attacks have become. A favorite one is to assert +that the Forest Service, in its zeal for the public welfare, has played +ducks and drakes with the Acts of Congress. The fact is, on the +contrary, that the Service has had warrant of law for everything it has +done. Not once since it was created has any charge of illegality, +despite the most searching investigation and the bitterest attack, ever +led to reversal or reproof by either House of Congress or by any +Congressional Committee. Not once has the Forest Service been defeated +or reversed as to any vital legal principle underlying its work in any +court or administrative tribunal of last resort. It is the first duty of +a public officer to obey the law. But it is his second duty, and a close +second, to do everything the law will let him do for the public good, +and not merely what the law directs or compels him to do. Unless the +public service is alive enough to serve the people with enthusiasm, +there is very little to be said for it. + +Another, and unusually plausible, form of attack, is to demand that all +land not now bearing trees shall be thrown out of the National Forests. +For centuries forest fires have burned through the Western mountains, +and much land thus deforested is scattered throughout the National +Forests awaiting reforestation. This land is not valuable for +agriculture, and will contribute more to the general welfare under +forest than in any other way. To exclude it from the National Forests +would be no more reasonable than it would be in a city to remove from +taxation and municipal control every building lot not now covered by a +house. It would be no more reasonable than to condemn and take away from +our farmers every acre of land that did not bear a crop last year, or to +confiscate a man's winter overcoat because he was not wearing it in +July. A generation in the life of a nation is no longer than a season in +the life of a man. With a fair chance we can and will reclothe these +denuded mountains with forests, and we ask for that chance. + +Still another attack, nearly successful two years ago, was an attempt +to prevent the Forest Service from telling the people, through the +press, what it is accomplishing for them, and how much this Nation needs +the forests. If the Forest Service can not tell what it is doing the +time will come when there will be nothing to tell. It is just as +necessary for the people to know what is being done to help them as to +know what is being done to hurt them. Publicity is the essential and +indispensable condition of clean and effective public service. + +Since the Forest Service called public attention to the rapid absorption +of the water-power sites and the threatening growth of a great +water-power monopoly, the attacks upon it have increased with marked +rapidity. I anticipate that they will continue to do so. Still greater +opposition is promised in the near future. There is but one +protection--an awakened and determined public opinion. That is why I +tell the facts. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +THE NEW PATRIOTISM + +The people of the United States are on the verge of one of the great +quiet decisions which determine national destinies. Crises happen in +peace as well as in war, and a peaceful crisis may be as vital and +controlling as any that comes with national uprising and the clash of +arms. Such a crisis, at first uneventful and almost unperceived, is upon +us now, and we are engaged in making the decision that is thus forced +upon us. And, so far as it has gone, our decision is largely wrong. +Fortunately it is not yet final. + +The question we are deciding with so little consciousness of what it +involves is this: What shall we do with our natural resources? Upon the +final answer that we shall make to it hangs the success or failure of +this Nation in accomplishing its manifest destiny. + +Few Americans will deny that it is the manifest destiny of the United +States to demonstrate that a democratic republic is the best form of +government yet devised, and that the ideals and institutions of the +great republic taken together must and do work out in a prosperous, +contented, peaceful, and righteous people; and also to exercise, through +precept and example, an influence for good among the nations of the +world. That destiny seems to us brighter and more certain of realization +to-day than ever before. It is true that in population, in wealth, in +knowledge, in national efficiency generally, we have reached a place far +beyond the farthest hopes of the founders of the Republic. Are the +causes which have led to our marvellous development likely to be +repeated indefinitely in the future, or is there a reasonable +possibility, or even a probability, that conditions may arise which will +check our growth? + +Danger to a nation comes either from without or from within. In the +first great crisis of our history, the Revolution, another people +attempted from without to halt the march of our destiny by refusing to +us liberty. With reasonable prudence and preparedness we need never fear +another such attempt. If there be danger, it is not from an external +source. In the second great crisis, the Civil War, a part of our own +people strove for an end which would have checked the progress of +development. Another such attempt has become forever impossible. If +there be danger, it is not from a division of our people. + +In the third great crisis of our history, which has now come squarely +upon us, the special interests and the thoughtless citizens seem to have +united together to deprive the Nation of the great natural resources +without which it cannot endure. This is the pressing danger now, and it +is not the least to which our National life has been exposed. A nation +deprived of liberty may win it, a nation divided may reunite, but a +nation whose natural resources are destroyed must inevitably pay the +penalty of poverty, degradation, and decay. + +At first blush this may seem like an unpardonable misconception and +over-statement, and if it is not true it certainly is unpardonable. Let +us consider the facts. Some of them are well known, and the salient ones +can be put very briefly. + +The five indispensably essential materials in our civilization are wood, +water, coal, iron, and agricultural products. + +We have timber for less than thirty years at the present rate of +cutting. The figures indicate that our demands upon the forest have +increased twice as fast as our population. + +We have anthracite coal for but fifty years, and bituminous coal for +less than two hundred. + +Our supplies of iron ore, mineral oil, and natural gas are being rapidly +depleted, and many of the great fields are already exhausted. Mineral +resources such as these when once gone are gone forever. + +We have allowed erosion, that great enemy of agriculture, to impoverish +and, over thousands of square miles, to destroy our farms. The +Mississippi alone carries yearly to the sea more than 400,000,000 tons +of the richest soil within its drainage basin. If this soil is worth a +dollar a ton, it is probable that the total loss of fertility from +soil-wash to the farmers and forest-owners of the United States is not +far from a billion dollars a year. Our streams, in spite of the millions +of dollars spent upon them, are less navigable now than they were fifty +years ago, and the soil lost by erosion from the farms and the +deforested mountain sides, is the chief reason. The great cattle and +sheep ranges of the West, because of overgrazing, are capable, in an +average year, of carrying but half the stock they once could support and +should still. Their condition affects the price of meat in practically +every city of the United States. + +These are but a few of the more striking examples. The diversion of +great areas of our public lands from the home-maker to the landlord and +the speculator; the national neglect of great water powers, which might +well relieve, being perennially renewed, the drain upon our +non-renewable coal; the fact that but half the coal has been taken from +the mines which have already been abandoned as worked out and by +caving-in have made the rest forever inaccessible; the disuse of the +cheaper transportation of our waterways, which involves comparatively +slight demand upon our non-renewable supplies of iron ore, and the use +of the rail instead--these are other items in the huge bill of +particulars of national waste. + +We have a well-marked national tendency to disregard the future, and it +has led us to look upon all our natural resources as inexhaustible. Even +now that the actual exhaustion of some of them is forcing itself upon us +in higher prices and the greater cost of living, we are still asserting, +if not always in words, yet in the far stronger language of action, that +nevertheless and in spite of it all, they still are inexhaustible. + +It is this national attitude of exclusive attention to the present, this +absence of foresight from among the springs of national action, which is +directly responsible for the present condition of our natural resources. +It was precisely the same attitude which brought Palestine, once rich +and populous, to its present desert condition, and which destroyed the +fertility and habitability of vast areas in northern Africa and +elsewhere in so many of the older regions of the world. + +The conservation of our natural resources is a question of primary +importance on the economic side. It pays better to conserve our natural +resources than to destroy them, and this is especially true when the +national interest is considered. But the business reason, weighty and +worthy though it be, is not the fundamental reason. In such matters, +business is a poor master but a good servant. The law of +self-preservation is higher than the law of business, and the duty of +preserving the Nation is still higher than either. + +The American Revolution had its origin in part in economic causes, and +it produced economic results of tremendous reach and weight. The Civil +War also arose in large part from economic conditions, and it has had +the largest economic consequences. But in each case there was a higher +and more compelling reason. So with the third great crisis of our +history. It has an economic aspect of the largest and most permanent +importance, and the motive for action along that line, once it is +recognized, should be more than sufficient. But that is not all. In +this case, too, there is a higher and more compelling reason. The +question of the conservation of natural resources, or national +resources, does not stop with being a question of profit. It is a vital +question of profit, but what is still more vital, it is a question of +national safety and patriotism also. + +We have passed the inevitable stage of pioneer pillage of natural +resources. The natural wealth we found upon this continent has made us +rich. We have used it, as we had a right to do, but we have not stopped +there. We have abused, and wasted, and exhausted it also, so that there +is the gravest danger that our prosperity to-day will have been bought +at the price of the suffering and poverty of our descendants. We may now +fairly ask of ourselves a reasonable care for the future and a natural +interest in those who are to come after us. No patriotic citizen expects +this Nation to run its course and perish in a hundred or two hundred, +or five hundred years; but, on the contrary, we expect it to grow in +influence and power and, what is of vastly greater importance, in the +happiness and prosperity of our people. But we have as little reason to +expect that all this will happen of itself as there would have been for +the men who established this Nation to expect that a United States would +grow of itself without their efforts and sacrifices. It was their duty +to found this Nation, and they did it. It is our duty to provide for its +continuance in well-being and honor. That duty it seems as though we +might neglect--not in wilfulness, not in any lack of patriotic devotion, +when once our patriotism is aroused, but in mere thoughtlessness and +inability or unwillingness to drop the interests of the moment long +enough to realize that what we do now will decide the future of the +Nation. For, if we do not take action to conserve the Nation's natural +resources, and that soon, our descendants will suffer the penalty of +our neglect. + +Let me use a homely illustration: We have all known fathers and mothers, +devoted to their children, whose attention was fixed and limited by the +household routine of daily life. Such parents were actively concerned +with the common needs and precautions and remedies entailed in bringing +up a family, but blind to every threat that was at all unusual. Fathers +and mothers such as these often remain serenely unaware while some +dangerous malady or injurious habit is fastening itself upon a favorite +child. Once the evil is discovered, there is no sacrifice too great to +repair the damage which their unwitting neglect may have allowed to +become irreparable. So it is, I think, with the people of the United +States. Capable of every devotion in a recognized crisis, we have yet +carelessly allowed the habit of improvidence and waste of resources to +find lodgment. It is our great good fortune that the harm is not yet +altogether beyond repair. + +The profoundest duty that lies upon any father is to leave his son with +a reasonable equipment for the struggle of life and an untarnished name. +So the noblest task that confronts us all to-day is to leave this +country unspotted in honor, and unexhausted in resources, to our +descendants, who will be, not less than we, the children of the Founders +of the Republic. I conceive this task to partake of the highest spirit +of patriotism. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +THE PRESENT BATTLE + +Conservation has captured the Nation. Its progress during the last +twelve months is amazing. Official opposition to the conservation +movement, whatever damage it has done or still threatens to the public +interest, has vastly strengthened the grasp of conservation upon the +minds and consciences of our people. Efforts to obscure or belittle the +issue have only served to make it larger and clearer in the public +estimation. The conservation movement cannot be checked by the baseless +charge that it will prevent development, or that every man who tells the +plain truth is either a muck-raker or a demagogue. It has taken firm +hold on our national moral sense, and when an issue does that it has +won. + +The conservation issue is a moral issue, and the heart of it is this: +For whose benefit shall our natural resources be conserved--for the +benefit of us all, or for the use and profit of the few? This truth is +so obvious and the question itself so simple that the attitude toward +conservation of any man in public or private life indicates his stand in +the fight for public rights. + +All monopoly rests on the unregulated control of natural resources and +natural advantages, and such control by the special interests is +impossible without the help of politics. The alliance between business +and politics is the most dangerous thing in our political life. It is +the snake that we must kill. The special interests must get out of +politics, or the American people will put them out of business. There is +no third course. + +Because the special interests are in politics, we as a Nation have lost +confidence in Congress. This is a serious statement to make, but it is +true. It does not apply, of course, to the men who really represent +their constituents and who are making so fine a fight for the +conservation of self-government. As soon as these men have won their +battle and consolidated their victory, confidence in Congress will +return. + +But in the meantime the people of the United States believe that, as a +whole, the Senate and the House no longer represent the voters by whom +they were elected, but the special interests by whom they are +controlled. They believe so because they have so often seen Congress +reject what the people desire, and do instead what the interests demand. +And of this there could be no better illustration than the tariff. + +The tariff, under the policy of protection, was originally a means to +raise the rate of wages. It has been made a tool to increase the cost of +living. The wool schedule, professing to protect the wool-grower, is +found to result in sacrificing grower and consumer alike to one of the +most rapacious of trusts. + +The cotton cloth schedule was increased in the face of the +uncontradicted public testimony of the manufacturers themselves that it +ought to remain unchanged. + +The Steel interests by a trick secured an indefensible increase in the +tariff on structural steel. + +The Sugar Trust stole from the Government like a petty thief, yet +Congress, by means of a dishonest schedule, continues to protect it in +bleeding the public. + +At the very time the duties on manufactured rubber were being raised, +the leader of the Senate, in company with the Guggenheim Syndicate, was +organizing an international rubber trust, whose charter made it also a +holding company for the coal and copper deposits of the whole world. + +For a dozen years the demand of the Nation for the Pure Food and Drug +bill was outweighed in Congress by the interests which asserted their +right to poison the people for a profit. + +Congress refused to authorize the preparation of a great plan of +waterway development in the general interest, and for ten years has +declined to pass the Appalachian and White Mountain National Forest +bill, although the people are practically unanimous for both. + +The whole Nation is in favor of protecting the coal and other natural +resources in Alaska, yet they are still in grave danger of being +absorbed by the special interests. And as for the general conservation +movement, Congress not only refused to help it on, but tried to forbid +any progress without its help. Fortunately for us all, in this attempt +it has utterly failed. + +This loss of confidence in Congress is a matter for deep concern to +every thinking American. It has not come quickly or without good +reason. Every man who knows Congress well knows the names of Senators +and members who betray the people they were elected to represent, and +knows also the names of the masters whom they obey. A representative of +the people who wears the collar of the special interests has touched +bottom. He can sink no farther. + +Who is to blame because representatives of the people are so commonly +led to betray their trust? We all are--we who have not taken the trouble +to resent and put an end to the knavery we knew was going on. The brand +of politics served out to us by the professional politician has long +been composed largely of hot meals for the interests and hot air for the +people, and we have all known it. + +Political platforms are not sincere statements of what the leaders of a +party really believe, but rather forms of words which those leaders +think they can get others to believe they believe. The realities of the +regular political game lie at present far beneath the surface; many of +the issues advanced are mere empty sound; while the issues really at +stake must be sought deep down in the politics of business--in politics +for revenue only. All this the people realize as they never did before, +and, what is more, they are ready to act on their knowledge. + +Some of the men who are responsible for the union of business and +politics may be profoundly dishonest, but more of them are not. They +were trained in a wrong school, and they cannot forget their training. +Clay hardens by immobility--men's minds by standing pat. Both lose the +power to take new impressions. Many of the old-style leaders regard the +political truths which alone insure the progress of the Nation, and will +hereafter completely dominate it, as the mere meaningless babble of +political infants. They have grown old in the belief that money has the +right to rule, and they can never understand the point of view of the +men who recognize in the corrupt political activity of a railroad or a +trust a most dangerous kind of treason to government by the people. + +When party leaders go wrong, it requires a high sense of public duty, +true courage, and a strong belief in the people for a man in politics to +take his future in his hands and stand against them. + +The black shadow of party regularity as the supreme test in public +affairs has passed away from the public mind. It is a great deliverance. +The man in the street no longer asks about a measure or a policy merely +whether it is good Republican or good Democratic doctrine. Now he asks +whether it is honest, and means what it says, whether it will promote +the public interest, weaken special privilege, and help to give every +man a fair chance. If it will, it is good, no matter who proposed it. If +it will not, it is bad, no matter who defends it. + +It is a greater thing to be a good citizen than to be a good Republican +or a good Democrat. + +The protest against politics for revenue only is as strong in one party +as in the other, for the servants of the interests are plentiful in +both. In that respect there is little to choose between them. + +Differences of purpose and belief between political parties to-day are +vastly less than the differences within the parties. The great gulf of +division which strikes across our whole people pays little heed to +fading party lines, or to any distinction in name only. The vital +separation is between the partisans of government by money for profit +and the believers in government by men for human welfare. + +When political parties come to be badly led, when their leaders lose +touch with the people, when their object ceases to be everybody's +welfare and becomes somebody's profit, it is time to change the leaders. +One of the most significant facts of the time is that the professional +politicians appear to be wholly unaware of the great moral change which +has come over political thinking in the last decade. They fail to see +that the political dogmas, the political slogans, and the political +methods of the past generation have lost their power, and that our +people have come at last to judge of politics by the eternal rules of +right and wrong. + +A new life is stirring among the dry bones of formal platforms and +artificial issues. Morality has broken into politics. Political leaders, +Trust-bred and Trust-fed, find it harder and harder to conceal their +actual character. The brass-bound collar of privilege has become plain +upon their necks for all men to see. They are known for what they are, +and their time is short. But when they come to be retired it will be of +little use to replace an unfaithful public servant who wears the collar +by another public servant with the same collar around his neck. Above +all, what we need in every office is free men representing a free +people. + +The motto in every primary--in every election--should be this: No +watch-dogs of the Interests need apply. + +The old order, standing pat in dull failure to sense the great forward +sweep of a nation determined on honesty and publicity in public affairs, +is already wearing thin under the ceaseless hammering of the progressive +onset. The demand of the people for political progress will not be +denied. Does any man, not blinded by personal interest or by the dust of +political dry rot, suppose that the bulk of our people are anything else +but progressive? If such there be, let him ask the young men, in whose +minds the policies of to-morrow first see the light. + +The people of the United States demand a new deal and a square deal. +They have grasped the fact that the special interests are now in control +of public affairs. They have decided once more to take control of their +own business. For the last ten years the determination to do so has been +swelling like a river. They insist that the special interests shall go +out of politics or out of business--one or the other. And the choice +will lie with the interests themselves. If they resist, both the +interests and the people will suffer. If wisely they accept the +inevitable, the adjustment will not be hard. It will do their business +no manner of harm to make it conform to the general welfare. But one way +or the other, conform it must. + +The overshadowing question before the American people to-day is this: +Shall the Nation govern itself or shall the interests run this country? +The one great political demand, underlying all others, giving meaning to +all others, is this: The special interests must get out of politics. The +old-style leaders, seeking to switch public attention away from this one +absorbing and overwhelming issue are pitifully ridiculous and out of +date. To try to divert the march of an aroused public conscience from +this righteous inevitable conflict by means of obsolete political +catchwords is like trying to dam the Mississippi with dead leaves. + +To drive the special interests out of politics is a vast undertaking, +for in politics lies their strength. If they resist, as doubtless they +will, it will call for nerve, endurance, and sacrifice on the part of +the people. It will be no child's play, for the power of privilege is +great. But the power of our people is greater still, and their +steadfastness is equal to the need. The task is a tremendous one, both +in the demands it will make and the rewards it will bring. It must be +undertaken soberly, carried out firmly and justly, and relentlessly +followed to the very end. Two things alone can bring success. The first +is honesty in public men, without which no popular government can long +succeed. The second is complete publicity of all the affairs in which +the public has an interest, such as the business of corporations and +political expenses during campaigns and between them. To these ends, +many unfaithful public servants must be retired, much wise legislation +must be framed and passed, and the struggle will be bitter and long. But +it will be well worth all it will cost, for self-government is at stake. + +There can be no legislative cure-all for great political evils, but +legislation can make easier the effective expression and execution of +the popular will. One step in this direction, which I personally believe +should be taken without delay, is a law forbidding any Senator or Member +of Congress or other public servant to perform any services for any +corporation engaged in interstate commerce, or to accept any valuable +consideration, directly or indirectly, from any such corporation, while +he is a representative of the people, and for a reasonable time +thereafter. If such a law would be good for the Nation in its affairs, a +similar law should be good for the States and the cities in their +affairs. And I see no reason why Members and Senators and State +Legislators should not keep the people informed of their pecuniary +interest in interstate or public service corporations, if they have any. +It is certain such publicity would do the public no harm. + +This Nation has decided to do away with government by money for profit +and return to the government our forefathers died for and gave to +us--government by men for human welfare and human progress. + +Opposition to progress has produced its natural results. There is +profound dissatisfaction and unrest, and profound cause for both. Yet +the result is good, for at last the country is awake. For a generation +at least there has not been a situation so promising for the ultimate +public welfare as that of to-day. Our people are like a hive of bees, +full of agitation before taking flight to a better place. Also they are +ready to sting. Out of the whole situation shines the confident hope of +better things. If any man is discouraged, let him consider the rise of +cleaner standards in this country within the last ten years. + +The task of translating these new standards into action lies before us. +From sea to sea the people are taking a fresh grip on their own affairs. +The conservation of political liberty will take its proper place +alongside the conservation of the means of living, and in both we shall +look to the permanent welfare by the plain people as the supreme end. +The way out lies in direct interest by the people in their own affairs +and direct action in the few great things that really count. + +What is the conclusion of the whole matter? The special interests must +be put out of politics. I believe the young men will do it. + + + + +INDEX + + + AMERICAN REVOLUTION, Economic Results of, + Daughters of, + + + BETTER TIMES ON THE FARM, + BUSINESS AND POLITICS, Unholy Alliance, + BUSINESS PROBLEM, A, + + + CHILDREN AND PATRIOTISM, + CITIZENSHIP AND PUBLIC SPIRIT, + CIVILIZATION, Essentials of, + COAL, Resources, + Waste in Mining, + Necessity of Civilization, + Control of, + CONGRESS, Loss of Confidence in, + CONSERVATION, Means Prosperity, + of Public Lands, + Nation's first duty, + Principles of, + Misconceptions about, + and the Future, + First Principle of, + Covers Wide Field, + and Common Sense, + of Waterways, + President Roosevelt's Views, + a Business Problem, + Key-note of, + Foresight, + Welfare of Average Man, + a Democratic Movement, + Danger to, + Woman's Work for, + and Patriotism, + Economic Side of, + CORPORATIONS, Strategy of + COST OF LIVING, Increase of, + COUNTRY LIFE, Problem of, + + + DAUGHTERS OF AMERICAN REVOLUTION, + DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Scope of, + DESTRUCTION, Period of, + DIVIDENDS FOR THE PEOPLE, + + + EDUCATION, Object of, + EFFICIENCY, National, + Lack of Tradition of, + EQUAL OPPORTUNITY, The Real Issue, + EROSION, Losses from, + Soil, + + + FARMER, Backbone of the Nation, + Organization and Coöperation, + FARMS, Abandonment of, + FORESIGHT, A Conservation Principle, + FORESTRY, Beginning of Conservation, + Leads Conservation Fight, + Pennsylvania Association, + FORESTS, Duration of Supply, + Perils of Exhaustion, + Fires, Control of, + and Rivers, + Minnesota National, + FOREST SERVICE, Value to the West, + and the Law, + Powers of, + Attacks on, + and Publicity, + FRANCHISES, Limits on, + FUTURE, Disregard of, + and Conservation, + + + GOLDEN RULE AND POLITICS, + GOVERNORS, Convention of, + GRAZING, Evils of Overgrazing, + + + HOME-BUILDING FOR THE NATION, + + + IRELAND, Agricultural Coöperation in, + IRON ORE, + IRRIGATION, Value of, + Better Times on the Farm, + + + LAND HUNGER, + LAW, Not Absolute, + Forest Service and the, + + + MARSHALL, Chief Justice, Opinion, + MINERAL FUELS, Waste of, + MINING, Wastes in, + MINNESOTA NATIONAL FORESTS, + MISSISSIPPI, Plan for Development of, + MONOPOLY, of Water Power, + of Natural Resources, + MORAL ISSUES INVOLVED, + + + NATION, Preservation of, + Conservation first duty of, + Home-building for the, + NATURAL RESOURCES, Development of, + Water, + Monopolization of, Moral Wrong, + Belong to the People, + Pillage of, + + + OVERGRAZING, Evils of, + + + PATRIOTISM AND CONSERVATION, + Children and, + A New, + PENNSYLVANIA FORESTRY ASSOCIATION, + PITTSBURG SURVEY, + POLITICS, Golden Rule and, + Protest Against for Revenue only, + POPULATION, Forecast of, + PRIVATE INTERESTS, Water Power and, + PROPERTY AND VOTING POWER, + PROSPERITY, The Basis of, + Destruction of, + PUBLICITY, Forest Service and, + PUBLIC LANDS, Conservation of, + Evils of Present System, + Menace of Tenantry, + PUBLIC MORALITY, New Standard, + PUBLIC SPIRIT, Fostering of, + Roosevelt and, + and the "Bosses," + and Citizenship, + + + RESOURCES, Not Inexhaustible, + RIVERS AND FORESTS, + Unit from Source to Mouth, + ROOSEVELT, President, Home-making Policy, + Message, + The Common People, + and Conservation, + Thanks due to, + and Young Men, + Policies, The, + and Public Spirit, + + + SOIL EROSION, + SPECIAL PRIVILEGES, Danger of, + Victims of Grab System, + Must be Driven out of Politics, + SQUARE DEAL, Doctrine of, + SUCCESS, Conditions of, + + + TARIFF, a Tool to Increase Cost of Living, + TENANTRY _vs._ FREEHOLD, Menace to Public Lands, + + + UNITED STATES, Destiny of, + Crisis and History of, + + + VOTING POWER, Property and, + + + WASTE, Prevention of, + in Mining Coal, + Period of Destruction, + WATER-POWER TRUST, + Monopoly, + and Private Capital, + Grants in Perpetuity, + and Private Interests, + Control of, + Sites, + WATER RESOURCES, + WATERWAYS, Development of, + Conservation of, + WOMAN'S WORK FOR CONSERVATION, + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Fight For Conservation, by Gifford Pinchot + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11238 *** |