Checking the Waste | Page 2

developed a great nation at home and have done much to better
the condition of the world. But the very magnitude of our natural
wealth has made us careless, even prodigal, in its use, and thoughtful
men are beginning to realize that with the natural increase of population
which is to be expected, we shall, if the present rates of use and waste
continue, find ourselves no longer rich, but facing poverty and even
actual want. But it is not too late to save ourselves from the results of
our past extravagance. We are only beginning to see the danger into
which we have almost plunged, but we see enough to make us realize
that every one must do his part in checking the waste. Before this can
be intelligently accomplished we must understand something of the
great national movement for the conservation of our national resources.
Let us go back for a moment to the beginning of our history as a nation,
the days of Washington.
Invention at that time was little advanced over what it had been three
hundred years before. The same type of slow-sailing vessels carried all
the commerce. Wind and water were the only powers employed in
running the few factories. Only a little iron was used in this country,
and in fact almost its only use anywhere at that time was for tools.
There was little machinery, and that of the simplest description.
Anthracite coal was known in this country only as a hard black rock.
Bituminous coal, gas, and oil were unknown.
The forests stretched away in unbroken miles of wilderness. The wood
was used for the settlers' homes, their fuel, and their scanty furniture,
but they needed so little that it grew much faster than it could be used.
The man who cut down a tree was a public benefactor. The trees,

though so necessary to life, were regarded as a serious hindrance to
civilization, for they must be cleared away before crops could be
planted.
To the pioneers as to us the soil was the most valuable of all resources.
The rivers were necessary to every community for carrying their
commerce, and turning the wheels of their saw and grist mills; while
the fish, game, and birds made a necessary part of their living.
Under these conditions, with every resource to be found in such
abundance that it seemed impossible it could ever be exhausted, and
with a small scattered population to draw on all these riches, careless
habits of using were sure to spring up. Our forefathers took the best that
the land offered, and that which was easiest to get, and gave no thought
to caring for what remained. Their children, and the new immigrants
who came in such numbers, all practised the same wasteful methods.
In the century and a quarter that has passed since then, a great change
has come over the world. By the magic of the railroad, the telegraph,
and the telephone, all the nations of the earth are bound more closely to
one another now than were the scattered communities of a single
county in those days, or than the states of the Union before the Civil
War.
The forests have been cut away and in place of endless miles of
wilderness there now stretch endless miles of fertile farms, yielding
abundant harvests.
Slow-going sailing vessels have given place to steamboats which now
carry the river and lake commerce. But men are no longer dependent on
the rivers, for swift railway trains penetrate every part of the country.
The stage-coach is replaced by the trolley-car, and the horseback rider,
plodding over corduroy roads with his saddle-bags, is succeeded by the
automobile rider speeding over the most improved highways.
Farm machinery of all descriptions has revolutionized the old methods
of doing farm work. The fish, game, and birds are largely gone and in
their place are the animal foods raised by man. Modern houses, filled

with countless devices for labor-saving and comfort, have replaced the
simple homes of colonial days.
What has brought about this change? The energy and industry of
American men and women, aided for the most part by American
inventions, and made possible by the wonderful natural resources of
America.
No one could wish to have had our country's development checked in
any way. These great results could be obtained only by using the
materials that could be had easiest and cheapest, even if it meant great
waste in the beginning. Labor was scarce and high in this country,
abundant and cheap in Europe. In order to make goods that could be
sold at prices even above those of European countries, it was absolutely
necessary to have cheap lumber, coal and iron.
But the time has come when we can no longer continue this