Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-01

bath of facts and figures may help us brace up
for that labor.
In the days before the advent of DR. Long
and Thompson Seton there story which,
before their advent, seemed improbabl 1t
had to do with a beaver that climbed tree
But it is impossible for beaver to climb
treel" said one critic of the story. "A beaver
cannot climb tree. -" The dogs were after
him!" cynically remarked the narrator.
There dawned one time on the vision of
President Roosevelt at the White House the
spectacle of a large, corpuent American beaver
sitting at the foot of a tall tree. In the near
foreground were the dogs. 1t occurred to Presi-
dent Roosevelt to suggest to the beaver that
he had better climb. To that effect, as is well
known he called meeting of many of the best
known men OF this country, and asked them
what they knew about the resources of Amer
lea. These concluded that much information
of an interesting sort could be and ought to be
compiled Their conclusions appalling.
There was formed-quite outside of any
political bearing whatever-a National Con-
servation Commission with headquarters at
Washington. That commission is made UP of
forty-eight men, of whom twenty United
States Senators and Representatives in Con-
gress, with Governors and Others making up
the total These forty-eight are divided
into four groups, one each for the questions of
the forests, the waters, the land, and the miner
ais of America. 1t is the purpose of each one of
these groups. to suggest to that corpulent
beaver that he might perhaps better climb
That, at least if not their purpose, is their
logical conclusion up to date. This is the
purely governmental side of the great work of
conservatism work much greater than
that of politics that no comparison remains
between the two.
Some Redeeming Qualities
WE are great people, and good people,
when all is said; only, In the excess of
our youth we did some things we ought not to
have done. left undone some things that we
should have done, and hence have experienced
Morning After We have some money left in
our clothes. and perhaps we can use it more
wisely than we did what we spent last night
This is no theory, but fact well proved by the
response to the work of the national commission
alone. Already there are twenty State Con-
servation Commissions appointed, and there
will be more. For once, this country is for
getting the mere passing of resolutions, and is
beginning to do something. There has never
been SO swift an awakening that in regard
to the national conservation work. 1t is not
work of unselfish philanthropy. it is business
We are the beneficiaries of that business. The
governmental side of the conservation work
brings in the of departmental resources at
Washington, where the headquarters are To-
Gated, and whence the secretary of the COM
mission, Thomas R. Ship. sends out many
facts and figures to those who care to have them.
The National Conservation Commission is
quite distinct from the entirely nonpartizan
organization, the Conservation League of
America which is located at Chicago under the
leadership OF waiter f1Sher The purposes OF
this latter body are simply to collect informa-
ton, and again to disseminate information,
and to unite in one practical organization the
larger groups and associations of business men
and thinking men of America.
The response to the labors of these two COM
missions-bodies which are both entirely above
suspicion of sefshness or political bias-is one
of the most remarka BILE phenomena of the cur
rent day. 1t leads to believe that the
American people are, after all, not wholly sell
fish, not wholly thoughtless. and not wholly
unable to climb that tree We need a little
temples. 1t looks as though that house clean
ing would be done. If it shall not be DONE and
if we will not care to learn anything from the
story of thirty centuries. at least we may lay
the flattering JUNCTION to souls that though
Syria had Tyre and a Sidon, she had none the
best of us.