Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1909-11-13
CONSERVATION AND PATRIOTISM.
president Gilmore at Mckinley High school.)


tainments have been due mainly to
the utilization of our natural re-
sources. yet Il is said to relate that |
this achievement has alho been at
the expense and destruction Of a
class of resources and assets that |!
cannot be restored. The growth OF
the United States has been due to
the rapid development and also sad
to say, to the rapid destruction of
the natural resources. Nature has
supplied us and still supplies us
with more kinds of resources in a
more lavish degree than she sup
plies to any other nation. Our po-
sition in the world industrially has
been obtained by the extent and
thoroughness of control we have
achieved over Nature and yet for
all of this prestige and advantage.
, we are now more dependent on these
resources which are exhaustible than
at any other previous time. SO
great and so rapid has been our
growth based on the utilization of
our materials that there has been
a tendency to retard or pervert spi-
ritual and moral growth. 1t is per-
tinent to nearly everyone who has
studied the question. that life in the
U. s. is comparatively cheap. In
our great desire to annihilate time
and be on the spot to capture the
Elusive dollar, every year thousands
of people are killed and wounded in
railroad accidents that are preven-
table. The stoker cries good coal
and more of 1t, and the miner goes
into the earth where little precau-
ton has been taken to protect his
life and thousands of these miners
never return. Large corporations
are amazing wealth at the expense
of the health and welfare of men,
women and children who are work
ers. IL each life that Is lost In the
United States due to preventable dis
ease and accident Is worth only
$1,000 then the loss to the nation
through the loss Of life is more than
the gain in all the industries COM
hined.
The Fundamental resources for ma
tional growth are the natural re-
sources which we utilize on the one
hand, and the character, ability and
constructive power of our people on
the other. The slogan Of our times
Is Progress and utilization of our
resources. Every family from the
Atlantic coast to the western boun-
daries' of Hawaii depends to very
large extent upon the forests, the
soils and the minerals within the
earth for its daily existence. So
great is this dependence that any
radical change In our methods Of
utilizing these resources will no
doubt create some inconvenience. so
great Is the demand for natural pro-
duets In the operations of our In
dustrial activities that large corpor-
atoms and business men are consid-
cred to be pursuing a rational po-
licy in supplying commerce with
these products without regard to
their ultimate exhaustion or the
robbing of our children of the re-
sources o fthe earth that are Just
as truly their heritage as they are
ours. BY the methods that have
been pursued In the past, the end
Of supply of all our natural resourc-
es Is in sight. Our one million
square miles Of forests have been
reduced by uoe and preyentable fire
to a few square miles. Likewise our
minerals. Goals, gas and oils and
soils are becoming exhausted. IT Is
true that the exhaustion of our for
ests and soils is only relative for
they can be built up and replenish-
ed through judicious and wise man
agement, but when our mineral re-
sources go they are gone for ever
and we must depend on our inven-
tive genius for a substitute.
II Is not diHicult to see therefore
that under the present conditions
our sense of achievement Is to
blame. In recent discussions of the
subject Il has been shown that Of
tentimes those who proclaim the
wisdom of more judicious use or
our natural resources are consider
ed an impeachment to prosperity. He
is impatriotic and takes no pride in
our great achievements, he is not a
good American. Yet In fact, to
care for the welfare of our nation
during the present generation shows