The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-02
WASTEFUL NATION.
BEING STRIPPED OF NAT-
 URAL WEALTH
Cerman-American Tells Story of De- structfOn of Forests, Sells, Min-
 erals and Animals.

America. .'the land of inexhaustible resources" as nearing 6 time whens through the prodigality of the present and past generations. 1t will be stripped of it's natural wealth and its people VIII be compelled to face an era of desti- tuition more widespread and hopeless than has been experienced py any other nation of the world.
 The prediction is appalling; put " summarizes more or less accurately the conclusion reached by German Ameri- can writer in a little volume which has inst appeared under the title, our Wasteful Nation: the Story of Prodig gal ity and the Abuse Of Our Nationa9s Resources."
 Of course. there is an "ifs in the pre- diction. The author of tue DOCK n lieye that the impending calamity, or series of calamities, indicated ts inev- itable. His saving clause Is sometnins to this effect: We will soon reach the end of our national resources If sone- thing is not done, by legislation ana through other means, tp curb the exist- | ing extravagance of the American neonie in the use of many of the ne- cessities of human life which hereto. fore, unfortunately, have been supposed | to exist on this continent in practical- | ly inexhaustible quantities.
 1 Even Human Hives.
 Many writers have taken up this matter of national wastefulness, espe- cially during the present year, when Fine subject has been brought promi- nently before the public through the conference of Governors at Washing ton, Usually, however, 1t is some par ticular kind of national was?tefulness-- | the destruction of the forests, for in- stance-which has attracted the atten- | ton of the student. Mir. Cronan goes further than this and collects In one volume the details of various kinds of wastefulness, not confning himself to any particular branch of the subject. He thus gives .'the story" not only of the destruction or dur forests, but of the waste of water, of soil, of minerals. of animals of all kinds, of public lands and privileges. public money and prop arty, and finally of the waste Of human lives. His book is thus impressive from the wide array of facts which 1t marshals before the reader, and ifs of special value and interest when nation al wastefulness has become 80 fre- auently 6 matter of public discussion.
 Robbed of its rich fauna, which once supported millions of people and was the source of fabulous wealth, America is fast becoming the continent poorest in animal life. The enormous destrue- tion wrought to the fauna of North America became most apparent with creatures which kept together in large
 herds or fiocks, like the bison or
 buffalo, the elk. the seal. the passenger
 pigeon the heron, and the salmon.
 In detailing the story of the loss oi
 America's game, MT. Cronau naturally
 dwells on the amazingly short time in
 which was extermInated that king oi
 American wild animals, the bunalo He A estimates that at the time of the dis
 eovery of America by Columbus the
 number of bison roaming the Western
 plains, and. in fact, to be found in al'
 most every part of the country, wal
 15O, ,00O, 1000 head. This estimate, he ad'
 nnits. is diflcult to authenticate. but he
 states as a positive fact that the bison
 "up to the beginning of the nine,
 teenth century had decreased to about 70, ,O00, 900. At that time the buffaio wal
 still hunted in Kentucky and Illinois
 From this section they rapidly, melted away like snow until the last buffalo hunt occurred in the United States" IT 1888. when William T. Hornaday, chiei at that time of the taxidermical de partment of the Smithsonian Institu' fiou. washington, D. C., started an ex ] neSition to collect in Montana somt robes and skeletons of buffalo whicf might be used for arranging a group oi ! bufYaio to be exhibited at the NationA Museum Only after very tedious move
 ments of several months MT. Hornada1
 succeeded in bringing together twenty
 four hides and sixteen skeletons, whicl
 he brought to our Capital.
 Only q Few Left.
 "Of the 40,000,000 buffalo which al the beginning Of the nineteenth cen tury roamed over our continent, there remain today not more than about 1.600 { which are kept in the Yellowstone Ma
 tional Park in the geological garcenl