The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-01-03
Conservation Movement Taking
On New Life
GUARDING FROM WASTE
American People Are Hard to Con.
vince That Forests Are Not mex
haustible, But at Last Are
Waking to the Fact.

iiS"h peopie Ionnd awaiting them
when they established the nation a herr
tage richer by far than that which any
other nation has ever known.
The late Professor n S. shaler. the
country's foremost economic geologis.
ana one of its most profound thinkers,
said: OF all the sinful MASTERS of mans
inheritance In the earth-and all are in
this regard sinners-the very worst are
the people of America
There must be a realization on the part
OF many-a realization that now Is shared
only by the few-that the country as n
whole will have to turn over a new
leaf This leaf can not be turned at once
or without mighty effort. We have got
me habit of spending, and 1t will be a
long time before we can begin to save
In fact. 1t is only the impending pinch
that makes us think of saving now.
We boast of what We can do and of
what we are doing, and with justice. for
are we not taking the leading part in the
worlds work, and do we not literally
deliver the goods to all the world /?
But at the same time we do not reckon
on what the morrow will bring. and we
will go headlong to national decadence
unless we stop to take an accounting. We
do furnish in general figures, quarter
of the worlds wheat supply, half of Its
petroleum, three-quarters of its entire
supply of cotton, and nine-tenths of its
corn. But we are doing it at a terrible
sacrifice.
Take the forest question as an exam
pie. AS a matter of fact we do not know
how much forest we have and we have
been here, as a nation. a century or more.
And yet we talk blithely of our '1nex-
haustible' forests and go drawing on the
account without much more than a gen
eral notion of what the forest capital is.
and with no notion of its cost and value.
IT is no better business than 1t would be
for bank to operate without balance
sheet. without any notion of its capitali-
cation and spending cost. trusting to luck
that accounts may not be overdrawn and
the surplus carried off Government su-
pervision now protects the people against
this method of finance; may the time not
come when 1t will be recognized as quite
as much within the province of the gov
eminent to take steps to SO protect all
of the material wealth of the country :?
Such step by no means connotes gov
eminent or state ownership any more
than there is no government or state
ownership of the banks. All prudent men
welcome the security that the national
regulations give to national banks. and,
for the safety of our moneys, prefer the
national banks.
The day will come. because it has got
to come, and because Americans are an
adaptable people, when there will be a
clear change in the American trend of
thought, clear change in the American
habits of life, clear conception of the
moral issues involved in a proper stew
ardship of the nations things that are
ours only as trustees for the future The
nation will still keep its optimism, its
capacity for hard work, It's inherent buoy
ancy under the stress of grave problems,
but it will take on a new and serious
purpose of thrift.
To some, no doubt, the idea of having
to save after such long period of easy
spending may be repugnant; some may
dour, who said during the excuses of the
French court, after us the deluge"-a
deluge that began with the Reign of Ter
ror and still threatens the only nation
of Europe that has a decreasing birth
rate
But the majority of thinking Ameri-
cans are going to take this question of
the conservation of our natural resources
home to themselves. They are going to
ask How can help?" and when that
question is asked 1t is already half an
swered. 1t must be answered In the in
terests of the nation and of humanity
Moreover, these persons of large public
spirit will understand that there is a dis
tinction between saving and scrimping,
that the type demanded to apply the
principle of conservation is not the miser
any more than II is the prodigal but the
man of moderat ton who enjoys without
riot and who spends without squandering
the patrimony which he is in duty bound
TO hand on to a new generation.
In 1868 Blsmark said that the real test
of the American form of government
would come when that country's great
resources began to be exhausted, when
the 'linitless opportunities" were no
longer to be had. The imperative need,
then, Is the assurance that our govern
mental institutions shall be flexible, and
maintained on a high plane of unselfisht
ness. For "the only way In which tie
need can be met is by enforcing through
laws the principle, clearly enough recog-
nized in our codes, that the wealth a man
controls is his to use but not his to waste.
A man may not burn down his house or
play the spendthrift with his fortune, be-
cause the state or his natural heirs will
suffer from his folly or his malevolence.
On the same ground the commonwealth
law should arrest his action, II 1t wastes
the substance of the unborn. 1t Is an
old ana well-affirTned concept, though
too little worked out. that our govern
ments exist in part that they may guard
and preserve the societies which build
them. If such is their purpose, their
first duty should be to see that the ma
terial foundations of mankind are not
idly wrecked We must realize that we
are not mere monetary tenants of our
places in the present-day civilization,
but the custodians and trustees OF all
the progress to come after us; and In
so far as we can conserve instead of de-
stroying, and save instead of wasting SO
we. no less than those who laid the foun-
dations of the republic, make possible
the future of a nation, glorious beyond
our fondest dreams.
EDITION DE LUKE