Evening star., 1948-08-22
Reading and Writing

William Vogt, author OF Road TO
Survivar"-that chill warning to a
wasteful worlds in person
cheerful man who spares no elo-
auence in preaching his gospel OF
the importance of being kind to
nature. ~.
Over light lunch at the Cosmos
Club the other day, the gray
haired. pleasant-faced chief of the
Pan American Union conservation
section, held forth with missionary
fervor about his fears for the future
fif man does not cease to abuse the
land.
1--WE need a new dimension in
our thinking" he said. IF we don't
start thinking of ourselves in re-
lation to our environment, we may
exhaust our resources in the next
so years."
The problem Of conservation, as
he visualizes it, is like a three
legged milking stool. One leg is
sound activity on the land, with
contour ploughing and terraced
farming; another is intensive
scientific research into the tech
tniques of reclamation, and the
third is public education.
That is Mr.. Vogt's particular
preserve, and he loves it. He en-
joys writing about it and obviously
would rather talk about the many
facets of the conservation problem
than eat.
A Solid Year of Reading.
Many reviewers, incidentally, have
commented on the excellence of his
prose style, which he says, may
partly have been Influenced by a
year-long reading bout he enjoyed
at the age of Is when he was
stricken with polio. He was living
in Brooklyn at the time, and very
wise librarian gradually stepped ur
the "octane content of his reading
so that when he left his bed after a
year. he had worked his way through
most of the great modern writer's
including the Russians. His eyes
have never recovered from the
strain and he wears dark glasses.
Mr.. Vogt, who comes from long
line of thrifty Long Islanders" ex-
planned that he came to geology via
ornithology. After graduation from
Bard College (now st. Stephens)
in New York, he took up the study
of birds as pure science and worked
for while with the Audubon So
ciety. That led to an interest in
preserving wildlife, and in 1899, he
accepted an invitation from the
Peruvian government to study guano
birds, those winged hordes which de-
ternline the whole agricultural
economy of Peru.
After an interval of war work in
Washington, he joined the Pan
American Union in 1943. He is at
present detailed to the State De-
partment where he is organizing an
Inter- American Conference on Con-
servation of Renewable Natural Re-
sources, which will be held in Denver
September 7.
Some Long Range Objectives.
His program for re-enrichipg the
earth includes reclamation, popula-
tion stabilization (parents should
replace themselves) and voluntary
lowering of our living standard Eve
would actually raise it because, with
fewer gadgets, we would have more
time to think and be under less
| nervous tension. sS '.S
What can the individual do to
prevent the menace of exhausted
natural resources? For one thing, an
educated public, he thinks, could
boycott certain goods made from
certain il!-spared products.
Mr.. Vogt earnestly wishes that
everybody would get into the con-
servation act. For a really effective
campaign, he sees the social work.
er, the anthropologist and the ecolo-
gist joining forces to convince
people that they must mend their
ways if civilization is to survive. AS
an example of "fragmented think
ing that deals piecemeal with the