The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1958-12-19

ments will exceed the total available
supply by the year 201O. There are
many partial solutions which will heir
solve this problem as it develops
such as multiple reuse of water. in
creased publication Of industrial and
domestic wastes. discrimination OF
sea water, partial control of evapora-
ton from lake surfaces, and even
possibly water pipe line system in
some areas, just as we now have gas
pipe lines. Nevertheless the problem
is tremendous one and we are barely
beginning to face up to it.
And what about our water power
Can a nation which permits half de-
velopment of one of it's greatest pow
er sites call itself civilized under
Teddy Roosevelt's definition? While
we are trying to determine whether
we are behaving as a civilized nation
we might also ask ourselves whether
our conservation practices are not
actively immoral. Teddy Roosevelt
said:
"Of all the questions which can
come before this nation, short of the
actual preservation of it's existence
in great war, there is none which
compares in Importance with the
great central task of leaving this land
even a better land for our descend
ants than it is for us, and training
them into a better race to inhabit
the land and pass it on. Conservation
is great moral issue -
(Osawatomie, Kansas, August
81. 1900
What standard of morality should
we hold to? One which has been used
for 10 centuries l think will sound
familiar:
"Inasmuch as we have done it to
the least of these my brethren, we
have done it unto me- What about
future generations? Are they not
also to be numbered among the
"brethren"? What are we doing to
them? And if you would rather not
use the New Testment standard we
can go back even farther to the Old
Testament where the seventh COM
tells US, "Thou shalt not
steal" Is stealing from the next gen.
GRAFTON, or the next after that. any
less violation of that law than steal
ing from our contemporaries?
/ would like to mention one other
side of the morality of our civiliza-
ton, and it is very practical one
for it deals with the peaceful sur
vival of the human race. AS DR..
Lowdermilk comments: "The world !
is made dangerous by the desperation
IF peoples suffering from privations
and the fear of privations." And l |
notice that on the 18th of this month
Eric Johnston. former car of the |
movie industry and hardly a danger
ous radical by anyone's definition,
;aid:
Gin a world where more than a
billion people subsist on a starva-
ton diet all the days of their lives,
there is something downright i'm
moral about keeping our own
abundance stashed away in ware
houses
Certainly we can agree with Mr..
Johnston, but we can also ask our
elves whether it is any less immoral
o decrease the future ability of the
,arth to produce that abundance,
which will be SO vital if we are to
lave a lasting peace. With world
booming towards seven
'illion by the year 1000. the popu-
alton pressures will be so tremen-
ous that even the best conservation
PRACTICES may well be inadequate.
5ut of one thing we may be sure:
oor conservation practices will be
will help to accentuate
he terrible poverty and economic in
quality in the world today, and will s
Increase the tensions and pressures .
irving us toward an atomic holo-
aust. :