nations which is
eventually to determine the welfare of all, national efficiency will be
the deciding factor. So from every point of view conservation is a good
thing for the American people.

The National Forest Service, one of the chief agencies of the
conservation movement, is trying to be useful to the people of this
nation. The Service recognizes, and recognizes it more and more strongly
all the time, that whatever it has done or is doing has just one object,
and that object is the welfare of the plain American citizen. Unless the
Forest Service has served the people, and is able to contribute to their
welfare it has failed in its work and should be abolished. But just so
far as by cooeperation, by intelligence, by attention to the work laid
upon it, it contributes to the welfare of our citizens, it is a good
thing and should be allowed to go on with its work.

The Natural Forests are in the West. Headquarters of the Service have
been established throughout the Western country, because its work cannot
be done effectively and properly without the closest contact and the
most hearty cooeperation with the Western people. It is the duty of the
Forest Service to see to it that the timber, water-powers, mines, and
every other resource of the forests is used for the benefit of the
people who live in the neighborhood or who may have a share in the
welfare of each locality. It is equally its duty to cooeperate with all
our people in every section of our land to conserve a fundamental
resource, without which this Nation cannot prosper.

CHAPTER V

WATERWAYS

The connection between forests and rivers is like that between father
and son. No forests, no rivers. So a forester may not be wholly beyond
his depth when he talks about streams. The conquest of our rivers is one
of the largest commercial questions now before us.

The commercial consequences of river development are incalculable. Its
results cannot be measured by the yard-stick of present commercial
needs. River improvement means better conditions of transportation than
we have now, but it means development too. We cannot see this problem
clearly and see it whole in the light of the past alone.

The actual problems of river development are not less worthy of our
best attention than their commercial results. Every river is a unit from
its source to its mouth. If it is to be given its highest usefulness to
all the people, and serve them for all the uses t