would be no danger of a
scarcity of coal if manufacturers all knew the value and economy of
electric water-power or low-grade fuels, and of smoke-consuming devices.
There is no reason why insect destruction should cost the nation so
dearly if the birds were protected, and a few simple methods of
prevention understood. All the various water problems could be met and
solved if one general plan were adopted and carried out, and so all
along the line.

We have taken note of the great natural wastes: how two-thirds of the
wood cut is wasted, and how insects and fire destroy the standing
timber; how the soil is washed down into the valleys, taking the best
from the farms; how we are steadily robbing the soil of its most
necessary elements; how our waters are unused and we pay for this
non-use by the use of other resources that we can ill afford to spare;
how millions of acres of land which might be profitably farmed lie
useless for lack of water and other millions are useless because they
are covered with water. Consumers pay high freight rates and the
railroads are so overcrowded that they are unable to care for all the
business, while the rivers, the cheapest of all carriers, flow idly to
the sea.

We have seen how one-fourth of the coal is left in the mines, and how
small a part of that which is mined is actually turned into heat, how
gas is allowed to escape unchecked into the air. And greatest and most
serious of all, the useless waste of human life and health.

But there are scores of other wastes and extravagances that all growing
boys and girls should think of, so that when they enter active life,
they may do their part to prevent them.

It is going to be necessary to learn to economize in every department of
life as all the European peoples do. We must learn, in this new
country, to do things more with the idea of the future in mind. In all
European cities, there are hundreds of houses that have lasted many
centuries, but there are few houses in America that are built in an
enduring way. This building up and tearing down taxes not one, but many,
resources heavily. As the housewife learns that a good kettle that costs
a dollar and lasts five years is cheaper than a poor one which costs
fifty cents but will wear out in one year, so people must learn the
lesson that in building poor light houses of wood which will last a
comparatively short time, they are really paying the higher price; that
in putting in poor road