vagery, but representing the most advanced and enlightened ideas and
spiritual ideals of the time.

The result of these conditions has been inventions and discoveries that
have developed a great nation at home and have done much to better the
condition of the world. But the very magnitude of our natural wealth has
made us careless, even prodigal, in its use, and thoughtful men are
beginning to realize that with the natural increase of population which
is to be expected, we shall, if the present rates of use and waste
continue, find ourselves no longer rich, but facing poverty and even
actual want. But it is not too late to save ourselves from the results
of our past extravagance. We are only beginning to see the danger into
which we have almost plunged, but we see enough to make us realize that
every one must do his part in checking the waste. Before this can be
intelligently accomplished we must understand something of the great
national movement for the conservation of our national resources.

Let us go back for a moment to the beginning of our history as a nation,
the days of Washington.

Invention at that time was little advanced over what it had been three
hundred years before. The same type of slow-sailing vessels carried all
the commerce. Wind and water were the only powers employed in running
the few factories. Only a little iron was used in this country, and in
fact almost its only use anywhere at that time was for tools. There was
little machinery, and that of the simplest description.

Anthracite coal was known in this country only as a hard black rock.
Bituminous coal, gas, and oil were unknown.

The forests stretched away in unbroken miles of wilderness. The wood was
used for the settlers' homes, their fuel, and their scanty furniture,
but they needed so little that it grew much faster than it could be
used. The man who cut down a tree was a public benefactor. The trees,
though so necessary to life, were regarded as a serious hindrance to
civilization, for they must be cleared away before crops could be
planted.

To the pioneers as to us the soil was the most valuable of all
resources. The rivers were necessary to every community for carrying
their commerce, and turning the wheels of their saw and grist mills;
while the fish, game, and birds made a necessary part of their living.

Under these conditions, with every resource to be found in such
abundance that it seemed impossible it could ever be exha