usted, and with
a small scattered population to draw on all these riches, careless
habits of using were sure to spring up. Our forefathers took the best
that the land offered, and that which was easiest to get, and gave no
thought to caring for what remained. Their children, and the new
immigrants who came in such numbers, all practised the same wasteful
methods.

In the century and a quarter that has passed since then, a great change
has come over the world. By the magic of the railroad, the telegraph,
and the telephone, all the nations of the earth are bound more closely
to one another now than were the scattered communities of a single
county in those days, or than the states of the Union before the Civil
War.

The forests have been cut away and in place of endless miles of
wilderness there now stretch endless miles of fertile farms, yielding
abundant harvests.

Slow-going sailing vessels have given place to steamboats which now
carry the river and lake commerce. But men are no longer dependent on
the rivers, for swift railway trains penetrate every part of the
country. The stage-coach is replaced by the trolley-car, and the
horseback rider, plodding over corduroy roads with his saddle-bags, is
succeeded by the automobile rider speeding over the most improved
highways.

Farm machinery of all descriptions has revolutionized the old methods of
doing farm work. The fish, game, and birds are largely gone and in
their place are the animal foods raised by man. Modern houses, filled
with countless devices for labor-saving and comfort, have replaced the
simple homes of colonial days.

What has brought about this change? The energy and industry of American
men and women, aided for the most part by American inventions, and made
possible by the wonderful natural resources of America.

No one could wish to have had our country's development checked in any
way. These great results could be obtained only by using the materials
that could be had easiest and cheapest, even if it meant great waste in
the beginning. Labor was scarce and high in this country, abundant and
cheap in Europe. In order to make goods that could be sold at prices
even above those of European countries, it was absolutely necessary to
have cheap lumber, coal and iron.

But the time has come when we can no longer continue this waste without
interfering with future development. Some of the resources have been so
exhausted that a few years will see the e