ity of California, the British Ambassador said: "We can all think
of the present, and are only too apt to think chiefly about the present.
The average man, be he educated or uneducated, seldom thinks of anything
else." There are, however, special circumstances in the history of the
United States which account for the extraordinary unconcern about what
is going to happen to the race in a period which may seem long to those
whose personal interest fixes a limit to their gaze, but which is indeed
short in the life of a nation. After the religious, political, and
military struggles through which the American nation was brought to
birth, there followed a century of no less strenuous wrestling with the
forces of nature. That century stands divided by the greatest civil
conflict in the world's history; but this only served to strengthen in a
united people those indomitable qualities to which the nation owes its
leadership in the advancement of civilisation. The abundance (until now
considered as virtual inexhaustibility) of natural resources, the call
for capital and men for their development, the rich reward of conquest
in the field of industry, may explain, but can hardly excuse, a National
attitude which seems to go against the strongest human instinct--one not
altogether wanting in lower animal life--that of the preservation of the
race. It is an attitude which recalls the question said to have been
asked by an Irishman: "What has posterity done for me?" But this was
before Conservation was in the air.

I have now told what I came by chance to know about the origin of the
Conservation idea. The story of its early growth was no less remarkable
than the suddenness of its appearance. In the spring of 1908 matters
had advanced so far that the governors of all the States and Territories
met to discuss it. Before the Conference broke up they were moved to
"declare the conviction that the great prosperity of our country rests
upon the abundant resources of the land chosen by our forefathers for
their homes," that these resources are "a heritage to be made use of in
establishing and promoting the comfort, prosperity, and happiness of the
American people, but not to be wasted, deteriorated, or needlessly
destroyed; that this material basis is threatened with exhaustion"; that
"conservation of our natural resources is a subject of transcendent
importance which should engage unremittingly the attention of the
Nation, the States, and t