The manufacturer's product can be measured in dollars
and cents. The product of the Government of the United States can be
measured partly in dollars and cents, but far more importantly in the
welfare and contentment and happiness of the people over which it is
called upon to preside.
The keynote of that Conservation Conference in Washington was
forethought and foresight. The keynote of success in any line of life,
or one of the great keynotes, must be forethought and foresight. If we,
as a Nation, are to continue the wonderful growth we have had, it is
forethought and foresight which must give us the capacity to go on as we
have been going. I dwell on this because it seems to me to be one of
the most curious of all things in the history of the United States
to-day that we should have grasped this principle so tremendously and so
vigorously in our daily lives, in the conduct of our own business, and
yet have failed so completely to make the obvious application in the
things which concern the Nation.
It is curiously true that great aggregations of individuals and
organized bodies are apt to be less far-sighted, less moral, less
intelligent along certain lines than the individual citizen; or at least
that their standards are lower; a principle which is illustrated by the
fact that we have got over settling disputes between individuals by the
strong hand, but not yet between nations.
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