The Civil
War also arose in large part from economic conditions, and it has had
the largest economic consequences. But in each case there was a higher
and more compelling reason. So with the third great crisis of our
history. It has an economic aspect of the largest and most permanent
importance, and the motive for action along that line, once it is
recognized, should be more than sufficient. But that is not all. In
this case, too, there is a higher and more compelling reason. The
question of the conservation of natural resources, or national
resources, does not stop with being a question of profit. It is a vital
question of profit, but what is still more vital, it is a question of
national safety and patriotism also.
We have passed the inevitable stage of pioneer pillage of natural
resources. The natural wealth we found upon this continent has made us
rich. We have used it, as we had a right to do, but we have not stopped
there. We have abused, and wasted, and exhausted it also, so that there
is the gravest danger that our prosperity to-day will have been bought
at the price of the suffering and poverty of our descendants.
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