Checking the Waste: A Study in Conservation

by Mary Huston Gregory

Beauty can only be conserved by the planting of trees, by keeping the waters pure and clear, by using waste products so that there will be no unsightly piles of refuse.

Health depends, among other things, on pure water, air unpolluted by coal smoke and poisonous gases which should be used as factory by-products.

And lastly, the life, happiness, and prosperity of man is conserved by all of these things.

The first step in this system of conservation must be education on this subject, education not only of the children but of the men and women also, on the need and methods of saving. There would be no danger of a scarcity of coal if manufacturers all knew the value and economy of electric water-power or low-grade fuels, and of smoke-consuming devices. There is no reason why insect destruction should cost the nation so dearly if the birds were protected, and a few simple methods of prevention understood. All the various water problems could be met and solved if one general plan were adopted and carried out, and so all along the line.

We have taken note of the great natural wastes: how two-thirds of the wood cut is wasted, and how insects and fire destroy the standing timber; how the soil is washed down into the valleys, taking the best from the farms; how we are steadily robbing the soil of its most necessary elements; how our waters are unused and we pay for this non-use by the use of other resources that we can ill afford to spare; how millions of acres of land which might be profitably farmed lie useless for lack of water and other millions are useless because they are covered with water. Consumers pay high freight rates and the railroads are so overcrowded that they are unable to care for all the business, while the rivers, the cheapest of all carriers, flow idly to the sea.

We have seen how one-fourth of the coal is left in the mines, and how small a part of that which is mined is actually turned into heat, how gas is allowed to escape unchecked into the air. And greatest and most serious of all, the useless waste of human life and health.

But there are scores of other wastes and extravagances that all growing boys and girls should think of, so that when they enter active life, they may do their part to prevent them.

It is going to be necessary to learn to economize in every department of life as all the European peoples do. We must learn, in this new country, to do things more with the idea of the future in mind. In all European cities, there are hundreds of houses that have lasted many centuries, but there are few houses in America that are built in an enduring way. This building up and tearing down taxes not one, but many, resources heavily. As the housewife learns that a good kettle that costs a dollar and lasts five years is cheaper than a poor one which costs fifty cents but will wear out in one year, so people must learn the lesson that in building poor light houses of wood which will last a comparatively short time, they are really paying the higher price; that in putting in poor roads, cheap bridges, badly-constructed public buildings, that cost less heavily in the first place but that will need to be renewed in a few years, they are really paying much more than if these had been substantially built in the beginning.

The fire loss of the United States amounts to over half a million dollars a day, and all insurance men agree that most of this might be prevented.

The remedies are to build fewer wooden houses, especially in crowded districts, to exercise greater care in the building and management of chimneys, greater care in electric wiring, and general watchfulness in handling matches and lighted cigars.