Wherever we fling it to the breeze, it carries a breath of freedom into every land and unto every people. Should we not hold it a sacred thing? (Continued applause.)
The Chairman—For the past two years the next speaker has been working in the General Federation as Chairman of the Department of Conservation. We have worked so closely together, I, as her adviser, and she doing the large work of the organization, that it is almost like speaking of one’s own family in introducing this speaker. I shall not try to tell of her work. We are the very best of Conservation friends to this day—Mrs. Marion A. Crocker, of Fitchburg, Mass.
Mrs. Crocker—Madam Chairman, and Mr. President and Members of the Convention: Conservation is a term so apt that it has been borrowed and made to fit almost all lines of public work, but Conservation as applied to that department bearing its name in the General Federation means conservation of natural resources only, and that is a field so vast that we have found it all that can well be handled under one head without a chance of neglecting the very principle for which the Conservation movement was established. And then it is always easier to come back to simpler things. I do not mean exactly “simpler,” but to those that touch our lives from day to day, of which we may see the effect almost from hour to hour, and therefore it seems so unnecessary to dwell on these things that are far away. The problem of Conservation of natural resources is so wide and far extended that much of it must be solved on great government plans, and that seems to make it even more remote.
Now, we all concede that there is nothing so important as the conservation of life, of health, education and vital force, so closely connected with the life. We all grant that, and it is only because the conservation of natural resources is so closely related to these other lines that it is of any vital consequence. But, with the other side having been so strongly emphasized, and, to my sorrow, a few times I have noticed it even being decried in this conference, it seems to me it has become my bounden duty to emphasize the other side, because if we do not follow the most scientific approved methods, the most modern discoveries of how to conserve and propagate and renew wherever possible those resources which Nature in her providence has given to man for his use but not abuse, the time will come when the world will not be able to support life, and then we shall have no need of conservation of health, strength or vital force, because we must have the things to support life or else everything else is useless.
Do not think I am pessimistic. I should not feel this so strongly, but I feel that this Congress was originally established for the conservation of natural resources, because the other side had received so much greater recognition and it is naturally nearer to our hearts. You do not know how much harder it is to appeal to people for these far-away things than to those that are so near and dear to them, and the things they can take hold of in an animate way.
I would like you to review with me just a few of the natural resources and the result of their Conservation, or the result of a lack of Conservation.
We will begin with the forests, because in our natural conservation we consider that the foundation of the fundamental principle of the conservation of natural resources. And what does the forest for us? What is the purpose of the forest? Why must we have them? Well, the forest makes soil in a way; that is, it makes humus matter, which is so large a portion of the soil that it may well be termed the soil. The forest is the only crop that grows that gives to the soil more than it takes from the soil. It also conserves the mineral in the soil that it takes Nature ages to produce by its slow processes of disintegration, and at the same time prevents the filling up of reservoirs, lakes and streams, and to that extent prevents the pollution of the waters. The forest is a great health resort, and why? Because it actually purifies the air. Its action is just the reverse of animals. It gives the air what we need and takes from it that which is detrimental to our health.
We must look a little into plant life and see what nature does that we may fully appreciate that point. I cannot take time tonight because of the late hour to go into the whole life of the tree, but I will say that its principal constituent is carbon, and it takes from the air the carbonic acid gas which is so detrimental to human beings and to all animals. It has a way of converting it into its own life blood in combination with the sap taken up from the roots, by the marvelous process in the leaves, by this little understood substance called chlorophyll, that has the power of converting this poisonous substance for us into the life of the tree, and then taking so much from it and giving it to the soil. That is a most important factor which is so often overlooked.
Then the forest is valuable as a wind shield for crops. And for the wood supply. Wood is demanded in all the industries or the arts, for almost all things we use.
These are the fundamental things the forest does for us. Are we not working for conservation of strength and health and human life when we are working for the forest?