I know perhaps of no better book on the subject than that fine book for children, “The Land We Live In.” I sent a copy into each State of the United States last year, with a request to each of my State chairmen that she do all she could to introduce that work into the libraries of her State, and the schools, feeling sure that if every child could read that book or hear it read, he would have a different idea of the natural resources and the need of natural Conservation. Some of the States have hundreds and thousands of copies of this book, and I am sure it is doing a great propaganda work.
I am going to tell you a little story of how I became interested in these things. It was before I was out of school myself, although pretty nearly so. It was when the welfare work began of taking the children out in the country from the slums in the north end. I was personally acquainted with one of the teachers, who was among the first to take the children out in the fresh air to breathe and see the grass and flowers and trees that they had never seen before. One little boy, after he had looked around in amazement—it was in the fall of the year—saw the bright red apples on the trees, and he looked up and said, “Apples on trees, by God!”
It is overwhelming, isn’t it? I don’t wonder that you gasp at it. But look a little more deeply into it and see the pity of it. That child had been born and bred in the slums of the north end of Boston and actually had never seen apples on trees. He had seen apples in barrels. How did that poor child know that they did not grow in barrels? No, it had never occurred to him. They did not teach, in those days, the principles of horticulture in the schools. Was it not pathetic? Doesn’t that teach a lesson? That has come home to me many and many a time. I actually believe that was the foundation of my interest in Conservation. I think I was born with a love of the soil. And the story of the boy added to that, made me feel that I must know something about nature, about the fundamental principles, about the other side of life, the vegetable kingdom that supports the human life. Those two things combined taught me a lesson that I never, never could forget, and I wish you would think them over.
I will say to you this one message, while you are working for this thing of prime importance, the conservation of life, for which this Congress has stood at this fall meeting, do not forget that the conservation of life itself must be built on the solid foundation of conservation of natural resources, or it will be a house built upon the sands that will be washed away. It will not be lasting. I thank you. (Great applause.)
Paper, Mrs. Elmer Black
President White—I want to have read into the record of this evening’s proceedings, by title only, a paper which was intended to have been read by Mrs. Elmer Black, of the International Peace Congress. She was expecting to be here and was on the program originally, but we learned that she could not get back from Europe in time to be present. She sent on her contribution in the way of a paper. It will be published in the Proceedings. The title is “War is the Policy of Waste—Peace the Policy of Conservation.” (For Mrs. Black’s paper, see Supplementary Proceedings.)
President White—I wish to say further that your very gallant Sergeant-at-Arms, Col. John I. Martin, wants to address the ladies for just three minutes.
Remarks, Colonel John I. Martin
Col. Martin—Madam President, Ladies and Gentlemen: For the very cordial manner in which you have carried out the suggestion made by our popular, esteemed and whole-souled President of the National Conservation Congress, the Hon. J. B. White, that I briefly address this association, and for your kind invitation, I return my most profound thanks.
Nowhere in this wide and extended country can there be found a grander association of noble, unselfish women, planning, acting, counseling upon the great subject of conservation of human life than this organization under whose auspices we are all assembled this evening. Nowhere can there be found an institution more efficient for good, more blessed in all its labors of love and humanity, more universal in its application to the advancement of love and sympathy, stimulating education, encouraging enlightenment and scientific and humane development and morality, than an institution of the character of this band of noble women, engaged in such a magnificent undertaking as your association promulgates. Fully appreciating the fact that as the world grows better and people become more educated and more honest in their endeavors to espouse the cause of the weak against the strong, and the right against the wrong, then such organizations as the Ladies’ Auxiliary of the National Conservation Congress will be heralded as the very acme of perfection along the lines of the contemplated work in which you are now engaged. (Applause.)