Conservator

“ I know of no better conservators than our best farmers. They feel their responsibility. Quite the ideal of conservation is illustrated by a farmer of my acquaintance who saves every product of his land and has developed a system of self-enriching live-stock husbandry, who has harnessed his small stream to light his premises and do much of his work, who turns his drainage waters into productive uses, and who is now troubled that he cannot make some use of the winds that are going to waste on his farm. ”

“ It is, however, painfully common to meet with grand conservatories that are utterly unfit for their intended purpose, the work of architects and builders who were so unfortunate as to know nothing of plant growing. ”

“ They require a light airy position, and when employed in the decoration of the conservatory care must be taken to avoid putting them too far from the glass, or where they will not enjoy a fair share of air. ”

“ Now while the Conservators are continually talking of the "eternal facts" of human life and human nature and falling back upon a conception of permanence that is continually less true as our perspectives extend, these others are full of the conception of adaptation, of deliberate change in relationship and institution to meet changing needs. ”

“ But I attempted to cover the whole field of Conservation in an address at our first Congress, and will not repeat but, in conclusion, will touch upon that form of Conservation which all will concede to be of supreme importance—the Conservation of the most precious asset of the State: its men, women, and children. If the life and health of citizens is sacrificed, by vicious measures or by simple neglect, no saving of any other of our possessions will at all avail us. ”

“ Of what value would Conservation be without human life? For the benefit of man's life are given all these energies which are devoted to the Conservation of our natural resources. So at the very foundation of Conservation must lie the preservation of that for which Conservation exists. ”

“ For the instinct of conservation tends without ceasing to usurp the legislative powers in the domain of the will, and its efforts go to exercise over man a domination as absolute as over the beast. There are, then, two sorts of distinct movements, which, in themselves and by their origin, in each affective phenomenon, arise in man by the instinct of conservation: those firstly which immediately proceed from sensation, and which, consequently, are quite involuntary; then those which in principle could and would be voluntary, but from which the blind instinct of nature takes all freedom. ”

“ For whereas the principle of conservation, with all its far-reaching, and, from some points of view, tremendous implications, slid quietly into acceptance, its successor evoked the thunder-peals which it is said always accompany the marriage of thought and fact. For a long time the scent of danger was in the air. But the evil odor has passed away; the air is fresher than before; it fills our lungs and purifies our blood, and science, in its jubilee offering to the Queen, is able to add to the law of Conservation the principle of evolution. ”

“ Finally the conservative agency of natural selection operates constantly, tending towards the preservation of the new varieties, species, and genera, and would not cease to act, in a given direction, so long as the environment remained the same. ”

“ The preserver of game and the land-owner have opportunities of helping science; when he realises that there is interest in his vermin he often adds them to the list of creatures whose lives shall be preserved. It is not our place to demand that he should deny himself his pleasures, any more than it is his to tell us to mind our own business when we plead for creatures which are not personal property. All we ask is that he will show mercy to wild creatures which are at his mercy. ”

“ Having realised that man not only has been, but still is, responsible for great changes in animal life, many of which entail the passing of species, two questions may with reason he asked. Why should we endeavour to preserve any of those animals which are so feeble that they can no longer compete? To that I would answer with other questions. Do we desire to see any of the existing forms follow after those which have gone? And do we look forward with joy to a land, nay a world, peopled only by man, his domesticated slaves, his animate commercial assets and his parasites? ”

“ The men who are to conserve our lands and waters and minerals, and perpetuate our forests, are now running around in knickerbockers, or being rocked in the cradles of the Nation. They and their children and their children's children, down along the line of centuries, will carry out the vital precepts and principles of this great Conservation movement—this timely warning cry against careless National extravagance, this imperative codicil to the Declaration of Independence. ”

“ I shall never forget the look of indignation our dear old professor gave an ambitious youth who had uprooted for his paltry collection every plant of a species of rare fern which the professor had been trying for years to re-establish in its old location. After all is said and done, a live plant is better than a dead one. This is all a part of the great spirit of conservation that has so taken possession of our people of late years. Out of these little acts of preserving our resources will grow a more beautiful America and a better appreciation of all things beautiful. ”

“ The Conservation movement is not one for today, but for all time, and it matters very little the name or the names of the workers in the cause. It matters that you, and every one of you, should have your hearts right and do the right work. Conservation makes for the best use of all resources, and is dead against their abuse. ”

“ Conservation is a fine, rich-sounding, round word, agreeable to the ear and eye, and much more aristocratic than the word "Reform," which seems to carry with it the unpleasant suggestion of something that needs to be changed. ”

“ And the question of conservation is a great deal bigger than the question of saving our forests and our mineral resources and our waters; it is as big as the life and happiness and strength and elasticity and hope of our people. ”

“ Bring out in your reading the point I wished to make, namely that these great reservations of State and Federal Government are not only to preserve bird and animal life, but also to preserve nature—a portion of the earth—wild and primitive and thrilling, against the constant encroachments of civilization. ”

“ The first notable assembling of men in the interest of conservation, chiefly of men already in public service—the President of the United States, the Vice-President, members of the cabinet, justices of the Supreme Court, members of Congress, the governors of thirty-four States, representatives of the other States, the governors of the Territories, and other public officials, with a number of representatives of societies and a few guests—met in 1908, to discuss questions relative to conservation. ”

“ It was often said a few months ago that Conservation was an enthusiasm—that it was an idea, or perhaps an ideal, and that those who were urging Conservation were not practical men and looking forward to practical work-a-day solutions of their own problems. So I chose to speak on the relation of the Federal Government to Conservation—a very practical subject, one on which we have been working, as well as talking, for a number of years. ”

“ We should not be content, however, with the beauty that comes only from the conservation of our other resources, but should have a definite plan for the conservation of beauty as a valuable resource in itself. ”

“ But of what do our fleets and armies, nay, the 50whole human species consist, but of individuals? To preserve, therefore, individuals, is virtually to preserve and perpetuate the species, and consequently to obey the dictates of nature, in completing the grand system of the creation. ”

“ Like nearly every great reform—and Conservation is a great reform—the Conservation movement first passed through a period of generalities, general agitation and general approval, when all men were its friends ”

“ The very essence of the theory of protective resemblance, as a means of survival consequent upon the slow but sure action of natural selection, is a special, not a general effect,—a particular, not an universal attribute,—but one of the many and diverse qualifications which enable animals and plants to survive in the competitive struggle for existence. ”

“ To name the friends of wild life in Congress would require the printing of a list of at least two hundred names, and a history of the rise and progress of wild life conservation by the national government would fill a volume. ”

“ In speaking of the educational aspect of Conservation, I am not concerned with anything merely incidental or subordinate, but have to do with a matter as large and vital as any upon which the success of the Conservation movement depends. ”

“ Not for the human race only, but for every race, there are laws of right living. Given its environment and its structure, and there is for each kind of creature a set of actions adapted in their kinds, amounts, and combinations, to secure the highest conservation its nature permits. ”

“ Conservation has captured the Nation. Its progress during the last twelve months is amazing. Official opposition to the conservation movement, whatever damage it has done or still threatens to the public interest, has vastly strengthened the grasp of conservation upon the minds and consciences of our people. ”

“ In this official program some lectures in conservation are needed with reference to the animal life. I know that some education now is given to people with respect to conservation of the water, soil, and forest, but gather that there is little that covers also conservation of animals. ”

“ The present warning issues with no uncertain sound, because this great battle for preservation and conservation cannot be won by gentle tones, nor by appeals to the aesthetic instincts of those who have no sense of beauty, or enjoyment of Nature. It is necessary to sound a loud alarm, to present the facts in very strong language, backed up by irrefutable statistics and by photographs which tell no lies, to establish the law and enforce it if needs be with a bludgeon. ”

“ Maintenance of species being the end to which maintenance of individual lives is necessarily subordinated, we find, as we ascend in the scale of being, a diminishing sacrifice of individual lives in the achievement of this end; and, as we ascend through the successive grades of societies with their successive grades of family, we find a further progress in the same direction. Human races of the lower types, as compared with those of the higher, show us a greater sacrifice of the adult individual to the species ”

“ Nevertheless, as judged by our present knowledge, the possibilities are so great as to place this factor, I believe, among the important features of the conservation movement.
What do we not owe to our domesticated and improved plants and animals? They are the greatest heritage that has come down to us from our ancestors. ”

“ The outgrowth of conservation, the inevitable result, is national efficiency. ”

“ It has been ordained by Providence, for the conservation of order in the immense variety of nature, and for the regular propagation of the several classes of life with which the elements are peopled, that every creature should be drawn by some secret attraction to those of his own kind; and that not only the gentle and domestick animals which naturally unite into companies, or co-habit by pairs, should continue faithful to their species ”

“ Our attempts to salvage a part of all we once possessed, to restore wild life in the places from which it has been driven have been many and varied. They have been enthusiastic, earnest; but, quite generally they have been ineffectual. ”

“ But there is one thing we are trying to do; we are trying to enforce the principle of practical Conservation, and I wish to call attention to that as a sample of ridicule sometimes seen in the discussion of a subject that really interests the people. ”

“ It is a dynamic and paternalistic conservation—a conservation that thinks of great dams for the restraint of waters and reservoirs for their impounding to the extent of millions or billions of cubic feet, forestation of great stretches of mountain slope, of restrictions and compulsions of other than personal and family interests—a paternalism that looks beyond the next generation or even two generations and to the feeding of other children than one's own lineal descendants—a paternalism that is not exploiting but fiduciary. ”

“ With the rapidity with which he gets into a position where his voice is listened to as unselfish and authoritative on the conservation subject, will his influence on the new conditions be measured. Therefore, he must study the subject. He must be able to support good laws and oppose bad laws with facts and arguments which will stand scrutiny. Above all, he must show faith by practicing what he preaches so far as he is able. ”

“ Trusting, therefore, that naturalists will, without hesitation, agree with us in the necessity of rescuing the human race, however at present depraved, from the humiliating situation in which it is placed among the inferior animals, we venture, with due deference to their judgment, to exclude our species from the subsequent division of the animal kingdom, which consists of six distinct classes. ”

“ Meantime, however, the company of brilliant young men who had just served their apprenticeship when the doctrine of conservation came upon the scene had grown into authoritative positions, and were battling actively for the new ideas. ”

“ Surely in such cases as these no one can find fault with the wish to preserve and save from decay any species of the animal world in the nearest approach to its original form and beauty, for when so preserved they are a lifelong delight to their owner and to others of a kindred spirit. ”