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Show restraining influences from which our early settlers wished to escape. The abundance of resources found on the eastern fringes of this continent, together with the glowing reports of more plentiful resources in the West, gave rise to the legend that our resources were inexhaustible. It was something like the age- old fairy story of the bottomless purse. The search for freedom, often interpreted in the economic field as "freedom of the individual to do as he saw fit," irrespective of the conse- quences to the future of the whole people, exerted a strong influence on the use of our heritage. Certain "rights" have been claimed: the right of the individual to exploit any resource for private gain; the right to "mine" a resource as rapidly as possible and then to move on to other areas to repeat the process; the right to exploit a single resource without regard to the immediate or future effect on related resources. Moreover, other major developments have directly or indirectly affected the use of resources throughout our history, and a clear understanding of these is important. 1. Mortgages, tenancy, and absentee owner- ship of farms have caused farmers to put extra pressure on the land to produce more, and have tended to make them less interested in efforts to maintain soil fertility. 2. Absentee financial control. The owners, who usually live at a distance, are frequently more interested in liquidating their investments than in developing permanent industries in rural sec- tions. 3. The accelerated growth of our population, migration, urbanization, and a rising standard of living. 4. The increasing industrialization of our economy. 5. The demands of two world wars and of re- construction after these wars with their price stimulus to increased crop and livestock produc- tion. Although many people now begin to under- stand the danger of unwise use and depletion of resources, far too many still view conservation as an individual rather than as a national prob- lem and responsibility. Thus education in the field of conservation has a deep-seated tradition to overcome. And the effect of this tradition on our basic resources has created a situation in which the responsibility of education is great. Growth of the Conservation Idea Beginning in the minds of the country's great leaders as far back as the birth of the Nation, and growing stronger and stronger, there has arisen a coherent and working conviction that an indi- vidual or a people have a social responsibility to pass on their heritage of basic resources undam- aged, better, or improved. The conservation ethic, as Aldo Leopold calls it, represents a moral turning away from careless and selfish use of God-given materials and opportunities. Early individual conservationists-Jefferson, Washington, and Madison-contended that ig- norance and inertia on the part of the people, rather than the vagaries of the elements, were among the most important causes of soil erosion. In order to overcome this ignorance and inertia they recommended the formation of agricultural societies and organizations and a wider dissemi- nation of information on methods and techniques of conservation through books, pamphlets, and farm journals as a partial solution to the problem. They saw education of the lay public as one of the essential elements in the fight to preserve our heritage. During the century and a half following, the approach to the problem of securing protection of the public domain against reckless exploitation has been chiefly through legislative efforts at the Federal and State levels, and in this effort there have been some exceedingly important achieve- ments, especially during the first half of the pres- ent century. One of the chief purposes of the legislation prior to 1908 was to authorize the gathering of informa- tion and the making of investigations. This was a necessary preliminary to constructive action to» prevent the depletion of the country's basic resources. Early in this century and even before, Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, and others gave im- 269 |