But  this  is  a  time  to  consider  not  one  resource,  but  all  resources
together.  Alreadj^  here  and  there  small  associations  of  citizens  have
become  possessed  of  certain  facts,  and  have  begun  to  work  at  certain
sides  of  what  is  fundamentally  one  great  problem.  We  have  a  drainage
association,  whose  object  is  to  make  habitable  millions  upon  millions  of
acres  now  lying  waste  in  swamps  all  over  the  country,  but  capable  of
supporting  in  comfort  millions  of  people.  We  have  forestry  associa-
tions, waterway'  associations,  irrigation  associations,  associations  of
many  kinds  touching  this  problem  of  conservation  at  different  points,
each  endeavoring  to  benefit  the  common  weal  along  its  own  line,  but
each  interested  only  in  its  own  particular  piece  of  the  work  and
unaware  that  it  is  attacking  the  outside,  not  the  heart  of  the  problem,
Now  a  greater  thing  is  opening  out  in  the  sight  of  the  people.  This
problem  of  the  conservation  of  natural  resources  is  a  single  question.
Each  of  these  various  bodies  that  have  been  working  at  different  phases
of  it  must  come  together  on  conservation  as  a  common  platform.  By
the  joining  of  these  units  we  shall  have  a  mass  of  intelligent,  interested,
public-spirited  citizens  anxiaus  to  adopt  a  new  point  of  view  about  this
country  of  ours.
