civilization finally will come because there will be so many people in the world that the land cannot grow enough food to keep them from starving. There does not seem to be much danger of this, but there might be if our agricultural departments did not use scientific methods to save the land for the use of future generations. If the forests on the hills are cut off, not only is the water supply ruined, but the fertile soil on the hillsides is washed away and nothing but bare rocks is left. Even the land in many valleys becomes less useful because the water for irrigating them fails. The government must save the land by saving the water; but it must also teach people to farm the land in such a way that it will continue fertile. Those who teach farming know that it exhausts land to grow the same crop on it year after year. But uneducated farmers do not know it, and so are in danger of destroying their own property and the future welfare of the State at the same time. The community must help the farmers to learn how to save their land from destruction.

237. Other Kinds of Wealth. In the earth are great quantities of minerals. These should belong to the community, but one way of having them brought out for our use is to permit those who mine them to make a profit from their work. Men will not work unless they make something by it. Therefore we permit those who find the minerals to dig them out and sell them as if they had made them. But some miners dig wastefully. When they dig coal they take out only the part that is easiest to get, leaving the rest and so ruining the mine, for the remainder is harder to get at after this wasteful mining. In the long run it is cheaper and better for the minerals to be mined completely at one time. The government must have officers trained

in mining, who will help the legislature to change the laws so that mining will be wisely and economically done. Another kind of wealth is the wild animals. When the fish in our waters, such as salmon, trout, and the like, are gone it will be almost impossible to get them back. The same is true of our birds. We need wise leadership in saving these things; but we cannot have it unless we maintain a government which will employ men and women who have studied animal life and who are interested in saving it.

238. The Duty of the Citizen. Our first duty is to obey the laws of conservation ourselves; our next is to help the State officers to catch and correct those who fail to obey them; and our third is to elect officers who know what the community needs and who will try to save our resources for the people who are to live after us. Such officers must be efficient and honest men and women. What we commonly call politicians are honest enough, but they are too seldom trained to do this difficult work. The work of the world cannot be done merely by being willing to do it; the workers must have training and ability.

SUGGESTIONS AND QUESTIONS

1. Make a list of the natural resources of your State, such as land, minerals, water power, forests, etc. Try to indicate on an outline map where these are to be found.

2. What does your State government do to conserve these resources? Through what departments of the government is each kind of resource cared for?

3. Has your State a department of agriculture? If your school has none of its literature, write to the department and ask for some of it.

4. Has your State a department of mines? Of forestry? Of fish and game? Of natural parks?

5. Who appoints the head of each of these departments? 6. What sort of expert and trained persons will each of these departments need to do its work well?

7. In what resource of your State are you particularly interested? Why are you interested in this? Mention some particular thing that the State government is doing to conserve this resource for the use of future generations.

8. Are the sources of any large rivers in your State? Are these sources protected by the State, or are persons permitted to cut off the timber without replacing it?

9. Are there any great water-falls in your State which might be used for power? Are they privately owned? Is there any water power being used near your home? For what is it used?

10. As you pass along country roads observe whether the soil is being washed from the hills because of careless farming. How can this be prevented? If you do not know write to the department of agriculture and inquire.

11. Is natural gas being used in your neighborhood? If so, can you give an illustration of its waste? How can the waste be prevented?

12. Are there any fisheries in or near your State? Is the fishing done in a way that is likely to exterminate the fish?

CHAPTER XXV

GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESS

239. The Reason for This Chapter. In the last chapter we discussed the work the government does to save our resources for future generations. In this one we shall discuss its work in aiding us to use some of these resources for ourselves. We shall start out with two ideas: The first is that industry and business are necessary for our welfare; the second that neither of these can be carried on successfully unless we have a strong and efficient government. The government must protect the men and women who work so that they may be free from disturbance and that their working conditions may be wholesome. It must protect honest business men from fraud and deceit in order that they may trust those with whom they deal. All must be given an opportunity to keep and enjoy the products of their labor or the money for which they sell these products.

240. What Is Industry? Industry is all the work which those do who prepare the raw materials of the world to satisfy our bodily needs. The farmer, the miner, the fisherman, the herdsman, the trapper, the lumberman, the fruit-grower,—all of these spend much of their lives getting out the raw materials of the earth. The miller; the tanner; the canner; the packer; the manufacturer of cloth, hats, shoes, furniture, utensils, machinery, and a hundred other things, all spend their lives getting these raw materials

ready for use. When we read the fifth chapter of this book we saw that each family used to try to do many of these things for itself, but that now since the Industrial Revolution and the coming of the division of labor we no longer do this. Instead, each of us selects some one kind of work and does that as well as possible, exchanging our products for those of other workers in other industries. Consequently we are all greatly dependent upon each other and must make laws to insure justice and right in our dealings with each other.

241. What Is Business? By business we mean the exchange of goods which have been produced by industry. Let us see what the business man does and whether he is a useful member of our State and country. The farmer in Minnesota raises wheat to be shipped to all parts of the country. The shoe manufacturer of Massachusetts, the fruit-grower of California, the trapper in Alaska, the fisherman on the coast, the coal miner of Pennsylvania,— all produce as much as they can of their goods. When you go to your dinner table to-day count over the things you are using, clothes, furniture, kinds of food. Who attends to having just enough of these things in your city at the right time? If you have too much there is likely to be waste; if too little there is suffering. Petrograd in Russia starved in the winter of 1918-1919 while farmers had plenty of wheat. The crops of the farmer suffer because he has no machinery ready for his use while the machinists at the factory are out of work. Many people have a little money saved which they would like to invest for the interest it would yield. Other men would like to start factories going, but they cannot borrow this money. Now the able men and women who plan and carry on the exchange