The purity of the food eaten should receive careful consideration. Artificially preserved foods are usually more or less dangerous, for although dealers urge that the poison contained in them is too small to do harm we must remember that it is not the single dose that does harm, but the many foods each containing a very small amount of poison, taken day after day.

Pure food laws, national and state, have done great good in driving adulterated and impure foods out of the markets by requiring all foods to be properly labeled.

Thorough mastication or chewing of the food is only a little less important than the character of the food itself. Rapid swallowing without chewing in childhood lays the foundation for many of the digestive diseases of later life. If food be thoroughly masticated much that would otherwise be hard to digest can be eaten without bad results. One of the best known examples of this is meat, which, while full of nourishment, sets up in the large intestine a condition known as "auto-intoxication," a species of digestive poison. If meat be eaten slowly and chewed thoroughly, this condition is almost entirely absent.

Pure drinking water is almost as necessary as pure food. We take water into the body for three principal purposes: first, it is needed to dissolve and dilute various substances and carry them from one part of the body to another; second, it forms a large part of the blood and other important fluids of the body, and is a part of many substances formed in the body; third, it serves to carry from the body the worn-out and useless tissues, the waste products of the body.

These are extremely poisonous and must be promptly disposed of to prevent sickness. This can not be done except by an ample supply of water. Few persons, especially grown persons, drink enough water. Ten glasses of pure water are needed properly to supply the body. "Insufficient water drinking is perhaps the commonest cause of the interruption of the normal life processes," says Doctor Theron C. Stearns.

But the common drinking cup in public places probably causes far more disease than the drinking itself prevents.

Particles of dead skin and disease-germs are left in the cup by each drinker. Some of the most serious diseases may be carried in this way. A cup made of heavy waterproof paper, cheap enough to be thrown away after being used once, is a recent invention that is highly recommended for use by school children and those who are obliged to drink away from home. The water in a public drinking-fountain should come out in a small steady stream so that those who have no cups may drink from the stream itself as it rises. Many school-houses are so equipped.

Sleep is a necessary part of good hygiene. It promotes health and prevents disease. It is largely in sleep that the system renews itself, that growth takes place, that waste products are thrown off, and the body repairs its wastes. No less than eight hours for grown persons and ten for children should be employed in sleep. Late hours and sleepless nights are the frequent cause of nervousness, eye strain, nervous prostration, and the beginning of brain troubles and insanity.

Bathing is also necessary to good health. The pores of the skin play a large part in carrying off the wastes of the body, through the perspiration, and if these become clogged, this poisonous material remains in the system. We have all noticed how a bath refreshes and gives tone to the entire body by opening the pores.

The skin is composed of minute scales, arranged in layers like fish scales. The tiny crevices between these form a lodging place for dirt and germs. If these remain, our own bodies are constantly exposed to their infection, if they drop off, as some are constantly doing, we may spread the contagion to others. This is strikingly illustrated by scarlet fever, smallpox, and similar diseases where these minute scales are the sole source of contagion.

Exercise is another necessity of health. Regular physical culture in a gymnasium will develop any muscle or part of the body almost at will, but if this be not possible much can be accomplished in developing the body by simple work. Gladstone found health in chopping wood, Roosevelt in a daily tennis game, and President Taft in golf. Many find it in gardening or farming. These all help to develop vigorous bodies.

Anything which brings into moderate play any set of muscles, which increases the circulation, or stimulates the secretion is beneficial. House-work, which, in its various forms, brings into use all the muscles of the body, is a wholesome exercise for women. Those who do no house-work seldom substitute for it any other active exercise, and many diseases which are caused by deposits of waste tissues that are not thrown off by the body, are the result.

Rest—recreation—pleasure—these are as necessary to health as anything else, but the American people are slow to learn the need of them. We hear much of nervous prostration as an American disease. It is due to a variety of causes,—high living, late hours, ill-ventilated rooms, and climate; but chief of all the causes is the long hours of work under strong pressure. Work done in a hurry and without rest may accomplish many things, but it invariably causes a corresponding loss of nerve force. Fatigue, by checking bodily resistance, gives rise to all kinds of poisons in the system. Every part of the body feels the ill effect of continued exhaustion.

Of the diseases caused by bad habits, it can only be said that all the evils they cause, directly and indirectly, are entirely preventable; that they are usually wrong morally, and that the suffering which results is sure.

Under this head come the effects of drinking, of the use of tobacco and drugs, and of bad personal and social habits. It is only necessary to refrain from these bad habits to prevent all the diseases that arise from them, with all their train of suffering, poverty and crime.

It is not the province of this book to deal with scientific temperance, but merely to state a few of the most serious results of the use of alcohol and other poisons. The white corpuscles of the blood have been called our "standing army," because they are natural germ-destroyers. One class of the white cells has the power of motion, and another class has the power of absorbing outside matter, such as disease-germs. One destroys the germs and the other moves them through the blood and carries them off with the waste products of the body.

The white corpuscles thus stand as the defenders of the body, ready to destroy the germs as they enter, and are, for each individual, the best of all preventives of germ diseases. The person whose blood is lacking in white cells is always liable to "catch" contagious or infectious diseases, and the one who has that element of the blood in proper proportion is best fitted to withstand disease.

Leading physicians believe that the greatest harm that comes from the use of alcohol lies in the fact that nothing else so weakens the resistance of the white corpuscles, and that therefore the person who is an habitual user of alcohol lacks the power to repel all classes of disease. English and American life insurance companies give us almost exactly the same figures, which show that of insured persons, the death rate is twenty-three per cent. higher among those who use alcohol than among total abstainers. It is probable that the proportion of persons carrying life insurance is much less among the drinking classes and that if we had complete statistics the difference would be far greater than appears in the life insurance tables.

Of time lost by sickness, directly and through other diseases caused by alcoholism, drugs and other bad habits, the percentage is very great, according to all hospital records.

The number of prominent persons who have died of "tobacco heart" indicates that the rate of those whose heart action is weakened by the use of tobacco is probably very large.

Doctor Morrow says that if we could put an end at once to diseases caused by bad habits it would result in closing at least one-half of our institutions for defective persons, and almost all of our penal institutions.

There is another long list of diseases which are contagious, that is, which one person may transmit to another. These are usually serious but their spread may be largely prevented by keeping the sick person alone, except for the necessary nurses, quarantining the house and disinfecting everything when the period of infection is past.

In this class are smallpox, diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles, mumps, chicken-pox and whooping-cough.

These latter are the so-called "childish diseases" which it was formerly considered impossible to escape, and little attempt was made to guard against them. Now they are recognized as serious, whooping-cough for its close relation to brain and spinal trouble; measles for their effect on the eyes and lungs; chicken-pox for its similarity to smallpox, and mumps for its general lowering of the tone of the system, allowing other diseases to gain a foothold.

Special serum treatment for diphtheria and vaccination for smallpox have greatly reduced the danger from these once greatly dreaded diseases.

Of preventable diseases none should receive more attention than typhoid fever, because it is a great scourge and yet it can be prevented by simple means. If we understand that typhoid is a dirt disease, that it comes only from dirt, we shall feel it a disgrace to have an epidemic of typhoid, though one of the saddest features about it is that we must suffer for the sins of others. The one who is attacked by typhoid fever may not be the one who has left dirt for the disease to breed in.

Typhoid fever germs are bred chiefly in manure piles, sewers, or cess-pools, and would not be transmitted to man directly, but there are several indirect ways in which they may be carried. Flies also breed in the same places. Their legs become covered with typhoid germs, and then they fly into houses directly on the food and cooking utensils. This is one of the most common ways in which the disease is carried, and doctors tell us that the common house-fly should be known as the "typhoid fly" so that people may know the serious danger that lurks in what was formerly considered as nothing worse than an annoying foe to clean housekeeping.

If houses are thoroughly screened, if cess-pools, manure piles and garbage are kept tightly covered, screened, or, still better, disinfected with chloride of lime, there will be no breeding-places left for flies and this will remove one of the greatest dangers.

The other danger lies in a polluted water or milk supply. Every sewer that is carried into a stream, every manure pile that drains into a water course is a menace to health.

Very frequently the farm well for watering stock is near the barn,—near the manure pile, which, as it drains, carries down millions of typhoid germs to the water-level below. The well becomes infected, the family drink from it, and soon there may be several cases of typhoid fever in the home.

Worst of all, the milk pails are rinsed at the well, and all the milk that is poured into them spreads the germs wherever the milk may be sold. In this way an epidemic may be carried to an entire town, and to persons who themselves have taken every precaution against the disease.

Drinking water should be boiled unless one is sure of the water-supply, and surface wells are never safe unless we know that they drain only from clean sources, and then the water should be analyzed frequently. Boiling absolutely destroys typhoid and other germs, and well repays the extra work it makes. One case of typhoid fever causes more work than boiling the water for years, if we consider the work only.

If you can not buy pasteurized milk, and are not sure of conditions about the dairy, your milk should be boiled, or, still better, sterilized at home by putting it in bottles or other containers, and placing in a vessel of hot water, keeping the milk for several hours about half-way to the boiling point, then cooling gradually.

All these means of prevention are troublesome and require time and work, but as the result in health for the family is sure, every housekeeper should gladly take this extra burden on herself if it be necessary. In some states and many cities, the laws governing dairies are now so strict that there is no need of doing this work in the home. This care in the dairies should be insisted on everywhere, even if it raises the price of milk, because it means the saving of many doctor and drug bills and also raises the standard of public health.

Yellow fever was formerly dreaded more than any other single disease because it was so wide-spread, so fatal, and was thought to be violently contagious, but during the Spanish-American War it was proved that it is not contagious at all, but comes only from the bite of a certain mosquito, the stegomia, which is usually found only in hot climates. It is conveyed in this way: the mosquito bites a yellow fever patient; for twelve days it is harmless, but after that time it may infect every person that it bites.

If every yellow fever patient could be screened with netting to prevent his being bitten, we could prevent the yellow fever mosquito from becoming infected. Further, if we can prevent healthy people from being bitten by fever-infected mosquitoes, they will escape the disease, and still further, if we can destroy the eggs of mosquitoes, we can entirely obviate all danger of yellow fever in a community.

The mosquito breeds only in water; by having all cisterns, rain-water barrels, and other water containers carefully covered, and by spreading the surface of pools of standing water, especially dirty water, covered with greenish scum, with a thick coating of kerosene oil, we can prevent the eggs from hatching. This has been done in many communities in Cuba and the southern part of the United States, and has resulted in completely stamping out the disease in those places.

Malaria is caused by another mosquito, called the anopheles and while malaria is seldom fatal as is yellow fever, it causes much suffering and loss of time, and strong efforts should be made to prevent it. The same measures that are used to prevent yellow fever will banish malaria from any community. They are the screening of patients to prevent spreading the disease; screening all houses closely and keeping close watch for mosquitoes in the house, and covering all ponds in the neighborhood with oil. New Jersey mosquitoes were formerly known far and wide, but such an active campaign has been waged against them, that they have been almost completely driven from the state.

The ordinary mosquito has never been found to do any harm beyond the discomfort of its bite.

Of other diseases caused by insects, an affection of the eyes called pink-eye is carried by very tiny flies, and the dreaded bubonic plague is supposed to be transferred from sick people to well ones by the bites of fleas, which in turn are brought to this country by rats.

The hook-worm which affects so many persons in the South is often called "the lazy disease" since the persons afflicted with it are not totally disabled, but are lacking in energy and vigor because the small insects take from the blood the red corpuscles which should carry the digested food all over the body. These insects can be destroyed by medicine, of which only a few cents worth is required to cure a case and make the patient fit for work and enjoyment. In Porto Rico almost 300,000 cases have been treated by the United States government in the last six years.

Another matter which should receive careful consideration is the large number of preventable accidents. Mining accidents come in a few cases from failure to provide the best appliances in the mines, but in many cases are due to carelessness or ignorance of the operators themselves. There still remain a large number of accidents which occur in the best regulated mines, and when no instance of special carelessness can be traced. For years these disasters have puzzled mining engineers, but within the last few months it has been discovered that the minute particles of coal dust in a dry mine completely fill the air, so that the air itself is ready to burn.

When a light is taken into this coal-filled atmosphere, it bursts into flame, causing a violent explosion. Sprinkling the mines, forcing a fine spray of water through the air of every part of the mines, it is thought, will prevent this class of accidents, which have furnished long lists of killed and injured each year.

Reports show that one miner is killed and several injured for every one hundred thousand tons of coal mined. The mining accidents of one year total 2,500 killed and 6,000 seriously injured.

Other industries do not cause such wholesale injuries, but there are thousands of individual accidents each year where the injury varies from mangled fingers to death.

When the cause is failure to provide suitable safeguards to machinery, or to warn employees of danger, the penalty to the employers should be made severe, so that no consideration of money will prevent them from taking precautions. More often, however, the injury is due to the carelessness of the men or to the fact that they try to run machines with which they are unfamiliar.

Manual training schools, night schools for working-men, with a short apprenticeship in the running of machinery and an explanation of the dangers, will go far to prevent this class of accidents, but the fact will still remain, that often those who are most familiar with machinery become careless and are more liable to injury than beginners.

The number of accidents that have been added to the world's list by automobiles, both to those riding and to persons who are run over by them, is great and is in a large measure due to carelessness in handling the machine or to reckless driving.

The entire number of accidents in the United States, including railway accidents, reaches the immense total of sixty thousand killed and many times that number injured. A most appalling waste of life and labor value!

Professor Ditman says, "Of 29,000,000 workers in the United States over 500,000 are yearly killed or crippled as a direct result of the occupations in which they are engaged—more than were killed and wounded throughout the whole Russo-Japanese War. More than one-half this tremendous sacrifice of life is needless."

Until the last quarter of a century there was a large addition to the death rate each year from the blood poisoning following operations and injuries making open wounds. It was not until the discovery of the germs which cause septic poisoning that deaths from these causes could be checked. The use of antiseptics, such as carbolic acid, alcohol, and various other preparations, the boiling of all surgical instruments, and the boiling or baking of all articles used in the treatment of open wounds and sores has reduced the death rate at least one-half.

The rate could be lowered much more if all sores were treated as surgical cases and carefully sterilized from the beginning. About eighty-five deaths out of every hundred from these causes might be prevented.

Every Fourth of July a great many entirely preventable deaths and minor accidents occur. The toy pistol has come to be considered almost as deadly as the larger variety. The tiny "caps" that are used in them are fired back into the hand of the person shooting them, tiny particles of powder enter the skin, burrowing into the flesh, and the skin closes over them, shutting out the air. If these particles carry with them tetanus germs, as is often the case, because these germs are found chiefly in the dirt of the street where most of this shooting is done, lock-jaw or tetanus, a severe form of blood-poisoning, results, and is usually fatal. The same results come less frequently from fire-crackers and other explosives, and in addition many accidents which injure hands, eyes, and other parts of the body, are the result of the use of the heavier explosives.

The Pasteur Treatment is saving many lives each year by treating cases of infection from "mad dogs" and other animals affected with hydrophobia.

Among the diseases which can be remedied by slight means are enlarged tonsils and adenoid growths back of the nose, both of which can be removed by a slight and almost painless operation, but which, if allowed to develop, often cause serious throat and lung troubles, deafness, and weakened minds. Slight defects of the eyes can be remedied by the wearing of glasses, but which if unchecked give rise to various nerve and spinal diseases as well as more serious eye troubles. It is believed now that most of the blindness of later life could be prevented by proper care of the eyes in early life and by prompt attention to slight defects of the eyes when they begin.

Doctor Walter Cornell, who has made a study of eye strain says, "Eye strain is the chief cause of functional diseases. It is almost the sole cause of headache, is the frequent cause of digestive diseases, of spinal curvatures, and indirectly of neurasthenia and hysteria."

Decayed teeth in children, slight in themselves, give rise to more serious troubles in later life,—ill-shaped mouths and jaws and crooked teeth result from teeth that have been drawn too early in life. Decayed teeth lead also to many stomach and digestive troubles.

Medical inspection in the schools shows a surprising number of children suffering from these minor troubles. About 80,000 children were examined, and the records show that out of every one hundred children examined sixty-six needed the services of a doctor, surgeon, or dentist, and some needed all three.

Forty out of each hundred had badly neglected teeth.

Thirty-eight had enlarged glands of the neck.

Eighteen had enlarged tonsils.

Ten had growths of the nose.

Thirty-one needed glasses.

Six needed more nourishing food.

This meant that more than 52,000 of the number needed some medical care that they would not have received at home because their parents had never noticed the need of it. Every one of them could by prompt attention, a small dentist's bill, a slight operation of the throat or nose, or the use of glasses, (almost 25,000 needed glasses) be saved great suffering or inability to work in later life.

As we learn more of disease, and especially of germ diseases, we are oppressed by the feeling that we are in constant danger, but we must bear in mind that it is the weak and unfit that are attacked, and that fitness, while partly inherited, is almost altogether a matter of proper hygiene. Keeping our bodily defenses in good condition against disease is as much a matter of necessity and good policy as keeping the defenses of a city in fighting condition in time of war.

That life may be prolonged and so strengthened that the average height, weight, and endurance will be increased, admits of no doubt. The same rule of cultivation runs through all nature. The original or natural apple was a small, sour, bitter crab. The difference between that and the finest products of western orchards, is altogether a matter of cultivation, selection, and proper treatment. In 1710 the average weight of dressed cattle did not exceed three hundred and seventy pounds. Now it is not far from one thousand pounds. An equal change could be made in the human race, but because we believe so fully in personal liberty to live our lives as we choose, little has actually been done to raise the human standard.

The care and hygiene of children is receiving universal attention, with the result of a wonderful reduction in the sickness and death of children, but as yet comparatively few grown persons apply these lessons to their own lives, and the rates for older persons remain almost unchanged.

When individuals have done all that they can, there still remains much that must be done by the city, the state, and the nation. Boards of health can do much toward controlling epidemics by placing infected households under quarantine, by compelling householders who are ignorant or careless to clean their premises and to take other precautions for the public health.

Hospitals, both public and private, have done excellent work, not only in curing disease but in gaining more definite knowledge of the nature of diseases through the study of large numbers of cases.

The cleaning of streets and the removal of garbage regularly are among the great factors in keeping a city in a sanitary condition. New Orleans and some of the cities of Cuba and Porto Rico show strikingly what may be done in that direction.

Medical inspection of schools is a new and valuable aid to health. Epidemics of childish diseases which sweep through the schools with a fearful record of illness and a lesser one of death, may often be checked entirely by the close watch of the medical inspector, who removes the first patients from the schools when the disease is in its beginning.

Public playgrounds for children in cities have an influence that it is as good for health as it is for morals, providing, as it does, fresh air and active exercise for children. Open air schools for tubercular children are being operated in several cities with excellent results in health and school work.

Many states are making an organized effort to fight tuberculosis by establishing fresh-air colonies where, with pure air, rest and plenty of the most nourishing food, patients are restored to health.

Care of epileptics and the insane by the state, with proper hygiene and treatment, accomplishes many cures.

The nation is doing excellent work in a few lines, notably the Pure Food Bureau and the Marine Hospital Corps, but perfected organization of all the forces is lacking. The Department of Agriculture has done a wonderful work in investigating and curbing insect pests that injure farm crops and trees, and in stamping out disease among live stock. Forty-six million dollars have been spent and well spent in the work in the last few years, but it is a matter of reproach that more pains are taken to save the lives of cattle and farm crops than human lives.

There should be a strong central Bureau of Health with power and money scientifically to investigate disease, to distribute information as the Department of Agriculture does to farmers, and to carry out their ideas, as do state and city boards of health.

We have dealt with only one side of the question—the suffering and sorrow; but in a work on conservation, we must consider also the money question, the loss to the nation in time and money of these great wastes of health and life.

There are no trustworthy statistics as to wages. The average yearly earnings of all persons, from day laborers to presidents, is estimated at seven hundred dollars; but as not more than three-fourths of the people are actual workers, three-fourths of this amount, or five hundred and twenty-five dollars is taken as the average wage.

From these figures the money value of a person under five years is given at ninety-five dollars; from five to ten years, at nine hundred and fifty dollars; from ten to twenty years at $2,000; from twenty to thirty at $4,000; thirty to fifty years at $4,000; fifty to eighty at $2,900 and over eighty at $700 or less. The average value of life at all ages is $2,900 and the 93,000,000 persons living in this country would be worth in earning power the vast sum of $270,000,000,000. This is probably a low estimate but is more than double all our other wealth combined.

Now let us see how much of this vital wealth is wasted. As the average death rate is at least eighteen out of each thousand, we have 1,500,000 as the number of deaths in the United States each year. Of these, forty-two per cent., or 630,000 are classed as preventable—so that a number equal to the entire population of the city of Boston die each year whose deaths are as unnecessary as is the waste of our forests by fire.

If some great plague should carry off all the people of Boston, not the people of the United States only, but of the whole world would be roused by the appalling calamity and every possible means would be employed to prevent other cities from sharing such a fate; but because these preventable deaths are not in one city, but are widely scattered, we have long remained indifferent to this terrible and needless waste.

Then there are always 3,000,000 persons ill, 1,000,000 of whom are of working age. If, as before, we count only three-fourths of them as actual workers, we find a yearly direct loss from sickness of $500,000,000 in wages. The daily cost of nursing, doctor bills, and medicine is counted at one dollar and fifty cents, which makes for the 3,000,000 sick, a yearly cost for these items of more than $1,500,000,000. What should we think if nearly all of the people of the city of New York were constantly sick, and were spending for doctors, nurses, and medicine as much money as Congress appropriates to run every department of the government!

It is estimated that sickness and death cost the United States $3,000,000,000 annually, of which at least a third, probably one-half, is preventable. Is it not well worth while, then, from a money standpoint alone, to use every effort to conserve our national health? Conservation of health and life, going hand in hand with conservation of national resources, will give us not only a better America, but better, stronger, happier, more enlightened Americans. What a new world would be opened to us if we could have a nation with no sickness or suffering! That is the ideal, and everything that we can do toward realizing that ideal is a great step in human progress.

REFERENCES

Report on National Vitality. Committee of One Hundred. (Fisher.)

The Nature of Man. Metchnikoff.

The Prolongation of Life. Metchnikoff.

The New Hygiene. Metchnikoff.

Vital Statistics. Farr.

The Kingdom of Man. Lankester.

Cost of Tuberculosis. Fisher.

School Hygiene. Keating.

Economic Loss Through Insects That Carry Disease. Howard.

Report of Associated Fraternities on Infectious, Contagious, and Hereditary Diseases.

Conservation of Life and Health by Improved Water Supply. Kober.

Backward Children in the Public Schools. Davis.

Dangers to Mine Workers. (Mitchell.) Report Governor's Conference.

Tuberculosis in the U. S. Census Report 1908.

Industrial Accidents. Bureau of Labor Pamphlet, 1906.

Factory Sanitation and Labor Protection. Dept. of Labor, No. 44.

How Insects Affect Health in Rural Districts. Dept. of Agriculture. Bulletin 155.

Public Health and Water Pollution. Bulletin 93.



CHAPTER XIII

BEAUTY

America has another resource that differs from all the others, and yet is no less valuable to us as a nation, for it is upon natural beauty that we must depend to attract visitors and settlers from other countries, and also to develop love of country in our own people, and to arouse in them all the higher sentiments and ideals.

The love of romance and poetry is awakened only by the sight of beautiful objects, and that nation will produce the highest class of citizens which has most within it to kindle these lofty ideas. The savage cares only for the comfort of his body, but as civilization advances, man devotes more and more thought to those pleasures that come only through his mind and the cultivation of his tastes.

The United States is particularly fortunate in this respect, for here is everything to inspire a love of beauty. There is the beauty of changing seasons, of our wonderful autumn forest coloring, of rivers, mountains, lakes, sea, and shore.

In addition to the beauty of our landscapes, which is everywhere to be found, there are many special beauties which are among the world's wonder-places, and which are visited yearly by thousands of sight-seers, and each year they attract a greater number of visitors from other lands. Some of the most remarkable of these are Niagara Falls, the Yosemite Valley, with its crowning glory, the Yosemite Falls, the Hetch-Hetchy Falls, Mammoth Cave, the Garden of the Gods, the Grand Canon of the Colorado, the Agatized Forests of Arizona, Yellowstone Park, The Natural Bridge of Virginia, Great Salt Lake, and dozens of others, less wonderful, but scarcely less beautiful, and equal to the most talked-of beauties of Europe, such as the Palisades of the Hudson, Lake Champlain, the Shenandoah Valley, the Dalles of Oregon, Pike's Peak, Mount Rainier, Lookout Mountain, the Adirondacks, and the entire Rocky Mountain region.

To these must be added the relics of ancient civilization, the homes of the Cliff Dwellers, the work of the Mound Builders, and such fragments as still remain of the occupation in various times and places of certain Indian tribes, and of the Norsemen and the Spaniards.

All these are to be valued for their beauty or historic interest, and are also valuable as a source of wealth to the community.

The money spent on tourist-travel in Europe is said to be more than half a billion dollars a year. This vast amount is spent because in Europe there is so much to delight the eye, because the cities are made beautiful with artistic buildings filled with art treasures, because historic places are carefully preserved, because the villages are neat and well-kept, and the intensive farming which is practised almost everywhere leaves no waste places to grow up with weeds, and lie neglected.

There are parts of Europe, of course, where this is not true, but they are not included in the line of tourist-travel, and in general it may be said that Europe is visited almost solely because of its beauty:—the natural beauty that man has preserved, the beauty that he has created, or the relics of past greatness.

Modern Greece would attract few visitors for its own sake. It is the ruins of a mighty past,—the Acropolis at Athens and the places made famous in mythology and literature draw thousands to its shores every year, and add greatly to the wealth and prosperity of the country.

The same thing is true of America wherever we have preserved and made beautiful our natural scenery. During three months in the summer, the New York Central Railroad derives about $200,000 in fares from its Niagara business alone. Since it became a state reservation in 1885, more than seventeen million persons have visited Niagara, and the amount of money that has been spent there at hotels, for carriages, automobiles, side-trips, souvenirs, etc., is almost beyond calculation.

In the Adirondack Park there is between $10,000,000 and $15,000,000 invested in hotels and cottages. The 15,000 clerks and helpers receive about $1,000,000 in wages, the railroads receive another $1,000,000 in fares, and hotel guests spend between $5,000,000 and $6,000,000. All of these advantages to the region are entirely apart from the practical uses of the forest.

These are examples which show the great amount of wealth which can come from preserving our natural beauties, and the same conditions exist everywhere, not only in the state and national parks, but wherever some beautiful spot has been set aside by a city, a railroad company, or some private enterprise. People flock to these resorts in large numbers for rest or recreation, and to satisfy their love for the beautiful, and the result is a gain in health and morals, more desire on the part of those who visit them to make their own surroundings beautiful, and at the same time a great gain in money value to the city or company that promotes such an enterprise.

Most of the larger cities of the United States have given particular attention to the subject of public parks during recent years. They are the breathing places for the dwellers in the city, often the only place where children can have fresh air and plenty of exercise, and the parks constitute one of the greatest attractions to draw summer visitors to the city.

Nearly all steam and electric railway companies own some park or pleasure resort from which they derive a large income in fares, and many steamboat companies find their largest profit from their excursion boats.

All these facts show clearly that if we consider only the gain in money, it is altogether a wise policy to include natural beauty among our national resources, and to conserve it carefully, while if we look at it from the larger standpoint of preserving for future generations the same beauties that we enjoy, the need of such conservation is still more urgent.

In our future development the United States will largely be made over. We shall no longer have the same natural conditions that we have had in the early years of our history, and the physical appearance of the country will grow better or worse each generation.

It is possible for us to make America the most beautiful land the world has ever seen, for we have the natural beauty, and greater knowledge in setting about the work of building than has ever been possessed by any other nation during its time of greatest growth.

We shall go far toward realizing our ideal of a beautiful America if we understand that the conservation of our resources means beauty, and that waste means ugliness. Proper conservation of our mineral resources will include the removal of the ugly, unsightly piles of culm, slag, and other refuse that lie about the mouth of the mines, and disfigure some of our most beautiful mountain scenery, for, as we have shown elsewhere, this should be used and not wasted. The proper use of coal would solve the smoke problem of cities, one of the worst foes of cleanliness and beauty, and the use of water-power would serve the same purpose. The complete utilization of our water resources that has been suggested would make all our waterways contribute greatly to the beauty and attractiveness of the landscape.

In conserving our forests we not only increase our timber supply, but add one of the greatest of all beauties, the trees which give variety and tone to every picture that our eyes rest upon. We shall have the shady roads, the long green hill-slopes, the quiet woodlands, the glory of autumn coloring, the delight of blossoming orchards.

Conservation of the soil, and utilization of every part of the land mean even more. Picture the contrast between a country where the hillsides are worn into gullies, where rocks are everywhere to be seen cropping above the barren soil, where the crops are scanty, the vegetation stunted; and one where every field yields a rich harvest, where the grain hangs heavy and golden, where every wayside nook holds a flower, where there are no neglected fence-corners, no piles of rubbish,—what we truly call "a smiling landscape." Lastly, in conserving health, we do more toward promoting personal beauty and advancing the standard of the race than in any other way.

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.

The city of Washington should be made the center of this movement toward national beauty. There is now an organized effort on the part of those in charge of the erection of public buildings, to make Washington the most beautiful capital in the world, and a model for other cities.

The federal government should set aside as national parks all of our greatest natural wonders, as Yellowstone Park is now held.

The states should follow the same line and set apart in the same way those objects of lesser interest, either natural or historic, which are to be found in every state—those that are not of sufficient importance to merit national recognition, but that will add interest to the state as a place for tourists to visit.

Few states are visited in this way more than is Massachusetts, and it is largely because not only the state, but the various communities have preserved historical places, buildings and objects so carefully, have erected monuments to commemorate them; and have thrown these various objects of interest open to the public free of charge. These communities in turn have gained the original expenditure many times over from the money spent by the steady stream of visitors.

There has been a great movement toward the beautifying of cities and villages in the past few years. Besides the good work done by park boards in cities there has been a great improvement in the matter of cleaner streets, better sidewalks, the planting of more shade trees, and a far greater attention to the beautifying of private grounds. The adorning of front yards and porches with vines and flowers is increasing enormously every year.

Many causes have been at work to produce this result: the broadening influence of travel, which brings people in touch with what is being done in other places to promote public beauty, the work of schools, newspaper and magazine articles, and more time and money to spend on luxuries,—even the post-card, which makes a souvenir view of every spot of local beauty or interest; but probably no other one agency has produced such good results in public beauty as has the woman's club which has taken up this line of work.

The "cleaning-up" movement, with a public house-cleaning day twice a year when all refuse is carted away, and streets, alleys and back-yards cleaned, had its origin in this way. The care and beautifying of cemeteries is another branch of the work.

In many places, flower and vegetable seeds are distributed free or at a nominal cost among the school children, prizes are offered for the best garden, the largest vegetables, the most attractive back-yard, the best arranged flower-bed, and other good results; the work is examined by a committee, and the prizes awarded at the end of the season either by the club or by merchants who have become interested in the contest.

This provides the children wholesome outdoor work and exercise throughout the summer, and promotes a pleasant rivalry among them, besides increasing their knowledge of plants, and the results have been found to be far-reaching, for not only the pupils, but their parents as well, are interested in neater, more orderly methods of living, and in beautifying their homes.

In the movement for public beauty, as in all other progress, it is the work of individuals that counts most. Every house that is built with a thought for its beauty, every home, farm-building and fence kept in good repair, every neat back-yard and flower-surrounded home has its part in making America more beautiful, and this influence in countless homes is certain to count in the making of better citizens.

A country where beauty meets the eye at every turn will invite the tourist and the home-seeker, will be deeply loved by its own people, and will be an inspiration to poetry and art. It rests largely with the people of to-day to decide whether we shall make of our own land such an ideal place.



CHAPTER XIV

IN CONCLUSION

No one can read the record of facts presented in this book without being impressed by two things: (1) How these resources depend on one another and that proper care of one results in the saving of another, and, (2) the fact that every one of our most valued resources is decreasing so rapidly that its end is in sight, even though far in the distance. When the end comes we know that it will mean the end of progress for our country in that direction.

It is also plain that the great, in fact the only, reason for this scarcity lies not in use but in waste. And lastly we see that there is yet time to prevent serious shortage in most directions if we set about a general system of good management and thrift.

In the meantime we are sure to have higher prices, for the supply is growing less and the demand greater for almost every material. In many lines, unless something be done to check this shortage, prices will rise so high that only the rich can afford what are now considered the necessities of life, and the lives of the poorer classes will become like those of the peasants of Europe:—a scanty living on the plainest food, poor homes, hard work, less opportunity to develop mind and body.

Let us sum up how the various resources may be used to conserve one another.

The soil is saved from erosion by the planting of forests, and by the storing of the flood waters of rivers. Waste land is made fertile by proper control of the rivers through drainage, storage and irrigation. Farm crops and also the forests are increased in value by insect control.

The insects are largely kept in check by encouraging the nesting and increase of certain birds. Birds play a large part in the conservation of the crops, by destroying insects, weeds, and small mammals. The birds themselves are sheltered and thrive only where trees are abundant.

The grazing lands are conserved by proper forest control, and the supply of animal food depends largely on the grazing lands.

Fisheries are dependent on proper care of the waters, which in turn depend on forest control, and on proper care of the by-products of factories.

Coal is conserved by the use of lower-grade fuels, by using waste from the forests, and by substituting water-power.

Gas and oil will also be saved by the greater use of water-power.

Coal-mining is made safer to human life and much saving in coal is effected by the use of mine-timbers, which involves the planting of forests. Forests regulate to a great extent the stream-flow of rivers.

Beauty can only be conserved by the planting of trees, by keeping the waters pure and clear, by using waste products so that there will be no unsightly piles of refuse.

Health depends, among other things, on pure water, air unpolluted by coal smoke and poisonous gases which should be used as factory by-products.

And lastly, the life, happiness, and prosperity of man is conserved by all of these things.

The first step in this system of conservation must be education on this subject, education not only of the children but of the men and women also, on the need and methods of saving. There would be no danger of a scarcity of coal if manufacturers all knew the value and economy of electric water-power or low-grade fuels, and of smoke-consuming devices. There is no reason why insect destruction should cost the nation so dearly if the birds were protected, and a few simple methods of prevention understood. All the various water problems could be met and solved if one general plan were adopted and carried out, and so all along the line.

We have taken note of the great natural wastes: how two-thirds of the wood cut is wasted, and how insects and fire destroy the standing timber; how the soil is washed down into the valleys, taking the best from the farms; how we are steadily robbing the soil of its most necessary elements; how our waters are unused and we pay for this non-use by the use of other resources that we can ill afford to spare; how millions of acres of land which might be profitably farmed lie useless for lack of water and other millions are useless because they are covered with water. Consumers pay high freight rates and the railroads are so overcrowded that they are unable to care for all the business, while the rivers, the cheapest of all carriers, flow idly to the sea.

We have seen how one-fourth of the coal is left in the mines, and how small a part of that which is mined is actually turned into heat, how gas is allowed to escape unchecked into the air. And greatest and most serious of all, the useless waste of human life and health.

But there are scores of other wastes and extravagances that all growing boys and girls should think of, so that when they enter active life, they may do their part to prevent them.

It is going to be necessary to learn to economize in every department of life as all the European peoples do. We must learn, in this new country, to do things more with the idea of the future in mind. In all European cities, there are hundreds of houses that have lasted many centuries, but there are few houses in America that are built in an enduring way. This building up and tearing down taxes not one, but many, resources heavily. As the housewife learns that a good kettle that costs a dollar and lasts five years is cheaper than a poor one which costs fifty cents but will wear out in one year, so people must learn the lesson that in building poor light houses of wood which will last a comparatively short time, they are really paying the higher price; that in putting in poor roads, cheap bridges, badly-constructed public buildings, that cost less heavily in the first place but that will need to be renewed in a few years, they are really paying much more than if these had been substantially built in the beginning.

The fire loss of the United States amounts to over half a million dollars a day, and all insurance men agree that most of this might be prevented.

The remedies are to build fewer wooden houses, especially in crowded districts, to exercise greater care in the building and management of chimneys, greater care in electric wiring, and general watchfulness in handling matches and lighted cigars.

For the forest fires which mean so much to all of us the remedy lies in forest patrol. The amount usually set aside for fighting fires was not allowed by some states in 1910, and the fires which cost hundreds of millions of property and many lives were the result.

Much of the most fertile land in our country is used for raising tobacco, and grains that are made into alcoholic liquors. As these can never be considered necessities it is well to think to what better uses the land might be put.

The yearly bill of the United States for pleasure is gigantic, and a large proportion of the pleasure tends to lower rather than raise the standard of American life and morals.

The greatest of all wastes is the waste of time and labor. The waste of time by drunkenness, by poor work that must be done over, and by idleness, makes a large item of loss in every line of business.

Proper education will teach every child to work neatly and with perfect accuracy, will teach eye, hand and brain, will teach the value and pleasure of work, careful management and economy and a regard for the general good.

A study of the great facts of our national possibilities that have been gathered together in this book should arouse in the heart of every American, old and young, the feeling that here is a work for every hand and every brain, not only to save, but to use wisely; to develop all the possibilities of our great resources no less than to conserve them. In searching for new by-products or machinery for checking the waste and adding to the usefulness of these resources there is a field for invention that will not only bring wealth to the inventor, but prosperity and length of life to the nation.

THE END