Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.djvu/290

284 than the common title to sunlight and air, or indeed the equal rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and three great conventions during last year adopted in substance the water plank made public by the senate committee on the conservation of natural resources.

With the sense of power and the realization of rights, the consciousness of duty is spreading. Until recently, provision for waterway improvement or other public works otherwise than by direct appropriation was commonly deemed chimerical; and citizens were led by advice of their representatives and the policy of congress to look on local appropriations as spoils of conquest rather than general contributions to the public good—whereby the "pork-barrel" was kept open and the appropriations went for "works" with little regard for actual navigation of the waters. Now, seeing that despite the expenditure of hundreds of millions on waterway "works" navigation of the rivers has declined, the people demand business-like methods whereby public funds shall be expended only for commensurate public benefits; and since the people have spoken, presidents, governors and probably a majority of the congress are concurring in the wisdom of issuing bonds to cover the cost of continuously and increasingly beneficial public improvements. Almost never before has the issue of bonds been contemplated without more or less open guarantee from Wall Street; but now legion citizens clamor for opportunity to share public burdens directly on a patriotic basis rather than indirectly through the expensive medium of special interests—for in the end the people pay. Under this pressure bills have already been introduced in the congress providing for waterway improvement on the basis of bonds issued in small denominations bearing interest too low to tempt bankers and brokers; and the adoption of this popular policy promises to mark America's most definite step toward making her citizens joint owners rather than passive tenants of their common country, and thereby at once raising patriotism to a higher plane and insuring stability of the nation.

The recognition of rights and duties respecting the waters leads to juster appreciation of other resources, which were of no account when the constitution was framed but have acquired value through the natural growth and orderly development of our population and industries; and to-day several of our forty-odd state conservation commissions hold that in legislative or other action looking toward wiser use and conservation