Page:Report of the Oregon Conservation Commission to the Governor (1908 - 1914).djvu/15

Rh at this and coming generations that must not be impaired. The present generation is but a trustee. Unless conservation becomes a conscious policy, rreparable waste and sacrifice of their heritage of the future s nevitable,—as witness the conditions in Spain and throughout southern Europe and southwestern Asia. Generations of people may he guilty of riotous living as well as individuals. But when a generation s spendthrift in unnecessarily destructive use of resources, the direful consequences are visited upon all succeeding generations instead of upon the violatDr itself. Surely, the present generation will not wish to go down uto history as the generation ihat robbed their children and their children’s children. Conservation of resources means the highest utilization of them. It means, thanks to the achievements ol science and ovention and the more practical purposes of scholarship, that man has attained a more commanding position of control over the forces of nature, From beginning as a timid wasteful exploiter of a few of Nature’s goods he has become a clear-visioned, temperate and conservative use of resources. State Co-operation ThIS consenation novetnent conslitutes the trst great step for cooperution among the states ao4 of the sNtes with the wtion. A crying need for interstate co-operation along severaZ lines has long been felt. (Our handling of the matter of the taxation of interstate corpontions will serve as an example.) The projects of conservation are admirably fitted to serve as subjects for ntroductoxy efforts towards interstate activfties, The States of Oregon. Washington and Idaho lying wholly or partly within the Co!umbia River basin, have the largest possible interest ri the fullest measure of interstate co-operation. The serious complications that have recently arisen on the question of disputed jurisdiction over the salmon fisheries are but a slight foretaste of conflict over much more momentous interests connected with the use of the water of this basin for power and irrigation development. Co—operation among the states of the Pacific Northwest will be essential, not only to forestall conflict, but also for the constructive undertakings having a view the Co gTe