“By the elimination of waste have I acquired a competence. I get much happiness from the knowl?edge that I have wasted nothing.”–Geo. W. Childs.
THE wealth of the United States is estimated at about 350 billion dollars, and exceeds the combined wealth of France, Japan and Great Britain.
In computing the wealth of this Country, there is considered the land, the forests, the mines, and all natural resources except water. Water, the greatest natural source of wealth; greater than all other productivity either on the earth or under the earth; water has been overlooked in our sum?ming up of the wealth of the United States of America.
Yet the water of this Country is worth more than all its gold and silver combined. By water we do not mean water power–but water, plain water, water in a tin cup. Without water we would have no wealth. Without water–the water of the rain, the creek, the ocean,–without water rising from the earth and descending again upon the earth–this richgarden of our Country which supports in plenty over 100 millions of people would be a vast and silent desert, broken here and there by naked mountain peaks, and swept over by blizzards of sand.
Water has a food producing value in conjunction with land, but it has a greater food producing value in itself, apart from land. An acre of open sea will yield more food in one week than the most fertile acre in this Country will yield in one year.
The value of the water in Lake Michigan is worth more than the computed wealth of all the world.
A pint of water is worth more than a pint of gold.
Water enters the earth–grows a tree–goes into the air–and back again to the earth. Water is never lost to the world, for it follows this endless circle from the earth back to the earth season after season-yet water can be lost to this Country, if it flows away from us, out into the ocean, and thence to the shores of Africa.
You never thought before of water being the greatest source of wealth to a country. You have always overlooked so common a thing as water. It is so familiar, so ever-present, that you never consider it at all. You never thought that water ought to and could be saved, be conserved.
This thought about the value of an unconsidered source of wealth is given you with the purpose of implanting in your mind a question as to whether you may not be overlooking some other near and familiar source of personal wealth–some means near at hand by which you could conserve more of your money, and keep it from flowing away from you to the profit of a distant stranger.
Money spent is never lost to the world–no more than water is lost to the world. But the water which has slipped down the mountain side, and through the valley out to sea, is gone, carrying its wealth to those who have eyes to perceive its value, and the wit to take it for their own. Money spent goes to your neighbor–when you need it at home.
Look around you and see if you cannot save where you have never saved before. There is some place in your life where you can effect a great saving in a way you have overlooked–just as you have overlooked the fact that water produces more wealth than gold.
Conservation of water means planting more forests, and preserving those we have, for trees are the magnets which draw the water from the air and form our lakes and rivers. Conservation of water means keeping the rivulets as long as pos?sible on our own home land.
Conservation of money means spending money more slowly. Conservation is saving–and saving does not imply nor mean not spending; it means spending more carefully, more judiciously and get?ting the full value and use out of every bit, before it passes on to some one else.
He who relies upon himself–upon his own efforts, works and resources–relies upon a friend who never fails him in any hour or under any press of circumstances.
“May the vast future not have to lament that you have neglected it.”–Abraham Lincoln.