Not one

cent for
scenery
Rep. Joseph Cannon, Speaker of the US
House of Representatives, in 1907, speaking
in opposition to public funding for
conservation.
 It is my judgement, as a
practical man accustomed to
dealing with these material
factors (iron ore and coal) on
which our national prosperity is
based, that it is time to take
thought for the morrow.

-Andrew Carnegie,
industrialist,
1908.
I do not think they (the
American People) want to lock
up the industries of the Middle
West, or of all the country. I
think what they want is the
true scientific development of
all of them; and the future will
come pretty near taking care of
itself.
-Governor
John A. Johnson
of
Minnesota,
1908
We have become
great because of the
lavish use of our
resources and we have
just reason to be
proud of our growth.

-Theodore
Roosevelt,
1908
All civilized governments are
now realizing that it is their
duty here and there to
preserve, unharmed, tracts of
wild nature, with thereon the
wild things the destruction of
which means the destruction
of half the charm of wild
nature.

-Theodore
Roosevelt,
1910
We are destroying our forests three times as
fast as they are reproduced.

We mined as much coal in the ten years from

1896 to 1906 as in the preceding seventy-five
years., and we are now taking out of the
ground considerably over a third of the entire
product of the world.

All the high-grade iron ore in large deposits

now in sight would be used up in the next
forty years even at the current rate of
consumption.
Samuel E. Moffett for Colliers Magazine, 1908.
(Speaker of the House Joseph
Cannon) ridiculed the idea of
conserving the national resources,
remarking that when the coal was
used up we could harness the sun,
that when our iron gave out we
could use cement, and that with the
disappearance of each natural
resource something would be found
or invented to take its place.
Samuel E. Moffett for Colliers Magazine, 1908.
(House) Speaker (Joseph)
Cannon calls himself an
optimist. His idea of optimism
is to shut your eyes to
unpleasant facts and make all
the money you can in the
present, letting the future take
care of itself.
Samuel E. Moffett for Colliers Magazine, 1908.
 Let the good work go
on. We must ever
remember we are
refining oil for the poor
man and he must have
it cheap and good.

John D.
Rockefeller ,
Businessman
 Climb the mountains and
get their good tidings.
Nature's peace will flow
into you as sunshine flows
into trees. The winds will
blow their own freshness
into you, and the storms
their energy, while cares
will drop off like autumn
leaves.

John Muir,
1901
 Thousands of tired, nerve-
shaken, over-civilized people
are beginning to find out that
going to the mountains is going
home; that wildness is a
necessity; and that mountain
parks and reservations are
useful not only as fountains of
timber and irrigating rivers, but
as fountains of life.
John Muir,
1901
 God never made
an ugly landscape.
All that the sun
shines on is
beautiful, so long
as it is wild.

John Muir,
1897
 Any fool can destroy trees. They
cannot run away; ... hunted down as
long as fun or a dollar could be got
out of their bark hides...Few that fell
trees plant them; nor would planting
avail much towards getting back
anything like the noble primeval
forests... God has cared for these
trees, saved them from drought,
disease, avalanches, and a thousand
straining, leveling tempests and
floods; but he cannot save them
from fools.

John Muir,
1901
Yellowstone
Yosemite, 1903
Yosemite
Yosemite