In other words, as the minds of the children are guided toward the idea of foresight, just to that extent, and probably but little more, will the generations that are coming hereafter be able to carry through the great task of making this Nation what its manifest destiny demands that it shall be.
Women should recognize, if this task is to be carried out, one great truth above all others.

That this Nation exists for its people, we all admit; but that the natural resources of the Nation exist not for any small group, not for any individual, but for all the people--in other words, that the natural resources of the Nation belong to all the people--that is a truth the whole meaning of which is just beginning to dawn on us.

There is no form of monopoly which exists or ever has existed on any large scale which was not based more or less directly upon the control of natural resources.

There is no form of monopoly that has ever existed or can exist which can do harm if the people understand that the natural resources belong to the people of the Nation, and exercise that understanding, as they have the power to do.
It seems to me that of all the movements which have been inaugurated to give power to the conservation idea, the foresight idea, there is none more helpful than that the women of the United States are taking hold of the problem.

We must make all the people see that now and in the future the resources are to be developed and employed, yet at the same time guarded and protected against waste--not for small groups of men who will control them for their own purposes, but for all the people through all time.
The question of the conservation of our natural resources is not a simple question, but it requires, and will increasingly require, thinking out along lines directed to the fundamental economic basis upon which this Nation exists.