It was assumed that they came in the natural order of things, as inevitably as the seasons or the rising and setting of the sun.

To-day we understand that forest fires are wholly within the control of men.

So we are coming in like manner to understand that the prevention of waste in all other directions is a simple matter of good business.

The first duty of the human race is to control the earth it lives upon.
We are in a position more and more completely to say how far the waste and destruction of natural resources are to be allowed to go on and where they are to stop.

It is curious that the effort to stop waste, like the effort to stop forest fires, has often been considered as a matter controlled wholly by economic law.