power, we name the chief sources from which come nearly everything that enters into industry and commerce. Proper conservation of these great sources of supply necessarily means conservation of the various complicated processes of industry and commerce. Interwoven with these is a service to which, so far as I know, the term conservation has never been applied, and to the conservation of which the people of this country are giving scant attention. Yet without that service our soil, timber, coal, and ore would be of little use. The impairment of that service means that the benefit to be derived from the conservation of soil, and timber, coal, and ore will be lost. This service is that of transportation, and in the United States that service is performed chiefly by the railways, because in their marvelous development they have shown a greater ability to perform it economically than has any other agency.
To conserve, as defined by the Standard Dictionary, means “to keep from loss, decay, or injury; especially, to preserve in its existing
