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Show DIVINELY PLANNED AMERICA When thl continent left th hands of Its Creator there was an Incomparable system of lakes, of brooks, of mighty rivers, ot marines fit to receive the million million of wild fowl that fed and rested and bred and nested upon them. Water resource, except for coastal fiahsriss, waa a form of wealth which our ancestors did not seem to comprehend for what It Is as precious, perhaps, as aven land wealth. No water, no life. That Is a simple biological rule. Dirty water, polluted water, un-dependable un-dependable water now terrible In flood, now withered by drouth and you have polluted life, drowned life, withered life. We have drained our marshes In the hope that it would abate the mosquito nuisance and turn rich bottom aoil Into prosperous farms. There have been successful success-ful drainage operations, but there have been even mora failures. Today we ar actually putting back our lake and marshes. . Th biological survey at Washington wants back ths vanished wild duck and geese that used to breed In the north by the million, and by th ten of million winter on the waters of th south. It all cost money, just as th drainage did. When we bad plenty, plen-ty, wa spent It for whimsical reasons. rea-sons. Now that w ar scraping bottom, w find w shall have to spend, if ws ara to keep the last ot our vanishing water life, finny and feathered. Donald Culross Peattle In Cosmopolitan. |