We are only beginning to realize that this very prodigality of nature has produced a spirit of prodigality in men.
"It is the purpose of the conservation movement to rebuke and correct this national trait, and the resources of science are now concentrated in this mighty effort in that direction.
"The conservation of human life will, I believe, constitute the grandest movement of the twentieth century.
"Not only do human beings constitute by far the greatest part of our natural resources, but the waste of human life and strength is by far the greatest of all wastes.

In the report of President Roosevelt's conservation commission, although his commission was primarily appointed to conserve our natural rather than our vital resources, it was pointed out that _human beings, considered as capitalized working power, are worth three to five times all our other capital_, and that, even on a very moderate estimate, the total waste and unnecessary loss of our national vitality amounts to _one and one half billions of dollars per year_."[56] When the "State Socialist" policy has taken possession of the world, which may be in the very near future, or, more correctly speaking, when the world's business and politics are so organized as to give this policy a chance for a full and free application, is it not evident that every advanced nation will consider it as being to its business interest to put an end to this vast, unnecessary loss of life?
And if half a billion a year is lost through unnecessary deaths of very young children, is it not probable that an equal sum is lost through death later in childhood or early youth, another similar sum through underfeeding in later life, or through lack of sufficient exercise, rest, recreation, and outdoor life, and a far larger amount through lack of industrial training?
Is it not certain that unnecessary industrial accidents, sickness due to overwork and early old age due to overstrain, are responsible for another enormous loss?
And, finally, is not unemployment costing a billion a year to the "nation, considered as a business firm"?
This last-named loss has been calculated, for the United States alone, as 1,300,000 years of labor time annually.

If a round million of these years are saved--if we estimate their value in profits at the low figure of $1000 each,--we have another billion (even allowing for 300,000 unemployable).[57] Is it not clear that nearly every element in the community will soon combine to do all that is humanly possible to put an end to such costly abuses and neglect; and that conscientious and wholesale efforts to preserve the public health and to secure industrial efficiency cannot be a matter of the distant future, when movements in that direction have already been initiated in Great Britain, Australia, Germany, and some other countries?
Sir Joseph Ward, Premier of New Zealand, says that the people of that country have already calculated the value of each child--and, on this basis, made it the subject of certain governmental investments.

He says:-- "To return to the annuity fund, apart from the assistance it gives to the wife and children if the father is sick, it also contributes the services of a medical man for a woman at childbirth, and the State pays $30 for that purpose.

If all of this is not needed to pay the physician, the rest may be used for carrying on the home.
This has all been done with the view to helping the birth rate and bringing into the world children under the most healthy conditions possible, so that they may have a free chance of attaining man's or woman's estate.
"We assess the value of an adult in our country as $1500.