With the rise of peoples from savagery to civilization, and with the consequent growth in the extent and variety of the needs of the average man, there comes a steadily increasing growth of the amount demanded by this average man from the actual resources of the country. and yet, rather curiously, at the same time that there comes that increase in what the average man demands from the resources, he is apt to grow to lose the sense of his dependence upon nature. he lives in big cities. he deals in industries that do not bring him in close touch with nature. he does not realize the demands he is making upon nature. .
savages, and very primitive peoples generally, concern themselves only with superficial natural resources; with those which they obtain from the actual surface of the ground. as peoples become a little less primitive, their industries, although in a rude manner, are extended to resources below the surface; then, with what we call civilization and the extension of knowledge, more resources come into use, industries are multiplied, and foresight begins to become a necessary and prominent factor in life. crops are cultivated; animals are domesticated; and metals are mastered. .
every step of the progress of mankind is marked by the discovery and use of natural resources previously unused. without such progressive knowledge and utilization of natural resources population could not grow, nor industries multiply, nor the hidden wealth of the earth be developed for the benefit of mankind.
from the first beginnings of civilization, on the banks of the nile and the euphrates, the industrial progress of the world has gone on slowly, with occasional set-backs, but on the whole steadily, through tens of centuries to the present day.
it never does advance by jumps, gentlemen. it always goes slowly. there are occasional set-backs, but on the whole it goes steadily.