"After William McKinley was assassinated in 1901, Roosevelt became our 26th President. America's natural resources were threatened. Species like the bison and beaver were disappearing; others were extinct. Soil fertility was low and about four-fifths of prime forests had been cut. Roosevelt expressed concern: " ..the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil and the gas are exhausted, when the soils have been...washed into the streams, polluting our rivers .... " To emphasize his views, this fiery speaker once threw away a prepared speech and roared, "I hate a man who would skin the land!" His leadership changed public perception that America's natural resources were inexhaustible."
