Richard Lieber Conservation Discourse

The experience at the Lilly Library in learning about Richard Lieber was extraordinary. It is always meaningful to encounter the works of an individual with such significant contributions to society. I had the opportunity to read several of his remaining works, but one of them particularly stood out in the sense of discourse because I was able to identify a concept from our course that he seemed to be applying.

The document was the "Nature's Balances," the Address of Richard Lieber, Director of Indiana Department of Conservation, Before 22nd Annual Session of the National Drainage, Conservation And Flood Control Congress, Columbus Ohio, Wednesday Evening, Februrary 15, 1933. In this document, he states the importance of our surrounding environment and natural resources and that human society has been unsustainably exploiting them to the level that we must be warned. In stating his points, he reilliterates that man must reassess his actions and the essense of the balance in nature that must be preserved.

The concept of stasis was seen at work in this document. It seems that he worked from the higher stasis to lower stasis. In the beginning to the middle of the document, he describes his passion and value about nature, its important contribution that directly supports the lives of human beings. He also proposes that we must reasess our actions and acknowledge nature and raise awareness for conservation. Then toward the end, he starts providing information and statistical proof that the environment in Indiana in fact is getting degradated. Therefore questions of values are presented first, then facts and causes are presented. The stase are sometimes the arrangement of arguments that "describe the logic inherent in the development of an issue." (Fahnestock, Secor 429) In Lieber's document, his logic is that rather than saying that nature is being destroyed and talking about its importance, Lieber emphasizes on the importance of nature first, then gives his audience the feel of urgency by stating its degradation later.

I was under the impression that the format of constructing the argument from the lower stasis to higher stasis is the general and popular method. Therefore I was astonished, to encounter a work by an individual who had lived over a century ago arranginging the aspects and organization of his argument in order to make his persuasion more effective.