“The Nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.”

Letter to all State Governors on a Uniform Soil Conservation Law (26 February 1937) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=15373); this statement has sometimes been paraphrased and prefixed to an earlier FDR statement of 29 January 1935 to read: "A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people." Though it approximates 2 separate statements of FDR, no original document in precisely this form has been located.
1930s

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Franklin D. Roosevelt 190
32nd President of the United States 1882–1945

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