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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Proceedings of the Second National
+Conservation Congress, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Proceedings of the Second National Conservation Congress
+       at Saint Paul, September 5-8, 1910
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: May 5, 2011 [EBook #36031]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness, Stephen H. Sentoff and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  ADDRESSES AND PROCEEDINGS
+
+  OF THE
+
+  SECOND
+  National Conservation Congress
+
+
+  HELD AT
+  SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA
+  SEPTEMBER 5-8
+  1910
+
+
+  [Illustration: BERNARD N. BAKER
+  Baltimore, Md.
+  President, Second National Conservation Congress]
+
+
+
+
+  PROCEEDINGS
+
+  OF THE
+
+  Second
+  National Conservation Congress
+
+
+  AT
+  Saint Paul
+  SEPTEMBER 5-8, 1910
+
+
+  "Let us conserve the foundations of our prosperity"
+  (Declaration of the Governors, 1908)
+
+
+  WASHINGTON
+  NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONGRESS
+  1911
+
+
+
+
+  W. F. ROBERTS COMPANY
+  PRINTERS
+  WASHINGTON, D. C.
+
+
+  [Illustration: HON. J. B. WHITE
+  Kansas City, Mo.
+  Chairman, Executive Committee, Second National Conservation
+  Congress and Third National Conservation Congress]
+
+
+
+
+OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES FOR 1909-10
+
+
+_President_
+
+  B. N. BAKER, Baltimore
+
+_Executive Secretary_
+
+  THOMAS R. SHIPP, Washington, D. C.
+
+_Secretary_
+
+  L. FRANK BROWN, Seattle
+
+_Vice-Presidents_
+
+  JOHN BARRETT, Washington, D. C.
+  JAMES S. WHIPPLE, Albany
+  E. J. WICKSON, Berkeley
+  ALFRED C. ACKERMAN, Athens, Ga.
+  HENRY A. BARKER, Providence
+
+_Executive Committee_
+
+  J. B. WHITE, Kansas City, Mo., _Chairman_
+  B. N. BAKER, Baltimore
+  J. N. TEAL, Portland, Ore.
+  A. B. FARQUHAR, York, Pa.
+  L. H. BAILEY, Ithaca
+  THOMAS BURKE, Seattle
+  HENRY E. HARDTNER, Urania, La.
+  W. A. FLEMING JONES, Las Cruces
+  Mrs PHILIP N. MOORE, Saint Louis
+  Mrs J. ELLEN FOSTER, Washington, D. C.
+
+_Local Board of Managers for the Saint Paul Congress_
+
+  Hon. A. O. EBERHART, _Chairman_
+  FRANK B. KELLOGG, _Vice-Chairman_
+  J. S. BELL, Minneapolis
+  H. A. TUTTLE, Minneapolis
+  GEORGE M. GILLETTE, Minneapolis
+  B. F. NELSON, Minneapolis
+  L. S. DONALDSON, Minneapolis
+  JOSEPH H. BEEK, Saint Paul
+  GEORGE H. PRINCE, Saint Paul
+  REUBEN WARNER, Saint Paul
+  PAUL W. DOTY, Saint Paul
+  THEODORE W. GRIGGS, Saint Paul
+  W. C. HANDY, _Secretary_
+
+
+
+
+OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES FOR 1910-11
+
+
+_President_
+
+  HENRY WALLACE, Des Moines
+
+_Executive Secretary_
+
+  THOMAS R. SHIPP, Washington, D. C.
+
+_Treasurer_
+
+  D. AUSTIN LATCHAW, Kansas City, Mo.
+
+_Recording Secretary_
+
+  JAMES C. GIPE, Clarks, La.
+
+_Executive Committee_
+
+  J. B. WHITE, Kansas City, Mo., _Chairman_
+  B. N. BAKER, Baltimore
+  L. H. BAILEY, Ithaca
+  JAMES R. GARFIELD, Cleveland
+  FRANK C. GOUDY, Denver
+  W. A. FLEMING JONES, Las Cruces
+  Mrs PHILIP N. MOORE, Saint Louis
+  WALTER H. PAGE, New York
+  GEORGE C. PARDEE, Oakland, Cal.
+  GIFFORD PINCHOT, Washington, D. C.
+  J. N. TEAL, Portland, Ore.
+  E. L. WORSHAM, Atlanta
+
+_Vice-Presidents_
+
+ALABAMA, Hon. Albert P. Bush, Mobile; ALASKA, Hon. James Wickersham,
+Fairbanks; ARIZONA, B. A. Fowler, Phenix; ARKANSAS, A. H. Purdue,
+Fayetteville; CALIFORNIA, E. H. Cox, San Francisco; COLORADO, Murdo
+Mackenzie, Trinidad; COLUMBIA (District of), W J McGee, Washington;
+CONNECTICUT, Rollin S. Woodruff, Hartford; DELAWARE, Hon. George Gray,
+Wilmington; FLORIDA, Cromwell Gibbons, Jacksonville; GEORGIA, Hon. Jno.
+C. Hart, Union Point; HAWAII, Mrs Margaret R. Knudsen, Kanai; IDAHO,
+James A. MacLean, University of Idaho; ILLINOIS, Julius Rosenwald,
+Chicago; INDIANA, F. J. Breeze, Lafayette; IOWA, Carl Leopold,
+Burlington; KANSAS, W. R. Stubbs, Topeka; KENTUCKY, James K. Patterson,
+Lexington; LOUISIANA, Newton C. Blanchard, Shreveport; MAINE, Bert M.
+Fernald, Augusta; MARYLAND, William Bullock Clark, Baltimore;
+MASSACHUSETTS, Frank W. Rane, Boston; MICHIGAN, J. L. Snyder, Lansing;
+MINNESOTA, Ambrose Tighe, Saint Paul; MISSISSIPPI, A. W. Shands, Sardis;
+MISSOURI, Hermann Von Schrenk, Saint Louis; MONTANA, E. L. Norris,
+Helena; NEBRASKA, Dr F. A. Long, Madison; NEVADA, Senator Francis G.
+Newlands, Reno; NEW HAMPSHIRE, George B. Leighton, Monadnock; NEW
+JERSEY, Charles Lathrop Pack, Lakewood; NEW MEXICO, W. A. Fleming Jones,
+Las Cruces; NEW YORK, R. A. Pearson, Albany; NORTH CAROLINA, T. Gilbert
+Pearson, Greensboro; NORTH DAKOTA, U. G. Larimore, Larimore; OHIO, James
+R. Garfield, Cleveland; OKLAHOMA, Benj. Martin, Jr., Muskogee; OREGON,
+J. N. Teal, Portland; PENNSYLVANIA, William S. Harvey, Philadelphia;
+PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, Maj. George P. Ahern, Manila; PORTO RICO, Hon.
+Walter K. Landis, San Juan; RHODE ISLAND, Henry A. Barker, Providence;
+SOUTH CAROLINA, E. J. Watson, Columbia; SOUTH DAKOTA, Ellwood C.
+Perisho, Vermillion; TENNESSEE, Herman Suter, Nashville; TEXAS, W.
+Goodrich Jones, Temple; UTAH, Harden Bennion, Salt Lake City; VERMONT,
+Fletcher D. Proctor, Proctor; VIRGINIA, A. R. Turnbull, Norfolk;
+WASHINGTON, M. E. Hay, Olympia; WEST VIRGINIA, A. B. Fleming, Fairmont;
+WISCONSIN, Charles R. Van Hise, Madison; WYOMING, Bryant B. Brooks,
+Cheyenne; NATIONAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION, Gifford Pinchot,
+Washington.
+
+
+_Standing Committees_
+
+FORESTS--H. S. Graves, U. S. Forester, Washington, D. C., _Chairman_; E.
+M. Griffith, Madison, Wis.; E. T. Allen, Portland, Ore.; J. Lewis
+Thompson, Houston.
+
+LANDS--Governor W. R. Stubbs, Topeka, _Chairman_; Dwight B. Heard,
+Phenix; J. L. Snyder, Lansing; Murdo Mackenzie, Trinidad; Charles S.
+Barrett, Union City, Ga.
+
+WATERS--W J McGee, Washington, D. C., _Chairman_; E. A. Smith, Spokane;
+Henry A. Barker, Providence; J. N. Teal, Portland, Ore.; Herbert Knox
+Smith, Washington, D. C.
+
+MINERALS--Charles R. Van Hise, Madison, _Chairman_; Joseph A. Holmes,
+Washington, D. C.; D. W. Brunton, Denver; John Mitchell, New York; I. C.
+White, Morgantown, W. Va.
+
+VITAL RESOURCES--Dr William H. Welch, Baltimore, _Chairman_; Professor
+Irving Fisher, New Haven; Dr H. W. Wiley, Washington, D. C.; Dr J. H.
+Kellogg, Battle Creek, Mich.; Walter H. Page, New York.
+
+
+  [Illustration: HENRY WALLACE
+  Des Moines, Iowa
+  President, Third National Conservation Congress]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                         PAGE
+
+CONSTITUTION                                               ix
+
+OPENING SESSION                                             1
+
+  Invocation by ARCHBISHOP IRELAND                          1
+
+  Greeting from CARDINAL GIBBONS                            3
+
+  Address by GOVERNOR EBERHART                              3
+
+  Welcome by MAYOR KELLER                                  13
+
+  Address by PRESIDENT TAFT                                14
+
+SECOND SESSION                                             34
+
+  Induction of GOVERNOR STUBBS as Chairman                 34
+
+  Address by SENATOR NELSON                                35
+
+  Address by GOVERNOR NOEL                                 48
+
+  Address by GOVERNOR NORRIS                               52
+
+  Address by GOVERNOR DENEEN                               59
+
+  Address by GOVERNOR HAY                                  64
+
+  Announcement by PROFESSOR CONDRA                         71
+
+  Address by GOVERNOR BROOKS                               72
+
+  Remarks by GOVERNOR STUBBS                               75
+
+  Address by GOVERNOR VESSEY                               77
+
+THIRD SESSION                                              79
+
+  Appointment of Credentials Committee                     79
+
+  Action on Constitution of
+    the National Conservation Congress                     79
+
+  Remarks by DIRECTOR-GENERAL BARRETT                      80
+
+  Remarks by GOVERNOR STUBBS                               81
+
+  Invocation by REVEREND DOCTOR MONTGOMERY                 81
+
+  Address by EX-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT                        82
+
+FOURTH SESSION                                             93
+
+  Address by MISS BOARDMAN                                 94
+
+  Address by COMMISSIONER HERBERT KNOX SMITH              101
+
+  Modification of Credentials Committee                   106
+
+  Address by HONORABLE JAMES R. GARFIELD                  106
+
+  Address by EX-GOVERNOR PARDEE                           115
+
+  Remarks by DELEGATE HORR, of Washington                 120
+
+  Address by EX-GOVERNOR BLANCHARD                        121
+
+  Address by WILLIAM E. SMYTHE                            127
+
+  Address by WALTER L. FISHER                             129
+
+  Address by COLONEL JAMES H. DAVIDSON                    132
+
+FIFTH SESSION                                             134
+
+  Invocation by BISHOP EDSALL                             134
+
+  Address by PRESIDENT FINLEY                             135
+
+  Report of Credentials Committee                         145
+
+  Address by SENATOR BEVERIDGE                            146
+
+  Response by GIFFORD PINCHOT                             152
+
+  Address by PRESIDENT MCVEY                              152
+
+  Discussion by CHAIRMAN WHITE                            158
+
+  Address by MRS WELCH,
+    of the General Federation of Women's Clubs            160
+
+  Address by MRS HOYLE TOMKIES,
+    of the Women's National Rivers and Harbors Congress   163
+
+  Address by MRS SNEATH,
+    of the General Federation of Women's Clubs            166
+
+  Report by MRS HOWARD,
+    of the Daughters of the American Revolution           167
+
+SIXTH SESSION                                             168
+
+  Induction of SENATOR CLAPP as Chairman                  168
+
+  Address by PRESIDENT CRAIGHEAD                          168
+
+  Postponement of Call of States                          171
+
+  Address by D. AUSTIN LATCHAW                            171
+
+  Address by JAMES J. HILL                                177
+
+  Discussion by HENRY WALLACE                             188
+
+  Address by SECRETARY WILSON                             194
+
+  Discussion by REPRESENTATIVE STEVENS                    201
+
+  Address by PROFESSOR BAILEY                             203
+
+SEVENTH SESSION                                           213
+
+  Address by PROFESSOR GRAVES                             214
+
+  Address by ALFRED L. BAKER                              222
+
+  Address by FRANK H. SHORT                               226
+
+  Address by DIRECTOR-GENERAL BARRETT                     237
+
+  Address by HONORABLE ESMOND OVEY                        243
+
+  Action on time for election and report of
+    Resolutions Committee                                 246
+
+EIGHTH SESSION                                            246
+
+  Appointment of Nominating Committee                     246
+
+  Induction of GOVERNOR EBERHART as Chairman              246
+
+  Address by DEAN WESBROOK                                247
+
+  Address by WALLACE D. SIMMONS                           257
+
+  Address by COMMISSIONER ELMER E. BROWN                  264
+
+  Address by MRS SCOTT, President of
+    the Daughters of the American Revolution              270
+
+  Action in memory of MRS J. ELLEN FOSTER                 276
+
+  Presentation by MRS HOWARD to GIFFORD PINCHOT           276
+
+  Response by MR PINCHOT                                  277
+
+  Address by FRANCIS J. HENEY                             278
+
+  Address by GIFFORD PINCHOT                              292
+
+  Expression by GOVERNOR EBERHART                         298
+
+  Statement by PROFESSOR CONDRA                           298
+
+CLOSING SESSION                                           299
+
+  Commencement of Call of States                          299
+
+  Response by DELEGATE HARVEY, of Pennsylvania            299
+
+  Interlude by E. W. ROSS, of Washington                  302
+
+  Report of Nominating Committee                          303
+
+  Nomination by CHAIRMAN WHITE                            303
+
+  Second by GIFFORD PINCHOT                               304
+
+  Election of and response by HENRY WALLACE as President  305
+
+  Election of other Officers                              306
+
+  Resolution of thanks to retiring PRESIDENT BAKER        308
+
+  Response by MR BAKER                                    308
+
+  Report of Resolutions Committee                         308
+
+  Adoption of Resolutions                                 312
+
+  Interlude by E. W. ROSS, of Washington                  312
+
+  Remarks by DELEGATE HORR, of Washington                 313
+
+  Ratification of Vice-Presidents                         313
+
+  Resolution in memory of PROFESSOR GREEN                 313
+
+  Resumption of Call of States                            314
+
+  Response by DELEGATE PURDUE, of Arkansas                314
+
+  Response by DELEGATE BANNISTER, of Indiana              314
+
+  Response by DELEGATE MILLER, of Iowa                    314
+
+  Response by DELEGATE YOUNG, of Kansas                   314
+
+  Response by DELEGATE BAKER, of Maryland                 314
+
+  Response by DELEGATE THORP, of Minnesota                315
+
+  Response by STATE GEOLOGIST LOWE, of Mississippi        315
+
+  Response by GENERAL NOBLE, of Missouri                  315
+
+  Response by CHAIRMAN WHITE                              316
+
+  Response by PROFESSOR CONDRA, of Nebraska               317
+
+  Response by a Delegate from New York                    318
+
+  Response by DELEGATE NESTOS, of North Dakota            318
+
+  Response by DELEGATE KRUEGER, of South Dakota           319
+
+  Remarks by DELEGATE JOHNS, of Washington                320
+
+  Privileged statement by LAND COMMISSIONER ROSS,
+    of Washington                                         322
+
+  Response by DELEGATE FOWLER, of Arizona                 324
+
+  Response by DELEGATE HUNT, of District of Columbia      324
+
+  Response by DELEGATE BARKER, of Rhode Island            324
+
+  Response by PROFESSOR WHITE, of West Virginia           325
+
+  Response by DELEGATE WORSHAM, of Georgia                325
+
+  Motion for adjournment by DELEGATE MARTIN, of Oklahoma  326
+
+SUPPLEMENTARY PROCEEDINGS                                 327
+
+  Laws that should be Passed,
+    by SENATOR FRANCIS G. NEWLANDS                        327
+
+  Conservation of the Nation's Resources,
+    by CHAIRMAN J. B. WHITE                               328
+
+  Practical Aspects of Conservation, by A. B. FARQUHAR    331
+
+  Report from Arkansas, by SID B. REDDING                 333
+
+  Report from Colorado, by FRANK C. GOUDY                 334
+
+  Report from Florida, by CROMWELL GIBBONS                335
+
+  Report from Idaho, by JEROME J. DAY                     336
+
+  Report from Indiana, by A. E. METZGER                   336
+
+  Report from Iowa, by A. C. MILLER                       337
+
+  Report from Louisiana, by HENRY E. HARDTNER             339
+
+  Report from Maine, by CYRUS C. BABB                     341
+
+  Report from Massachusetts, by FRANK WILLIAM RANE and
+    HENRY H. SPRAGUE                                      343
+
+  Report from Missouri, by HERMANN VON SCHRENK            344
+
+  Report from Montana, by RUDOLPH VON TOBEL               345
+
+  Report from New Mexico, by COLONEL W. A. FLEMING JONES  347
+
+  Report from New York, by J. S. WHIPPLE                  347
+
+  Special report from New York, by HENRY H. PERSONS       352
+
+  Report from North Dakota, by PROFESSOR WALDRON          362
+
+  Report from Ohio, by PROFESSOR LAZENBY                  364
+
+  Report from Oklahoma, by BENJ. MARTIN, JR.              365
+
+  Report from Oregon, by E. T. ALLEN                      367
+
+  Report from Rhode Island, by HENRY A. BARKER            368
+
+  Report from South Carolina, by E. J. WATSON             369
+
+  Report from South Dakota, by DOANE ROBINSON             369
+
+  Report from Texas, by WILL L. SARGENT                   370
+
+  Report from Utah, by O. J. SALISBURY                    372
+
+  Supplementary report from Utah, by E. T. MERRITT        372
+
+  Report from Vermont, by GEORGE AITKIN                   373
+
+  Report from Washington, by E. G. GRIGGS                 375
+
+  Report from West Virginia, by HU MAXWELL                376
+
+  Report from Wisconsin, by E. M. GRIFFITH                377
+
+  Report of the American Academy of
+    Political and Social Science                          379
+
+  Report of the American Automobile Association           380
+
+  Report of the American Civic Association                383
+
+  Report of the American Forestry Association             384
+
+  Report of the American Humane Association               385
+
+  Report of the American Institute of Architects          386
+
+  Report of the American Paper and Pulp Association       388
+
+  Report of the American Medical Association              389
+
+  Report of the American Railway Engineering and
+    Maintenance of Way Association                        392
+
+  Report of the American Railway Master Mechanics'
+    Association                                           393
+
+  Report of the American Scenic and Historic
+    Preservation Society                                  394
+
+  Report of the Association for the Protection of
+    the Adirondacks                                       397
+
+  Report of the Carriage Builders' National Association   410
+
+  Report of the Delaware State Federation of
+    Women's Clubs                                         411
+
+  Report of the Farmers' Union of America                 411
+
+  Report of the General Federation of Women's Clubs       412
+
+  Report of the Lakes-to-Gulf Deep Waterway Association   413
+
+  Report of the League of American Sportsmen              415
+
+  Report of the National Board of Fire Underwriters       416
+
+  Report of the National Board of Trade                   419
+
+  Report of the National Business League of America       420
+
+  Report of the Missouri Valley River Improvement
+    Association                                           420
+
+  Report of the Upper Mississippi River Improvement
+    Association                                           421
+
+  Report of the Washington State Federation of Labor      422
+
+  Report of the Western Forestry and Conservation
+    Association                                           423
+
+  Report of the United Mine Workers                       424
+
+  Timber Conservation, by GEORGE H. EMERSON               424
+
+  Forests and Stream-Flow, by WILLIAM S. HARVEY           428
+
+  The Conservation of Minerals and Subterranean Waters,
+    by GEORGE F. KUNZ, Ph.D.                              429
+
+  The Question of Land Titles, by FRANKLIN MCCRAY         430
+
+INDEX                                                     431
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  1. GIFFORD PINCHOT, Vice-President (1910).
+  2. JAMES R. GARFIELD, Vice-President (1910).
+  3. HENRY A. BARKER, Vice-President (1909-10).
+  4. A. B. FARQUHAR, Executive Committee (1909).
+  5. W. A. FLEMING JONES, Vice-president (1910).
+  6. E. L. WORSHAM, Executive Committee (1910).
+  7. GEORGE C. PARDEE, Executive Committee (1910).
+  8. J. N. TEAL, Executive Committee (1909-10).
+  9. WALTER H. PAGE, Executive Committee (1910).
+  10. L. H. BAILEY, Executive Committee (1909-10).]
+
+
+
+
+_CONSTITUTION_
+
+
+ARTICLE 1--NAME
+
+This organization shall be known as the National Conservation Congress.
+
+ARTICLE 2--OBJECT
+
+The object of the National Conservation Congress shall be: (1) to
+provide a forum for discussion of the resources of the United States as
+the foundation for the prosperity of the people, (2) to furnish definite
+information concerning the resources and their utilization, and (3) to
+afford an agency through which the people of the country may frame
+policies and principles affecting the wise and practical development,
+conservation, and utilization of the resources, to be put into effect by
+their representatives in State and Federal Governments.
+
+ARTICLE 3--MEETINGS
+
+_Section 1._ Regular annual meetings shall be held at such time and
+place as may be determined by the Executive Committee.
+
+_Section 2._ Special meetings of the Congress, or its officers,
+committees, or boards, may be held subject to the call of the President
+of the Congress or the Chairman of the Executive Committee.
+
+ARTICLE 4--OFFICERS
+
+_Section 1._ The officers of the Congress shall consist of a President,
+to be elected by the Congress; a Vice-President from each State, to be
+chosen by the respective State delegations, and from the National
+Conservation Association; an Executive Secretary; a Recording Secretary;
+and a Treasurer.
+
+_Section 2._ The duties of these officers may at any time be prescribed
+by formal action of the Congress or Executive Committee. In the absence
+of such action their duties shall be those implied by their designations
+and established by custom. In addition, it shall be the duty of the
+Vice-Presidents to receive, from the State Conservation Commissions and
+other organizations concerned in Conservation, suggestions and
+recommendations, and report them to the Executive Committee of the
+Congress.
+
+_Section 3._ The officers shall serve for one year, or until their
+successors are elected and qualify.
+
+ARTICLE 5--COMMITTEES AND BOARDS
+
+_Section 1._ An Executive Committee of seven, in addition to which the
+President of the National Conservation Association and all ex-Presidents
+of the Congress shall be members ex-officio, shall be appointed by the
+President during each regular annual session to act for the ensuing
+year; its membership shall be drawn from different States, and not more
+than one of the appointed members shall be from any one State. The
+Executive Committee shall act for the Congress and shall be empowered to
+initiate action and meet emergencies. It shall report to each regular
+annual session.
+
+_Section 2._ A Board of Managers shall be created in each city in which
+the next ensuing session of the Congress is to be held, preferably by
+leading organizations of citizens. The Board of Managers shall have
+power to raise and expend funds, to incur obligations on its own
+responsibility, and to appoint subordinate boards and committees, all
+with the approval of the Executive Committee of the Congress. It shall
+report to the Executive Committee at least two days before the opening
+of the ensuing session, and at such other times as the Congress or the
+Executive Committee may direct.
+
+_Section 3._ A Committee on Credentials shall be appointed, consisting
+of five (5) members, by the President of the Congress not later than on
+the second day of each session of the Congress. It shall determine all
+questions raised by delegates as to representation, and shall report to
+the Congress from time to time as required by the President of the
+Congress.
+
+_Section 4._ A Committee on Resolutions shall be created for each annual
+meeting of the Congress. A Chairman shall be appointed by the President.
+One member of the Committee shall be selected by each State represented
+in the Congress. The Committee shall report to the Congress not later
+than the morning of the last day of each annual meeting.
+
+_Section 5._ Permanent Committees, consisting of five (5) members each,
+shall be appointed by the President of the Congress on each of the
+following five divisions of Conservation: Forests, Waters, Lands,
+Minerals, and Vital Resources. These committees shall, during the
+intervals between the annual meetings of the Congress, inquire into
+these respective subjects and prepare reports to be submitted on the
+request of the Executive Committee, and render such other assistance to
+the Congress as the Executive Committee may direct.
+
+_Section 6._ By direction of the Congress, standing and special
+committees may be appointed by the President.
+
+_Section 7._ The President shall be a member, ex-officio, of every
+committee of the Congress.
+
+ARTICLE 6--ARRANGEMENTS FOR SESSIONS
+
+_Section 1._ The program for the session of each annual meeting of the
+Congress, including a list of speakers, shall be arranged by the
+Executive Committee. The entire program, including allotments of time to
+speakers and hours for daily sessions and all other arrangements
+concerning the program, shall be made by the Executive Committee.
+
+_Section 2._ Unless otherwise ordered, the rules adopted for the
+guidance of the preceding Congress shall continue in force.
+
+ARTICLE 7--MEMBERSHIP
+
+_Section 1._ The personnel of the National Conservation Congress shall
+be as follows:
+
+_Officers and Delegates_
+
+Officers of the National Conservation Congress.
+
+Fifteen Delegates appointed by the Governor of each State and Territory.
+
+Five Delegates appointed by the Mayor of each city with a population of
+25,000, or more.
+
+Two Delegates appointed by the Mayor of each city with a population of
+less than 25,000.
+
+Two Delegates appointed by each Board of County Commissioners.
+
+Five Delegates appointed by each National Organization concerned in the
+work of Conservation.
+
+Five Delegates appointed by each State or Interstate Organization
+concerned in the work of Conservation.
+
+Three Delegates appointed by each Chamber of Commerce, Board of Trade,
+Commercial Club, or other local organization concerned in the work of
+Conservation.
+
+Two Delegates appointed by each State or other University or College,
+and by each Agricultural College or Experiment Station.
+
+HONORARY MEMBERS
+
+The President of the United States.
+
+The Vice-President of the United States.
+
+The Speaker of the House of Representatives.
+
+The Cabinet.
+
+The United States Senate and House of Representatives.
+
+The Supreme Court of the United States.
+
+The Representatives of Foreign Governments.
+
+The Governors of the States and Territories.
+
+The Lieutenant-Governors of the States and Territories.
+
+The Speakers of State Houses of Representatives.
+
+The State Officers.
+
+The Mayors of Cities.
+
+The County Commissioners.
+
+The Presidents of State and other Universities and Colleges.
+
+The Officers and Members of the National Conservation Association.
+
+The Officers and Members of the National Conservation Commission.
+
+The Officers and Members of the State Conservation Commissions and
+Associations.
+
+ARTICLE 8--DELEGATIONS AND STATE OFFICERS
+
+_Section 1._ The several Delegates from each State in attendance at any
+Congress shall assemble at the earliest practicable time and organize by
+choosing a Chairman and a Secretary. These Delegates, when approved by
+the Committee on Credentials, shall constitute the Delegation from that
+State.
+
+ARTICLE 9--VOTING
+
+_Section 1._ Each member of the Congress shall be entitled to one vote
+on all actions taken viva voce.
+
+_Section 2._ A division or call of States may be demanded on any action
+by a State delegation. On division, each Delegate shall be entitled to
+one vote; provided (1) that no State shall have more than twenty votes;
+and provided (2) that when a State is represented by less than ten
+Delegates, said Delegates may cast ten votes for such State.
+
+_Section 3._ The term "State" as used herein is to be construed to mean
+either State, Territory, or Insular Possession.
+
+ARTICLE 10--AMENDMENTS
+
+This Constitution may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the Congress
+during any regular session, provided notice of the proposed amendment
+has been given from the Chair not less than one day or more than two
+days preceding; or by unanimous vote without such notice.
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  1. D. AUSTIN LATCHAW, Treasurer (1910).
+  2. THOMAS R. SHIPP, Executive Secretary (1909-10).
+  3. JAMES C. GIPE, Recording Secretary (1910).
+  4. JOHN BARRETT, Vice-President (1909).
+  5. Mrs PHILIP N. MOORE, Executive Committee (1909-10).
+  6. FRANK C. GOUDY, Executive Committee (1910).
+  7. THOMAS BURKE, Executive Committee (1909).
+  8. E. J. WICKSON, Vice-President (1909).
+  9. HENRY D. HARDTNER, Vice-President (1909).
+  10. JAMES S. WHIPPLE, Vice-President (1909).
+  11. W J MCGEE, Vice-President (Editor of Proceedings).]
+
+
+
+
+SECOND NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONGRESS
+
+_OPENING SESSION_
+
+
+The Congress convened in the Auditorium, Saint Paul, Minnesota, on the
+morning of September 5, 1910, President Baker in the chair, and was
+called to order on arrival of the President of the United States.
+
+President BAKER--Mr President, your Grace, Ladies and Gentlemen: The
+honor I have today in opening this great Congress is one that will
+always be highly treasured, for I feel that what we are trying to do is
+to make our country great and strong by men who see the Nation's wrongs
+and are giving their time to this great object. We are meeting today for
+the purpose of using our very best efforts to assist in protecting the
+interests of this great country in a way that will best protect every
+man and woman and child in his or her rights, with justice to all. That
+our great National resources are in danger of being wasted and not fully
+preserved for the future, I am satisfied is the thought of all the great
+minds assembled here today to take part in this Congress.
+
+There is a Great High Power that rules and governs for the best in the
+world, and I now call upon His Grace, Archbishop Ireland, to open our
+Congress with an invocation to that Great Power for help, guidance, and
+direction.
+
+INVOCATION
+
+_Almighty and eternal God. We bow before Thee in deep humility. Accept
+from us, we beseech Thee, from submissive minds and sincere hearts,
+adoration, praise, gratitude, love, and the promise of abiding
+recognition of Thy sovereignty and of loyal obedience to Thy laws._
+
+_O God, all things are Thine; all things were made by Thee; no thing
+that was made was made without Thee; "the heavens show forth Thy glory
+and the firmament declareth Thy power, day to day uttereth speech, night
+to night showeth knowledge," ever proclaiming that Thou are the Master,
+that things created are the scintillations of Thy power and wisdom. We
+are Thine, O God, Thee our Father and our Master; earth and skies are
+ours through gift of Thy munificence. "Till the earth," was it said to
+us, "and subdue it and dominate over the fishes of the sea and the fowls
+of the air and all living creatures that move upon the earth." Earth is
+ours, not, O Lord, that we use it at our will and caprice, but that
+under Thy guidance we bid it turn to our best and truest welfare, to the
+best and truest welfare of our fellow-men, Thy children all; over all of
+whom spread Thy love and care._
+
+_Grant to us, O Lord, this morning wisdom in our counselings and
+deliberations, that the intents of Thy providence be our intents, and,
+Thy will the inspiration of our counselings and our actions._
+
+_We thank thee, O God, for the gift to us of America. As to few other
+lands, Thou hast been prodigal to America of gifts rich and rare. In
+America skies are serene and health-giving above us; beneath us fields
+are verdant and fertile; nowhere else are forests more fruitful, hills
+and mountains richer in imbedded treasure; nowhere else are lakes and
+rivers endowed with higher grandeur or more ready to proffer to man
+useful and ennobling service. Of America, through Thy munificence, O
+God, we are the caretakers. May we be wise and prudent in our duty. We
+pray that under Thy abiding watchfulness, through our intelligent
+industry, America grows ever in fairness and in wealth, and be the first
+and most beauteous of the stopping-places allowed to men in their
+pilgrimage toward their abiding home in heaven._
+
+_Bless, O Lord, America, and bless its people, that they be ever
+faithful to Thy laws; bless its citizenship, bless its Government, that
+the spirit of its freedom-giving institutions never die, never lessen in
+sweetness and in power; that here liberty be ever encircled in order,
+and order ever wreathed in liberty; that righteousness dominate and
+permeate prosperity; that whatever the laws we form may be
+scintillations of Thy own eternal laws--compliance with which is life
+and felicity, forgetfulness of which is misery and death to men and to
+nations._
+
+_And we pray Thee, O God, send down Thy blessing upon the President of
+the Republic, upon whose shoulders descends the chief responsibility of
+upholding the salvation and the dignity of America. We pray that Thou
+bestow upon him Thy precious blessing. The burthen is heavy, often the
+horizon is dark, often the polar star is hidden from which guidance
+might come; but in Thee, O God, he confideth,--send upon him the wisdom
+and the strength of Thy Holy Spirit, the wisdom that he may know, the
+power that he may do, ever Thy will. In Thee, O Lord, in Thy omnipotent
+hand--prompt to give aid in single-mindedness of purpose and in
+rectitude of intention--he puts his trust. Be Thou his teacher, be Thou
+his guide._
+
+_Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come,
+Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily
+bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass
+against us, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from all
+evil. Amen._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen: His Eminence,
+Cardinal GIBBONS, sends you greeting:
+
+Allow me to say how earnestly I wish the Congress every success in the
+much-needed work of National Conservation.
+
+It is said that the French and Germans could subsist on what we waste;
+and I fear that to a stranger visiting our country it must seem that in
+a hundred years we have wasted more of our natural resources than the
+nations of Europe have done in all the centuries of their existence. But
+if we have been reckless in the past, wasting like vandals our rich
+inheritance, it is also most consoling and full of promise for the
+future that with the strong aid of our President, of Colonel Roosevelt,
+and of leading citizens in various parts of the country, we may look for
+a wiser use of our resources in the near future. And I am the more
+hopeful of a successful Congress from the fact that there is no
+political issue involved in the great subject before it which might
+threaten to divide our counsels and breed discontent, but that the sole
+motive that actuates the Congress is to conserve and increase our
+natural resources and thereby contribute to the material prosperity of
+our beloved country.
+
+It is also decidedly my opinion that we should regard our natural
+resources as the patrimony of the Nation, a sacred trust committed to
+our keeping to be administered for the good of the whole people, and to
+be transmitted by us, as far as possible unimpaired, to our posterity.
+By husbanding and using economically the gifts of Nature, we shall have
+an abundant supply for our own times, and also make suitable provisions
+for the future. Mother Earth is not only a fruitful mother; she is also
+a grateful mother, and repays her children for every kindness and
+tenderness we exercise toward her. And there are also instances on
+record to show that she is relentless when she chastises.
+
+Did my many duties allow, I should gladly take a more active part in the
+greatly needed Conservation labors. However, I trust you will feel
+assured of my entire sympathy and of the hope I confidently entertain of
+the very great benefits coming to us all as the fruitful result of these
+devoted laborers. JAMES CARD. GIBBONS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--Ladies and Gentlemen: The opening of the Congress today
+in Saint Paul is due largely to the kind assistance and friendly welcome
+of the Governor of Minnesota, His Excellency A. O. Eberhart, who will
+now extend you a welcome. (Great applause and cheers)
+
+Governor EBERHART--Mr President, Members of the Congress, Ladies and
+Gentlemen: When I was invited to appear before this Congress and bid you
+welcome, it was suggested that I also outline what the people of
+Minnesota felt when they sought to have this splendid gathering at Saint
+Paul.
+
+I am sure that no State or city could receive greater honor than to have
+the President of the United States come fifteen hundred miles to deliver
+the most important message on Conservation that has ever been presented
+to the people of this great country. (Applause) Yet I am not going to
+take more than the twenty minutes allotted to assure you that the only
+interest this State has in the Conservation movement is that which every
+true friend of the movement stands for. Last night I cut out the meat of
+my remarks, this morning the bones, and now there is nothing left but
+the nerve, and I have scarcely enough "nerve" to deliver it. (Laughter
+and applause)
+
+The Conservation of natural resources does not consist merely in the
+preservation of these resources for the benefit of future generations,
+but rather such present use thereof as will result in the greatest
+general good and yet maintain that productive power which insures
+continued future enjoyment. (Applause) While it is true that exhaustible
+resources like mineral wealth cannot be conserved for both future and
+present use, except by economic regulations and the prevention of
+wasteful methods, Conservation deals with their distribution in such a
+way as to prevent their control by grasping corporations and
+individuals, who would monopolize them for their own exclusive benefit
+at the expense of the general public. (Applause)
+
+It follows necessarily that any theory of Conservation which does not
+provide for the present as well as the future does not cover the entire
+field and cannot possibly bring the best results. (Applause) From every
+economic standpoint it is desirable that the present generation should
+be preferred, since future discoveries and inventions may render present
+resources of less value and importance to the coming generations.
+
+In its broadest sense the Conservation movement is not limited merely to
+the consideration of natural resources. Every great convention called to
+consider the problems involved has widened the scope of the movement so
+that today it includes the elimination of wasteful methods in almost
+every field of human activity and the conservation of all human endeavor
+so as to confer on all mankind the greatest blessings that a bounteous
+nature and twenty centuries of enlightenment can bestow.
+
+Every consideration of natural resources for the purpose of eliminating
+wasteful methods, preserving and increasing productive power, as well as
+regulating operation and control, has for its ultimate object the
+conservation of human energy, health and life, the securing of equal
+opportunities for all, and such dissemination of knowledge as will
+guarantee the continual possession and enjoyment of these blessings. The
+subjects for consideration by this Congress should, therefore, include
+not only the restoration and increase of soil fertility, the protection
+and development of forests, mines and water-powers, the reclamation of
+arid and swamp lands by irrigation and drainage, the forestation of
+areas unsuited to farming, the control of rivers by reservoirs so as to
+prevent flooding, as well as the elimination of waste in the use of
+these resources, but also the problems of public comfort, health and
+life that are so intimately connected with all material and
+intellectual development. (Applause) Many of these questions will
+concern home attractions and management, industrial education in the
+public schools, public highways, State advertising and settlement, pure
+food, public health, and sanitation.
+
+By far the most important of all natural resources is the soil, and the
+maintenance and increase of its fertility must, therefore, be given the
+greatest consideration. (Applause) As long as food is necessary to human
+life, agriculture must continue to be the most vital industry of man,
+and the farm will be the most general and indispensable theater of his
+activity. We must have manufacture, art, schools, churches and
+government to round out our sphere of civilized existence, but the
+foundation of them all is the farm. (Applause) From the earth come all
+the materials for manufactures, the commodities of commerce, and
+ultimately the support of all human institutions. During the half
+century just past our country has devoted its energies to the
+development of manufacturing and commercial industries to such an extent
+that the scientific methods of agriculture necessary to insure not only
+the permanency of our institutions but the very existence of human life
+itself have been comparatively neglected. The pendulum is now swinging
+back to the farm, and our great Nation is becoming aroused to the fact
+that its most vital concern is the elimination of soil waste, the
+promotion of scientific methods of agriculture, and the conservation of
+that soil fertility which is the foundation of our entire social,
+political and commercial superstructure. (Applause)
+
+This new birth of agricultural progress comes at a psychological moment.
+We have developed American manufactures until the $16,000,000,000
+product of our mills and factories exceeds that of Germany, France, and
+the United Kingdom combined. (Applause) We have built railroads by
+liberal public and private enterprise until the United States has about
+one-half of all the railway mileage and tonnage of the world. We have
+developed banking enterprise and home trade until we have the greatest
+banking power on earth, and an internal commerce which far exceeds the
+entire foreign commerce of the globe. We have become the model of the
+world in our free public schools and our republican form of government.
+But while we have demonstrated the possession of the greatest
+agricultural resources on the globe, and have heretofore supplied the
+world's markets with an unparalleled volume of farm products, we have
+wasted a wealth that would maintain our population for centuries. The
+loss in farm values in nearly all of the older States, as shown by the
+census records from 1880 to 1900, varies from $1,000,000 to $160,000,000
+in each State and aggregates the enormous total of more than
+$1,000,000,000. Is this not sufficient to arouse the entire Nation and
+cause such a wave of reform as will put into activity every agency and
+instrumentality for scientific and progressive methods of agricultural
+reconstruction?
+
+The unprecedented agricultural growth of the United States, in spite of
+wasteful methods, has been caused by the extraordinary fertility of its
+virgin soil, the great inducement offered by States and Nation to
+promote settlement and cultivation, the rapid growth of favorable
+transportation facilities, as well as the great demand for agricultural
+products resulting from the rapid increase of population, wealth and
+commercial enterprise.
+
+Minnesota affords a splendid illustration of this development process,
+and I trust that I may be pardoned for using my own State for that
+purpose, since I am best acquainted with her conditions, development,
+and resources. Of her 50,000,000 acres of land area, about one-half is
+actually tilled, constituting the field area of about 200,000 farms
+whose aggregate area, including lands not tilled, approximates
+32,000,000 acres, or 160 acres each. Nearly 4,000,000 acres of her area
+are covered by 10,000 lakes. This vast farm area possesses a soil
+unsurpassed by any State or any country in the world. The great glacier
+of several thousand years ago was generous to Minnesota. Its fine
+glacial drift almost wholly covers the old rock formations. Coming from
+many regions and rock sources, it has given to the soil an excellent
+chemical composition. This, together with the vegetal mold, accumulated
+for ages, makes the very best of hospitable soils. The incomparable
+fertility of the Minnesota soil and its ability to withstand fifty years
+of starvation methods in cultivation is accounted for by the almost
+uniform mixture of vegetal mold with all kinds of decomposed rock drift,
+thus making it possible for less than half of the State to produce farm
+products aggregating the enormous total for 1909 of more than
+$427,000,000. (Applause) It accounts also for the fact that, while
+Minnesota, like all other States, during this period of fifty years has
+been rather mining the fertility out of her soil than cultivating it,
+she has withstood the consequent impoverishment without appreciable
+shrinkage in farm value. There is perhaps not a single representative in
+this distinguished assemblage who cannot recall the day when the virgin
+soil in his locality did not produce from 50 to 100 percent larger crops
+than it does today, when dense forests covered large tracts now a barren
+waste, and when the bosom of the earth contained untold millions of
+mineral wealth now represented on the surface by huge spoil-banks and
+sunken surfaces. We remember only too well when our fertile fields
+yielded thirty-five to forty bushels of wheat to the acre, and that the
+same fields produced only about twelve bushels five years ago. In nearly
+every community there is found that pathetic omen of decay, the deserted
+farm--even in this young State.
+
+The economic importance of soil conservation is so great that it can
+scarcely be estimated. In making my estimates I have taken a very
+conservative view, and while no absolutely accurate figures can be
+obtained, the few that I shall give will be found sufficiently reliable
+to establish the paramount value of soil conservation.
+
+In Minnesota the low tide of soil impoverishment occurred about five
+years ago. At that time, after several years of apparently unsuccessful
+effort, the Agricultural College and schools, assisted by the State
+Farmers' Institutes and the press, succeeded in stemming the tide and
+arousing considerable interest in new methods of farming along more
+intelligent and intensive lines. Only within the last year, however, has
+progress been marked and rapid. When the first State Conservation
+Congress was called to meet in Saint Paul, March, 1909, nearly every
+township in the State was represented and all but two counties presented
+agricultural and industrial exhibits, attracting a total attendance of
+more than 150,000 people. The wonderful success of that Congress and the
+enthusiasm it stirred up all over the State gave a great impetus to this
+new era of agricultural reform in the entire Northwest and insured the
+complete success of this Congress from a local standpoint. Never before
+had 6,000 of the most progressive farmers of a State met for the purpose
+of discussing more intelligent methods of farming, as well as the
+suppression of wasteful methods in all fields of agricultural and
+industrial activity.
+
+During the past short period of five years the average cereal yield of
+this State has been increased more than five bushels per acre; the corn
+belt has been extended northward more than 300 miles to the Canadian
+boundary by the production of hardy and early maturing varieties of
+corn, yielding the State last year over 60,000,000 bushels, and placing
+Minnesota among the dozen leading corn States of the Union. It is
+estimated that plant breeding and seed selection alone last year added
+about $15,000,000 to our agricultural products. The cereal production
+has also affected clover, timothy and other tame grasses, thus largely
+contributing to the growth of the dairy industry, which has been
+increased ten-fold in twenty years until it now yields the State
+$50,000,000 annually, several counties netting more than $1,000,000
+each. Similar progress has been made in the live stock, fruit, and truck
+gardening industries, and it is safe to conclude that Minnesota has
+entered in earnest upon a complete plan of agricultural reconstruction.
+
+But let us consider the opportunities for advancement that are still
+open, in order that we may determine the economy of soil conservation in
+terms of dollars and cents. The average yield of Minnesota wheat last
+season was seventeen bushels per acre. At the agricultural experiment
+stations the same wheat with improved seed selection and better
+preparation of soil by crop rotation and tillage yielded twenty-eight
+bushels per acre, climatic and soil conditions, as well as expense of
+tillage being otherwise similar, a difference in favor of intelligent
+farming approximating from five to eight dollars per acre, depending on
+local conditions. Assuming for the sake of argument that the average
+difference in the State would not be more than four dollars per acre, it
+would still increase the agricultural net earning of the State on the
+basis of the present acreage $100,000,000 annually. These figures do not
+take into consideration the further increase of soil productivity by
+various methods of fertilization other than those resulting from
+planting crops which enrich the soil with nitrogen, phosphoric acid,
+potash and calcium, the essential elements of plant growth. Besides, I
+have not attempted to estimate the value of raising almost maximum
+yields, where weather conditions are unfavorable, by such drainage,
+preparation of soil, planting and tillage as will best suit local and
+climatic conditions. No crop emphasizes the value of seed selection in
+such unmistakable terms as corn. The average stand of this crop does not
+exceed 60 percent, which means that the farmer spends 40 percent of his
+time in the cornfield without result. By selecting the seed in the field
+at the proper season, testing each ear before planting, and separating
+with reference to size, so that as nearly as possible the planter will
+put three kernels in each hill, the stand can be increased to at least
+95 percent. Applying this increase to the 2,000,000 acres of cornfield
+in Minnesota, it would add approximately 30,000,000 bushels with
+practically no additional cost of production. That the importance of
+this matter might be more firmly impressed upon the people of the State,
+I have issued a seed-corn proclamation designating the time when the
+seed-corn should be selected and calling the attention of the people to
+the feed value of the corn product as well as corn fodder, which is of
+utmost importance in a dry season like the one we are now experiencing.
+This proclamation has received extensive publicity, and it is safe to
+say that a large number of Minnesota's 200,000 farmers will heed the
+note of warning.
+
+Of still more vital importance, if possible, is the maintenance and
+increase of soil fertility as a source of support for future
+generations. The soil is the only permanent asset of the farmer, and its
+net returns in crops constitute his annual dividends. Any impairment of
+this asset will not only reduce the dividends on which his support
+depends, but will destroy the productive power of the soil to such
+extent as to deprive future owners of the most essential means of
+livelihood. A loss of $1,000,000,000 in farm values, such as the older
+States have already suffered, does not mean merely that this vast sum of
+money has been wasted, but that its annual earning capacity on which
+thousands should depend for support has been entirely destroyed, and
+that these thousands have been forced to seek their sustenance from the
+fields of commerce and manufacture in the large cities. We enact
+stringent legislation to prevent the impairment of capital in our
+banking institutions to protect depositors from loss, but the working
+capital investment of millions in farm property on which all human
+institutions must necessarily depend for existence has not been
+safeguarded in any manner whatsoever. Without any organized effort to
+interfere, we still permit millions of farmers to mine out the fertility
+of the soil, thus increasing the drudgery of farm life, reducing every
+source of farm income, converting the producers of the farm into
+consumers of the city, and thus contributing directly to the great
+increase in cost of living, the scarcity of farm labor, and the
+congested conditions that breed disease and crime in our large cities.
+Apply the situation to the country at large and you will find a
+situation that is simply appalling. There are approximately 500,000,000
+acres under actual tillage in the United States. Instead of figuring
+four dollars per acre waste, which probably would be a fair average, we
+will place the loss at the extremely low estimate of one dollar. This
+will still make the total loss through wasteful farming methods in the
+United States reach the enormous total of $500,000,000 annually. In
+other words, if the loss were in fact not greater than one dollar per
+acre, which is unquestionably too low, and that rate could be maintained
+perpetually without an ultimate depletion of the soil, it would mean
+that a capital investment of $12,500,000,000 with an earning capacity of
+four percent per annum aggregating $500,000,000 annually, had been
+completely destroyed.
+
+At the rate of two dollars per acre, which is a low average, we are
+every year wasting the income from $25,000,000,000, a sum so great as to
+be entirely beyond human comprehension. In many of the older States,
+where farms were sold forty years ago at $150 per acre, the same farms
+cannot be sold today for $25 per acre, sometimes less than the actual
+cash value of the buildings and other improvements, because the soil has
+been robbed of its fertility, making it impossible for the owner to earn
+the most meager living without restoring the vitality of the soil
+through expensive methods of fertilization.
+
+It is not at all difficult to see how such wasteful methods of farming
+must affect the entire industrial situation. The younger generation,
+inspired with the hopes, aspirations, and energy of youth, stirred by
+the achievements, opportunities, and general prosperity of a truly great
+Nation, and encouraged by the possibilities of a liberal education,
+cannot afford to stake its future on the eking out of a mere existence
+under the shadow of a rapidly increasing farm mortgage or the
+threatening omen of a deserted homestead. All honor and credit to that
+farmer's boy who early realizes the handicap placed upon him by the
+impairment, and oftentimes utter destruction, of the only safe capital
+investment of the farmer--fertile and productive soil. Should we
+complain because he goes to the city to seek more inviting and
+attractive fields of existence after having been robbed of his only
+means of livelihood on the farm? This is the proper time for us to think
+it over. In the younger States, where soil mining has been of such short
+duration as to be incomplete, and the value of the land through
+settlement, city growth, and increased transportation facilities is
+constantly growing, the young man, who has learned intelligent and
+progressive methods of farming, should have no fear as to the future,
+for he has the making of a safe investment; but the young lad who,
+without experience or training, unexpectedly finds himself possessor of
+a farm where land values have ceased to rise and the soil has been
+starved until it no longer can yield in abundance, has a white elephant
+on his hands, and the sooner he can be brought to the realization
+thereof the better for himself and the entire community.
+
+Where a certain amount of labor should produce thirty bushels of wheat
+to the acre, it yields but ten, or even less; and when the farmer
+cultivates his corn, working ten hours per day, four hours thereof is
+spent in vain, because 40 percent of the field has no corn--not to speak
+of the poor quality of the corn grown on account of defective
+preparation of soil, poor tillage, and the lack of necessary nutritive
+elements within the soil itself. In addition, he has no knowledge as to
+diversified farming, the value of live stock, dairying, fruit-raising,
+truck-gardening, and many other means of livelihood which yield large
+incomes to the possessor of a well-managed farm, nor does he appreciate
+the enormous waste committed by unnecessary exposure to the elements of
+farm machinery and buildings.
+
+The young lady faces a similar situation. Every field of employment bids
+her welcome at wages from $50 or more per month, and she has already
+achieved such abundant success in every line of human enterprise, and at
+the same time enjoyed all the pleasures and delights which bring cheer
+to the heart of the young, that she cannot afford to even hesitate.
+Should we complain if she refuses to stay on the farm and take her
+chances of marrying a $25 man and a ruined farm plastered all over with
+mortgages, and be chained in matrimonial bonds of lifelong drudgery to a
+devastated farm homestead, robbed of everything that contributes to the
+beautiful and good and true in a woman's life? (Great applause) There is
+only one answer, and its conclusions are just.
+
+Though I have presented a sad picture, it is not pessimistic. The
+background is altogether cheerful. Two words express the most simple and
+effective remedy: intelligent farming. This will not only make farming
+profitable, but it will surround the home life on the farm with so many
+attractions as to remove all desire for the deceptive allurements of a
+city. Intelligent farming does not merely guarantee good dividends on a
+farm investment, but it builds good roads to save cost of
+transportation, consolidates rural schools where intelligent farming,
+industry and home economics can be taught by precept and example,
+beautifies the home and its surroundings and fills it with all the
+attractions that elevate manhood and womanhood, teaches the younger
+generation the dignity as well as reward of farm labor, and inspires the
+laborer with the hope of a bright future.
+
+Drainage, farm settlement, good roads, forestry, transportation,
+industrial education, minerals, cheap heat and power resources, are all
+important factors in the Conservation movement. Minnesota has
+successfully drained about 3,000,000 acres in the northern part of the
+State at an average cost of two dollars per acre, and converted into
+meadows, grain and clover fields, celery and cranberry gardens, what
+only a year or two since was a rough wilderness. Every State should have
+some effective way of making these results known to prospective settlers
+through exhibits and judicious advertising. No State officer is in a
+position to bring greater returns to the State than the immigration
+commissioner, and it is to be regretted that his work is so often
+crippled by lack of sufficient appropriations.
+
+In marketing produce, distributing material, fertilizer and machinery,
+the farmers of Minnesota haul annually approximately 20,000,000 wagon
+loads. Averaging the cost of each load over mostly unimproved roads at
+$1.50, the cost of highway transportation in the State aggregates
+$30,000,000. Most experts claim that uniformly good roads would reduce
+this cost one-half, but conceding for the sake of argument that the
+reduction would be only a third, the net saving to the farmers of the
+State in one year would be about $10,000,000. However, this is not the
+most important result. The building of good roads would build up farm
+intercommunication and promote the consolidation of rural school
+districts by making it possible to carry the pupils at all seasons of
+the year some distance over country roads to the school at a minimum
+cost.
+
+Several of the north-central border States were the chief shippers of
+lumber only a few years ago. Now our great forests are largely depleted,
+and scientific deforestation has become an absolute necessity. One of
+the most important duties the States as well as the Nation have to
+perform is the transformation of this vast stumpage area into forests
+and farms. Practical and scientific reforestation should convert the
+lands unsuited for farming into forests, so that every acre would
+produce revenue and furnish some necessity of life. The dry season of
+1910 has particularly emphasized another important duty in this
+connection, and that is the protection of our forests and settlers from
+fires. It is a well known fact that enough timber has been destroyed by
+fire within the last four months to pay for the adequate protection of
+all our forests for a period of ten years or more, not to mention the
+great loss of human life, which in itself imposes upon States and Nation
+the duty of protection. This Congress should be instrumental in stirring
+public sentiment to such an extent that the various legislatures and the
+Congress will take immediate steps to stop this needless and expensive
+waste.
+
+Since mineral wealth is exhaustible, it follows that the interest of the
+people in this important resource should be guarded against the
+encroachments of greed with the utmost care. Minnesota furnishes now
+one-half of all the iron-ore in the United States, and one-fourth of
+that of the world, exporting this year about 40,000,000 tons. It is
+estimated that not less than 2,000,000,000 tons of ore has been
+definitely located, and that the volume of the undeveloped properties is
+enormous. The State is the owner of very large quantities of ore, and
+the income from this source alone will increase the State school fund by
+at least $100,000,000.
+
+No section of our country could profit more by water transportation than
+that tributary to this great mineral wealth. The canalization of the
+Mississippi river system with its 16,000 miles of streams would by cheap
+transportation bring together the coal fields of the central interior
+with the iron ore of the North, and produce in the Mississippi valley
+the greatest iron and steel industries of the world, besides opening up
+the greatest agricultural and industrial sections to the transportation
+facilities of the Panama canal.
+
+No commercial nation can long retain supremacy unless it has unlimited
+supplies of cheap heat and power. In the north-central border States are
+located peat deposits that should furnish cheap heat and power for
+untold generations, Minnesota alone possessing more than 1,000,000
+acres; and as the source of the three great watersheds of the country,
+with an elevation of about 1,500 feet over sea and gulf level, there is
+an abundance of water-power to turn the wheels of manufacture and
+commerce.
+
+Time will not permit any consideration of the strictly human side of
+Conservation. We have saved millions of dollars annually by guarding
+against plant and animal disease, and are just beginning to take note of
+the untold millions wasted every month through neglect of preventable
+and curable disease, impure foods, defective sanitation and health
+inspection in homes and schools, unsuitable playgrounds for children,
+and the lack of safeguards against railway, mine and factory accidents,
+all of which come properly within the Conservation scope.
+
+The splendid progress made by Minnesota and other States merely
+emphasizes the importance of the Conservation movement. Warned by the
+decay of older nations, we must act before the crisis of exhausted
+natural resources reaches our Nation and commonwealths. Indeed, warned
+by signs that are only too plain in our own midst, we must take decisive
+action without delay. Fortunately, we have passed the pioneer stage of
+development. Our Nation and commonwealths have all experienced many of
+the disasters resulting from the skimming of natural resources. Having
+discovered the vast mines of wealth which surround us everywhere, we
+must now and forever determine that ignorance, selfishness, and greed
+shall no longer control our governments and exhaust our resources.
+(Great applause and cheers)
+
+The problems before us are not merely of tremendous importance, but they
+are also difficult as to solution. They frequently involve sharply
+conflicting claims and interests as between the Nation and the various
+commonwealths. Every State as well as the Nation itself should have a
+distinct and separate department empowered to deal with all these
+problems. It matters but little how it should be designated, though it
+would serve all purposes best to be known as a Conservation Commission.
+But it is of vital importance that the agency should be given sufficient
+authority and funds, so as to enlist the strongest and best men in the
+Conservation service. That such commissions would have sufficient work,
+and that from an economic standpoint they would constitute good
+investments, there is and can be no question.
+
+Minnesota, as a distinctly progressive State and a recognized leader in
+the Conservation movement, heartily welcomes this Congress with its
+noted guests and speakers. We have the special honor of entertaining and
+hearing the three truly great men who have contributed so much to the
+actual achievements of the Conservation movement, and they are the three
+most distinguished guests of this Congress, President Taft (applause and
+the Chautauqua salute), Colonel Roosevelt (applause and cheers), and
+James J. Hill. Minnesota appreciates this honor and will prove herself
+worthy thereof. As her Chief Executive, I earnestly hope that the
+deliberations of this Congress may bring results far beyond our hopes or
+expectations. I am intensely interested in the Conservation of our
+resources, and will use all my efforts in securing and enforcing the
+best possible legislation, believing firmly that the Conservation
+movement, as here outlined, will promote the general public welfare in a
+far greater degree than any other, and that it is destined to mark the
+twentieth century as an era of the greatest industrial achievement for
+the benefit of all mankind. The people of Minnesota feel keenly their
+duties and responsibilities with reference to their great heritage of
+unsurpassed natural resources, and will continue as leaders in the only
+movement that can insure the perpetuation of our country as the greatest
+agricultural, industrial and commercial nation in the world. On their
+behalf, I welcome you to the State. I thank you. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--It is now my pleasure to call upon his Honor, Mayor
+Herbert E. Keller, who will welcome you on behalf of the great city of
+Saint Paul. (Great applause and cheers)
+
+Mayor KELLER--Mr President, Delegates to the Second National
+Conservation Congress, and Guests: Upon me, as Chief Executive of the
+city where this body will carry on its labors, the honor of welcoming
+you devolves. It is a great privilege and pleasure to discharge this
+duty, and yet my greeting can but inadequately convey to you the
+appreciation felt by all Saint Paul at being selected as the scene of
+this great Congress, whose deliberations mark the commencement of a new
+epoch in the history of our country. (Applause)
+
+The Conservation to and by ourselves as trustees, and the dedication and
+perpetuation to our children and our children's children as
+beneficiaries, of the tremendous natural resources of our country is a
+duty and trust too sacred and too imperative to be disregarded or
+lightly considered, once the situation stands revealed in its true
+light. It is purely and simply a proposition of the greatest good for
+the greatest number, and the sound judgment of a great people, with the
+patriotism and unselfish devotion to duty of the founders of our country
+ever before them, must and shall consider the greatest number to be the
+countless millions of population to follow after us, and to whom must be
+handed down a heritage not diminished or impoverished by us, the
+temporary executors.
+
+We may be likened to children turned loose in some vast Midas
+treasurehouse and told to go where we would and take what we pleased. A
+knock at the doors of Congress, a State legislature, or a city council,
+gives the magical "Open Sesame!" And behold! the lavishing on some
+private interest or individual of a great National or State property or
+municipal right or franchise!
+
+The Nation's bounty and generosity has been limitless, for the entire
+previous history of the whole world provides no precedent for a guide.
+But, fortunately, thoughtful minds began to work, awakened to what was
+being done, and the result is the present all-pervasive sentiment and
+determination to economize, to check improvidence and waste, and to
+establish a policy whereby future generations, as well as the present,
+may have equal opportunities to enjoy our natural benefits and
+advantages; and Conservation is now more than a mere issue: it is an
+assured, established, sane and universal desire to preserve and
+perpetuate for ourselves and posterity the treasures of our country.
+
+And so I bid you welcome to the city of Saint Paul. May your labors be
+fruitful of great good. I know that your stay with us will be enjoyable.
+Our city limits may be somewhat circumscribed for the immense crowds
+here this week, but our hospitality and good wishes are as limitless as
+the ocean. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--Fellow delegates, I am sure we all extend to his Honor,
+Mayor Keller, a hearty vote of thanks for what he has done in preparing
+for this Congress.
+
+And now comes a privilege of which I am very proud--as a southern man
+all my life--that of presenting to you the President of this great
+Nation. (Great applause and cheers, the audience rising)
+
+ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
+
+_Ladies and Gentlemen_: Before beginning my formal address, I should
+like to extend to the President and the Managers of this Congress, to
+Governor Eberhart, and to the Mayor of the city, my sincere and cordial
+thanks for the opportunity to come here and address this magnificent
+audience, and to reach the people of the United States on a subject of
+the utmost interest to them and to every patriot. (Applause)
+
+Conservation, as an economic and political term, has come to mean the
+preservation of our natural resources for economical use, so as to
+secure the greatest good to the greatest number.
+
+In the development of this country, in the hardships of the pioneer, in
+the energy of the settler, in the anxiety of the investor for quick
+returns, there was very little time, opportunity, or desire to prevent
+waste of those resources supplied by nature which could not be quickly
+transmuted into money; while the investment of capital was so great a
+desideratum that the people as a community exercised little or no care
+to prevent the transfer of absolute ownership of many of the valuable
+natural resources to private individuals, without retaining some kind of
+control of their use. The impulse of the whole new community was to
+encourage the coming of population, the increase of settlement, and the
+opening up of business; and he who demurred in the slightest degree to
+any step which promised additional development of the idle resources at
+hand was regarded as a traitor to his neighbors and an obstructor to
+public progress. But now that the communities have become old, now that
+the flush of enthusiastic expansion has died away, now that the would-be
+pioneers have come to realize that all the richest lands in the country
+have been taken up, we have perceived the necessity for a change of
+policy in the disposition of our natural resources so as to prevent the
+continuance of the waste which has characterized our phenomenal growth
+in the past. Today we desire to restrict and retain under public control
+the acquisition and use by the capitalists of our natural resources.
+
+The danger to the State and to the people at large from the waste and
+dissipation of our national wealth is not one which quickly impresses
+itself on the people of the older communities, because its most obvious
+instances do not occur in their neighborhood, while in the newer part of
+the country the sympathy with expansion and development is so strong
+that the danger is scoffed at or ignored. Among scientific men and
+thoughtful observers, however, the danger has always been present; but
+it needed some one to bring home the crying need for a remedy of this
+evil so as to impress itself on the public mind and lead to the
+formation of public opinion and action by the representatives of the
+people. Theodore Roosevelt (great and prolonged applause) took up the
+task in the last two years of his second administration, and well did he
+perform it. (Great and prolonged applause)
+
+As President of the United States I have, as it were, inherited this
+policy, and I rejoice in my heritage (great applause). I prize my high
+opportunity to do all that an Executive can do to help a great people
+to realize a great national ambition; for Conservation _is_ National. It
+affects every man of us, every woman, every child. What I can do in the
+cause I shall do, not as President of a party, but as President of the
+whole people (enthusiastic applause and cheers). Conservation is not a
+question of politics, or of factions, or of persons. It is a question
+that affects the vital welfare of all of us--of our children and our
+children's children. I urge that no good can come from meetings of this
+sort unless we ascribe to those who take part in them, and who are
+apparently striving worthily in the cause, all proper motives
+(applause), and unless we judiciously consider every measure or method
+proposed with a view to its effectiveness in achieving our common
+purpose, and wholly without regard to who proposes it or who will claim
+credit for its adoption (great applause). The problems are of very great
+difficulty, and call for the calmest consideration and clearest
+foresight. Many of the questions presented have phases that are new in
+this country, and it is possible that in their solution we may have to
+attempt first one way and then another. What I wish to emphasize,
+however, is that a satisfactory conclusion can only be reached promptly
+if we avoid acrimony, imputations of bad faith and political controversy
+(cries of "Hear, hear," and great applause).
+
+The public domain of the Government of the United States, including all
+the cessions from those of the thirteen States that made cessions to the
+United States, and including Alaska, amounts in all to about
+1,800,000,000 acres. Of this there is left as purely Government property
+outside of Alaska something like 700,000,000 acres. Of this the national
+forest reserves in the United States proper embrace 144,000,000 acres.
+The rest is largely mountain or arid country, offering some opportunity
+for agriculture by dry farming and by reclamation, and containing metals
+as well as coal, phosphates, oils, and natural gas. Then the Government
+owns many tracts of land lying along the margins of streams that have
+water-power, the use of which is necessary in the conversion of the
+power into electricity and its transmission.
+
+I shall divide my discussion under the heads of (1) agricultural lands;
+(2) mineral lands--that is, lands containing metalliferous minerals; (3)
+forest lands; (4) coal lands; (5) oil and gas lands; and (6) phosphate
+lands. I feel that it will conduce to a better understanding of the
+problems presented if I take up each class and describe, even at the
+risk of tedium, _first_, what has been done by the last Administration
+and the present one in respect to each kind of land; _second_, what laws
+at present govern its disposition; _third_, what was done by the present
+Congress in the matter; and _fourth_, the statutory changes proposed in
+the interest of Conservation.
+
+AGRICULTURAL LANDS
+
+Our land laws for the entry of agricultural lands are as follows:
+
+The original Homestead Law, with the requirements of residence and
+cultivation for five years, much more strictly enforced now than ever
+before.
+
+The Enlarged Homestead Act, applying to non-irrigable lands only,
+requiring five years' residence and continuous cultivation of one-fourth
+of the area.
+
+The Desert-land Act, which requires on the part of the purchaser the
+ownership of a water-right and thorough reclamation of the land by
+irrigation, and the payment of $1.25 per acre.
+
+The Donation or Carey Act, under which the State selects the land and
+provides for its reclamation, and the title vests in the settler who
+resides upon the land and cultivates it and pays the cost of the
+reclamation.
+
+The National Reclamation Homestead Law, requiring five years' residence
+and cultivation by the settler on the land irrigated by the Government,
+and payment by him to the Government of the cost of the reclamation.
+
+There are other acts, but not of sufficient general importance to call
+for mention unless it is the Stone and Timber Act, under which every
+individual, once in his lifetime, may acquire 160 acres of land, if it
+has valuable timber on it or valuable stone, by paying the price of not
+less than $2.50 per acre, fixed after examination of the stone or timber
+by a Government appraiser.
+
+In times past, a great deal of fraud has been perpetrated in the
+acquisition of lands under this Act, but it is now being much more
+strictly enforced, and the entries made are so few in number that it
+seems to serve no useful purpose and ought to be repealed. (Applause)
+
+The present Congress passed a bill of great importance, severing the
+ownership of coal by the Government in the ground from the surface and
+permitting homestead entries upon the surface of the land, which, when
+perfected, gives the settler the right to farm the surface, while the
+coal beneath the surface is retained in ownership by the Government and
+may be disposed of by it under other laws.
+
+There is no crying need for radical reform in the methods of disposing
+of what are really agricultural lands. The present laws have worked
+well. The Enlarged Homestead Law has encouraged the successful farming
+of lands in the semi-arid regions. Of course the teachings of the
+Agricultural Department as to how these sub-arid lands may be treated
+and the soil preserved for useful culture are of the very essence of
+Conservation. Then the conservation of agricultural lands is shown in
+the reclamation of arid lands by irrigation, and I should devote a few
+words to what the Government has done and is doing in this regard.
+
+By the Reclamation Act a fund has been created of the proceeds of the
+public lands of the United States with which to construct works for
+storing great bodies of water at proper altitudes from which, by a
+suitable system of canals and ditches, the water is to be distributed
+over the arid and sub-arid lands of the Government to be sold to
+settlers at a price sufficient to pay for the improvements. Primarily
+the projects are and must be for the improvement of public lands.
+Incidentally, where private land is also within the reach of the water
+supply, the furnishing at cost of operation of this water to private
+owners by the Government is held by the federal Court of Appeals not to
+be a usurpation of power; but certainly this ought not to be done except
+from surplus water not needed for Government land. About thirty projects
+have been set on foot, distributed through the public-land States, in
+accordance with the Statute, by which allotments from the reclamation
+fund are required to be, as nearly as practicable, in proportion to the
+proceeds from the sale of the public lands in the respective States.
+
+The total sum already accumulated in the reclamation fund is
+$60,273,258.22, and of that all but $6,491,955.34 has been expended. It
+became very clear to Congress at its last session, from the statements
+made by experts, that these thirty projects could not be promptly
+completed with the balance remaining on hand, or with the funds likely
+to accrue in the near future. It was found, moreover, that there are
+many settlers who have been led into taking up lands with the hope and
+understanding of having water furnished in a short time, who are left in
+a most distressing situation. I recommended to Congress that authority
+be given to the Secretary of the Interior to issue bonds in anticipation
+of the assured earnings by the projects, so that the projects, worthy
+and feasible, might be promptly completed and the settlers might be
+relieved from their present inconvenience and hardship (applause). In
+authorizing the issue of these bonds, Congress limited the application
+of their proceeds to those projects which a board of army engineers, to
+be appointed by the President, should examine and determine to be
+feasible and worthy of completion. The board has been appointed, and
+soon will make its report.
+
+Suggestions have been made that the United States ought to aid in the
+drainage of swamp lands belonging to the States or private owners,
+because, if drained, they would be exceedingly valuable for agriculture
+and contribute to the general welfare by extending the area of
+cultivation. I deprecate the agitation in favor of such legislation. It
+is inviting the general Government into contribution from its treasury
+toward enterprises that should be conducted either by private capital or
+at the instance of the State (applause). In these days there is a
+disposition to look too much to the Federal Government for everything
+(applause). I am liberal in the construction of the Constitution with
+reference to Federal power (applause); but I am firmly convinced that
+the only safe course for us to pursue is to hold fast to the limitations
+of the Constitution, and to regard as sacred the powers of the States
+(great applause and cheers). We have made wonderful progress, and at
+the same time have preserved with judicious exactness the restrictions
+of the Constitution. There is an easy way in which the Constitution can
+be violated by Congress without judicial inhibition, to-wit, by
+appropriations from the National treasury for unconstitutional purposes.
+It will be a sorry day for this country if the time ever comes when our
+fundamental compact shall be habitually disregarded in this manner.
+(Applause)
+
+MINERAL LANDS
+
+By mineral lands, I mean those lands bearing metals, or what are called
+metalliferous minerals.
+
+The rules of ownership and disposition of these lands were first fixed
+by custom in the West, and then were embodied in the law, and they have
+worked, on the whole, so fairly and well that I do not think it is wise
+now to attempt to change or better them. The apex theory of tracing
+title to a lode has led to much litigation and dispute, and ought not to
+have become the law, but it is so fixed and understood now that the
+benefit to be gained by a change is altogether outweighed by the
+inconvenience that would attend the introduction of a new system. So
+too, the proposition for the Government to lease such mineral lands and
+deposits and to impose royalties might have been, in the beginning, a
+good thing, but now that most of the mineral land has been otherwise
+disposed of--I do not refer here to coal land or gas land or oil land or
+phosphate land--it would hardly be worth while to assume the
+embarrassments of a radical change.
+
+FOREST LANDS
+
+Nothing can be more important in the matter of Conservation than the
+treatment of our forest lands. It was probably the ruthless destruction
+of forests in the older States that first called attention to the
+necessity for a halt in the waste of our resources. This was recognized
+by Congress by an act authorizing the Executive to reserve from entry
+and set aside public timber lands as National forests. Speaking
+generally, there has been reserved of the existing forests about 70
+percent of all the timber lands of the Government. Within these forests
+(including 26,000,000 acres in two forests in Alaska) are 192,000,000
+acres, of which 166,000,000 acres are in the United States proper and
+include within their boundaries something like 22,000,000 acres that
+belong to the States or to private individuals. We have, then, excluding
+Alaskan forests, a total of about 144,000,000 acres of forests belonging
+to the Government, which are being treated in accord with the principles
+of scientific forestry. The law now prohibits the reservation of any
+more forest lands in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado and
+Wyoming, except by act of Congress. I am informed by the Department of
+Agriculture that the Government owns other tracts of timber lands in
+these States which should be included in the forest reserves. I expect
+to recommend to Congress that the limitation herein imposed shall be
+repealed (applause). In the present forest reserves there are lands
+which are not properly forest land, and which ought to be subject to
+homestead entry. This has caused some local irritation. We are carefully
+eliminating such lands from forest reserves or, where their elimination
+is not practicable, listing them for entry under the forest homestead
+act.
+
+Congress ought to trust the Executive to use the power of reservation
+only with respect to land covered by timber or which will be useful in
+the plan of reforestation (applause). I am in favor of each branch of
+the Government trusting the good faith of the other (applause). During
+the present Administration, 6,250,000 acres of land, largely
+non-timbered, have been excluded from forest reserves, and 3,500,000
+acres of land, principally valuable for forest purposes, have been
+included in forest reserves, making a reduction in forest reserves of
+non-timbered land amounting to 2,750,000 acres. But had we had the
+opportunity to include reserves in the forbidden States, the balance
+would have been otherwise. The Bureau of Forestry since its creation has
+initiated reforestation on 5,600 acres. A great deal of the forest land
+is available for grazing. During the past year the grazing lessees
+numbered 25,400, and they pastured upon the forest reserves 1,400,000
+cattle, 84,540 horses, and 7,580,400 sheep, for which the Government
+received $986,715--a decrease from the preceding year of $45,000, due to
+the fact that no money was collected or received for grazing on the
+non-timbered land eliminated from the forest reserve. Another source of
+profit in the forestry is the receipts for timber sold. This year they
+amounted to $1,043,000, an increase of $307,000 over the receipts of
+last year. This increase is due to improvement in transportation to
+market, and to the greater facility with which the timber can be
+reached.
+
+The Government timber in this country amounts to only one-fourth of all
+the timber, the rest being in private ownership. Only three percent of
+that which is in private ownership is looked after properly and treated
+according to modern rules of forestry (applause). The usual destructive
+waste and neglect continue in the remainder of the forests owned by
+private persons and corporations. It is estimated that fire alone
+destroys $50,000,000 worth of timber a year. The management of forests
+not on public land is beyond the jurisdiction of the Federal Government.
+If anything can be done by law it must be done by the State
+legislatures. I believe that it is within their constitutional power to
+require the enforcement of regulations, in the general public interest,
+as to fire and other causes of waste in the management of forests owned
+by private individuals and corporations. (Applause)
+
+Exactly how far these regulations can go and remain consistent with the
+rights of private ownership, it is not necessary to discuss; but I call
+attention to the fact that a very important part of Conservation must
+always fall upon the State legislatures, and that they would better be
+up and doing if they would save the waste and denudation and destruction
+through private greed or accidental fires that have made barren many
+square miles of the older States. (Great applause)
+
+I have shown sufficiently the conditions as to Federal forestry to
+indicate that no further legislation is needed at the moment except an
+increase in the fire protection to National forests and an act vesting
+the Executive with full power to make forest reservations in every State
+where Government land is timber-covered, or where the land is needed for
+forestry purposes.
+
+OTHER LAND WITHDRAWALS
+
+When President Roosevelt became fully advised of the necessity for the
+change in our disposition of public lands, especially those containing
+coal, oil, gas, phosphates, or water-power sites, he began the exercise
+of the power of withdrawal by Executive order of lands subject by law to
+homestead and the other methods of entering for agricultural lands. The
+precedent he set in this matter was followed by the present
+Administration. Doubt had been expressed in some quarters as to the
+power in the Executive to make such withdrawals. The confusion and
+injustice likely to arise if the courts were to deny the power led me to
+appeal to Congress to give the President the express power (applause).
+Congress has complied. The law, as passed, does not expressly validate
+or confirm previous withdrawals, and therefore, as soon as the new law
+was passed, I, myself, confirmed all the withdrawals which had
+theretofore been made by both Administrations by making them over again
+(great applause). The power of withdrawal is a most useful one, and I do
+not think it is likely to be abused.
+
+COAL LANDS
+
+The next subject, and one of the most important for our consideration,
+is the disposition of the coal lands in the United States and in Alaska.
+First, as to those in the United States.
+
+At the beginning of this Administration there were classified coal lands
+amounting to 5,476,000 acres, and there were withdrawn from entry for
+purposes of classification 17,867,000 acres. Since that time there has
+been withdrawn by my order from entry for classification 77,648,000
+acres, making a total withdrawal of 95,515,000 acres (applause).
+Meantime, of the acres thus withdrawn, 11,371,000 have been classified
+and found not to contain coal, and have been restored to agricultural
+entry, and 4,356,000 acres have been classified as coal lands; while
+79,788,000 acres remain withdrawn from entry and await classification.
+In addition, 336,000 acres have been classified as coal lands without
+prior withdrawal, thus increasing the classified coal lands to
+10,168,000 acres.
+
+Under the laws providing for the disposition of coal lands in the United
+States, the minimum price at which lands are permitted to be sold is $10
+an acre; but the Secretary of the Interior has the power to fix a
+maximum price and to sell at that price. By the first regulations
+governing appraisal, approved April 8, 1907, the minimum was $10, as
+provided by law, and the maximum was $100, and the highest price
+actually placed upon any land sold was $75. Under the new regulations,
+adopted April 10, 1909, the maximum price was increased to $300 except
+in regions where there are large mines, where no maximum limit is fixed
+and the price is determined by the estimated tons of coal to the acre.
+The highest price fixed for any land under this regulation has been $608
+per acre. The appraised value of the lands classified as coal lands and
+valued under the new and old regulations is shown to be as follows:
+4,303,000 acres valued under the old regulation at $77,000,000--an
+average of $18 an acre--and 5,864,000 acres classified and valued under
+the new regulation at $394,000,000, or a total of 10,168,000 acres
+valued at $471,000,000. For the year ending March 31, 1909, 227 coal
+entries were made, embracing an area of 35,000 acres, which sold for
+$663,000; for the year ending March 31, 1910, there were 176 entries,
+embracing an area of 23,000 acres, which sold for $608,000, and down to
+August, 1910, there were but 17 entries, with an area of 1,720 acres
+which sold for $33,900; making a disposition of coal lands in the last
+two years of about 60,000 acres for $1,305,000.
+
+The present Congress, as already said, has separated the surface of coal
+lands either classified or withdrawn to be classified from the coal
+beneath, so as to permit at all times homestead entries upon the surface
+of lands useful for agriculture, and to reserve the ownership in the
+coal to the Government.
+
+The question which remains to be considered is whether the existing law
+for the sale of the coal in the ground should continue in force or be
+repealed and a new method of disposition adopted. Under the present law
+the absolute title in the coal beneath the surface passes to the grantee
+of the Government. The price fixed is upon an estimated amount of the
+tons of coal per acre beneath the surface, and the prices are fixed so
+that the earnings will only be a reasonable profit upon the amount paid
+and the investment necessary. But, of course, this is more or less
+guesswork, and the Government parts with the ownership of the coal in
+the ground absolutely. Authorities in the Geological Survey estimate
+that in the United States today there is a supply of about three
+thousand billion tons of coal, and that of this one-third, or about one
+thousand billion, are in the public domain. Of course, the other two
+thousand billion are within private ownership and under no more control
+as to the use or the prices at which the coal may be sold than any other
+private property.
+
+If the Government leases the coal lands and acts as any landlord would,
+and imposes conditions in its leases like those which are now imposed by
+the owners in fee of coal mines in the various coal regions of the East,
+then it would retain over the disposition of the coal deposits a choice
+as to the assignee of the lease, a power of resuming possession at the
+end of the term of the lease, or of readjusting terms at fixed periods
+of the lease, which might easily be framed to enable it to exercise a
+limited but effective control in the disposition and sale of the coal to
+the public (applause). It has been urged that the leasing system has
+never been adopted in this country, and that its adoption would largely
+interfere with the investment of capital and the proper development and
+opening up of coal resources. I venture to differ entirely from this
+view (applause). My investigations show that many owners of mining
+property of this country do not mine it themselves, and do not invest
+their money in the plants necessary for the mining, but they lease their
+properties for a term of years varying from twenty to thirty and forty
+years, under conditions requiring the erection of a proper plant and the
+investment of a certain amount of money in the development of the mines,
+and fixing a rental and a royalty, sometimes an absolute figure and
+sometimes one proportioned to the market value of the coal. Under this
+latter method the owner of a mine shares in the prosperity of his
+lessees when coal is high and the profits good, and also shares to the
+same extent in their disappointment when the price of coal falls.
+
+I have looked with some care into a report made at the instance of
+President Roosevelt upon the disposition of coal lands in Australia,
+Tasmania, and New Zealand. These are peculiarly mining countries, and
+their experience ought to be most valuable. In all these countries the
+method for the disposition and opening of coal mines originally owned by
+the Government is by granting a leasehold, and not by granting an
+absolute title. The terms of the leases run all the way from twenty to
+fifty years while the amount of land which may be leased to any
+individual there is from 320 acres to 2,000 acres. It appears that a
+full examination was made and the opinions of all the leading experts on
+the subject were solicited and given, and that with one accord they
+approved in all respects the leasing system (applause). Its success is
+abundantly shown.
+
+It is possible that at first considerable latitude will have to be given
+to the Executive in drafting these forms of lease, but as soon as
+experiment shall show which is the most workable and practicable, its
+use should be provided for specifically by statute. The question as to
+how great an area ought to be included in a lease to one individual or
+corporation is not free from difficulty; but in view of the fact that
+the Government retains control as owner, I think there might be some
+liberality in the amount leased, and that 2,500 acres would not be too
+great a maximum.
+
+By the opportunity to register the terms upon which the coal shall be
+held by the tenant, either at the end of each lease or at periods during
+the term, the Government may secure the benefit of sharing in the
+increased price of coal and the additional profit made by the tenant. By
+imposing conditions in respect to the character of work to be done in
+the mine, the Government may control the character of the development of
+the mine and the treatment of employees with reference to safety
+(applause). By denying the right to transfer the lease except by written
+permission of Government authorities, it may withhold the needed consent
+when it is proposed to transfer the leasehold to persons interested in
+establishing a monopoly of coal production in any State or neighborhood
+(applause).
+
+As one-third of all the coal supply is held by the Government, it seems
+wise that it should retain such control over the mining and the sale as
+the relation of lessor to lessee furnishes. The change from the absolute
+grant to the leasing system will involve a good deal of trouble in the
+outset, and the training of experts in the matter of making proper
+leases; but the change will be a good one and can be made. The change is
+in the interest of Conservation, and I am glad to approve it. (Great
+applause)
+
+ALASKA COAL LANDS
+
+The investigations of the Geological Survey show that the coal
+properties in Alaska cover about 1,200 square miles, and that there are
+known to be available about fifteen billion tons. This is, however, an
+underestimate of the coal in Alaska, because further developments will
+probably increase this amount many times; but we can say with
+considerable certainty that there are two fields on the Pacific slope
+which can be reached by railways at a reasonable cost from deep
+water--in one case of about 50 miles and in the other case of about
+150--which will afford certainly six billion tons of coal, more than
+half of which is of a very high grade of bituminous and of anthracite.
+It is estimated to be worth, in the ground, one-half cent a ton, which
+makes its value per acre from $50 to $500. The coking-coal lands of
+Pennsylvania are worth from $800 to $2,000 an acre, while other
+Appalachian fields are worth from $10 to $386 an acre, and the fields in
+the central States from $10 to $2,000 an acre, and in the Rocky
+mountains from $10 to $500 an acre.
+
+The demand for coal on the Pacific Coast is for about 4,500,000 tons a
+year. It would encounter the competition of cheap fuel oil, of which the
+equivalent of 12,000,000 tons of coal a year is used there. It is
+estimated that the coal could be laid down at Seattle or San Francisco,
+a high-grade bituminous at $4 a ton, and anthracite at $5 or $6 a ton.
+The price of coal on the Pacific slope varies greatly from time to time
+in the year and from year to year--from $4 to $12 a ton. With a regular
+coal supply established, the expert of the Geological Survey, Mr Brooks,
+who has made a report on the subject, does not think there would be an
+excessive profit in the Alaska coal mining because the price at which
+the coal could be sold would be considerably lowered by competition from
+these fields and by the presence of crude fuel oil. The history of the
+laws affecting the disposition of Alaska coal lands shows them to need
+amendment badly. Speaking of them, Mr Brooks says:
+
+     The first act, passed June 6, 1900, simply extended to Alaska
+     the provisions of the coal lands in the United States. The law
+     was ineffective, for it provided that only subdivided lands
+     could be taken up and there were no land surveys in Alaska.
+
+     I do not like to criticise a coordinate branch of the
+     Government. The Executive makes mistakes, and so does Congress,
+     but I do not think it reflects greatly on the intense interest
+     that Congress had in Alaska and her development that they
+     should go to work and pass a law affecting the coal lands in
+     Alaska that didn't operate there at all [applause]. The matter
+     was rectified by the act of April 28, 1904, which permitted
+     unsurveyed lands to be entered and the surveys to be made at
+     the expense of the entrymen. Unfortunately the law provided
+     that only tracts of 160 acres could be taken up, and no
+     recognition was given to the fact that it was impracticable to
+     develop an isolated coal field requiring the expenditure of a
+     large amount of money by such small communities. Many claims
+     were staked, however, and surveys were made for patents. It was
+     recognized by everyone familiar with the conditions that after
+     patent was obtained these claims would be combined in tracts
+     large enough to assure successful mining operation. No one
+     experienced in mining would, of course, consider it feasible to
+     open a coal field on a basis of a single 160-acre tract. The
+     claims for the most part were handled in groups, for which one
+     agent represented the several different owners. Unfortunately a
+     strict interpretation of the statute raised the question
+     whether even a tacit understanding between claim-owners to
+     combine after patents had been obtained was not illegal.
+     Remedial legislation was sought and enacted in the statute of
+     May 28, 1908. This law permitted the consolidation of claims
+     staked previous to November 12, 1906, in tracts of 2,560 acres.
+     One clause of this law invalidated the title if any individual
+     or corporation at any time in the future owned any interest
+     whatsoever, directly or indirectly, in more than one tract. The
+     purpose of this clause was to prevent the monopolization of
+     coal fields. Its immediate effect was to discourage capital. It
+     was felt by many that this clause might lead to forfeiture of
+     title through the accidents of inheritance, or might even be
+     used by the unscrupulous in blackmail. It would appear that
+     land taken up under this law might at any time be forfeited to
+     the Government through the action of any individual, who,
+     innocently or otherwise, obtained interest in more than one
+     coal company. Such a title was felt to be too insecure to
+     warrant the large investments needed for mining development.
+     The net result of all this is that no titles to coal lands have
+     been passed.
+
+On November 12, 1906, President Roosevelt issued an Executive order
+withdrawing all coal lands from location and entry in Alaska. On May 16,
+1907, he modified the order so as to permit valid locations made prior
+to the withdrawal on November 12, 1906, to proceed to entry and patent.
+Prior to that date some 900 claims had been filed, most of them said to
+be illegal because either made fraudulently by dummy entrymen in the
+interest of one individual or corporation, or because of agreements made
+prior to location between the applicants to cooperate in developing the
+lands. There are thirty-three claims for 160 acres each, known as the
+"Cunningham claims," which are said to be valid on the ground that they
+were made by an attorney for thirty-three different and bona fide
+claimants who, as alleged, paid their money and took proper steps to
+locate their entries and protect them. The representatives of the
+Government, on the other hand, in the hearings before the Land Office
+have attacked the validity of these Cunningham claims on the ground that
+prior to their location there was an understanding between the claimants
+to pool their claims after they had been perfected and unite them in one
+company.
+
+The trend of decision seems to show that such an agreement would
+invalidate the claims, although under the subsequent law of May 28,
+1908, the consolidation of such claims was permitted, _after_ location
+and entry, in tracts of 2,560 acres. It would be, of course, improper
+for me to intimate what the result of the issue as to the Cunningham and
+other Alaska claims is likely to be, but it ought to be distinctly
+understood that no private claims for Alaska coal lands have as yet been
+allowed or perfected, and also that whatever the result as to pending
+claims, the existing coal-land laws of Alaska are most unsatisfactory
+and should be radically amended (applause). To begin with, the purchase
+price of the land is a flat rate of $10 per acre, with no power to
+increase it beyond that, although, as we have seen, the estimate of the
+agent of the Geological Survey would carry up the maximum of value to
+$500 an acre.
+
+In my judgment it is essential to the proper development of Alaska that
+these coal lands should be opened, and that the Pacific slope should be
+given the benefit of the comparatively cheap coal of fine quality which
+can be furnished at a reasonable price from these fields (great
+applause); but the public, through the Government, ought certainly to
+retain a wise control and interest in these coal deposits (applause),
+and I think it may do so safely if Congress will authorize the granting
+of leases, as already suggested for Government coal lands in the United
+States, with provisions forbidding the transfer of the leases except
+with the consent of the Government, thus preventing their acquisition by
+a combination or monopoly, and upon limitations as to the area to be
+included in any one lease to one individual, and at a certain moderate
+rental, with royalties upon the coal mined proportioned to the market
+value of the coal laid down either at Seattle or at San Francisco
+(applause). Of course such leases should contain conditions requiring
+the erection of proper plants, the proper development by modern mining
+methods of the properties leased, and the use of every known and
+practical means and device for saving the life of the miners.
+
+The Government of the United States has much to answer for in not having
+given proper attention to the Government of Alaska and the development
+of her resources for the benefit of all the people of the country. I
+would not force development at the expense of a present or future waste
+of resources; but the problem as to the disposition of the coal lands
+for present and future use can be wisely and safely settled in one
+session if Congress gives it careful attention. (Great applause)
+
+OIL AND GAS LANDS
+
+In the last Administration there were withdrawn from agricultural entry
+2,820,000 acres of supposed oil land in California, about 1,500,000
+acres in Louisiana (of which only 6,500 acres were known to be vacant,
+unappropriated land), 75,000 acres in Oregon, and 174,000 acres in
+Wyoming, making a total of nearly 4,000,000 acres.
+
+In September, 1909, I directed that all public oil lands, whether then
+withdrawn or not, should be withheld from disposition pending
+congressional action, for the reason that the existing placer mining
+law, although made applicable to deposits of this character, is not
+suitable to such lands, and for the further reason that it seemed
+desirable to reserve certain fuel-oil deposits for the use of the
+American Navy. Accordingly the form of all existing withdrawals was
+changed, and new withdrawals, aggregating 2,750,000 acres, were made, in
+Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Field
+examinations during the year showed that of the original withdrawals,
+2,170,000 acres were not valuable for oil, and they were restored for
+agricultural entry. Meantime other withdrawals of public oil lands in
+these States were made, so that on July 1, 1910, the outstanding
+withdrawals then amounted to 4,550,000 acres.
+
+The needed oil and gas law is essentially a leasing law. In their
+natural occurrence oil and gas cannot be measured in terms of acres,
+like coal, and it follows that exclusive title to these products can
+normally be secured only after they reach the surface. Oil should be
+disposed of as a commodity in terms of barrels of transportable product
+rather than in acres of real estate (applause). This is, of course, the
+reason for the practically universal adoption of the leasing system
+wherever oil land is in private ownership. The Government thus would not
+be entering on an experiment, but simply putting into effect a plan
+successfully operated in private contracts. Why should not the
+Government as a land-owner deal directly with the oil producer rather
+than through the intervention of a middleman to whom the Government
+gives title to the land? (Applause) The principal underlying feature of
+such legislation should be the exercise of beneficial control rather
+than the collection of revenue.
+
+As not only the largest owner of oil lands, but as a prospective large
+consumer of oil by reason of the increasing use of fuel-oil by the navy,
+the Federal Government is directly concerned both in encouraging
+rational development and at the same time insuring the longest possible
+life to the oil supply. The royalty rates fixed by the Government should
+neither exceed nor fall below the current rates. But much more important
+than revenue is the enforcement of regulations to conserve the public
+interest so that the inconvenience of the lessee shall specifically
+safeguard oil fields against the penalties from careless drilling and of
+production in excess of transportation facilities or of market
+requirement.
+
+One of the difficulties presented, especially in the California fields,
+is that the Southern Pacific Railroad owns every other section of land
+in the oil fields, and in those fields the oil seems to be in a common
+reservoir, or series of reservoirs, communicating through the oil sands,
+so that the excessive draining of oil at one well, or on the railroad
+territory generally, would exhaust the oil in the Government land. Hence
+it is important that if the Government is to have its share of the oil,
+it should begin the opening and development of wells on its own
+property. (Laughter and applause)
+
+In view of the joint ownership which the Government and the adjoining
+land-owners, like the Southern Pacific Railroad, have in the oil
+reservoirs below the surface, it is a most interesting and intricate
+question, difficult of solution, but one which ought to address itself
+at once to the State law-makers, how far the State legislature might
+impose appropriate restrictions to secure an equitable enjoyment of the
+common reservoir, and to prevent waste and excessive drainage by the
+various owners having access to this reservoir (applause). It has been
+suggested, and I believe the suggestion to be a sound one, that permits
+be issued to a prospector for oil, giving him the right to prospect for
+two years over a certain tract of Government land for the discovery of
+oil, the right to be evidenced by a license for which he pays a small
+sum. When the oil is discovered, then he acquires title to a certain
+tract, much in the same way as he would acquire title under a mining
+law. Of course, if the system of leasing is adopted, then he would be
+given the benefit of a lease upon terms like that above suggested. What
+has been said in respect to oil applies also to Government gas lands.
+
+Under the proposed oil legislation, especially where the Government oil
+lands embrace an entire oil field, as in many cases, prospectors,
+operators, consumers, and the public can be benefitted by the adoption
+of the leasing system. The prospector can be protected in the very
+expensive work that necessarily antedates discovery. The operator can be
+protected against impairment of productiveness of the wells which he has
+leased by reason of the control of drilling and pumping of other wells
+too closely adjacent or by the prevention of imperfect methods as
+employed by careless, ignorant or irresponsible operators in the same
+field, which result in the admission of water to the oil sand; while, of
+course, the consumer will profit by whatever benefits the prospector or
+operator receives in reducing the first cost of the oil.
+
+PHOSPHATE LAND
+
+Phosphorus is one of the three essentials to plant growth, the other
+elements being nitrogen and potash. Of these three, phosphorus is by all
+odds the greatest element in nature. It is easily extracted in useful
+form from the phosphate rock, and the United States contains the
+greatest known deposits of this rock in the world. They are found in
+Wyoming, Utah and Florida, as well as in South Carolina, Georgia and
+Tennessee. The Government phosphate lands are confined to Wyoming, Utah
+and Florida. Prior to March 4, 1909, there were four million acres
+withdrawn from agricultural entry on the ground that the land covered
+phosphate rock. Since that time 2,322,000 acres of the land thus
+withdrawn was found not to contain phosphate in profitable quantities,
+while 1,678,000 acres was classified properly as phosphate land. During
+this Administration there has been withdrawn and classified 437,000
+acres, so that today there is classified as phosphate rock land
+2,115,000 acres.
+
+The rock is most important in the composition of fertilizers to improve
+the soil, and as the future is certain to create an enormous demand
+throughout this country for fertilization, the value to the public of
+such deposits as these can hardly be exaggerated. Certainly with respect
+to these deposits a careful policy of Conservation should be followed.
+Half of the phosphate of the rock that is mined in private fields in the
+United States is now exported. As our farming methods grow better the
+demand for the phosphate will become greater, and it must be arranged so
+that the supply shall equal the needs of the country. It is uncertain
+whether the placer or lode law applies to the Government phosphate rock.
+There is, therefore, a necessity for some definite and well-considered
+legislation on this subject, and in aid of such legislation all of the
+Government lands known to contain valuable phosphate rock are now
+withdrawn from entry.
+
+A law that would provide a leasing system for the phosphate deposits,
+together with a provision for the separation of the surface and mineral
+rights as is already provided for in the case of coal, would seem to
+meet the need of promoting the development of these deposits and their
+utilization in the agricultural lands of the West. If it is thought
+desirable to discourage the exportation of phosphate rock and the saving
+of it for our own lands, this purpose could be accomplished by
+conditions in the lease granted by the Government to its lessee. Of
+course, under the Constitution the Government could not tax and could
+not prohibit the exportation of phosphate, but as proprietor and owner
+of the lands in which the phosphate is deposited it could impose
+conditions upon the kind of sales, whether foreign or domestic, which
+the lessee might make of the phosphate mined. (Applause)
+
+The tonnage represented by the phosphate lands in Government ownership
+is very great. But the lesson has been learned in the case of such lands
+as have passed into private ownership in South Carolina, Florida and
+Tennessee, that the phosphate deposits there are in no sense
+inexhaustible. Moreover, it is also well understood that in the process
+of mining phosphate, as it has been pursued, much of the lower grade of
+phosphate rock which will eventually all be needed has been wasted
+beyond recovery. Such wasteful methods can easily be prevented, so far
+as the Government land is concerned, by conditions inserted in the
+leases.
+
+WATER-POWER SITES
+
+Prior to March 4, 1909, there had been, on the recommendation of the
+Reclamation Service, withdrawn from agricultural entry, because they
+were regarded as useful for power sites which ought not to be disposed
+of as agricultural lands, tracts amounting to about 4,000,000 acres. The
+withdrawals were hastily made and included a great deal of land that was
+not useful for power sites. They were intended to include the power
+sites on twenty-nine rivers in nine States. Since that time 3,475,442
+acres have been restored for settlement of the original 4,000,000,
+because they do not contain power sites; and meantime there have been
+newly withdrawn 1,245,892 acres on vacant public land and 211,007 acres
+on entered public land, or a total of 1,456,899 acres. These withdrawals
+made from time to time cover all the power sites included in the first
+withdrawals, and many more, on 135 rivers and in 11 States. The
+disposition of these power sites involves one of the most difficult
+questions presented in carrying out practical Conservation.
+
+The Forest Service, under a power found in the Statute, has leased a
+number of these power sites in forest reserves by revocable leases, but
+no such power exists with respect to power sites that are not located
+within forest reserves; and the revocable system of leasing is, of
+course, not a satisfactory one for the purpose of inviting the capital
+needed to put in proper plants for the transmission of power.
+
+The Statute of 1891, with its amendments, permits the Secretary of the
+Interior to grant perpetual easements or rights-of-way from water
+sources over public lands for the primary purpose of irrigation and such
+electrical current as may be incidentally developed, but no grant can be
+made under this Statute to concerns whose primary purpose is generating
+and handling electricity. The Statute of 1901 authorizes the Secretary
+of the Interior to issue revocable permits over the public lands to
+electrical power companies, but this Statute is woefully inadequate
+because it does not authorize the collection of a charge or fix a term
+of years. Capital is slow to invest in an enterprise founded upon a
+permit revocable at will.
+
+The subject is one that calls for new legislation. It has been thought
+that there was danger of combination to obtain possession of all the
+power sites and to unite them under one control. Whatever the evidence
+of this, or lack of it, at present we have had enough experience to know
+that combination would be profitable, and the control of a great number
+of power sites would enable the holders or owners to raise the price of
+power at will within certain sections; and the temptation would promptly
+attract investors, and the danger of monopoly would not be a remote one.
+
+However this may be, it is the plain duty of the Government to see to it
+that in the utilization and development of all this immense amount of
+water-power, conditions shall be imposed that will prevent monopoly, and
+will prevent extortionate charges which are the accompaniment of
+monopoly. The difficulty of adjusting the matter is accentuated by the
+relation of the power sites to the water, the fall and flow of which
+create the power.
+
+In the States where these sites are, the riparian owner does not control
+or own the power in the water which flows past his land. That power is
+under the control and within the grant of the State, and generally the
+rule is that the first user is entitled to the enjoyment. Now, the
+possession of the bank or water-power site over which the water is to be
+conveyed in order to make the power useful, gives to its owner an
+advantage and a certain kind of control over the use of the water-power,
+and it is proposed that the Government in dealing with its own lands
+should use this advantage and lease lands for power sites to those who
+would develop the power, and impose conditions on the leasehold with
+reference to the reasonableness of the rates at which the power, when
+transmuted, is to be furnished to the public, and forbidding the union
+of the particular power with a combination of others made for the
+purpose of monopoly by forbidding assignment of the lease save by
+consent of the Government (applause). Serious difficulties are
+anticipated by some in such an attempt on the part of the general
+Government, because of the sovereign control of the State over the
+water-power in its natural condition, and the mere proprietorship of the
+Government in the riparian lands.
+
+It is contended that through its mere proprietary right in the site the
+central Government has no power to attempt to exercise police
+jurisdiction with reference to how the water-power in a river owned and
+controlled by the State shall be used, and that it is a violation of the
+State's rights. I question the validity of this objection. The
+Government may impose any conditions that it chooses in its lease of its
+own property, even though it may have the same purpose and in effect
+accomplish just what the State would accomplish by the exercise of its
+sovereignty. That is shown frequently in leases of houses containing a
+covenant against the use of the house for that which under the law of
+the State is an unlawful use; and nevertheless, no one has ever
+contended that that condition, though it be for the stricter enforcement
+of the State law, is without the power of the lessor as a proprietor of
+the land which he is leasing.
+
+There are those (and the Director of the Geological Survey, Mr Smith,
+who has given a great deal of attention to this matter, is one of them)
+who insist that this matter of transmuting water-power into electricity
+which can be conveyed all over the country and across State lines, is a
+matter that ought to be retained by the general Government, and that it
+should avail itself of the ownership of these power sites for the very
+purpose of coordinating in one general plan the power generated from
+these Government-owned sites. On the other hand, it is contended that it
+would relieve a complicated situation if the control of the water-power
+site and the control of the water were vested in the same sovereignty
+and ownership, viz: the State, and then were disposed of for development
+to private lessees under the restrictions needed to preserve the
+interests of the public from the extortions and abuses of monopoly.
+Therefore, bills have been introduced in Congress providing that
+whenever the State authorities deem a water-power useful they may apply
+to the Government of the United States for a grant to the State of the
+adjacent land for a water-power site, and that this grant from the
+Federal Government to the State shall contain a condition that the State
+shall never part with the title to the water-power site or the
+water-power, but shall lease it only for a term of years not exceeding
+fifty, with provisions in the lease by which the rental and the rates
+for which the power is furnished to the public shall be readjusted at
+periods less than the term of the lease, say every ten years.
+
+The argument is urged against this disposition of power sites that
+legislators and State authorities are more subject to corporate
+influence and control than would be the central Government. In reply it
+is claimed that a readjustment of the terms of leasehold every ten years
+would secure to the public and the State just and equitable terms. Then
+it is said that the State authorities are better able to understand the
+local need and what is a fair adjustment in the particular locality than
+would be the authorities at Washington. It has been argued that after
+the Federal Government parts with title to a power site it cannot
+control the action of the State in fulfilling the conditions of the
+deed, to which it is answered that in the grant from the Government
+there may be easily inserted a condition specifying the terms upon which
+the State may part with the temporary control of the water-power sites,
+and, indeed, the water-power, and providing for a forfeiture of the
+title to the water-power sites in case the condition is not performed;
+and giving to the President, in case of such violation of conditions,
+the power to declare forfeiture and to direct proceedings to restore to
+the central Government the ownership of the power sites with all the
+improvements thereon, and that these conditions may be promptly enforced
+and the land and plants forfeited to the general Government by suit of
+the United States against the State, which is permissible under the
+Constitution (applause). And that by such a provision, _in terrorem_,
+the edict of States and of the legislatures in respect to these lands
+might be enforced through the general Government.
+
+I do not express an opinion upon the controversy thus made or a
+preference as to the two methods of treating water-power sites. I shall
+submit the matter to Congress with all the arguments, and urge that one
+or the other of the two plans be promptly adopted.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the risk of wearying my audience I have attempted to state as
+succinctly as may be the questions of Conservation as they apply to the
+public domain of the Government, the conditions to which they apply, and
+the proposed solution of them.
+
+In the outset I alluded to the fact that Conservation had been made to
+include a great deal more than what I have discussed here. Of course, as
+I have referred only to the public domain of the Federal Government, I
+have left untouched the wide field of Conservation with respect to which
+a heavy responsibility rests upon the States and individuals as well.
+But I think it of the utmost importance that after the public attention
+has been roused to the necessity of a change in our general policy to
+prevent waste and a selfish appropriation to private and corporate
+purposes of what should be controlled for the public benefit, those who
+urge Conservation shall feel the necessity of making clear how
+Conservation can be practically carried out (applause), and shall
+propose specific methods and legal provisions and regulations to remedy
+actual adverse conditions (applause). I am bound to say that the time
+has come for a halt in general rhapsodies over Conservation, making the
+word mean every known good in the world (applause), for, after the
+public attention has been roused, such appeals are of doubtful utility
+and do not direct the public to the specific course that the people
+should take, or have their legislators take, in order to promote the
+cause of Conservation. The rousing of emotions on a subject like this,
+which has only dim outlines in the minds of the people affected, after a
+while ceases to be useful, and the whole movement will, if promoted on
+these lines, die for want of practical direction and of demonstration to
+the people that practical reforms are intended. (Applause)
+
+I have referred to the course of the last Administration and of the
+present one in making withdrawals of Government lands from entry under
+homestead and other laws, and of Congress in removing all doubt as to
+the validity of these withdrawals as a great step in the direction of
+practical Conservation (applause). But this is only one of two necessary
+steps to effect what should be our purpose. It has produced a status quo
+and prevented waste and irrevocable disposition of the lands until the
+method for their proper disposition can be formulated, but it is of the
+utmost importance that such withdrawals should not be regarded as the
+final step in the course of Conservation, and that the idea should not
+be allowed to spread that Conservation is the tying up of the natural
+resources of the Government for indefinite withholding from use, and the
+remission to remote generations to decide what ought to be done with
+these means of promoting present general human comfort and progress
+(great applause). For, if so, it is certain to arouse the greatest
+opposition to Conservation as a cause, and if it were a correct
+expression of the purpose of conservationists it ought to arouse such
+opposition. (Applause)
+
+Real Conservation involves wise, non-wasteful use in the present
+generation, with every possible means of preservation for succeeding
+generations; and though the problem to secure this end may be difficult,
+the burden is on the present generation promptly to solve it and not to
+run away from it as cowards, lest in the attempt to meet it we may make
+some mistakes (applause). As I have said elsewhere, the problem is how
+to save and how to utilize, how to conserve and still develop; for no
+sane person can contend that it is for the common good that Nature's
+blessings should be stored only for unborn generations. (Applause)
+
+I beg of you, therefore, in your deliberations and in your informal
+discussions, when men come forward to suggest evils that the promotion
+of Conservation is to remedy, that you invite them to point out the
+specific evils and the specific remedies; that you invite them to come
+down to details in order that their discussions may flow into channels
+that shall be useful rather than into periods that shall be eloquent and
+entertaining without shedding real light on the subject (prolonged
+applause and cheers). The people should be shown exactly what is needed
+in order that they may make their representatives in Congress and the
+State legislatures do their intelligent bidding. (Great and prolonged
+applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--The Congress is now adjourned to reassemble at 2 oclock
+this afternoon.
+
+
+
+
+_SECOND SESSION_
+
+
+The Congress was called to order by President Baker at 3 oclock p.m.
+
+President BAKER--It gives me a great deal of pleasure to announce that
+Governor W. R. Stubbs, of Kansas, has kindly consented to preside at
+this session. Ladies and Gentlemen, Governor Stubbs. (Applause)
+
+Governor STUBBS--Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am very grateful
+for your liberal recognition. And I present to you a man who knows much
+about the laws pertaining to land in the United States, one better
+fitted to speak on this subject than any other, Senator Knute Nelson, of
+Minnesota. I take great pleasure in introducing him. (Applause)
+
+Senator NELSON--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I could not help
+thinking this forenoon as I looked at the magnificent audience how every
+delegate and visitor from abroad must conclude that in one respect
+Conservation in Minnesota has been a success--Conservation of our
+prosperous and growing humanity.
+
+I am here to speak briefly of our public-land system, past and present,
+in the hope that we may derive some lessons from the mistakes of the
+past and have something to guide us in the future. I shall say little of
+Conservation in general. My aim will be to draw attention to what I deem
+of importance for the legislative branch of the Government to do in the
+future, and I shall do so only in general terms, seeking--on account of
+my position as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Lands--to
+avoid all matters that will lead to controversy.
+
+As those know who have had experience in public affairs, particularly in
+legislation, all reforms are matters of compromise. Legislation is
+largely experimental and those who are most progressive and advanced in
+seeking reforms for the future often find themselves handicapped by
+those who would make no change; and the result is oftentimes a
+compromise in which the reformers get only half a loaf.
+
+The natural resources of our country should be conserved by the
+individual, by the State, and by the Federal Government. For each there
+is an appropriate field. The farmer must conserve the resources of his
+farm; the State the resources of its lands, its forests and its waters;
+and the Federal Government the resources of its mines, its forests, and
+its lands with all their appurtenances. When the several forces act in
+harmony, beneficial results of a far-reaching and permanent value will
+be attained for the preservation and utilization of our resources.
+Practical and beneficial Conservation of natural resources on the part
+of the Federal Government and the State should include and provide for
+due and efficient utilization of the same for the benefit of the masses
+of the people. The mere conservation and retention of ownership, the
+mere securing of a larger price for the resource, may prove burdensome
+rather than a benefit to the public. The ultimate question is not so
+much how to hold and conserve as how to properly utilize our resources.
+The mere holding, or the mere securing of a higher price seems to me to
+be entirely futile (applause). The aim should not be so much to secure a
+higher price for the Government as to secure lower price for the
+consumer and to prevent monopoly (applause). Hence, in the disposal of a
+resource, care should be taken to prevent combination and monopoly in
+restraint of trade in respect to the same; and the right, as in the case
+of railway rates, to regulate the price to the consumer should be
+retained; in other words, care should be taken and provision should be
+made that the consumer can obtain the product of the resource at a fair
+and reasonable rate. To merely conserve and hold at a high price retards
+development and enables those who have already secured a large share of
+a resource to monopolize the market and to secure an exorbitant price
+for the product of the resource. (Applause) The ultimate object of the
+conservation of a resource should be to utilize it for the best
+advantage of the consumer. True Conservation means beneficial use--means
+utilization.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The close of the Revolutionary War found our country with an empty
+treasury and a large public debt, but possessed of a large quantity of
+valuable public lands northwest of the Ohio river and elsewhere, ceded
+by Great Britain, supplemented by a cession from Virginia and some of
+the older States, from which were afterward carved great States, though
+the public domain was at that time regarded chiefly as an asset from
+which the Government could obtain revenues for its wants and needs.
+
+The first general land law of a public nature for the disposal of our
+public lands was passed in 1796. This law, after prescribing a system of
+surveying the public lands, substantially the same as has been since
+adhered to, provided for the sale of the lands at public auction to the
+highest bidder, partly for cash and partly on credit.
+
+By the Act of 1800 the minimum price was fixed at $2 an acre, and land
+not sold at public auction could be bought at private sale at that
+price.
+
+The Act of 1820 abolished sales on credit and fixed the minimum price at
+$1.25 per acre, at which rate it has since remained. Lands offered at
+public sale became known as "offered land," and if not sold at public
+sale could be obtained at private sale or entry at the minimum price.
+
+The result of this system was that, owing to the great scarcity of money
+in the country at that time among the masses of the people, large blocks
+of land were purchased by speculators and held by them indefinitely for
+an excessive profit, and the masses of the people--the settlers, the
+real home builders--had to purchase the land from these speculators
+instead of securing it from the Government. The Government got but scant
+return for its valuable public land. The chief profit was made by the
+middlemen, those speculators who bought it up in large blocks; they
+reaped a rich harvest. But in the midst of this system the settlers
+pressed on to the frontier. They were without money, but they settled on
+the public lands, squatted there without authority of law; and finally
+the Government, to help these settlers, to relieve them and give them a
+little breathing time, in 1841 passed what was known as the general
+Preemption Law. Under this law the head of a family, a widow, or a
+single person over twenty-one years of age who was a citizen or had
+declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, could
+secure 160 acres of public land by settling upon, improving and
+cultivating it, and by paying for and entering the same within from one
+to three years after settlement, the time of payment in each case
+depending on whether the land was offered, unoffered, or unsurveyed.
+This law (the Preemption Act of 1841) was clearly intended to help the
+pioneers and the settlers, and it proved of great advantage to them; but
+owing to the lax procedure that prevailed (under which a man could go on
+a preemption claim, make a few limited and pro forma improvements, and
+at the end of six months appear in the land office and prove up and have
+his final entry made and ultimately get a patent), the Preemption Law
+itself became a great instrument in the hands of speculators and land
+grabbers, and in consequence Congress concluded to repeal the law.
+
+The law allowing lands to be secured at private entry was repealed in
+1889; the law allowing public sales was repealed in 1891, and the
+Preemption Law was also repealed the same year. These laws were repealed
+none too soon, because by that time they had got to be the instruments
+by which those who were seeking valuable coal lands, timber lands, and
+other lands would hire a lot of people to go and make preemption claims,
+and then, as soon as they obtained title, secure the title, whereby
+thousands and thousands of acres of the most valuable timber and mineral
+lands, coal lands, and other lands passed into the hands of speculators
+for little more than a dollar and a quarter an acre, and sometimes even
+less, for there were various kinds of scrip issued--agricultural college
+scrip and other scrip to which I will call attention later--put on the
+market and sold. That scrip would be used instead of money in paying for
+and entering land; and through it much valuable land passed into the
+hands of speculators at a cost of even less than one dollar an acre. You
+who have lived here have all observed that the low price at which the
+lumbermen secured timber in those early days under the Preemption Law,
+by cash entry, and under agricultural and other scrip, did not help much
+to get cheaper lumber. The result was to enable owners of large bodies
+of pine land to hold them indefinitely for the purpose of securing a
+higher price for their stumpage.
+
+In 1874 an Act was passed "To encourage the growth of timber on the
+western prairies." The purpose of this Act was laudable and had it
+resulted in supplying the prairies with timber the gift of the land
+would have been amply compensated for. But in its practical operations
+the law proved a failure. Only a comparatively few of the many claims
+entered were ever successfully forested, or ever became real timber
+land. A large share of them were merely taken and held by speculators
+with no real purpose of complying with the law in respect to the
+planting, culture, and care of timber. Claimants would secure these
+claims, enter them under the timber-culture law, make the first entry,
+and then hold them just as long as they could, waiting until some
+land-seeker came around, when they would tell him, "I have a timber
+claim here, and might relinquish it so you can take it as a homestead;
+how much will you give me for my relinquishment?" And for a time under
+this law there was a great speculation in the sale of what we call
+timber relinquishments. No timber was raised. Speculators had held the
+land for four or five, maybe six, years as a timber claim. Then when a
+real settler came along, why, for a consideration of one, two, three,
+four or five hundred dollars, or whatever the settler was able to pay,
+the holder would relinquish his timber claim to the Government so that
+the real land-seeker could secure the same under the Homestead Law, or
+under the Preemption Law, while that was in force.
+
+In 1862 an Act was passed giving to each State 30,000 acres of land for
+every senator and representative in Congress for the purpose of
+establishing and maintaining agricultural and mechanical colleges. In
+States where there was a sufficient quantity of public lands the State
+was required to select the land from the public lands in the State, but
+in States where no such lands could be secured land scrip was issued in
+place of the land. This resulted in placing an enormous amount of land
+scrip on the market, which was sold by the State in many instances in
+bulk to speculators at a greatly reduced price, netting the States from
+fifty to one hundred cents per acre--perhaps the average did not exceed
+seventy-five cents per acre. The scrip could be used in entering land or
+in paying for land under the Preemption and Homestead Laws at the rate
+of $1.25 an acre. So far as the States to which the scrip was issued
+were concerned the grant was a wasteful one. It would have been much
+wiser and better for the Government to have appropriated $1.25 per acre
+in cash to the States instead of giving them the scrip, and reserving
+the lands which could be entered with the scrip for actual settlers
+under the Homestead Law. In addition to this college scrip, we have had
+from time to time various kinds of other scrip, Chippewa half-breed
+scrip, Sioux half-breed scrip, and Supreme Court scrip, and others that
+I cannot at this moment recall. Most of this scrip, fortunately, is now
+about exhausted; very little of it is still afloat and at large. There
+was also what we called "soldiers' additional" scrip of which there was
+a great deal; a soldier could take a homestead of 40 or 80 or 120 acres,
+and if he had no more in his homestead entry, he could take the residue
+and make up 160 acres anywhere on the public lands of the United States,
+without residing on the land; and he could dispose of his interest by
+power of attorney, by which speculators succeeded in getting that. And
+the records of our soldiers' homes will show how land speculators have
+been searching among the veterans for this kind of scrip. Why, I got a
+letter some years ago from a gentleman in Missouri--I can't recall his
+name--reminding me of the fact that I had had a homestead; and he told
+me that I was entitled to forty acres more under my right, in addition
+to the 120 acres, and that he was willing to buy the land of me. He had
+hunted up the records, and found a man by my name, but unfortunately the
+homestead and all the rest transpired and existed in Wisconsin.
+
+In 1878 Congress passed the so-called Timber and Stone Act, originally
+limited to four western States, but by the Act of 1892 extended to all
+the public-land States. Under this law land unfit for cultivation and
+chiefly valuable for timber and stone could be secured in tracts of 160
+acres for each entry-man at a price of $2.50 per acre. Under the law the
+purchaser is prohibited from buying the land on speculation or in the
+interest of any one but himself. On its face this law seems fair,
+harmless, and just, but in its practical operation it proved the means
+of a good deal of fraudulent land speculation. In the first instance,
+valuable agricultural land fit for agriculture was entered under the law
+on the theory that it was only good for the timber or stone on it.
+In the next place--and there was where the great iniquity
+occurred--speculators would hire men and women in different parts of the
+country to go and enter stone and timber claims, furnishing them money
+through outside friends, and then as soon as they had secured title get
+a transfer of the land to themselves by paying a bonus of one or two
+hundred and in some cases up to five hundred and a thousand dollars.
+Why, I remember how, in a city not a thousand miles away from Saint
+Paul, one year some twenty-five or thirty school teachers entered stone
+and timber claims in the State of Oregon! This law finally proved simply
+a source of speculation to the men who were trying to secure large
+bodies of timber; and under it a large share of the valuable timber
+lands now in private holdings were secured. The law should have been
+repealed immediately; but while the Senate passed a bill repealing it
+some five or six years ago, the bill failed to pass in the House of
+Representatives. Since then the Secretary of the Interior has come to
+our relief to some extent. The Stone and Timber Act said that this land
+could be sold at not less than $2.50 an acre; and up to 1908 the
+Government had always treated that as the price, and never exacted any
+more. In 1908 the Interior Department adopted the rule of appraising the
+lands for the timber and stone on them and selling them at the appraised
+value, and the result of that policy has been to stop speculation in
+those kinds of lands. A very limited amount of timber and stone lands
+have been entered since for now it does not pay big lumber operators or
+land speculators to hire anybody to go and enter these lands because
+under this rule they have to pay pretty nearly what the land is worth.
+But while this administrative order has given us some relief, I am
+clearly of the opinion that the law should be entirely repealed to the
+end that we can make suitable provision for the disposal of our stone
+and timber land under more appropriate legislation and at a fairer rate,
+both to the purchaser and to the Government. (Applause)
+
+In 1862 Congress passed the Homestead Law, with the general provisions
+of which most of you are familiar. This law makes a gift of 160 acres to
+each settler and home-builder who will occupy, improve, and cultivate
+his claim for a period of five years. Of all our public land laws this
+has, on the whole, been the most beneficent and productive of the best
+results. Under its provisions hundreds of thousands of poor and
+industrious men and women have carved out happy homes for themselves and
+their children, relieved the pressure of labor in our large cities and
+great industrial centers, and rapidly laid the foundation for and built
+up great States in the middle and far West. Judged by results, it is
+doubtful whether the Government ever received a better return for any of
+its lands than it has received for these lands given as a free gift,
+under the Homestead Law, to our farmers and settlers. A happy,
+prosperous, and industrious rural population will ever prove to be the
+sheet-anchor of our industrial, social and political well-being, and
+will ever afford a solid foundation for the integrity and perpetuity of
+American institutions. The Homestead Law, with all its blessings, had
+one defect which has, to some extent, marred its usefulness. I refer to
+the privilege of commutation--the privilege of proving up and paying for
+the land at $1.25 per acre prior to the five-year period for final free
+entry. Originally and for many years after the law was passed, the
+privilege of commutation could be exercised after the lapse of six
+months from date of entry. This period was extended to fourteen months
+some years ago and this fourteen months' period is still the law. The
+vice of allowing a homestead entry to be commuted as stated, consists in
+opening the door to the speculator, who, in the space of fourteen months
+can secure title to the land on scant and temporary improvements and
+then move away and hold the land for merely speculative purposes,
+leaving the surrounding settlers to enhance the value of his land by
+their continuing and permanent improvements. When they have erected
+dwellings, barns, school houses, and churches, and have laid out roads
+and organized school districts, the petty speculator and commutator, who
+has done nothing to build up the country, stands ready to sell his land
+at a greatly enhanced price to an actual home-builder and settler. The
+commutation privilege should not have been included in the law, and
+should be repealed, in my opinion, as soon as practicable. None but
+permanent and bona fide settlers should be permitted to secure land
+under the Homestead Law.
+
+In 1872 Congress enacted a law for the location, purchase, and entry of
+land containing gold, silver, copper, and other precious metals,
+commonly called the mining law of the United States, which became a part
+of the Revised Statutes. Mining claims are of two classes: (1) lode or
+quartz claims, and (2) placer claims. Both are initiated by discovery,
+staking out on the ground, and filing notice of location. After these
+preliminary steps have been taken, claims can be held indefinitely
+without purchase as long as $100 worth of work is done each year on each
+claim; and as a matter of fact, only a small proportion of mining
+claims, especially placer claims, are ever purchased from the
+Government. Placer claims are soon worked out and exhausted, while good
+lode claims are workable and profitable for many years. There is a
+difference in the size and in the price of lode and placer claims.
+Placer claims are larger in area and can be purchased at $2.50 per acre,
+while lode claims cost $5 an acre.
+
+In 1873 Congress passed a law for the purchase and entry of coal lands,
+which also became a part of the Revised Statutes. Under this law every
+person above the age of twenty-one years, who is a citizen or has
+declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, may
+purchase and enter 160 acres of coal land; and an association of such
+persons may purchase and enter 320 acres, and an association of not less
+than four such persons, if they have first expended not less than $5,000
+in working and improving a coal mine on the land, may purchase and enter
+not to exceed 640 acres in one claim. The price in each case is not less
+than $10 per acre where the land is situate more than fifteen miles from
+a completed railroad and not less than $20 per acre if the land is
+within fifteen miles of a completed railroad. Only one entry can be made
+by the same person or association of persons; and no association or any
+member of which shall have taken the benefit of the law either as an
+individual or as a member of any other association, shall enter or hold
+any other lands under the provisions of the law; and no member of any
+association which shall have taken the benefit of the law shall enter or
+hold any other land under the provisions of the law. A preference right
+of entry for the period of one year is given to any person or
+association that has opened and improved a coal mine on the public
+lands. The provisions of the law as to the acquisition and holding of
+more than one claim are clear and stringent, and have been applied and
+enforced in the courts in several instances where great corporations
+have sought, through dummies and otherwise, to acquire vast holdings of
+coal lands. It is conceded, too, that the minimum price fixed by statute
+is, in many instances, altogether too low and much below the real value.
+
+In 1907 the Interior Department cured this defect by adopting the policy
+of classifying and appraising the coal lands and selling them at the
+appraised value, a value in most instances far in excess of the minimum
+statutory price. This new policy is continued, and under it something
+over 100,000 acres of coal lands have been entered. Further legislation
+is urgently needed in respect to the disposal of our coal lands. If the
+policy of selling the land is to be continued, not only should the
+system of appraisal now in vogue be adhered to, but provision should be
+made to protect the people--the consumers--against the monopolies and
+combinations in restraint of trade and against unreasonable and
+exorbitant prices. Many good men, however, who have given the subject
+great consideration, favor a well-guarded system of leasing instead of
+sale for coal lands. Their contention is that under a leasing system
+more careful and less wasteful methods of mining will be pursued and
+that better protection can be thereby secured for the miner, the
+consumer, and the Government. I am not prepared to take issue with this
+contention. A leasing system is clearly preferable where the surface of
+the land is disposed of for agricultural purposes, for under such a
+system the conflicting interests of the miner and the farmer can be best
+adjusted, regulated, and controlled. Perhaps it would be wise to adopt
+both sale and leasing systems, leaving it optional with the Government
+to select the mode of disposal in any given case; for there may be cases
+where the one method would be preferable to the other.
+
+In 1900 Congress passed an act extending the coal-land laws to Alaska,
+but the act proved of no value as only surveyed lands could be purchased
+and entered under the general law, and there was no surveyed land in
+Alaska, and no provision was made in the act for surveys. By the act of
+April 28, 1904, the general coal-land laws were extended to Alaska in a
+more effective and rational manner. Under this act any person or
+association, qualified to make entry under the coal-land laws of the
+United States, who opens and improves a coal mine on the unsurveyed
+public lands in Alaska can locate the land on which such mine is found
+by staking the same out on the ground, and by filing notice of location
+in the recording district and in the land office of the district in
+which the land is situate, within one year after staking out the claim.
+After these preliminary steps are taken, the locator must cause a survey
+and plat of the land to be made by a deputy United States surveyor, and
+thereafter, within three years from date of the location notice he must
+make application for a patent of the land, prove a compliance with the
+law, and pay the price of only $10 per acre for the land. Aside from
+these provisions all other provisions of the general coal-land law apply
+to coal lands in Alaska. Under this law between eight and nine hundred
+coal-land locations have been made, but of these only about thirty-three
+cases (perhaps a few more) have passed to final entry at the local land
+office. The time for making entry and securing patents on the other
+locations has, in most, if not in all instances, lapsed, and they cannot
+be relocated owing to the fact that by executive orders of November 12,
+and 27 and December 17, 1906, and by a recent executive order of
+President Taft, all coal lands in Alaska are withdrawn from location,
+sale, and entry. This withdrawal was no doubt made in pursuance of
+recent legislation by Congress and for the purpose of giving Congress an
+opportunity to enact better coal-land laws for Alaska than those now in
+force; and such legislation, to my mind, is clearly and urgently needed,
+and I am in hopes that Congress will take steps at its next session to
+enact suitable coal-land laws for Alaska in order that the people there
+may have an opportunity to utilize the coal that is within their own
+boundaries. (Applause)
+
+By the Act of March 3, 1877, amended in 1891, provision was made for the
+entry and reclamation by irrigation of desert or arid land in the
+Pacific coast and mountain States and Territories. Under the original
+act 640 acres could be entered in one claim, but since the act of 1891
+was passed only 320 acres can be entered in one claim under this law.
+Water for irrigating the land must be secured and the land must be
+reclaimed and cultivated by means of such water for the period of four
+years after the preliminary entry, and the price of $1.25 per acre must
+be paid before patent can be secured for the land. This law has not
+proved very effective or beneficial, especially on account of the
+difficulty, in many instances, of securing the necessary water supply by
+a single entryman. In many instances the conditions of the law have not
+been complied with, and as a whole the law may be said to have to some
+extent failed of its purpose.
+
+In view of the comprehensive character of the general Reclamation Act of
+1902, which makes due provision for securing a water supply and provides
+for limited homesteads under a qualified homestead law, the desert law
+referred to, could well be repealed. The Federal reclamation system is
+more certain and effective than reclamation by individuals in isolated
+cases.
+
+Under the so-called Carey Act of 1894, desert and arid lands are granted
+to certain States, in limited quantities, for reclamation and
+cultivation by means of irrigation, this to be done under the auspices
+and direction of the States to which the grants are made. This law has
+in some respects proved more effective and of more value than the
+general desert law, but it cannot be regarded as equal in value and
+efficiency to the general Reclamation Act of 1902, and therefore it
+seems to me it is not advisable to make any more grants of this nature
+to any of the States.
+
+No effective or systematic effort was made to preserve the forests on
+the public domain until March 3, 1891, when an act was passed giving the
+President the power to set apart and reserve, from time to time, public
+lands for forestry purposes. This was supplemented by the act of June 4,
+1897, providing for the administration and care of the land so reserved
+and set apart, which lands are now termed National Forests of the United
+States. Under this law nearly two hundred million acres of public lands
+in various States and Territories, including Alaska, have been withdrawn
+and set apart for forestry purposes and are now embraced, most of them,
+in our National Forests and their administration and care has been
+placed on a sound, workable, and safe basis through the initiation,
+prudence, and wisdom of our great forester, Mr Pinchot (great and
+prolonged applause), who has laid the foundation and is the father of
+our forestry system. This legislation and administrative action came
+none too soon. Had there been more delay, our timber lands would, long
+before this, have passed into private ownership and there would have
+been nothing left for the Government to conserve (applause). No land
+legislation in recent times has been productive of such beneficent and
+far-reaching blessings and results as our forestry legislation. While
+occasionally there has been a little grumbling and friction on the part
+of settlers and cattlemen as to the administration of the law in some of
+its details, yet it can be fairly said, when it is borne in mind that it
+is a new system, that there has been little, if any, valid ground for
+serious criticism or complaint. The conduct of a few over-zealous forest
+rangers and a few over-strenuous settlers and cattlemen ought not to
+militate against the value and usefulness of the forestry system as a
+whole and in its entirety. (Applause)
+
+Under the act of March 3, 1891, as amended by the act of January 21,
+1895, and May 11, 1898, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized,
+under general regulations to be fixed by him, to grant, without exacting
+compensation, permits for right-of-way on the public lands for canals
+and reservoirs which may be used for furnishing water for domestic,
+public, and other beneficial uses, and for the development of power.
+Several valuable water-power sites have been secured under these laws as
+well as under the homestead and timber and stone laws. To put a stop to
+such practice the Interior Department, in the later part of 1908 and in
+the early part of 1909, withdrew all power sites from every form of
+disposal under our land laws and these sites have remained thus
+withdrawn ever since, except during an interval of a few days or perhaps
+a few weeks in the spring of 1909; and during that interval no power
+sites were secured or disposed of. Most of these power sites are of
+considerable value, and they ought not to be disposed of under any of
+the existing land laws. Adequate provision should be made by law for the
+utilization of these water-power sites to the end that the Government
+may receive fair compensation for the same, and to the end that the
+public may receive the beneficial use to be derived from the development
+of any water-power in connection with such sites, at fair and reasonable
+rates (applause). The problem under our dual system of Government, State
+and Federal, is not free from embarrassment, as it is the opinion of men
+versed in the law that while the general Government may own the power
+site, with all the rights of a riparian owner, the water in the streams,
+except for purposes of navigation, belongs to the State, and that the
+State may allow its citizens to appropriate such water for their
+beneficial use and thereby render the power site of no value; for
+without a sufficient supply of water the power site will not be worthy
+of improvement or development. It seems to me (though perhaps I may err)
+that the problem of developing and utilizing water-power in such cases
+can be properly solved only by the cooperation of the State and the
+Federal Government (applause): the one owning the power site and the
+other the water in the stream, it strikes me that cooperation is
+essential and furnishes the only practical solution. And some plan
+should be devised by which the Federal and State Governments could act
+in harmony and in unison in such cases. Of course, when the State owns
+both the water and the power site, the problem is of a less complex
+character, and is one exclusively for the State to solve except as to
+the question of navigation. And I may also add in this connection that
+Congress, at its last session, passed a general law to regulate the
+construction of dams across navigable waters, by which ample provision
+is made for protecting the interest of the general Government in all
+such cases.
+
+Most of our remaining public lands, suitable for agricultural purposes,
+are within the arid or semi-arid parts of the country. These lands can
+be successfully farmed only by means of irrigation or by so-called dry
+farming methods. To aid in developing and successfully farming these
+lands, the Reclamation Act of 1892 was passed setting apart the proceeds
+of the sales of public lands within the arid and semi-arid States for
+the construction of dams, reservoirs, canals, and ditches for the
+impounding and distribution of water. A considerable number of
+irrigation projects have been entered upon under the act. A few of them
+have been completed, but the majority of them are still in an incomplete
+condition; and there being an insufficiency of funds available for their
+speedy completion, Congress, at the last session, in order to expedite
+the work on the incomplete projects, provided for a loan of twenty
+million dollars, to be immediately available, and to be reimbursable
+out of the future income of the reclamation fund (applause). This will
+hasten the completion of the projects and will aid the homestead
+settlers of whom there are many, to secure a supply of water on their
+claims at an early day.
+
+For the purpose of promoting the farming of arid or semi-arid lands by
+dry-farming methods or otherwise, where no water supply for irrigation
+is or can be found available, Congress, by the Act of February 19, 1909,
+provided for enlarged homesteads of 320 acres of non-irrigable lands.
+The theory on which such legislation was based was this, that such lands
+to be farmed must be summer-fallowed, so that a crop could be raised
+only every other year, and therefore a larger quantity of land was
+needed, as only one-half of the cultivated land could be cropped each
+year.
+
+Investigations by the Geological Survey have shown that considerable
+areas of public lands suitable for agricultural purposes are underlain
+with more or less valuable beds of coal. Such lands, on account of their
+mineral character, are not technically subject to entry under any other
+than the coal-land laws of the United States. A considerable number of
+homestead settlers had settled upon such lands and had made the
+preliminary homestead entries of the same without any previous knowledge
+of their mineral character. For the relief of such settlers Congress
+passed the Act of March 3, 1909, which provides that such settlers may
+enter and receive a patent for the surface of such land, reserving to
+the general Government the coal underlying the same to be disposed of
+under the coal-land laws of the United States. This was supplemented by
+Congress at its last session by the Act of June 22, 1910, which permits
+the entry of the surface of coal lands under the Homestead Law, the
+Reclamation Law, the Desert Law, and the so-called Carey Law, reserving
+to the Government the coal beds underlying such lands, to be disposed of
+under the general coal-land laws in existence or to be passed in the
+future, and authorizing the exploration of the same.
+
+One of the most important of our late land laws and which will prove to
+be the key to future reforms in our land system is the Act of June 25,
+1910, passed at the last session of Congress. This act authorizes the
+President, in his discretion, to withdraw from settlement, location,
+sale, or entry any of the public lands of the United States and reserve
+the same for water-power sites, irrigation, classification, or other
+public purpose. There was some difference of opinion before the
+enactment of this law as to the power of the President to make such
+withdrawals in all cases. This act removes all doubt and controversy on
+the subject and enables the President to examine, classify, and appraise
+the lands and to reserve them for necessary and appropriate legislation
+by Congress. Many of our lands and their appurtenances are of such a
+character that they ought not to be disposed of under any of our
+existing land laws. Good laws are needed for the disposal of our timber
+and stone, our water-power sites, and our coal, oil, asphalt, and
+phosphate lands. There was considerable opposition to the passage of
+this act in both Houses of Congress, and at one time it seemed as though
+it would not pass, and it would not have passed but for the active,
+continued, and persistent help of President Taft (applause). He labored
+for its passage, in season and out of season, to my certain knowledge,
+and but for his help, I can say with all truthfulness that that
+important law would never have passed (applause). And since its passage
+the President has availed himself of it by making new withdrawals, and
+rewithdrawing many lands which had been withdrawn before but in respect
+to which some question was raised as to the validity of the withdrawal.
+
+I have not called attention to the various grants of land that have been
+made, first for wagon roads and canals, and afterward for railroads, nor
+to the large grants of land that have been made to the several States
+for educational and other purposes, for the reason that such grants are
+not likely to be repeated in the future. Provision has already been
+made, with ample land grants for the admission into the Union of our two
+remaining Territories, Arizona and New Mexico; and it is not probable
+that any grants of public lands, except for right-of-way, will be made
+to any railroad in the future, especially the railroad grants, may seem
+to have been prodigal and too lavish; but to the legislators of those
+early days, who were anxious for the speedy settlement and development
+of our great West, they seemed justified and called for. And it is
+evident that, in consequence of these grants, the country was more
+speedily settled and the settlers afforded transportation facilities at
+a much earlier period than otherwise would have been done. The grants
+made to the States, especially for educational purposes, have from every
+point of view been fully justified, and have been, and will continue to
+be, of great help in maintaining ample and liberal educational
+facilities in the several States.
+
+In conclusion: I have given you this brief summary and outline of our
+public land laws, past and present, obsolete and subsisting, in order
+that from a consideration of the same we may avoid the mistakes of the
+past, and gather inspiration and instruction for our future guidance. In
+view of the diminishing supply and rapidly increasing demand it behooves
+us to husband, with discrimination and care, all our natural resources,
+beginning as promptly as possible, and this work must be done by
+legislation, by administration, and by individual effort. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chairman STUBBS--If there are any pessimistic citizens in the United
+States they should hear the Senior Senator's story of the lavish
+management of public affairs in the past, and the splendid change made
+under that great leader--the greatest man on earth today--Theodore
+Roosevelt (applause and cheers) and Gifford Pinchot (renewed applause).
+
+I now take great pleasure in presenting to you a typical southern
+gentleman, Governor Noel, of Mississippi (applause).
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Governor NOEL--Mr Chairman, Brother Governors, Delegates, Ladies and
+Gentlemen: Some months ago I received an invitation to attend this
+Congress, which I promptly accepted; also an invitation to deliver an
+address, which I immediately declined. Since entering the hall this
+afternoon I have been informed of my selection for the first address on
+my State--each Governor speaking for his State in succession--and my
+State's views on questions pertaining to our natural resources.
+
+Of course the greatest natural resource of every city and county, as of
+State and Nation, is the productive energies of its people. Their
+development, through proper training of mind and heart, should be the
+chief aim of all people and of the Government. In those resources,
+however, our interests are the same as those of all other parts of the
+country, and they open too broad a field for me to enter.
+
+When we take up the question of the natural resources pertaining to our
+domain, Mississippi occupies a widely different attitude from that of
+some States in the Northwest whose Governors are here to speak for them.
+We are an agricultural people. Not a city in Mississippi will much, if
+at all, exceed 30,000 inhabitants; more of its population and its
+wealth, proportionately, than of any other State in the Union are
+engaged in agriculture. We have no mines, no minerals except some clays
+and stone, no oil, no gas, no coal. We acquired agricultural lands, and
+our natural resources are from those lands as agricultural soil and
+standing timber.
+
+Before the question of Conservation was understood, or at least before
+it had become of any force in State or Nation, both Mississippi and the
+Federal Government had parted with their lands and with their forests.
+Much to our regret now, it is a question of the past, and has to be
+handled by individuals and by corporations, to whom our lands and timber
+chiefly, almost entirely, belong. We are interested; we try to regulate
+our resources in some measure, within the powers of the State
+Government; but our interest is largely confined to our public lands. We
+have no coal or metals, our streams are sluggish, and there are few
+water-power sites. We have little beyond the surface values of the
+timber and the soil. We are interested in coal because it is necessary
+for our industries; we are interested in oil because we need it; we are
+interested in all the elements of the soil spoken of this morning,
+phosphorus and all the rest. We are greatly interested in all these
+things notwithstanding the land which contains them happens to be in
+other States. We have not lost interest in them on that account; and,
+speaking for our State--which has stood for State rights as it
+understood them, and stands for State rights still--our only way of
+securing these rights we believe to be through the Federal Government
+(applause); our only voice must be through Congress and the President,
+and we do not care to surrender that to which the Government is now
+properly entitled. If the choice goes to the State we know how it will
+go, for past experience has taught that lesson well--local interests
+will control, and the general good will be subordinated to personal
+pride and local considerations. We have learned much and suffered much
+in that line. The Government gave to us, as to others, the sixteenth
+section of land in every township, one-thirty-sixth of the whole State.
+We put it in the power of a majority of the householders and patrons of
+schools in each township to vest the school lands by lease, thinking
+that local interests, being circumscribed and vitally concerned in
+education, would at least prevent spoliation of this magnificent
+donation to the school children; but we were mistaken. In a great many
+instances a few who were shrewd and sharp and designing used a law by
+which a lease could be made from one year to ninety-nine years, and
+until that law was repealed leased the lands for the largest possible
+term.
+
+We know that the smaller the area the greater the influence of
+personages, and of local and private considerations. Therefore, as we
+look on this question of the Conservation of our natural resources, it
+is a question of rights, and how those rights can best be maintained and
+perpetuated; the means, whether through State or Federal Government, is
+but a minor consideration; and believing that our rights can best be
+preserved and utilized, now and for all time to come, without waste and
+without destruction, both for the present and in the future, we think it
+can best be done under Federal supervision (applause). The only rights
+we have in coal and oil and metals must be exercised through the Federal
+Government.
+
+We may not fully understand the water-power problem. It has been said to
+be only a local issue anyway. We do not understand it that way. The
+river which rolls by this city smiling, smooth, and clear, after it is
+joined to the Missouri is muddy, deep, and uncertain; not only all of
+your waters but all of the waters east of the Rocky Mountains roll past
+our western boundary. While at some seasons the water is low, at others
+it is over fifty feet higher, and more than one-sixth in value of the
+land in our State is subject to overflow. Your waters, which through
+proper forestation and proper handling by dams and other means would
+give us a more equable flow throughout the year, come down upon us at a
+time when we do not need them, and in a degree greatly in excess of any
+possible need at any time, and we have to bear the sins of deforestation
+and all of the other evils that come from the wholesale spoliation and
+destruction of your forest lands (applause). We are vitally interested
+in that question. We believe in forest reservations; we are sorry we
+cannot furnish the basis for it in our own State, but so far as the
+Government lands we have can be availed of for that purpose, we would be
+more than glad to see the Government take hold of the matter and set our
+people an example of how forests should be handled and preserved for the
+present and for the future.
+
+When it comes to water-power, to me, at least, and to many of us, the
+question of conflict between State and Federal Governments, about which
+so much has been said--especially with a view of eliminating the Federal
+Government--we hardly understand that view of it. We trace our title
+through the Federal Government (applause). As a lawyer of more than
+thirty years' practice, whenever I have been given a question for
+investigation pertaining to the title of land, the first thing I have
+done was to examine the tract-books to see whether the Federal
+Government had ever parted legally with its title. If it had not, the
+question was ended; if it had, then we could proceed to deraign to those
+properly entitled to it. So when the Federal Government owned the lands
+and was the source of title, we do not understand how, even though the
+lands may be within the State, its right as a land-owner is less on a
+river bank than it is in the interior, or when the Federal Government,
+as the owner of the lands, should not exercise riparian rights which any
+other owner tracing title through it might exercise.
+
+Now, we would like cooperation of the States, but we would like the
+Federal Government to retain where it still possesses them those rights
+of which the people could not be robbed through control of State
+legislatures or local authorities (applause). You may say, What interest
+have we, who are not a manufacturing people, in the mines and the
+water-powers of other States? Why, we are all in a common country. State
+lines may be changed; they are accidental; they are artificial; but the
+national boundary is fixed. When we look for coal or iron, or commercial
+or industrial products which we do not manufacture, we must look,
+primarily, within the bounds of the United States. It is within the
+power of the Government and beyond ours practically, through tariff
+legislation, to exclude the minerals from outside. We have but one open
+field, we have but one certain route to any natural or manufactured
+product, and that is within the boundaries of the Union itself; and we
+do not want, through monopolization of either coal or oil or
+water-powers, to be hampered in the protection of the country as a whole
+so that as consumers we shall have to bear the brunt of evils from which
+the National Government, through the little influence we might have with
+it, might protect us, and of which our State government, in the past at
+least, has been very neglectful. Hence we stand for State rights and
+Federal control in cooperation (applause). But if it is within the power
+of the Federal Government, through leasing or otherwise, to retain
+control of its mineral and coal lands and its water-power sites, to put
+them beyond the possibility of handling by a State and its legislature,
+to regulate corporations' rights so as to prevent monopolization, and at
+the same time to prevent the Nation as a whole from being deprived of
+any productive agency in our midst, we want the benefit of it.
+(Applause)
+
+Our patriotism on this score may be of that questionable type described
+by Artemus Ward, who said that during the Civil War, when the stress was
+great, he listened to a magnificent speech from an orator on the subject
+of enlistment, and became so enthused that when the call for volunteers
+came he, with others, went up to sign the roll; but when he observed
+that the orator had not signed nor was likely to sign, because his
+province was simply that of speaking while other's would be fighting,
+his own ardor was somewhat cooled, and when he reflected that the
+orator's eloquence had carried his hearers where he would not go
+himself, it became cooler and cooler. Still, his patriotism did not
+entirely vanish, for when his time came to sign the roll for enlistment,
+he signed it with the name of his mother-in-law and offered her as a
+sacrifice to his country (laughter). Yet we are not exactly in that
+category, though we may seem to view the situation from a local
+standpoint. But knowing of our own condition, knowing of the rights
+which the Federal Government conferred upon the school children of our
+State--the sixteenth section and other lands of which you heard in
+Senator Nelson's address today,--and remembering how in a great many
+instances, through local influences, legislative or otherwise, the
+intended beneficiaries were largely deprived of the benefactions
+intended for them we really think, What has gone is gone, except as a
+lesson to us; and so far as we are concerned, we shall stand for the
+right of the people as a whole for the enjoyment of its great resources
+of coal, of oil, of water-power and other natural wealth, and we want to
+be protected in such a way that no State or local influence shall be
+able to take it from us forever (applause). That is our position on this
+question.
+
+In regard to the water-power question. A while ago I spoke of the
+Mississippi rolling by; we have never been jealous of the Federal
+Government's dealings with that river, not a bit (laughter). We are not
+now. So far as we are concerned, we would be delighted if the Federal
+Government would acquire the riparian rights, with all the
+_liabilities_, from one end of the State to the other (laughter). The
+county in which I live, that part of it in the Delta, as well as six or
+seven other counties, have had to keep up, without Federal aid until
+this year--and then only incidentally for the protection of navigation
+against some caving banks--for five years more than 200 miles of levee,
+and it has required an acreage tax of from three to five cents, an _ad
+valorem_ tariff of about ten mills, and a cotton tax besides; and while
+some of this is among the finest agricultural land in the world, it is
+almost wrecked by the taxes on it. Missouri has fared better. Her levees
+are not as extensive as ours; her people put them in good condition, and
+the general government afterward took charge of them in the interest of
+navigation; and if the Government will relieve us of the whole burden
+from the waters which you send down upon us from the North and from east
+of the Rocky Mountains, and will take the riparian rights from end to
+end and preserve and use them for the benefit of the whole Nation, all
+the people of our State will greatly rejoice (applause), and not a voice
+will be raised on the question of State rights as to any use for the
+people as a whole to which the Government may put those lands.
+
+So, as we come to voice our wishes, our interests, our desires, they are
+for cooperation of State and Federal Government, but of absolutely no
+relinquishment on the part of the Federal Government either of its
+water-power sites, its coal lands, its phosphate lands, or of any of
+those other natural resources to which the people of the whole country
+are looking for future development and prosperity (applause). We are
+_in_ the country, we are a part of it; not merely a part of the
+Government of the States but a part of the Government of the whole Union
+(applause), and all that concerns the Union, or any part of it or any of
+its people, affects us to a greater or less degree. And speaking for our
+share and our part in the national destiny which invitingly presents
+itself before us, we say that we stand for Conservation of natural
+resources by all governmental agencies, State and Federal, which will
+not only develop now but protect in the future for the proper use and
+progressive benefit of the people of the whole country to whom they now
+belong and from whom they should never depart. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chairman STUBBS--Ladies and Gentlemen: I am very glad indeed to
+introduce to you as the speaker to follow our distinguished friend from
+Mississippi, the only other democratic Governor in the Congress,
+Governor Norris, of Montana. (Applause)
+
+You will see whether the views of the southern democrat and the northern
+democrat are the same after the two get through speaking. (Laughter)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Governor NORRIS--Mr Chairman, and Ladies and Gentlemen: A feeling has
+prevailed in the West, or did a few days ago, to the effect that no
+enlarged opportunities were going to be given to express ideas here
+which were contrary to those held by the program committee of this
+Congress (laughter). However, I am pleased to note that such is not to
+be the case, and whether the conference of the Northwestern Governors at
+Salt Lake City, recently held, has had anything to do with it or not I
+don't know. Anyhow, we are thankful for small favors. If it had been
+the intention and had been carried out, it would have been a mistake,
+for the reason that the Conservation movement is national in scope, and
+is a part of no section and no State alone. The Conservation
+movement--in other words, the public conscience--received its awakening
+some two years ago, and Theodore Roosevelt did the awakening (applause);
+and I am pleased to note that the sentiment created by President
+Roosevelt has ripened into practical action by President Taft (renewed
+applause). I resent the insinuation that Montana and the Northwest, and
+in fact the entire West, is opposed to Conservation; in fact, I insist
+that the Northwest is the leader of the Conservation movement
+(applause), and that the first practical act in Conservation was taken
+by a western State, Montana (applause). I am proud of the fact that the
+first Conservation commission, either State or National, was appointed
+by me, in the State of Montana (applause). I am further proud of the
+fact that the first Conservation law, comprehensive in extent, was,
+under my recommendation, passed by the Legislature of Montana; and in
+that respect we have led the National Government in the Conservation
+movement (applause). Therefore, just for a moment, and not desiring to
+be personal, permit me to state what we have done. And in every respect
+we have kept step with the National Government and in the majority of
+cases we have led the National Government, and you can come to us for a
+lesson as to how to properly conserve the natural resources of the
+country (applause).
+
+The Legislature which assembled in Montana in 1900 enacted a law
+conserving the resources possessed by us in our public lands, so
+generously given us by the Government on our admission. That measure
+provided for the disposition of the land to actual cultivators of the
+soil, in 160-acre tracts where irrigated, in 320-acre tracts where it is
+suitable for dry farming, and in 640-acre tracts where it was only
+suitable for the raising of hay or for grazing purposes--that is, in the
+high altitudes, in the mountains. So in that respect we have gone hand
+in hand with the Government in the passage of the 320-acre homestead
+act, applicable to entries where irrigation could not be had. In that
+same law, passed in 1909, some eighteen months ago, Montana forever
+reserved from sale, and in every patent on every acre of its lands that
+might thereafter be issued retained the coal rights, and provided for
+the leasing of those rights from time to time and for periods not
+exceeding five years (applause). So today, when President Taft says he
+hopes Congress will do the same with the Government coal lands, we say,
+Mr President, we are with you and hope Congress will do this (applause),
+and if you wish an illustration proving that the title to coal lands can
+be retained and the coal rights leased from time to time, providing for
+the right to mine the coal at not less than 12-1/2 cents per ton, come
+to Montana and we will show you half a dozen coal leases with such
+provision which have been in force for the last sixteen months
+(applause). Have we lagged behind the National Government? Oh, no! In
+fact, we have led the National Government in the matter of Conservation.
+(Applause)
+
+And as to the metalliferous ores of the mines--the same laws are
+applicable to State lands that are applicable to Government lands. As to
+the forests: in the making of those laws, I corresponded, and our
+commission corresponded, and we made those laws with the consent of, and
+they were afterward approved by, Mr Gifford Pinchot (applause). There is
+but one provision which we made then differing from those of the
+Government. We provided in that law, passed eighteen months ago, that
+lands more suitable for agriculture than for reforestation should be
+used for agricultural purposes and not for reforestation purposes.
+President Taft described this morning how the Government had in the last
+few months been doing the same thing, so it seems that, after awhile,
+the Government will catch up to Montana in that respect (laughter and
+applause).
+
+Now, then, on the water-power question: That same commission is now
+operating, and it is going to prepare suggestions for submission to the
+next Montana Legislature with reference to adequate provisions for
+conserving the waters of the State of Montana, and I have no doubt that
+the recommendations of the commission will, at the next session, be
+adopted. We would have done that two years ago except we cannot do all
+these things at once; our session only lasted sixty days, while Congress
+is in session all the time (laughter and applause). If we had even six
+months instead of two years for it, we would have had those water
+resources conserved long ago (laughter). Is Montana entitled to take a
+place in the kindergarten class in the school of Conservation? And are
+we who have conserved our resources to be distrusted as Governor Noel
+says you must distrust the Legislature and the people of the State of
+Mississippi? (Applause) I thank my God that I can trust the people of
+Montana to protect their own! (Applause) And let me tell you one thing:
+the whole can never be greater than the sum total of its parts, and the
+Federal Government can never adequately preserve its resources until you
+get at least a majority of the people in a majority of the States to so
+agree, because it takes a majority for the Federal Congress or the
+Federal Government to act (applause). You start at the wrong end. You
+have got to start with the people of the State and build up.
+
+Now, are we capable of passing legislation to preserve our water
+resources? I think we are; and let me tell you some of our plans. In the
+first place, the water and the land, during the territorial days of
+each State, belonged to the Federal Government. When the State was
+admitted, the lands were reserved by the federal Government, but the
+waters flowing in the streams of the State passed into the control of
+the State. You heard Senator Nelson, an able lawyer, refer this
+afternoon to the fact that that was the law. Now, they tell us that you
+cannot trust the States, you must trust the Federal Government; and yet
+I listened for nearly an hour to one of the ablest presentations I ever
+heard of how the Federal Government for a hundred years wasted its
+resources with all the prodigality of a drunken sailor (applause). Trust
+the Federal Government! Why, the Federal Government has been the
+greatest sinner in that respect. I am glad the Federal Government has
+awakened and is going to preserve its resources, but Montana, at least,
+woke up a little before (applause). In this matter of the water-power:
+The most valuable use that water can be put to, or, in other words, the
+most valuable function that water can perform, is not the development of
+electrical power; in the semi-arid States it is the applying of that
+water to irrigation and the reclamation of the arid lands of the West
+(applause). So bear that in mind.
+
+In the State of Montana--and what is true in that State is true largely
+in every other State in the West--not one-third of the arable lands that
+can be irrigated have as yet been reclaimed; less than 2,000,000 acres
+have been reclaimed in Montana, while there are 6,000,000, in fact there
+are 10,000,000 acres that can be reclaimed. In other words, there are
+from six to ten million acres yet to be reclaimed by use of the water
+that flows in the streams of the State, and that is largely Government
+land. So that when you talk about conserving the water for water-power
+purposes, we say conserve it for reclamation purposes (applause); for
+the reclamation of Government land, too (applause), that may make homes
+for settlers who will come in and take it under the Homestead Act. There
+is the reason why we say that the Federal Government must not by its
+superior power step in and insist upon using the waters of the streams
+of the West for power purposes, unless when it so does it makes
+provision that the rights for irrigation purposes shall forever remain
+inviolate; otherwise, what does it amount to, the building of a dam
+across the stream? When the Government conveys the right to build a dam
+across a stream, it means that the amount of water flowing over that dam
+will determine the amount of power that may be developed; hence, when
+that dam is built the Government, if it conveys anything of value, must
+convey the right to the use of that water, and the right to the use of
+that water flowing over that dam must accrue as of that date, and
+forever thereafter the franchise-holder will have the right to demand as
+a concession from the Federal Government that the same amount of water,
+all the natural flow of that stream, must go over that dam forever. You
+thereby absolutely prevent the diversion of any water on that stream
+above that point for irrigation purposes. The use of water for
+irrigation purposes does decrease the amount flowing in the stream. That
+is the reason we object to the Federal Government coming in and taking
+charge of our water-power and giving it out--we do not care so much
+about the little income that may be received: that is the reason we are
+insisting upon the rights of the State.
+
+Now, remember this: In the first instance, there is no contention but
+what the regulation of water for irrigating purposes is absolutely
+vested in the State, and that the Federal Government cannot acquire that
+right; hence a number of irrigators have already appropriated a part of
+the flow of the stream. The Federal Government grants the right of
+franchise for the building of a dam. Suppose we assume, for the sake of
+argument, that it can grant the right to the remaining flow of a stream;
+it not only thereby forever thereafter prohibits the use of that stream
+above that point for further reclamation purposes, but the rights of
+every irrigator, either before or after appropriation is made, comes in
+conflict, or may come in conflict, with the Federal franchise-holder? In
+other words, you transfer from the State courts and from the State forum
+the right of every irrigator to use the waters of a stream to the seat
+of power of the Federal Government at Washington. In other words, you
+practically stop irrigation in the arid West when you insist upon having
+that power (applause). Is that Conservation? True Conservation demands
+that every acre of land shall be used for its highest purpose and be
+made to serve its highest productive function (applause), whether in a
+forest reserve or out of it. Therefore, in order to serve its highest
+productive function in the West, water must be applied to the land.
+
+Now, take the 6,000,000 acres of land that may be reclaimed in Montana.
+If you do not insist upon the Federal Government taking charge of the
+water-power and preventing its further reclamation, it means 6,000,000
+acres of land reclaimed. It is fair to say that each year those
+reclaimed lands will produce a total of $25--yea, and if I did not want
+to be ultra-conservative, I would say $50--per acre; and at $25 per
+acre, you have an annual income from those 6,000,000 acres of land of
+$150,000,000. Isn't that worth thinking about? Isn't that a resource
+worth conserving? Why, the 6,000,000 horse-power that might be developed
+in Montana is not worth one tithe of that. You say, Give to the Federal
+Government the right to the water-powers of the State and forever
+prevent the further reclamation of our land? Why, you are asking of us
+the most priceless gift that we have to convey--far more priceless than
+our mines yielding $50,000,000 yearly, possibly the richest in the
+world--because you ask us to surrender not $50,000,000 a year but the
+opportunity to make $150,000,000 a year. Has the Federal Government this
+right? We insist, as a matter of law, that the Federal Government has no
+authority to grant any right to the use of water on any power site that
+it may have. If the power site is situated along a stream, the title to
+the power site rests in the Federal Government and it can grant the
+right to erect a dam on that site, but the water that flows down the
+stream by that power site belongs to the State, and unless the State
+gives you the right to appropriate and take water you will develop no
+power by a dam-site! (Applause)
+
+Now, is the State ready to surrender any rights that it may have in the
+waters of the stream to the Federal Government? The State of Montana is
+not ready to so do, for the reasons I have given. The State of Montana
+will insist upon every right it has. Let the Federal Government have
+that which of right or in law belongs to it, but let the State keep that
+which of right or in law belongs to it (applause). So sure am I that the
+State has the right to use of its water that I think the next
+Legislature of Montana will pass a law to regulate the use of water,
+making its use for power forever subordinate to its use for irrigation
+purposes, and then say to the Federal Government, You own your power
+site, but you do not own the water; we own the water, but we do not own
+the power site. Your site is worth nothing to you because it is valuable
+only for power in connection with the use of water. We cannot develop
+power on that site, but we can go a little farther down the stream and
+divert that water for the irrigation of land, and it is valuable to us.
+Now, that is what we mean by the rights of the State in and to the
+waters of the State. You cannot trust the State? Why not? If you cannot
+trust the people of Montana to conserve its resources, if you cannot
+trust the State of Wyoming to conserve its resources, can we trust the
+State of Maine, or the State of Florida to conserve them for us? What
+reasons have we to assume that the people of the State of Massachusetts
+or the State of Louisiana are more patriotic in that respect than are
+our own people?
+
+The creation of the forest reserves was the greatest act ever performed
+in recent years. We would not have that act repealed. We have a double
+purpose in supporting the forest conservation policies. You think of it
+as valuable for the timber that it will grow. That timber is worth just
+as much, and will shelter just as many people, in Montana as it will in
+the Mississippi valley, but we desire it for a further purpose. The
+forests of these mountains are Nature's reservoirs, builded there by an
+Omnipotent Creator, and can better conserve the waters that fall in the
+form of rain and snow than these artificial reservoirs that men may
+build (applause). We want those waters. The water that comes from our
+mountains and is conserved under those forests is the very life-blood of
+the State of Montana. Would you take the water away and stop the
+reclamation of the arid West? I know you would not; yet you would do so
+did you not at the same time that you were saving the timber make a
+provision that the rights to water for power purposes should forever be
+subject to the rights for irrigation purposes.
+
+Bear this in mind, also. The doctrine of riparian rights does not
+prevail in the arid West; therefore the owning of the soil on each side
+of the stream does not convey the right to have the water flow down that
+stream undiminished in quantity or quality. In other words, the first
+appropriator is the first in right. I think there has been a
+misunderstanding as to the position of the West in this respect, as to
+why we are insisting upon the rights of the State. We insist upon the
+right of the State to control the waters of the State, not the
+water-power particularly. There is a decided difference between the
+waters and the water-power. The waters will irrigate land, the
+water-power will develop electricity. Such is the position the West
+takes. Will you not help us in that, and so help develop the land and
+make it productive? Do you know it is your own salvation to do so? Ye
+people of the populous East, where is the produce to come from to feed
+the ever-increasing millions, unless it be from the reclamation of the
+arid lands of the West? The time will soon be here, and it is not over
+four years removed, when we will cease to be a wheat-exporting nation,
+and in only a few years it must come that the children will cry for
+bread, and the land must be made to produce it. Therefore we must
+husband our resources and conserve our water for use for the purpose
+which will permit the growing of something that will feed human beings;
+and pine trees do not do it (applause). You of the Mississippi valley
+who for years have wept great crocodile tears that your lands have been
+cleared, suppose those lands had not been cleared, whence would come the
+produce to feed the millions of today? So bear these things in mind that
+when you come to conclusions you will take all these questions into
+consideration. And I want to say to you that in the future, as in the
+past, Montana will not lag in the Conservation movement, but will
+continue to lead the Federal Government (applause).
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A DELEGATE--Mr Chairman, are the propositions advanced by the Governors
+to be discussed? I see no reference in the program to such discussion,
+and ask for information.
+
+Chairman STUBBS--The understanding of the Chair is that this afternoon
+was turned over to the Governors. The intention is to give them an
+opportunity to relieve their minds this afternoon (applause) and get the
+way clear for the greatest man you will hear talk in thirty
+years--Theodore Roosevelt (applause). We are clearing out the brush and
+getting ready for the real thing that you will have tomorrow. (Laughter
+and applause)
+
+You can readily see that they have too much water in the South and not
+quite enough water in the Northwest, judging by the views of the last
+two speakers.
+
+I now have the pleasure of introducing one of the greatest Governors in
+the United States, and of one of the greatest States in the Union,
+Governor Deneen, of Illinois (applause).
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Governor DENEEN--Fellow Delegates, and Ladies and Gentlemen: The
+Governors here have been somewhat confused regarding this program. I was
+invited by my good friend Governor Eberhart, of this State, to prepare a
+speech. I have it concealed about my person like a deadly weapon, and I
+have been wondering whether I dare read it; for if I do, those who
+follow me will, I fear, have no audience to address, while if I do not
+follow the text already given to the printer there will be the
+traditional print-shop "devil" to pay; but I have concluded to talk
+rather than read, and I hope that my good friends the reporters will
+publish what I should have said rather than what I shall say. I will
+follow the example of a very distinguished statesman in our State, who
+on a great occasion handed his speech to the reporters and said, "Now,
+having given my speech to the reporters, I shall proceed to ramble;" and
+so he did. (Laughter)
+
+It is a pleasure to follow the two distinguished gentlemen who have
+preceded me, the Governor of Mississippi and the Governor of Montana. It
+is a pleasure to note how the conditions have reversed the attitude of
+their States regarding State rights (laughter and applause). I am
+interested in both States. A year or more ago I purchased a farm in
+Montana where the three rivers join to form the Missouri river, and I
+discovered after the spring freshets that I now have a farm scattered
+all the way from Montana to Mississippi (laughter). I am interested in
+all the States because of that, because I now own property in all. But I
+cannot quite agree with my distinguished predecessor about the
+Legislature--we, too, have a legislature (laughter), and whatever value
+it may have had at one time it is not considered at par at present.
+(Laughter and applause)
+
+We have a water-power proposition, too, strange to say, even in the
+flat, level, horizontal State of Illinois. Some time ago when the
+Government was considering the matter of the Lakes-to-Gulf Waterway, our
+State supplemented the investigation of the Government in considering
+the by-products of that great channel which was to be built (and I hope
+will be built), and we proceeded on the theory announced by the
+President this morning; instead of going from agitation to legislation,
+we considered it better to go on this theory: investigation, then
+agitation, and later legislation. So our State appointed a very
+distinguished commission to investigate some of the by-products that
+would accrue to Illinois by reason of the Lakes-to-Gulf deep waterway.
+
+We soon found we had several questions. First, the matter of
+reclamation. We have the problem they have in Mississippi, of too much
+water for too much time out of the year; an even 5,000 square miles of
+our State is under water too much of the time--an area larger than the
+State of Connecticut or the island of Porto Rico. We worked out a plan
+by which, as an incident to the great waterway, we expect to reclaim
+land which has been estimated to be of the value of $150,000,000 to the
+State.
+
+Then we found that in part of that waterway (in 62-1/2 miles of it from
+Lockport to Utica) there is a fall of 106 feet, and that water-power can
+be created to the amount of about 130,000 horsepower, worth about
+$2,500,000 or $2,750,000 a year to begin with, and our engineers
+estimated that by availing ourselves of that power we would be able to
+contribute to the Government the entire expense of the waterway between
+Lockport and Utica, and could afford to expend $20,000,000 in doing so
+by reason of the by-product that would come to us; and that we would be
+able, if the Legislature did as it should do, and the Governor did as he
+should do, and the commission to be appointed would do as it should
+do--to repay that vast expense in fourteen years as a minimum period,
+and that in fact we could loan our credit and have the water-power pay
+for the bonds as they matured. The question was submitted to the people,
+and after an exhaustive discussion they approved the plan by the largest
+majority ever registered on any issue in Illinois or in any State in the
+Union, a majority of nearly 500,000 (I believe it was 497,345 to be
+exact). Then we presented it to our Legislature. Now, this is the point.
+When we presented it to our Legislature, what do you think has happened?
+Why, nothing happened. (Sensation) We have talked, and talked, and
+talked, but we haven't acted. We have had several sessions, regular and
+irregular (laughter), on this subject, general and special, but we have
+failed to act. After the failure of the regular session to act, on
+December 14 last I called an extra session to determine the State's part
+in this water-power and waterway subject. It adjourned on March 2
+following (I want you to keep these dates in mind because they are
+significant); the Legislature was in a deadlock--I am not blaming the
+republicans for this, although Illinois is a republican State, and I am
+not blaming the democrats; the fact is that a band of republicans and a
+band of democrats joined to repudiate the pledges of both parties, and
+they did it, effectually did it. They adjourned on March 2; on April 29
+following (this year) a little corporation with a huge name was formed
+in our State--the Illinois Valley Gas, Light & Electric Power Company,
+I believe is the name--you are nearly compelled to take a vacation to
+pronounce the name all at once--with a capital stock of only $1000; a
+huge name for small capital. Then, on May 12 following--thirteen days
+later--the organizers of the corporation met, and decided they had made
+a mistake in capitalizing at $1000; so they made the capital accord with
+the dignity and length of the name and increased it from $1000 to
+$6,250,000. Since that time they have acquired fifty-year franchises in
+the following cities: Joliet, Morris, Seneca, Ottawa, Wilmington,
+Streator, Dwight, Odell, Gardner, Pontiac, Plainview, Yorkville, Coal
+City, and Bridgewood. Now that has been doing a good deal of work in a
+warm, humid atmosphere, such as we have in the summer time in Illinois
+(laughter). They have not only done that, but they have also acquired
+the other corporations that have had to do with the developing of
+water-power in Illinois; and not only that, but they have reached out
+and acquired certain riparian rights necessary to develop fully the
+power at Marseilles. Now, what will happen? Our sanitary district of
+Chicago has already expended $53,000,000 on this channel, and will
+expend $20,000,000 more in its full development, and our State will
+spend $20,000,000 on its part. In other words, Illinois will contribute
+$100,000,000 to this Lakes-to-Gulf Deep Waterway, and a corporation
+which has not expended one dollar to create this power comes along and
+puts a toll-gate across it and collects the toll. Bear in mind that none
+of this power is created by the surface or drainage water of the State;
+all of it is created by diverting the waters of Lake Michigan to the
+Illinois and the Mississippi. What would be thought, for instance, if
+our State should expend $100,000,000 in building a road from Chicago to
+Saint Louis and then some one who had not expended a dollar would throw
+a toll-gate across it and collect a toll of every person and vehicle
+that passed, and then when he tried to buy our own road back, charge us
+$100,000,000 for it? That would be going some, even in these days of
+"frenzied finance," wouldn't it? Yet that is exactly what they are doing
+with the water-power situation in our State. For several reasons
+(fancied or otherwise; it doesn't take much of a reason to occasion
+debate) there is a strong effort being made to prevent the State from
+acting, and our State is in the situation (and Chicago will be in the
+same situation soon) where we will be compelled, in order to acquire the
+riparian rights, to condemn them at their market value, and you can see,
+from the array of towns I read you, that the market value is steadily
+increasing (I collected their names about two weeks ago, and had not
+time this morning to wire inquiring whether it was up to date, but give
+you the list as an indication).
+
+The point I want to make is that our State is a good deal like other
+States: we are neither abnormally good nor abnormally bad--just an
+average. Sometimes we are attending to things in such a way that we
+would prefer to have no metropolitan newspapers to circulate and mislead
+us; at other times we do things in a grand style in that great State,
+and we are then very glad that we have such means of disseminating
+knowledge about what is being done.
+
+In regard to the Conservation movement: I sympathize very strongly with
+my good friends here from the West. It has been a delightful pleasure to
+meet them on a number of occasions, on the waterway trip down the
+Mississippi from Saint Louis to Memphis, then at New Orleans, and again
+at Washington, where we were all together at the Conservation Conference
+in Washington called by Theodore Roosevelt. I believe that the
+Government should not interfere to prevent the full development of the
+States. A long time ago it was said that he was a benefactor who made
+two blades of grass grow where only one had grown before, and the man
+who can put two acres in cultivation where only one was cultivated
+before is certainly a friend of mankind. So I think we want all the
+acres put in cultivation by irrigation or dry farming. But the general
+Government owns certain things: it owns coal lands, oil lands, gas
+lands, phosphate lands, and forest lands. We heard the President say
+this morning that the Government owns about a third of the forests that
+we must have in the north in order to allow the Mississippi to have
+enough water. The Government owns about a third of the coal, and if I
+recall correctly, about a third of the phosphate lands, which will
+become more and more necessary as we develop our agricultural resources.
+Now the Federal Government should not permit itself to be put in a
+position where these great natural resources could be wasted (great
+applause); it ought to be in a position to develop the States by
+irrigation, and in all possible ways, but it should not permit itself to
+be put in the position where a Legislature of a State would take from it
+power to control some of the very necessities of advanced civilization
+(applause). They can have a crop of corn every year, they can turn on
+and off water-power every year, and the rains will come again; if by
+lack of attention the forests are burned or removed, they can be grown
+again; but the great Creator provided there should be just one crop of
+coal for all time, and provided, so far as we know now, that there would
+be just a certain amount of phosphate lands, and they are for all time
+and all men. These crops are not growing in Montana just now, they are
+not growing in other States; and because they were meant for us all,
+this great continental Republic ought to be able to conserve them so
+they shall not be abused. We all have the right to use them now, and the
+Government, in my judgment, should see that there is no possibility of
+abuse.
+
+It seems very likely that, so far as water is concerned, the State and
+the Nation will have to cooperate and work together (applause). The
+State may own the water in Montana because the streams are not
+navigable, and I assume this is so in Wyoming and Idaho and the other
+mountain States. The Government at present owns much of the land. The
+Federal Government may not say to the State, "You cannot use the water
+because you cannot get in my backyard," and the State may not say,
+"Water is valueless without the use of the land that is situated
+adjoining;" so they will have to work together, and they should work
+together. That is the way it ought to be, and that is the way it will
+be; and I believe that we here in the West, and in the East and in the
+South, who have had our States developed by a vast expenditure of these
+natural resources and vast waste, will have patience and consideration
+for the views of these men who are somewhat fearful lest we do not
+permit them to develop their own resources. I believe the Nation will
+permit them not only to develop the resources, but will encourage them
+in that development (applause).
+
+Now, just a word about Illinois: I have told you so many bad things
+about our State that it is not proper to cease speaking without saying
+some good things. I was delighted with the statements made by Governor
+Norris about Montana. It is a proud record. It has set a good example to
+the Government. Our State has done something, too (laughter). Our State,
+a long time ago, before we heard of this Conservation movement, had at
+least six or eight commissions out doing this very work. We have an
+agricultural experiment station that has explored every foot of our
+land, I may say, in a phenomenal way; the fact is we are laying off our
+State in ten-acre plats, and the University of Illinois is surveying
+each ten acres and making a record indicating the kind of soil, later to
+give advice as to the development of each ten acres; and the gentleman
+under whose supervision that is done is a Delegate to this Congress and
+likely to address you. He is a specialist on soil. And we have had a
+geological commission that has taken stock of all of our minerals, and
+although we are a prairie State we are the third in the Union in our
+mineral output. We are not only locating and taking stock of our coal
+but showing how to mine it, how to send it by freight, how to store it,
+and how to burn it--for nine-tenths of its energy is wasted before you
+get it to the place where you should apply it. We have made a survey of
+our rivers, studying the fishery question; Illinois river is the second
+in its output of food products in the United States, being only exceeded
+by Columbia river in the remote West; it has more than doubled in the
+last eight years. We have a commission on floriculture and horticulture;
+and we have an internal improvement commission that is studying every
+stream in our State and giving the information to our counties and
+districts for the purpose of forming drainage districts so that the
+land may be drained and more of it cultivated. In every
+department--water, soil, minerals--our State has made a most careful
+investigation, so that we feel we have a complete stock of our
+resources; we believe, too, in their development, and we are developing
+them. All the departments of our State work are going along as they
+should, and our resources are being well conserved.
+
+I have dwelt on a disagreeable feature only because I believe that the
+example of Illinois should be beneficial elsewhere. We are having
+trouble in attending to our public utilities, as other States will.
+Illinois will have expended a hundred million dollars in the making of a
+water-course that creates water-power, and you are all familiar with the
+disgraceful story as to how the State has tried to cope with that
+water-power monopoly through its Legislature and conserve to us what we
+created ourselves. It is likely that we shall be compelled to see
+certain corporations or private individuals sowing where they didn't
+reap, and levying a toll upon a vast expenditure of money made by our
+commonwealth; and other States may profit by our experience. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chairman STUBBS--I am very glad indeed to have the opportunity of
+introducing Governor Hay, of the great State of Washington (applause).
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Governor HAY--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I desire to take this
+opportunity to thank the good citizens of Saint Paul for seeing to it
+that the Western States were given representation at this Congress
+(applause). It was not, and never was, the intention of the managers of
+this Conservation Congress to allow those who differed with them in
+opinion to be heard at this meeting, as I know by long correspondence
+myself with the management. In reading the numerous papers published
+here in the East relative to the "wild and woolly western men" and their
+ideas on Conservation, I said to my wife, before leaving home, "It looks
+to me that I am going down to Saint Paul to get the most glorious
+spanking a white man ever got." My wife said, "Go down and take it"
+(laughter). But since arriving here, I am pleased to say that I have
+found innumerable people who look upon this Conservation question
+exactly the same way as do the majority of the people of the Pacific
+Coast.
+
+All that is needed to solve the problem of conserving our natural
+resources is common sense and the application of the square deal
+(applause). It is because of a departure from these two essential
+elements in the consideration of Conservation, that an unsound, unjust,
+and impracticable policy has been advanced in this country. Common sense
+has given place to humbug and fairness to intolerance. Instead of calm,
+dispassionate, logical discussion of the subject, we hear and read on
+every hand exaggerated statements, misrepresentation, false accusation,
+dire prophecy, and passionate appeals to prejudice, avarice, and
+lawlessness. This has given rise to a wholly perverted notion of true
+Conservation, and has brought about a condition hurtful to the West, and
+one that, if persisted in, is bound to prove injurious to the Nation.
+The only sane and sensible kind of Conservation is that which permits
+the fullest and freest development of our natural resources under
+provisions that will perpetuate those resources that can be renewed, and
+that will obtain the greatest economic good from those that cannot be
+replaced. But to many of us of the Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountain
+States, Conservation, as practiced, means to tie up and not to utilize.
+It signifies to us the letting of our waters run unfettered to the sea
+for fear some one might develop their power and turn their energy to the
+benefit of mankind in this generation. To us it means the locking up of
+our vast forests that they may go to decay or become the prey of the
+fire king. It means that, to please some bureaucrat, the people of our
+section are held up to allow the timber trust to secure a profit of a
+few extra millions each year. It means that our vast coal areas must go
+undeveloped, and that we be compelled to spend our money with foreign
+mine owners for fuel, importing the coal at no small expense for the
+item of transportation alone. It means that the State of Washington is
+robbed of the use of 500,000 acres of land that the Federal Government
+granted to it for educational purposes at the time it was admitted to
+the Union. Conservation as practiced in the past developed into a vast
+profit-making scheme for certain southern land grant railroads, which
+under it were given scrip in place of worthless desert land included in
+forest reservations, treeless since time began and bound to remain
+treeless to the end of time. And we have seen this scrip brought north
+and placed upon our timber lands that will cruise from 5,000,000 to
+50,000,000 feet per section, and are worth from $20 to $100 per acre.
+This brand of Conservation means to us that 27-1/4% of the total area of
+the State of Washington paid a paltry $16,000 into the public coffers in
+1909. It means we are called upon to expend large sums each year for
+policing these Federal reserves, which contribute practically nothing to
+the cost of State government, while at each session our State
+Legislature is compelled to appropriate large sums to build roads
+through Federal reserves. Last year we appropriated $205,000 for this
+purpose. To us, Conservation means that settlers within forest reserves
+who have taken up homesteads in good faith are harassed, browbeaten, and
+often forced to abandon their claims and lose the fruits of the labor of
+years. As an illustration of this, permit me to read a letter I received
+recently from a fellow citizen of mine who, by the way, is a prominent
+logger, and while a very wealthy man and a large timber owner, is one
+of that kind of men who came up from the bottom; he started in at day's
+wages in the State of Washington a little over thirty years ago. This is
+what he says:
+
+     Speaking for myself and from a selfish standpoint, the present
+     Conservation by our National Government suits me fine, but in
+     the interests of the poor settlers who make our country, a
+     change should be made. Four-fifths of these settlers come out
+     here from Eastern States and endeavor to take up homesteads,
+     but they are so harassed and driven from their homesteads
+     through technicalities and forest rangers under orders that are
+     absolutely foreign to the best interests of our country and the
+     settler, that instead of making good citizens the Conservation
+     laws have made anarchists, and if the thing is kept up,
+     everything that will burn I expect to see burned within the
+     next ten years. You cannot drive a man from his home, with a
+     wife and from one to six children, penniless and hungry and the
+     children in rags, while the land that would support them lies
+     idle and wild just to gratify the theory of some man who may be
+     honest but who is ignorant of the conditions of the frontier. I
+     will name a case of a man I met in Aberdeen, who told me that
+     he tramped forty miles three times to make proof on his claim.
+     He had lived with his family on his homestead for seven years
+     and endeavored to make proof, coming out with witnesses and
+     spending money he needed for his family, only to be told the
+     last time he came out that his hearing was indefinitely
+     postponed. This man came out a good, loyal, American citizen;
+     went back a fire-eater. I know another case on the head of
+     Nooksack river where a man endeavored to take up a homestead on
+     meadow land, and after he made application it was set aside for
+     forest rangers' quarters No. 1. He then tried to take a second
+     homestead and it was set aside for Forest Ranger No. 2; he then
+     endeavored to take a third, and that was set aside for Forest
+     Ranger No. 3. The land is fertile beyond description, but there
+     is nothing living on it, and it is supporting no one.
+
+     On the head waters of Skagit river there are tracts of land
+     that will support from three to four hundred homesteads. This
+     is purely meadow land with brush and worthless scrub timber,
+     like all our western Washington meadows. Any five acres of this
+     land will sustain a family in comfort. This land is held in the
+     forest reserve, absolutely worthless so far as sustaining
+     people is concerned, or paying taxes to the State. If our State
+     is to give up one-third of its taxable property and carry on
+     its government with two-thirds, she has very little interest,
+     if any, in that portion of the State reserved by Conservation,
+     and naturally will not aid in the preservation of the same as
+     she would were the revenue from these resources to become the
+     revenue of the State. Up on Quinault river, ten years ago,
+     there was a flourishing settlement with every prospect for
+     opening up the country. Since this Conservation law has been in
+     force, many of these settlers have left their homesteads,
+     others have been driven off and gone to British Columbia. The
+     United States Government does not build a road into the
+     settlement, and the people are too poor to build out. Take it
+     up in the Northern Peninsula (the greater portion covered by
+     forest reserve), the land would sustain hundreds of thousands
+     of comfortable and independent homes; but today it is a howling
+     wilderness, and the meadow land is as wild as it was a hundred
+     years ago. The people are too poor to build roads in and across
+     the forest reserve, and the Government does not.
+
+     I sincerely hope and trust that the people of the East who are
+     not acquainted with the conditions in the State of Washington
+     will permit this State to control and conduct her own
+     Conservation, both water, timber, coal and oil, if necessary,
+     to the best interests of the State and Nation. We have a State
+     that has upwards of ten million horse-power in our waterfalls
+     going to waste every minute. With proper State laws this could
+     be utilized, and so protected that monopoly could not control
+     it. We have millions of tons of cheap anthracite and bituminous
+     coal on our coast. Still, the people of Alaska are buying
+     British Columbia coal and shipping it up to themselves two
+     thousand miles, while the coal is sticking out of the
+     mountain-sides of Alaska and cannot be touched. We are shipping
+     hundreds of thousands of tons of Maryland coal to our navy on
+     the Pacific Coast, in foreign ships, while we, of the State of
+     Washington, are prohibited from shipping our cheap lumber to
+     our own people on the Atlantic Coast, and are compelled, if we
+     ship at all, to ship it by rail to New York and the thickly
+     settled portions of the East at a freight rate that is
+     prohibitive. The only people receiving the benefit of our lower
+     grades of lumber and cheap prices are the Chinese and Japanese.
+     If we were permitted to ship our lumber in foreign vessels from
+     Washington to New York or other ports on the Atlantic Coast, we
+     could give them lumber that they all need and that we would be
+     glad to sell at a very reasonable figure. It is the fool laws
+     that are oppressing the people, both of the East and the West,
+     and many of them have been made in the interest of monopoly and
+     many through ignorance.
+
+The West is not here to fight Conservation, for, properly directed, it
+is one of the greatest movements inaugurated in this country since the
+abolishment of slavery. Our former President instituted many reform
+movements that, properly directed, mean happiness and prosperity for our
+people; and of all the movements started by him, in my opinion none
+means more to the financial welfare of ourselves and our children than
+Conservation, as vouched for by President Roosevelt (applause). The
+complaint we have is not against the principle of Conservation, but
+against the prostitution of that great movement to the impractical ends
+of certain men out of sympathy with our institutions. They would
+disregard the rights of the people of the Western States to regulate
+affairs within their borders; they would retard development of the
+younger States; they would compel the citizens of the Western States to
+contribute annually large sums of money to the timber, coal and power
+companies operating in those sections. While these bureaucrats claim to
+be working in the interest of the people, they could not better serve
+the Special Interests if they were employed by them. In the past they
+laid unusual burdens upon the Western States, and have ruthlessly
+crushed and brushed aside the honest homesteader who did not have funds
+to fight or carry his case to the highest court. They are attempting to
+bottle up and make useless the natural resources of our Western States,
+and have our local affairs administered through an irresponsible bureau
+located 3,000 miles away. All the people of the West ask is a chance
+with the older communities and an honest shuffle--a square deal above
+the table--and a show to develop our resources and build up prosperous
+communities made up of innumerable happy homes. I believe the people of
+the West are as good citizens, and are just as true and loyal to the
+interests of the Nation as are the citizens of any other locality. As
+States we do not like to be looked upon as provinces or colonial
+possessions to be exploited for the benefit of the other sections of
+this Nation. I have faith enough in the fairness of the citizens of the
+other sections of this Nation to believe that they do not covet or
+desire to rob us of what rightfully belongs to us. We believe the profit
+arising from the development or exploitation of the natural resources of
+each State should be applied to the benefit of and to the cost of
+government of that State.
+
+Let me get this fact set in your minds: 95-1/2% of the national reserves
+are located within the eleven Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountain States,
+and 27-1/4% of the total area of the State I have the honor to represent
+is taken up by forest reserves, an area in which could be placed the
+States of Maryland, Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, and the
+District of Columbia, with room enough to spare to accommodate another
+Rhode Island. The extreme Conservationist argues that the people of the
+Western States are not competent or qualified to manage the natural
+resources within their borders and that a guardian in the shape of a
+Federal bureau should be appointed to handle them for us. This is a
+gratuitous insult to the intelligence and integrity of the people of the
+West. Almost the worst kind of government that can be placed upon a
+people is a bureaucracy. Let me call your attention to the fact that
+practically all of the land, mineral, coal, timber, and power-site
+steals perpetrated upon the people were made when these titles were
+vested in the Federal Government.
+
+Now, let us deal a little with common-sense Conservation: The people of
+the State of Washington started a practical system of Conservation long
+before Conservation became a national issue. The Governor of Montana has
+said that Montana was the first State in the Union to practice
+Conservation. Evidently the Governor of Montana is not up on the laws of
+the State of Washington or he wouldn't have made that statement
+(laughter). One of the great natural assets of our State is our
+fisheries. Because of over-fishing it became evident to our people some
+years ago that, unless proper steps were taken, our fishing industry
+would be ruined. Laws were passed regulating the taking of fish, and
+numerous hatcheries were established throughout the State. We are now
+putting more salmon fry into salt water than is the Federal Government,
+and today the State of Washington stands first in the Union in the value
+of the products of its fisheries, all because our people a few years ago
+started a practical system of Conservation. The expense of enforcing our
+laws regulating fisheries and the cost of maintaining and operating
+hatcheries is assessed against that industry. We cannot bring ourselves
+to consent to turn over the management of this industry to the Federal
+Government. In fact, so opposed are the fisher-folk of Puget Sound to
+Federal control of the fishing industry, which is threatened because of
+the proposed treaty with Great Britain, that they are fighting the
+ratification of the treaty by the United States Senate.
+
+Let us now take up the question of the national forest reserves as
+administered in the western States. I doubt that there is a thinking man
+who does not love the trees, the deep woods and vast forests of our
+land; but a tree, like everything else that grows, has its youth, its
+maturity, its old age and death. A tree not used at maturity decays,
+falls, and becomes a fire-trap and is a serious menace to standing
+timber. I believe that when a tree reaches its maturity it should be
+used and not allowed to go to decay (applause). Failure to make use of
+our natural resources which are going to waste is the antithesis of
+Conservation. I believe that all non-forested lands adapted for
+agricultural purposes should be opened to settlement and homesteaders
+allowed to file upon them. Within the national forest reserves are vast
+areas with not a stick of timber on them, and on which timber can never
+be made to grow profitably. These tracts should be thrown open to
+settlement. It is people we want in the West, not game preserves
+(applause); it is happy, prosperous communities, not idle wastes. I
+would not advise the acceptance of homestead filings upon timbered areas
+until after the timber is removed and it is found the land is suitable
+for agriculture. If it is valuable only for timber raising, then the
+land should be turned over to the State for reforestation. It is the
+duty of the State to all the States to start a system of reforestation.
+At the last session of our Legislature, an appropriation was made to
+start a survey and have maps made showing the areas of our State better
+adapted for timber-growing than for any other purpose. This work is now
+well under way. A commission composed of twelve of our leading citizens,
+interested in forestry, have been appointed to draft a forestry bill to
+be submitted to the coming Legislature, when, without doubt, the State
+will start in upon a plan of reforestation; something which every State
+of the Union should take up. It is the duty of the States to attend to
+the growing of forests within their borders, and not the duty of the
+Federal Government. I am not in favor of abolishing the Federal forestry
+department. This department should stand in the same relation to the
+State forests as the Department of Agriculture stands to the farming
+interests of the Nation (applause). We would hardly expect Secretary
+Wilson to go around the country, preparing the ground, planting and
+harvesting our crops, and collecting the revenue therefrom, and we do
+not expect the Federal Government to go inside of the State and start a
+system of reforestation where it is absolutely the duty of the State
+itself to undertake that work (applause).
+
+The greatest infringement upon the rights of the State to handle their
+own internal affairs is the attempt on the part of the Federal
+Government to gain control by indirection of our water-power for the
+purpose of supervising and deriving the revenue from any possible
+development of the powers. This, by the way, is a policy particularly
+waged by the National Conservation Association, an organization which is
+making of this Conservation question a cult, which has practically set
+up a dogma, and whose members are now quarreling over their claims to
+orthodoxy. So far about all it has done has been to play into the hands
+of the power monopoly, which the first apostles of Conservation claim to
+fear so greatly.
+
+Of all the lame arguments I have heard, the one that the people of the
+country have not the brains or authority to regulate the charges of any
+public service corporation, is the worst. We have two means of reaching
+them: by regulating the rates, and by taxation. No State in the Union
+was probably ever more troubled than was the State of Washington a few
+years ago with a railway lobby. In the year 1905 the Legislature of the
+State of Washington passed a railway commission law, and placed the
+regulation and control of railroads under this commission. Three years
+this commission studied the conditions in the State. It was one of the
+first States in the Union to make a physical valuation to determine the
+cost of these plants. In 1909 the railway commission of Washington
+placed an order into effect that saved to the farmers of the State, in
+the hauling of wheat and other grains alone, $750,000. At the same time
+they placed an order reducing the general distance tariffs of the
+railroads, which cost the railroads of the State $75,000, and the
+railroads have never appealed from its decision and those rates are in
+effect today. In 1909 the railway commission traveled over every mile of
+road in our State, visited every station, held hearings, and as a result
+of that trip they made 250 orders ordering new stations, enlargement of
+waiting-rooms and train facilities; all those things that the people
+complained about they remedied, and of the 250 orders put into
+effect--which cost the railroads hundreds of thousands of dollars--they
+never have appealed from but 16, and 234 have gone into effect; so the
+argument that the States cannot control affairs within their own
+borders, it seems to me, is very fallacious (applause). If we are not
+competent to handle affairs within our own borders, if we are not
+competent to regulate corporations, then let us surrender our
+Constitution and go back to territorial days and let the Federal
+Government administer our affairs for us. (Applause)
+
+Now, with reference to the water-power bill: The bill before Congress
+introduced by Senator Smoot, of Utah, and a similar bill introduced by
+Senator Jones, of Washington, are perfectly satisfactory to the people
+of the Coast, so far as I know. Governor Norris has explained to you
+that the beds and banks of all streams, up to the limit of medium high
+tide and medium high water, belong to the States; they do not belong to
+the Federal Government. That property is just as much ours as is the
+jack-knife in our pockets. Senator Smoot's bill provides that all the
+interest the Federal Government has in this is that it owns the sites.
+We own the water, we own the power. There is no question about that. The
+Supreme Court has passed upon it time and time again. The Government
+owns the sites. The Smoot bill provides that the sites in the Federal
+reserves shall be turned over to the State government, but that in no
+instance shall the State pass the fee-simple title to the land, and no
+lease shall be longer than fifty years. This is perfectly satisfactory,
+and the people of the State of Washington have no objections to that
+form of relinquishment to the State.
+
+The high-handed manner in which a Federal bureau attempted to hold up
+the development of the western States was the result of a false
+conception of the principles upon which the Government is founded, and a
+dangerous assumption that honor and efficiency existed nowhere but in
+one self-appointed guide, philosopher, and so-called friend of the
+people. I believe it is the intention of those now in authority to
+administer the natural resources of the West according to law and with
+some respect for the welfare of the State in which the resources are
+located. But outside of governmental and administrative circles, an
+element composed of faddists, dreamers, and enthusiasts is striving to
+bend popular sentiment to certain impractical and unfair policies of
+applying Conservation, and it is against this element that the West has
+taken arms. We want Conservation that benefits all the people, not a
+Conservation that plays into the hands of a few. Conservation that does
+not make use of resources rapidly going to waste is Conservation gone
+daffy. I have noticed that there are some States down here shouting loud
+for Federal control of our natural resources. I want to say that those
+Governors who are here shouting the loudest for Federal control are from
+the States that have the least amount of natural resources. It is the
+desire of these people that the revenue received from these natural
+resources shall be surrendered to the Federal treasury. That is what the
+western States certainly object to. Some people and papers here are
+charging that "the interests," whatever you may call them, are favoring
+State control of the natural resources. I want to say to you that "the
+interests" are always against local control in any case, and always
+prefer that monopoly of all kinds shall be placed in the Federal
+Government and as far away from the people as it is possible to get it.
+
+The address made here by President Taft this morning is in line with the
+western idea of Conservation as I understand it, and I believe those of
+us from the West who look at this question as I do endorse the same safe
+statement that has been made by our great President (applause). Let
+western men, using up-to-date western methods and familiar with western
+conditions, deal with and manage western matters. I thank you.
+(Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chairman STUBBS--Professor Condra will make an announcement before I
+introduce the next speaker.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Professor CONDRA--Mr Chairman, and Ladies and Gentlemen: You know that
+we have State Conservation Commissions and associations representing
+various States. We have recently perfected an organization of these with
+a view to cooperation among States and with the Federal departments. The
+Federal representatives forming our national committees have thought it
+better not to issue any suggestions to the State delegations, preferring
+to leave this duty to the committee of the interstate organization, of
+which I have the honor to be Chairman, as the more democratic method. We
+propose that the chairman of each State Conservation Commission or
+Association call his State delegation together at some stated time and
+place (in the absence of the chairman the secretary or some other
+commissioner may act) to organize the delegation and select
+representatives to serve on the resolutions committee and any other
+committees, to the end that we may have fair discussion and full
+representation of all our States.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chairman STUBBS--I now take pleasure in introducing Governor Brooks, of
+Wyoming. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Governor BROOKS--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: It has been my good
+fortune to visit nearly every State in this great Union, and to spend
+considerable time in nearly all the larger cities, though, strange to
+say, this is the first time I have ever visited this particular spot;
+and yesterday, while enjoying a beautiful ride through the Twin Cities
+and around the great parks and other resorts, I felt that my education
+had been sadly neglected (applause). This is certainly one of the garden
+spots of the Union, and I think the people here showed the proper spirit
+when their Governor in his address this morning stated that a State
+convention on Conservation had been held, at which the attendance
+numbered some 7,000 people, to consider the proper conservation of the
+soil and to bring about increased production of the farms. I know that
+the State of Minnesota is on the right track--that is the important
+thing, after all. (Applause)
+
+A few days ago the western Governors held a meeting at Salt Lake City,
+and spent two days discussing this question of Conservation. After full
+and complete discussion they adopted, unanimously, a brief set of
+resolutions, which I think express their views in this important matter.
+Colorado, Utah, California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and
+Wyoming were represented; and since the resolutions, which have been
+published in all the western papers, have met with unqualified public
+endorsement, and as it will only take me about a minute, I am going to
+read them, as embodying the views of the western Governors--and, I might
+add, of 95 percent of the citizens of the great western States:
+
+     _Resolved_, that the Governors of the Rocky Mountain and
+     Pacific Coast States affirm as a platform of principles to be
+     urged upon the National Conservation Congress to be held at
+     Saint Paul, September 5-9, 1910
+
+     _First_, that in legislatively solving the problem of
+     Conservation the National Congress adhere to the doctrine of
+     Abraham Lincoln that the public lands are an impermanent
+     national possession, held in trust for the maturing States.
+
+Right on that point, I wish to refer to the splendid paper read here at
+the opening of this afternoon's session by that brilliant, honest, and
+patriotic statesman, Senator Nelson (applause), outlining the public
+land laws. I call your attention to the fact that at the beginning of
+this great Nation of ours the Federal Government acquired, by cession
+from the States, by treaties with the Indians, and by purchase and
+conquest, all this vast public-land territory, the early idea being that
+this public domain was to be sold for the payment of the Revolutionary
+War debt and for the running expenses of the Government; though that
+early idea was quickly transformed and changed, owing to the insistent
+demand of the settlers, and the pre-emption laws (with which you are all
+familiar) followed as the second step. They were a sort of settlement
+and revenue measure combined; but still the insistent demand of the
+settlers would not stop, and gradually we reached that stage where the
+homestead law was passed, and signed by Abraham Lincoln in 1862, giving
+the settlers 160 acres of land as the result of settlement and
+cultivation, doing away entirely with the old revenue idea; and under
+that one law this great State of Minnesota, and every other State in
+this central country, has developed to a degree unparalleled in the
+history of human progress (applause). Now, all the West asks is an even
+break; all the West asks is an equal opportunity. How can we educate our
+children, how can we maintain good government and good law, how can we
+do all those necessary and essential things to maintain a high state of
+civilization and progress, if over one-half of the State is to be held
+permanently as a Federal resource, giving no taxation or revenue
+whatever to the support of our State governments? (Applause) It is
+utterly impossible. We of the West are just as bitterly opposed to
+monopoly, just as bitterly opposed to any misuse of the natural
+resources of this country as any of you gentlemen here assembled
+(applause); but we do believe that the States themselves can in a great
+measure work out the safest and best conservation. I might get started
+here and go on talking, and I do not want to do it; I want to read the
+other resolutions:
+
+     _Second_, that State government, no less beneficently than
+     National Government, is capable of devising and administering
+     laws for the conservation of public property; and that the
+     National and State governments should legislatively coordinate
+     to the end that within a reasonable period of time the State
+     governments be conceded full and complete administration of
+     such Conservation laws as may be found adaptable to the varying
+     conditions of the several States.
+
+The idea being that conditions vary so tremendously--just as you have
+heard from the Governor of Mississippi and the Governor of Illinois, the
+latter of whom told you about a monopoly stepping in and stopping the
+State development of the water-power along one of their streams. Such a
+condition is absolutely impossible in the West, because that old law of
+riparian rights does not apply; there is no law in the West whereby we
+are compelled to allow the water in the streams to flow by your property
+undiminished in quantity and undefiled in quality. In the West the law
+of appropriation applies, the law of use. Under the Constitution of
+Wyoming, granting twenty years ago, we were given all the water of the
+State, everywhere and every place; we cannot part title with it, we hold
+it, and we will always hold it. Talk about monopoly! How absolutely
+impossible, under the laws of Wyoming! We have used this water wisely
+and well. I picked out of a paper this afternoon a certificate of
+appropriation for power granted in 1900, ten years ago: "Whereas, F. V.
+Andrews has presented to the Board of Control of the State of Wyoming
+proof of the appropriation of water from Sand creek, tributary to the
+Redwater territory, for enlargement of Beulah flouring mill ditch, under
+permit 517 (enlargement for power and milling purposes), now, know ye,
+that the Board of Control under the provisions of Division 1, Title 9,
+Chapters 10 and 14 of the Revised Statutes of Wyoming, 1899, has, by an
+order duly made and entered on the 28th day of December, 1909, in order
+record No. 4, page 287, determined and established the priority and
+amount of such appropriation as follows: name of the proprietor, F. V.
+Andrews, postoffice, Beulah, Wyoming; amount of appropriation, 145 cubic
+feet of water, date of appropriation, April 6, 1900. Said ditch so
+located, the right to use water herein defined, shall not at any time
+exceed the volume of 145 cubic feet per second, and the right shall at
+all times be subject to any future regulation and restriction that may
+be placed on the same by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming."
+(Applause) It is absolutely impossible to get a monopoly of water-power
+in the State of Wyoming, and such an instance as referred to by the
+Governor of Illinois would be impossible. The State of Wyoming could
+simply refuse to allow that company to use one drop of water; they have
+the power to do it, it is so provided for in the Constitution, just as
+the State of Wyoming, if it chose, could absolutely refuse to permit the
+general Government itself to use one drop of water for power purposes.
+We have never had any power monopoly in the State of Wyoming, and we do
+not intend to have.
+
+     _Third_, that experience of the Conservation States
+     demonstrates that dispositions of public property made under
+     existing National Conservation laws and regulations have tended
+     to intrench monopolies and interests menacing the common
+     welfare; and that modifications of such laws and regulations
+     should be promoted by the Conservation Congress.
+
+Our great President this morning stated a great truth, and it came right
+to the hearts of the western people. You can't understand it here,
+perhaps, but we realize the importance of Conservation; but we have been
+talked to death on it. _What we want is action!_ We want the people to
+get busy; we do not want all these things bottled up in cold storage; we
+want them used for the generation of today. That is the important thing.
+As it is now in Wyoming, every big coal company in the State is adding
+an increased price to its coal to the consumer, who is already burdened
+beyond the point of endurance, simply because there is no further
+development in these coal lands as they stand today under the
+withdrawals; every ranchman in the State of Wyoming is paying ten
+dollars a thousand more for his lumber than he had to a few years
+ago--ten years ago, five years ago--owing to the fact that development
+has ceased. The only monopolies that we are troubled with out there are
+those that are unable to appraise their capital at present simply
+because competition cannot come up and meet them on the markets under
+present conditions.
+
+     _Fourth_, that the elimination from the forest reserves of all
+     homestead and untimbered grazing lands is immediately
+     expedient.
+
+     _Fifth_, the use and control of all water-power inheres of
+     right in the States, within restrictions insuring perpetual
+     freedom from monopoly.
+
+     _Sixth_, that the privilege of American citizens to seek and
+     develop mineral wealth wherever it may be found should be fully
+     amplified and secured by laws.
+
+     _Seventh_, that the idea of deriving Federal revenue from the
+     physical resources of the States is repugnant to that
+     adjustment of constitutional powers which guarantee the
+     perpetuity of the Union. (Applause)
+
+And with only one thought more I leave you: If the western States, never
+having had the opportunity so far to develop their great natural
+resources as you people of the East have, as Minnesota and the Atlantic
+States have, are now to be changed entirely from the time-honored policy
+that has made these States great and powerful; if now we are to be
+taxed, as we have been, $150,000 a year for the forest-reserve grazing
+privileges, when that same money is used in the great Empire State for
+forest protection free of cost, then we of the West have a hard row to
+hoe. We simply ask the same fair treatment as accorded every central and
+eastern State of the Union. It is not right to tax the West for anything
+which you would not apply in one of the great eastern States. We want
+our resources protected, we want them safeguarded for our children and
+our children's children, but we want the opportunity to make our young
+States grow and be prosperous, so that we of the West will have those
+things of which we can be as proud as you people of Minnesota are when
+you take a gentleman to your magnificent State Capitol, to your great
+Agricultural College, and to your other great schools--we want the same
+for our children and our children's children, without Federal
+interference. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chairman STUBBS--I want to say a word here about a suggestion made by
+the Montana Governor. I would like to ask Governor Norris if it is not a
+fact that the Federal Government has led in irrigation in Montana?
+
+Governor NORRIS--Has led?
+
+Chairman STUBBS--Yes sir. Haven't they done a great deal of work to
+develop your irrigation projects?
+
+Governor NORRIS--For the last three or four years, yes.
+
+Chairman STUBBS--Well, it is within the last three or four years that
+this Conservation idea has been spreading out, taking root, and going
+out from Washington; they didn't get started until Theodore Roosevelt
+got hold of it (applause). As to the Federal Government undertaking to
+dominate the West and discriminate against the West, I don't believe
+that it is in the heart or mind of Gifford Pinchot or Theodore Roosevelt
+or anybody else to do that (applause); but Gifford Pinchot has stood
+like a rock and fought like a tiger to keep the thieves out of the
+Alaska coal fields (applause), and you ought to build a monument to his
+memory for keeping the Cunningham claims off the statute books and from
+legalizing by Congress, for it would have been an everlasting disgrace
+to the American Nation to have millions and billions of tons of coal
+stolen there. What did President Taft say this morning? He said, "We
+believe in leasing those lands out there in Montana and in Wyoming and
+all over this country." He does not believe in selling those things; he
+doesn't believe in turning them over to the State, either. He said as
+much here this morning (applause). He says, "Lease them for the benefit
+of the people they belong to."
+
+I tell you this Conservation idea, when it is put on the right sort of
+basis, is the biggest thing that we have struck in a financial way in a
+long while; and I tell you right now (I do not know how it happens, but
+it is a matter of fact) I do know that the great syndicates and the
+great corporations that want to gobble up all these coal lands and
+control these power sites, every bloody one of them, want State control.
+(Applause, and cries of "Right, Right!") And the reason they want State
+control is because the meshes are too small in the national net; the
+Federal Government has given them genuine supervision and genuine
+control of national resources, and I thank God for it, too (applause). I
+want it to keep coming right along. I would not stand for one minute to
+see the West discriminated against; I do not believe in taxing Montana
+or Wyoming for anything that you would not tax New York or Pennsylvania
+for; neither does Theodore Roosevelt, for he grew up out in that country
+and he is one of them and his whole heart is with them; he wouldn't see
+one iota of discrimination, and nobody else would; but I say to you that
+it is the great electric power organizations and combinations--it
+centers down to four or five or six fellows--that are trying to
+monopolize all the power sites in the United States! That's what's the
+matter now; and those fellows think if they could get the whole thing in
+the hands of State legislatures they could dicker and trade with them
+(applause and cheers). They know they cannot do it at Washington. That
+is all there is to this whole problem; and I say to you today that the
+American people ought to build a monument to Theodore Roosevelt and
+Gifford Pinchot for the work they have done in this line (great
+applause), to say nothing about the other great work that has been done.
+I would like to see those Alaska coal thieves sent to jail (laughter and
+applause), and for my part I do not take any stock in the Ballinger idea
+of running things up there, either (tremendous applause). If I were
+President of the United States, I'd kick Ballinger out of that Cabinet
+in five minutes, that's what I'd do. (Great and enthusiastic applause)
+We might as well tell the truth about it, too. I say to you that this
+work has started, and it has started along broad, decent, National
+lines; the States have plenty to do right now if they will attend to
+business; they have seventy-five percent of the forests now in private
+hands with only about twenty-five percent under Federal control, and
+two-thirds of all the great coal interests of this country in private
+hands with only one-third vested in the Federal Government; I'd like to
+see the Federal Government look out for these power sites, and when the
+contract is made, let it be made in such a way as they can control it.
+Taft made some good suggestions this morning, and I want to give him
+credit for it (laughter and applause).
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I did not mean to make a speech; I meant to introduce Governor Vessey.
+(Laughter and applause, and cries of "Go on, go on") We have great men
+here that are ready to talk, and I must close in a few minutes. Governor
+Vessey, of South Dakota. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Governor VESSEY--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: You can readily see
+by the color of that man's hair (indicating Governor Stubbs) that he
+wears the Kansas emblem on his head (laughter and applause) and is not
+afraid to say something.
+
+Now, in regard to Conservation, I am a good deal like John was the
+afternoon he was out riding with Mary. For some reason or other he
+wanted to know whether Mary thought enough of him to marry him, and yet
+he wasn't quite ready to make her his wife. But he put the question
+anyway, and she immediately accepted him. They rode along for some
+distance in silence. Finally she asked, "John, why don't you say
+something?" He replied, "There's been too much said already!" (Great
+laughter and applause) And there have been lots of good things said
+today.
+
+South Dakota is in a peculiar position. It is not in the southern part
+of the United States, neither is it in the extreme northwestern part; it
+doesn't even join Kansas (laughter), though it has _some_ of the same
+kind of spirit (applause). The eastern part of South Dakota is a strip
+of country two hundred miles square, and there is no richer, no more
+uniform, no better farming land in the United States than that part of
+South Dakota; the western part of the State goes into the foothills of
+the Rocky Mountains. In this western part is a great forest reserve; and
+I want to say I believe that in the State of South Dakota the National
+Government is doing the best work in preserving the natural forest done
+anywhere in the United States. Still you find in the western part of our
+State a great deal of the same spirit that you find in Wyoming, Montana,
+and Washington. Why? Because of local interests. You see this is largely
+a local question; and what suits Kansas or Mississippi, somehow or other
+does not suit Wyoming. It is like the tariff question; and it will
+probably never be settled until it is settled by an expert commission
+which will deal with the matter as a whole. (Applause)
+
+I believe largely--very largely, indeed--in State rights. I believe the
+State should control and own the water-power of streams that are not
+navigable and that it should be within its province to provide that the
+waters should first be used for the soil and secondarily be used for
+furnishing water power to turn the wheels of industry and thereby make
+the State richer. For we must admit--just as your great Governor of
+Minnesota has said--the first duty of the people of the United States is
+to preserve the soil (applause), because the crop that comes annually
+from the soil yields the greatest revenue that the United States will
+ever have; and we must have it, and must have it increased if we expect
+to support the increasing population of the United States at a
+reasonable cost so that they can work at reasonable wages and support
+homes--possibly not of luxury, but of all the comforts that citizens are
+entitled to.
+
+I appreciate the position that has been taken in the conservation of
+coal; I appreciate the conservation of timber, of phosphate lands, of
+oil, and of gas; but I want to say that the same conditions that have
+been referred to upon this platform with reference to the disposing of
+power from water-power plants at the lowest minimum cost should apply in
+the same way to these other natural resources--yet you will notice that
+in the report of the National Forester it is shown that we have been
+selling stumpage at market prices. They propose to sell the coal and the
+gas and the oil, and possibly the phosphate, at market prices. If that
+is true, it is not real Conservation in the interest of the consumer;
+because if we only own one-third of the coal and the private individuals
+who own two-thirds fix the prices, and if the Government follows them in
+fixing the prices, where does the consumer derive any benefit
+(applause). The same rule should apply to timber. I can show you, in our
+own State, where there are parts of the national forests that are ripe
+and should be cut into lumber, and that lumber should be building homes
+on our broad prairies. But the price the Government has fixed on the
+stumpage is too great for mill-men to buy it and manufacture it and sell
+it, even at the high price of lumber out in that country. Now, who is
+suffering? The men that are endeavoring to build homes on that prairie.
+I think we ought to be intelligent on those things. I think we ought to
+use the timber, and we ought to use the coal, and we ought to use the
+phosphates, in the upbuilding of this country, and give it to the
+consumers, if possible, at a price at which they can use it, and not at
+a price that may be set by the large combinations or trusts that control
+these products. I thank you. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chairman STUBBS--We were expected to get through here at 5 oclock and it
+is now ten minutes after 6. I regret that there is not time to allow a
+dozen or fifteen mighty fine men to continue this discussion. The
+session is adjourned.
+
+
+
+
+_THIRD SESSION_
+
+
+The Congress convened in the Auditorium, Saint Paul, on the morning of
+September 6, 1910, and was called to order by President Baker.
+
+President BAKER--Ladies and Gentlemen. We have a few minutes before our
+honored guest Colonel Roosevelt arrives. We shall occupy that time in
+routine business. At Seattle, where this Congress was formed, the
+organization was left to an Executive Committee and a Board of
+Directors. They are now prepared to submit a report; but the first and
+most important question relates to credentials, on which the Congress at
+large may properly act.
+
+A DELEGATE--Mr Chairman, I move that the Chair be authorized to appoint
+a committee of five on credentials.
+
+President BAKER--Gentlemen, you have heard the motion. Is it seconded?
+(The motion was seconded) If there is no discussion, the motion will be
+put. All those in favor of the motion will signify their pleasure by
+saying aye.
+
+A VOICE--What is the question?
+
+President BAKER--The motion is that the Chair be authorized to appoint a
+committee of five on credentials. All in favor will say aye. Contrary
+nay. It is a unanimous vote.
+
+The Chair will appoint on that committee Edward Hines, of Chicago,
+chairman (and will ask him to call his committee together as soon as
+possible); George K. Smith, of Saint Louis, R. W. Douglas, of Seattle,
+Charles H. Pack, of Cleveland, Lynn R. Meekins, of Baltimore.
+
+The next important business will be consideration of a Constitution and
+By-Laws, which Professor Condra will read.
+
+Professor CONDRA--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am asked to read
+the draft of a constitution that you may know that it comes from the
+State organizations. Your various State committeemen met and adopted the
+draft submitted to us by the Executive Committee; therefore the proposed
+Constitution has the approval of two bodies, one State and one National.
+
+(Professor Condra proceeded with the reading of the Constitution as
+submitted; after reaching Article VI--)
+
+A DELEGATE--Mr President, as the time is late, and as the Executive
+Committee have passed upon Constitution and it has been approved by the
+representatives of the States in the form presented, I move that the
+further reading be suspended and that the Constitution be adopted.
+(Applause)
+
+President BAKER--Is the motion seconded? (Several voices seconded the
+motion) All in favor will say aye; contrary nay. Carried without
+dissenting voice. (Applause)
+
+Some announcements will now be made by the gentleman from Nebraska.
+
+Professor CONDRA--Ladies and Gentlemen: In order that there may be
+proper representation of the various delegations in the Committee on
+Resolutions, it is again urged that all members of each delegation meet
+and select their representatives. If chairmen of delegations will give
+us the place and time of meeting we will gladly announce it from this
+platform. Thus far we have not heard of time and place for meeting of
+delegations from New Hampshire, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky,
+Ohio, Minnesota, Kansas, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, or Nevada.
+
+[Several announcements of meetings of delegations were here made.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--We will now listen to an address from Honorable John
+Barrett, a man known around the world as the Director of the Bureau of
+American Republics. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr BARRETT--Ladies and Gentlemen: If I had the fascinating capacity of
+Governor Stubbs, of Kansas (applause), I might be able to do justice to
+this occasion; but I have been sitting in yonder corner, behind three
+noble Governors each ready to speak, beside the representative of the
+British government--which today is watching with great interest this
+gathering--not expecting for a moment that I would be called upon today;
+and it is only that I may be true to my New England birth and my western
+training that I rise in response to the suggestions of your Chairman.
+(Applause) If any reason renders it at all fitting that I should say a
+word, it is because perhaps I have the honor of representing here today
+some twenty nations as showing their interest in this great Conservation
+movement which is sweeping over the wide world (applause). I want to
+tell you that as this movement grows, under the splendid leadership of
+the men who are blazing the way, it will become the policy of every
+American country from Alaska and Canada on the north to Argentina and
+Chile on the south (applause). We shall hear not only from the United
+States but from our sister nations of Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and
+Chile in this effort to make the world realize that if we are to provide
+for ourselves and for all men who are to come, we must be
+minute-men--the minute-men of the present day.
+
+Ladies and Gentlemen, all the world is listening to what was said
+yesterday, on this platform, and all the world will listen, even more
+earnestly, to what is said today (applause and cheers); and these two
+great pronunciamentos on Conservation will be read in every corner of
+the globe, and you and I will be proud that we have participated in this
+great movement. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Numerous calls were made for Governor Stubbs.]
+
+Governor STUBBS--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: It gives me great
+pleasure to be here this morning in anticipation of hearing a great
+speech from the greatest American and the greatest citizen of the world.
+(Vociferous applause) I am proud of our country; I am proud of her
+achievements; I am proud of the great State of Kansas, the greatest
+State in America (great applause), and I am proud to tell you that we
+won't meet in a bar-room today (laughter and applause), and that we do
+not have bar-rooms to meet in down in Kansas (great applause and
+cheers); and I want to tell you that in Kansas the idea of letting men
+spend their money for shoes and clothes and schools and homes has proved
+a blooming success (laughter and applause and cheers) as compared with
+the fellow who works by the week and makes ten or twenty or forty
+dollars and spends it in a saloon Saturday night. (Renewed applause)
+
+You have come here today to consider one of the great problems of the
+age and you will hear from a master mind, from the great leader of this
+movement, the policies and the plans and the propositions by which the
+work will be carried forward. I do not propose to take up your valuable
+time this morning in any discussion of a question of such splendid
+proportions that I would not have time to get started nor time in which
+to stop. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ex-President Roosevelt here entered the hall amid cheers and rousing
+enthusiasm and mounted the platform.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER (when silence was restored)--Reverend Doctor J. S.
+Montgomery, Pastor of Fowler Methodist Episcopal Church, Minneapolis,
+will now offer an invocation.
+
+INVOCATION
+
+_Almighty God, Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Thou art the
+source of all mercy, love, and blessing. Lift upon us all the light of
+Thy holy countenance._
+
+_From the beginning Thou hast never been without a witness in the world,
+and Thou hast never left us comfortless. Give unto us, O God, the Source
+of all wisdom, a great measure of Thy wisdom, truth, and blessing. We
+recognize in Thee the source of every good and perfect thing in all the
+world. Thou hast opened up this new great world; and on this auspicious
+occasion, look Thou upon us in mercy. Bless our great land. Grant that
+every source of material blessing may be conserved to serve all the
+people; grant that our citizenship may be blessed and directed from
+border to border. Remember our country; remember the great Southland,
+the great Northland; bless the great East and the great West; and may
+all of our people everywhere have bread enough and to spare, and may we
+recognize that our supremest duty is not to build up institutions fit
+for man but to build up man fit for institutions._
+
+_Bless Thou the Governors of all the States. Remember our great
+Government, its legislative, its judicial and its executive branches._
+
+_Remember in mercy the President of these United States; and bless Thou
+our most distinguished guest and most conspicuous citizen in all the
+world, who is with us this day. Look upon him in mercy, guide him and
+direct him in wisdom, and grant that no peril may come nigh him._
+
+_Bless Thou our flag; may it float on until all nations see the
+blessings of our great Republic; may it float on until all selfishness
+dies out of the world's heart; may it float on until all ignorance shall
+be gone; may it float on until the nations of the earth shall be united
+in a brotherhood around and about which are wreathed the blessings and
+the wisdom of Thy holy and undying self._
+
+_Be Thou in the deliberations of this great body; grant that wisdom and
+truth may be uppermost in the minds of all who are here. Accept Thou our
+gratitude for thy abiding mercy, and at the last, O Lord, gather us all
+into the haven of eternal rest. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we ask
+it. Amen._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--Ladies and Gentlemen: It is now my pleasure to present
+that citizen of our country who in three continents has evoked the
+greatest enthusiasm, and who has done for this country no greater
+service than in forwarding and extending the work of Conservation to
+protect the natural resources and in carrying out the principles of fair
+dealing between man and man; our most honored citizen, Colonel Theodore
+Roosevelt. (Great applause and cheers for many minutes)
+
+ADDRESS BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT
+
+Mr Chairman, and Governor; Governors, and fellow-guests; Men and Women
+of Minnesota: It is a very great pleasure to me to be here in Minnesota
+again, and especially to come here to speak on this particular subject
+of "National Efficiency." (Applause)
+
+Minnesota is one of the States that almost always takes the lead in any
+great work (applause), and Minnesota has been one of the first to take
+hold of the Conservation policy in practical fashion; and she has done a
+great work and set an admirable example to the rest of us (applause)--a
+work representing a policy well set forth in your Governor's address
+yesterday--and I am glad that this Congress is held in such a State,
+where we can listen to such an address made by a Governor who had the
+right to make it. (Prolonged applause)
+
+Much that I have to say on the general policy of Conservation will be
+but a repetition of what was so admirably said on this general policy
+by the President of the United States yesterday (great applause); and
+in particular all true friends of Conservation should be in heartiest
+agreement with the policy which the President laid down in connection
+with the coal, oil, and phosphate lands (applause), and I am glad to be
+able to say that at its last session Congress finally completed the work
+of separating the surface title to the land from the mineral beneath it.
+(Applause)
+
+Now, my friends, America's reputation for efficiency stands deservedly
+high throughout the world. We are efficient probably to the full limits
+that are permitted by the methods hitherto used. The average American is
+an efficient man; he can do his business. It is recognized throughout
+the world that that is his type. There is great reason to be proud of
+our achievements, and yet no reason to think that we cannot excel our
+past (applause). Through a practically unrestrained individualism, we
+have reached a pitch of literally unexampled material prosperity. The
+sum of our prosperity in the aggregate leaves little to be desired,
+although the distribution of that prosperity, from the standpoint of
+justice and fair dealing, leaves a little more to be desired (laughter
+and applause). But we have not only allowed the individual a free hand,
+which was in the main right; we have also allowed great corporations to
+act as though they were individuals, and to exercise the rights of
+individuals, in addition to using the vast combined power of high
+organization and enormous wealth for their own advantage. This
+development of corporate action is doubtless in large part responsible
+for the gigantic development of our natural resources, but it is also
+true that it is in large part responsible for waste, destruction, and
+monopoly on an equally gigantic scale. (Applause)
+
+The method of reckless and uncontrolled private use and waste has done
+for us all the good it can ever do, and it is time to put an end to it
+before it does the evil that it well may (applause). We have passed the
+time when heedless waste and destruction and arrogant monopoly are
+longer permissible (applause). Henceforth we must seek national
+efficiency by a new and a better way, by the way of the orderly
+development and use, coupled with the preservation, of our natural
+resources; by making the most of what we have for the benefit of all of
+us, instead of leaving the sources of material prosperity open to
+indiscriminate exploitation (applause). These are some of the reasons
+why it is wise that we should abandon the old point of view, and why
+Conservation has become a great moral issue, and become a patriotic
+duty.
+
+One of the greatest of our Conservation problems is the wise and prompt
+development and use of the waterways of the Nation (applause). There are
+classes of bulk freight which always go cheaper and better by water if
+there is an adequate waterway (applause), and the existence of such a
+type of waterway in itself helps to regulate railroad rates (applause).
+The Twin Cities, lying as they do at the headwaters of the Mississippi,
+are not on the direct line of the proposed Lakes-to-Gulf Deep Waterway,
+and yet Minnesota, with its vast iron resources and its need of abundant
+coal, is peculiarly interested in that problem (applause); and the Twin
+Cities, therefore, have their own real personal concern in the deepening
+and regulation of the Mississippi to the mouth of the Missouri and on to
+the Gulf. (Applause)
+
+Friends, I have spoken on how progressive Minnesota is and how
+progressive these Twin Cities are, but there are other progressive
+cities in the West, too (applause). I have just come from Kansas City
+(applause)--it's a pretty live proposition (laughter), and there the
+merchants themselves have undertaken, by raising over a million dollars,
+to start the improvement of the waterway lying at their doors so that
+they shall be able to benefit by it. It is sometimes said that the
+waterway projects are only backed by people who are delighted to see the
+Government spend its money but who are not willing to show their faith
+in the proposition by spending their own. Kansas City is spending its
+own (applause). The project for a great trunk waterway, an arm of the
+sea extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes should be
+abandoned (applause). Of course, before any project is entered upon, an
+absolutely competent and disinterested commission should report thereon
+in full to the Government so that the Government can act in the interest
+of the whole people and without regard to the pressure of special
+interests (applause), but subject to the action of such a body the
+Lakes-to-Gulf Deep Waterway, and the development of the rivers which
+flow into it, should be pushed to completion vigorously and without
+delay. (Applause)
+
+In nearly every river city from Saint Paul to the Gulf the waterfront is
+controlled by the railways. Nearly every artificial waterway in the
+United States, either directly or indirectly, is under the same control.
+It goes without saying that (unless the people prevent it in advance)
+the railways will always attempt to take control of our waterways as
+fast as they are improved and completed; and I do not mention this to
+blame them in the least, but to blame us if we permit them to do it.
+(Great applause and cheers) If Uncle Sam can't take care of himself,
+then there is no particular reason why any railroad man should act as
+his guardian. (Great laughter and applause) If he attempted the feat he
+would merely find himself lonely among other railroads (laughter), and
+Uncle Sam wouldn't be materially benefitted. Uncle Sam's got to do the
+job himself if he wants to be protected (applause). We must see to it
+that adequate terminals are provided in every city and town on every
+improved waterway, terminals open under reasonable conditions to the use
+of every citizen, and rigidly protected against being monopolized
+(applause); and we must compel the railways to cooperate with the
+waterways continuously, effectively, and under reasonable conditions.
+Unless we do this, the railway lines will refuse to deliver freight to
+the boat lines either openly or by imposing prohibitory conditions, and
+the waterways once improved will do comparatively little for the benefit
+of the people who pay for them.
+
+Adequate terminals, properly controlled, and open through lines by rail
+and boat, are two absolutely essential conditions to the usefulness of
+internal waterway development. I believe, furthermore, that the railways
+should be prohibited from owning, controlling, or carrying any interest
+in the boat lines on our rivers (applause), unless under the strictest
+regulation and control of the Interstate Commerce Commission, so that
+the shippers' interests may be fully protected.
+
+And now here another word in supplement: You are the people; now don't
+sit supine and let the railways gain control of the boat lines and then
+turn around and say that the men at the head of the railroads are very
+bad men (laughter and applause). If you leave it open to them to control
+the boat lines, some of them are sure to do so, and it's to our interest
+that the best and ablest among them should do so. But don't let any of
+them do it, excepting under the conditions you lay down (applause). In
+other words, my friends, when you of your own fault permit the rules of
+the game to be such that you are absolutely certain to get the worst of
+it at the hands of some one else, don't blame the other man; _change the
+rules of the game_. (Laughter and applause and prolonged cheering)
+
+Take the question of drainage, which is almost as important to the
+eastern States as irrigation is in the western States: Where the
+drainage of swamp and overflow lands in a given area is wholly within
+the lines of a particular State, it may be well, at least at present, to
+leave the handling of it to the State or to private action; but where
+such a drainage area is included in two or more States, the only wise
+course is to have the Federal Government act (applause); the land should
+be deeded from the States back to the Federal Government, and it then
+should take whatever action is necessary (applause). Much of this work
+must be done by the Nation, in any case, as an integral part of inland
+waterway development, and it affords a most promising field for
+cooperation between the States and the Nation (applause). The people of
+the United States believe in the complete and well-rounded development
+of inland waterways for all the useful purposes they can be made to
+subserve. They believe also in forest protection and forest extension.
+The fight for our National forests in the West has been won, and if
+after winning it we now go on and lose it, that is our own affair; but
+_we are not going to do it_! (Applause) After a campaign in which her
+women did work which should secure to them the perpetual gratitude of
+their State, Minnesota won her National forest, _and she will keep it_
+(applause); but the fight to create the Southern Appalachian and White
+Mountain forests in the East is not yet over. The bill has passed the
+House, and will come before the Senate for a vote next February. The
+people of the United States, regardless of party or section, should
+stand solidly behind it and see that their representatives do so
+likewise (applause). Because our ancestors didn't have sufficient
+foresight, the Nation is now obliged to spend great sums of money to
+take responsibilities from the States. We, the people of the East, our
+State Governors--I have been a Governor of an eastern State myself
+(applause)--showed that the States in the East couldn't do the work as
+well as the National Government and we are now getting the National
+Government to take, at large cost to itself, these lands and do the work
+the public good requires (applause). When we are now doing that in the
+East, it seems to me the wildest folly to ask us to start in the West to
+repeat the same blunders that are now being remedied (applause and
+cheers). My language shall at least be free from ambiguity.
+
+If any proof were needed that forest protection is a National duty, the
+recent destruction of forests in the Rocky Mountains by fire would
+supply it. Even with the aid of the Army added to that of the Forest
+Service, the loss has been severe. Without either it would have been
+vastly greater. But the Forest Service does more than protect the
+National forests against fire. It makes them practically and
+increasingly useful as well. During the last year for which I have
+figures the National forests were used by 22,000 cattlemen with their
+herds, 5,000 sheepmen with their flocks, 5,000 timbermen with their
+crews, and 45,000 miners. And yet people will tell you they have been
+shut up from popular use! (Applause) More than 5,000 persons used them
+for other special industries. Nearly 34,000 settlers had the free use of
+water. The total resident population of the National forests is about a
+quarter of a million, which is larger than the population of some of our
+States. More than 700,000 acres of agricultural land have been patented
+or listed for patent within the forests, and the reports of the forest
+officers show that more than 400,000 people a year use the forests for
+recreation, camping, hunting, fishing and similar purposes. All this is
+done, of course, without injury to the timber, which has a value of at
+least a thousand million dollars. Moreover, the National forests protect
+the water supply of a thousand cities and towns, about 800 irrigation
+projects, and more than 300 power projects, not counting the use of
+water for these and other purposes by individual settlers. I think that
+hereafter we may safely disregard any statements that the National
+forests are withdrawn from settlement and usefulness (applause).
+
+Conservation has to do not only with natural resources; it has to do
+with the lives of those who enable the rest of us to make use of those
+natural resources. The investigations of the Country Life Commission
+have led the farmers of this country to realize that they have not been
+getting their fair share of progress and all that it brings. Some of
+our farming communities in the Mississippi valley and in the middle West
+have made marvelous progress, and yet even the best of them, like
+communities of every other kind, are not beyond improvement, and those
+that are not the best need improvement very much. As yet we know but
+little of the basic facts of the conditions of rural life compared to
+what we know about the conditions, for instance, of industrial life. The
+means for better farming we have studied with care, but to better living
+on the farm, and to better business on the farm--I mean by that, having
+the farmer use the middleman where it is to the farmer's advantage and
+not be used by the middleman chiefly to the middleman's advantage
+(applause)--scant attention has been paid. One of the most urgent needs
+of our civilization is that the farmers themselves should undertake to
+get for themselves a better knowledge along these lines. Horace
+Plunkett, an Irishman, for many years a Wyoming ranchman, has suggested
+in his recent book on "The Country Life Problem in America" the creation
+of a Country Life Institute as a center where the work and knowledge of
+the whole world concerning country life may be brought together for the
+use of the Nation. I strongly sympathize with his ideas. Last spring,
+while visiting the capital of Hungary, Buda-Pesth, I was immensely
+impressed by the Museum of Country Life, which contained an
+extraordinary series of studies in agriculture, in stock-raising, in
+forestry, in mining. It was one of the most interesting places I ever
+visited, and the exhibits were not merely interesting and instructive,
+they were of the utmost practical importance; and I felt rather ashamed
+that I, a citizen of what we suppose to be a very go-ahead country,
+should be in Hungary and obliged to confess we had nothing at all like
+that in our own country. I wish we had such a museum in Washington, and
+some of your farmer congressmen ought to get a detailed report of this
+Buda-Pesth museum to be printed for distribution as a public document
+(applause). I would like to see a study made of such museums, so that we
+may take what is good in them for our own use here in America.
+(Applause)
+
+As a people we have not yet learned the virtue of thrift. It is a mere
+truism to say that luxury and extravagance are not good for a Nation. So
+far as they affect character, the loss they cause may be beyond
+computation. But in a material sense there is a loss greater than is
+caused by both extravagance and luxury put together. I mean the
+needless, useless and excessive loss to our people from premature death
+and avoidable diseases. It has been calculated that the material loss to
+the Federal Government in such ways is nearly twice what it costs to run
+the Federal Government.
+
+One of the most important meetings in our recent history was that of the
+Governors in the White House in May, 1908, to consider the Conservation
+question (applause). By the advice of the Governors, the meeting was
+followed by the appointment of a National Conservation Commission. The
+meeting of the Governors directed the attention of the country to
+Conservation as nothing else could have done, while the work of the
+Commission gave the movement definiteness, and supplied it with a
+practical program. Now, my friends, so far, I have had nothing but
+praise to speak of Minnesota; but I cannot continue to speak only words
+of praise. At the moment when this Commission was ready to begin the
+campaign for putting its program into effect, an amendment to the Sundry
+Civil Bill was introduced by a congressman from Minnesota, with the
+purpose of putting a stop to the work so admirably begun. (Sensation)
+Congress passed the amendment. Its object was to put an end to the work
+of a number of commissions which had been appointed by the President,
+and whose contributions to the public welfare had been simply
+incalculable. (Voice: "Now, what do you think of Tawney?" and laughter)
+Among these were the Commission for Reorganization of the Business
+Methods of the Government, the Public Lands Commission, the Country Life
+Commission, and the National Conservation Commission itself. When I
+signed the Sundry Civil Bill containing this amendment, I transmitted
+with it, as my last official act, a memorandum declaring that the
+amendment was void because it was an unconstitutional interference with
+the rights of the Executive and that if I were to remain President I
+would pay to it no attention whatever (enthusiastic applause and
+cheers). The National Conservation Commission thereupon became dormant.
+The suspension of its work came at a most unfortunate time, and there
+was serious danger that the progress already made would be lost. At this
+critical moment the National Conservation Association was organized. It
+took up work which otherwise would not have been done; if it had not
+done it we wouldn't have had this meeting here (applause), and it
+exercised a most useful influence in preventing bad legislation, in
+securing the introduction of better Conservation measures at the past
+session of Congress, and in promoting the passage of wise laws. It
+deserves the confidence and support of every citizen interested in the
+wise development and preservation of our natural resources (applause)
+and in preventing them from passing into the hands of uncontrolled
+monopolies (applause). It joins with the National Conservation Congress
+in holding this meeting. I am here by the joint invitation of both.
+(Applause)
+
+When the Government of the United States awoke to the idea of
+Conservation and saw that it was good, it lost no time in communicating
+the advantages of the new point of view to its immediate neighbors among
+the nations. A North American Conservation Conference was held in
+Washington, and the cooperation of Canada and Mexico in the great
+problem of developing the resources of the continent for the benefit of
+the people was asked and promised. The Nations upon our northern and
+southern boundaries wisely realized that their opportunity to conserve
+their natural resources was better than ours, because with them
+destruction and monopolization had not gone so far as they had with us.
+So it is with the republics of Central and South America. Obviously they
+are on the verge of a period of great material progress. The development
+of their natural resources--their forests, their mines, their waters,
+and their soils--will create enormous wealth. It is to the mutual
+interests of the United States and our sister American Republics that
+this development should be wisely done. Our manufacturing industries
+offer a market for more and more of their natural wealth and raw
+material, while they will wish our products in exchange. The more we buy
+from them, the more we shall sell to them. Thank Heaven, we of this
+hemisphere are now beginning to realize, what in the end the whole world
+will realize, that normally it is a good thing for a Nation to have its
+neighbors prosper (great applause). We of the United States are
+genuinely and heartily pleased to see growth and prosperity in Canada,
+in Mexico, in South America (applause). I wish we could impress upon
+certain small Republics to the south of us, whose history has not always
+been happy, that all we ask of them is to be prosperous and _peaceful_
+(laughter and applause). We do not want to interfere, it is particularly
+the thing that we dislike doing; all we ask of any Nation on this
+hemisphere is that it shall be prosperous and peaceful, able to do
+reasonable justice within its own boundaries and to the stranger within
+its gates; and any Nation that is able to do that can count on our
+heartiest and most friendly support. (Applause)
+
+It is clear that unless the governments of our southern neighbors take
+steps in the near future by wise legislation to control the development
+and use of their natural resources, they will probably fall into the
+hands of concessionaires and promoters, whose single purpose, without
+regard to the permanent welfare of the land in which they work, will be
+to make the most possible money in the shortest possible time. There
+will be shameful waste, destructive loss, and short-sighted disregard of
+the future, as we have learned by bitter experience here at home. Unless
+the governments of all the American Republics, including our own, enact
+in time such laws as will both protect their natural wealth and promote
+their legitimate and reasonable development, future generations will owe
+their misfortunes to us of today. A great patriotic duty calls upon us.
+We owe it to ourselves and to them to give the other American Republics
+all the help we can. The cases in which we have failed should be no less
+instructive than the cases in which we have succeeded. With prompt
+action and good will the task of saving the resources for the people is
+full of hope for us all.
+
+But while we of the United States are anxious, as I believe we are
+able, to be of assistance to others, there are problems of our own which
+must not be overlooked. One of the most important Conservation questions
+of the moment relates to the control of water-power monopoly in the
+public interest (applause). There is apparent to the judicious observer
+a distinct tendency on the part of our opponents to cloud the issue by
+raising the question of State as against Federal jurisdiction
+(applause). We are ready to meet this issue if it is forced upon us
+(applause), but there is no hope for the plain people in such conflicts
+of jurisdiction. The essential question is not one of hair splitting
+legal technicalities (applause). It is not really a question of State
+against Nation, it is really a question of the special corporate
+interests against the popular interests of the people. (Tremendous
+applause and cheers) If it were not for those special corporate
+interests, you never would have heard the question of State against
+Nation raised (great applause and cheers). The real question is simply
+this, Who can best regulate the special interests for the country's
+good? (Voices: "Theodore Roosevelt!" and prolonged applause and cheers)
+Most of the great corporations, and almost all of those that can
+legitimately be called the great predatory corporations (laughter), have
+interstate affiliations: therefore they are out of reach of effective
+State control, and fall of necessity within the Federal jurisdiction
+(applause). One of the prime objects of those among them that are
+grasping and greedy is to avoid any effective control either by State or
+Nation; and they advocate at this time State control chiefly because
+they believe it to be the least effective (applause). If it grew
+effective, many of those now defending it would themselves turn around
+and declare against State control, and plead in the courts that such
+control was unconstitutional (applause). I had my own experience
+(applause and laughter); I'll give you an example of it. When I was
+Governor of New York, there came up a bill to tax the franchises of
+certain big street railway corporations. As originally introduced, the
+bill provided that the taxation should be imposed by the several
+counties and localities in which those corporations did business.
+Representatives of the corporations came to me and said that this would
+work a great hardship upon them, that the State authority would be more
+just, that the local authorities (especially where a railroad ran
+through two or three towns or counties) would each endeavor to get the
+whole benefit of the taxation for their own locality, and that, in the
+name of justice, I ought to agree to have the State and not the
+localities made the taxing power. I thought their plea just, and
+recommended and sanctioned the change. The bill was made a law; and
+those same corporations instantly entered suit against it on the ground
+that it was unconstitutional (laughter and applause) to take the power
+of taxation away from the localities and give it to the State (renewed
+laughter and applause); and they carried the suit up to the Supreme
+Court of the United States where, during my own term as President, it
+was decided against them. (Applause)
+
+In the great fight of the people to drive the special interests from the
+domination of the Government, the Nation is stronger, and its
+jurisdiction is more effective than that of any State (applause). I want
+to say another thing, which the representatives of those corporations do
+not at the moment believe, but which I am sure that in the end they will
+find out; because of its strength, because of the fact that the Federal
+Government is better able to exact justice from them, I also believe it
+is less apt, in some sudden gust of popular passion, to do injustice to
+them (applause). Now, I want you to understand my position--I do not
+think you can misunderstand it. I will do my utmost to secure the rights
+of every corporation. If a corporation is improperly attacked, I will
+stand up for it to the best of my ability; I'd stand up for it even
+though I was sure that the bulk of the people were misguided enough at
+the moment to take the wrong side and be against it (applause). I should
+fight to see that the people, through the National Government, did full
+justice to the corporations; but I don't want the National Government to
+depend only upon their good will to get justice for the people. (Great
+applause) Now, most of the great corporations are in large part financed
+and owned in the Atlantic States, and it's a rather comical fact that
+many of the chief and most zealous upholders of States' rights in the
+present controversy are big business men who live in other States
+(applause). The most effective weapon is Federal laws and the Federal
+Executive. That is why I so strongly oppose the demand to turn these
+matters over to the States. It is fundamentally a demand against the
+interest of the plain people, of the people of small means, against the
+interest of our children and our children's children; and it is
+primarily in the interest of the great corporations which wish to escape
+effective Government control. (Applause)
+
+And I ask you to consider two more things in this connection: Waters
+run; they don't stay in one State (laughter and applause). That fact
+seems elementary, but it tends to be forgotten. I have just come from
+Kansas. Practically all the water in Kansas runs into Kansas from
+another State, and out of it into other States. You can't have effective
+control of a watershed unless the same power controls all the watersheds
+(applause and cries of "Good"), as the water runs not merely out one
+State into another but out of one country into another. One of the great
+irrigation projects of Montana has been delayed because the Waters that
+make the Milk river rise in Montana, flow north into Canada, and then
+come back into Montana. You can't settle that matter excepting through
+the National Government (applause); the State can't settle it. So much
+for what we see here. Now, take the experience of other Nations--of the
+little Republic of Switzerland. It actually tried what some of our
+people ask to try; it actually tried the experiment of letting each
+Canton handle its own waters, and a conflict of jurisdiction arose, and
+the squabbling and the injustices became such that about nine years ago
+the National Government of Switzerland had to assume complete control of
+all the waters of Switzerland, on the explicit ground that all of the
+waters belonged to all the citizens of the Swiss nation (great
+applause). Now, I am not asking that we go ahead recklessly; I am only
+asking that we do not go backward where other countries have gone ahead.
+(Applause)
+
+As the President yesterday pointed out, one of the difficulties that we
+have to meet, in connection with the fight for Conservation, is that our
+aim is continually misrepresented--that the effect is constantly made to
+show that we are anxious to retard development. It has been no slight
+task to bring ninety millions of people to understand what the movement
+is, and to convince them that it is right. Much remains to be cleared up
+in the minds of the people, and there are many misunderstandings to be
+removed. For example, we find it constantly said by men who should know
+better that temporary withdrawals, such as the withdrawals of the coal
+lands, will permanently check development. Yet the fact is that these
+withdrawals have no purpose whatever except to prevent the coal lands
+from passing into private ownership until Congress passes laws to open
+them under conditions just alike to the public and to the men who will
+do the developing (applause). And, now understand me; if there is any
+doubt whether the conditions are liberal enough to the men who are to do
+the developing. I always solve the doubt in favor of liberality to those
+men; I want to give them every chance, I want to give them every
+opportunity to do well for themselves, but I want to see that in doing
+well for themselves they also do well for the rest of us. (Applause)
+
+In spite of these difficulties, most of which are doubtless inevitable
+in any movement of this kind, the cause of Conservation has made
+marvelous progress. We have a right to congratulate ourselves on it, but
+there is no reason for believing that the fight is won. In the beginning
+the special interests, who are our chief opponents now, paid little heed
+to the movement, because they neither understood it nor saw that if it
+won they must lose. But with the progress of Conservation in the minds
+of the people, the fight is getting sharper. The nearer we approach to
+victory, the bitterer the opposition that we must meet and the greater
+the need for caution and watchfulness. Open opposition we can overcome,
+but we must guard ourselves; and you of this Congress must especially
+guard yourselves against the men who are really corporate agents but who
+pose as disinterested outsiders (applause). Now I heartily approve the
+action of any corporation which comes here openly because it is
+interested in the deliberations of a meeting such as this, and by its
+openly accredited agents presents views which it believes the meeting
+should have in mind (applause); I approve of the corporation that does
+that, and I would despise any of our people who feared instantly to give
+the most ample and respectful hearing and real consideration to any such
+plea thus put forward. (Applause and cries of "Good!") The corporation
+through its agents not only has a right to be heard, but if it did not
+volunteer you ought to endeavor to see that its views were presented. My
+protest is not against the man who comes here openly as the corporation
+agent, but against the man who comes here openly as something else and
+really as the corporation agent. (Laughter)
+
+It is our duty and our desire to make this land of ours a better home
+for the race, but our duty does not stop there. We must also work for a
+better Nation to live in this better land (applause). The development
+and conservation of our national character and our free institutions
+must go hand in hand with the development and conservation of our
+natural resources, which the Governors' Conference so well called the
+foundations of our prosperity. Whatever progress we may make as a
+Nation, whatever wealth we may accumulate, however far we may push
+mechanical progress and production, we shall never reach a point where
+our welfare can depend in the last analysis on anything but the
+fundamental qualities of good citizenship--honesty, courage, and common
+sense (applause). The homely virtues are the lasting virtues, and the
+road which leads to them is the road to genuine and lasting success.
+
+What this country needs is what every free country must set before it,
+as the great goal toward which it works--an equal opportunity for life,
+liberty and the pursuit of happiness to all of its citizens, great and
+small, rich and poor, great and humble, alike. (Tumultuous applause and
+continuous cheers)
+
+
+
+
+_FOURTH SESSION_
+
+
+The Congress reassembled in the Auditorium, Saint Paul, after luncheon,
+September 6, and was called to order by Vice-President Condra.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Professor CONDRA--Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen: President Baker has
+asked me, as one of the vice-presidents, to preside pending his arrival.
+
+We are to be congratulated in that we are to hear from many
+distinguished speakers on many interesting topics this afternoon. We are
+especially happy in that the first speaker is one who has done much, not
+only in Washington but throughout the world, for conserving human life
+through the work of the Red Cross. I have great pleasure in presenting
+to you Miss Mabel Boardman, of Washington. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Miss BOARDMAN--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: Of what value would
+Conservation be without human life? For the benefit of man's life are
+given all these energies which are devoted to the Conservation of our
+natural resources. So at the very foundation of Conservation must lie
+the preservation of that for which Conservation exists.
+
+It is in this principle of Conservation of human life that the Red Cross
+has its being. Though first inspired by Florence Nightingale in the
+Crimea, it was born on the bloody battlefield of Solferino, more than
+fifty years ago, when Henri Dunan witnessed the terrible waste of human
+life because of the lack of medical and nursing care. The Red Cross has
+become one of the great conserving forces of all the world. It acts
+under the only universal Conservation treaty in existence. One after
+another all the nations of the world have signed this Treaty of Geneva,
+first drafted in 1864, revised in 1906, and its provisions extended to
+naval warfare by the Treaty of The Hague.
+
+The opening words of the Geneva Treaty read: "Officers, soldiers, and
+other persons officially attached to armies, who are sick and wounded,
+shall be protected and cared for, without distinction of nationality, by
+the belligerent in whose hands they are. The belligerent in possession
+of a field of battle must search for and protect the wounded, and may
+grant immunity to those inhabitants who have taken into their homes the
+disabled men. The neutrality of hospitals and ambulances with their
+personnel, who cannot be made prisoners of war, must be respected, and,
+for humanity's sake, lists of the dead and wounded must be exchanged for
+transmission to the families of these men by the authorities of their
+own country." This wonderful treaty provides its own insignia, and
+wherever throughout the world the grating doors of the Temple of Janus
+open wide their terrible portals it flings to the winds of heaven its
+merciful banner of Conservation of the sick and wounded, the flag of the
+Red Cross.
+
+The treaty provides, moreover, protection for the volunteer aid
+societies which have received official authority from their respective
+governments. These are the three great Red Cross Societies. Recognizing
+two facts, _first_, that no medical service of any nation can be
+adequate to the demands of war, and _second_, that at such times the
+humanity and patriotism of a people become deeply stirred into active
+life and that this activity should be utilized in such a systematic way
+as to be of real value in the saving of life for the sake of humanity
+and for the sake of the country, the members of the original Geneva
+Conference recommended to the signatory powers the formation of these
+volunteer aid societies. Thus, the Red Cross had its origin in the
+purpose of conservation of human life in time of war. How efficiently it
+has carried out this duty where well organized is shown by a glance at
+the remarkable statistics of the work done by the Red Cross of Russia
+and Japan during the late war in the Far East.
+
+I am tempted here to dwell for a moment on one or two facts connected
+with the Japanese Red Cross. It has today more than 1,522,000 members,
+and its annual revenue in 1909 amounted to more than $2,000,000. In
+spite of the late war which was such a serious drain upon the resources
+of the country, the Japanese Red Cross never depleted by a single yen
+its permanent fund. The report for 1909, just received, gives this
+permanent fund as more than $5,000,000, and it has besides in other
+funds more than $2,000,000 on hand. By 1913 it plans to have increased
+its permanent fund to $7,500,000; and knowing what Japan has already
+done, we cannot doubt the carrying out of this expectation.
+
+But though since the beginning of history wars have been from time to
+time the misfortune of mankind, the great forces of nature bring a far
+more frequent need for such assistance as the Red Cross is able to
+render. Because of this ever recurring need of organized aid the Red
+Cross reached out its strong and well-trained arms into this broader
+field to succor the victims of great disasters.
+
+The charter granted by Congress to the American Red Cross, and which
+created it the officially authorized Red Cross of our Government,
+provides that it shall not only "take charge of the volunteer relief in
+time of war" but that it shall "carry on a system of national and
+international relief in time of peace, and apply the same in mitigating
+the sufferings caused by pestilence, famine, fire, floods, and other
+great calamities, and to devise and carry on measures for preventing
+same." Under this charter our own American Red Cross is not a private
+association of certain people, but an officially authorized agency of
+our Government, responsible to the people, and whose existence Congress
+may at any time cancel by annulling the charter. Its accounts are
+audited by the War Department. The chairman and five members of the
+Central Committee, representing the Departments of State, Treasury, War,
+Justice, and Navy are appointed by the President of the United States.
+The State Department is represented because of participation in
+international relief. The Treasury provides the National Red Cross
+treasurer, the Department of Justice, the counselor, and the army and
+navy have their reasons for representation not only because of war
+association but because, during National disaster relief as at San
+Francisco, Hattiesburg, and Key West, the Red Cross has the heartiest
+and most invaluable aid of our army, while in international relief, as
+in Italy after the earthquake and at Bluefields, Nicaragua, it receives
+the equally hearty and valuable aid of our navy. Briefly, then, of what
+does the American Red Cross organization consist? Since its
+reorganization in 1905, William Howard Taft, now President of the United
+States, has been yearly elected as its president, and largely to his
+constant interest, wise counsel, and valuable assistance is its success
+due. It has, besides the other usual officers, a national director Mr
+Ernest P. Bicknell, whose particular duty it is to proceed immediately
+to the scene of any serious disaster and take charge of or advise in
+regard to the Red Cross relief work. It has a central committee of
+eighteen, which elects an executive committee of seven. Under this
+committee the work of the Red Cross is segregated into three departments
+for war and for national and international relief, each under a board of
+fifteen members. The chairman and vice-chairman of each board are
+members of the central committee.
+
+The war relief board, of which the surgeons representing the army and
+navy on the central committee are respectively chairman and
+vice-chairman, has prepared a complete list of every coastwise vessel
+suitable for a hospital ship, so that such a ship could be chartered at
+a moment's notice. It has moreover drawn up a complete and detailed list
+for the equipment of such a ship with estimates of the cost of this
+equipment and the necessary transformation for hospital purposes. It is
+studying the questions of civil hospital accommodations for war-time
+need, of hospital trains, of field hospitals, rest stations, the use of
+private automobiles for ambulances, and other kindred subjects. A
+sub-committee, six of whom are members of the board and nine of whom are
+representative women of the trained nursing profession, and whose
+chairman is Miss Jane Delano, Superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps,
+has systematized the Red Cross nursing service, prepared uniform
+regulations, organized State and local committees, and is fast enrolling
+the best trained nurses in the country for active service in time of
+need. These splendid nurses at such times not only undertake the most
+difficult work under frequently severe hardships, but when on this
+active duty accept from the Red Cross only half of their usual salary.
+This Red Cross nursing committee will later take up the plan of
+providing courses for women in simple home nursing of the sick.
+
+Another sub-committee of the war relief board is the First Aid
+Committee, the chairman of which, Major Charles Lynch, of the Army
+Medical Service, is detailed for this particular duty by the
+Surgeon-General. The work of this committee is the organizing of courses
+in first-aid instructions throughout the country. On this committee such
+men as Mr John Hays Hammond represent the mine companies; Mr John
+Mitchell, the miners; Mr Julius Kruttschnitt, the railroad companies; Mr
+W. G. Lee, the trainmen; Dr D. A. Mansfield, the sailors' interests; Dr
+J. A. Holmes, the U. S. Bureau of Mines. The Y. M. C. A. is also
+represented on the committee, as it now gives all its first-aid courses
+in collaboration with the Red Cross. Dr M. J. Shields is employed as the
+agent to organize these courses among miners. It is expected this autumn
+that a special car will be donated by the Pullman Company for the
+purpose of sending with Dr Shields a traveling first-aid equipment and
+safety-device exhibit. A number of railroads have already most kindly
+consented to transport this car free of expense to the Red Cross. I may
+say that in every case of a great calamity, the railroad companies,
+express companies, telegraph and telephone companies, have placed their
+services free at the disposition of the Red Cross in a most helpful and
+generous spirit.
+
+The first-aid courses will soon be extended to trainmen and employees of
+large industrial concerns, as has been done by the British and German
+Red Cross. Major Lynch has prepared for the Red Cross a most excellent
+general text-book on first-aid, also a special book for miners and
+trainmen, and another, at its request, for the Bell Telephone Company.
+Furthermore, valuable and inexpensive anatomical charts have been
+printed for these courses, and small metal boxes hermetically sealed
+containing first-aid bandages and a leaflet of directions have been made
+for the society, as well as a larger box for railroad stations, mines,
+factories, etc. Competitions in first-aid have been held, and prizes and
+medals awarded. More than sixty thousand posters calling attention to
+precautions to be taken to prevent personal injury on railroads, and
+over thirty thousand of a like nature for trolley cars, have been issued
+by the Red Cross and are distributed on application from various
+companies.
+
+To spread abroad throughout the country the knowledge of first-aid among
+our industrial classes, in fact, among all classes of our people, is the
+aim of this department of Red Cross work. Not only in time of war or
+disaster will such knowledge prove of great value, but in all of the
+frequent accidents of daily life will this training be of help.
+(Applause)
+
+The second board, that of the national relief, has to do with the study,
+planning and overseeing of relief after national disaster. It is not
+possible, nor would it be wise, for the Red Cross to maintain a corps of
+trained workers for active duty after disaster, when such duty comes
+only from time to time; so to provide itself with an experienced
+personnel, it has created an institutional membership consisting of the
+best charity organization societies of the country. These associations
+in accepting membership consent to utilize their personnel under
+direction of this board and of Mr Bicknell, the national director, for
+active relief duty. For example, Mr Logan of the Atlanta organization,
+went on Red Cross orders to Key West last September, systematized relief
+work so as to avoid imposture, unfortunately prevalent at such times,
+advised with the Mayor and commanding officer of the army post there,
+arranged that the contributions be mainly expended in rehabilitating the
+fishermen who had lost their little boats, their only means of earning
+their livelihood. As each boat was completed, the owner who had been
+provided with material for his boat and paid a daily wage while building
+it, was again on his feet, able to support himself, and his name was
+taken from the list of those being aided.
+
+At the time of the Cherry Mine disaster, Mr Kingsley of the United
+Charities of Chicago, went immediately to the scene of the disaster,
+remaining until Mr Bicknell could arrive. Then for several months, at
+the request of the Red Cross, his assistant and two good women who could
+speak Italian and Polish to the poor distracted miners' widows, remained
+at Cherry while Mr Bicknell's plan for permanent relief could be
+perfected and accepted. By this plan, which is now being carried out,
+the generous funds contributed by the people of Illinois, by its State
+Legislature, and by the miners' unions, amounting to about $300,000,
+have been consolidated and are being administered by a joint commission
+so that a pension can be paid to each widow and minor child until the
+children are of an age to become wage-earners themselves and the fund is
+exhausted. (Applause)
+
+The national relief board has also had charge of the little Red Cross
+Christmas stamp--next year to be called a "_Christmas seal_"--placed on
+the back of letters out of deference to the wishes of the post office
+department, which has suffered from a multiplicity of stamps issued by
+others because of the success of the Red Cross stamp. That stalking
+spectre of pestilence, tuberculosis, had laid its devastating hand on
+every nation; it invades the palace as well as the hovel, and the youth
+of the people are its surest prey. With a weapon tinier than the stone
+in David's sling, the Red Cross sends forth this little seal to do its
+part. In the last two years it has netted more than $350,000 with which
+to war against this grim destroyer. Here again the Red Cross carries out
+its principle, the conservation of the _human life_. (Applause)
+
+The third board is that of international relief with a representative of
+the state department as its chairman. Two maps hang on the walls of the
+Red Cross office at Washington, one of the world, the other of the
+United States with its insular possessions. Starred over these large
+maps are little red crosses marking the fields of its noble labors for
+Conservation. Not alone within our own borders lies its merciful
+service. Far away in Russia, China, and Japan, when famine claimed its
+thousands of tortured victims, went the Red Cross, aided by the
+_Christian Herald_ of New York, with food for the starving multitudes:
+when earthquakes in Chili, Jamaica, Italy, Portugal, and Costa Rica
+brought destruction and desolation, when floods in Mexico, France, and
+Servia devastated the land, when massacres in Armenia brought suffering,
+misery, and even death to thousands, when internal war in Nicaragua left
+regiments of wounded, naked, and starving boy prisoners, our American
+Red Cross stretched out her helping hand to these, her sister nations in
+distress (applause). If in Conservation lies thought for men yet
+unborn, thought must also be given for the men who live today, and the
+Red Cross recognizes its duty toward the conservation of all human life.
+(Applause)
+
+But a moment more on its organization: In over thirty States, boards of
+representative men, with the Governor in each State as president of the
+board, have already been appointed, and before the end of the year the
+boards for all of the other States and for the insular possessions will
+probably be completed. The duty of such a board is to act as a financial
+committee for the receipt of contributions of the people of the State in
+case of war, local, national or international disaster. The Governor
+being president of the board, may issue an appeal to the people of the
+State when in his judgment a disaster of sufficient magnitude within the
+State justifies such an appeal. On the occurrence of disasters without
+the State, appeals are issued only on advice from the National officers.
+The Governor or State board may, in case of any disaster within the
+State of sufficient magnitude, request of headquarters the assistance of
+the National body. Chapters of the Red Cross may exist in any town, city
+or county where there are five or more members who pay the annual dues
+of one dollar. It is the duty of these chapters to respond promptly and
+vigorously to any request for action on the part of the Red Cross in
+time of war or disaster at home or abroad. Appeals issued by the
+president of the State board or from Washington will state the needs for
+money or supplies, or both, which the chapter should at once begin
+collecting. In case of a serious local disaster, the chapter acts as the
+supply agency for the National director and institutional member, when
+such member is present. In case no institutional member is at hand, it
+is expected to take prompt relief measures pending the arrival or
+instructions of the National director. This, then, in brief, is the
+organization of the Red Cross for active service: National officers, a
+central committee, relief boards with their sub-committees; State
+hoards, chapters, and institutional members.
+
+It seems impossible in a non-military country like ours to obtain and
+retain a large supporting membership with small annual dues, as is done
+in other countries. When reports of great calamities fill the papers,
+our people give with wonderful generosity, but the minor disasters,
+whereby small communities suffer greatly, receive but little notice from
+our public. If Japan plans to increase its Red Cross permanent fund to
+$7,500,000, could not the people of this country raise for our American
+Red Cross a permanent fund of $2,000,000? I, for one, believe they will,
+for New York City alone has already promised nearly quarter of that
+amount, and this autumn endowment committees of prominent men, appointed
+by the President of the United States, will make an appeal to our people
+all over the country to raise this permanent fund for the American Red
+Cross.
+
+And, last, may I say a word or two for some of the by-products of
+Conservation in Red Cross service? In the work of the Red Cross
+first-aid department lies the far-reaching results of conservation of
+the life of the wage-earner of the family as well as the labor-producer
+of the country, or in case of his death in disaster, as at Cherry, the
+administration of the relief funds so that the unfortunate widows can
+keep their little children at home (applause),--a by-product, the
+conservation of the family.
+
+The preservation of life in time of war has not only its humane feature
+but its patriotic reason. In fact, the Japanese Red Cross puts this
+principle first. The saving of one of the most important assets of any
+country, that of its young manhood, becomes a by-product of Conservation
+for the sake of patriotism.
+
+Another by-product is the conservation of communities. Whether some
+little hamlet or some large city suffers from the overwhelming calamity
+of fire, flood, storm, earthquake or pestilence, or the still more
+pitiful disaster of widespread famine settles over a great province or
+empire, its people are brought down to desolation and despair. Their
+neighbors suffer as well and there are none at hand to help. Without aid
+they must die or drift away from their homes like unmoored boats after a
+storm, to be swamped at sea or wrecked upon the rocks of unknown shores.
+It is then to these communities as well as to the individual that the
+Red Cross comes. It calls to the disconsolate "Comfort ye, my people,
+build again your homes. Sow again your fields; the strong arms of the
+Red Cross are here to aid you, held up by your brothers of the Nation,
+yea, by your brothers of the world, if there is need" (applause). On a
+beautiful silver tablet, presented by an Italian relief committee to the
+American Red Cross, are engraved in Latin the words of an old Roman
+historian, "Your bounty has repaired the catastrophe not merely of
+individual citizens but of entire cities."
+
+And there is one more by-product of Conservation not having so much to
+do with things material but for the well-being of the world. Is there
+not need of a conservation of higher things? Above the passion of war,
+amidst the desolation of terrible disasters, in the dangers of the daily
+occupations so many of our fellowmen must undergo to earn their
+livelihood, does not the Red Cross conserve, protect, and extend the
+great bond of human brotherhood, and, touched by sorrow, make the whole
+world kin?
+
+Strangely taking its inception on the field of battle, this great
+international organization of the Red Cross for the conservation of
+human life was born, has passed from infancy into a strong and noble
+maturity ever ready to protect and preserve human life, for which the
+Conservation of all material things has its reason and its purpose.
+(Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chairman CONDRA--We shall now have the privilege of hearing the
+Commissioner of Corporations, called to that responsible duty by
+President Roosevelt, and continued in his responsibilities by President
+Taft, Honorable Herbert Knox Smith, whom I have great pleasure in
+introducing (applause).
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Commissioner SMITH--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: My text is that
+superb word "power"; and it has no more appropriate place for
+enunciation than this center of gravity of imperial power, the
+Mississippi valley.
+
+In our complex civilization there are many things that are necessaries
+of life. Control over any of them represents a power that is essentially
+governmental. This is plainly true of basic necessaries like food,
+clothing, transportation, heat, and light; it is true also of the
+natural resources that are back of these. It is no less true of the
+mechanical power that produces and delivers them. Private control of any
+one of these, unrestrained either by business competition or by
+governmental authority, means that irresponsible individuals hold a
+command over the daily life and welfare of the citizen which the men of
+our race have never willingly granted to any except their own
+representatives chosen by them.
+
+For us of our generation, mechanical power is a basic necessary. Our
+daily existence is borne on its current, and our power demand steadily
+increases. Our chief present sources of power supply--coal, petroleum,
+and natural gas--although at present ample, are absolutely fixed in
+quantity and cannot be replaced. Water-power is the one important source
+of mechanical power now practically available which is self-renewing.
+Its importance, therefore, to our present vision, must steadily
+increase.
+
+Effective restraint, imposed by competition on its control, is becoming
+more and more improbable. There has been a marked concentration of
+water-power control in private hands, and this process is advancing
+rapidly. Public regulation of water-power, the only other alternative,
+therefore, becomes a necessity.
+
+Electric transmission has worked this change within the last decade. As
+now commercially practicable, such transmission allows a given
+water-power to reach a market area of at least 80,000 square miles. It
+has raised water-power from purely local work, and made it the vital
+energy for great communities and distant enterprises. It has brought our
+water-power resources suddenly within the sweep of great economic
+forces.
+
+Within these market areas just described, there are strong practical
+reasons for consolidation of water-powers--what is known as "coupling
+up." A power plant must be constructed to meet the highest point of its
+expected demand--the "peak of the load." The nearer the "load" (the
+power demand) approaches that peak for all the time, the more fully
+will the entire fixed investment be earning a return. Suppose there are
+two independent power plants in two neighboring communities where the
+demand in one community is mainly for power during the day time, and in
+the other at night. These plants can advantageously combine, throwing
+the surplus of their joint power by day to one place and by night to the
+other, thus bringing their normal load in each case up nearer to the
+peak. Similarly, such coupling up is obviously advantageous in two
+neighboring watersheds where the excess water-power occurs at different
+times. In general such combining of varying conditions to produce a
+closer parallelism of supply and demand is in itself an entirely proper
+industrial development. We have no reason to oppose it if accomplished
+by fair methods; we must simply be prepared to regulate such
+monopolistic power as may result therefrom.
+
+The investigation of developed water-powers now being made by the Bureau
+of Corporations shows that up to date 18 concerns or closely allied
+interests control over 1,800,000 horsepower of the water-power developed
+or in process of construction, and, in addition, over 1,400,000
+horsepower of undeveloped water-power. As to undeveloped powers, this
+information was secured merely as an incident to our main work, and
+certainly much understates the case. As it stands, however, it makes a
+total water-power controlled by these 18 groups of over 3,200,000
+horsepower. The total water-power in use in the United States in 1908,
+as estimated by the Census and Geological Survey, was only 5,300,000.
+And this total includes a very large number of small powers which the
+Bureau did not include, as it dealt almost wholly with powers of over
+1,000 horsepower. The total now commercially capable of development is
+variously estimated at from 30,000,000 to 60,000,000 horsepower, the
+smaller figure being the preferable one. The great bulk of both
+developed and undeveloped water-power lies on the Pacific Coast, in the
+Northwest and Northeast, and in the South Atlantic States. Our power
+demand as measured by the total unduplicated capacity of all prime
+movers--steam, water, and gas--is now at least 30 million horsepower.
+
+It is obvious that a local monopoly of power covering simply one market
+area is nevertheless as complete in its effects on the inhabitants of
+that area as if it covered the entire country. Conditions in separate
+sections are therefore important. In California, for example, four
+principal hydro-electric companies dominate the water-power industry.
+They have a total developed horsepower of 259,000, with probably 500,000
+additional undeveloped, and a very strong hold on the most important
+power markets. And between these four concerns there is also evidence of
+considerable harmony. This is not a unique case. Conditions somewhat
+like this exist in the Puget Sound territory, in the southern peninsula
+of Michigan, in Colorado, in Montana, and in the Carolinas. In each of
+these sections, one, or at most two concerns are predominant in their
+control of water-powers, public-service companies, and power markets.
+
+The horsepower figures do not fully represent the extent of actual
+commercial control. The best powers have of course been developed first.
+These will always hold a disproportionately dominant position over later
+developed and less favored powers, because of their lower operating cost
+and prior hold on the important power markets.
+
+There is also going on a concentration of a wider sort--a process of
+deep significance, but as yet little recognized. There is a marked
+progress toward a mutuality of interests among public service companies
+generally, electric light, power, gas, and street railway concerns. The
+significant identity of officers and directors in a large number of such
+companies throughout the United States is very remarkable. This is due
+in part to specialization by financial houses in given lines of
+investment; in part to the common employment of certain eminent
+engineering firms; and in part to relations with certain leading
+equipment companies. Electric equipment is usually supplied by one of a
+few great equipment concerns and frequently paid for, at least in part,
+in the securities of the proposed project. Thus the equipment company
+acquires interests in widely separated power and light concerns.
+
+Take a single example, the General Electric Company, the most powerful
+electric equipment concern in the world. Men who are officers or
+directors of the General Electric Company, or of its three wholly
+controlled subsidiary companies, are also officers or directors in many
+other corporations. These other companies, with their subsidiaries, and
+the General Electric with its subsidiaries, make thus a group
+interconnected by active personal and financial relationship. This one
+group includes 28 corporations that operate hydro-electric plants, with
+at least 795,000 horsepower developed or under construction, and 600,000
+undeveloped in 16 different States, a total of 1,395,000 horsepower
+(equal to more than 25 percent of all the developed water-power in the
+United States in 1908). This group includes also over 80 public-service
+corporations, not counting their minor subsidiaries; more than 15
+railroads; 6 companies that use their power in the manufacture of cotton
+goods, with 35,000 hydraulic horsepower developed; and over 50 banks and
+financial houses, many of them in the first rank of importance. This
+remarkable financial connection in itself is very significant.
+Fifty-three General Electric men, in all, constitute this chain of
+connection. Nor are these men, as a rule, of the figurehead type; their
+presence on a directorate means something. Of course these facts in no
+sense always mean identity of control. They certainly do mean a striking
+degree of non-conflicting interests and personal relationship which
+makes further concentration easily possible.
+
+This wider concentration is still in a formative stage, developed almost
+wholly within the last decade. The forces compelling thereto are still
+operative. It is like a physical solution of chemical elements which is
+still in suspension but which a single jar may precipitate into
+crystallization. Water-power, being naturally allied with public-service
+business, will be included in any movement that affects that business
+generally. So wide is this interrelationship, and so comparatively few
+are the constantly recurring names in the directorates, that a few brief
+conferences, given the necessary impetus, might conceivably at any
+moment concentrate into definite legal form a sweeping control over the
+dominant water-powers of the country, as well as their related public
+service interests.
+
+Here, then, is the present situation of the hydro-electric industry:
+
+(1) It deals with a basic necessary, and its importance inevitably
+increases as the fixed supply of other sources of power decreases.
+
+(2) Substantial control of mechanical power means the exercise of a
+function that is essentially governmental in its effect on the public.
+
+(3) Driven by underlying economic and financial forces, concentration of
+control of water-powers in private hands has proceeded very rapidly. It
+is doubtful if anything can arrest this process, and a swift advance to
+a far higher degree of concentration is entirely possible.
+
+(4) Any chance, then, of restraint by competition is rapidly
+disappearing, certainly over given sections, and public regulation is
+therefore an imminent necessity.
+
+The extent of such regulation will depend mainly on constitutional
+limitations. A State, roughly speaking, can at any time exercise a high
+degree of control over power companies as quasi-public servants. The
+jurisdiction of the Federal Government covers a wider range
+geographically, but involves some difficult constitutional questions.
+Over water-powers on the public lands it has full control. I concede no
+merit to doubts as to the Government's unlimited jurisdiction there.
+
+As to powers on navigable streams not in the public domain, there is an
+undetermined constitutional question. It is well settled that no power
+dam can be maintained on a navigable stream without the consent of the
+Federal Government. Nearly everyone admits that the Government may
+impose upon such grants any desired time limitation, and may thus
+require readjustment of terms at any desired period. But some hold that
+the Federal Government, in exercising its arbitrary power as grantor,
+may also impose any further conditions it chooses upon such grant, as,
+for example, that the grantees shall pay a rental for the power
+acquired. Others hold that the Federal Government can only impose such
+conditions as are directly connected with the Federal power over
+interstate commerce, such as navigation. Even this view would apparently
+at least permit a rental charge, if applied to navigation improvement.
+Personally, I am strongly inclined to the former and broader view that
+any conditions whatsoever may be imposed (applause), both on general
+principles and on well-established legislative precedents. In numerous
+bridge and dam acts Congress has used the broad power and imposed
+conditions in no way related to interstate commerce. In the California
+Debris Commission Act, operative since 1893, Congress imposed a straight
+charge on placer miners for the privilege of emptying their refuse into
+the streams.
+
+The scope of the Federal jurisdiction is of first importance, because
+the water-power problem is, in the main, a National one. Much of the
+power is transmitted across State lines, or is used by interstate
+carriers. The bulk of the capital that is developing our most important
+powers comes from interests outside the States where the powers are
+located, and from the brief survey I have already given of the
+interrelationships existing between public-service companies it is
+obvious that State lines and State jurisdiction have no practical
+relation whatsoever to the sweep of these forces (applause). The
+hydro-electric industry has been largely nationalized by those who are
+foremost in it.
+
+The Nation and the State will have to use their full powers to meet the
+water-power situation. The most effective time to use them is before,
+not after, private rights accrue. The one certain method is for the
+State or the Federal Government, to retain its interest, or impose its
+conditions, at the inception, as a part of the grant. Then public
+control and private rights go together, as they must if we are to
+safeguard the public interest in water power. (Applause)
+
+Let there be no unnecessary hampering of hydro-electric development, but
+let the public be in on the ground floor at the start: for at the start
+the public must grant the power and for all time the public will be the
+party chiefly interested in its use. (Applause)
+
+As President Taft very justly said yesterday, when a man talks to you
+about conservation, you have the right to ask him to specify what steps
+he desires to take. I am going to specify.
+
+(1) The _status quo_ of all water-power still controlled by the Nation
+or State should be maintained until we know what we have, and can act
+intelligently thereon.
+
+(2) No water-power grant should be made except for a fixed period, with
+at least the reserved right to readjust terms at the end thereof. That
+period, however, should be long enough to permit adequate financing and
+complete development.
+
+(3) Complete publicity of accounts and transactions should be required,
+as well as a record of cost, and the real relation of investment to
+stock and bond issues.
+
+(4) Power to revoke the grant for breach of conditions should be lodged
+in a specified public authority. Otherwise there will always be the
+possibility of protracted litigation to determine the status.
+
+(5) So far as is possible, direct provision should be made against
+excessive charges and monopolistic abuse.
+
+(6) Public authorities should reserve such constitutional compensation
+or rental as will establish the principle of underlying public interest.
+
+(7) All public easements of navigation, fisheries, etc., should be
+safeguarded.
+
+(8) In the case of new grants, all these provisions should be made
+conditions of the grant.
+
+Finally, the purpose and probable effect on the public of any
+water-power grant should first be fully ascertained and carefully
+considered, in order to determine whether public interest justifies
+beyond a reasonable doubt the surrender by the public of even a part of
+its power over this great public resource. Where reasonable doubt
+exists, the surrender should not be made. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[During the delivery of the address President Baker arrived and resumed
+the Chair.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Honorable JOHN BARRETT--Ladies and Gentlemen: President Baker has
+requested me to announce that Professor George E. Condra, of Lincoln,
+Nebraska, has been appointed chairman of the Committee on Credentials in
+lieu of Mr Edward Hines, of Chicago. (Applause)
+
+Governor Pardee has an announcement to make in regard to the Committee
+on Resolutions.
+
+Governor PARDEE--Simply that the Committee on Resolutions will meet at
+the Saint Paul hotel this evening at 8 oclock, in Room 534.
+
+President BAKER--The program in your hands announces that an address
+entitled "Safeguarding the Property of the People" will be delivered by
+Honorable Francis T. Heney, of California. He is prevented from being
+here this afternoon, but will arrive later.
+
+We have now the opportunity of hearing from one whose name has been so
+closely associated with the work of Conservation that he is regarded as
+one of its greatest and ablest advocates; I have great pleasure in
+introducing, to speak on "The Federal Government's Relation to
+Conservation," Honorable James R. Garfield, of Ohio. (Applause)
+
+Mr GARFIELD--Mr President and Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen (renewed
+applause): I appreciate your applause at this time very much, for I fear
+me at the end of what I have to say it may not be forthcoming.
+
+The subject I have chosen is one that affects very directly what may not
+merely be talked about but can actually be done by the people of this
+country in connection with Conservation problems. It was often said a
+few months ago that Conservation was an enthusiasm--that it was an idea,
+or perhaps an ideal, and that those who were urging Conservation were
+not practical men and looking forward to practical work-a-day solutions
+of their own problems. So I chose to speak on the relation of the
+Federal Government to Conservation--a very practical subject, one on
+which we have been working, as well as talking, for a number of years.
+
+There are two good reasons why the Federal Government is directly
+interested in Conservation. In the first place, it is the largest
+land-owner in this country; and, in the second place, it has high duties
+to perform for the interests of all the people of this country. For
+these reasons, the Federal Government comes directly in touch with the
+practical questions of Conservation in dealing with what is left of the
+natural resources of our public domain. The value of these resources
+cannot be measured in mere terms of acres. Some 700,000 acres of our
+public lands remain; but that means nothing unless we know what is
+contained in or on the land represented by the mere statement in
+figures. Now we are learning that this great area, both on the mainland
+and in Alaska, is filled with priceless treasures in the resources
+needed for the lives of the people of our country; and it is in the
+handling of these resources--either disposing of them or providing for
+their use or development--that the Federal Government must deal
+practically with the problems of Conservation. Only as we know this
+tremendous area and its priceless treasures do we realize that we must,
+in the practical handling of these resources, make as few mistakes as
+possible, and constantly keep in view the interest of all the people as
+a guide in the solution of any given problem.
+
+Now, we meet with serious difficulties in attempting to decide how best
+to use the property owned or held by the United States Government as
+trustee for all the people. We have under our system of government a
+dual jurisdiction, or rather, two jurisdictions--that of the Nation on
+the one hand, and that of the State on the other. Yet between these two
+jurisdictions there is no real conflict; there ought to be no
+insuperable obstacle to such cooperation between States and Nation as
+will make possible a wise solution of all questions in which both
+jurisdictions have duties to perform. We hear much about States' rights,
+as though the problems of Conservation have brought to life again an old
+doctrine, as though in some way the Conservationist is endeavoring to
+take something away from the States. The very opposite is true. There is
+no effort on the part of the Conservationist to interfere with any duty
+that the State ought to and can perform. Those duties devolving on the
+States should be performed by the States; and the people of each
+commonwealth should see to it that their State representatives not only
+do what is wise and necessary each year but exercise foresight in
+dealing with all resources subject to their jurisdiction (applause).
+That, however, does not mean that the Federal Government is debarred
+from proper use of the public domain within the areas of the several
+States; it likewise has great duties devolving on it in so administering
+its property as to safeguard the interests and the rights of all the
+citizens of the country. The State lines are merely accidental in many
+instances. The States of the old Northwest and the States of the Middle
+West today were carved out of public territory simply by drawing of
+lines; they were not political entities in the first instance, but a
+few people got together and agreed that so many square miles of
+territory would be made into a State, and whether that State line was
+drawn here or a hundred miles over there should not determine how we are
+to deal with the public resources contained within the area.
+
+In the early period of our development there was but little need of
+giving heed to the questions that are now uppermost in our minds in
+relation to the public domain. There was land enough and to spare; and
+the early purpose of the Federal Government was to provide easy methods
+for getting the public domain (which in those days was considered
+chiefly useful for agriculture, as it is in the middle West) into farms,
+and building up commonwealths that are now theatres of agricultural
+industry. But today the conditions are very different. The remaining
+agricultural land that can be used without irrigation or drainage is
+very little in comparison to the needs of our people; and in handling
+what is left of the public domain it becomes the duty of the Federal
+Government to see to it that not one acre of land that can be used for
+agricultural settlement and development is directed to any other
+purpose--and likewise to see to it that land capable of mineral
+development or of water development is not stolen from the public domain
+under the guise of homestead entries. (Great applause)
+
+In order to understand exactly what the Federal Government can do in
+relation to the use of the public domain, let us keep clearly in mind
+the powers granted to it under the Constitution, and the laws enacted in
+accordance with the Constitution by Congress. The Constitution provides
+that--
+
+     The Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all
+     needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and
+     other property belonging to the United States.
+
+     The executive power shall be vested in a President of the
+     United States of America.
+
+     * * * he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.
+
+Now, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, the Congress
+has enacted the following laws affecting the public domain:
+
+     The Secretary of the Interior is charged with the supervision
+     of public business relating to * * * the public lands,
+     including mines.
+
+     The Commissioner of the General Land Office shall perform,
+     under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, all
+     executive duties appertaining to the surveys and sale of the
+     public lands of the United States, or in anywise respecting
+     such public lands.
+
+     The Commissioner of the General Land Office, under the
+     direction of the Secretary of the Interior, is authorized to
+     enforce and carry into execution by appropriate regulations,
+     every part of the provisions of this title [the public land
+     laws] not otherwise specifically provided for.
+
+Congress, acting under these general provisions, has from time to time
+enacted laws affecting portions of the public domain. It has provided
+the Homestead Act, the Timber and Stone Act, the Mineral Entry Act;
+provided for the creation of the National Forests; enacted laws
+relating to the use of the public domain for reservoir sites, for
+pipe-lines, and for transmission lines; and as the needs of each
+generation have been made known, Congress, acting for the interests of
+all the people, has enacted direct legislation for the purpose of
+providing method for the disposition and use of the public domain.
+
+Meantime, the Executive on his part has performed the duties devolving
+on him under the Constitution--duties few in number and easily
+expressed, though of great importance to the public welfare. They are,
+in brief, to see to it that the laws of the United States are faithfully
+executed; and he is granted all the executive power that could have been
+given by the use of the English language. There is no limitation. It is
+simply "executive power"; whatever that may be was granted to the
+President of the United States.
+
+One of the great objects for which this Nation was created was to
+promote the "general welfare." That object was not only stated in the
+preamble of the Constitution, but was likewise written into the body of
+the instrument; and the power was specifically granted to Congress to
+provide for the general welfare of the United States. That was not an
+idle phrase. The founders of the Republic recognized that it was
+impossible for them to foresee all the things that it might be necessary
+for the Federal Government to do; it was not possible for them to define
+in specific language all the powers that were to be exercised, nor was
+it possible for them to indicate to what extent these powers, once
+granted, might properly and wisely be used; and this welfare clause has
+made it possible to carry out by both the Legislative and the Executive
+branches of the Federal Government the beneficent purposes of the
+founders in ways which they never contemplated or could have
+contemplated in detail. Fortunately, during the early days of our
+National existence we had at the head of the Supreme Court a master
+mind. Marshall was as profound a statesman as he was a great jurist. He
+recognized with that great far-seeing insight that amounts almost to
+inspiration, that it would have been to sound the death-knell of the
+Republic if he, as the chief law interpreter from the judicial seat,
+should so interpret the Constitution as to tie the hands of the
+Government and prevent the people from doing the things necessary to
+make themselves a great and permanent Nation. In one of the earliest
+decisions involving interpretation of the Constitution (McCullough vs.
+Maryland. 4 Wheaton 315) Marshall used this language:
+
+     Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the
+     Constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are
+     plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited but
+     consistent with the letter and spirit of the Constitution, are
+     constitutional.
+
+Another sentence in the same opinion sets a standard for judging
+existing or proposed law; he says--
+
+     But where the law is not prohibited, and is really calculated
+     to effect any of the objects entrusted to the Government, to
+     undertake here to inquire into the degree of its necessity
+     would be to pass the line which circumscribes the judicial
+     department and tread on legislative ground. This court
+     disclaims all pretensions to such a power.
+
+Clearly, Marshall saw at that time that if the Supreme Court endeavored
+to prevent Congress from exercising to the full a power granted under
+the Constitution, it would at that very moment overstep its legitimate
+ground and interfere with the functions granted to the legislative body;
+and in dealing with the powers granted to the Executive, exactly the
+same rule of interpretation applies. Now, it is most interesting to
+notice how from generation to generation Marshall's interpretation has
+made possible the doing of the things that have been done by our people.
+In those days it was impossible for men to conceive of the commercial
+development that has taken place during the hundred years. They could
+not have realized that within a hundred years we would be a great
+manufacturing Nation, and that our commercial relations would not be
+confined to the thirteen colonies but would spread broadcast throughout
+the entire world.
+
+A striking example of the application of this wise interpretation arose
+in dealing with the questions of the Philippine government. We there had
+an entirely novel proposition. The forefathers of the Republic had never
+contemplated the acquisition by us of territory in the Pacific, or
+islands elsewhere. Yet when we faced that problem, we found that under
+Marshall's interpretation, our Constitution was broad enough and big
+enough, and the powers granted therein were great enough, to permit us
+to fulfill the Nation's duty to the islands and islanders. President
+Taft, discussing our work in the Philippines, used this language three
+years ago:
+
+     It is said that there is nothing in the Constitution of the
+     United States that authorizes National altruism of that sort.
+     Well, of course, there is not; but there is nothing in the
+     Constitution of the United States that forbids it. What there
+     is in the Constitution of the United States is a breathing
+     spirit that we are a Nation, with all the responsibilities that
+     any Nation ever had, and therefore when it becomes the
+     Christian duty of a Nation to assist another Nation, the
+     Constitution authorizes it because it is part of National
+     well-being.
+
+That interpretation of the power of both the Executive and the Congress
+is exactly in line with the power that is exercised by both in dealing
+with this question of the public domain and the welfare of our people
+(applause). It would be a childish interpretation of the Constitution to
+hold that we as a Nation could act for the people in the Philippine
+Islands as was best necessary for their well-being, and yet within our
+own confines as a Nation would be prohibited from doing that which is
+necessary for the well-being and the welfare of our children and their
+children. (Applause)
+
+The interpretation by Marshall gave vigor to the young Nation. He was
+not afraid of great responsibilities. He recognized that great
+responsibilities likewise meant the possibility of great mistakes, but
+that did not deter him from so interpreting the Constitution as to make
+possible the doing of the things that have been done. He was not of
+that class of timid folk who fear to exercise great power lest they may
+make a mistake. He was not that type, either as statesman or jurist, who
+because they do not see plainly written in the Constitution specific
+authority for the doing of every act necessary, therefore hold back and
+maintain that no such authority exists. This is the type of mind that
+prevents all progress. The timid man is often side by side with the
+dishonest man, because the timid man refuses to act from fear while the
+dishonest man raises the cry, "There is no power," in order to gain for
+himself that to which he is not entitled, or to escape Governmental
+jurisdiction or evade governmental regulation of any character.
+(Applause)
+
+But we are not left simply to academic discussion as to whether the
+Federal Government has power to deal with the National domain. The
+Supreme Court has held, over and over again, that the Federal
+Government, acting through both the Legislative and the Executive
+branches, has the power to do what is best for the people's interests in
+handling the public domain. The Court has wisely and properly held that
+the power granted under the Constitution to dispose of the public domain
+carries with it every lesser power (applause)--that because Congress has
+the right to provide for the sale or the gift of land, it can likewise
+provide for the lease of land under such conditions and regulations as
+it may prescribe or as it may permit the Executive to prescribe.
+Therefore, the way is clear for the Federal Government to do whatever
+may be wise and necessary to protect the interests of the people in the
+use of the public domain.
+
+Let us take another view of Executive authority. The chief Executive,
+above all other officers, is recognized and properly held as the great
+steward, the immediate custodian of the public property and of the
+people's rights. He is single-headed. He is one upon whom responsibility
+may be fixed. He is constantly at his desk; he is ever vigilant; he is
+constantly in touch with the things that interest the people and their
+rights therein; and as the custodian and guardian of the people's
+interests, it is to him that we must look for the protection of the
+public domain. It is not enough that the Executive shall simply carry
+into effect the specific language of a statute. He must go farther than
+that; he must be as aggressive in his vigilance as are those who would
+take the public property without conforming to the law (applause). The
+Executive is required to see to it that the laws are enforced. Now, in
+the enforcement of law he often finds that while the paper record
+presented to him or to his subordinates by those who seek to acquire the
+public domain is perfect (there is no difficulty about making a land
+title good on paper) his duty is only partially fulfilled unless he goes
+behind the paper record; and when the last Administration took hold of
+the question of the land frauds, the Executive decided that there was
+but one way to enforce the law, and that was to see to it that the paper
+record conformed to the facts in every case presented (great applause).
+The greatest land frauds that have been perpetrated against the people
+of the United States were perpetrated because the public officers in
+years past did not make that direct, careful investigation of the facts
+and of the condition of the lands which would have enabled them to save
+for the people hundreds of millions of dollars of valuable property that
+in the last generation has gotten illegally into the hands of the big
+interests. (Applause)
+
+The founders of our Republic recognized and understood the vital need of
+giving ample power to the Executive. It is well to recall what Hamilton
+wrote when defending the Constitution:
+
+     Energy in the Executive is a leading character in the
+     definition of good government. It is essential to the
+     protection of the community against foreign attacks; it is not
+     less essential to the steady administration of the laws; to the
+     protection of property against those irregular and high-handed
+     combinations which sometimes interrupt the ordinary course of
+     justice; to the security of liberty against the enterprises and
+     assaults of ambition, of faction and of anarchy.
+
+     There can be no need, however, to multiply arguments or
+     examples on this head. A feeble Executive implies a feeble
+     execution of government. A feeble execution is but another
+     phrase for a bad execution, and a government ill-executed,
+     whatever it may be in theory, must be, in practice, a bad
+     government.
+
+Thus the Executive must be held responsible for much that is done in
+connection with the administration of our laws. Congress enacts the
+laws; they may be faulty; if so, they may be amended. If they are
+faulty, it is the duty of the Executive to carry them into effect, but
+to recommend their amendment, alteration, or repeal; but under no
+circumstances is he fulfilling his duty if he sits supinely by and
+allows the public domain to be despoiled because the law is not as
+efficient as he thinks it should be. (Applause)
+
+Much has been said in recent years regarding Executive usurpations. It
+has been held by those who objected to the new order of things--those
+who objected to that change in methods by which the public frauds were
+stopped--that the Executive was usurping powers not granted to him under
+the Constitution. Now, if it be usurpation to so enforce the law as to
+prevent dishonesty, fraud, and theft, then there has been usurpation
+(applause). But I as yet have failed to have presented to me a single
+instance of actual usurpation. The Executive is as much subject to the
+courts of the United States as is the ordinary citizen. If the Executive
+has transcended his power, if he has in his execution of law gone beyond
+what someone thinks is his power, then the Executive can be haled into
+court; and over and over again I have said to complainants who came to
+me when I was in office "All you have to do is to go into the courts of
+the United States, and if the Executive power that is being exercised is
+improperly exercised, there in that jurisdiction you can bring us to
+account." But no one has yet seen fit to bring such an action; and the
+reason is that there has been no usurpation of executive authority.
+(Applause)
+
+There is a wide difference between simply being within the law and
+executing the law. A man may be within the law and yet do absolutely
+nothing to further the spirit of the law; like an engineer, he is on the
+track whether he is standing still, going backward, or going forward;
+but I take it that what we want in executive office is an engineer who
+stays on the track yet is constantly driving forward the engine
+(applause). We may rest assured that those who are seeking to acquire
+the public domain will not be idle if the Executive is standing still.
+(Applause)
+
+That brings me again to a subject mentioned a moment ago, namely the
+relation of the Nation to the States; and the Executive here plays an
+important part. An example will show how the executives of both the
+Nation and the States should cooperate in working out any given problem:
+A great water course is a natural entity; the water-shed must be
+considered as a unit--otherwise the people within that water-shed will
+not have equal justice done them in their right to the water. For
+example, the waters of the Rio Grande rise in Colorado; they cross the
+line into New Mexico; they then become the dividing line between Mexico
+and Texas. If we admit for a moment that the power to use and control
+all the water of the Rio Grande shall be left solely with Colorado
+because it rises in the great mountains of that State, then we instantly
+jeopardize the rights of all the people who live south of the Colorado
+line (applause). If the Chief Executive of the Federal Government had
+feared to exercise his power to prevent water-power sites and reservoir
+sites in Colorado from being taken exclusively by Colorado people; if he
+had been unwilling to exercise the power granted him by the
+Constitution, then the people below would have had just cause for
+complaint that the Executive instead of obeying the law was in effect a
+party to a violation of law in jeopardizing their rights. The only way
+in which that matter could properly be handled was for the Executive of
+the Federal Government to withdraw certain lands from sale or entry; and
+by so doing he made it possible for the people of New Mexico and Texas,
+and of the Republic of Mexico in conformity with the treaty made by the
+Federal Government, to have their fair share and just proportion of the
+use of that water.
+
+The best way to deal with conflicting water rights between States is for
+the Federal Government to continue to hold every acre of public land
+capable of use in water development pending agreement with the various
+States as to how the lands shall be used, to the end that the rights of
+all the people of each water-shed, rather than the special interests of
+a few, shall be protected in the use and disposition of that great
+resource. (Applause)
+
+What I have said in relation to water applies equally to the development
+of our coal, our phosphates, and our timber. The phosphates recently
+discovered in the West lie in four States. When the matter was first
+called to my attention by the report of the Geological Survey and the
+special report of Dr Van Hise, I was astonished to learn the conditions
+then existing in our country. Practically all of the mineral phosphates
+known in the United States were held by one great corporation, and over
+40 percent of the products of the Southern mines were being shipped
+abroad to be used on the fields of Europe; and the same men were already
+endeavoring to get hold of the phosphate deposits in the West. Therefore
+I instantly made a recommendation to the President, and he instantly
+acted on it and withdrew the phosphate lands (applause). Now that
+withdrawal was not an interference with the rights of the people of any
+of those four States, nor was it an act of usurpation, or an improper
+extension of Executive authority. It simply meant this: that we would
+hold, prevent the acquisition of those lands under laws not adapted to
+them, report the matter to Congress, and hold the lands until Congress
+provided a method for wise disposition of them (applause). And my
+recommendation was that the phosphate deposits of the country should be
+disposed of only under lease and with such conditions as would prevent
+export to foreign lands (applause). We need every ton of our phosphates
+for our own use. (Applause)
+
+So, if you trace the actions of the Executive and of Congress in dealing
+with the public domain, you will find that wherever there has been a
+vigorous execution of law coupled with recommendation of further
+legislation looking to the welfare of all of our people, there we have
+made advance along lines that will promote the development of our
+country in future years; and that wherever there has been laxity in the
+enforcement of law, wherever we have allowed the interference of big
+business interests to interrupt the enforcement of law as it should be
+enforced, land frauds there have crept in and in those conditions we
+have found the big interests getting control of more than their fair
+share of the resources of the public domain.
+
+Sometimes we have been accused of being unfair to the big interests. We
+have been accused of assailing these interests simply because they were
+big; and we have been charged with raising ghosts to frighten the
+people, and naming those ghosts water-power trusts, timber trusts, land
+trusts, or coal trusts, when in reality there was no danger of trust
+development or of monopolistic holding of these resources. And yet, my
+friends, if you trace back the history of the acquisition of the public
+domain you will find that in every instance where there has been a
+failure to strictly enforce the laws the special interests have slipped
+in and have gained control of the resources of the public domain. They
+have never been idle. We ourselves have been indifferent, we have been
+negligent; and it is not for us now altogether to blame the
+beneficiaries of our neglect, but we must blame ourselves--and must
+blame our representatives in office now if by any chance they permit a
+return to the old conditions. (Applause)
+
+The power of the Executive and of Congress is ample to do all that is
+necessary to protect the public welfare and the common good. There must
+be no backsliding in what has already been so splendidly started. We
+must see to it that our representatives, both in the Senate and in the
+House, are men who will take a long look into the future--men with
+imagination. Men with enthusiasm? Yes! Nothing great has ever been
+accomplished without enthusiasm and without imagination (applause). And
+we want practical men who will lead us, as I said in the beginning, step
+by step, to better things. Thus and thus only will the Federal
+Government exercise to the full the powers granted under the
+Constitution, and thus and thus only will the people of this country
+safeguard their property rights, their personal and their political
+rights as well, and hand down the great heritage that has come to us not
+only unimpaired but in better condition than we received it. (Great and
+prolonged applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--Ladies and Gentlemen: Now that this subject has been so
+ably opened by Mr Garfield, we are going to call upon another man who
+has been militant in the work of Conservation--an Ex-Governor who is
+even more active as an ex than he was as Governor, a sort of
+characteristic, these days, of prominent men (laughter). I am sure you
+will have great pleasure in hearing from Ex-Governor George C. Pardee,
+of California. (Applause)
+
+Ex-Governor PARDEE--Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I hope the Chair
+will forgive me if I differ from him very radically in one statement
+that he made, to the effect that _all_ of us who have been things
+(laughter) are now more active than we were when we were things.
+(Laughter)
+
+I sat here today in this vast Auditorium and saw thousands of men and
+women and children, gathering to do honor to the man whom we, in common
+with the rest of the world, consider to be the greatest American now
+alive (great applause). When I saw those thousands of people filling
+this great Auditorium, row on row and tier on tier, until the heads of
+those standing in the topmost row touched the very roof, I thought to
+myself that the activities of him who _was_ in office are being only
+continued since he left the office which he filled to our entire
+satisfaction. (Applause)
+
+I come here this afternoon to discuss the very able paper so well
+presented to you by him who was once Secretary of the Interior, in the
+cabinet of the President of the United States (applause); and I hope you
+will not consider it presumptuous that I should attempt to discuss that
+very able paper. Mr Garfield was good enough to furnish me with a copy
+of his address several days ago, and I am free to confess to you that I
+have given it prayerful consideration and that I can find nothing in it
+to discuss (applause), because it calls a spade a spade and a thief a
+thief (applause); and with both of those propositions I have no doubt
+the ladies and gentlemen here assembled will thoroughly and totally
+agree. (Applause)
+
+Every now and then we hear of some poor, miserable fool sent to the
+penitentiary for crimes and frauds against the land laws; but will any
+one be kind enough to mention to me the name of any principal in such
+crimes and frauds who, with shaved head and striped suit, is looking
+through the bars of the penitentiary today? I take it that you will
+agree with me that the time has come when the rights and duties of the
+plain American citizen should be again placed within his grasp, and that
+the rights and duties of the very meanest of us should be regarded as
+equal to those of the most powerful and the richest and most
+influential. Our representatives have too often forgotten the fact that
+they represent the great mass of the people, and that they represent
+unborn generations of American citizens--that they are plowing legal
+furrows and building legal fences and making things ready for the coming
+generations of Americans who will fill this great land of ours.
+
+So when I speak of my own State of California, and say that its people
+have been robbed and plundered and pillaged; when I say that its
+government has been debased and corrupted; when I say with shame and
+with blushes that my native city of San Francisco has been humbled and
+shamed into the very dust by the corrupting influences of men and
+public-service corporations who, with us as their benefactors, have
+turned and stung the breast that warmed them into life; when I say these
+things I have but to call to your attention conditions which have
+existed in almost every large city, in almost every State of this Union.
+(Applause)
+
+Like Mr Garfield, I do not find it in my heart to blame the men who have
+taken advantage of our laxness; I cannot find it in my heart to blame
+the two men who own each over a million acres of the best timber land in
+the State of California for having taken advantage of the laxness in
+administration of the law in times past--not of the law itself, for the
+law has been good, and if it had been administered as it should have
+been administered these two men could not have owned a million acres
+apiece of the best timbered land in the State of California (applause).
+But who of us has not heard--in times past more than since the time of
+Theodore Africanus (laughter)--who of us has not heard those who,
+perhaps with a selfish interest, have sneered and said, "Well, we're all
+a little crooked, and why should we take exceptions to the man who is a
+little more crooked?" when the question of frauds against the land laws
+was in discussion? I take it that the officials who had those matters in
+charge should be, as Mr Garfield has so well said, ever vigilant within
+the law to do those things which the law does not prohibit and not wait
+for the prods and stings of outraged public opinion that compel them to
+do the things which they should, in common honesty to the people whom
+they represent, perform and do for the protection of you and me and your
+children and my children. (Applause)
+
+I listened yesterday afternoon with mingled feelings to the statements
+of the gentlemen who four short years ago I would have hailed as brother
+governors. I heard some most violent utterances concerning the feeling
+of the people of the Pacific-coast States in regard to State rights. One
+good brother governor said that 95 percent of the people of the Pacific
+Coast were in favor of State rights. We had in California on the 16th
+day of August (less than a month ago) a direct-primary election. At that
+election there was nominated as the republican candidate for Governor of
+the State of California Hiram W. Johnson. Out of something over 200,000
+votes cast he received over 100,000 votes. His next nearest opponent
+received 55,000 votes. Mr Johnson's campaign was made on a platform
+containing three principal planks--Roosevelt, Pinchot, and Conservation.
+(Great applause) If it be necessary, I can read a telegram from Mr
+Johnson in which he assures me that he has not yet recanted from his old
+Rooseveltism, his Pinchotism and his Garfieldism, or his Conservationism
+(applause); so I think I am safe in saying that instead of 95 percent of
+the people of at least one Pacific-coast State being in favor of State
+rights, I am entirely within the bounds of conservative statement if I
+say that 80 percent of the people of California have not forgotten the
+Civil War and remember that the ghost of State rights was laid so many
+fathoms deep at that time that no ingenious argument of any Governor
+from the Northwest, the Southeast, or any other portion of this country
+can revive it and make it walk. (Great applause) If necessary, I could
+read from this little packet that I have in my hand a portion of a
+letter from the Grand Master of the Patrons of Husbandry (that is the
+Grange) of the State of Washington (applause), whose Governor addressed
+this Congress yesterday afternoon and declared himself and his State as
+both being entirely in favor of State rights. In that letter the Grand
+Master of the Patrons of Husbandry of the State of Washington, whose
+Governor addressed this Congress yesterday afternoon, says that he
+represents 19,000 of the people of Washington, and that no man has the
+right to represent them upon the floor of this Congress and say that
+they are in favor of State rights (great applause). And in this little
+packet I also have a telegram from the Conservation Association of the
+State of Washington, signed by its president, which says that its
+membership in the State of Washington is not in favor of State rights
+(applause). So, our good southern brethren having forgotten the bloody
+past (as my Yankee blood has forgotten it), having come again into the
+Union and declaring themselves loyal sons marching under the American
+flag and having forgotten the obsolete doctrine of State rights, I think
+I am safe in saying that the people of the North and Northwest have not
+changed places with them, but that they believe that the Federal
+Government should keep and administer the things that belong _to all the
+people_ of the country. (Applause)
+
+We have in California, my fellow-citizens of other States, a great deal
+of _your_ property. We have several millions of acres of National
+forests that belong to you. They cannot belong exclusively to the people
+of the State of California until the people of the United States, to
+whom they belong, give them to us. And I thank God that the National
+Government, representing the people of other States, has not given those
+millions of acres of National forests in the State of California to the
+State of California. For if it had, just as sure as you are sitting
+here, those acres would have been given over into private ownership,
+just as thousands and hundreds of thousands of acres of the public lands
+which were given to the State of California have been squandered with a
+prodigal hand and given to men who have not obeyed either the letter or
+the spirit of the law conveying and granting to them those hundreds and
+hundreds of thousands and millions of acres of the public lands.
+(Applause)
+
+Let me instance one case. The Oregon and California Railroad begins at
+Portland and runs south toward California. The California and Oregon
+Railroad begins at Sacramento and runs north toward Oregon. They meet
+somewhere north of the Oregon line. They are both adjuncts of the
+Southern Pacific. When those roads were contemplated, the Government, by
+an act of Congress, donated to them 6,000,000 acres of land, much of it
+covered with as fine timber as grows out of doors--I bar none. In the
+act of Congress donating that land it was specified that the land should
+be sold in 160-acre tracts for $2.50 per acre to all actual settlers who
+might apply therefor. Was any of it sold to actual settlers? A very few
+acres of it. Half of the 6,000,000 acres was sold, however, in large
+tracts to land speculators, to timber corporations, and to people of
+that kind and class, for $5.00, $10.00, $15.00, $20.00, $30.00, $50.00
+an acre. And when the Southern Pacific was brought to bar and asked why
+it hadn't lived up to the letter and spirit of the law, it said it had.
+And then we asked, "How do you make that out?" And it said, "Why, only a
+few actual settlers have applied for the land." And we asked, "Haven't
+people gone there and attempted to buy that land of you in order that
+they might settle upon it?" "Oh, yes, but they are not actual settlers."
+"Why not?" "Because we construe the words 'actual settlers' to mean
+those persons who had actually settled in that country before the act of
+Congress was passed." (Laughter and applause.) And when, at the
+Sacramento session of the National Irrigation Congress, Mr E. H.
+Harriman was asked why his company was holding 3,000,000 acres of that
+land grant, he said, "For future generations." And everybody laughed.
+
+Now, let that sink into you. The absolute arrogance, the indecent
+indecency of that kind of a proposition ought to make the blood boil in
+the veins of every American citizen who is face to face, or who was
+seven or eight years ago face to face with the proposition whether or
+not the American people were to rule themselves or whether they were to
+continue to be ruled by the "big interests," as Jimmie Garfield puts it.
+(Applause)
+
+The sun rises every morning, three hundred and sixty-five days in the
+year, in California; it reddens the cheeks of our girls; it makes our
+boys strong and healthy; it brings the gold to the oranges that hang
+upon our trees. And for all these years we have been thanking God for
+the rising of the sun in California. "The gentle rain from heaven" has
+fallen alike upon the just and the unjust out there in California--upon
+those who deserve to be rained on and those who do not deserve to be
+rained on (laughter). And all these years we have been thanking God for
+the gentle rain that falls from heaven. But yesterday as I sat here in
+this great Auditorium and listened to the Governor of Montana tell what
+Montana had been doing for this Nation, I began to think (I do not wish
+to be irreverent in saying it) that we were under no obligations in
+California to God for the rising of the sun or the falling of the rain;
+but that we were under great obligations to Montana (laughter and
+applause) for all the good things that belong to California and
+Californians. And as my good friend, Governor Norris (to put a name to
+him) was telling his lurid history of Montana's great doings, I couldn't
+help but think that as an American citizen some of the things that lie
+in the State of Montana belong to me, belong to you, belong even to
+those who live on the hook of Cape Cod or away up in the northeastern
+corner of Maine or down on the tip of Florida; that those things which
+belong to the people of the United States even in Montana belong to us
+all, and that Montana has no exclusive right to them until our
+representatives in Congress give them to that State, and I am one of
+those who pray God that it will be a long time before the State of
+Montana gets from us the exclusive right to, and ownership of, those
+things that are ours. (Great applause)
+
+Some time ago a good friend of mine, who has never denied when I have
+charged him with receiving $20,000 per annum (and by the way, he is a
+delegate from California to this Congress) as the chief counsel of one
+of the power trusts of California, said to me, "Oh, how the President is
+usurping the powers of the Government! Isn't it awful?" But I never
+could see anything very awful about it when Roosevelt and Garfield and
+Pinchot and the rest of them were hustling around trying to keep my
+friend's corporation from stealing from us of California the few things
+we have left (laughter and applause); nor have I forgotten that, before
+the time of Roosevelt, Garfield and Pinchot, the corporations
+represented by my friend did not believe in State rights. But since the
+time of Roosevelt, Pinchot and Garfield they have begun to sing a
+different song. That song is State rights. Nor have I forgotten that my
+friend used to be and still claims to be one of the most hide-bound
+republicans that mortal man ever looked upon (laughter and applause).
+_Now_ he says that the rights of the people of the States are being
+pillaged and plundered and robbed away from them. I speak again for my
+State of California when I say that if there is anything in the State of
+California that the National Government has not nailed down that has not
+been stolen, I would like to know what it is. (Great laughter and
+applause)
+
+There are, as you heard Mr Herbert Knox Smith say here on this platform
+an hour ago, four great power corporations in the State of California.
+That is so; but there are practically only two power trusts in the
+State of California. When the Government declared its intention to hold
+on to the few power sites that are left in the State of California in
+the National forests, all of a sudden these power trusts wanted all the
+water-power of California developed in the interests of the people; and
+they can't say it fast enough or often enough (laughter and applause).
+But, as you heard Mr Smith say, they have developed and are using only
+half of the power that they already have in their possession. So when
+they get gay around where I am, I generally say, "Well, that's all
+right, but go on and develop all the power you have got _now_; and after
+you have got that developed, then we'll talk about giving you some more;
+because I know just as sure as you fellows get an opportunity to lay
+your hands on any of those power sites in the National forests you'll
+steal _them_ and put them in cold storage, and you'll make my children
+and their children, so long as there are any children in the State of
+California, dig up the last dollar that they have to pay you for the
+necessary electric current to do their business during the next century
+and the century after that until the end of time in California"
+(applause). And I, for one, as I say to them, while I am somewhat
+hardened and calloused by being robbed myself, don't want my children or
+their children to be robbed into the poor-house and the penitentiary by
+anybody's power corporation (applause). Therefore I hope and pray that
+those gentlemen who are so apprehensive that the people of the country
+will not get, unless they get it through the States, the right to use
+the things that belong to all the people of the country, will pause
+until the State of Montana, the State of California, the State of
+Washington, and all the Pacific-coast States, at least, if not the rest
+of the Nation, are governed by the _people_ of those States and not by
+the public-service corporations. (Great and prolonged applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CHRISTOPHER G. HORR--Mr Chairman: The State of Washington having been
+mentioned, I wish one minute to speak in behalf of that State.
+
+President BAKER--Is the Gentleman a Delegate from the State of
+Washington?
+
+Mr HORR--Yes. It has been stated from the platform that the State of
+Washington believed in State rights. I want to contradict that. As one
+of the Delegates of the State of Washington, I want to declare my belief
+that not only the Granges of the State of Washington, as Brother Pardee
+has stated, but the majority of the citizens of that State, will
+repudiate any such sentiment coming from anyone in this Congress (great
+applause and cheers). I want to say that the State of Washington is
+peopled in part by 25,000 former residents of the State of Minnesota,
+and that they have full confidence in the National Government--they have
+full confidence in President Taft, they have full confidence in your
+Senators Nelson and Clapp, and in Congressman Stevens and the other
+congressmen of the United States; and I consider it an insult to the
+Congress and the President of the United States to say that they will
+not treat the people of the State of Washington as they should be
+treated. I want to say to you, Ladies and Gentlemen, that the State of
+Washington will keep step to the music of the Union. (Great applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--After the next address on the program, any further
+discussion of the subjects presented will be welcome.
+
+It was gratifying to hear from California through the voice of
+Ex-Governor Pardee. One of the fortunate features of this Congress is
+the presence of men of prominence and influence from all sections of the
+country. Not merely the North and the East and the West are represented,
+but the sunny South; and we will be pleased to hear from a
+representative of the great State of Louisiana, who has always been
+deeply interested in Conservation, and is no less competent to speak on
+the subject now than when he wielded the power of Governor of that
+commonwealth. I have great pleasure in introducing Ex-Governor Newton C.
+Blanchard. (Applause)
+
+Ex-Governor BLANCHARD--Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the
+Congress: I am not on the program for a formal address, but I am here to
+supplement and endorse and support the admirable address delivered you a
+little while ago by Ex-Secretary Garfield. (Applause)
+
+The times change, and men's opinions seem to change with them. On
+yesterday, in this Auditorium, I listened to a number of western
+Governors preaching the doctrine of State rights. For many years prior
+to the fateful year of 1861, and for four memorable years following it,
+the question of State rights was forcefully discussed in the forum of
+the Republic, and afterward practically settled on the battlefield
+(applause); and we of the South, who went down in that struggle to
+determine whether these rights of the States were paramount to the
+authority of the Federal Government, accepted the situation in good
+faith (great applause)--and we are now marching side by side with the
+North and the East and the West in that grand procession of progress
+that makes for the might and power of our great Republic. (Renewed
+applause)
+
+It seems strange to a southern democrat like myself (applause) that "a
+voice should come out of the West" (laughter) telling us that this
+movement for Conservation must be abandoned by the Federal Government
+and relegated to the tender mercies of the western States (laughter and
+applause). Gentlemen of the Congress, was the question of State rights,
+the _real_, genuine doctrine of State rights, behind that demand? No;
+everyone of you know that it was not. It was a mere pretext; and the
+history of all nations is full of examples where strong men, having
+risen to ascendancy and ruling power and wanting to do something not
+exactly right (some usurpation of power or act of tyranny), first sought
+a pretext to justify it (applause). Why, then, does this voice come out
+of the West--a country that in the time preceding and following 1861 was
+known as "the wild and woolly West," and out of which at that time came
+not a whisper in advocacy of State rights? Why, now that the "wild and
+woolly West" has gone and magnificent commonwealths are there, now for
+the first time comes from the West, in former renegade garb or present
+robe of splendor, the cry that State rights must dominate the
+Conservation of the natural resources of the country? Gentlemen, some
+years ago a great citizen and soldier of our Republic was the candidate
+of a political party for the high office of President of the United
+States at a time when the tariff was the dominant issue, and becoming
+involved in the intricacies and embarrassing problems of the tariff, he
+declared, "the tariff is a local issue." Listening to the western
+Governors last afternoon, I perceived the same idea arising again, only
+in a different form; for the western Governors would make State rights a
+local issue.
+
+The natural resources of the United States belong to all the people
+(applause), not alone to those who happen to live in the States where
+what is left of the public domain is principally situated today; you and
+I have just as much concern and interest and proprietorship in the
+natural resources on and in and springing from the public domain in
+Wyoming, in Montana, in Idaho, and in other western States, as have the
+people of those States themselves (applause). Gentlemen, as has been
+well said already during this Congress, the smaller the community the
+easier it is for special interests to control it; and that is the reason
+for this demand that the Conservation of the natural resources in the
+western States should be turned over to the States themselves. If you
+want Conservation to amount to anything--if you wish it to go forward in
+the fullness of development so that what is left of the public domain,
+of the coal lands, the phosphate lands, the oil and gas lands and the
+forests belonging to the United States may be preserved and conserved
+and utilized without present waste and handed down to our children and
+children's children without exhaustion, then I say the power that should
+lead in this movement is the mighty power of the Federal Government.
+(Applause)
+
+When the distinguished and able gentleman who occupies the executive
+chair in the State of Montana was speaking yesterday, he claimed for his
+State "the earth and the fullness thereof" in respect to the
+Conservation of natural resources. He claimed that the movement there
+had antedated anything done by any other State or by the Federal
+Government, and to hear his eulogy of what Montana had done in this
+respect and his absence of expression as to what the Federal Government
+had done there, one might think, to use the vernacular of the day, that
+Montana was "the whole cheese" (laughter) in matters of conservation.
+And yet, when I met the gentleman today and asked him if the Federal
+Government had not been doing considerable work in Montana and
+expending large sums of money to irrigate the arid regions of that
+State, he admitted that it had. I asked him if the Federal Government
+had not expended many times more money in doing just that kind of
+Conservation work in his State than Montana had, and he admitted that it
+had. I asked him if what the Federal Government had already done in the
+way of irrigating the arid regions of his State and the projects now
+under way would not when completed yield to the farmer and the
+husbandman many hundreds of thousands of acres of valuable land, and he
+admitted it would and that the aggregate would be more than 600,000
+acres (applause). That is what the Federal Government has done and is
+doing in one western State; and yet that same Governor, and others from
+the West, advocate that in the matter of Conservation the Federal
+Government should take a back seat, and permit the States to take the
+lead in Conservation.
+
+Gentlemen, you heard today from the lips of Theodore Roosevelt a truth
+that struck me most forcibly, and that was this: It is not so much the
+question as to who shall take the lead in the matter of Conservation,
+whether it be the power of the States or the authority of the Federal
+Government, but which of these powers is best equipped and most able to
+keep what remains of the public domain and the natural resources from
+falling into the hands of the special interests and the monopolists
+(applause). Some of those western Governors, when the imputation was
+made that if the natural resources were turned over to the States in the
+manner proposed by them the special interests might handle their
+legislators, grew virtuously indignant; and yet all of us remember that
+it has been charged time and time again--and I think no one will have
+the temerity to deny it--that powerful interests with unlimited money
+have put forward their own selections for the high office of Senator of
+the United States and elected them (applause). That has been done
+repeatedly in the past; and is anyone here bold enough to say that even
+now there does not sit in the Senate of the United States men from the
+western States who owe their election to that position through the
+instrumentality of money? (Applause) No; that is true; and everyone of
+you knows it is true. If the Legislatures--and I do not mean to imply or
+to charge that the Legislatures of those particular western States are
+any more corrupt or more subject to the blandishments of corporations
+and men of means than the Legislatures of other States, whether they be
+North or South or East or West--can be induced through those
+instrumentalities to elevate men to high position, then I say those
+Legislatures can be controlled by the same means in other respects; and
+all of us know that special interests have always out a grabbing hand
+for what there is in the way of coal lands, in the way of water-power
+sites, in the way of phosphate lands and oil and gas lands. So I say,
+gentlemen of the Congress, we had better leave this matter of
+Conservation in the hands of the Federal Government to lead in this
+great work wherever the Conservation relates to the natural resources
+springing from the public domain. I am here to advocate that first; and
+I am here to say that in other respects, where the State authority finds
+jurisdiction, there should be cooperation between the States and the
+Federal Government. (Applause)
+
+We have heard much from these western Governors in their speeches last
+afternoon relative to the waters in the rivers of their States, and the
+position was taken that the waters belong to the States. Flowing through
+the public domain, the land and the water-power sites would belong to
+the Federal Government, and where that is the case there is good ground
+for cooperation; but I am far from admitting that those waters belong to
+the States. There are some decisions of the Supreme Court that so
+declare, but such decisions were made by the courts under peculiar
+circumstances and facts differing from the circumstances and facts set
+before us in the matter of Conservation. Take the great Mississippi; to
+whom does the Mississippi river belong? Do its waters belong to the
+States through which those waters flow? Why, don't you know that every
+drop of water precipitated from the clouds, except that which is taken
+up by evaporation, every drop of rainfall from the top of the
+Alleghenies to the summit of the Rocky mountains finds its way through
+the innumerable channels and smaller streams to the great main trunk
+that we call the Mississippi river? Don't you know that it is the
+receptacle for the drainage of half of this great Republic of ours, that
+much of even the waters that fall in the western part of the great State
+of New York find their way into the channel of the Mississippi? All of
+the water thus gathered into the main channel flows by the cities of all
+the States from Minnesota down to Louisiana, my own State; and all of
+that water flows through the State of Louisiana to find lodgment at last
+in the Mexican Gulf. Now, does all the water thus garnered from this
+immense watershed to flow through the State of Louisiana belong to the
+State of Louisiana? If so, _we don't want it_! (Laughter and applause)
+It fell on these great western States, and too much of it comes down
+upon us, and we have had a great struggle, extending through many years,
+to keep that water off our land (laughter). I have known one great flood
+in Louisiana to cause destruction to the extent of ten millions of
+dollars. The State of Louisiana alone has expended, by State taxation
+and levee district taxation, more than thirty millions of dollars since
+the War in keeping the waters that fell upon your territory off our
+fertile lands (applause); and not being able to perform the herculean
+task ourselves, we have appealed, in season and out, to the Federal
+Government for aid, and a liberal hand has been extended to us.
+(Applause)
+
+I was for years in Congress from Louisiana and for years a member and
+chairman of the committee on rivers and harbors of the House of
+Representatives, and I had to deal with this question. When I went first
+to Congress the idea prevailed there that the Federal Government had no
+constitutional authority to appropriate and expend money on Mississippi
+river except in aid of navigation; it was admitted that could be done
+under the commerce clause of the Constitution, but Congress denied that
+it owed any other duty to the river. Myself and others from the lower
+Mississippi valley, the lands of whose constituents were flooded every
+now and then by the great river, contended that Congress owed a two-fold
+duty to the river: to improve its navigation, and to prevent the waters
+from remaining a terror to those who lived in its lower valley
+(applause). Congress admitted it owed the first duty, but asked where
+there was any constitutional authority for the appropriation of public
+money to redeem private property from the flood and ravages of the
+river; and it took the representatives and senators from the lower
+valley States many years--I know I worked at it myself for ten years, in
+season and out, as a member of Congress--to demonstrate that the Federal
+Government owed it to the great river to prevent its floods as well as
+to improve its navigation. In answer to the demand for constitutional
+authority we cited a principle of law, recognized alike by the civil law
+system and by the common-law, which long antedated the Constitution of
+the United States, a principle embodied in a Latin maxim, "_Sic utere
+tuo ut alienum non laedas_"--so use your own that it shall not become an
+injury to others (applause). And we asked in that connection, "Who owns
+the Mississippi river? Does the Federal Government own it? If so, it is
+its property as a great feature of our country; and if the
+proprietorship of the river is in the Federal Government, then should
+not the Government so regulate and control its own that it will not
+injure or prove a detriment or damage to those who live in the lower
+valley?" (Applause) And that argument won.
+
+Prior to 1892, large appropriations were made by Congress for the
+Mississippi river, all of them with a proviso that none of the money
+should be expended for the purpose of preventing the floods of the
+river; and not a dollar was available for the repair and construction of
+levees. That was the situation in 1882 and on down to 1892, when the
+argument that the river belonged to the Federal Government and it must
+so regulate and use it that it should not be a damage and a hurt to us
+in the lower valley prevailed; and in the river and harbor bill of 1892,
+at a time when I was chairman of the committee, the Secretary of War was
+authorized to expend $10,000,000 on the lower Mississippi from Cairo to
+the Gulf, and the restrictions and provisos that had hampered the
+Mississippi River Commission theretofore in the expenditure of money for
+the two-fold purpose of improving navigation and preventing floods were
+removed (applause). We wrote these limitations all out; Congress had
+been educated up to the point where it recognized the second duty it
+owed to the great river in preventing its floods. The bill passed, and
+the Mississippi River Commission allotted $6,000,000 of the $10,000,000
+for levee construction and repairs (applause). We followed this two
+years later by another bill using the same phraseology and appropriating
+$9,000,000 more, and these two great bills, carrying $19,000,000, with
+no restrictions on the expenditures for the prevention of floods in the
+river, have given us along the lower river the greatest and finest levee
+system ever known in any age or on any river in any country--1350 miles
+of levees that stay the floods of the Mississippi so that a general
+flood in the river is a thing of the past; and on every mile of our 1350
+miles of levees on the two banks of the river _is the stamp of the
+Federal Government_. (Applause)
+
+And yet they tell you that these waters do not belong to the Federal
+Government? They admit that they belong to the Federal Government for
+purposes of navigation. Congress is committed already to the principle
+that the waters of the river belong to the Federal Government, because
+Congress has undertaken to help us to keep those waters off of our
+lands. But I go further than that; I agree with my distinguished friend
+Mr Garfield that the jurisdiction of the Federal Government extends,
+where the navigable waterways of the United States are concerned, far
+beyond the point to which they are navigable; it extends to the
+headwaters of those rivers, and for the very good reason that if the
+jurisdiction of the Federal Government did not so extend, then where
+these rivers take their rise some of these western States might
+undertake to divert from the great Mississippi channel the water needed
+to supply that river with enough water for navigation purposes. Every
+river, therefore, must be treated as a unit (applause). That is the view
+we take of it in the South; and in taking that view we hold to the
+National idea that water, being one of those natural resources which
+needs conservation in respect to its greater and wiser use, ought to be
+controlled by the Federal Government. Water is one of those natural
+resources that man can do nothing to add to or diminish in quantity;
+the snows and the rains are the result of great cosmic action--and
+fortunate it is that such is the case, for past experience in this
+country shows that if man could diminish the supply he would long since
+have done so by his neglect and his wastefulness. (Applause)
+
+I have spoken long enough. I wanted to supplement, from the standpoint
+of the South, the admirable remarks made by the distinguished Governor
+of Mississippi on last afternoon. We of the South are hand in hand with
+the Federal Government in this great question of the Conservation of the
+natural resources; and we look to the Federal Government to lead in that
+movement (applause). At the same time I repeat that this great movement,
+so auspiciously inaugurated by Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot
+(applause), needs for its full consummation and for the realizing of the
+greatest benefits possible the cooperation--with the Federal Government
+leading--of the Federal Government, the States, and all the people
+(applause). When we shall have brought these three great agencies into
+harmonious action looking to proper Conservation, then will our country
+grow greater even than it is now in all that goes to make up the might
+and glory of a great nationality of the earth; our country will then
+continue to present the example of a great continental republic
+possessed of every variety of climate and production, whose people are
+as one again, loyally devoted to the perpetuity of the Union, fearing no
+foreign foe, following the pursuits of peace, serving God according to
+the dictates of conscience and solving practically the great problems of
+self-government. (Great and prolonged applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[In the course of the foregoing address, President Baker surrendered the
+Chair to Professor Condra.]
+
+Chairman CONDRA--Ladies and Gentlemen: Before continuing the program, a
+few announcements will be made.
+
+Ex-Governor PARDEE: I again announce that the Committee on Resolutions
+will meet at the Saint Paul Hotel this evening at 8 oclock in Room 534.
+Those having resolutions will please write them out, sign them, and hand
+them in.
+
+Several announcements were made on behalf of State delegations.
+
+Chairman CONDRA: In place of Honorable B. A. Fowler, of Phoenix,
+Arizona, who was to speak on "Water as a Natural Resource," I call upon
+a man who has done much for the advance of irrigation, and who organized
+the first National Irrigation Congress, Mr William E. Smythe, of San
+Diego, California.
+
+Mr SMYTHE--Mr Chairman, and Ladies and Gentlemen of the Congress: I am
+called upon at very short notice to speak for our distinguished
+president of the National Irrigation Congress on water as a natural
+resource. I need not remind you how valuable this resource is. Some
+years ago I went to the White House in company with a cabinet officer to
+confer with the then President of the United States concerning a mooted
+irrigation question. Secretary Moody presented me to President
+Roosevelt, saying that I was a democrat interested in the subject of
+water; whereupon the President turned to me with a smile and said,
+"What! a democrat interested in _water_?" (Laughter) "Yes, Mr
+President," I said, "for democrats have sense enough to know that in a
+country where it seldom rains water is too valuable to drink."
+(Laughter)
+
+Water is so valuable that we want to guard it carefully as a natural
+resource. I have but a moment at my disposal, and I am glad to take the
+advice of the President of the United States who yesterday told us to
+come out of the clouds, get down to brass tacks, and talk business. He
+asked us to say what we mean by Conservation, to tell what are the evils
+that we want to remedy, and explain how we propose to remedy them
+(applause). In a word, the evil that we want to remedy in the arid
+States of America is the great evil of permitting men to make
+merchandise of the melting snow and the singing brook (applause). I
+stand here to say that no man can possibly be good enough to own the
+water which another man must use in order to live (applause). It may be
+that private enterprise can be employed in the form of a construction
+company to build the reservoir and the means of distribution; but in
+that case, after our people have paid for the work, and paid for it once
+and twice and three times, then the Nation should answer our prayer,
+"Let my people go."
+
+We should have joint ownership of land and water. Today we have a
+magnificent construction company at work in the seventeen States and
+Territories of arid America; the name of it is "The United States of
+America, Unlimited." (Applause) That construction company turns the work
+over to the people at actual cost, with ten annual payments, _and
+without one dollar of interest_ (Applause). If the National Government
+can do that with irrigation, it can do so just as wisely with power; and
+if it doesn't seem wise for the National Government to do it as a matter
+of public enterprise, then give us a form of construction company; but
+in the end, in the day of our children and our children's children and
+our remote descendants, in the name of God and in the name of humanity,
+let the people own the water which is essential to their existence.
+(Applause)
+
+Just one word further. I stand here to endorse what has just been said
+by one of the few real men whom California ever had the good fortune to
+put into her Governor's chair (great applause). California is not for
+State rights; _that_ doctrine was trampled to death fifty years ago
+under the feet of a million armed men. Yesterday it raised its head and
+stretched out its weird arms seeking to grasp the remnant of the natural
+resources and turn them over to exploitation by private monopoly. But
+that will not be permitted. I am here, my friends, to say to you, as
+Governor Pardee has said, that in this great controversy--the most
+momentous which has arisen in this country since the close of the Civil
+War--California and the Pacific slope, and I believe all the splendid
+States of the Rocky mountain region, stand with that fine young American
+statesman who during the past few months has thrilled this nation in his
+fight to save the resources of the people to all the people for the
+benefit of all the people; that young man who said at Denver the other
+day that it is more important to help the small man make a living than
+to help the big man make a profit; that man, who has sounded the highest
+notes since Lincoln, who has declared that he is in favor of Government
+by men for human welfare and against Government by money for profit--we
+stand first, last, and all the time with Gifford Pinchot. (Great
+applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Colonel T. H. DAVIDSON (Delegate-at-large from Minnesota)--Mr Chairman:
+I noticed scattered through the program of this great Congress the
+words "General Discussion." We have not limited the time to be occupied
+by speakers. I now move you, sir, that under the head of "General
+Discussion" a delegate shall be entitled to occupy only five minutes,
+and shall not speak a second time on the same question.
+
+Chairman CONDRA--The rule adopted today fully covers the point, though
+it has not been put in effect this afternoon. We have two days, perhaps
+three, for full discussion, and the time will be limited under the rules
+which will govern tomorrow.
+
+The last speaker on the formal program is one who has been greatly
+interested in this movement and closely associated with Mr Pinchot. I
+have pleasure in introducing Mr Walter L. Fisher, a Vice-President of
+this Congress and of the National Conservation Association and President
+of the Conservation League of America.
+
+Mr FISHER--Mr Chairman, and Ladies and Gentlemen: I would not take any
+of your time this afternoon were it not that I, too, have felt the
+appeal of President Taft for concrete and practical suggestions as to
+how to solve some of the more difficult of the problems of constructive
+statesmanship presented in the Conservation movement. The particular
+point on which I wish to make a suggestion is the relation of the States
+and the Federal Government to the question of water-power grants.
+
+This question, it seems to me, has been allowed to assume a phase
+entirely unjustified by the facts. There is, in my judgment, not only no
+necessary conflict between the interests of the State and the Nation,
+but there is every incentive for practical cooperation between State and
+Nation on this matter (applause); and in my opinion the question can
+never be rightly settled until there is just that cooperation. (Renewed
+applause)
+
+The Federal Government is the natural agency to which we must look for
+many of the things which are essential to a solution. There are two
+phases of the problem, one involving a question of law and the other a
+question of public policy. As to the strict legal right, it must be
+apparent that on any stream where the Federal Government owns the
+riparian property, or on any stream which is navigable in fact or in
+law, the consent of the Federal Government is absolutely necessary as a
+pre-requisite to the construction of any water-power works. For myself,
+I believe that the power conferred by the Constitution upon the Federal
+Government with relation to interstate commerce absolutely carries the
+power to make such conditions in any permit to erect a structure in a
+navigable stream as the Federal Government may believe it wise policy to
+insert. The power to make or to withhold the permit, under all the
+decisions of the courts which have in any way touched that question,
+implies the power to impose conditions to the permit. There are, I know,
+those who disagree as to this proposition; but even they will agree on
+the broader question of public policy which underlies the whole subject.
+When the Federal Government undertakes the improvement of a navigable
+stream, it rarely if ever happens that it does not thereby either create
+water-power or increase potential water-power already existing. It is
+evident, therefore, that those riparian owners who own existing
+water-power grants are directly benefitted by the improvement in the
+navigable water. Whenever the Federal Government protects the headwaters
+and the water-shed on which the stream depends, it is conferring a
+direct benefit upon the owners of water-power property along the line;
+and so with all the other improvements.
+
+You have heard the eloquent Ex-Governor of Louisiana explain what the
+interest of that State is in the intervention of the Federal Government
+in the regulation of the Mississippi river. There are few places
+throughout this country where the owners of water-power grants and those
+who are interested in all the other uses of flowing water have not
+appealed to the Federal Government for financial aid or for assistance
+not financial which that Government alone can effectively render. It
+must be apparent that in rendering that assistance the Federal
+Government creates property of value, or enlarges the money value of
+property already existing. No hardship, then, is done if the owners of
+this property are required to contribute to the original cost. Not only
+so, but there can be no justice in the proposition which requires the
+taxpayers of the United States as a body to pay the cost of the
+improvement or the protection of any stream when as a matter of fact the
+people who own the property immediately along the stream will get, in
+direct money value, a larger benefit than the cost of the improvement.
+
+There are many reasons besides these why the Federal Government _must_,
+in the very nature of things, be the effective agency to do many of the
+things which the States can never effectively do, no matter if the whole
+subject were turned over to them this afternoon. On the other hand, I
+wish to call attention to the fact, which I believe to be established by
+experience, that whenever a local community is once aroused to an
+intelligent appreciation of its interests and its rights, that local
+community will better and more effectively regulate local service and
+local rates than any more remote governmental agency whatever. Herein
+lies the advantage of local home rule. Now, I am not talking about
+railroad rates connected with interstate commerce, or about other things
+which affect more than the local community, but about those things which
+affect merely particular localities. If a water-power company starts in
+alongside of a great industrial community and that community is built up
+so that its industries depend on it, that community itself, once
+thoroughly aroused and intelligently educated upon the question, will
+far more effectively regulate those rates in the interests of the
+public, while at the same time dealing fairly with the corporate or
+private interests involved, than would the State or the Federal
+Government. That seems to me a broad, practical proposition which
+experience has justified.
+
+Now, let us apply the principle to the water-power situation. And my
+whole purpose in speaking is merely to call the attention of this
+Congress to a method of treating this question, which will, in my
+opinion, meet both situations. It is not a novel suggestion; in one of
+the very last of the water-power grants made by Secretary Garfield, the
+essential provisions of it were at least hinted at and a preliminary
+provision made. In my humble opinion, the Federal Government should
+control the water-power grants on streams that are navigable or where
+the Government itself controls the riparian property. It should make
+grants for definite periods of time and should provide for compensation.
+That compensation as a broad, general rule should be applied to the
+improvement and protection of the stream and the watershed from which
+the water-power has been derived, or to other streams and watersheds of
+like character, for all uses of the water, whether for irrigation on the
+one hand or for water-power on the other. There should be periodical
+readjustments of the rate of compensation. In the beginning, and
+especially in an experimental enterprise, the rate of compensation
+should be exceedingly low. There should be, as President Taft himself
+said here in his speech, a readjustment of the rate, say every ten
+years; and the person or the corporation invited to invest money should
+be given proper protection in that readjustment. Capitalist and
+industrial pioneer should be treated not only fairly but liberally, that
+vigorous development may result. On the other hand, such a grant should
+contain this provision, or be subject to this fundamental legal
+limitation, that the grantee, by acceptance of the grant, acquiesces and
+will acquiesce in any reasonable regulation of the service and of the
+rates which may be charged the public that may be provided by the State
+or by any delegated agency of the State. In that way, the thing in which
+the local community (the State, its municipalities or minor communities)
+has the greatest interest will be amply protected and left free to act
+in its own interest.
+
+Now, what will be the result practically? At the end of the first
+ten-year period the question of readjusting the compensation will arise.
+If the local government has not adequately protected private interests,
+if it has not regulated the rates so that the people are obtaining power
+upon fair terms and the corporation restrained from making extortionate
+profits, all the Federal Government will have to do will be simply to
+increase the compensation. If, on the other hand, the fundamental
+question is being taken care of and the community in which the
+water-power is generated and distributed is receiving it at fair terms,
+the compensation can be left where it is or only slightly increased,
+depending entirely on the situation.
+
+And this has another side? The Federal Government may possibly at times
+not be looking after some public interests in particular localities as
+well as it should, for these same Federal officials who are elected by
+the method suggested by our friend from Louisiana are the men who are
+going to control a large part of the regulation of the rates by the
+Federal Government; so anyone who believes that the delegation of this
+question to either Federal or State authority is a final solution is
+equally mistaken in either case. But the method which I suggest will
+work automatically, because if either State or Nation is alive to the
+people's interests they will be protected either by the imposition of
+proper compensation or by the appropriate reduction of the rates.
+(Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chairman CONDRA--Fellow-Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen: In taking note
+of the remarkable representation from all over the country in this
+Congress, we should not forget that our President, Mr Bernard N. Baker,
+is from Baltimore, right on the Atlantic coast and in a southern State;
+and I desire to say, with a great deal of satisfaction, that a large
+part of the success of this Congress is due to his unflagging efforts.
+(Applause)
+
+We shall close our formal program for the day with a brief address by
+Colonel James H. Davidson, whom I now have the pleasure of introducing.
+
+Colonel DAVIDSON--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I shall only detain
+you a few minutes to make some suggestions which seem to me pertinent.
+
+Many delegates in this Congress seem to have it fixed in their minds
+that Federal control would settle the questions before us, and other
+delegates, from the Far West, seem to claim that the States should
+control absolutely; and to my surprise and great pleasure, I find that
+the representatives of southern States, like Louisiana and Mississippi,
+are favoring Federal control. I say to you, Mr Chairman and Delegates to
+this Congress, that this question is large enough and broad enough to
+enlist all the statesmanship in the Federal Government and in all the
+States composing the Union (applause). Reference has been made to that
+great struggle of nearly fifty years ago, in which I took part for
+nearly five years from private soldier to brigade commander as a full
+colonel (being one of but five who advanced in rank from private soldier
+to a full colonelcy); and I cannot stand up and ask as an American for
+State rights as against the Federal Government (applause). But it seems
+to me, Gentlemen, that there is enough for each and all of us to do; and
+if we, as States, neglect the duties that devolve upon us under the
+police powers, which all the States have, of regulating internal
+affairs, including these manufacturing corporations and monopolies, we
+are weak and are not making full use of the great privileges conferred
+upon us.
+
+I was interested very much in the discussion by Ex-Governor Pardee; and
+he pointed out a fact which indicates to my mind that Federal control
+_alone_ is not sufficient. He says that 6,000,000 acres of the most
+valuable timber lands that ever grew on this continent were conveyed to
+the Southern Pacific Railway, in a certain sense in trust, to be
+conveyed to actual settlers at not less than $2.50 per acre, but that no
+actual settlers ever went upon that land. It is not charged that the
+State of California was in any way responsible. There was a case where
+the Federal Government, and the Federal Government alone, was involved;
+and yet that valuable property passed into the hands of that railroad
+which is the imperial controller of almost everything in California. In
+the course of the discussion yesterday in reference to the regulation of
+oil and gas lands it was stated that in California alternate sections
+had been conveyed to that great organization, and was out of the control
+of the Federal Government. That is another case where, if California, a
+sovereign State, had dealt with those things at the proper time and at
+the inception, it might have been saved some of the great burdens that
+now rest upon the people of that State.
+
+They speak of four great water-power companies in California, and two
+water-power trusts. I thoroughly investigated that subject, spending
+over six months on it three years ago, and I found that water was king
+in California, yet the water is owned by these four imperial companies.
+One-half of my life and of my most valuable treasure is my son and his
+family, now in the San Joaquin valley; and every crevice and canon, in
+the mountains, almost, has been pre-empted by these great water-power
+combinations, and it costs fifty dollars per horsepower per annum for
+the use of it for pumping or for any other purpose. If the State of
+California had been alert, and had had proper regulation, it would have
+seen to it that these monopolies could not take possession of all these
+canons and control the water-power against the interests of the people.
+A board of most distinguished army engineers reported two or three years
+ago that the cost of generating one electrical horsepower at the falls
+of Saint Anthony--within ten miles of where I stand--was less than $6
+per annum, and that in the city of Minneapolis to generate one
+horsepower by steam costs $42. Is there any reason why these great
+monopolies that can generate horsepower by water at an expense of from
+five to six dollars--and I think in California at less--should put it to
+the people at fifty dollars per horsepower? I hope that one of the
+results of this Congress will be earnest cooperation between the States
+and the Federal Government. Let each one be alert.
+
+When the Civil War broke out and President Lincoln called for 75,000
+men, the Governors of the different States in the North did not
+hesitate, nor the Governors in the different States in the South; they
+immediately began calling for volunteers, making all arrangements to
+take care of the soldiers, and not an hour was lost. Governor Alexander
+Ramsey, of Minnesota, tendered a regiment to President Lincoln within an
+hour after the firing upon Fort Sumter (applause). It was a day for the
+earnest cooperation of all the States with the Federal Government. And
+we are confronting a condition of that kind, commercially and legally,
+today; and it needs cooperation, without bickering and without lack of
+confidence, in the most earnest manner, to pass such State laws as are
+proper and right, and to pass such laws of Congress as will (so far as
+the General Government has not parted with its rights) control the
+streams, the lakes, the waters, and the various natural resources in the
+West. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chairman CONDRA--It is now long after six oclock; and the Congress is
+adjourned, to reassemble tomorrow morning at 9.30.
+
+
+
+
+_FIFTH SESSION_
+
+
+The Congress was called to order in the Auditorium, Saint Paul, on
+Wednesday, September 7, 1910, at 9.30 a.m.
+
+President BAKER--Ladies and Gentlemen: The State Delegations are
+requested to hand the Secretary, soon as possible, the names of their
+nominees for Vice-Presidents of the Congress.
+
+The Committee on Resolutions are anxious to have all resolutions
+submitted to them at the earliest possible moment in order that they may
+receive full consideration.
+
+It has been arranged to renew the Call of the States tomorrow afternoon.
+The first Call of the States was made on Governors' Day (the Second
+Session), when preference was given to the Governors. Delegations are
+requested to have a speaker from their State prepared to respond to the
+call at the Thursday afternoon session.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now that Delegations are assembled, the Right Reverend Samuel Cook
+Edsall, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church for Minnesota, will
+ask the blessing of our Heavenly Father.
+
+INVOCATION
+
+_O, Almighty and everlasting God, Who art the giver of every good and
+perfect gift, we render unto Thee our most humble and hearty thanks for
+all the blessings which Thou hast vouchsafed unto our country, for our
+resources of soil, forest, mine, and stream, which Thou hast given into
+our hands; and we humbly beseech Thee that Thou wilt give unto the
+President of the United States, the Governors of our States, our
+legislators in National Congress and in State Legislatures, and unto all
+those who are in authority, as well as unto all the people whether in
+public or in private station, the graces of unselfishness and wisdom;
+that they may rightly use these bounties to Thy honor and glory and for
+the good of all mankind; and that Thou wilt so bless and guide the
+deliberations of this Congress that by all that may be here said and
+done our minds may be illumined and our hearts stirred to righteousness
+and obedience to Thy law--through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--Ladies and Gentlemen: We have with us today a truly
+representative man of our Southland, Mr W. W. Finley, President of the
+Southern Railway Company, who will address us on "The Interest of the
+Railways of the South in Conservation." (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr FINLEY--Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen: The interest of the
+Railways of the South in Conservation and the interest of the people of
+the South in Conservation are identical. I will go farther, and state my
+unqualified conviction that any economic or governmental policy that is,
+in the last analysis, to the best interest of the people of any
+community is to the best interest of the railways by which that
+community is served. Conversely, my conviction is equally strong that
+any economic or governmental policy that is harmful to the railways is
+harmful to the communities served by them.
+
+Therefore, Mr President, in all that I say on the topic assigned to
+me--"The Interest of the Railways of the South in Conservation"--I must
+be understood as presenting what I believe to be the interest of the
+southern people.
+
+I am not sure that the expression "Conservation of natural resources" is
+everywhere understood in its broadest sense. I think that to some minds
+it conveys only the narrow idea of the withdrawal from present use of
+some part of those resources. However important that kind of
+Conservation may be in some localities and under some circumstances, I
+do not believe there is much occasion for its application in the part of
+the United States for which I am expected to speak--the States south of
+the Ohio and Potomac rivers and east of the Mississippi. I would define
+the type of "Conservation of natural resources" that should be applied
+in that section as being the wise use of those resources. In some cases
+it may involve a measure of present self-denial, as when, in the case of
+an owner of forest lands, it impels him to cut only the matured timber
+and leave standing immature trees that have a present market value; but,
+in that case, it leaves him with an asset which increases in value with
+each year's growth of the standing timber. In some cases Conservation
+may mean the use of resources so as to obtain the maximum present
+profit, as in the case of soils; for I believe that I am supported by
+the best scientific and practical authority in saying that soils not
+only preserve, but increase, their productivity when so handled, in the
+application of fertilizers, the rotation of crops, and the growing of
+live stock, as to yield the maximum present profit.
+
+The South is interested in the application of Conservation to the wise
+use to its soils, its minerals, its timber, and its streams.
+Notwithstanding the wonderful industrial development of the South since
+1880, it is still pre-eminently an agricultural section. It is a
+section, therefore, in which the conservation of the soil is of the
+highest importance. There is a prevalent belief that the productivity
+of the soils in those parts of the United States that have been longest
+under cultivation has been seriously impaired. Statistics do not confirm
+this belief. Estimates of productions of staple crops per acre have been
+compiled in the United States only since 1867, and, as there are often
+wide fluctuations between successive seasons--due to differences in
+rainfall and temperature--the period covered has not been long enough to
+afford a basis for definite conclusions. There is also the fact that all
+available figures are estimates, and consequently are not exact. On
+their face, however, they do not prove a decline in productivity. This
+may be illustrated by comparing the production of wheat per acre for
+ten-year periods since 1867. In the decade from 1867 to 1876 the average
+for the United States was estimated at 12 bushels; from 1877 to 1886,
+12.5 bushels; from 1887 to 1896, 12.7 bushels; from 1897 to 1906, 13.8
+bushels, and for the three years since 1906, 14.6 bushels. So far, then,
+as these figures can be relied upon, they tend to show an increase in
+productivity, especially as an analysis by groups of States shows the
+larger and more uniform increases to have been in some of the older
+sections of the country.
+
+Similar figures for corn do not show an increase for the United States
+as a whole, but they show very little decrease. From 1867 to 1876 the
+average production of corn per acre was estimated at 26.2 bushels; from
+1877 to 1886, 25.1 bushels; from 1887 to 1896, 24.1 bushels; from 1897
+to 1906, 25.4 bushels, and for the three years since 1906, 25.8 bushels.
+It is proper to note, in connection with the apparent decline in the
+fourth decade as compared with the first, that the poorest yield in the
+entire period was in 1901, when abnormal weather conditions brought the
+estimated average for the United States down to 16.7 bushels, thus
+pulling down the average for the entire decade. It is also proper to
+note that Dr Whitney, Chief of the Bureau of Soils in the United States
+Department of Agriculture, in discussing these figures, expresses the
+opinion that, on account of a readjustment of the basis of the
+Department's estimates in 1881 as a result of the reports of the census
+of 1880, the figures before that year, both for wheat and corn, were
+relatively too high.
+
+Estimates of cotton yield per acre have been made by the United States
+Agricultural Department since 1866. Ten-year averages for the full
+decades up to 1905 are as follows: 1866 to 1875, 176.4 pounds of lint
+cotton per acre; 1876 to 1885, 171.4 pounds; 1886 to 1895, 175.9 pounds;
+1896 to 1905, 182.6 pounds, and for the four years since 1905, 183.1
+pounds. These figures are subject to the same question as to their
+accuracy that apply to the estimates of wheat and corn production, but,
+on their face, they do not indicate any impairment of the productivity
+of the cotton soils of the South. It is noteworthy that the larger and
+more uniform increases in yield per acre shown by the Department's
+figures are in the older cotton States.
+
+While statistics of crop yields in the United States do not cover a
+sufficient period to be of great value in determining the effect of long
+use on soil productivity, some light is thrown on the subject by
+comparing yields per acre in the United States with those in other
+countries where lands have been under cultivation for centuries. Thus,
+for the ten-year period from 1897 to 1906, inclusive, the average yield
+of wheat per acre in the United States was 13.8 bushels, in France 19.8
+bushels, in Germany 28 bushels, and in the United Kingdom 32.2 bushels.
+In Germany, statistics are available from 1883 to 1906, inclusive,
+showing increases in the average yields of wheat from 18.2 to 30.3
+bushels, of rye from 15.4 to 25.1 bushels, and of oats from 27.6 to 55.7
+bushels. Similar figures might be cited for other European countries,
+but perhaps the most conclusive statistics are those collected by
+Kellerman, a German student of this question, who gives the yield per
+acre for a large number of German estates, covering long periods of
+time. I shall cite but one of these--a Schmatzfeld estate with records
+extending back to 1552. In the period between 1552 and 1557 the annual
+yields reduced to bushels per acre, were, wheat 12.5, rye 13.2, barley
+14.2, and oats 14.8. In the period from 1897 to 1904 these yields were,
+wheat 45.1, rye 34, barley 50.4, and oats 69.1.
+
+Taking all these figures together, I believe the conclusion is
+inevitable that, while abuse of soils may impair their productivity,
+their wise use increases it, and the longer they are properly used the
+more productive they become. Proper use, such as conserves and increases
+soil productivity, involves the most approved cultural methods, the
+application of such fertilizers as may be required for varying soil
+conditions, the raising of live stock, and, above all, the scientific
+rotation of crops. There can be little question that the most unwise use
+to which a soil can be subjected is the raising of the same crop for a
+long series of years. Some very interesting experiments in continuous
+cropping and crop rotation, covering a period of sixty-five years, have
+been carried on at Rothamsted, England. On one plot potatoes were grown
+for fifteen years. At the end of that period the soil was in such
+condition that it would not grow potatoes at all. It was then planted in
+barley, and produced an excellent yield. Another crop followed the
+barley, and the soil was then in condition to grow potatoes again. On
+this same experimental farm wheat has been sown for fifty years on the
+same land without fertilizers, and the yield has gone down from 30
+bushels to 12 bushels. On another tract wheat has been grown
+continuously for fifty years with the use of a complete fertilizer, and
+an average yield of about 30 bushels has been maintained. On another
+tract wheat has been grown for fifty years in rotation with other crops
+and an average yield of 30 bushels has been maintained, showing that,
+for growing wheat on that particular soil, rotation was equivalent to
+fertilization. As might be expected, the Rothamsted experiments show the
+best results where fertilizers are used in connection with rotation, and
+justify the conclusion that under continuous use, with proper rotation
+and an intelligent use of fertilizers, soil productivity can be largely
+increased.
+
+This is a matter of particular interest to the South, because with our
+advantages of soils and climate we have an ideal region for soil
+conservation through crop rotation and intensive farming. There is a
+quite general impression throughout the North that, except for a few
+localities in which early fruits and vegetables, tobacco, and sugar cane
+are grown, the South is a one-crop region devoted exclusively to cotton.
+This is entirely erroneous. There are many localities in the
+southeastern States where cotton is not grown at all, and every acre of
+land in the cotton belt is suited for growing other crops as well.
+Cotton will continue to be the great staple crop of the South, and with
+the ever-increasing demand for cotton goods of all kinds, its
+cultivation will become increasingly profitable, but the southern cotton
+planter is learning the value of crop rotation; diversified farming and
+live-stock raising are becoming more general, and the increased supply
+of cotton demanded by the world will be produced by increasing the
+average productiveness of each acre as well as by increasing the
+acreage.
+
+Other things being equal, the conservative use of a raw material,
+whatever it may be, consists in its manufacture, in the locality of
+production, through all the stages of preparation for the final
+consumer. Manufacturing in the South has reached its present growth and
+is being still further developed on the basis of this kind of
+conservation of raw material. Industrial development in the South on a
+large scale may be said to date from about 1880, prior to which time
+only relatively a small proportion of the raw materials available in
+that section were advanced through even the first stages of manufacture
+before being shipped to other localities. It is natural that, at first,
+only the coarser, and what may be termed the preliminary, processes
+should have been undertaken. This was the first step in the conservation
+of raw materials by their manufacture near the source of supply. The
+South has gone far in that direction, and has already started on the
+second step, which is the use of the products of primary manufacturing
+as the raw materials for secondary industries. But a large proportion of
+southern cotton mill products, lumber, pig-iron, and other commodities,
+advanced through the first stages of manufacture, are still shipped out
+of the South to serve as the raw materials of industries in other
+localities which convert them into articles ready for the final
+consumer; and southern coal is shipped to serve as the raw material for
+power and heat in other parts of the United States and, to some extent,
+in foreign countries. This is a waste of energy which, under ideal
+conditions of Conservation would be avoided; and I am glad to be able to
+say that the present tendency of industrial development in our section
+is in the direction of its elimination. Substantial progress has already
+been made in the building up of secondary manufacturing along some
+lines, and I believe that the most noteworthy progress of southern
+industrial development in the immediate future will be in this
+direction, carrying with it an increase in the volume of primary
+manufacturing through broadening the market for its products.
+
+One of the most valuable of the natural resources of the South is its
+timber. It is also a resource of which the intelligent conservation will
+benefit, directly and indirectly, the largest number of people. We have
+in the southeastern States large and growing industries which use wood
+alone, or wood in combination with iron, steel, and other materials, as
+their raw materials. Some of these industries, such as the manufacture
+of furniture, have enjoyed a phenomenal growth in the past 30 years.
+There is every reason to expect that this growth will continue and that
+the variety of wood-working industries will be increased, with the
+result that they will require an increasing supply of raw materials. As
+the timber consumption of the United States is now in excess of the
+annual growth, and as other sections are drawing on our southern
+forests, it is obvious that if these southern wood-working industries
+are to survive and are to be handed down to future generations,
+immediate and effective steps should be taken for the conservation of
+southern forests. This is the more important for the reason that the
+same steps taken to insure a perpetual supply of raw material for our
+wood-workers will tend to stream and soil conservation by increasing
+stream-flow in periods of drought and by lessening the destructiveness
+of floods which erode the soil of the upper watersheds and deposit
+gravel and silt on overflowed lands and in the beds of the navigable
+parts of the streams.
+
+If we were thinking only of the present time, there would be no occasion
+for us to concern ourselves with the conservation of our timber
+supplies. We have ample for the present generation. It is because timber
+is a crop of slow growth, requiring more than a lifetime to mature most
+of the species, that timber conservation, if it is to be effective and
+is to provide for the needs of those who come after us, must be handled
+along exceptional lines. It is not the duty of a private owner of forest
+lands to conserve them unless it is at least as profitable for him to do
+so as to clear all the timber off of them; but it _is_ the duty of the
+Government to consider the welfare of future generations as well as of
+that now living.
+
+The conservation of southern timber supplies is a matter that concerns
+not only the people of our own section, but those of the entire United
+States as well. It is a matter of National concern, as, owing to the
+depletion of their forest resources, the people of other parts of the
+country must look to the South for an increasing proportion of their
+timber supplies. It is a recognition of this National interest in the
+southern forests that has strengthened the support of the proposition
+for the acquisition by the Federal Government of large tracts of lands
+in the Appalachian region to be converted into National forests
+(applause) from which the timber shall be marketed under a system that
+will result in the perpetuation of the forests. It may be that our
+Federal Government has no power, under the Constitution, to acquire
+lands for the purpose of forest conservation; but it is charged with the
+supervision, improvement, and conservation of our navigable streams
+(applause), and the evidence as to the effect of forests on stream flow
+was so conclusive as to lead the House of Representatives, during the
+last session of Congress, to pass a bill providing the establishment of
+National forests for the protection of the watersheds of navigable
+streams. This bill is to be voted on in the Senate on the fifteenth of
+next February. Whether this plan or some other may be adopted, I think
+it is of the utmost importance that the campaign of education as to the
+necessity for the speedy and general adoption of the most approved
+methods of scientific forestry, which is being so ably carried on by the
+National Forest Service, should be continued (applause). This is quite
+important, if the best results are to be attained, because, whatever may
+be done by the Federal Government, much will remain for the States and
+for private owners of forests and woodlots to do. If the States and
+private owners are to do their share, the owners of forest lands, the
+users of forest products, State legislators, and the people generally
+should be educated as to the dependence of our future supplies of timber
+on wise conservation.
+
+The private investor in forest lands buys them with the expectation of
+making a profit on his investment. He naturally wants to make the
+largest possible profit, and to do it as soon as possible. Heretofore,
+partly as a result of prevailing systems of taxation and the lack of
+efficient fire protection, self-interest has impelled the investor in
+timber lands to clean up his holdings to the last dollar's worth of
+merchantable timber, and to get off the denuded land as quickly as
+possible, selling it for whatever it might bring. In the early years of
+our history, when, except in the prairie regions, lands for cultivation
+could be obtained only by clearing them of timber, this wholesale
+cutting was more justifiable, and, in some cases now, in locations where
+the value of the land for agricultural purposes is greater than its
+value for timber production, it may be the proper method. We have
+reached the point, however, when, especially with reference to our
+mountain forests, it may seriously be questioned whether, as a matter of
+dollars and cents, this method is the most profitable to the forest
+owner. In view of the present prices of lumber and the practical
+certainty of advancing prices in the future, I am disposed to believe
+that we have now reached the point where it will pay the private owner
+of any considerable body of timber on land having relatively a low
+agricultural value to adopt conservative methods of forestry (applause).
+A case in point is that of the University of the South, at Sewanee,
+Tennessee, which owns 7,000 acres of forest land. In 1899 it was
+proposed to sell all the marketable timber on this tract, and an offer
+of $3,000.00 was obtained. This was rejected, and the University
+undertook to manage the forest conservatively and market the mature
+timber from time to time. The result is that, at the end of nine years,
+instead of having realized only $3,000.00 from this tract, the
+University has received from it net profits amounting to over $18,000.00
+above all expenses (applause), including the cost of fire patrol; and
+instead of having 7,000 acres of cut-over land of relatively little
+value, it has a continuously productive forest. (Applause)
+
+Whatever may be the decision of our National Legislature as to the
+proposition for the conversion of our Appalachian woodlands into
+National forests, I believe it would be a wise and patriotic policy for
+our State lawmakers to encourage conservative forestry by private owners
+in every reasonable and proper way. One of the reasons assigned for the
+failure of private owners to adopt conservative forestry is that in some
+localities the rate of taxation on timber land is so high as practically
+to compel every owner to cut the timber as quickly as possible. Another
+reason assigned is the general lack of an efficient fire patrol, and the
+danger that, even if an owner goes to the expense of preventing fire on
+his own property, his timber may be destroyed by a fire starting on the
+property of some neighbor who has taken no such precautions. These are
+matters that come within the province of our State legislators, and I
+would suggest their consideration of whether it might not be possible to
+devise a system of taxation that would differentiate between timber
+lands so managed as to insure the perpetuation of a great National
+resource and those so managed as to hasten its exhaustion (applause). I
+would also suggest consideration of the enactment of proper fire laws
+and the establishment of an efficient patrol, possibly with the expense
+apportioned among owners of timber lands, as I understand is done in
+some western localities at a very low annual cost per acre. I would
+further suggest consideration of the practicability of encouraging the
+planting of trees on lands of little or no agricultural value. Even
+under the most encouraging conditions, however, planting of forests by
+private land owners must, almost necessarily, be on relatively a small
+scale. As a general rule, therefore, private planting will be limited to
+the establishment of woodlots on the waste lands of farms; and if
+reforestation is to be undertaken on a larger scale, it must be done by
+some Governmental agency. (Applause)
+
+The problem of stream conservation in the southeastern States is very
+closely connected with both timber conservation and soil conservation.
+The ends to be sought are a diminution of the volume of water carried by
+the streams in their flood stages, and an increase in their volume
+during their low stages. Everything, therefore, which tends to retard
+the flow of the rainfall into the streams is a conservative agency.
+Undoubtedly the most effective of these is the natural forest with its
+soil, composed of porous humus, covered by a blanket of decaying leaves,
+branches, and fallen trees, and often with a dense mat of underbrush
+growing among the trees. Such a forest will absorb a large amount of
+water during a rain-storm, and allow it to seep down gradually into the
+streams instead of running off in torrents, overflowing the banks of the
+streams, destroying growing crops and other property, and scouring the
+soil from the watersheds to be deposited in the lower levels of the
+streams or at their mouths, shoaling channels or forming bars in
+harbors. Generally speaking, therefore, every step taken in the
+conservation of forests is of value in stream conservation; but, if the
+best results in the regulation of stream flow are to be attained, other
+things may be done to advantage. The growth of underbrush having no
+marketable value is of no benefit to a forest, in fact it may choke out
+or retard the growth of young trees of valuable species. Such a growth
+is of great value, however, in retarding water flow, and preventing soil
+erosion, and, unless cut-over mountain sides are to be reforested, I
+believe that the growth on them of such species as laurel and
+rhododendron should be encouraged. (Applause)
+
+Each farmer, especially along the headwaters of the streams, can
+contribute to a greater or less extent to stream conservation. He can do
+this by establishing permanent woodlots on those waste lands that are to
+be found on almost every farm in rolling or mountainous country, and
+especially on those lands that are liable to erosion. He should, of
+course, take every precaution to prevent the washing of gullies in his
+cultivated fields, and where such gullies have already been formed he
+should so manage as to prevent further erosion. The farmer on the
+headwaters of a stream cannot be expected to do these things in order to
+aid in the prevention of flood damages below him. He should be educated
+to an appreciation of their benefit to himself individually. He will not
+only be lessening, in some degree, the amount of silt carried down by
+flood waters, but will be conserving his own soil; and his woodlots
+will, in a few years, become increasingly valuable as stores of
+fire-wood and fence-posts, and, eventually, of larger timber. The effect
+of but a single farmer on an extensive watershed adopting these methods
+would, of course, be inappreciable, but if thousands of farmers could be
+led to do so as a matter of self-interest the good results would soon
+become apparent.
+
+Another method of stream conservation that I believe may be practiced
+to advantage in some locations in the Appalachian region is the
+impounding of flood waters in artificial ponds or lakes, to be let out
+gradually during periods of low water. This is not everywhere
+practicable, and, I believe, should only be practiced where the benefit
+will be greater than the damage that will result from overflowing the
+land included in the reservoir. It would manifestly be unwise to locate
+such a reservoir at a point where it would submerge a fertile
+agricultural valley, or where it would render inaccessible a valuable
+deposit of coal or ore.
+
+One of the great economic advantages of the South is the abundance of
+its opportunities for the development of hydro-electric power for the
+operation of its factories, the propulsion of its trolley cars, and the
+lighting of its cities and towns. If this cheap and efficient power is
+to be used most advantageously, it is important that the stream-flow by
+which it is generated should be, as nearly as possible, uniform at all
+seasons of the year. It is in this connection that reservoirs for
+impounding flood waters would be of great value. Some of the sites where
+these reservoirs might be located are so situated that a great and
+powerful fall of water may be attained. The power plants would often
+have to be situated at points not suited for the location of industrial
+establishments, but the power can be carried by wire to factories many
+miles distant. Where such reservoirs are established the primary purpose
+will be the generation of power, but they would also serve a highly
+useful purpose in diminishing the flood level of the streams which they
+feed.
+
+Your invitation to address this Congress was very gratifying to me, Mr
+President, not simply because of the high honor which it conferred upon
+me, but chiefly because the invitation and the suggestion of my topic
+conveyed a recognition of the interest of the railways of the United
+States in the Conservation of our natural resources and in all that
+concerns our national welfare. (Applause) They are interested in soil
+conservation, because it means prosperity to the farmer and an increase
+in the volume of farm products to be carried, and also an increase in
+their tonnage of agricultural machinery and implements and of all kinds
+of merchandise which a prosperous farmer will buy. They are interested
+in the conservation of forests and mines, because it means the
+perpetuation of sources of supply of raw materials which, either in
+their crude or manufactured state, must be carried to market, and which,
+in their production and manufacture, bring prosperity to many thousands
+whose consumption of commodities produced in other localities calls for
+transportation. They are interested in the conservation of water powers
+and navigable streams, because cheap power means the development of
+industrial communities and, while economically efficient waterways mean
+a loss to the railways of some kinds of traffic, they also mean an
+increase in general prosperity in which the railways have a share.
+(Applause)
+
+Conversely, Mr President, the people are interested in the conservation
+and development of their transportation systems. We have seen that one
+of the elements of conservation is the manufacture of finished products
+at or near the sources of supply of raw materials. It is this that
+enables the people of a community to devote their energies chiefly to
+those industries for which their locality is best suited and to exchange
+their surplus production for commodities that can be produced more
+advantageously in other localities. Transportation makes this
+specialization of industries possible. Without efficient transportation
+facilities each community would have to be, to a larger extent,
+self-supporting, and many of its people would have to engage in the
+production of commodities which, with our existing facilities for
+transportation, they can buy more profitably elsewhere. The scale of
+living would be much more restricted, and many things which are now
+looked upon as being almost necessaries of life would either be
+unattainable or would be luxuries which only the wealthy could enjoy.
+
+I am glad of the opportunity, Mr President, to speak of the South and
+for the South before this representative national assembly (applause).
+Our section is a region of unsurpassed economic strength. Our climate
+and our soils invite to diversified agriculture, in which there can be
+produced profitably all the products of the temperate zone and many of
+those of the tropics. Beneath our soil are stores of coal, iron and
+other ores, marble and stone for the builder, and clay for the potter
+and brickmaker. Our forests are sources of great present profit and,
+under wise conservation, can be perpetuated as sources of wealth for
+future generations. Our streams flowing from the wooded mountains of the
+Appalachian region carry the force of millions of horsepower capable of
+being utilized along their banks or carried in the shape of electrical
+energy to wherever it can be used to best advantage. The intelligence,
+energy, and enterprise of our people are attested by the splendid
+social, agricultural, and industrial structure they have erected on the
+ruins left by the Civil War. The progress that has been made is but the
+promise of what will be. The South is a land of present-day opportunity,
+and its people invite the man seeking an opportunity to work with hand
+or brain, or the man with money to invest to come to this favored land
+of busy factories and thriving towns--a land of fertile valleys,
+forest-clad mountains, and storehouses of mineral wealth. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--Ladies and Gentlemen: You will no doubt gladly permit
+interruption of the formal program for a few moments now and then by
+reports of committees. Professor Condra, Chairman of the Credentials
+Committee, is now ready to report.
+
+Professor CONDRA--Mr President and Delegates: We have examined the
+credentials of all Delegates to the Second National Conservation
+Congress, and find that the duly accredited Delegates entitled to vote
+in accordance with the Constitution of the Congress number thirteen
+hundred fifty-one (1351), and that the number of duly accredited
+Delegates from each State are as follows:
+
+Alabama 1, Arizona 3, Arkansas 4, California 13, Colorado 7, Columbia
+(District of) 10, Connecticut 5, Delaware 1, Florida 4, Georgia 6, Idaho
+10, Illinois 67, Indiana 15, Iowa 78, Kansas 13, Kentucky 4, Louisiana
+17, Maine 1, Maryland 8, Massachusetts 3, Michigan 19, Minnesota 631,
+Mississippi 8, Missouri 25, Montana 20, Nebraska 22, New Hampshire 1,
+New Jersey 4, New Mexico 1, New York 27, North Carolina 1, North Dakota
+77, Ohio 17, Oklahoma 2, Oregon 15, Pennsylvania 16, Rhode Island 1,
+South Carolina 3, South Dakota 53, Texas 12, Utah 2, Vermont 2, Virginia
+3, Washington 26, West Virginia 5, Wisconsin 84, Wyoming 5; total, 1351.
+Foreign: Canada 2, Mexico 1.
+
+Respectfully submitted to the Congress:
+
+                    [Signed]  G. E. CONDRA, _Chairman_
+                              LYNN R. MEEKINS
+                              GEO. K. SMITH
+                              EDWARD HINES
+                              R. W. DOUGLAS
+
+A DELEGATE--Mr Chairman: I move that the report be adopted and the
+committee be dismissed.
+
+The motion was put, and was carried without dissenting voice.
+
+President BAKER--Professor Condra will report an action by the Committee
+on Resolutions.
+
+Professor CONDRA (_reading_)--A motion was made and carried by the
+Resolutions Committee that resolutions presented to the Congress or to
+the Committee cannot be received after 5 oclock p.m. Wednesday. All
+resolutions should be headed with the subject of the resolution and
+should be signed by the person offering same.
+
+The Resolutions Committee has not yet received the names of the members
+from Alabama, Delaware, Nevada, North Carolina, South Dakota and
+Virginia; and the Committee urge that the Delegations from those States
+act at once. The next meeting of the Committee will be held at 5 p.m.
+today, Room 534, Saint Paul Hotel.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr GEORGE B. LOGAN (_Secretary of the Resolutions Committee_)--Mr
+Chairman: The Resolutions Committee suggest that resolutions should be
+grouped under the heads of Land, Water, Forests, Minerals, and Vital
+Resources; and if those who submit resolutions will simply place the
+proper heading on each, it will greatly aid the Committee.
+
+President BAKER--Professor Condra will make another announcement.
+
+Professor CONDRA--Ladies and Gentlemen: There is a strong demand for
+practical consideration of Conservation problems in various States, and
+for the purpose of discussing these subjects a meeting will be held this
+evening at 8 oclock in the Saint Paul Hotel. All members of State
+Conservation Commissions and State Conservation Associations are invited
+to attend this meeting.
+
+President BAKER--Here is another announcement just handed in: Technical
+men in attendance are requested to meet in the lobby of the Saint Paul
+Hotel on the adjournment of the morning session of this Congress. The
+call includes civil, electrical, mining, mechanical and hydraulic
+engineers, architects, educators in these sciences, and also geologists
+and chemists.
+
+Senator Beveridge, of Indiana, will now address us on a subject which
+ought to be very near the heart of every father and mother--"The Young
+Man's Idea." I have the pleasure of introducing Senator Beveridge.
+
+[The band here played "The Star-Spangled Banner," while the audience
+rose and greeted Senator Beveridge with tremendous applause.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Senator BEVERIDGE--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: The United States
+IS. (Applause) The American people are a Nation (applause)--not
+forty-six Nations. (Applause)
+
+In war we fight under one flag (applause) for our common safety; in
+peace let us strive, under one flag, for our common welfare. (Applause)
+
+Our history is the story of the struggle of the National sentiment of
+all the people, which special interests for their selfish purposes
+sought to discourage, against the provincial sentiment of some of the
+people, which special interests for their selfish purposes sought to
+encourage. (Applause)
+
+The parent of the provincial idea in American Government was the British
+crown. The British kings believed that if they could keep the colonists
+separated by local pride, local prejudice, and local jealousy, the
+British policy would be easier. They knew that if the colonists were
+united by common interests, common sentiment, and a common purpose, the
+British policy would be harder; and that British policy _was_ to permit
+the special interests of the United Kingdom to exploit the people of the
+divided colonies (applause). And so from King James to King George the
+British crown sought to keep the people of the Colonies
+divided--separated by geography for the convenience of the English
+government; they sought to keep them separated in spirit for the
+interests of the British manufacturers. Every British law which forced
+the Revolution was a law to enable the special interests of the United
+Kingdom to monopolize the markets of the people of the Colonies. Our
+Revolution was nothing more than the war of the people, for the moment
+united, against the special interests of the Colonies which had kept
+them divided.
+
+Now, such is the origin of the provincial idea in America. Washington
+and his Continentals were the infant National idea in uniform, and
+manning the shotted guns of liberty (applause). The British and their
+Hessian and Tory allies were the full-grown provincial idea behind the
+bayonets of oppression. Our first attempt at Government was a failure
+because the British provincial idea still was powerful. The local pride,
+prejudice, and jealousy of the separate Colonies reasserted itself,
+after their common danger was past. The result was the Articles of
+Confederation. Washington said that the Government thus formed was
+contemptible, and yet it was the provincial idea carried to its logical
+conclusion; and so it fell. The cruel necessities of the people forced
+the reassertion of the National idea, and the Constitution of the United
+States was that idea's immortal child (applause). The Articles of
+Confederation said, We, the States, form a Government: the Constitution
+says, We, the _People_, form this Government for our general welfare
+(applause). And yet into this great "ordinance of our nationality," as
+Chief Justice Marshall calls our Constitution, there crept defects which
+the statesmen of that day could not prevent, defects which have caused
+most of our trouble since, and nearly all of them are due to the
+provincial idea. For example, few men remember that when the
+Constitution was adopted, "State rights" was not mentioned in that
+instrument. Washington had been elected President. The Congress of the
+United States was in session. The National Government was under way. The
+Tenth Amendment was adopted to quiet those who were preaching the
+paradox that the general Government of the people would oppress the
+people. Noisiest of these was Patrick Henry, then Governor of Virginia,
+who refused to attend the Constitutional Convention, opposed the
+ratification of our fundamental law, and was against its adoption. Upon
+the embers of provincialism he heaped the inflammable brush-wood of
+excited rhetoric. Being in the Constitution, the State rights provision
+is as valid as any other amendment. But such is its origin and spirit,
+and no misinterpretation of the provincial idea of State rights must be
+permitted to impair the American people's general welfare, waste their
+resources, plunge the Nation into war, or impede our general progress as
+a people (applause). Now, as always, the danger has been, and is, not so
+much that the Nation will interfere with the rights of the States as
+that the States will interfere with the rights of the Nation. (Applause)
+
+After our present Government was founded, its first conflict with the
+British provincial idea was in the Whiskey Rebellion of Pennsylvania;
+the special interests that dealt in rum, under the guise of State
+sovereignty defied the Nation's laws; but George Washington put down
+that first State rights rebellion in the name of the Government of all
+the people (applause). Then came the special interests' defiance of the
+laws of the General Government in Andrew Jackson's day, and Andrew
+Jackson's voice, like the voice of Washington, was the voice of all the
+people against the voice of the special interests who tried to exploit
+the people. Next came the special interests that thrived on human
+slavery, and, in the name of State rights tried to destroy the
+Government they could not control. But again the National sentiment
+responded to Abraham Lincoln's call to arms (great applause), and a
+million bayonets wrote across our Constitution these words of the
+American people's immortality: THIS IS A NATION! (Applause)
+
+Then came the special interests that robbed and poisoned the people by
+lotteries, that destroyed the morals of the people by obscene
+literature. They flourished under State protection. Only the Nation
+could stop them. Those special interests denied that the Nation had the
+power to stop them. But the Nation _did_ stop them, and the Supreme
+Court of the Nation upheld the Nation's power (applause). Then came the
+special interests that sold to the people diseased meats, poisoned
+foods, and adulterated drugs. Again they flourished under State
+protection. Again the Nation only could protect the lives of the
+Nation's people. And again those special interests denied that the
+Nation had the power, but the Nation _exercised_ the power, and today
+National laws protect the lives and rights of the American people from
+special interests that were plundering and poisoning and killing them.
+(Applause)
+
+And it is the same conflict between the National and the provincial
+idea, for and against the great, necessary, and inevitable reform of the
+National control of corporate capitalization, on which so largely depend
+just prices and rates to the people. (Applause)
+
+These are examples of the evils; but nearly every step of progress we
+have taken has been due to the success of the National idea. For
+example, President Madison vetoed the first internal improvement bill.
+He said, in one of the ablest messages ever written--far abler than the
+diluted State rights doctrine we hear today--that the Constitution gave
+the Nation no power to build roads, bridge rivers, improve harbors; but
+the people needed these things in order to win that righteous prosperity
+which only they can have acting as one people, under one flag--and so
+Congress passed the internal improvement bill over Madison's veto, and
+today no one dares question the Nation's power to make internal
+improvements; the only question today is how we can best do that work.
+(Applause)
+
+Again, for a hundred years, the provincial idea kept the quarantine of
+the Nation's ports exclusively in the hands of the States; but if
+pestilence entered at a port of one State it attacked the people of
+other States. The germs of yellow fever did not know State lines when
+they saw them, any more than a forest fire knows the boundaries between
+States when it sees them. And so the open grave, the dead on the street,
+the people's past and future peril, asserted the National idea again for
+the Nation's safety, and today we have substantially a National control
+of National quarantine to keep pests and death from our shores, and the
+States are cooperating.
+
+So you see that the history of the American people has been merely the
+narrative of the making of the Nation, merely the record of the
+compounding of a people, merely the chronicle of the knitting together
+of one great brotherhood. It is an inevitable process, and it is a safe
+process--except for special interests that seek to exploit all the
+people. For the American people can be trusted (applause). The combined
+intelligence and composite conscience of the American people is the
+mightiest force for wisdom and righteousness in all the world, and no
+ancient and provincial interpretation of State rights in the name of
+development must impede our general welfare (applause), no plea for
+hasty local development must impair our healthy general development
+(applause), no temporary State politics compelled by the wealthy few
+must prevent permanent National statesmanship for the general good of
+all. (Applause)
+
+Affairs that concern exclusively the people living within a State are
+the business and the problem of that State. Affairs affecting the
+general welfare of the whole people are the business and problem of the
+Nation (applause). And even in solving its own problems, every State
+must remember that its people are an inseparable and indivisible part of
+the whole American people (applause). Of States as of men it may be
+written, No State liveth unto itself alone. (Applause)
+
+Just as the idea of provincialism has caused most of our National evils
+in the past, so it has wrought the waste of our National resources. The
+provincial idea was that the National resources belonging to all the
+people should be handed over for nothing to special interests. This was
+done under the plea of encouraging individual enterprise and the
+hastening of local development. And so forests, which once belonged to
+all the people, have been ruthlessly slaughtered, and upon their ruins
+have risen the empires of our lumber kings (applause). Priceless
+deposits of coal and iron and copper and phosphates have been freely
+surrendered to special interests, and those sources of the people's
+revenue, which should have flowed into the people's treasury to help pay
+the expenses of the people's government, have been diverted by the ditch
+dug by the provincial idea into the treasury of special interests until
+the multi-millionaire constitutes one of the gravest problems
+confronting American statesmanship. (Applause)
+
+All this waste and robbery of the people's property must be stopped!
+(Applause) The hand of waste or theft must not be strengthened by any
+legal technicality that plays into the hands of special interests and
+out of the hands of the American people! (Great applause)
+
+Had we kept all the property that belonged to all the people, and
+compelled special interests who exploited it to pay us a reasonable
+price for it, that income today would be paying most of our National
+expenses. Our resources would have been developed and not exhausted, and
+our whole material evolution would have been rational and sound instead
+of unbalanced and defective. Had this been our policy from the start, we
+would have enjoyed all the benefits from our natural resources, and our
+children today would inherit colossal National wealth and small National
+burdens instead of the special interests enjoying all the benefits of
+the people's property and _their_ children inheriting colossal fortunes
+and small private burdens. (Applause)
+
+The Nation must keep and administer for the benefit of all the people
+the property yet remaining to the people (applause). Every State should
+help and not hinder the Nation, in doing this great duty (applause).
+Every State should administer the public property within it, and
+belonging to it, for the public good. Every municipality should keep and
+administer the property belonging to it for the public good; and both
+State and municipality should aid the Nation in keeping and
+administering for the people the property that belongs to _all_ of them.
+
+I want to give you an illustration, very concrete: Many of New York's
+inconceivably vast fortunes have been expanded by corrupt councils
+selling watercourses and other property for a mere song to private
+owners. Had New York kept the property which belonged to the city,
+instead of squandering it to already multi-millionaires, the city's debt
+today would not be so vast--and her great private fortunes would not be
+so vast either (applause). The people's taxes would have been less, and
+the gigantic unearned incomes of the heirs of great wealth would have
+been less (applause). And as between the two, the wiser policy have been
+for the city to keep the property that belonged to all the people of the
+city instead of selling it sometimes for an infamous price to private
+owners whose vast wealth, accumulating by the work of the city itself,
+has raised up in the midst of the American people one of the great
+questions of the age.
+
+Cooperation of municipality, State, and Nation, in keeping and
+administering for the general good the property of all the people--this
+is the policy of common sense and common honesty (applause). Strife and
+dissension between municipality, State, and Nation, that the reign of
+pillage may go on and that mighty accumulations of wealth may be
+upbuilded upon the ruins of the people's resources--_that_ is the policy
+of private avarice and private plunder (applause). Coal, timber,
+asphalt, phosphates, water-powers--all the property of the people--must
+be kept and administered for the people by the Government which Lincoln
+said was "of the people by the people for the people" (applause).
+Already this greatest of our present-day National policies is well under
+way. Let any man beware how he retards or hinders it (applause). Already
+we have saved much of the people's property still belonging to the
+people. We must save _all_ of the people's property still belonging to
+the people. (Applause and cries of "Good") "Honor to whom honor is due."
+(Applause) Let us not forget, in this great hour, that the man who, by
+thought, word, and deed, has wrought for this great reform, until today
+he stands its National personification (applause), that splendid,
+courageous, pure, unselfish young American, the President of the
+National Conservation Association, Gifford Pinchot. (Tumultuous applause
+and cheers, calls for "Pinchot"; and the audience rose, gave the
+Chautauqua salute, and continued cheering for many minutes)
+
+For years--and I speak from personal knowledge, because twelve years ago
+when I entered the Senate I was made the chairman of the then despised
+forestry committee--for years Gifford Pinchot has ceaselessly worked and
+fearlessly fought to keep for the people the property of the people
+which special interests were trying to steal from the people (applause).
+And in that Nation-wide battle he has been the field-officer of the man
+who _first_ succeeded in making Conservation a permanent and practical
+policy of American statesmanship, Theodore Roosevelt. (Great applause. A
+Voice: Let us vote to give him back his job!)
+
+The soul of our prosperity--even of our very life--is in the idea of our
+unity as a people. Let municipality, State, and Nation, each act and,
+within its own province, work to keep what belongs to the people for the
+people, instead of the municipality, State, and Nation, each within its
+province, conniving at the waste of the people's property for the
+upbuilding of the wealth of special interests to the detriment of all
+the people. The wise, honest and economic administration of the people's
+welfare means the just advantage which individual enterprise and thrift
+as of right ought to have. The unwise, uneconomic and dishonest waste of
+the people's resources for the enrichment of the special few, this in
+the end, believe me, is the denial of that just advantage which
+individual thrift, enterprise, and integrity as of right ought to have.
+(Applause)
+
+The young men of today in working for themselves individually must think
+and act for what the Constitution calls "the general welfare" of the
+whole people (applause). After all, only as the Nation is prosperous can
+any State be really prosperous. After all, only as the Nation is
+powerful can any State be really safe from foes, foreign and domestic.
+The young men of the twentieth century in this Republic are not the
+heirs of the provincial idea which we inherited from the British kings,
+and which has so hindered our real progress as a people, squandered so
+much of the people's resources, shed so much of the people's blood. No!
+The young men of today are the heirs of all the advancement that our
+struggling millions have made toward their common brotherhood. The young
+men of today are the heirs of all the victories which heroes and
+statesmen have won for the general welfare. The young men of today are
+the heirs of all the unifying influences by which the genius of man has
+knit this great people into one splendid family. And so the young
+American of today, when thinking of himself, must think in the terms of
+the Nation; through his veins must pulse the blood of our general
+welfare; his every thought and act must be for the common good of all.
+And only so can his individual success be well builded; and when it is
+builded on such foundation, though "the rains descend and the floods
+come and the winds blow" and beat upon a house thus builded "it shall
+not fall, for it is founded upon a rock." (Applause)
+
+Why was the American Nation founded? What is the purpose of this
+Republic? It is to create a greater human happiness than the world has
+ever known (applause). It is to enable millions of men and women to
+cooperate in building clean, honorable, prosperous homes. And so let us
+Americans move forward as brothers and as sisters until we shall give
+the whole world an example of one great brotherhood in heart and in deed
+as well as in words. (Great applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There were repeated calls for "Pinchot"; and Mr Pinchot, coming forward
+amidst great cheers and hearty applause, said--
+
+Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of this great meeting: There can be in a
+man's life but few moments like this, in seeing policies in which he
+believes and for which he has tried to work so splendidly acclaimed by
+such a meeting, when at first they were questioned. I haven't anything
+to say at this time except to thank you most profoundly, and to add that
+the policies for which this Congress stands are sweeping the country as
+they are sweeping this body--and that, so far as the United States is
+concerned, Conservation, I believe, has won out. (Applause) I thank you!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--Ladies and Gentlemen: We all know Conservation has,
+with such a leader, won out. (Applause)
+
+We now take up "A Rational System of Taxing National Resources," by
+Frank L. McVey, President of the University of North Dakota, whom I have
+the pleasure of introducing. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President MCVEY--Mr Chairman and Good Friends: The invitation of the
+President of the Congress to be present and to deliver an address on the
+subject of a rational system of taxing natural resources, asked that
+specific suggestions be made of a practical nature for the improvement
+of our present laws on this subject. This places upon me a heavy
+responsibility if the suggestions made are to be accepted in any
+serious way. The title of the address assigned emphasizes a _rational_
+system; it implies that the one now in vogue cannot be so designated,
+and that any system of taxation has a close relation to the Conservation
+of natural resources. This, if I may put it in so many words, is my
+thesis.
+
+It is unnecessary for me to go into the need of Conservation, since that
+has been done in the previous Congress and at various times in the
+public prints. The question then to which I must devote the time of the
+program assigned to me is this: How does taxation affect the
+Conservation of natural resources, and what suggestions of a practical
+nature can be made for the betterment of the taxation of such resources?
+
+It may be said in the beginning that the difficulties involved in the
+taxing of natural resources exist to still greater degree in the case of
+other property. Generally speaking, we have not attained to a rational
+system of taxation in any field, and we are now attempting to revamp the
+old system and extend it, by adding to or taking from it. Economic
+conditions in America have changed from time to time, and these changes
+have forced upon us a reorganization of our methods, not only of
+manufacture and of transportation, but also of administration,
+government, and social organization. Such a condition of affairs is seen
+today in nearly every State, and attempts are being made to meet it in
+the specific instance of the fiscal problem by adding to the old system
+of taxation through the special taxation of corporations, inheritances,
+royalties, and incomes. The consequence is that so far as natural
+resources are concerned we have no principle existent in the general
+scheme of taxation that can be used to meet the new conditions that have
+arisen in our efforts to conserve our resources. Just as the problems of
+industrial organization have come upon the States, so now has come the
+problem of our natural resources. In hazy thinking, and sometimes in
+indefinite laws, we have attempted to regulate through legislation the
+great corporations of the present day; and in much the same manner we
+shall, by feeling our way, attempt to develop some plan of taxing
+natural resources.
+
+Sometimes in discussing this question of the taxation of natural
+resources a great deal of emphasis is placed on the statement that it is
+the cause of the depletion of timber and mineral lands especially. I
+think it may be said at the outset that the taxation of natural
+resources is only one of many factors in the destruction of them. The
+extent to which this takes place is impossible to say, but the fact
+remains that the taxation of natural resources may or may not hasten the
+destruction of forest lands, the exploitation of minerals, and the
+cultivation of the soil. Where lands bearing timber are owned, interest
+charges with each year of ownership are piled up, and the same is true
+of the taxes. Where, on the other hand, lands are held through a royalty
+contract, the lessee is in a position to carry the lands without
+special cost to himself except that of the taxes. The consequence is
+that it is impossible to apply the same principle of taxation to
+agricultural lands, timber lands, minerals, and water-powers. There must
+be a differentiation between them, and a differentiation that will
+clearly meet the various uses to which they are put.
+
+Without question, the general property tax, as it now stands upon the
+statute books of the different States, does not meet in any true sense
+of the term the general economic conditions, and the special needs of
+mining and lumbering in particular. The principle of taxing the product
+when it is placed upon the market applies particularly to mineral and
+timber lands, but the same principle in the case of agricultural lands
+would probably deter their use and fail to meet the needs of revenue as
+well as working to the discouragement of the agricultural industry. The
+single-taxers have insisted that the taxation of lands hastens its use,
+that it forces the owner to develop it; and this is just the thing that
+is needed in the special instances of agricultural lands and of town
+lots, but the same principle could not be applied to the other resources
+of the Nation.
+
+It is possible for the owners of timber lands by following the
+principles of forestry to modify the product and to keep the land in
+producing condition indefinitely. Taxation of such land, therefore,
+should have in view the maintenance of this condition. It must be
+clearly understood, however, that the fear of fire, interest charges on
+investment, and the cost of management will act quite as surely toward
+the rapid destruction of forests as will taxation. These conditions must
+also be recognized by the State in the establishment of a fire warden
+system, and the encouragement of forestation through some plan of
+bonuses. Where forestation is not practiced, the taxation of timber
+products under present conditions, whether on stumpage or in transit to
+the saw-mills, is a serious problem--serious to the local governments
+because under existing laws logs in transit are taxable where they are
+owned, and serious to the owners of the timber lands because the fixed
+charges on their property increase each day without any income from
+them. As near as can be ascertained, the annual taxes on timber vary
+from one cent per thousand feet to fifty cents per thousand feet, with
+an average tax of somewhere in the neighborhood of fifteen cents per
+thousand feet. Interest charges are probably about twenty-three cents,
+making a total annual cost of something like thirty-eight cents per
+thousand feet. In ten years time the tax on each thousand feet of
+standing timber will amount to $1.50, which compounded with interest
+makes a total of $2.37. When added to the other charges it is probably
+true that the owner of timber under modern conditions must have at least
+$13.02 per thousand feet on his logs delivered at the mill if he is to
+come out even at the end of ten years with a profit of six percent.
+
+The suggestions which have been made from time to time regarding the
+taxation of timber have as their fundamental principle the separation of
+the value of the land from the value of the timber. This plan meets the
+criticism of the local assessing officers by providing a basis of taxing
+annually a part of the valuation, and of procuring some income for the
+local government. If it is understood then that the land may be taxed
+annually and the timber product when it is cut, we have under this plan
+a simple scheme of taxation which will unquestionably meet the
+difficulty that is now urged against the general property assessment of
+timber lands. Under the old plan of valueing annually the property, it
+was difficult to secure an appraisement that was satisfactory to
+anybody; and, what was more, as the years went by the local governments
+found their assessed values decreasing and the burden of government
+materially increasing with the decline in amount of standing timber. The
+annual taxation of the land on which the timber stands meets this
+difficulty, while the taxation of the product at the time of harvesting
+provides a plan that is fair both to the local government and to the
+owner of timber.
+
+On the other hand, the taxation of mineral properties differs from the
+taxation of timber lands in that it is not possible for the owner to
+increase by any plan of Conservation the amount of tonnage that he has
+in his possession. The Conservation which he might practice is the
+simple Conservation of saving for a future time. From the point of view
+of the State the problem is largely one of getting a share of the value
+of the minerals in the ground. The method that has been generally
+followed is that of making an appraisement of the mineral lands, which
+might be very far from or very near the truth. The same principle which
+is applied in the case of the timber lands, namely, the taxation of the
+product, should be applied to the taxation of mineral properties. There
+is no question that the easiest way, and the most satisfactory and
+acceptable way to all concerned, is a tonnage tax, varying possibly with
+the character of the ore and the cost of mining, but always depending
+for the rate and the amount on the ore that has been mined. It will
+probably be argued, as it has in other instances, that the local
+governments are compelled to rely largely for their support upon the
+taxes paid by the owners of mineral properties, and consequently a
+tonnage tax would deprive them of the regularity of their income. There
+is much to be considered in this point; but the taxation of the surface
+on some such basis as that seen in the case of the timber tax would
+provide a regular income, which would be supplemented by the amount of
+the tonnage taxes.
+
+The rate of the tonnage tax would not, as in the case of the
+appraisement of a general property tax, tend to hasten the utilization
+of the ore. That would be determined entirely by the demand for it in
+the fields of manufacture. The real essence of the tonnage tax lies in
+the fact that value found in the ground is distinctly a product of
+nature, which an _ad valorem_ tax cannot recognize, and in consequence
+the State's right to a share of the value of the earth's products,
+together with the diminishing value element involved, are overlooked.
+The protection of the local government, and often of the mineral owner,
+demands a combination of the tonnage tax and of the local land tax.
+
+When we come to the taxation of water-power we are face to face with a
+problem that involves even more difficulties than are found in the case
+of the timber and mineral lands. The thing here involved is so elusive,
+so difficult of measurement, and requires such expensive administration,
+that it is quite conceivable that many years must elapse before an
+adequate plan for such taxation can be developed. A water-power,
+however, is perpetual, and in this particular it differs from timber and
+mineral properties, and is more akin to farm lands. It differs from the
+latter, however, in this particular, that the work once done in
+harnessing it is done once for all, and the annual labor expended upon
+it is not exhausted, as in the case of the farm. Nature, having been
+harnessed, is able to accomplish the work for which she is called upon.
+
+The first step in any adequate system of taxing water-powers must be
+their survey. This means listing, locating, and measuring. It means,
+too, that the Legislature should assume at the beginning all
+water-powers belonging to the State, and that the acquirement of them
+must be through lease, as in the case of mineral lands in the State of
+Minnesota, for example. Several plans have been suggested for the
+taxation of water-power. One is the measurement of the water flowing
+over a dam, and another is the taxation of the actual horsepower
+developed. The latter plan is subject to many criticisms. The
+development of horsepower depends so largely on the skill of the
+engineer, on the capital invested, and on the way the water is handled,
+that it would be far better to measure the capacity of the dam under
+proper engineering authority and determine a fair rate for the amount of
+power produced by the water passing over the dam. Of necessity many
+refinements of this plan would be required; such as the determination of
+the movement of the stream, the height of the water, the difficulties of
+harnessing the power; but it is possible, by taking into consideration
+the general expense of operating a water-power plant, to work out a rate
+which would be fair to the users as well as to the State. In no instance
+of Conservation does a greater need of proper taxation appear than in
+the case of water-power. Nature provides a perpetual force with but
+little expense after the necessary fundamentals have been arranged, and
+for the State to receive no compensation of any kind for the utilization
+of such a great wealth-producer is to bring into existence the greatest
+possible factor of injustice in the matter of taxation.
+
+It will therefore be seen that a rational taxation of natural resources
+does not depend on any very great and intricate principle, but that, on
+the other hand, the principles involved are comparatively simple. It
+must be clearly understood as well that the taxation of land for
+agricultural purposes, for minerals, for timber, or for water-power,
+must differ in many respects, and that a principle of taxation applied
+in one case may not work out in the other. But if we keep clearly in
+mind the purposes for which land can be utilized, and that the
+fundamental taxation of land as such can be made annually, and that of
+the product at the time of its harvesting, we have in the three
+instances of agricultural, mineral, and timber lands a principle that
+may prove satisfactory when put in the form of legislation. The same
+idea can be applied to the water-power site; taxation of the land at a
+nominal assessment and of the water-power on the basis of the amount of
+water passing over the dam gives us again a principle upon which can be
+based satisfactory legislation.
+
+It must be remembered, however, that all legislation is compromise in
+character, and that the recognition of these principles has usually been
+set aside when it came to the question of legislation. The States have
+reached a point in the raising of revenue where not only more revenue is
+needed for the purposes of general social advancement, but where better
+administration is as essential and necessary as the other.
+Administration bureaus must be provided in all of the States to furnish
+the necessary data, if we are to reach some practical basis of
+conserving our resources through taxation. And tax commissions must be
+given ample authority, and in addition must have plenty of expert advice
+and assistance which will give it the necessary endorsement. To my mind,
+a rational system of taxing natural resources depends largely on
+administration based upon a few fundamental principles of legislation.
+It is comparatively not a difficult matter; it is largely a question of
+willingness to meet the problem; but if the experience of the past has
+any light to throw upon this subject, it is very clear indeed that
+legislation will be slow, and that the different interests involved,
+through fear of some possible advantage likely to be gained over them,
+will cling to the old system until it is almost too late to produce any
+results through adequate taxation.
+
+It is my hope that a Congress like this may have some power and some
+influence in setting aside this attitude, but I fear that an adequate
+system of taxation will move very slowly when it comes to its
+formulation in legislation. This is not encouraging, but it is truth;
+and that after all is what we are really trying to get at without
+confusing the issue by arguments favoring present attitudes either of
+the State or of owners of natural resources. Big views will help solve
+the problems, little and narrow ones never. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--Mr J. B. White, Chairman of our Executive Committee,
+will discuss the question of taxation, especially in relation to
+woodlands. (Applause)
+
+Chairman WHITE--Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen: We have listened to
+a great paper upon this subject of taxation. It is a subject difficult
+to analyze and very difficult to apply, because each section of the
+country requires a different form of taxation; each State has different
+views, and each should apply the remedy according to the local
+conditions.
+
+I speak as a representative lumberman, and as Chairman of the
+Conservation Committee of the Lumber Manufacturers of the United States.
+Now, the lumbermen have asked for nothing in regard to taxation
+excepting what they have incorporated in a resolution, part of the
+preamble to which I read:
+
+     Whereas, there is a great and growing need for uniform laws
+     among the States in the interest of forest growth,
+     conservation, and protection from forest fires, and for an
+     equitable and helpful system of taxation which will make
+     possible the conservative handling of standing timber.
+
+That is the declaration of the preamble. It asks simply a uniform system
+of taxation.
+
+I want to say a word for our fathers and grandfathers who have been
+called the ruthless destroyers of the forests, and I want to say in
+their behalf that they committed no sin which shall be visited upon
+their children or their children's children (applause). They cut the
+forests to make homes for the people; they cut the forests to build our
+cities and our towns; they sold all they could, they saved all they
+could, they committed no waste; and it should not be imputed to them
+that there is a penalty to be paid by their children or their children's
+children upon the forests that now stand. (Applause)
+
+Taxation is regarded everywhere as a part of the cost of a commodity.
+Every person that buys a foot of lumber, every person that buys a yard
+of cloth, every person that buys a suit of clothes, or groceries, or
+anything that is manufactured, is the one who pays the taxes (applause).
+We are all consumers. We pay each other's taxes, and there is no way of
+avoiding taxation. It is said that death and taxation are sure. There is
+no way of avoiding either. The consumer must pay the tax because it is
+part of the cost.
+
+Now, in regard to the system of taxation; every Nation has its own form.
+When it is necessary to encourage the growth or manufacture of a
+product, the States of the world have some way of encouraging it by
+relief from taxation. Germany has a law putting a duty on American wheat
+in order that every nook and corner of the waste land of Germany may be
+made to grow wheat. Now, that is a tax. The people of Germany pay that
+tax, but it encourages the farmer to grow wheat. And in our own country,
+when it is necessary to encourage the farmer in the beet-sugar, or any
+related industry, the Government gives a bounty, and people pay it, and
+the money is kept at home instead of going abroad for the product. So in
+timber taxation, it would seem to me that the reasonable way is to tax
+it as it is cut--let the tax follow the saw. Of course every State will
+apply the remedy according to local conditions. Louisiana has applied
+the remedy. She has passed some very good laws, and we are going to hear
+from the representatives of that State, before this Congress adjourns.
+We want to consider these things.
+
+There are now so many substitutes for lumber that there will be
+inducements to let trees stand if they are not overtaxed. A tree must
+have a hundred years' growth before it can be utilized in the shape of
+clear lumber in the upper grades. If you tax the tree every year, you
+are putting one hundred years' taxes upon the timber. We must be
+reasonable about these things if we would encourage the growing of
+trees. Any other commodity in the United States pays a tax annually upon
+the crop, but here, in growing timber, we are paying for a hundred years
+where we should only pay for one. (Applause)
+
+Some States will not grow trees. Illinois will not grow trees. It would
+prefer to grow corn. Its land is too rich to grow timber, and the people
+will grow corn and exchange it for the product of other States which are
+better adapted to tree-growing and not so well adapted to agriculture.
+The lands west of the Cascade Range are well adapted to tree-growing on
+account of the great rainfall, and not so well adapted for other uses. A
+tree will grow there in forty years to as great a size as it will in
+eighty years on this side of the Cascade Range. In short, trees will be
+grown where it pays to grow them, where they are encouraged to be grown,
+where the people want them grown. We cannot grow trees on sentiment;
+tree-growing will have to pay; it will have to stand upon a commercial
+basis. The Government cannot grow trees without its costing something to
+grow them. Conservation has been wrongly understood.
+
+The great leader of American forestry, Gifford Pinchot, is in favor of
+development (applause). He said in his speech at Seattle a year ago that
+there could be greater waste by non-development and by non-use than
+there had been by the wastefulness of the past. That is true. By
+non-development and non-use we commit sometimes more waste than we did
+in the past, for we could not waste when things were not worth anything;
+a thing that isn't worth saving and whose by-product cannot be utilized
+is not wasted even if it goes to the burning ground or lies in the
+woods. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--Ladies and Gentlemen: You will all be glad to hear from
+the greatest, grandest, noblest work of God, our good women. I have the
+pleasure of introducing Mrs George O. Welch, of Fergus Falls,
+representing the General Federation of Women's Clubs. (Applause).
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs WELCH--Mr President, Delegates to the Second National Conservation
+Congress, Ladies and Gentlemen: In the preparations for this great
+Congress, there seems to have been no possible item omitted which could
+in any way contribute to the pleasure or edification of visitors, save
+in two particulars; and with these the management had nothing to do. The
+first is the unavoidable absence of the President of the General
+Federation of Women's Clubs, Mrs Philip N. Moore, resulting from the
+accident which befell her in Cincinnati last May, from which she has not
+fully recovered. The second is due to those two elements which have for
+years uncounted interfered with man's proposals--time and tide. It is
+because time must be consumed in crossing the Atlantic and tide reckoned
+with on the voyage that Mrs Emmons Crocker, of Boston, is not able to be
+present to speak on "Woman's Influence in National Questions." Her
+absence is indeed to be regretted, since influence is today women's best
+asset.
+
+Because of these two regrettable occurrences a great honor and pleasure
+has fallen upon me. I am proud to be the bearer of greetings to the
+Second National Conservation Congress from the General Federation of
+Women's Clubs, an organization 800,000 strong, that may justly claim
+kinship with this body, since its watch words for years have been
+Conservation and Service, which are the impulse and purpose of this
+great Congress.
+
+The inception of the General Federation of Women's Clubs was due to the
+recognition of the necessity of conserving the energy and strength
+wastefully expended by scattered clubs remote from each other, which
+concentrated, might make a tremendous influence for the development of
+good fellowship and good citizenship. That the General Federation has
+become of great force I think you will admit, since its President was
+invited to be one of that first notable Conference called by the
+President of the United States in 1908 to consider the problems which
+this Congress is hoping to solve. She was the only woman invited to that
+Conference of Governors, and it is not vain pride which prompts the
+mention of the great honor thus conferred upon the General
+Federation--it is rather an humble sort of pride, since recognition of
+the work which Women's Clubs are doing carries with it an obligation to
+greater effort and greater achievement.
+
+The General Federation of Women's Clubs has long been teaching the
+necessity of Conservation, not only of the natural resources on which
+the material prosperity of this country depends, but of that vital force
+which means public health and all that goes with it; of that
+intellectual force which means education; and of that spiritual force
+which makes for higher ideals, wider sympathies, and fuller appreciation
+of our responsibility for the welfare of our fellow-beings.
+
+In the matter of the Conservation of natural resources, the one which
+claimed our earliest attention was that of forestry. As far back as
+1900 the forestry committee in the General Federation served to bring
+into mutual recognition and helpfulness the efforts of all the clubs
+engaged in the work for the protection of forests; and I was proud of
+the praise given us yesterday by our most distinguished visitor for
+Minnesota's successful efforts to preserve a large acreage of white pine
+timber as a National forest reserve. It was a fine and inspiring example
+to other States engaged in a warfare against the devastating hand of
+commercialism (applause). And it is another matter of pride that for
+four years the chairman of the forestry committee of the General
+Federation was a Minnesota woman, Mrs Lydia Phillips Williams
+(applause), whose life was devoted to the promulgation of forestry
+education, and to whose untiring efforts very much of the splendid work
+done for forestry by Women's Clubs is attributable.
+
+Perhaps the most signal of the triumphs won by the Women's Clubs in the
+line of forestry was the saving of the big trees of California, after a
+fight lasting nine years (applause). Those were years of great stress
+for the women, but we are willing to fight nine years more if need be
+for the right sort of protection to the forests in the White Mountains
+and Appalachian ranges (applause). Today we are fighting not alone for
+the trees that are standing, but for the reforestation of devastated
+lands and for a stay of the wanton waste of forest products. At our
+recent biennial convention a whole session was devoted to this phase of
+the work, showing that our interest is practical as well as sentimental.
+Since the conserving of forests and the conserving of water supplies are
+interdependent, the General Federation of Women's Clubs through its
+committee on waterways is disseminating information, creating interest,
+and urging legislation for the further protection of these resources.
+
+But the Conservation of natural resources, important as it is, is not
+the work which represents our heart interest, which appeals to our
+highest nature; it is not the thing for which we make our greatest
+effort. It is the problems of life, those affecting the home, society,
+our children, to which we give our most earnest endeavor. There never
+was a convention of Women's Clubs anywhere that did not in some way
+stress the Conservation of the home, the family, the school, as our
+greatest need; and it is because we are aware of the grave dangers
+threatening them, dangers born of our times and fostered by our rapid
+material growth, that we are endeavoring through organization and
+concentration of forces to turn the tide into safer channels.
+
+The child has always been the central figure in our deliberations, the
+one for whom our hardest battles have been fought. The General
+Federation, through its committees on health, education, and household
+economy, is carrying on a campaign of education which will give to all
+children greater opportunity for normal, helpful, happy development. To
+the child himself, through its department of civics, the Federation is
+teaching his duty to society and his responsibility to the future.
+Through its committee on industrial and social conditions it is trying
+to secure for him safety and efficiency in the great industrial
+struggle; to protect him against the forces that are pushing him,
+imperfectly prepared, into the great maelstrom of the workaday world,
+wasting his young life, minimizing his chances for happiness and
+usefulness. As long ago as the Los Angeles convention in 1902, Jane
+Addams, our greatest American woman (applause), pleaded for the
+protection of the child against the awful economic waste of child labor
+(applause). She told of little lives by scores and hundreds yearly
+sacrificed to the god of greed: of conditions in some of the industrial
+pursuits where for want of a few dollars expended in safety devices,
+many children were yearly killed outright, or maimed for life. She so
+touched the hearts of her hearers that a committee on child labor was
+there created, whose province it was to discover if possible a remedy
+for these crying evils; at any rate to inform the public of their
+existence.
+
+Women have worked long and earnestly to ameliorate these conditions, but
+they must depend on the mutual action of earnest, interested men, such
+as are sitting in this Congress today, for the enactment and enforcement
+of the laws necessary to improve a state of things which women have only
+the power to point out. In the particular case of child labor there can
+be no accusation of exaggeration or hysteria, since from so unemotional
+a source as the Federal Government we learn that its recent
+investigation of child labor shows need of a strenuous and continued
+effort for the conservation of child life. In the cotton textile
+industry alone, and along the line of age-limit and illiteracy alone,
+its statistics show that in a group of States having no age limit for
+child laborers, there are over 10 percent of female workers under
+fourteen years of age, and that in those same States over 50 percent of
+the children of both sexes so employed are unable to read or write. What
+worth have forests or mines or any material wealth, gained at the
+sacrifice of so much vital force?
+
+For the welfare of women and girls, as well as for children, the General
+Federation is working with all its energy and strength. For moral and
+social as well as industrial protection it begs cooperation. Against the
+black plague as well as the white plague it is waging its warfare. For
+better housing in cities, for improved conditions in rural and remote
+communities, it is using all its power. What conservation and
+concentration of effort can do it is trying to accomplish, but it must
+as yet find its work constantly hampered and hindered by its inability
+to press to their ultimate accomplishment things which only legislation
+can effect. A club woman has wisely said that as conditions are today it
+is the women who suggest and initiate, the men who adopt and complete.
+This is true; for, after all, women can only point the way.
+
+The Ex-President of the United States told us yesterday that it was a
+great wrong to allow any body of people to monopolize any good thing.
+There is, however, an exception to this rule, which I am sure our
+honored First Citizen would concede to us: Women have long had a
+monopoly on influence; it has been the one thing accounted their own
+particular weapon in social warfare (applause). And so I appeal to the
+men in this audience to yield themselves to that women's weapon when
+next the General Federation of Women's Clubs or any individual members
+of the Federation asks them for the enactment of laws which shall tend
+to the Conservation of the vital forces represented in the mothers of
+the race and the children who are to be the country's future citizens.
+The General Federation is, after all, just one more organization trying
+to make this land a better place to live in, and its people better
+fitted to live in this better land. (Applause).
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--The next lady I wish to present represents an
+association that has done much; Mrs Hoyle Tomkies, of Shreveport,
+President of the Women's National Rivers and Harbors Congress.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs HOYLE TOMKIES--Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen: Greetings to this
+Second National Conservation Congress from the Women's National Rivers
+and Harbors Congress, organized June, 1908, and having officers in
+thirty-eight States and Territorial possessions.
+
+This organization has for its object the development of the meritorious
+rivers and harbors, the preservation of the forests, and the
+Conservation of all the natural resources of the Nation. It stands for
+the establishment by the Federal Government of a definite waterway
+policy for the improvement of all approved rivers and harbors of the
+entire country, and also for the adoption of such a policy as will
+secure not only forest reserves but general forest development. The
+Congress believes that the development of the waterways of the Nation
+increases and conserves the people's wealth, _first_, directly, by
+securing the cheapest mode of transportation; _second_, indirectly, by
+lowering the cost of transportation by rail; and _third_, by encouraging
+production. The platform as adopted immediately after organization
+stated a belief in the need for the Conservation of all the natural
+resources of the Nation because of the interdependence which
+necessitated the development of each.
+
+The membership of our Congress is composed of individuals and clubs,
+representing almost thirty thousand men and women, the latter largely
+predominating. The work of the Congress, conducted through the
+Departments of Education and Publicity, is directed by a board of
+directors representing thirty-nine States and Territories. Voluntarily
+these women are giving their time, finding in the joy of service for the
+cause ample recompense.
+
+In the educational campaign, the Congress has culled from the best
+authorities the strongest arguments and convincing statistics, and has
+had these printed and circulated in many thousands of copies throughout
+the length and breadth of the land. In 1908 this Congress secured the
+cooperation of the General Federation of Women's Clubs for the promotion
+of waterway development.
+
+Since organization the Congress has worked incessantly for the passage
+of Rivers and Harbors bills, and individually for State projects for
+waterway development. It has worked for the Week's Bill, and for general
+National and State development. It urged upon Congress the passage of
+the bill for the preservation of Niagara Falls in the spring of 1909.
+
+In its educational campaign it has covered the entire question of
+Conservation, and also urged the non-pollution and the beautification of
+the streams of our country. It has secured and arranged for large
+audiences in critical or indifferent centers, for experts to advocate
+the cause, and it has had speakers at all important public gatherings
+possible. It has organized Conservation clubs, and secured the addition
+of Conservation committees in various organizations. It has offered
+prizes, securing the writing of many thousands of essays by school
+children upon waterway and forest development. The various State
+vice-presidents have issued State circular letters, showing how their
+States were concerned in the cause we represent.
+
+The plan of the Congress to supplement or substitute Arbor Day with
+Conservation Day met with the hearty approval of the United States
+Department of Agriculture and the cooperation of many educators, and has
+been successfully carried out in many States. The resolution of the
+Congress asking that the principles of Conservation of natural resources
+be taught in the school and summer normals, has been presented to every
+State represented in the Congress, Louisiana being the first to
+immediately pass the resolution unanimously at its State Conference of
+High School Superintendents, representing forty thousand pupils, and at
+its State Teachers' Association; Kentucky being a close second, with
+every encouragement from other States. (Applause)
+
+The same resolution was presented to the National Educational
+Association in convention at Boston, July 5-9, 1910. Of this resolution,
+Honorable Elmer Ellsworth Brown, United States Commissioner of
+Education, to whom we later had the pleasure of listening, wrote in
+reply to me a pleasant letter in which he enclosed the following copy of
+his letter to Dr Irwin Shepard, Secretary of the National Educational
+Association:
+
+                                        DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR
+                                        BUREAU OF EDUCATION
+                                        WASHINGTON
+
+     DOCTOR IRWIN SHEPARD,
+     Secretary National Educational Association,
+     Westminster Hotel,
+     Boston, Mass.
+
+     MY DEAR DOCTOR SHEPARD: The preamble and resolution enclosed
+     herewith have been sent to me by the Woman's National Rivers
+     and Harbors Congress, Mrs Hoyle Tomkies, of Shreveport,
+     Louisiana, as President National Educational Association at its
+     Boston meeting. Following our ordinary course in such matters,
+     may I ask you to lay this matter before the committee on
+     resolutions.
+
+     You are aware of the conservative position which I take as
+     regards proposals for the incorporation of new studies in our
+     school curriculum, and also as regards the turning aside of our
+     school instructions from the aims of general education to the
+     propaganda of any special cause. The organization presenting
+     this resolution, however, disclaim any intention of introducing
+     a separate new study in the course. The subject which they
+     propose, however, is one so intimately bound up with the
+     geographical conditions and the past history of this country,
+     as well as with our prospect for the future, that it seems to
+     me very desirable that the attention of teachers should be
+     called to it, and that they should be led to see its relation
+     to any proper and adequate treatment of a knowledge of our
+     country. I should think it very desirable, accordingly, that
+     something of this kind be introduced into the platform of the
+     Association of this year, with such adaptation of form and
+     phraseology as the common practice of the Association would
+     suggest.
+
+     I am, believe me,
+
+                    Very truly yours,
+                    [Signed]  ELMER ELLSWORTH BROWN, _Commissioner_.
+
+As to the action of the National Educational Association regarding the
+resolution, Dr Shepard wrote to me in part as follows: "I sincerely
+regret that you were not duly informed earlier of the action, or rather
+the non-action, of the Committee on Resolutions. I cannot explain their
+action in this matter. They had a large number of subjects to consider,
+and the omission of a declaration upon any subject is not to be
+considered as a judgment against such a declaration, but simply that the
+Committee did not find it practicable, for reasons satisfactory to them,
+to include it in the declarations which they offered. Incidentally I may
+suggest to you the present uncertainty regarding what is meant by
+Conservation and the wisest policies to be adopted may have led them to
+defer action in this matter. Let me assure you that we are all deeply
+interested in Conservation, and believe that it can be profitably
+brought into the work of the public schools, but many are still
+uncertain as to the form of such work and the methods by which it can be
+most profitably introduced into the public school curriculum."
+
+Members of this Congress, there is in this non-action a suggestion
+potent to us. This indecision, this lack of harmony, should speedily as
+possible be changed into a definite, harmonious union of Conservation
+policies (applause). This fall a printed catechism of questions on
+Conservation adapted to the various grades will become a part of the
+curriculum of the public schools of Kentucky, and will be tried in
+various other States.
+
+Delegates have been sent by the Women's National Rivers and Harbors
+Congress to all important conventions of kindred interests. Since
+organization it has had representative speakers on the platform of many
+of the most important conventions. The Congress has furnished lecturers
+to schools and to various clubs of men and women, and also to the
+churches, in which latter the subject of "Conservation of Natural
+Resources from the Moral Standpoint" has proved an appropriate and
+impressive theme.
+
+In December, 1909, the Congress endorsed the disinterested and patriotic
+policy of Honorable Gifford Pinchot as Chief Forester of the United
+States. (Applause)
+
+This report cannot satisfactorily be closed without mention of the loyal
+and very enthusiastic support of Conservation being given us by our
+Hawaiian members, who number several hundred, and who began immediately
+to put belief into practice. Our State vice president there, Mrs A. F.
+Knudson, came all the way to Washington to attend our last convention.
+
+These are the general activities of the organization. It would be
+impossible for me to go into the State activities at this time.
+Sufficient to say that the message is being given at the fireside, from
+the platform, in the schools, through the press, all with the idea of
+perpetuating this Nation--won by the blood of our forefathers--and
+handing it down in all the glory of its wealth and beauty to future
+generations. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--It is a pleasure to present Mrs G. B. Sneath, of
+Tiffin, Ohio.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs SNEATH--Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen: After hearing the
+general purpose for which the women of the General Federation of Women's
+Clubs have been working, it may seem needless for me to tell what one
+definite part of this great body is endeavoring to accomplish. I
+represent Mrs J. D. Wilkinson, Chairman of the Waterways Committee of
+the General Federation, which is a part of the great Conservation
+Committee of the Federation, comprising almost 800,000 women in its
+organization.
+
+Our work is entirely educational. We go into all the schools where we
+can possibly gain access, and strive to get the matter of preservation
+of inland waterways taught in the schools as among the great
+Conservation problems. We have heard from experts all that is being
+done, all that they are trying to do, all that they are trying to
+remedy; and we feel that we, as women, have one chief and great duty to
+perform. You have heard how women strive to conserve the lives of
+children, to make them strong mentally, morally and physically. Yet this
+is not all; the one great problem before the American people today is
+that of pure food and pure water (applause); and we, as women, must
+strive in the communities in which we live and the States of which we
+are a part--and the Nation must come to our aid--to rescue and prevent
+from contamination the life-giving streams of this country, streams that
+were given for the benefit of mankind but which man has turned into
+drainage canals and cesspools. We must have help; we must have it
+through State Legislatures, we must have it through the Federal
+Government, else we cannot conserve the lives of those that are dear to
+us. If a visitor from another land were to say to us, "Your children are
+being poisoned by their own parents," we would hesitate to believe it;
+but our children _are_ being poisoned--not by criminal intent but by the
+carelessness of the municipalities in which we live (applause). So I
+leave with you this one thought: If we accomplish nothing else, if we
+leave to the men the questions of transportation and navigation and the
+great problems of irrigation and of water-power, let us work for the
+purity of our rivers and streams and lakes and inland waterways.[1]
+(Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--The Proceedings of this Congress are to be published
+through the kindness of a gentleman in Saint Paul who has guaranteed to
+have it printed, and all these addresses will go in.
+
+We will now hear from Mrs Jay Cooke Howard, of Duluth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs HOWARD--Mr President, Ladies and Gentleman: I will keep you only a
+minute, because you look hungry, and I'm hungry myself. I will simply
+file my report and tell you briefly what the Daughters of the American
+Revolution are doing for Conservation.
+
+The D. A. R., being a patriotic society, believe that all their work is
+in the spirit of true Conservation; but we have a special National
+Committee, with a member or members from each State. I represent the
+chairman, Mrs Belle Merrill Draper, because I am the member for
+Minnesota. Mrs Draper wrote last fall to all the Governors, asking each
+what we could do to help the cause of Conservation in his State. When
+the answers came we went to work, chiefly in three ways: First, in our
+own meetings, in which we worked up enthusiasm. Second, in the press;
+the papers in the larger cities have much Conservation matter, but in
+smaller cities and towns this is not always the case, and you from such
+places will never know how much about Conservation that you have
+read--or skipped--was inspired by the D. A. R. Our third branch of work,
+and the most important one, is with the children. I notice that most of
+the Governors, whose interesting letters are contained in the report I
+am filing, preferred to have us turn our attention to the children
+rather than to the men (laughter). Governor Eberhart's courteous letter
+mentioned them, and the forests, especially. We have worked through the
+schools, and also in our own homes. May I tell my own experience?
+[Voices: "Go on, Go on!"] I felt very proud when my little boy, who had
+saved eleven cents and did not know what to do with it all, finally
+said, "Mother, I will give it to the baby; put it in his bank; it will
+teach him to save." But straws in the family show which way the wind
+blows in the Nation. Listen to what happened: I provided savings banks,
+the children conserved their resources, saved their wealth and then
+somebody came and stole the banks! (Laughter and cries of "Good!")
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--The Congress stands adjourned until 2 oclock.
+
+
+
+
+_SIXTH SESSION_
+
+
+The Congress reconvened in the Auditorium, Saint Paul, at 2 p.m.
+September 7, President Baker in the chair.
+
+President BAKER--Ladies and Gentlemen: I have the honor of asking
+Senator Moses E. Clapp, of Minnesota, to preside this afternoon, and to
+him I now yield the chair. (Applause)
+
+Senator CLAPP--Ladies and Gentlemen: During the course of this Congress
+much has been said concerning the fact that Conservation applies not
+only to the material resources of a Nation, but to its productiveness
+and to its energies; and among those things to which it must under that
+classification apply is the Conservation of time. Now, I am going to
+give you a practical illustration of how a loyal adherent can carry out
+the Conservation of time by omitting a speech, and proceeding at once to
+the business of the afternoon. (Laughter)
+
+The first entry in the program for this afternoon is an address, "Making
+Our People Count," by Dr Edwin Boone Craighead, President of Tulane
+University, whom I take great pleasure in introducing. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President CRAIGHEAD--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: In this Republic
+there is one thing supremely great and sacred, greater than the great
+Republican party, the party of Lincoln and Grant, greater than the great
+Democratic party, the party of Jefferson and Jackson, more precious than
+the Conservation of our natural resources, more sacred than the Supreme
+Court, or even the Constitution itself--I mean the great American people
+(applause). To make this people count, not only in the Conservation of
+our natural resources but also in the enlargement and enrichment of
+their own lives, is the fundamental, the paramount, problem of this
+Republic; for ours, it must not be forgotten, is not only a Government
+of the people and by the people, but also preeminently a Government
+_for_ the people.
+
+The Founders of this Republic were not only scholars and thinkers, but
+seers and prophets. With profound knowledge of the despotisms that for
+five thousand years had crushed and enslaved the greatest and sublimest
+thing on this earth, the individual man, the Fathers of the Republic
+laid broad and deep its foundations upon an everlasting rock--the
+inalienable, the ineradicable, the eternal right of man to life,
+liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They builded for all time and
+for all generation of men. (Applause)
+
+The individual man, the individual woman, is by far the greatest and
+sublimest creation of God that we know of--far greater and grander than
+any or all the institutions of society. These institutions are the works
+of the hands of man, they exist for him, and their only reason for being
+is that they minister to him. Yea, the earth was made for man, and the
+only reason for the Conservation of its resources is that they may
+minister unto the needs of the individual man:
+
+    Seas roll to waft him, suns to light him rise;
+    His footstool the earth, his canopy the skies.
+
+In the deliberations of this Congress the words of Ruskin should be
+uppermost in the minds of all: "There is no real wealth but life;" and
+by life he meant the perfection of the entire man, body, soul, and
+spirit. That church is best, that institution is noblest, that
+civilization is highest, that country is greatest, which furnishes the
+most abundant life to the largest number of human beings.
+
+The Chinese Empire, which embraces near four hundred million human
+beings, has existed for five thousand years; yet the countless millions
+of China, springing up like tropical weeds and sinking back to dreamless
+dust, have contributed far less to civilization than the twenty thousand
+Athenians who in the brief Periclean age followed the footsteps of Plato
+and Socrates. (Applause)
+
+Neither vastness of population or territory, nor richness of natural
+resources, nor accumulated wealth can alone make a great country. That
+country is great, no matter how barren its soil, whose children may
+truthfully repeat the words of the stern old Spartan, who, when one
+pointing in derision to the bleak hills of Lacedemonia asked, "What do
+you grow there?" replied, "We grow men there" (applause). To breed a
+race of strong men and noble women is the one and only thing that can
+make a country truly great.
+
+Consider Scotland--a poor and barren country, yet who would dare to call
+poor the land of Scott and Burns and Carlyle? Who shall estimate the
+wealth of Scotland's contribution to the world and to America? The sons
+of her sturdy pioneers who poured down through Virginia and Kentucky and
+the Carolinas have been worth to this Republic their weight in gold.
+(Applause)
+
+Take Ireland, that synonym of poverty; and yet how could our great
+metropolitan cities thrive for a single day without the helping hand of
+the sons of Erin? Somebody has advised that we buy Ireland, not for her
+natural resources, not to grow corn and wheat and cotton, but to grow
+policemen. (Applause)
+
+Coming a little nearer home, take New England with her thousands of
+abandoned farms, rich only in the variety and ferocity of her climate
+and the blessed dispensations of our American protection; and yet far
+from mean have been New England's contributions to the wealth of
+American democracy. New England, rocky old New England, barren,
+storm-swept New England, "Land of brown bread and beans," home of the
+liberty-loving Puritans who, for the sake of the immaterial good, in
+quest of freedom, crossed the stormy sea, endured the hardships of an
+untamed wilderness battling with hunger and wild beasts and
+savages--grand, glorious New England (applause), home of Adams and
+Webster and Emerson and Hawthorne and Williams and Lowell and Longfellow
+and Edward Everett and Phillips Brooks (applause)--grand, glorious,
+immortal New England, by her schools and colleges has almost dominated
+the intellectual life of this country; and in every part of this vast
+Republic, yea, in every civilized land under the sun, may be found the
+sons and daughters of the pilgrims of the Mayflower; scholars,
+preachers, teachers, missionaries, pioneers who have blazed out the
+pathway of civilization, established schools and colleges and
+universities, always and everywhere children of sweetness and light who
+even on the remotest frontier have kept trimmed and lighted the sacred
+lamps of learning (applause). Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Bowdoin,
+Dartmouth, Williams, have contributed more to the dignity of man, given
+more to the everlasting glory of the American commonwealth, than all the
+stock speculators of New York, or all the battleships ever built for the
+American Navy. (Applause)
+
+Take only one other illustration: Who of you from the waving cornfields
+of Iowa and Illinois, from the fertile lowlands of the Mississippi, has
+not wondered, while passing through the Old Dominion and looking out
+upon her red clay hills, how on earth do these people make a living? Why
+give me one acre of the best Louisiana soil--and it is nearly all
+good--and put it down upon the barren rocks of New England, or upon the
+red hills of Old Virginia, and I would make a fortune selling it for
+fertilizer (laughter). And yet Virginia has contributed more to the
+wealth of the American Republic than any other single State of the Union
+(applause). At the call of what other States did there ever arise a
+larger band of more gallant men than they who under the leadership of
+Jackson and Lee withstood for long weary months the combined forces of
+the Union? And when the War was over, and Virginia found herself in
+abjectest poverty, she showed to the world that her riches were
+inexhaustible; for during the next forty years she sent abroad into
+other States five hundred thousand of her most adventurous sons
+(applause), and, in so doing, contributed more to the wealth of this
+Republic than all the gold that was ever dug from the mines of
+California (applause). I do not wonder that the poorest the humblest son
+of the Old Dominion, no matter where he finds himself, whether trudging
+through the snows of Minnesota or loitering perchance beneath the
+fragrant magnolias of Louisiana--even he, the poorest and humblest, must
+quicken his steps and lift aloft his head as he remembers, "Mine is the
+land of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and
+James Monroe and John Marshall and John Randolph and Patrick Henry and
+Stonewall Jackson and--towering above them all save Washington
+only--that matchless military chieftain, great in battle but still
+greater in defeat as a private citizen, the stainless, the immortal
+Robert E. Lee." (Applause)
+
+James Russell Lowell said--and said truthfully--that countries are great
+only in proportion to what they do for the moral and the intellectual
+energy, the spiritual faith, the hope, the comfort, the happiness of
+mankind. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chairman CLAPP--Ladies and Gentlemen: It is provided in the program that
+between the set speeches we will hear briefly from the accredited
+representatives of the various States, taken in alphabetical order. I
+now have the pleasure of calling upon the State of Alabama. (Pause) If
+no one cares to be heard from Alabama, I now call upon Arizona. (Pause)
+If no one from Arizona, then from the State of _Arkansaw_; and that
+there may be no mistake on the part of the inhabitants of that State in
+the termination of the name, I repeat that call in the name of Arkansas.
+(Laughter)
+
+A DELEGATE--Mr Chairman, I suggest that the call of the States be
+deferred until 8.30 in the morning, and that it then be taken up as a
+definite matter of business.
+
+Chairman CLAPP--Will the gentleman make a motion to that effect?
+
+[The motion was made, seconded, put and carried without dissenting
+voice.]
+
+President BAKER--Mr Chairman: I will be very glad to be here at 8.30. We
+want everyone to be heard, and I would come here at 6 oclock if desired,
+though I think 8.30 is early enough. I will be here promptly to open the
+Congress and hear from the States until the regular speakers begin. Then
+on Thursday afternoon we have set aside a special time to hear from all
+the States and all the different organizations represented here.
+
+Chairman CLAPP--Ladies and Gentlemen: During last summer it became my
+province to distribute nuggets of moral philosophy and political truth
+to the people of Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa; and while laboring in that
+moral vineyard I discovered that there was a newspaper in the Southwest
+that had an immense influence throughout all that section. We have a
+representative of that paper with us this afternoon, who will now
+address us on "The Press and the People"; Mr D. Austin Latchaw, of the
+Kansas City Star. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr LATCHAW--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: As a representative of
+the newspaper profession, before I say anything else, I wish, on behalf
+of my associates and myself, to thank the city of Saint Paul and its
+Committee on Arrangements for the very excellent facilities provided and
+the thoughtful courtesies extended to the men assigned to cover this
+Congress.
+
+The subject assigned me is incidental rather than germane to the work
+of this Congress. It is a big subject, and even if I felt that I could
+do justice to it I would doubt the appropriateness of using this
+occasion for the discourse. You are here to consider practical
+Conservation; to discuss ways and means to develop and, so far as
+possible, to foster the natural resources of this country, and above all
+to check and prevent the wasting of them. And it is one striking
+commentary on the relations of the press to the people that you do not
+need to give a moment's concern about the publication of your
+deliberations and conclusions. (Applause)
+
+Yet it does seem fitting that at some stage of these proceedings a
+little time should be given to the consideration of that far-reaching
+agency without which the results of this Congress would not reach the
+public at large; for what you do today will be made known to tens of
+millions of readers tomorrow. If it were not so, the value of such
+public-spirited meetings as this would be immeasurably discounted.
+
+However, as a member of the newspaper profession I cannot but feel that
+my subject would be more appropriately discussed by someone outside of
+that profession. It might be handled more frankly. It might be made more
+instructive to both the press and the people. Most assuredly I have not
+come here to throw stones at my professional brethren, and as for
+handing them bouquets, that gentle function might be performed with a
+somewhat better grace by someone outside the family. Still, I shall not
+be quite so reserved as was an old farmer back in Pennsylvania, whose
+farm adjoined that of my father when I was a boy, and who always got the
+worst of it in a horse trade because he was too modest to brag about his
+end of the proposition.
+
+First of all the newspapers of this country could not have the splendid
+field they possess, the great opportunities they enjoy and the inspiring
+attention they command, if they did not appeal to the best read, the
+most intelligent, and the most responsive people on earth. In no other
+country is such a large percentage of the public a newspaper-reading
+public. Nowhere else does the average man know so much about current
+affairs of all kinds as in this country of ours.
+
+On the other hand, I believe this popular intelligence is
+reciprocal--that the response the newspapers find for their endeavors is
+largely due to their efficiency in disseminating the news, in analyzing
+public questions, and in reiterating the truth. The man who is an
+habitual reader of a good newspaper owes much to that paper, just as the
+paper also owes much to him.
+
+It is true that newspapers differ in policies and methods and doctrines,
+and there are times when the public may be confused rather than
+enlightened by the different presentations of the same subject,
+especially if the subject be one of technical complexities, such, for
+example, as that of the protective tariff. But in the daily run of
+events and the discussion of them, and in the long run of complex
+problems, the lines between right and wrong are not difficult to follow.
+And I am glad to say that from the newspaper point of view, these lines
+seem to be more clearly discerned than ever before, not alone by the
+press, but by the people. There has been a National awakening in this
+country, and the newspapers have had their share of it (applause). There
+is a broader and franker handling of the subjects of the day. The number
+of wholly independent papers is constantly increasing, and the number of
+independent party papers is increasing still more rapidly. The
+uncompromising party organ will soon be a thing of the past (applause).
+This greater independence of the press is largely responsible for the
+increasing independence of the electorate. The time has come when no
+man's loyalty to his party can be questioned when he honestly
+disapproves of some legislative measure or official representative of
+that party.
+
+The chief function of the press is, of course, to present the news, and
+the news, collectively speaking, is non-partisan. A paper's advertising
+is non-partisan. If it is the right sort of paper, its circulation is
+largely non-partisan. And with equal freedom in its editorial policy, a
+newspaper, especially the big resourceful paper with an efficient and
+somewhat specialized staff, may make of itself a sort of popular
+university for its readers, furnishing them with authoritative
+information, whether obvious in the news or elucidated in the
+editorials, on the current life of the world.
+
+I am not one of those who believe that a newspaper should confine itself
+to the mere presentation of the news. That is a great and powerful
+function, but the paper with a vast audience, with a reputation for
+honesty and authority, can make of itself a constructive agency of
+tremendous power (applause). Also, it can make itself a destructive
+agency, when the public welfare demands that something should be
+destroyed (applause).
+
+Of course, we are a busy people, and newspapers must be prepared with
+reference to our limited leisure. A few papers are conducted on the
+theory that the public has no time to read anything but the headlines. I
+am not here to "knock" this class of newspaper. If they do not show a
+regrettable preference for the sensational or the scandalous, they serve
+a good purpose in the scheme of publicity. They have greatly enlarged
+the newspaper audience. Do not forget that. And it is the experience of
+those who have published this class of papers that sooner or later their
+readers require more conservatism. As a result there has been a tendency
+for some time among these papers toward a more dignified style of
+publication.
+
+But, as I have said, we are busy people. We have need for intelligent
+digests, authoritative discussions of the subjects of the day as well as
+news developments of those subjects. An evidence of this need is the
+fact that, in some of our municipal, State, and National contests in
+which great issues are at stake, it is necessary, in spite of our
+boasted and undoubted intelligence, to reiterate salient facts day after
+day in order to drive them home and make them enter into the conviction
+of the masses (applause). Sometimes this reiteration becomes tiresome to
+those of quick perception or ample leisure; but it is a necessary
+practice on the part of a newspaper that regards itself as an
+instructive and constructive agency as well as news furnisher. And when
+a paper thus regards itself it would seem that the ideal and final
+policy would be one of untrammeled freedom--freedom to support the man
+or the measure best calculated to serve the public welfare, or to oppose
+the man or the measure believed to be inimical to popular well-being. A
+paper thus established, not as an infallible judge but as an intelligent
+investigator, a patriotic champion, and an enterprising and faithful
+agency for progress in the community that supports it, can become a
+tremendous factor for good--a factor that will be taken into account by
+all friends of the people, and must be taken into account by all enemies
+of the people. (Applause)
+
+I will not presume to encroach upon the direct business of this Congress
+except so far as the newspaper hears a relation to it. Every newspaper
+publisher has a personal as well as his public share of the general
+interest in Conservation. The problem of procuring wood pulp at prices
+that will permit the continuation of the publication of newspapers at
+the present low rates will soon be serious unless a check is put upon
+the rapid decrease in the forest area. Wood pulp is made almost entirely
+from the spruce tree. For years the manufacturers of pulp stripped the
+forests with little thought of the morrow. The visible supply of pulp
+timber is becoming limited. Unless tree-growing comes to the rescue, it
+will not be long before print paper will have to be made from some other
+material, if a satisfactory substitute can be found, or the pulp will
+have to be bought from other countries.
+
+I do not know whether you understand how much good timber is handled by
+newspaper readers. Let me give you some figures: The readers of the
+paper I represent handle sixty tons of it a day, taking into account the
+weekly edition. This is, in round numbers, 20,000 tons per year. We are
+already importing 20 percent of the pulp used in our paper mill. Think
+of it! In this great, big, new country, once almost covered with mighty
+forests, we find it advantageous today to import a common forest product
+from old Germany, where the highest standards of forest preservation and
+use are to be found. And this pulp, with a protective duty paid, is laid
+down in Kansas City for less than we have to pay for the domestic
+product of the same kind and quality. To make the paper for this one
+mill, the output of which is used exclusively by one paper, a daily
+average of more than one acre of spruce forest is used.
+
+It is a matter for congratulation that the press of the country has
+assumed a most friendly attitude toward the Conservation movement
+(applause). Newspapers still disagree about many things. They have
+their little differences on the tariff, on the currency system, on
+corporation regulation, on certain men and particular measures, and they
+do not agree as to why "Jim" Jeffries didn't come back (laughter); but I
+have yet to find in a single issue of any paper flat opposition to the
+Conservation of natural resources (applause). Gentlemen of the
+Conservation Congress, you have here a movement of National and
+irresistible sweep, a theme that will endure through successive
+generations--for if it does not endure the Nation ultimately must
+perish. The people have grasped this subject spontaneously, and they are
+ready to study it zealously. Few yet comprehend its scope, fewer still
+its diversified details; but collectively the people intuitively
+understand its vital significance. The country has at last awakened to
+its gross neglect and waste and prodigality. It has suddenly been
+reminded of its obligation to future generations along material lines.
+There is something even more appealing in this than the promptings of
+altruism: there is the moving sense of parental obligation, of sacred
+trusteeship. You are to be congratulated--you who are the fathers and
+prime movers of this great cause--that you have the united press of the
+country behind you.
+
+And not only is the press with you, but it is ready to do far more than
+it has been able to do thus far. This movement needs publicity--much
+publicity. It is new. It must be made familiar. The people must be
+informed in detail as to the location, the character, and the extent of
+their resources, and as to the means employed or proposed for the
+developing and fostering of those resources. The only effective means
+for the dissemination of this information is the press.
+
+Every year the Government spends millions of dollars on Government
+reports. These reports are necessary as matters of record and reference,
+but they are worthless for general reading. Many of the millions
+expended on these reports could be saved by limiting the number of
+copies to those that will be used and by leaving the mails unencumbered
+with the surplus (applause). If a part of the money thus saved were
+expended in the intelligent preparation of news matter pertaining to the
+various Government departments, giving to the people the interesting
+facts as they develop instead of depending on voluminous and unpopular
+reports for the education of the people in these matters, the work of
+the Government would be facilitated by popular enlightenment where it is
+now hampered by popular ignorance. It seems to me there is an
+opportunity here for the Conservation of our National revenues and our
+natural resources at the same time.
+
+What is needed is an intelligent publicity bureau or agent in each
+department and the more important subdivisions, capable of preparing, in
+news form, as the facts develop, the interesting and instructive
+features of the department's daily work. This does not mean that all the
+papers will use all this matter, but some of it would be used by all to
+whom it is offered, and all of it would be used by some papers. On the
+whole there would be much wider publicity than could be procured in any
+other way.
+
+I am not suggesting an untried experiment. Some of the bureaus at
+Washington have publicity departments. Those of the Agricultural
+Department and the Geological Survey have been measurably effective, and
+manufacturers and importers have found large use for the popularized
+consular reports. But with a single exception there has been no near
+approach to the possibilities of cheap and helpful publicity in any
+department at Washington. The exception I have in mind is the Forest
+Service (applause). Do you know why the country knows so much more about
+forest conditions and the employed and proposed measures for their
+improvement than it knows about irrigation, reclamation, the use of the
+rivers, the potentialities of water-power, or the conservation of coal
+or oil or minerals? It is because the Forest Service, under the
+direction of Mr Gifford Pinchot, established a news service of such a
+character that the press of the country used its output freely and
+without the cost of one cent to the Government other than the cost of
+putting the matter in form acceptable to the press. (Applause)
+
+For some reason it was proposed, a couple of years ago, to prohibit, by
+Congressional enactment, the continuance of this publicity. But the
+effort resulted only in a complete vindication of the service. It was
+shown that only legitimate news had been given out, and that this news
+had appeared in an average of 9,000,000 copies of newspapers per month.
+These figures were based on clippings procured through the clipping
+bureaus, and did not include many publications that must have escaped
+the clippers.
+
+Now, if it had been undertaken to place this same matter before the same
+number of readers through the medium of the formal and technical reports
+of the department, the cost would have been more than 100 times as
+great--and nobody would have read them.
+
+As an illustration that newspapers want more Conservation news than they
+are getting through regular channels: A number of publishers recently
+formed a special Conservation service, which they maintained in
+Washington, whose business it is to follow exclusively the developments
+of this movement. But this service cannot be made what it should be made
+if the Government does not cooperate in this policy of needed publicity.
+
+Considering the waste that is incurred in the publishing of Government
+documents that have no popular educational value, it seems well nigh
+preposterous that there should not be ample provision, out of a saving
+that could be made by cutting off this waste, for the publication of
+matter that the people want and the newspapers stand ready to print free
+of cost. It would be no more absurd for this Congress to go into
+executive session, bar these gentlemen of the press from its
+deliberations, and assume that the official report of your proceedings,
+which will be printed in the due course of time, would furnish
+sufficient publicity for the work of this convention. As it is, you have
+a circulation of tens of millions daily for your output. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chairman CLAPP--Ladies and Gentlemen: We often find a man who excels
+along some one line of work. The well-rounded man is the one who studies
+along every line; the truly great man _is_ the well-rounded man, the man
+who studies the forces which make for the conditions in which he lives.
+We have such a man in this city, of whom we are all justly proud; a man
+who long ago, in the forge of hope and courage, welded his own fate with
+the possibilities of the then undeveloped Northwest, and who has lived
+to see the prophecies born of a study of conditions mature and develop
+in a splendid empire. It affords me great pleasure to present to you one
+who will speak on the subject of "Soils and Crops, Food and
+Clothing"--Mr James J. Hill, of Saint Paul. (Great and prolonged
+applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr HILL--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I do not intend to take much
+of your time this afternoon, but I hope to bring before you some
+thoughts that may suggest the practical side of the subject we have to
+consider at this Congress. In order to make myself clearly understood
+and to be exact in my statements I will ask your indulgence in allowing
+me to read what I have to say:
+
+Every movement that affects permanently a nation's life passes through
+three stages. First it is the abstract idea, understood by few. Next it
+is the subject of agitation and earnest general discussion. Third, after
+it has won its way to a sure place in the national life, comes the era
+of practical adaptation. Mistakes and extravagances due to the
+enthusiasm of friends or the malice of enemies are corrected, details
+are fitted to actual needs, the divine idea is harnessed to the common
+needs of man. In this stage, which the Conservation movement has now
+reached, the most difficult and important work must be done.
+
+In our own history and in that of other nations we have seen this
+process many times repeated. Public education was an abstract idea in
+the time of Plato, a controversy of the Renaissance, and is still only
+partly realized. Back of all written records lived the man who first saw
+a vision of government universal, equal, free and just. But the world
+has not yet achieved the final adaptation of this mighty conception to
+man as we find him. Democracy is still in the fighting stage.
+
+Only a few years have passed since it first dawned upon a people who had
+reveled in plenty for a century that the richest patrimony is not proof
+against constant and careless waste; that a nation of spenders must take
+thought for its morrow or come to poverty. The first actual Conservation
+work of this Government was done in forestry, following the example of
+European countries. It soon became evident that our mineral resources
+should receive equal though less urgent care. The supreme importance of
+conserving the most important resource of all, the wealth of the soil
+itself, was realized. In an address delivered four years ago this month
+before the Agricultural Society of this State, I first stated fully the
+problem that we have to meet and the method of its solution. With their
+great capacity for assimilating a new and valid thought, the people of
+this country were soon interested. Belief in a comprehensive system of
+Conservation of all resources has now taken possession of the public
+mind. What remains to be done is that most difficult of all the tasks of
+statesmanship--the application of an accepted principle and making it
+conform in all its general outlines to the common good.
+
+To pack the fact into a single statement, the need of the hour and the
+end to which this Congress should devote itself is to conserve
+Conservation. It has come into that peril which no great truth
+escapes--the danger that lurks in the house of its friends. It has been
+used to forward that serious error of policy, the extension of the
+powers and activities of the National Government at the expense of those
+of the States. The time is ripe and this occasion is most fitting for
+distinguishing between real and fanciful Conservation, and for
+establishing a sound relation of means to ends. (Applause)
+
+We should first exclude certain activities that come only indirectly
+under the term, "Conservation." The Reclamation Service is one. Its work
+is not preservation, but utilization. The arid lands of this country
+have been where they now are, the streams have flowed past them
+uselessly ever since Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. Irrigation
+was practiced in prehistoric time. What we have to do is to bring modern
+methods to the aid of one of the oldest agricultural arts. It is
+mentioned here because its progress illustrates the dangers that beset
+Conservation projects proper. They are dangers inseparable from National
+control and conduct of affairs. The machine is too big and too distant;
+its operation is slow, cumbrous, and costly. So slow is it that settlers
+are waiting in distress for water promised long ago. So faulty has been
+the adjustment of time and money that Congress has had to authorize the
+issue of $20,000,000 of National obligations to complete projects still
+hanging in the air. So expensive is it that estimates have been exceeded
+again and again. The settler has had either to pay more than the cost
+figure he relied on or seek cheaper land in Canada. It costs the
+Government from 50 percent more to twice as much as it would private
+enterprise to put water on the land (applause). Under the Lower
+Yellowstone project the charge is $42.50 per acre, and one dollar per
+acre annually for maintenance. The Sunnyside project carries a charge of
+$52 per acre, and 95 cents maintenance. Under the North Platte project
+the charge is $45 per acre, plus a maintenance charge not announced.
+These projects, in widely separated localities, entail a land charge
+prohibitive to the frontier settlers to provide homes for those for
+whom this work was believed to have been undertaken. The pioneer settler
+who can pay, even in ten annual installments, from $3,500 to $4,000 for
+eighty acres of land, in addition to the yearly fee per acre, must have
+some other resources to aid him. The work of irrigation would have been
+more cheaply done if turned over to private enterprise or committed to
+the several States within which lie the lands to be reclaimed
+(applause). This is not a criticism upon any individual. It is merely
+one more proof of the excessive cost of Government work. (Applause)
+
+Toward the conservation of our mineral resources little can be done by
+Federal action. The output is determined not by the mine owner, but by
+the consumer. The withdrawal of vast areas of supposed coal lands tends
+to increase price by restricting the area of possible supply. Nor can
+such deposits be utilized eventually except under some such system as is
+now employed. It is foolish to talk of leasing coal lands in small
+quantities in order to prevent monopoly. Mining must be carried on upon
+a large enough scale to be commercially possible. The lessee of a small
+area could not afford to install the necessary machinery and provide
+means of transportation without charging for the product a prohibitory
+price. The land should not be leased by the acre, but by the quantity of
+coal contained in the land (applause). A vein four feet thick contains
+about 4,000 tons to the acre; in many fields there are three, four,
+five, and six veins containing from fifteen to thirty feet of coal, or
+from fifteen to thirty thousand tons to the acre. What we want is
+intelligent understanding of the situation (applause). Under too
+restrictive conditions the coal would remain in the ground indefinitely.
+The people of the West see little practical difference between a
+resource withheld entirely from use and a resource dissipated or
+exhausted. They understand by Conservation the most economical
+development and best care of resources. It is the only definition
+consistent with the natural growth of communities in the history of the
+civilized world.
+
+The prairie States are more interested than any other in the question of
+cheap fuel. We do not depend on Alaska for our future supply. There is
+abundant coal on the Pacific Coast nearer to our seaports and commercial
+centers. Vancouver Island is underlain with it; today, while the
+railroad companies with which I am connected bought coal lands on Puget
+Sound, which they still own, we are prepared to burn oil from California
+instead of coal. I speak of that as a practical reason why we should,
+before we leap, look to see what the actual conditions are. Then, to say
+nothing of Nova Scotia on the Eastern coast, there is coal in
+Spitzbergen, within the Arctic Circle, actually nearer our Eastern
+markets than the coal of Alaska. While we lament the exhaustion of our
+coal supply, we maintain a tariff that compels us to draw upon it
+continuously. It would be well to cast out this beam before we worry too
+much over the Conservation mote. (Applause)
+
+The iron deposits of Minnesota, the most wonderful in the world, are
+today not only furnishing industry in the Nation with its raw material,
+but are piling up a school fund at home that is the envy of other States
+and adding more and more every year to the contents of the State
+treasury. Minnesota is considering the reduction of her general tax levy
+by one-half. Would it be better if these lands were today held idle and
+unproductive by the Federal Government, or worked only on leases whose
+proceeds went into the Federal treasury and enabled Congress to squander
+a few more millions in annual appropriations? (Applause)
+
+Against some forestry theories the West enters an even stronger plea.
+What the United States needs is neither reckless destruction nor an
+embargo upon our splendid Western commonwealths by locking up a
+considerable portion of their available area. There were, by the last
+report of the Forest Service, over 194,500,000 acres withdrawn from use
+in our forest reserves on June 30, 1909. Of this, nearly 58 percent,
+over 112,000,000 acres, or 175,000 square miles, lies in six Western
+States. That is an area six-sevenths the size of Germany or France. It
+is 80 percent of the size of the unappropriated and unreserved land in
+those six States. How are the cities, towns, and villages in those
+States to grow if so large a portion of the land is closed to the
+husbandman? I received today an official statement of the entire amount
+of public land withdrawn from settlement, and it is astounding. In area
+it is greater than the thirteen original States; it is nearly as great
+as New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland,
+Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, and
+Illinois (applause). And at the same time, we are driving this year not
+less than 100,000 American farmers to the Canadian Northwest to seek
+homes there (applause). Now, I say to you that the area of this total
+withdrawal for various purposes of the public domain is greater than the
+cultivatable area of the entire Canadian Northwest.
+
+The forest reserves and the lands conveyed by Congressional grants to
+private interests in Oregon amount to some 50,000 square miles. More
+than half the area of this great State has been withdrawn by action of
+the Government in one way or another from cultivation and the enjoyment
+and profit of the people of the State. Over one-third of Idaho and 27
+percent of Washington are forest reserves. Colorado is almost as badly
+off; and not more than 30 percent of its forest reserves is covered with
+merchantable timber, while about 40 percent has no timber at all. On the
+Olympic peninsula are lands reported to be withdrawn to conserve our
+water supply where the annual rainfall amounts to something like seven
+to ten feet (laughter). According to the official report, the cost of
+administering the Forest Service in 1909 was a little short of three
+million dollars, and the receipts were $1,800,000. The deficit on
+current account alone was over $1,100,000. The total disbursements were
+over $4,400,000, and the actual deficit $2,600,000. Now, we should be
+liberal in our grants for the care of our public forests. We should also
+closely scrutinize the manner of their care. The present season has seen
+an enormous destruction in the value of the timber in the forest
+reserves. Our company, for over two months, has had from 800 to 1,000
+men at work doing nothing else but trying to put out the fires in the
+forest reserves. (Applause)
+
+The Forest Service has over 2,000 employes. In 1909 they planted 611
+acres, and sowed 1,126 acres more. The West believes in forest
+preservation. But it believes practically and not theoretically. It
+realizes that a good thing may cost too much, and is not ignorant of the
+extravagant financial tendency of every Federal department and bureau.
+It wants all good agricultural land open to the settler, wherever it may
+be situated. It wants timber resources conservatively utilized, and not
+wasted or destroyed.
+
+In connection with forestry interests there is just now much question of
+the conservation of water-power sites. The demand is that Federal lands
+forming such sites should be withdrawn and leased for the profit and at
+the pleasure of the Federal Government. Against this the whole West
+rightly protests. The water-power differs from the coal deposit in that
+it is not destroyed by use. It will do its undiminished work as long as
+the rains fall and the snows melt. Not the resource but the use of it is
+a proper subject for Conservation and regulation. To withdraw these
+sources of potential wealth from present utilization is to take just so
+much from the industrial capital of the States in which they are
+situated.
+
+The attempted Federal control of water-powers is illegal, because the
+use of the waters within a State is the property of the State and cannot
+be taken from it (applause), and that the State may and actually does,
+in the case of Idaho for example, perfectly safeguard its water-powers
+from monopoly and make them useful without extortion has been shown
+conclusively by Senator Borah in a speech in the United States Senate in
+which this whole subject is admirably covered. Back in our history
+beyond the memory of most men now living there was the same controversy
+over the public domain. Ought it to be administered by the Government
+and disposed of for its profit, or opened to the people and shared with
+the States? Let experience determine which was the better guardian. The
+worst scandals of State land misappropriation, and there were many, are
+insignificant when compared with the record of the Nation. The total
+cash receipts of the Federal Government from the disposal of public and
+Indian lands from 1785 to 1909 were $423,451,673. The money is gone. It
+has been expended, wisely or unwisely, with other treasury receipts. It
+would be interesting to know how much the above sum exceeded the cost of
+administration. To go back 125 years and dig up the cost of the
+administration of public lands would be more of a task than I have time
+for, but I took the last report of the General Government, and in the
+disbursements of the Interior Department I found that the cost of
+administering the public lands was in 1907 $17,421,000, in 1908
+$15,190,000, in 1909 $14,441,000. Now if we take the entire proceeds of
+all the public lands sold, including the Indian lands, it averages
+$3,400,000 a year for the 125 years during which it has been sold; and
+we find here that the cost of administering the greatly reduced estate
+is from three to five times as much as the total receipts would average
+(applause). But certain limited areas of lands were conveyed to the
+States for educational purposes. The permanent common school funds,
+State and local, conserved by the States, amount to $246,943,349. The
+estimated value of productive school lands today is $138,851,634, and of
+unproductive $86,347,482. Add to these the land grant funds of colleges
+of agriculture and the mechanic arts, and the total is merely half a
+billion dollars. To what magnitude these great funds, now jealously
+guarded for educational purposes by the States, may grow in time we
+cannot even guess. Some may eventually provide amply for all educational
+needs of their States forever. This is one telling proof of the superior
+fidelity of the commonwealth as custodian of any trust for future
+generations.
+
+There remains an opportunity and a need of Conservation transcending in
+value all others combined. The soil is the ultimate employer of all
+industry and the greatest source of all wealth (applause). It is the
+universal banker. Upon the maintenance, unimpaired in quantity and
+quality, of the tillable area of the country its whole future is
+conditioned. Four years ago, and on many occasions since, I presented
+the facts and statistics that make land conservation incomparably the
+paramount issue with all who have at heart the prosperity of our people
+and the permanence of our institutions. It is unnecessary to repeat in
+detail what has now become matter of common knowledge and is accessible
+to all. For the last ten years the average wheat yield in the United
+States was 14.1 bushels, while in Germany it was 28.7 and in the United
+Kingdom 32.6. This is a measure of our general agriculture. The cattle
+other than milch cows on farms in the United States are over 4,000,000
+fewer than they were three years ago. The number of hogs declined
+7,000,000 in the last three years, and is less than it was twenty years
+ago. The increase in total value of food products is due to a great
+extent to higher prices. This failure to conserve soil fertility and
+maintain the agricultural interest is expressed in recent changes in our
+foreign trade. These are more than mere balance sheets; since, as you
+know, variations in international trade balances may produce
+wide-reaching effects upon all industry.
+
+While our total foreign trade last year was only a little less than the
+high record made in 1907, the distribution of it was vastly different.
+For the last fiscal year our imports were nearly $240,000,000 in excess
+of those for the same period in 1909, and $303,000,000 above those of
+1908. Our exports were more by $82,000,000 only than in 1909, and were
+nearly $116,000,000 less than in 1908. In 1908 the excess of exports
+over imports was $666,000,000; by 1910 it had fallen to $187,000,000. We
+are buying more lavishly and selling less because there is less that we
+can spare--yet, my friends, that $187,000,000 of balance of trade due to
+this country is not enough to pay the extravagant traveling expenses of
+our "globe trotters" who are annually passing from one end of Europe to
+the other. (Applause)
+
+A glance at the following table of our exports for the last five years
+in three great schedules dependent directly on the soil tells the whole
+story:
+
+                         Meat and Dairy   Cattle, Sheep
+           Breadstuffs      Products        and Hogs
+  1906    $186,468,901    $210,990,065    $43,516,258
+  1907     184,120,702     202,392,508     35,617,074
+  1908     215,260,588     192,802,708     30,235,621
+  1909     159,929,221     166,521,949     18,556,736
+  1910     133,191,330     130,632,783     12,456,109
+
+With the exception of the increase in breadstuffs in 1907-8, caused by
+our desperate need to send something abroad that would bring in money to
+stay a panic, the decline is constant and enormous. A continuance of
+similar conditions--and no change is in sight--must mean partial food
+famine and hardship prices in the home market; an annual indebtedness
+abroad which, having no foodstuffs to spare, we must pay in cash; and
+financial depression and industrial misfortune because we have drawn too
+unwisely upon the soil. This impending misfortune, only the conservation
+of a neglected soil and all the interests connected with it can avert.
+
+The saving feature of the situation is the interest already awakened in
+agricultural improvements; an interest which it should be the first
+object of this Congress to deepen and preserve. Much has been done, but
+it is only a beginning. The experiment station; the demonstration farm;
+agricultural instruction in public schools; emphasis upon right
+cultivation, seed selection, and fertilization through the keeping of
+live stock, all these are slowly increasing the agricultural product and
+raising the index of soil values. The work being done by the
+Agricultural Department under the care of our old Iowa friend, Secretary
+Wilson--who is a farmer from choice (applause)--is scientifically
+selecting the good from the bad and the wise from unwise methods, and
+the information is within the reach of every farmer of this country who
+will only put out his hand and ask for it. (Applause)
+
+But the work moves more slowly than our needs. The possibilities are
+great. One might make the comparison with current agriculture elsewhere
+almost at random, since European Russia is the only first-class country
+more backward than our own. Take the smallest and what might be
+supposed the least promising illustration: Denmark's area is about twice
+that of Massachusetts. It is occupied by more than two and a half
+million people. This Jutland was originally land of inferior fertility.
+What has been done with it? Denmark is now called "the model farm of
+Europe." Her exports of horses, cattle, bacon and lard, butter and eggs,
+amounted in 1908 to nearly $89,000,000. Mr Frederic C. Howe in a recent
+article says: "The total export trade is approximately $380 for every
+farm, of which 133,000 of the 250,000 are of less than 13-1/2 acres in
+extent, the average of all the farms being but 43 acres for the entire
+country. The export business alone amounts to nine dollars per acre, in
+addition to the domestic consumption, as well as the support of the
+farmer himself." One-half the population are depositors in the savings
+banks, with an average deposit of $154. How have these things been
+accomplished?
+
+First negatively, it has not been done by any artificial means or
+legislative hocus-pocus (applause). No bounty and no subsidy has any
+share in the national prosperity. The ruler of the country is the small
+farmer. He cultivates his acres as we cultivate a garden. He raises
+everything that belongs to the land. He fertilizes it by using every
+ounce of material from his live stock, and by purchasing more
+fertilizers when necessary. There are 42 high schools and 29
+agricultural colleges in this little country with a population less than
+that of Massachusetts in 1900. Whatever else they teach, agriculture is
+taught first, last, and all the time, to young and old alike. The Dane
+is a farmer, and is proud of it. England and Ireland and Germany are
+studying his methods today. No people could imitate them with more
+profit than our own. (Applause)
+
+Recent good years have brought the average wheat yield per acre in the
+United States up to over fourteen bushels. Twice that would be
+considered poor in Great Britain and an average crop in Germany.
+Therefore twenty-five bushels per acre is a reasonable possibility for
+us. Suppose we raise it. The present wheat acreage of the United States
+is about 46,500,000 acres on the average. If it gave 25 bushels per
+acre, the crop would amount to 1,162,500,000 bushels. At our present
+rate of production and consumption we may cease to be a wheat exporting
+Nation within the next ten or fifteen years, perhaps earlier. With the
+larger yield we could supply all our own wants and have a surplus of
+400,000,000 bushels for export. This is no fancy picture, but a
+statement of plain fact. Is there any other field where Conservation
+could produce results so immense and so important? Is there any other
+where it bears so directly upon our economic future, the stability of
+our Government, the well-being of our people?
+
+Any survey of practical Conservation would be imperfect if it omitted
+the almost desperate necessity at this time of conserving capital and
+credit. This subject deserves full and separate treatment. No more is
+possible here than to summarize some of the facts and conclusions
+presented by me to the Conservation Conference that assembled in this
+city a few months ago. Conservation of cash and credit is important to
+the farmer as it saves or wastes results of his work, and his work
+furnishes the greater part of the Nation's wealth. Our States, including
+cities and minor civil subdivisions, have run in debt about
+three-quarters of a billion dollars in the last twelve years. Public
+expenditure is increasing everywhere. Public economy is a virtue either
+lost or despised. From 1890 to 1902 the aggregate expenditures of all
+the States increased 103 percent. Boston's tax levy, says Brooks Adams
+in a late article including this among the serious problems of modern
+civilization, was $3.20 per capita in 1822, while now it is nearly $30.
+The per capita cost of maintaining the Federal Government was $2.14 in
+1880, $4.75 in 1890, $6.39 in 1900, and $7.56 in 1908. The total
+appropriations voted by Congress for the four years from 1892 to 1896
+were $1,871,509,578; for the four years from 1904 to 1908 they were
+$3,842,203,577. An increase of $2,000,000,000 in expense for two
+four-year periods with only eight years between them should give any
+people pause. Spendthrift man and spendthrift Nation must face at last
+the same law carrying the same penalty.
+
+If anyone believes that this growth of expenditure is a consequence of
+the general material growth of the country, let him study the following
+brief table of comparative statistics. It establishes the indictment of
+national extravagance:
+
+                                               Increases
+  Wealth                          1870 to 1890 116.0%  1890 to 1904  65.0%
+  Foreign Trade                   1870 to 1890  99.0%  1890 to 1908  85.4%
+  Value Manufactured Product      1870 to 1890 121.0%  1890 to 1905  58.0%
+  Net Ordinary Exp. U. S. Govt    1870 to 1890   1.4%  1890 to 1908 121.4%
+  Expenditures of 30 States                            1890 to 1909 201.6%
+
+This debauch of capital and credit has sent a poison circulating through
+the veins of the Nation. Everywhere the individual imitates the
+profligacy of his Government. Industry and saving are at a discount. Any
+luxury, any extravagance is warranted if funds for it can be raised by
+wasting capital or creating debt. There is just so much less money for
+productive employment: for payrolls and the extension of commerce and
+industries, and the creation of those new facilities for want of which
+the commerce of the country is and always must be limited (applause).
+Hence come also high prices, curtailment of business, distrust, and
+eventual distress. Hence come waste and idleness, and the increased cost
+of production that makes both business and employment slow and insecure.
+Any Conservation movement worthy of the name must place high upon its
+program the saving of capital and credit from the rapacious hands of
+socialist as well as monopolist (applause). Extravagance is undermining
+the industry of this country as surely as the barbarians broke down and
+looted that mighty empire with whose civilization and progress Ferrero
+repeatedly insists that ours has so much in common.
+
+We must stand for Conservation everywhere; in the tedious as well as in
+the interesting application; where it cuts into our pleasure and habits,
+and jostles our comfortable, easy-going ways of thought, just as firmly
+as where it is hand in glove with self-interest. This is, above all
+things, an economic question. It is neither personal nor political. In
+such petty and partial interests it has found its worst obstructions and
+encountered its most serious reverses.
+
+The tariff in some respects is a great enemy of Conservation (applause).
+Whatever we may think of it as a general industrial policy, everyone can
+see that, by excluding the raw products of other countries, it throws
+the entire burden of their consumption upon our own resources, and thus
+exhausts them unnecessarily (applause). This appears clearly when we
+consider such commodities as we might obtain from Canada, a country that
+gained nearly 400,000 immigrants from the United States in the nine
+years up to April, 1909, and has probably taken another hundred thousand
+since; a country where it is absurd to talk about any actual advantage
+in the wage scale as compared with our own. The tariff on forest
+products cuts down our own forests, a tariff on coal depletes our mines,
+a tariff on any raw material forbids the conservation of similar natural
+resources here. (Applause).
+
+This Congress announced from the first its purpose to deal with the
+subject of Conservation in a practical spirit. The present condition of
+the movement, now in the third stage of its development, demands it. We
+have to apply the Conservation principle, as we have eventually to apply
+every other, to our domestic economics; to work it out in the experience
+and practice of everyday life. How this may be done can be stated in the
+form of a few conclusions that raise the word Conservation from the name
+of a more or less vague, diffuse, and disputable theory to that of a
+practical guide to legislation and administration. (Applause)
+
+Conservation is wholly an economic, not in any sense a political
+principle (applause). The Nation has suffered and still suffers so much
+from transferring other economic questions to politics that the mistake
+should not be repeated (applause). Whoever attempts to make Conservation
+the bone of a personal controversy or the beast of burden to carry any
+faction into power or popularity is its worst enemy. (Great applause)
+
+"Conservative" is the adjective corresponding to the noun
+"Conservation." Any other attitude toward this movement, either radical
+or reactionary, is treason to its name and to its spirit. It should mean
+no more and no less than dealing with our resources in a spirit of
+intelligence, honesty, care for both the present and the future, and
+ordinary business common sense. (Applause)
+
+Conservation does not mean forbidding access to resources that could be
+made available for present use. It means the freest and largest
+development of them consistent with the public interest and without
+waste. A bag of gold buried in the earth is useless for any purpose. So
+is an acre untilled, a mine unopened, a forest that bars the way to
+homes and human happiness.
+
+The determination in each case as to what extent a given resource should
+be utilized and how far reserved for the future is an intensely
+practical, individual, and above all a local question. It should be
+carefully considered in all its aspects by both Nation and State, and
+should finally rest within lines determined by proper legislation, as
+far as may be under the control of local authority. (Applause)
+Experience proves that resources are not only best administered but best
+protected from marauders by the home people who are most deeply
+interested and who are just as honest, just as patriotic and infinitely
+better informed on local conditions than the National Government can
+possibly be. (Applause) It is clear that every one of the many problems
+all over the country can be better understood where they are questions
+of the lives and happiness of those directly interested.
+
+Behind this, as behind every great economic issue, stand moral issues.
+Shall we, on the one side, deny to ourselves and our children access to
+the same store of natural wealth by which we have won our own
+prosperity, or, on the other, leave it unprotected as in the past
+against the spoiler and the thief? Shall we abandon everything to
+centralized authority, going the way of every lost and ruined government
+in the history of the world, or meet our personal duty by personal labor
+through the organs of local self-government, not yet wholly atrophied by
+disuse? Shall we permit our single dependence for the future, the land,
+to be defertilized below the point of profitable cultivation and
+gradually abandoned, or devote our whole energy to the creation of an
+agriculture which will furnish wealth renewed even more rapidly than it
+can be exhausted? Shall we permit the continued increase of public
+expenditure and public debt until capital and credit have suffered in
+the same conflict that overthrew prosperous and happy nations in the
+past, or insist upon a return to honest and practicable economy? This is
+the battle of the ages, the old, familiar issue. Is there in the country
+that intelligence, that self-denial, that moral courage, and that
+patriotic devotion which alone can bring us safely through? (Applause)
+
+I ask these questions not because there is any doubt of the answer in
+the minds of the American people, but that it may be made plain what a
+complex fabric the fates are weaving from the apparently commonplace
+happenings of our peaceful years, and how each generation and each epoch
+must render an account for the work of its own days. The unprecedented
+dignity of this assemblage, its nationally representative character, the
+presence here of those upon whom great occasions wait, the interest
+felt by millions who look to it for information and guidance, prove how
+deep beneath the surface lie the sources of its existence and its
+influence. Out of the Conservation movement in its practical application
+to our common life may come wealth greater than could be won by the
+overthrow of kingdoms and the annexation of provinces; National prestige
+and individual well-being; the gift of broader mental horizons; and,
+best and most necessary of all, the quality of a National citizenship
+which has learned to rule its own spirit and to rise by the control of
+its own desires. (Great applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chairman CLAPP--Ladies and Gentlemen: One among the recognized agencies
+for the spread of information in relation to our agricultural
+development is a paper published in Iowa by Mr Henry Wallace, who is
+known to us all. A discussion will now be led by Mr Wallace, and I take
+great pleasure in presenting him to this assemblage. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr WALLACE--Mr Chairman, and Ladies and Gentlemen of the Congress: I
+have been asked to discuss the subject opened up by my old friend--and
+your friend--Mr James J. Hill.
+
+With very much that he has said, I most heartily agree. He speaks on
+these and other subjects "as one having authority, and not as the
+scribes." While listening to him I have been trying to get in my own
+mind a clear conception of certain fundamental questions that have been
+discussed at this Congress, and around which the discussion turns. I
+have been trying to put them in form, pointing out where he and I can
+agree and where we differ.
+
+I have come to the conclusion that a man has what he had, if he hasn't
+sold or contracted to sell it, or allowed somebody to steal it; that the
+United States has the resources that are now in the name of the United
+States and not under contract to be delivered, and not sold--or
+stolen--either in compliance with the letter of the law or in violation
+of both letter and spirit. In other words, there are certain assets or
+resources that we have and hold; and we all agree that the owner is
+entitled to the management and use of his assets (applause), and
+therefore that the people of the United States, as a people, are
+entitled to the use of whatever resources we may have remaining
+(applause). They are not for the benefit of any one man or any
+combination of men (applause), neither of any State (applause) or
+combination of States (applause), but for the whole people; therefore we
+can sell our coal lands or keep them. We will be wise if we keep them
+(applause). We can sell our forests, or say how they shall lie used, or
+we can let somebody steal them. We can hold on to our phosphate (and
+there is very little of these United States that won't be buying
+phosphates in fifty years) or we can let somebody control and ship it to
+Europe, to enable the Belgians and the Germans to grow 32 bushels of
+wheat to the acre while we grow 13 (applause)--and by means of _our_
+phosphates. Using the language of the President the other day to outline
+the management of these resources (and he has done it better than any
+other man I ever knew), we can lease the lands, we can control them, we
+can prescribe how they shall be used. This much we all agree upon. And
+we will further agree that the Congress of the United States, our
+Representatives, must decide how it shall be done.
+
+We can do one of three things: We can deed these lands and these
+resources to the States, to be used as they think best. We can abdicate
+our sovereignty--perhaps modifying that to some extent, we can outline
+what the States shall do and what they shall not do, but that will
+involve abdicating our sovereignty and will lead to perpetual quarrels
+between the States (applause), such as now existing, for example,
+between Colorado and Kansas as to the use of water. Or, as Canada does,
+as Germany does, as Australia does, as Tasmania does, we can hold to
+those resources and lease them for money for the benefit of the whole
+people. (Applause)
+
+Now, my good friend Mr Hill seems to have grave doubts as to the
+capacity of the United States to handle its business with anything like
+the same skill with which he handles his (laughter and applause). He
+tells us that this Reclamation Service is costly--thirty, forty, or
+fifty dollars an acre, to be paid in ten years without interest--for
+what? To be able to make it rain just when we want to, and stop it when
+we want to; that is what irrigation is (applause). And Mr Hill would
+give five dollars an acre for twenty years if for all time and eternity
+he, his descendants and his assigns, could make it rain when he wanted
+to and make it stop when he wanted to (applause). Next to the owner of a
+quarter-section of land in Iowa I think that the man who owns fifty
+acres of irrigated land at fifty dollars an acre is a prince of the
+blood royal (applause and cry of "Good!"). It is the cheapest land in
+the United States, in the center of the highest civilization, the best
+education and the best schools. Mr Hill tells us also that the United
+States (I guess it was Solomon he had in his mind: he was the brother of
+a great waster) has received $400,000,000 or so for its Indian lands--he
+didn't know how much it cost to acquire them (millions, however)--and
+that he doesn't know what has become of the money. Well, I found since
+yesterday where some of it went--to this dam over here between
+Minneapolis and Saint Paul (great laughter and applause). He tells us
+that States are more economical than Nations. Now, isn't it a matter of
+fact that both State and Nation have been playing the part of the
+prodigal son, wasting our substance in riotous living--and that now we
+smell the husks?
+
+Gentlemen, the agricultural colleges have wasted a good deal of money.
+The State of Iowa had a great grant of land for improvement, and I give
+you my word you could run the whole thing through a barrel if you had
+enough headway. We have been absolutely throwing away our
+resources--just like some of our wealthy gentlemen down in New York
+throw their daughters in the face of titled Nobodies asking them to take
+them "with the compliments of the author" (laughter). If this country
+continues to be governed, as it has been governed for the last twenty
+years, by great combinations of capital that get together in Congress or
+out of Congress to determine how much tariff they will levy and what
+else they may do in the way of getting hold of the public domain, it
+doesn't make a speck of difference whether our resources are governed by
+the Government or by the States; they will all be stolen anyhow
+(laughter and cheers, and cries of "Hit him again!")--just as they have
+been in the past. (Renewed applause)
+
+A VOICE: Conservation ought to have been started a hundred years ago.
+
+Mr WALLACE: You're right. But if the people of the United States have
+made up their minds that they are going to be in the future a Government
+"of the people by the people and for the people"; if we mean this in
+blood earnest (applause) and are willing to sacrifice our party
+affiliations (cries of "Good, good, good!"); if we are willing to pay
+money to attend conventions, without going on passes (cries of "You
+bet!" and cheers); if we are willing to make the sacrifices which always
+belong to a free government (applause)--then predatory wealth will no
+longer sit in the seats of Congress, and we shall have a democracy, a
+Government of the People instead of a Government of Plutocracy.
+(Applause and cheers)
+
+Gentlemen, it is just a question whether we have the stuff in us to
+really be a great self-governing people, a Nation that stands
+four-square to every wind that blows, that regards a law of the Almighty
+as supreme law and right and the only manhood worth having as that which
+comes in obedience to those great laws that govern men in all nations of
+the world (applause and cheers); it is a question whether we will pay
+the price for the liberties that our fathers gave us. (Applause)
+
+Now, with about everything that my good friend Mr Hill has said on the
+conservation of soil fertility I most heartily agree. I get an idea
+about once a year (laughter), and am able to put it in a way that seems
+fairly good to me: and for some time past I have been brooding over the
+thought that the great problem before the American people--a problem
+involving all other problems that vex us, tariffs, Conservation, trusts,
+everything--that the great problem we have before us is _how to keep
+enough skilled labor on the land to enable the farmer to sell his
+products to the city at a price the people can afford to pay_. Now, just
+let that soak into you (applause). The problem is to keep enough skilled
+labor on the farm to enable the farmer to grow the food for this and
+other nations at a price that the people in the cities can afford to
+pay. It is the biggest problem before us. It involves all other
+problems, when you come to trace it down to its roots. The farmer is
+handicapped by the fact that he no longer tills virgin soil, as his
+father and his grandfather did, and by the fact that he no longer has
+timber at his door. We have wasted our magnificent forests of oak and
+walnut, and given away an empire (for example, in Wisconsin) of the best
+pine lands that some fellows would put a road through, to get the lumber
+out under pretense of resisting a Canadian invasion (laughter and
+applause). Today we are buying fertilizers for all New England, New
+York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, southern Indiana, all the South, and even for
+Missouri; it is only a question of time when we shall have to buy them
+for all our land. Notwithstanding all of the millions of acres that have
+been put into cultivation every year, our crop production lags behind
+our population. In the last ten or fifteen years, our production of
+wheat per acre gradually but slowly decreased until within the last
+three or four years, when with my friend Secretary Wilson's help we
+began to do a little better.
+
+The farmer is handicapped by the fact that he is tilling a partially
+infertile soil; he is handicapped worse in this way: he cannot possibly
+get, for love or money, the really skilled labor required to maintain
+the fertility of the soil while he is growing crops (applause). Why, you
+know how difficult it is in the country to get a hired hand, and you
+know that a hired girl in the home is a thing out of the question. There
+isn't a man here ugly enough, if he is a widower, but what could get two
+second wives where he could get one hired girl (laughter and applause).
+Now, we cannot use the labor of the city. Let a man go to town and
+become a lawyer or a doctor for ten or fifteen years, and then return to
+the country, and what is he good for? He has to serve an apprenticeship
+for four or five years before he is worth his board. We cannot use the
+labor of southern Europe except in the wheat fields or in the orchards;
+farm labor now is _skilled_ labor; and we haven't got it. One reason we
+haven't got it is because my friend Mr Hill has been giving excursion
+rates up to Canada (laughter and applause)--for the benefit of his
+railroad, he says--and for the benefit of speculators who can paint a
+desert to look like the Garden of Eden, and make farmers believe that it
+is like the land of Egypt "as thou goest unto Zoar." If we could keep on
+the farm the boys and girls that grow up there we could give the people
+of the cities food at a price they could afford to pay; but there is the
+great problem. I will not solve it now, because I would have to discuss
+the tariff (laughter) and every other blooming thing that allures men to
+town--including high wages and easy times.
+
+Today the townsman is in trouble. The fact is that he cannot get the
+farmer's products at anything like the price the farmer ought to have
+(Voice: "Now you're talking"). The farmer never gets more than
+two-thirds (Voice: "If he gets that"); frequently he gets one-third. Out
+in Fresno, California, we found they made a first-class rate at four
+cents on what I was paying sixteen cents for; the railroad got four
+cents, the wholesaler four, the retailer four, and the farmer four--and
+I pay sixteen. And there is another trouble (I am one of the
+unfortunates so I look at both sides of the question): the farmer in
+town pays 16 percent, so the merchants tell me, for the privilege of
+ordering goods by telephone instead of going to the market and getting
+them; and that is another reason he has to pay so much. But there is
+still another matter with the city man; it is not so much the high cost
+of living as the cost of high living and prosperous times (I borrowed
+that from Mr Hill); for the man in town now isn't satisfied to live as
+his father did, or his grandfather, or as he himself did ten or twenty
+years ago (applause). Why, he wants strawberries from Texas in February,
+and he wants green peas from Florida, and he wants fresh eggs at the
+time when hens don't lay, and he wants spring chicken in the coldest
+weather--and he gets it, but it comes out of cold storage (laughter).
+That is one reason why the townsman cannot get farmer's products at the
+price he can afford to pay.
+
+Let us look a little further--but I must not detain you (Cries of "Go
+on, go on, go on"). This problem has been growing on us for years; ever
+since the iron rail and steam and electricity enabled us to build cities
+far remote from the lake or the river or the ocean, ever since we
+learned to get gold out of quarries instead of out of river sand, ever
+since human power was multiplied by machinery, ever since railroads
+netted the country with their systems: there has been a tendency to the
+development of great cities and a constant decrease in the number of men
+that work on the farm. We don't _think_ now as we used to, because
+improved machinery (in most cases invented by farmers) has enabled the
+farm boy of fifteen years of age to do the work of eight or ten men--and
+at the same time has enabled him to rob the land more effectively than
+ever before. And this problem would have been met long ago if it had not
+been right here in this Mississippi valley there is the finest slice of
+land that the Lord ever made, to be given away by our benevolent Uncle
+Sam partly to the farmers and partly to the railroads--a country that
+needed neither spade nor axe to fit it for the plow; for the last twenty
+years we have been breaking it, mining it, robbing it, and selling its
+fertility to enable men in the great cities to live cheaply in the Old
+World and in this country (applause). The people of Kansas invited my
+good friend Secretary Wilson and me down there to talk about
+agriculture, and in going from our hotel to the place of meeting we
+actually fell over bags of bran that were put out there to send to
+Denmark to make butter and cheese to come back and be eaten in Kansas
+(laughter). This is the way we have actually been selling, piecemeal,
+our fertility. Why, you men remember when corn was sold at 15 and even
+10 cents a bushel, and oats at 10-1/2--I myself have sold wheat at
+38--lower than the cost of production. The people in cities all over the
+world have an idea that it was foreordained from all eternity that they
+should have cheap foods, but they are now waking up to the fact that we
+have been postponing the day of judgment by selling foodstuffs for about
+what the fertilizers would cost, if we had to buy them, to provide bread
+and meat for the hungry nations. We have sold the buffalo grass on the
+prairies to the people of Europe, in the shape of beef, dirt cheap; we
+have built up great cities and States; and the people have all the while
+thought that cheapness was normal, whereas we are now just getting to
+the normal basis. For twenty years I could buy bread made from American
+wheat, in the country on the farm, for three cents a pound, and now I
+pay five cents in town--and don't get as good bread at that.
+
+The real problem is, _how we are going to furnish bread to the people at
+a price that they can afford to pay_? I have no hand-me-down solution
+for that; it is the biggest problem that I know of, and I can venture
+only some suggestions. First, we can add a little to our production
+through irrigation. That is a slow process, and limited at best. We can
+add some more by drainage. We can add a good deal to the yield per acre
+by better methods of farming. But we are limited, as I have said,
+largely by the lack of skilled labor. The merchant, the city man, if he
+is to live on his income, must improve his system of distribution; he
+must in some way or other, get rid of the go-betweens. Some things will
+have to be done by railroads and some by Congress, and a number of
+things will have to be done that they will all say _can't_ be done--I'm
+tired of that story, that you _can't_ do anything. Our railroad friends
+have told us that we can't pass interstate commerce laws, it's
+unconstitutional; that we _can't_ stop the giving of passes and rebates,
+that it's unconstitutional. Now, we have done all those things. _The
+people of the United States can do anything that is right!_ (applause),
+though they can't permanently succeed in doing wrong (applause); and
+these things we have been told we _can't_ do we _have done_, and
+everybody says it is right. Sometimes I take great comfort in watching
+some of our great "captains of industry," railroad magnates like Mr
+Hill. To see them you would imagine they had been reading the Psalms of
+David and saying, "It was good for me that I was afflicted; before I was
+afflicted I went astray, but now I love"--the Interstate Commerce Law
+(laughter). The trouble with them is that they turn round and oppose our
+railroad laws, and the measures brought up by the voice of the people,
+and insist that they _can't_ be enforced.
+
+If the farmers are to sell their products in sufficient quantities to
+cities at a price that they can afford to pay, the calm and considerate
+judgment and the earnest cooperation of every class of our people are
+needed. We have problems before us that cannot be settled today or
+tomorrow; they involve questions of deep statesmanship; and they never
+can be settled until they are settled right, on a basis that is just.
+And I have this faith in the American people, that notwithstanding all
+their mistakes and all their follies and all their extravagances and all
+their partisan differences, down at the bottom they are an honest
+people, they are an intelligent people, and they are a people that seem
+to have an instinct of danger and an instinctive perception of what is
+fundamentally and inherently right. (Prolonged applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr HILL--I want to apologize to Brother Wallace because I did not make
+myself entirely understood when I indicated that $50 or $42 or $45 an
+acre for Government-irrigated land is too high. He says that I would
+give $100--and I would, if I had to; but if that land were left with
+private enterprises, or if the _people of the State_ alongside of this
+$42 and $45 and $50 land were putting water on their land for $15, I
+wouldn't charge the settler $50 or $42. (Laughter and applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chairman CLAPP--Ladies and Gentlemen: There is a tradition in Washington
+that the present very efficient Secretary of Agriculture established the
+Department of Agriculture, because of his long service in that position.
+I have to dispel that illusion. Nevertheless his service has made that
+Department what it is today; and I take great pleasure in presenting to
+you Secretary Wilson. (Great applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Secretary WILSON--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I have enjoyed the
+two last speeches more than anything else I have heard since I have been
+here, although I have never attended a meeting anywhere that I can
+remember where there were so many big men who do things in the world.
+The greatest regret I have is that there must be more than a hundred men
+here well worth hearing who will not have opportunity to speak on
+account of lack of time.
+
+Mr Hill and Mr Wallace have talked about things that I have not done.
+Fourteen years ago I went down to Washington with President McKinley to
+do something with the Department of Agriculture. I could see right well
+from tendencies that had originated some time previous a growing and a
+development that now at this present time have come to a head. I saw the
+necessity for Conservation of the natural utilities of this country, the
+necessity for Conservation of soils and forests and water-powers and all
+those things; and I went to work. I have never gone to Congress to get
+help or money without getting it at once. If I have failed to do
+something for agriculture, the fault is mine and not that of Congress,
+because they have never criticized me, except that I have not asked for
+enough money.
+
+I have found it necessary to educate men, or to have them educated,
+along new lines. Search history as far back as you see fit to go, and
+you will find that there has been no education whatever for the farmer.
+The classical education, so beautifully spoken about by our friend from
+Tulane University (President Craighead), is a beautiful education; but
+there is no agriculture in it. It is a difficult thing to change the
+education of a people; even our religion is interwoven, like our
+literature, with the old-fashioned classical education. The country was
+regarded as valuable and the professions went to the country to get new
+men because the old wore out in the town, and so the farm has always
+reinforced the professions; and the practice has gone on until today the
+American Navy is being reinforced even from the farms of Minnesota and
+Iowa. The average boy who lives in town knows too much about things he
+shouldn't know, and the boy on the farm or in the country knows little
+about the things that wouldn't do him any good if he did know them
+(laughter). My first problem was to organize a Department of Agriculture
+by training men to go safely where there were but few blazings through
+the woods.
+
+Mr Hill and Mr Wallace have both spoken wisely of the soil. That is the
+source of our wealth. When our good people travel abroad, the farmer
+pays the bill; when you beautiful ladies purchase diamonds--and
+sometimes bring them back in your hats--the farmer pays the bill
+(laughter). Of course, since the Civil War the farmer has been keeping
+the balance of trade in our favor--has paid all our foreign debts, has
+paid the cost of our wars, has paid all the expenses of shipments to
+foreign ports; but a new day has come. While the farm has been producing
+considerably more and its area has been increasing, certain things have
+occurred that have a momentous influence on the present and on the
+future. We have not been producing so fast as we have been increasing in
+population; it costs too much to get breakfast and dinner and supper,
+and we eat three times a day. The serious problem which presents itself
+to us now is that _it costs too much to live_. I never want to see the
+day come when the American workingman shall be reduced to the condition
+of the European who makes his dinner on bread alone and still lives.
+(Applause)
+
+What are the prospects of getting cheaper food to eat? Do we want to
+bring men from Central America? They are diseased. Do we want to bring
+them from Mexico? They are not adapted to our climate. We do not care to
+bring them in much from Canada, because they have no corn up there, and
+don't eat that kind of food. I see some rays of hope in our leaden sky.
+The South has in the past suffered from a pest known as the cattle-tick
+which prevents the development of domestic animals, and they have not
+given us as much meat as we have shipped to them; but Congress gave my
+Department money to try to get rid of this tick, and we have been at
+work for three years and have cleared the pest from the equivalent of an
+area of three great States, 140,000 square miles (applause), and it will
+not be many years until all the South is cleared of the cattle-tick.
+Then the southern States will begin to contribute materially to our food
+production, because they have a mild winter, they have intelligent
+people, they have transportation systems; all they need is a little
+better system of agriculture. We have also been dealing with an invasion
+from Guatemala for some time, the boll weevil. The question was whether
+the poor people in that section could sustain life under the burden of
+this pest, and they came to my Department to go down and do something;
+and in checking the pest we are meeting the need for improved
+agriculture and increased production of foodstuffs.
+
+There are two prominent ways of increasing the producing capacity of a
+people: First, there is Conservation demonstration (we shall be using
+this word "Conservation" in our prayers if we don't look out).
+(Laughter) Last year we had 12,500 boys in four southern States, all
+under sixteen years of age, each of whom grew an acre of corn--the South
+never grew as much corn in its history as it did last year--and some of
+those boys grew over 150 bushels to the acre (applause). They sold it at
+different prices. They were promised, as an encouragement, free tickets
+to Washington to see the President and the Capitol, and that the
+Secretary would give them diplomas. Well, I thought little about this
+until in marched the boys--looking very serious--each exactly like a man
+who is getting an LL.D. from a university. The first view of those boys
+was amusing, but the next one to me was very pathetic. A diploma, you
+know, is given to a man or a woman who does good work in a college
+course. Didn't the boy who grew 150 bushels of corn to the acre _do_
+something? He did; he did the best there was in him; he put his will
+into the work. I signed the diplomas, and those boys went out as proud
+as any boys ever went away from a university. This year we have 50,000
+boys in the southern States, each under sixteen years of age, each
+growing an acre of something, each getting lessons and hints in all
+directions from everybody that can give them, with regard to how to grow
+crops; we have 400 agents in the South.
+
+Now let me tell you something. You will find in every northern and
+eastern and western State a minority of good farmers and, I am compelled
+to confess, a majority of poor farmers. They don't know how to farm;
+they have yet to learn. Where did bad farming begin, do you think? Why,
+back in the eastern States where they do everything well--except
+farming. Now where is there worse farming than there? I believe that the
+President of Tulane University used to live there; perhaps he can tell
+us. When I was a boy I went to church on Sunday and to prayer meeting in
+the middle of the week--I had to (laughter)--but they didn't educate the
+boys toward the farms; they educated them toward the professions, toward
+the mechanic arts, toward the factories. And when they were big enough
+and had an education they left the farm, they left the father and mother
+there, and by and by when the father and mother couldn't farm any more
+they rented out the farm--and today the same thing is beginning in
+Iowa. I can't tell you what is happening in Minnesota; you people who
+live here must be the judges whether the same robbery of the soil is
+beginning in Minnesota. A soil robber is a man who grows grain and hay
+to sell from the farm and puts nothing back; that is what he is, and
+that is where he originated--back East.
+
+And we began manufacturing in our country at the time we began robbing
+our soil. The last half-century we have built up our manufactories at an
+astonishing rate. Why have we built them up so fast; why have they risen
+to such tremendous figures? Because our people were fed cheaper and
+better than the people who worked in factories in any other country. But
+what is the condition now? Are our people still better fed and more
+cheaply that work in the factories, that work for the railroads, that
+work in the mines? No! There is where the trouble comes; that is what
+has arrested the attention of our people. Every year, maybe oftener (Mr
+Hill could tell better than I can), the men that work for railroads
+notify the president that they want more wages because they can't live;
+and of course he has to raise their wages. While we were feeding Europe,
+there was no difficulty in getting cheap food here in the United States
+for our workingmen; but, as Mr Hill told you, and gave you statistics
+for it--it is pretty hard to follow a man like him, who has all the
+statistics, and Dr Wallace, who has all the philosophy and wit, but I
+will do the best I can (laughter)--we are sending less and less food to
+foreign countries and paying more and more for what our workingmen eat
+at home. We are not paying off debts any more, though our people are
+still buying diamonds and pearls--you see the rows we are having in New
+York when our traveling Americans come back, and want to get their
+jewels through the custom-house for nothing and hide them and all that;
+I have no sympathy with it--but we are not discussing the tariff here at
+all; I never talk politics and won't allow it; I have 12,000 men in my
+Department and every man knows I'll discharge him in a minute if he
+talks politics (laughter and applause); we are considering the natural
+resources of the country and trying to conserve them. (Applause and
+cries of "Good!")
+
+As the Department grew we organized a bureau for animals, another for
+plants, one for forests, one for chemistry, and one for soils; and all
+along the line we have those great bureaus at work. We are the practical
+fellows who conserve; we are doing it every day. I have just been out
+among the forests myself four or five weeks, helping to save the
+Government's property out there. But the great question comes down to
+the soil. There is no classical college or university that teaches
+anything about the soil, not one single thing. From the time that Samuel
+had the school of the prophets at Bethel down to the present day, there
+never has been anything taught to the people with regard to the soil on
+which they walk and from which they get their living. I have organized a
+bureau for it. We are studying the soil all over the country. You might
+think, to go out on these beautiful prairies, that the soil is all
+alike. Well, it isn't; any prairie has probably a hundred different
+soils, some of them best adapted to grow one plant and some another,
+some needing one kind of treatment and some another; and the great
+fundamental question that we must study now is the American soil and its
+power to produce. (Applause)
+
+With regard to the literature of the farm: There was none when I was a
+young fellow; there was no college for farmers. I had to get what I did
+get from observation and from a store of recollection of older men. But
+now we have an agricultural college in each State. We have an experiment
+station in each State. We have 3,000 men making research in the
+Department of Agriculture at Washington, all specialists, the foremost
+in their lines in the world. When one of those men makes inquiry into
+something and reports, we put his name to it and print it and send it
+out to the people without expense. We sent out 20,000,000 pieces last
+year (applause). And any of you who want anything we have, no matter
+whether you are farmers or not, you are welcome to it. Some of the best
+encouragement that we have comes from those who are not farmers at all.
+
+I have told you of the genesis of the soil-robber; is he here in the
+Mississippi valley? The old-time farmer educated his children, but he
+educated them to do anything under the sun but farm. When the boy
+graduated, when he got through with his education, he went anywhere but
+to the farm. That was until within a few years the custom. The other day
+I wrote to the dean of the Iowa Agricultural College that several people
+had applied to me for men to superintend farms, and that a newspaper man
+wanted a farm expert to go into his office at a good salary, and
+asked--"How many young men do you graduate this year in a four-year
+agricultural course?" He replied, and I think he said "We graduated some
+seventy in a four-year course, but none of them left the State; they are
+all going back to the farm" (great applause and cry of "Good!"). Those
+men know something. Now, are you doing that in Minnesota? You have
+always had a fine agricultural school here connected with your State
+University, and you have an open door into the four-year academic course
+in the University; you are doing much for agriculture and education. Yet
+we are where we are today with regard to scarce food and dear meat
+because we didn't begin educating the young farmer sooner. But he is
+going to catch on. There would be a universal introduction of
+agricultural education into the common and secondary schools of the
+country if teachers could be found. That is the great difficulty. Fifty
+years ago, when Congress endowed agricultural colleges, that was the
+trouble. They could start the college, they could erect a building, but
+there was no library, there was no professor who knew anything about
+agriculture, and the great trouble is a man can only teach what he
+knows himself. But now, after half a century of effort on the part of
+the farmers, on the part of friends of the farms, on the part of
+far-seeing men like James J. Hill (applause), we are getting a
+creditable agricultural education in this country.
+
+Do not be uneasy about the forests; at the last session, Congress gave
+me $400,000 more than they had ever given me before to take care of the
+forests. Do not be uneasy about the coal, the gas, the oil, and the
+phosphates; President Taft has withdrawn all those until Congress
+indicates what shall be done with them. But the soil, Gentlemen, the
+soil; the big price for meat, the big price for bread; these are things
+to study. We _can_ improve our soil. One of our speakers this afternoon
+told us that you cannot grow soil. I believe that, once you wash it
+away. But you can reduce it, beyond the point of profitable production
+of crops; that you can do, and that is being done. The soil-robber works
+in Iowa, and I fear he is at work in Minnesota. The old folks have gone
+to town; and the Lord knows nobody wants them there, because when you
+want to improve the town with gas and sewer and water and things of that
+kind, the farmer won't vote for them; he is regarded as a nuisance;
+everybody wishes he would stay on the farm, and I wish he would. And
+when the old farmer and his wife go to town, they sell off everything;
+they rent the farm to a man who has no means to stock it with cattle and
+sheep, hogs and poultry; he grows grain to sell, he grows hay to sell,
+and those farms grow worse and worse every year. That is the situation
+we are in. (Applause)
+
+We are making some progress, some headway. The Government gave to the
+emigrant from abroad, to everybody who wanted it as long as they lasted,
+a claim in the rainy belt; but there are no lands left for giving away
+in the rainy belt. Something can be done in regard to our dry-land
+farming; something can be done in regard to irrigation. As Mr Hill
+intimated (in fact, he delivered a great deal of my speech), there is
+not much being done in the line of irrigation. Take a trip out West and
+watch the rivers as you cross them, and you will see that we are wasting
+far more water than we are using--though in certain neighborhoods in
+Colorado highly intelligent people are every year building more dams
+away up in the mountains and saving their winter and spring-flood
+waters. That is going on and on, and it should go on until all the
+waters in the mountains are saved for application to the land. Do you
+remember the history of irrigation in the valley of the Po, in Italy?
+There are more people to the square mile there than are found in almost
+any other part of the world. They began at the headwaters of the
+tributaries and built great dams to hold up the water to an amount
+suitable for the growing of crops, something like twenty inches or more;
+and they built on down to the mouth of the Po. Now when there comes a
+drought like we had this year, they let water out on the fields, and
+thus get a maximum crop. Without that extra water, at a time of drought
+their crop would wither and fail. I understand Minnesota has more
+lakes, more natural reservoirs for holding water than any other State in
+the Union. Look to it, you Minnesota people; you can, by using that
+water in a dry year, grow maximum crops.
+
+How do the people of the Old World raise big crops? If you followed Mr
+Hill's statistics you learned they didn't know as much there once as
+they do now, for they have raised their crop production from 20 to 30
+bushels an acre. He also alluded to the Danes, who by good farming are
+enabled to sell enormous amounts of farm products. How do they keep that
+land up? I will tell you what a great many of them are doing. They buy
+mill-feeds from the United States; they buy bran and shorts, they buy
+the cottonseed of the South and the flaxseed of Minnesota, and feed
+their dairy cows. That is a highly intellectual job, isn't it, for an
+American citizen, to grow food for a Danish cow? But the Dane has his
+eyes open; he _knows_. He sells $40,000,000 worth of butter and cheese
+to England every year, but puts back all the fertility on the farm; and
+that is what has brought up his little fifteen-acre farm, or his
+forty-acre farm. He has brought it up by keeping and feeding his cows on
+our mill-feeds, mind you; and he is prosperous--and we are not so
+prosperous only because we rob ourselves.
+
+A VOICE--Bran doesn't cost any more in Denmark than in America.
+
+Secretary WILSON--It is American bran, though. And let me tell you
+something else. The meats you grow up here cost hardly any more in
+Europe than they cost here, because the retailer over there hasn't got
+all the frills that the retail dealer has here, and is satisfied with a
+smaller profit. (Applause)
+
+Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am merely outlining some of the remarks
+that I prepared and gave to the newspaper people; and I have no doubt
+you have listened to me as long as you care to (cries of "Go on, go
+on"). I have enjoyed my visit here. I am on record as saying that these
+northwestern States, beginning here and extending on west, are the
+healthiest we have; their waters are good; their climate is fine; they
+are going to grow vigorous men and handsome women. If we are going to
+have all their benefits you should conserve your soil, so that your
+great-grandchildren will have better soil than you have today. Down in
+Iowa, where I have lived for 46 years, the soil grows bigger crops today
+than it did fifty years ago; and it is still improving.
+
+You have extended to me the greatest compliment a hospitable people can
+bestow on a stranger, and that is to give me your attention. I thank
+you. (Great applause.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chairman CLAPP--Ladies and Gentlemen: We will now listen to a discussion
+by Honorable F. C. Stevens, Member of Congress from this district.
+(Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Representative STEVENS--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: You are
+fortunate this afternoon, so far as my discussion is concerned. I was
+assigned to discuss an address by Senator Dolliver, Chairman of the
+Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, on the subject of "Cattle,
+Food, and Leather." We greatly regret the enforced absence of Senator
+Dolliver, because he is informed on that subject and could have given us
+a discussion of great benefit. I congratulate myself that I am not
+obliged to follow him, because I know too little about his subject. So I
+shall briefly discuss something I do know about.
+
+In the very able address of Mr Hill, and in the very bright discussion
+of Mr Wallace which followed, there was a general criticism of Congress
+for undue expenditures of public money. I want to tell this audience
+that Congress, instead of being extravagant, is often unduly economical
+of the people's money. The money we spend is what the people want us to
+spend, and we do not spend nearly as much as they want us to. The
+estimates that were sent in by the heads of the departments (of which
+Secretary Wilson is one) aggregated nearly two hundred millions of
+dollars more than the expenditures which Congress authorized, and the
+estimates which came from the field officers to the heads of these great
+departments, for example, like that of Secretary Wilson; from the
+post-offices scattered throughout the country; from the officers of the
+War and Navy Departments, scattered all over the world; and from the
+officers of the State and other departments, were, I will venture to
+say, nearly two hundred million dollars more still: so that Congress
+actually did not spend more than two-thirds as much as the people of the
+United States in their respective localities wanted spent. There is not
+a single large convention in the United States similar to this--which is
+one of the most magnificent in the history of this section of the
+country--that does not call upon Congress for the expenditure of large
+sums of money, and I will venture to predict that the resolutions, which
+will be adopted by this Congress will call for a large appropriation
+from the National treasury. We have in Washington every year a Rivers
+and Harbors Congress, composed of 4,000 of the brightest, broadest, most
+patriotic business men of the United States, who go there as delegates,
+spend their own money to go, and then ask large expenditures from the
+people's treasury. Scattered all over this country, meeting probably in
+every State in the Union, are various voluntary assemblages of our
+People demanding various improvements by the Federal Government, and
+every one asking for expenditures of the people's money. You never yet
+have heard of a convention which has met anywhere at anybody's expense
+asking for a cutting down of expenditures. If there is any one man who
+is popular in the United States it is the man who calls for the
+expenditure of the people's money; the men who are the most unpopular,
+and are condemned and criticised in public life, are those who try to
+cut down the expenses and be economical with the people's money
+(applause). I think there ought to be some reform (and I have had some
+experience); we _are_ extravagant; we do spend more money than we ought
+to, but it is spent honestly, it is spent with the best of intention, it
+is spent because the people want us to spend it, and we do not go nearly
+as far as they ask us to.
+
+Just one suggestion more: It is easy to criticise and ridicule something
+that a man knows but little about, and I have noticed that in this
+discussion of Conservation each man is almighty anxious to conserve that
+which interests _him_; and one of the latest examples of that was
+afforded by the statement of Mr Wallace in condemnation of the dam
+between Saint Paul and Minneapolis. Now, in advance I want to state that
+I am not responsible for that dam; it was there before I entered public
+life. But there is one thing we are trying to do; we are trying to
+enforce the principle of practical Conservation, and I wish to call
+attention to that as a sample of ridicule sometimes seen in the
+discussion of a subject that really interests the people. The United
+States thirty years ago started, at the headwaters of the Mississippi,
+six of the largest storage reservoirs for water in the world, with a
+capacity of many thousands of millions of gallons of water, designed to
+improve the navigation of the river and raise it in times of drought
+eighteen inches here at the levee of Saint Paul. That enormous storage
+of water in the river should be utilized for the practical benefit of
+the people of the United States. That is the practical basis for all
+theories of Conservation. A board of engineers was ordered by Congress
+to make an investigation of the use of the dam at the Twin Cities, and
+they have reported that a dam can be built and it has been ordered by
+Congress and is under construction (it is the one ridiculed). It will be
+thirty feet high and will yield 15,000 horsepower of electrical energy,
+worth here $25 per horsepower-year, making a total value of $375,000 per
+annum, at an expenditure in all not to exceed $2,000,000. It will pay
+the United States the money that it invests in that dam. It is expected
+that the United States will sell, for a reasonable price, that
+electrical energy to the cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis and the
+University of Minnesota; these cities can be the best lighted in the
+world and save a hundred thousand dollars each annually (applause); and,
+more than that, we will have there the most beautiful lake in the world,
+extending from the historical falls of Minnehaha below to the great and
+beautiful University of Minnesota above. That is a practical example of
+Conservation (applause). Before any of these gentlemen come forward
+flippantly to ridicule the public works going on in any part of the
+country, they should realize that there _may be_ some things they don't
+know about. (Applause)
+
+Only one suggestion more (because we all want to hear from Professor
+Bailey): It is easy to criticise Congress as a whole; it is fashionable
+to do it; Congress hasn't any friends anywhere; but just remember this:
+it is a necessary evil; it is the concrete voice of ninety millions of
+free American citizens; it is the only agency whereby these ninety
+millions of American people can accomplish their will and desire. We can
+only run a free Government by the rule of the majority; a majority of
+one is potent to control this whole great country; 51 percent are in
+favor of what that majority does, and, 49 percent claim the right to
+criticise and kick at what that majority does. As this is a free
+Government they have that right. Now, my friends, we must remember that
+what displeases us probably pleases 51 percent, and if we had the right
+to pass the very laws we wanted to on any subject, the chances are that
+our next-door neighbors, on both sides, would criticise and complain of
+us, just as we are now doing of other people. The only thing I wish to
+emphasize is that Congress tries to represent the whole American people,
+tries to make concrete the voice of the whole American people. It is
+human, the same as the people are; it makes the same kind of mistakes
+that the people make; and, after all, the people are responsible for
+Congress. I thank you. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chairman CLAPP--Ladies and Gentlemen, we will now have an address on
+"Conservation in Country Life," by Dr Liberty Hyde Bailey, Dean of State
+Agricultural College, Cornell University, and Chairman of the Country
+Life Commission. It affords me great pleasure to introduce Professor
+Bailey. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Professor BAILEY--Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen: Because of the
+lateness of the hour, and because of the very great treat which you have
+had this afternoon in the presentation of the fundamental questions of
+country life, I shall only call your attention to three or four topics
+which, perhaps, have not been touched by others who have spoken from
+this platform.
+
+Two great economic and social movements are now before the
+country--Conservation, and Country Life. The Conservation movement is
+the expression of the idea that the materials and agencies that are part
+of the furniture of the planet are to be utilized by each generation
+carefully, and with real regard to the welfare of those who are to
+follow us. The Country Life movement is the expression of the idea that
+the policies, efforts, and material well-being of the open country must
+be highly sustained, as a fundamental essential of a good civilization;
+and it recognizes the fact that rural society has made relatively less
+progress in the past century than has urban society. Both movements are
+immediately economic, but in ultimate results they are social and moral.
+They rest on the assumption that the welfare of the individual man and
+woman is to be conserved and developed, and is the ultimate concern of
+governments; both, therefore, are phases of a process in social
+evolution.
+
+Not only the welfare but the existence of the race depends on utilizing
+the products and forces of the planet wisely, and also on securing
+greater quantity and variety of new products. These are finally the most
+fundamental movements that government has yet attempted to attack; for
+when the resources of the earth shall largely disappear or the arm of
+the husbandman lose its skill, there is an end of the office of
+government.
+
+At the bottom, therefore, the Conservation and Country Life movements
+rest on the same premise; but in their operation, and in the problems
+that are before them, they are so distinct that they should not be
+confounded or united. These complementary phases may best work
+themselves out by separate organization and machinery, although
+articulating at every point; and this would be true if for no other
+reason than that a different class of persons, and a different method of
+procedure, attached to each movement. The Conservation movement finds it
+necessary, as a starting-point, to attack intrenched property interests,
+and it therefore finds itself in politics, inasmuch as these interests
+have become intrenched through legislation. The Country Life movement
+lacks these personal and political aspects.
+
+_These Subjects Have a History_
+
+Neither "Conservation" nor "Country Life" is new except in name and as
+the subject of an organized movement. The end of our original resources
+has been foreseen from time out of mind, and prophetic books have been
+written on the subject. The need of a quickened country life has been
+recognized from the time that cities began to dominate civilization; and
+the outlook of the high-minded countryman has been depicted from the
+days of the classical writings until now. On this side of mineral and
+similar resources, the geologists and others among us have made definite
+efforts for conservation; and on the side of soil fertility, the
+agricultural chemists and the teachers of agriculture have for a hundred
+years maintained a perpetual campaign of conservation. So long and
+persistently have those of us in the agricultural and some other
+institutions heard these questions emphasized, that the startling
+assertions of the present day as to the failure of our resources and the
+coordinate importance of rural affairs have not struck me with any force
+of novelty. But there comes a time when the warnings begin to collect
+themselves, and to crystallize about definite points; and my purpose in
+suggesting this history is to emphasize the importance of the two
+movements now before us by showing that the roots run deep, back into
+human experience. It is no ephemeral or transitory subject that we are
+now met to discuss.
+
+All really fundamental movements are the results of long-continued
+discussion and investigation, but it requires a great generalizer and
+organizer, and one possessed of prevision, to concrete scattered facts
+into powerful national movements. The one who recognized the existence
+of these questions, who saw the significance of the problems, who aided
+to assemble them, and who projected them into definite lines of public
+action was Theodore Roosevelt; and he himself has expressed our
+obligation in this Conservation movement to Gifford Pinchot. (Great
+applause)
+
+The Conservation movement is now approaching its full; the Country Life
+movement is a slower and quieter tide, but it will rise with great
+power. These are the twin economic and social questions that the
+Roosevelt administration raised for our consideration. (Applause)
+
+_They are not party-politics subjects_
+
+I have said that these are economic and social problems and policies. I
+wish to enlarge this view. They are concerned with saving, utilizing,
+and augmenting, and only secondarily with administration. We must first
+ascertain the facts as to our resources, and from this groundwork
+impress the subject on the people. The subject must be approached by
+scientific methods. It would be unfortunate if such movement became the
+exclusive program of a political party, for then the question would
+become partisan and probably be removed from calm or judicial
+consideration, and the opposition would equally become the program of a
+party. Every last citizen should be naturally interested in the careful
+utilization of our native materials and wealth, and it is due him that
+the details of the question be left open for unbiased discussion rather
+than be made the arbitrary program, either one way or another, of a
+political organization. The Conservation principle is a plain economic
+and social problem rather than a political issue. (Applause)
+
+The Country Life movement is equally a scientific problem, in the sense
+that it must be approached in the scientific spirit. It will be
+inexcusable in this day if we do not go at the subject with only the
+desire to discover the facts and to arrive at a rational solution by
+non-political methods. The first recommendation of the Commission on
+Country Life is that the Government begin taking stock of rural life in
+order that we may have definite facts on which to begin a reconstructive
+program.
+
+_The soil is the greatest of all resources_
+
+The resources that sustain the race are of two kinds--those that lie
+beyond the power of man to reproduce or increase, and those that may be
+augmented by propagation and by care. The former are the water, the air,
+the sunshine, and the mines of minerals, metals, and coal; the latter
+are the living resources, in crop and live-stock. Intermediate between
+the two classes stands the soil, on which all living resources depend.
+Even after all minerals and metals and coal are depleted, the race may
+sustain itself in comfort and progress so long as the soil is
+productive, provided, of course, that water and air and sunshine are
+still left to us. Beyond all the mines of coal and all the precious
+ores, the soil resource is the heritage that must be most carefully
+saved; and this, in particular, is the country-life phase of the
+Conservation movement.
+
+To my mind, the Conservation movement has not sufficiently emphasized
+this problem. It has laid stress, I know, on the enormous loss by soil
+erosion, and has said something of inadequate agricultural practice; but
+the main question is yet practically untouched by the movement--the
+plain problem of handling the soil by all the millions who, by skill or
+blundering or theft, produce crops and animals out of the earth. Peoples
+have gone down before the lessening power of the land, and in all
+probability other peoples will yet go down. The course of empire has
+been toward the unplundered lands.
+
+Thinner than the skin of an apple is the covering of the earth that man
+tills. Beyond all calculation and all comprehension are the powers and
+the mysteries of the soft soil layer of the earth. We do not know that
+any vital forces pulsate from the great interior bulk of the earth. Only
+on the surface does any nerve of life quicken it into a living sphere.
+And yet, from this attenuated layer have come numberless generations of
+giants of forests and of beasts, perhaps greater in their combined bulk
+than all the soil from which they have come; and back into this soil
+they go, until the great life-principle catches up their disorganized
+units and builds them again into beings as complex as themselves.
+
+The general evolution of this soil is toward greater powers; and yet, so
+nicely balanced are these powers that within his lifetime a man may ruin
+any part of it that society allows him to hold; and in despair he
+abandons it and throws it back to nature to reinvigorate and to heal. We
+are accustomed to marvel at the power of man in gaining dominion over
+the forces of nature--he bends to his use the expansive powers of steam
+and the energy of the electric currents, and he ranges through space in
+the light that he concentrates in his telescope; but while he is doing
+all this he sets at naught the powers in the soil beneath his feet,
+wastes them, and deprives himself of vast sources of energy. Man will
+never gain dominion until he learns from nature how to maintain the
+augmenting powers of the disintegrating crust of the earth.
+
+We can do little to control or modify the atmosphere or the sunlight;
+but the epidermis of the earth is ours to do with it much as we will. It
+is the one great earth resource over which we have dominion. The soil
+may be made better as well as worse, more as well as less; and to save
+the producing powers of it is far and away the most important
+consideration in the Conservation of natural resources.
+
+_No man has a right to plunder the soil_
+
+The man who owns and tills the soil owes an obligation to his fellowmen
+for the use that he makes of his land; and his fellowmen owe an equal
+obligation to him to see that his lot in society is such that he will
+not be obliged to rob the earth in order to maintain his life. The
+natural resources of the earth are the heritage and the property of
+every one and all of us. A man has no moral right to skin the earth,
+unless he is forced to do it in sheer self-defense and to enable him to
+live in some epoch of an unequally developed society; and if there are
+or have been such epochs, then is society itself directly responsible
+for the waste of the common heritage.
+
+The man who plunders the soil is in very truth a robber, for he takes
+that which is not his own and he withholds food from the mouths of
+generations yet to be born. No man really owns his acres; society allows
+him the use of them for his life-time, but the fee comes back to society
+in the end. What, then, will society do with those persons who rob
+society? The pillaging or reckless land-worker must be brought to
+account and be controlled, even as we control other offenders.
+
+(I know that the soil-depletion idea is now challenged; but I am sure
+that the Conservation ideal must be applied to soil maintenance even as
+it is applied to other maintenance. If it transpires that plants hold a
+different relation to the soil-content than we have supposed, we still
+know that poor farming makes the land unproductive and that the saving
+of wastes is a desirable human quality; and we shall probably need to
+change only our phraseology to make the old statement broadly correct.)
+
+I have no socialistic program to propose. The man who is to till the
+land must be educated: there is more need, on the side of the public
+welfare, to educate this man than any other man whatsoever (applause).
+When he knows, and when his obligations to society are quickened, he
+will be ready to become a real conservator; and he will act
+energetically as soon as the economic pressure for land-supplies begins
+to be acute. When society has done all it can to make every farmer a
+voluntary conservator of the fatness of the earth, it will probably be
+obliged to resort to other means to control the wholly incompetent and
+the recalcitrant; at least, it will compel the soil-robber to remove to
+other occupation, if economic stress does not itself compel it. We shall
+reach the time when we shall not allow a man to till the earth unless he
+is able to leave it at least as fertile as he found it. (Applause)
+
+It is a pernicious notion that a man may do what he will with his own.
+The whole tendency of social development is away from this idea. A
+person may not even have the full control of his own children: society
+compels him to place them in school, and it protects them from over-work
+and hardship. A man may not breed diseased cattle. No more should he be
+allowed wantonly to waste forests or to make lands impotent, even though
+he "owns" them. (Applause)
+
+_Ownership vs. Conservation_
+
+This discussion leads me to make an application to the Conservation
+movement in general. We are so accustomed to think of privileged
+interests and of corporation control of resources that we are likely to
+confuse Conservation with company ownership. The essence of Conservation
+is to utilize our resources with the least waste consistent with good
+progress, and with an honest care for the children of all generations.
+
+While we not infrequently state the problem to be the reservation of our
+resources for all the people, and then assume that if all the resources
+were in private ownership the problem would thereby be solved, yet, in
+fact, the Conservation question is one thing and the ownership of
+property quite another. A corporation may be the best as well as the
+worst conservator of resources; and likewise, private or individual
+ownership may be the very worst as well as the best conservator. The
+individual owner, represented by the "independent farmer," may be the
+prince of monopolists (applause), even though his operations compass a
+very small scale. The very fact that he is independent, with the further
+fact that he is intrenched behind the most formidable of all
+barriers--private property rights--insures his monopoly.
+
+In the interest of pure Conservation, it is necessary to control the
+single man as well as the organized men. In the end Conservation must
+deal with the individual man--that is, with a person. It matters not
+whether this person is a part of a trust, or lives alone a hundred miles
+beyond the frontier, or is the owner of a prosperous farm--if he wastes
+the heritage of the race, he is an offender. We are properly devising
+ways whereby the corporation holds its property or privileges in trust,
+returning to government (or to society) a fair rental; that is, we are
+regulating the corporation and making it responsible to the people. What
+shall we do with the unattached man, to make him also responsible? Shall
+we hold the corporate plunderer to strict account, and let the single
+separate plunderer go scot free? (Applause)
+
+In the last analysis, as measured by the results to society, there is no
+essential difference between corporate ownership and individual
+ownership.
+
+_The philosophy of saving_
+
+The Conservation of natural resources, therefore, resolves itself into
+the philosophy of saving, while at the same time making the most and
+best advancement in our own day. We have not developed much
+consciousness of saving when dealing with things that come free to our
+hands, as the sunshine, the rain, the forests, the mines, the streams,
+the earth; and the American has found himself so much in the midst of
+plenty that saving has seemed to him to be parsimony, or at least
+beneath his attention. As a question of public action, however,
+conscientious saving represents a very high development. A high sense
+of saving ought to come out of the Conservation movement. This will
+make directly for character-efficiency, since it will develop both
+responsibility and regard for others.
+
+Civilization, thus far, is built on the process of waste. Materials are
+brought from forest and sea and mine, certain small parts are used, and
+the remainder is discarded or destroyed; more labor is wasted than is
+usefully productive; but what is far worse, the substance of the land is
+taken in unimaginable quantities and dumped wholesale, through endless
+sewerage and drainage systems, into the sea. It would seem as if the
+human race were bent on finding a process by which it can most quickly
+ravish the earth and make it incapable of maintaining its teeming
+millions. We are rapidly threading the country with vast conduits by
+which the fertility of the land can flow away unhindered into the
+unreachable reservoirs of the ocean. (Applause)
+
+The factories that fabricate agricultural products are likely to be
+midway stations in the progress of the fertility on its way to the sea.
+The refuse is dumped into streams; or if it is made into fertilizing
+materials, it seldom returns to the particular areas whence it came. A
+manufactory will expend any effort in improving its machinery and
+practice to enable it to get more material out of its products, but may
+do little or nothing to increase the production back on the farms. A
+sugar-beet or other factory may drain its country until the country can
+no longer raise the product; whereas, by developing a rational system of
+husbandry and returning the wastes, as in some European countries, it
+might maintain the land-balance. Any good milk-products factory should
+develop sound milk-making on the farms of the region, as any good
+canning factory should raise the standard of production in the fruits
+and vegetables that it uses; and this should always be done with the
+object of preserving and even increasing the land-power. A factory owes
+an obligation to the open country that supports it.
+
+For these and for other reasons, the city always tends to destroy its
+province. The city takes everything to itself--materials, money,
+men--and gives back only what it cannot use or what it discards as
+useless: it does not constructively build up its contributory country.
+
+City dwelling and country dwelling are the two opposite developments of
+human affairs. The future state of society depends directly on the
+finding of some real economic and social balance between the two, some
+species of cooperation that will build and serve them both. This is the
+fundamental problem of the social structure. Although city people and
+country people are rapidly affiliating in acquaintanceship, these poles
+of society are not yet effectively coming together cooperatively on
+economic lines. (Applause)
+
+_The Conservation of food_
+
+The fundamental problem for the human race is to feed itself. It has
+been a relatively easy matter to provide food and clothing thus far,
+because the earth yet has a small population, and because there have
+always been new lands to be brought into requisition. We shall eliminate
+the plague and the devastations of war, and the population of the earth
+will tremendously increase. When the new lands have all been opened to
+cultivation, and when thousands of millions of human beings occupy the
+earth, the demand for food will constitute a problem that we scarcely
+apprehend today.
+
+One would think, from current discussions, that the single way to
+provide the food for the population is to raise more products by moving
+more people on the land; but this is not at all nub of the question.
+More products will be raised as rapidly as it pays persons to raise
+them, and there are now sufficient people on the land to double its
+productiveness; and the necessary increase of population will come
+automatically with increasing profits in the business. Much is said
+about the necessity of intenser methods of farming, and we all recognize
+the need; but the chief reason why our people do not raise 300 bushels
+of potatoes to the acre is that it does not yet pay in most cases to
+produce the extra yield. The comparative statistics of yields in
+different countries are useful as appealing to the imagination, but they
+may be wholly fallacious as guides. What we need is a thorough inquiry
+into the course of trade from potato-patch to consumer, to see where the
+profit goes.
+
+We need a greater number of competent farmers, to be sure, whether they
+hail from the country or the city; the city will still attract those
+laborers who cannot work alone and who watch the clock, and the city
+provides the organization or machinery to make them of use; but the real
+food question and cost-of-living question is the problem of maintaining
+the producing-power of the earth by means of better farming.
+
+We think we have developed intensive and perfected systems of
+agriculture; but as a matter of fact, and speaking broadly, a
+scientifically permanent agriculture on national lines is yet unknown in
+the world. In certain regions, as in Great Britain, the productivity of
+the land has been increased over a long series of years, but this has
+been accomplished to a great extent by the transportation of fertilizing
+materials from the ends of the earth. The fertility of England,
+according to authorities, has been drawn largely from the prairies and
+plains of America, from which it has secured its food supplies, from the
+guano deposits in islands of the seas, from the bones of animals and
+men, from the mummies of Egypt (applause). The rotation of crops is not
+itself a complete means of maintaining fertility.
+
+We begin to understand how it is possible to maintain the
+producing-power of the surface of the earth, and there are certain
+regions in which our knowledge has been put effectively into operation;
+but we have developed no conscious plan or system in a large way for
+securing this result. It is the ultimate problem of the race to devise a
+permanent self-sustaining organized agriculture on a scientific basis.
+The problem is yet unsolved.
+
+We deplore the relative decrease in the exportation of agricultural
+produce, and seem to think that the more we export the richer we become;
+but, if our knowledge is correct, under present systems of farming, the
+more we send abroad the sooner do we deplete our soils. We properly
+remove phosphate lands from exploitation and monopoly, but we may remove
+our phosphates more rapidly by sending our produce in unhindered
+quantities to Europe. Of course, I am not arguing against exportation
+and trade, but I wish to point out a fallacy in our common economic
+speech.
+
+_The best husbandry is not in the new regions_
+
+The best agriculture, considered in reference to the permanency of its
+results, develops in old regions, where the skinning process has passed,
+where the hide has been sold, and where people come back to utilize what
+is left. The skinning process is proceeding at this minute in the
+bountiful new lands of the United States; and in parts of the older
+States, and even also in parts of the newer ones, not only the skin but
+the tallow has been sold. There are "abandoned" farms from California
+even unto Maine.
+
+It is persistently said that the old eastern States are worn out, and
+that the farming in them is wretched. There is reason enough to be
+ashamed of eastern agriculture, and I hope that our newer regions will
+not repeat the mistakes of the older States; but the eastern States have
+most excellent agriculture, more than we are aware. Much of it is very
+profitable, fully as profitable as any I have seen in the great
+agricultural West. The acre-efficiency, as indicated by the Twelfth
+Census, is greatest in the old eastern States. Considered with reference
+to maintaining high fertility and utilizing wastes, I have not seen
+better fanning in this country than in many examples east of Buffalo. In
+the development of our agricultural wealth, the East as well as the West
+must be reckoned with. We cannot expect to develop widespread
+self-sustaining systems of farming in the East so long as it must
+compete with the soil-mining of the West.
+
+We are always seeking growing-room, and we have found it. But now, the
+western civilization has met the eastern, and the world is
+circumferenced. We shall develop the tropics and push far toward the
+poles; but we have now fairly discovered the island that we call the
+earth (within a year and a half we have reached one end of it and all
+but reached the other), and we must begin to make the most of it.
+
+_Another philosophy of agriculture_
+
+Practically all our agriculture has been developed on a rainfall basis.
+There is ancient irrigation experience, to be sure, but the great
+agriculture has been growing away from these regions. Agriculture is
+still moving on, seeking new regions; and it is rapidly invading regions
+of small rainfall. The greater part of the land surface of the globe
+must be farmed, if farmed at all, under some system of careful
+water-saving. Some of it is redeemable by irrigation, and the remainder,
+representing about one-half the earth's surface, by some system of
+utilization of deficient rainfall, or by what is inappropriately known
+as "dry farming." The complementary practices of irrigation and
+dry-farming will develop a wholly new system of agriculture and a new
+philosophy of country life.
+
+Even in heavy rainfall countries, there is often such vast waste of
+water from run-off that the lands suffer severely during droughts. The
+hilly lands of our best farming regions are greatly reduced in their
+crop-producing power because people do not prepare against drought as
+consciously as they provide against winter. It is often said that we
+shall water eastern lands by irrigation, and I think that we shall; but
+our first obligation is to save the rainfall water by some system of
+farm-management or dry-farming.
+
+The irrigation and dry-farming developments have a significance beyond
+their value in the raising of crops; they are making the people to be
+conservators of water, and to have a real care for posterity.
+Agriculture rests on the saving of water. (Applause)
+
+_The obligation of the farmer_
+
+The farmer is rapidly beginning to realize his obligation to society. It
+is usual to say that the farmer feeds the world, but the larger fact is
+that he saves the world. The economic system depends on him. Wall Street
+watches the crops.
+
+As cities increase proportionately in population, the farmer assumes
+larger relative importance and becomes more and more a marked man.
+
+Careful and scientific husbandry is rising in this new country. We have
+come to a realization of the fact that our resources are not unlimited.
+The mining of fertilizing materials for transportation to a few spots on
+the earth will some day cease. We must make the farm sustain itself, at
+the same time that it provides the supplies for mankind. We all
+recognize the necessity of the other great occupations to a well
+developed civilization; but in the nature of the case, the farmer is the
+final support. On him depends the existence of the race. No method of
+chemical synthesis can provide us with the materials of food and
+clothing and shelter, and with all the good luxuries that spring from
+the bosom of the earth.
+
+I know of no better present conservators than our best farmers. They
+feel their responsibility. Quite the ideal of Conservation is
+illustrated by a farmer of my acquaintance who saves every product of
+his land and has developed a system of self-maintaining live-stock
+husbandry, who has harnessed his small stream to light his premises and
+do much of his work, who turns his drainage waters into household use,
+and who is now troubled that he cannot make some use of the winds that
+are going to waste on his farm.
+
+_The obligation of the Conservation movement_
+
+What I have meant to emphasize is the fact that the farmer is the
+ultimate conservator of the resources of the earth. He is near the
+cradle of supplies, near the sources of the streams, next the margin of
+the forests, and on the hills and in the valleys and on the plains just
+where the resources lie. He is in contact with the original and raw
+materials, and with the fundamental necessities. Any plan of
+Conservation that overlooks this fact cannot meet the situation. The
+Conservation movement must help the farmer to keep and save the race.
+
+The Conservation and Country Life movements will pass through
+propagandic, economic, and political phases; but they will eventuate
+into a new alignment of human forces and a redirection of the processes
+of social development. These results are to be brought about by efforts
+proceeding along definite lines of action. The Conservation movement is
+rapidly becoming crystallized into definite proposals. The Country Life
+movement should be solidified through a definite National organization
+or commission, that is continuously active. This body should work
+through all existing rural organizations, placing before them for
+consideration the specific questions of the day and serving as a
+clearing-house of discussions that arise in the societies and with the
+people; and it should make real investigation into the actual economic
+and social conditions of the open country, with a view to pointing out
+the specific practical steps to be taken by National, State, local, and
+individual enterprise.
+
+The Commission on Country Life made sufficient specific recommendations
+and suggestions to start a fundamental redirection of effort as applied
+to rural development. The Report of the Commission will naturally be the
+diverging-point of future discussions of country-life problems.
+(Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chairman CLAPP--Ladies and Gentlemen: The hour grows late, and the
+Congress will stand adjourned for the day.
+
+
+
+
+_SEVENTH SESSION_
+
+
+The Congress was called to order by President Baker in the Auditorium,
+Saint Paul, at 8.30 a.m. on Thursday, September 8, few Delegates being
+present, and none responding to an invitation to speak for their States.
+After waiting some time--
+
+President BAKER--Ladies and Gentlemen: We will now go on with the
+regular program, leaving the Call of the States for a later time when
+the Delegations may be more fully represented. In the absence of the
+Reverend Dr J. A. Krantz, President of the Minnesota Conference of the
+Swedish Lutheran Church, we will dispense with the public invocation.
+
+Professor Henry S. Graves, Chief Forester of the United States, will now
+address you on "The Forest and the Nation."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Professor GRAVES--Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen: The movement for
+the conservation of our natural resources has reached the second and
+most critical stage in its progress. The country has expressed in
+unmistakable terms its approval of the principles of Conservation; there
+is now before it the problem of the practical application of those
+principles.
+
+In forestry there is a very general agreement that our woodlands must be
+protected from fire, that waste must be reduced, and that a future
+timber supply must in some way be provided. In carrying out these
+purposes, differences of opinion arise, and it soon develops that with
+many persons the interest in forestry is confined to the abstract idea
+and does not extend to its practice. When the requirements of forestry
+are considered, forest owners usually find that they must make some
+modification in their methods of cutting, that they must use more care
+in protection from fire and in saving young growth, and that if they are
+to secure a new growth of trees after cutting, some investment is
+necessary. The general public learns that in order to secure for the
+Nation the permanent benefits of the forest, National and State
+expenditures are required.
+
+It is at this point that indifference and even opposition to
+Conservation arise. Indifference is shown by the public when it fails to
+make adequate appropriations for public forestry. Direct opposition
+appears from those who fear that their interests in one way or another
+may be adversely affected. There is a great deal of misunderstanding in
+regard to the methods of Conservation, and many have charged that those
+methods heretofore advocated are impractical. In order to be
+successfully applied, Conservation must be practical; but at the same
+time the methods must be such as will actually accomplish its real
+purposes. To my mind the real significance and value of this Congress is
+that an opportunity is afforded to make clear the methods of
+Conservation, and the country will then decide whether it will really be
+put into practice or become a mere name.
+
+It is not my intention now to dwell at length on the fundamental
+importance to the country of forest Conservation. To those who know the
+needs of the people for forest products, the available resources, and
+the manner in which they are now being used up or destroyed, it must be
+clear that we are facing a problem which must be met by prompt and
+vigorous action.
+
+A survey of the forest resources of the world shows clearly that in the
+long run this Nation must be dependent chiefly on its own supplies.
+Those who believe that we may destroy our own forests and then draw upon
+foreign resources of timber are misinformed as to the facts, for those
+supplies will not be long available. Foreign countries will need for
+their own use what they can produce, and many of the exporting countries
+are exhausting their forests just as rapidly as America. The timber
+supply in this country is being rapidly depleted. We are extravagant in
+our use of forest products; there is waste in logging and manufacturing,
+and the loss by fire is a shame to the country. To offset this reduction
+of merchantable resources the annual production of timber by growth
+amounts to much less than one-third the average quantity used and
+destroyed. In other words, we are actually exhausting our forest
+supplies by use and waste.
+
+There is a sufficient amount of land in the country better suited to
+forest growth than other purposes to produce all the wood and timber
+needed by the Nation, provided the forest is properly handled. This land
+includes mountain areas where the protection of the vegetation is
+necessary to conserve water and protect the slopes. The protective
+benefits of the forest can thus in most cases be secured at the same
+time as the production of wood and timber. There are, however, certain
+mountain regions of the West where large trees will not grow, and where
+the cover of brush and grass must be conserved to protect the slopes and
+to regulate the run-off of water. In these mountains special
+reservations must be maintained primarily for protective purposes.
+
+There is but little disagreement in regard to these simple propositions.
+The difficulty lies in the fact that the people do not appreciate the
+need of immediate action to put the principles of forestry into
+practice. The reason why prompt action is not appreciated is that,
+except locally, the effects of forest destruction have not yet been
+keenly felt. It is true that the prices of certain grades of lumber have
+tended to increase. This increase is in part due to the reduction of
+supplies, but it is due also to the same causes of increased cost of
+production as have raised the price of other manufactured commodities
+(applause). The development of railroad transportation and of methods of
+logging have constantly opened new forest resources and furnished a
+supply to the public. There are today over 30,000 saw-mills throughout
+the country cutting timber and competing for the market. Although the
+prices of lumber may seem high to the consumer it is still true that in
+some sections the competition among the manufacturers is keeping the
+prices down to a point where it is hard to market low grades and to
+utilize in full any but the best trees in the forest. As long as the
+value of timber is below what it would cost to produce it by growth, the
+general public will not realize that our supplies are being depleted. It
+is after the virgin supplies are exhausted--and that will come in a
+comparatively short time--that the great increase in values will come
+and the public will suffer. We are urging action now in order that there
+may be new supplies produced to meet the needs of the Nation at that
+time. (Applause)
+
+The general public fails also to appreciate the effect of forest
+destruction on stream-flow and on soil erosion. Some even go so far as
+to deny the connection between forests and stream-flow. There are many
+factors which determine the stability of water flow. Climate, character
+of soil, topography, and vegetative cover, all have an influence on the
+run-off of water. There may be a change of conditions of one or more of
+these influencing factors sufficient to upset the equilibrium
+established by nature, and alter the manner of run-off of the water in a
+given watershed (applause). In humid regions, where the old timber is
+cut off or burned, a cover of young trees or brush often springs up
+quickly and protects the slopes before the character of the stream
+channels is changed. A single clearing of the forest may thus have only
+a small or temporary effect on water flow. The repeated destruction of
+the cover may, however, result in a permanent change, and finally
+produce torrent conditions. Thus in the Southern Appalachian province it
+is not so much the present and past conditions--although those are
+serious--which demand forest conservation, as what will inevitably be
+the result of continued destruction of the cover. (Applause)
+
+Where the conditions for forest growth are critical, and the soil and
+topography are such that the balance of nature is easily disturbed, the
+effects of forest destruction are much more quickly felt. In certain
+parts of the West we find already examples of flood and torrent
+conditions equal to those in France and Asia. For example, in Utah there
+are watersheds where, on account of the burning of the forests and the
+over-grazing of slopes, torrent conditions are already definitely
+established. One of the most extreme and striking instances in the West
+is found on the watershed of Kanab creek flowing through southern Utah
+and northern Arizona. As the result of over-grazing, the tributary
+streams have already become deep washes, and many new and deep gulches
+have been formed running into the main channel and into the side
+channels. The water which falls on the surface is quickly carried to
+some stream or wash which becomes a miniature torrent. The gathering of
+these together in the main channel makes a flood which is irresistible.
+The loss from the destruction of dams and bridges, the washing away of
+arable lands, and the deposit of rocks and gravel on cultivated fields,
+has been enormous. The restoration of vegetation alone will not cure the
+evil. It is now an engineering problem to check the torrential flow of
+water in the various streams and washes.
+
+In spite of the increasing evidences of the effects of forest
+destruction, the public still fails to appreciate the need of prompt
+action to prevent the scarcity of timber and to protect the flow of our
+streams. The time for action is _before_ a disaster and not afterward
+(applause). The small public investments necessary for forest protection
+are insignificant when contrasted with the losses and hardships to
+communities resulting from forest destruction.
+
+The forest problem is peculiarly difficult on account of the length of
+time required to produce timber of useful dimensions. We are using today
+trees which for the most part are from 150 to 200 years of age. The time
+required to produce trees suitable for lumber varies from about 40 years
+with our most rapid-growing species to over 100 years in many mountain
+regions. The production of timber requires a long investment. It
+requires the permanent use of land for forest growth, and a stable
+policy in handling the forest. At the present time in this country there
+is great risk from fire, which discourages investment by private capital
+in the growing of timber. By its very nature, therefore, the problem of
+forestry presents great difficulties to the average private owner of
+forest land who has bought the property to market the merchantable
+timber and not to grow trees.
+
+Forestry nearly always involves an actual investment. Private owners
+will not as a rule make this investment unless there is clearly in sight
+an adequate return. On account of the long investment, risk from fire, a
+burdensome system of taxation of growing timber, and the present
+uncertainties of market, most private owners today are not practicing a
+system of forestry which takes into consideration the production of new
+timber supplies. Many say that if fires are kept out the question of
+forest production will take care of itself, no matter how the forest is
+handled, and that all there is to forestry is protection from fire. Let
+me say, and with all the emphasis I am capable of using, that forest
+production will not take care of itself. There are cases, and remarkable
+ones, of natural reproduction of forests even under the worst of abuse.
+But where there is no systematic provision for reproduction, ordinary
+lumbering results in the long run in a steady reduction of growth of
+valuable material; and there are only too many cases of destructive
+lumbering which leave the land in an unproductive state even when fires
+do not occur. (Applause)
+
+Forestry is necessary to guarantee to the people the continuous benefits
+of the forest. The responsibility of working out the problem of National
+forestry cannot be left with private owners. It is primarily a public
+question, and the burden of its solution must be largely borne by the
+public. In the first place those forests owned by the public must be
+protected and administered under the methods of practical forestry.
+These public forests comprise about one-third of the forest area of the
+country. The remaining two-thirds of our forests are in private
+ownership, and this includes about four-fifths of the remaining standing
+merchantable timber. Without doubt the area of the public forests will
+be considerably increased through the acquirement of areas needed for
+the protection of public interests, especially in the mountain regions
+of the East. But the Federal and State forests alone will not be
+sufficient to produce the supplies of forest products needed by the
+country. The practice of forestry on private lands, or at least on those
+areas better suited for forest growth than for other purposes, is a
+public necessity. I regard the proper handling of these private forests
+as a public necessity (applause). The private owner cannot escape the
+responsibility of ownership of an important natural resource; at the
+same time he cannot be expected to make financial investments in order
+to provide for a general public benefit. The conditions which prevent
+him from practicing forestry should be changed. He should be given
+public aid in protection from fire. There should be a reasonable system
+of taxing growing timber, and there should be cooperation in meeting the
+peculiar difficulties of his business which tend to stand in the way of
+Conservation.
+
+The practice of forestry by private owners may be brought about through
+assistance and cooperation by the Federal Government and the States. The
+Government can do a great deal to promote private forestry. It is the
+policy of the Forest Service to aid in the introduction and practice of
+forestry on private lands, just as far as its authority permits. This
+assistance must, however, be largely confined to education, advice, and
+general cooperation. Through research and experiment, the Government is
+laying the foundation for the practice of forestry in all parts of the
+country. The results of the work in forest products will greatly help in
+the problem of saving waste. The experiments in silviculture are
+demonstrating the methods of handling woodlands. Direct aid to private
+owners in the practice of forestry must come chiefly from the States.
+The proper adjustment of taxes is a State matter. Assistance in fire
+patrol and fire fighting must come from the States. If on the other hand
+this aid is given by the States and the Government, and the obstacles
+now standing in the way of private forestry are removed, private owners
+should assume their obligations in actually setting to work to practice
+forestry.
+
+The first necessity is prompt and effective action by the States. As yet
+most of our States have not assumed their full responsibilities in
+forestry. In a number of them good forests laws have been enacted;
+several States are buying lands as public reservations; and in about
+fifteen States a forest commission or a State forester has been
+appointed. But the problem of State forestry requires a great deal more
+than laws on the statute books, or the appointment of a State forester.
+There must be the machinery to carry out the laws, a thoroughly equipped
+organization to patrol the State and fight fires, and adequate
+appropriation of money to make this work really effective (applause).
+The real test of State forestry will be the development of a forest
+policy which will be stable, and the providing of the money necessary to
+carry on the work.
+
+The first duty of the Federal Government in forestry is the proper
+administration of the forest lands owned by the Nation. A National
+forest policy has already been initiated. The greater portion of the
+Federal forest lands have been set aside as National Forests and they
+have been managed on the principles of practical Conservation. The
+purpose of establishing these forests has been to guarantee the best
+possible use of their resources for the people. There is still an
+impression among some persons that the National Forests are closed
+reservations, withdrawn from use and development. The keynote of the
+Federal policy in handling these forests is the use of their resources;
+but it is the continued use in contrast with that use which exhausts the
+resources (applause). There are many who assert that the National
+Forests are retarding development. It is the policy of the Forest
+Service to encourage the opening up and development of the resources of
+the forests, but we take the stand that this must be a development which
+will permanently build up the country. (Applause)
+
+The Federal policy stands squarely for permanent development and
+maintenance of stable industries, as opposed to mere exploitation which
+exhausts the resources, and which shortly results in the impoverishment
+of the region. (Applause)
+
+In administering the National Forests, the first task is to protect them
+from destruction by fire. In order adequately to protect forests from
+fire, the first necessity is a system of roads and trails to enable
+proper patrol and movement of fire fighters, and telephone lines for
+quick communication. The second necessity is a well organized force of
+rangers and guards to patrol the forest and fight fires. Ever since the
+National Forests were placed under the administration of the Forest
+Service, the construction of trails and telephone lines has been pushed
+as rapidly as funds could be secured for that purpose. Although there
+have already been built 9,218 miles of trails, 1,218 miles of roads, and
+4,851 miles of telephone lines, this represents but a beginning of the
+work when the vast area of inaccessible and undeveloped forests is
+considered. The Forest Service has a well organized protective service
+for patrol and fire fighting, though the number of men is still
+inadequate. Nevertheless it has been possible in ordinary seasons to
+keep down the fires to a small loss. During the present season there has
+been in the Northwest an unparalleled drouth and constant high winds
+that have made fire protection unusually difficult. Innumerable fires
+were started in the forests from various causes. The woods were dry, and
+a small spark was sufficient to start a blaze. Where there were roads
+and trails, the patrol-men were able to reach the fires quickly and
+either put them out in their incipiency or soon mobilize a force of men
+who brought them under control before they had done much damage. This
+was well demonstrated by the fact that in the Montana and Idaho
+districts the majority of railroad fires were put out by the patrol-men
+employed by the Forest Service and by the railroads in cooperation
+before they reached dangerous proportions. Many fires were started,
+also, in the inaccessible portions of the forest where there are no
+roads and trails. It was often impossible to reach those fires until
+they had been burning several days, and in many cases had become
+dangerous conflagrations. The disastrous fires were those occurring
+under these conditions.
+
+I wish to take this occasion to express my appreciation of the work of
+those men who lost their lives in these fires, and also of those other
+men who ever since the opening of this dry season have been fighting
+these fires, working often day and night, without regard to hours of
+service--working with a courage, with a singleness of purpose and desire
+to protect the property of the public, which makes me proud of them.
+(Applause)
+
+The great lesson of these fires is the absolute necessity for a complete
+system of roads and trails and of telephone lines in the National
+Forests. I meet some men who say that forests cannot be protected from
+fire, and that sooner or later every extensive forest will be burned.
+The experience in the Northwest this year only strengthens my conviction
+that forests can be protected from fire even under the most adverse
+climatic conditions. But this protection absolutely requires a proper
+development of the forest in the way of transportation and
+communication, and an adequate force of men for patrol. The National
+Forests can be rendered safe from fire but they must be organized for
+it. This requires extensive construction work at the outset. It requires
+a large investment in permanent improvement work by the Government. But
+that necessary expense is insignificant in comparison with the value of
+the property which will be protected, and the benefits to the
+communities and industries depending on these forests.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The National Forests are for use, and are administered primarily for the
+benefit of those States and communities in which they are located. The
+various resources are opened to use under reasonable restrictions which
+will guarantee their best continuous service to the greatest possible
+number of people. The mature timber is cut when there is a demand for
+its use, but the cutting is conducted under the principles of forestry,
+so that new growth is established in openings made by lumbering and the
+continued supply of timber is provided for. (Applause)
+
+The other resources of the National Forests are also being put to use.
+The grass is utilized under a system of regulated grazing, land more
+valuable for agriculture than for forest purposes is opened to entry
+under the forest homestead act, prospecting is allowed without
+restriction, and legitimate mining is encouraged. It is the aim of the
+Forest Service to encourage the development of water-powers, and we are
+endeavoring to work out a practical plan which will facilitate this
+development by private capital, and at the same time protect the
+interests of the public (applause). I believe that the use of
+water-power sites on Federal lands should be under Government control,
+and I believe that this can be accomplished so as not to prevent the
+attraction of capital to their development. (Applause)
+
+So far as the National Forests are concerned, Conservation has already
+carried into the practical stage, for it is being put into actual
+operation. The National Forests will always stand as a monument to the
+work of the real founder and spirit of the Conservation movement,
+Gifford Pinchot. (Great applause)
+
+There are many opponents of the National Forest policy and of the Forest
+Service, but I find in most sections of the country that those who are
+using the National Forests, and who are therefore most vitally
+interested in them, are cooperating very heartily with the Government in
+working out the details of their administration. It is through the kind
+of constructive cooperation which the Forest Service is receiving from
+lumbermen of the country that the practical management of the National
+Forests can be made really effective. (Applause)
+
+The burden of my plea today is the need of prompt and vigorous action.
+Action is required of the general public in giving support for the
+protection of the National Forests. Action is required by the States in
+administering the State lands in the interests of the public. Action is
+required by the States in initiating a system of taxation of growing
+timber which will not prevent Conservation. Action is required by the
+States in introducing a system of forest patrol and fighting fires which
+will permit prompt work in the prevention of the burning of our forests.
+And action, finally, is needed by private individuals to introduce the
+practical forestry on their lands just as far as economic conditions
+will permit.
+
+My suggestion is that the first step is required by the public through
+action of States and action of the Government. I appreciate that this
+cannot be accomplished without explaining fully to the people exactly
+what is required. I appreciate that there is necessary an organized
+campaign of education which should be carried into every locality of the
+country. This campaign may and must be practical, and not only the
+general problem of forestry but also the specific means of solving it
+must be presented to the people. This educational work may be done in
+part by the Government; a large amount of it must, however, be carried
+on through the State officials, through the State forest and
+conservation commissions, and through National and local associations.
+(Prolonged applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--The next subject is "The Stake of the Business Man in
+Conservation," by Mr Alfred L. Baker, of Chicago.
+
+Mr BAKER--Mr President, Fellow Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen: Here in
+this Second Conservation Congress, where are assembled specialists who
+have given profound study to the different phases of the Conservation of
+our resources, where are met together scientists in agriculture,
+forestry, mineralogy and waterways, it is not intended that the remarks
+of a business man should stumble into the fields of the experts. It is,
+however, appropriate that he should voice his approving earnestness and
+vigorous enthusiasm in behalf of the Conservation movement (applause),
+and voice them to those National benefactors who are holding their
+shoulders to the wheel of progress. As a delegate to this Congress,
+representing the business man and with the knowledge of his views, I
+wish to state with all the emphasis of which I am capable that the
+business men in this country are heart and soul in favor of Conservation
+(applause). Owing to the infirmities of human nature a few may faint by
+the wayside; but the great body and mass can always be depended on to
+faithfully and loyally support the movement. By so doing they are
+promoting the proper development of those resources which are not only
+the foundation of our National prosperity but also the foundation of
+their own individual success.
+
+The most conspicuous quality in the character of the successful business
+man is foresight--and he, more than any other member of the community,
+must realize the necessity of foresight in the management of our
+National affairs. He himself would never permit the waste or plunder of
+his own personal resources, and whilst enjoying their daily possession
+would always take thought for the morrow. The Nation in its control of
+our resources should reflect the same character and intelligence which
+the individual shows in the management of his own private affairs.
+(Applause)
+
+The great body of business men favor the well-known policies of
+Conservation. They recognize that those resources which are of a public
+character should be held in trust by the Nation for the benefit of the
+people (applause) and that those resources of a private nature should be
+so disposed of that they will be enjoyed by the greatest number for the
+longest time. (Applause)
+
+They believe in the Government control of water-power (applause) with
+the cooperation of the States, and in the application of a scientific
+forestry which will eliminate waste, also in a fire patrol which, _at
+whatever cost_ (applause), will prevent the destruction of our forests
+and of human life. They believe in better methods of farming and in the
+improvement of country life so that the bright boy on the farm shall no
+longer respond to the call of the great city, but find immediately about
+him equal opportunities for fame and fortune. (Applause) They believe in
+the continued distribution of information on a large scale that will
+educate the people and advance their knowledge of Conservation
+(applause); and finally they believe in the Conservation of public
+integrity, which is the basal foundation of our National life on which
+all else depends. (Great applause)
+
+I am not one of those who believe that the Conservation movement should
+be confined solely to the technical treatment of the forest and soil and
+the prevention of material waste. The second article in the platform of
+the first Conservation Congress provides that "the objects of this
+Congress shall be broad, to act as a clearing house for all allied
+social forces of our time, to seek to overcome waste in natural, human,
+or moral forces." I concur in that declaration. (Applause)
+
+We are told that the Constitution of the United States was the
+unexpected outcome of a conference convened for the sole purpose of
+investigating our waterways. The charge of irrelevancy might well have
+been brought to bear upon the discussions which ensued relating to a
+standing army and the powers of the Federal Government, but in all
+National movements the importance rests not with their origin but with
+the extent of their usefulness. (Applause)
+
+However restricted at the outset, Conservation has grown into a larger
+and more comprehensive movement, and its principles include the
+conservation of ideals that make for good citizenship (applause). It is
+in relation to this larger view that I wish to emphasize the importance
+of the American business man and his influence on our National progress.
+
+In the lifetime of many now living, the land in this great State of
+Minnesota was divided between two Indian tribes--the Sioux and the
+Chippewa. These tribes were uncivilized. Intelligence had not arrived at
+the stage which produces diversified industry, commerce, and the
+merchant. The influence of these forces marks the difference between the
+land of the Sioux and the State of Minnesota today.
+
+The early pioneers who first settled on the Atlantic Coast and then
+continued their journey across the Continent were all business men, but
+they were not capitalists. From the eastern States they sought in Europe
+capital to build up the industries of their locations, and, by the use
+of this capital and labor rendered the East prosperous; and when these
+sturdy pioneers opened up the wealth of resources in the West they, in
+turn, drew upon the East for capital, and by paying for its use and
+uniting labor with it developed this great country. The descendants of
+these pioneer business men are the representative business men of today.
+They are not in an economic sense capitalists. Whilst the capitalist may
+be a business man, the vast majority of business men are not
+capitalists. The business man is the one who obtains capital from one
+source and labor from another source and unites them in an anticipated
+prosperous undertaking. (Applause)
+
+The material prosperity of the United States is due to our natural
+resources and the genius of the business man united with the capital of
+the few and the toil of the millions; but the _creative genius_, the
+organizing ability, the spirit which animates the partnership, is the
+contribution of the business man--by his brains, energy, force of
+character, and toil he has created here in the United States a
+commercial system of enterprise and a degree of business prosperity
+unparalleled in history.
+
+If we give the credit of this achievement to the business man, he should
+also bear the responsibility of the evils which have been engendered
+(applause). The gravest evils which have developed out of our commercial
+prosperity are the uncontrolled power of great wealth, the growth of
+monopolies, and their sinister influence on our political institutions.
+(Applause)
+
+Industrial efficiency may justify the union of many smaller corporations
+into one big one, but if it leads to industrial despotism this
+efficiency is obtained at the sacrifice of industrial freedom
+(applause). No one nowadays, on the ground of efficiency, believes in a
+_political_ despotism; surely it is equally difficult to believe that
+any degree of efficiency could justify _industrial_ despotism.
+(Applause)
+
+As early as 1888 so conservative a man as Grover Cleveland expressed
+himself as follows: "Communism of combined wealth and capital, the
+outgrowth of overweening cupidity and selfishness, which assiduously
+undermines the justice and integrity of free institutions is not less
+dangerous than the communism of oppressed poverty and toil which,
+exasperated by injustice and discontent, attacks with wild disorder the
+citadel of misrule." So far as communism of capital is concerned, did
+not Cleveland's graphic statement adumbrate the conditions as they exist
+today? Since that time how tremendous has been the growth in the
+combinations of capital and industry.
+
+But of more importance than the size of the corporations and the
+combinations of capital is the activity in our political arena of the
+agents and members of these corporations (applause); they are not there
+to advocate measures for the welfare of the community, but to obtain for
+themselves special privileges, to gain some advantage in disregard of
+the public welfare and merely for private gain. These conditions are
+precipitating an economic and political crisis, in which the issues are
+not to be between the two great political parties, but between ranks
+which are being formed to give battle on these new issues regardless of
+party lines. (Applause)
+
+To my mind great encouragement lies in the fact that there is rapidly
+developing a segregation in the ranks of business men. Already many of
+them, freed from a false sense of class loyalty, or a fear of injury to
+business, are unwilling to assist by their public support or private
+esteem that man, however successful or powerful he may be, who by
+himself or by his agents practices methods which are unfair and opposed
+to the common good (applause). They no longer respect the citizen who in
+any way indicates a reluctance to take part in the crusade against
+bribery and graft, or the one who, by silence, hopes to conceal his
+public attitude when public sentiment seeks to fasten responsibility
+where responsibility belongs (applause). This sort of man must come out
+into the open and declare himself--he must be either with us or against
+us. (Applause and cries of "Good!")
+
+Even though the advocacy of the control of industrial combinations and
+the enactment of measures for their regulation temporarily affect
+business interests, they should not for this reason excite the
+opposition of the mercantile world. Those business men who have become
+convinced of the wisdom of regulation should be willing to follow the
+example of the intelligent patient who goes through with a necessary
+operation that in the end he may obtain permanent health and strength.
+(Applause)
+
+During the last five years there is apparent among business men a larger
+recognition of their obligations to the community, and there is
+noticeable among the directors of many of our corporations a stricter
+sense of trusteeship. An anti-toxin to corruption has entered the very
+veins of the business world (applause). The phagocytes of health are
+overcoming the macrophags of decay. This is not a sudden revival, a
+temporary wave of reform, but a gradual evolution of the moral sense, a
+permanent advance in the idea of social justice (applause). This moral
+awakening may show itself politically in an effort toward municipal
+reform, in legislative and municipal voters' leagues, in a determined
+resistance to monopoly, or for a larger control and a larger share in
+the profits of public franchise corporations. But in whatever form it
+seeks its expression, it is the manifestation of an actively
+constructive principle which will soon become so effective that the
+merchant and the man of affairs will overlook the near and personal view
+which appears on the stock ticker and take the larger view, the view
+that ultimately provides for the greatest good of the greatest number
+(applause). This awakened sense of social justice is the new and deeper
+significance of the Conservation movement. (Applause)
+
+Two years ago the Conference of Governors adopted a declaration of
+principles which the President said should hang on the wall of every
+school-house for the education of every citizen who is to become a voter
+in the next generation.
+
+Since then Conservation has become the watchword of the hour. The
+widespread use of the word has given to it a meaning undreamed of in the
+beginning. In the form of an intelligent energy it has applied itself to
+all the concerns of life from the conservation of the soil and the
+forest to the conservation of birds, of child life and of health. It
+enters into our daily life, awakens into an active moral force a
+renaissance of the old-fashioned virtues--prudence, thrift, and
+foresight--and gives to them a larger and a National meaning.
+
+Conservation is the intimate and individual message to our day and
+generation. It marks the advent of a new patriotism wherein love of
+humanity becomes an integral part of love of country, and where the
+conservation of our "rocks and rills," our "woods and templed hills," is
+not a more sacred trust than the conservation of those ideals and
+principles through which we hope to attain our ultimate National
+purpose--a Government of enlightened people, enjoying equal
+opportunities, sharing equal burdens, and rejoicing in the freedom of an
+Industrial and Political Democracy. (Great applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[In the course of the foregoing, President Baker invited Professor
+Condra to the Chair.]
+
+Professor CONDRA--Ladies and Gentlemen: President Baker desires me to
+say that his voice has failed. He also authorizes me to announce that
+the Call of States will be made this afternoon.
+
+I am pleased now to introduce a speaker opposed to the leading objects
+of this Congress. I ask you to hear kindly any criticism that he may
+offer. His subject is "The Relation of Capital to the Development of
+Resources." Mr Frank H. Short, of California.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr SHORT--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am permitted to speak
+today for the first time for real money, and apparently in behalf of
+those who are sometimes denominated "malefactors of great wealth." I
+observe that one of the Saint Paul papers in announcing this address has
+referred to me as a lawyer and capitalist. The latter I modestly deny.
+It is unprofessional for a lawyer to become rich. Good lawyers are
+scarce and valuable, and judging by the speeches I have heard in this
+Congress rich men are very common and a great public nuisance. Therefore
+I hold that it would be a great misfortune for a good lawyer, such as I
+admit that I am (laughter), to be spoiled by making out of him an
+ordinary capitalist.
+
+This audience, in listening to my address, will no doubt have in mind
+the numerous warnings which have been given to them in advance to
+forestall the evil influences of my humble remarks. I hope none of you
+will ever have to sustain the painful ordeal of appearing before an
+audience decorated with hoofs and horns by angels of light wearing
+crowns and playing harps, who have so kindly bestowed upon me the
+habiliments of the Evil One. Perhaps, since I have been so excessively
+featured, I had as well admit the whole horrible truth. First, and
+perhaps worst of all, I am a Missourian, having committed the
+indiscretion of being born in the "Show me" State--but not in Kansas.
+All of my youth was spent in the Middle West in the occupation of a
+rough rider; and I still enjoy a fight or a footrace as much as though I
+were a real colonel. Further confessing, I have lived for many years in
+California and am a lawyer by profession, and have committed the offense
+of allowing myself to be retained and am now employed by a considerable
+number of large water companies and electric power companies and other
+corporations, diligently endeavoring to commit the crime of investing
+capital under the laws of the western States in the development of the
+industries and resources of those States.
+
+The difference between a real colonel and a second lieutenant is
+illustrated by the fact that this admission permits of my being heard
+under his authority, although industrious efforts by the lieutenant
+referred to have been devoted to the contrary purpose. I am, however,
+speaking under the general permission of this Congress, and under no
+other frank than my unrevoked license as a real though obscure American
+citizen.
+
+The rights and interests of all American citizens and business
+institutions under the laws of our country are the same (applause). As a
+man accumulates property, and his interests and substantial connection
+with the country and its resources increase, he thereupon becomes just
+that much more interested in the honesty and integrity of the Government
+under which he lives, in the perfectly equal and just operation of the
+law, and above all in the supremacy of the law and similarly in the
+inauguration, continuation, and perpetuation of good policies.
+
+No doubt we self-governing Americans have all erred, both the poor man
+and the capitalist; and perhaps it would not be unfair to say that we
+all ought in humility to bear our equal share of the odium connected
+with whatever failures and offenses have been committed during our
+history, and I am not here to shift any of the burden from one class
+upon another. Neither am I here to answer denunciations with
+denunciations. I am handicapped in such debate, for the reason that I
+acquired my education in the old-fashioned school that was taught to
+believe that an honest man was one who said little of his own honesty
+and less of the supposed dishonesty of others.
+
+A convention of this character can be carried on with but little
+capital, and may travel a good ways on sheer wind; but with all respect
+to free speech, it takes money to carry on Government and conduct
+business, and if capital is as timid as it is supposed to be, and if
+some of our political friends were as dangerous as they sound, all of
+the money would have been scared out of America before I commenced these
+remarks on capital. Allow me, however, respectfully to suggest that we
+of this country are engaged in many vast enterprises; we are responsible
+to many men and their families for the opportunity to work and to earn a
+living. We are committed to the completion of many National enterprises
+of great magnitude. Our crops are none too large, our reserve capital is
+small and is growing smaller. The general industrial and financial
+conditions of the country from the point of view of thoughtful men who
+understand the situation, are not as satisfactory as I wish they were,
+and those who are gaining fame and ascending to office by wild
+denunciations of wealth are willing to assume hazards that I do not
+envy. (Applause)
+
+Honest capital is more secure when governments are made honest and
+special privileges are denied, when graft is prevented and crimes are
+punished: and there is never any danger in real reform, but infinite
+harm can be done by attractive orators of maximum lung power and
+minimum brains (applause). Honesty is the best policy in large business
+and in small business, and the most that capital ought to expect or
+demand, and the most that will be profitable to it in the long run, is
+to seek and if it can obtain the passage and the enforcement of equal
+and just laws, the continuation of justice, and the right honestly to
+accumulate, hold and enjoy property (applause). The relations of capital
+to Conservation are identical with its relations to all other business.
+As Conservation tends to increase and continue the natural resources of
+the country, the fertility of the soil, the perpetuation of the forests,
+the flow of streams, and all of those conditions that insure the
+substantial welfare of the country, the capitalist has an equal interest
+with all other citizens in Conservation, and the added interest that he
+can share in a greater degree in the resulting and continuing prosperity
+than his less fortunate neighbor.
+
+Some excellent things have been done and said in this convention. If
+"conversational conservation" would cure the evils under which we live
+we would have no need of doctors for a long time. As against
+"conversational conservation" I wish now to say a few words about
+constitutional conservation. From now on I may wander a little from the
+rich subject that has been assigned to me, but I have been much
+interested in the suggestion that that branch of the Government that can
+accomplish the most good for the people should take charge of their
+business and affairs connected with Government. Unless, however, we have
+some authoritative source other than the nebulous question of the
+general welfare to determine where this authority lies, I am
+apprehensive that most of the resources of Government would be
+dissipated in fighting over the question of authority.
+
+What I now hold to be true for all time--and you will all agree with me
+some day--is that that branch of the Government that under our
+constitutional system is designated as the one having the authority is
+the only branch of the Government that can benefit capital, conserve or
+advance the rights of the people, or do justice in any way whatever.
+Conservation as it was understood in its inception in this country, the
+preservation of our soils, our forests, and our resources presented a
+subject of little difficulty, and in connection with which we were all
+practically in accord and where apparently there would have been no
+occasion for any serious disagreement. No more new or difficult
+questions of Government are legitimately involved in Conservation and
+forestry than are involved in cultivation and farming.
+
+If the device of using the public lands to graft Government onto
+Conservation had not been invented by some civic genius, we would have
+had 90 percent of conservation to 10 percent of controversy. But when
+the landlord seeks to be the governor, especially in America, we get 90
+percent plus of controversy and 10 percent minus of conservation.
+Landlord law and governmental conservation was devised, we are told, to
+control wealth for the benefit of the plain, small man. Inquire in the
+vicinity of any forest reserve, and you will find that there are more
+plain, small people than there used to be, and they are getting plainer
+and smaller every day; so apparently the good work will never end.
+
+As briefly as I may, and seriously as I can, I will state the situation
+that confronts the people of the West, the poor man and the capitalist
+alike, in connection with the forest reserve. Forest reserves were
+authorized by Congress for the purpose of protecting forests and
+conserving the source of supply of streams. Probably one-third of the
+200,000,000 acres that have been set apart in forest reserves in the
+western one-third of the United States are reasonably necessary and
+suited to these purposes. As to the other two-thirds, they were largely
+included--and in some instances this is frankly admitted--for the
+purpose of authority for Government control, to include pasture lands,
+power-sites, irrigation projects, and the like. If forest reserves had
+been created to meet the actual necessity which brought them into
+existence, and if they had been administered with due deference to the
+rights of the State within which they are situated, to improve and
+develop its resources without restraint, to construct or authorize to be
+constructed roads and highways, railroads, telephone and telegraph
+lines, canals and ditches for the beneficial use of water, and the
+functions of local self-government had not been assumed to the Federal
+authorities and denied to the local authorities, I could conceive of no
+reason why the forestry policy could not have been carried out with
+great credit and some profit to the Federal Government and greatly to
+the advantage of the district in which the forests are situated. The
+pity of it all is that this has not been done. We are told that the
+sentiment in opposition to transferring from the States to the Federal
+Government important functions of regulation and control is not
+unanimous. This is true as to districts not directly affected by the
+forest reserves; but as to the people within and in the vicinity of the
+forest reserves, in other words, as to those who have come directly or
+indirectly in contact with bureaucratic government, the sentiment is
+about as unanimous as ever existed in America.
+
+That the Forester and those under him honestly desire to benefit the
+people, especially "the poor, small man," we need not deny; that the
+actual results have been beneficial, however, we wholly deny. The
+imperial dominion withdrawn includes territory as large as 20 or 30
+average-size eastern States, amounting frequently to one-fifth or
+one-fourth, and sometimes even exceeding the latter fraction of the
+territory within a State, and practically taking over and paralyzing
+local self-government in certain entire districts of a State. These
+lands are, and if the policy continues will remain forever, withdrawn
+from State taxation and revenue, and instead will become a source of
+expense and burden. First, considering the prime purpose to preserve and
+protect the forest, what has been the result? The Forester and those
+under him have my profound sympathy in connection with the recent awful
+destructive forest fires and the heroic way in which the disaster was
+met, even though it was not overcome.
+
+For many years experienced and practical men in the West have protested
+against the policies pursued. Previous to the establishment of the
+forest reserves the land was pastured by sheep and cattle, admittedly in
+some instances over-pastured. Frequent fires ran through the country,
+but in most instances as the country had been closely pastured off and
+fires had usually recently occurred, these fires did only incidental
+harm, and in a general way the great forests of the West in many
+districts--although the result of mere natural processes--as valuable
+and magnificent as there are in the world, were retained in their
+primitive and perfect condition. For a good many years now exactly the
+reverse of this primitive condition has prevailed. Sheep have been
+excluded and cattle have been limited; falling and decaying timber, the
+growth of vegetation from year to year, and the accumulation of
+underbrush and debris have continued; and we have gone on conserving our
+forests in such a way that we have been accumulating fuel and the
+elements of destruction, piling up wrath against the day of wrath, until
+the fires, in spite of precautions, have started, and the destruction
+that has resulted is inevitable. What is needed now in this particular
+is a surgeon who has the nerve to amputate the conditions that create
+fire, and until this is done the danger will go on increasing from year
+to year and more destruction than benefits will inevitably result. To
+those who suggest that a sufficient patrol will prevent fires, I respond
+that they ought to try the experiment of filling a building with powder,
+putting an ample guard around it, and touching a match to it.
+
+These great reserves have been practically closed to settlement and
+homesteading. The price of pasturage has been increased, the number of
+cattle and sheep pastured has been diminished, and the price of meat
+correspondingly advanced. The price of stumpage has been doubled and
+trebled, no small mills have been or can be successfully started, and
+the price of lumber to consumers has been increased. The policy has
+limited the construction of canals and other appliances for irrigation,
+and still more effectually limited the construction of like appliances
+for the diversion of water for the development of electric power. If
+this water could be diverted for irrigation and electric power under
+State laws without other restraint, the quantity available in the
+majority of the western States is so great that the supply would exceed
+the demand, the price would be lower, the consumption greater, and in
+every way the people would be benefited. The country would be settled,
+the people would be more prosperous, the supply of water and electricity
+would be more abundant and cheaper, and all of the people and all of the
+industries would be correspondingly more prosperous.
+
+It is gratifying that the line of cleavage and difference between the
+advocates of bureaucratic control over local industries and the
+advocates of local self-government have been better defined. Upon the
+all-important question of the law applicable to this subject, I submit
+that there is little ground for honest difference. The Supreme Court of
+the United States has decided practically every phase of the matter over
+and over again, and the law is settled to the following effect: That the
+United States Government owns the public lands in each of the States as
+private proprietor and not as sovereign; that it, the Federal
+Government, if it seeks to assert any authority in any State, must find
+its warrant in the Constitution and not in the ownership of the public
+lands; that the authority of the United States Government to adopt
+needful rules and regulations in connection with public lands is an
+authority to protect its proprietary interest and not exercise
+governmental functions within any State; that every State is upon an
+equal footing with all of the other States, and for the protection of
+its own people, its own industries, and the regulation of its own
+monopolies, each State has all of the powers of any other Government;
+that the United States Government exercises the same power, and each of
+the States exercises the same power, "no more and no less," regardless
+of the existence or non-existence of public land in any State.
+
+The whole pretense made by some that the United States Government can
+exercise exceptional governmental authority in a State having public
+lands is a pretense and a pretense only. Under the decision of the
+Supreme Court of the United States, such a claim has no shadow of
+foundation, and its assertion is merely injurious, detrimental to
+capital, destructive to industry, and can never serve any useful purpose
+of regulation or otherwise. These principles being fully decided and
+clearly in mind, it is hard to understand why the issue is raised, and
+how it is hoped that the policy can be imposed upon the western States
+or any other States under the Constitution. It has been said with
+derision that the corporations are appealing to the Constitution. I
+would to God that neither the corporations nor the American people might
+ever appeal to anything worse. However much evil may have been taught,
+no honest man need be apprehensive of injustice if his rights and the
+rights of his fellow citizens are always measured by a just construction
+of the Constitution of the United States. (Applause)
+
+We are told, and I think some of our adversaries honestly believe the
+tale, that all of the remaining resources of the country belong to all
+of the people. That "all of the resources belong to all of the people"
+is a slogan that sounds good. Its chief defect is that it is not true,
+and the next objection is that to assert it now, after pursuing an
+exactly contrary policy as to four-fifths of the Nation's resources,
+would be an intolerable injustice. The United States Supreme Court
+decided a long time ago that the United States Government received and
+held the public lands as trustee for the benefit of the people and the
+States within which they were situated, to the end that they might be
+disposed of to actual settlers at nominal prices in order that the
+country might be settled, cultivated, populated, and developed; the
+lands come under the taxing power, and all of the unrestrained functions
+of State government. These decisions have been reaffirmed, and it has
+been held that the United States' title and trusteeship as to the public
+lands is identical in all the States. Therefore it is not true as a
+matter of understanding or of law that the United States is the
+unrestrained proprietor of the public lands, but it holds in them a
+trust; and I submit that no justice can be done or good come from the
+violation or attempted violation of a trust. Considering the equity of
+the situation, if the United States is now the owner of the remaining
+lands and resources for all of the people, it has been such from the
+beginning of the Government; and having disposed of these resources to
+the beneficiaries entitled thereto, it is now seriously proposed to
+seize upon the remaining fraction and hold that fraction for the benefit
+of all the people, as much as for the benefit of the people and the
+sections of the country that have received their proportion as for those
+who have not received theirs.
+
+The situation might be illustrated by this simple statement: Uncle Sam
+may be assumed to be the father of four sons; we will name them East,
+North, South, and West. Uncle Samuel being liberal to a fault and
+mindful of a trust, has transferred to his three elder sons, East,
+North, and South, all of their share in his estate. But these elder
+sons, especially after their industrious younger brother has begun to
+show the real value of his portion of their father's estate, begin to
+look with covetous eyes upon the younger brother's inheritance. Finally
+a deep sense of justice begins to pervade the minds of East, North, and
+South, and they appear before Uncle Samuel and say, "Father, you have
+been very profligate in the management of your great estate. You have
+turned over to us and to our children without needful restriction the
+whole of the proportion that we can rightfully claim. In the doing of
+this you have shown great incompetency and have practiced many faults,
+and behold, you have sinned against Heaven and in the sight of men. We
+can see no way of atoning for this awful offense except that you shall
+take and hold that portion of the estate that should descend to our
+younger brother for the benefit of all of your children. And as a
+further atonement, having shown in the distribution of your estate to us
+that you are dishonest and incompetent in the last degree, in
+consideration thereof we will nominate and appoint you the landlord and
+guardian, without bonds and forever, of that portion of the estate that,
+except for this atonement, would have belonged to our younger brother;
+requiring you, however, to see to it with scrupulous care that we, your
+elder sons, shall receive from the rents, leases, and profits of this
+estate our equal shares with our beloved younger brother." Painful as it
+may seem, these elder brothers seem well nigh unanimous as to this
+scheme of atonement, and Uncle Samuel seems weak and subject to the
+influence of the majority. History, however, will record that the
+Constitution broke the will and the elder brothers were charged with
+the costs and counsel fees. (Laughter)
+
+If anyone present feels justified in challenging the accuracy or
+historical correctness of the foregoing statement or its logical
+application to the situation, he will now please rise and state his case
+or hereafter forever hold his peace.
+
+The overshadowing political reason why the United States Government must
+invade the public land States and assert powers of government that it
+cannot assert in any other States we are told is to control monopolies.
+As a controller of monopolies not constitutionally subject to be
+controlled by the Federal Government, and under claims of title to the
+public lands, the United States Government and its respective bureau
+chiefs would have St. George, the dragon destroyer, outclassed at the
+ratio of sixteen to one. It may do as a political issue for a long time,
+but if the people of the western States had no powers of government or
+sources of control within themselves, or except through the Federal
+Government, the public lands, and the heads of bureaus, these people
+would have little to expect or hope for.
+
+It is gratifying, however, to observe that instead of being helpless and
+impotent, the western States not only have all of the powers that are
+vested in any other Government for the protection of their people from
+monopoly and wrong, but an understanding of their constitutions and laws
+clearly demonstrates that they are showing themselves far more alert,
+advanced, and capable in these functions of government than either the
+Federal Government or the older States in the East. It ought not to be
+necessary to say to an American audience that it is elementary that the
+people of a locality can give themselves more honest, efficient, and
+better government than can be given to them by any remote authority. The
+reason for this is so simple that the only excuse for attempting to deny
+it is the ignorance and incapacity of the people concerned to carry on
+or carry out self-government. The people of the western States alone
+will suffer if they do not efficiently and intelligently exercise their
+undoubted authority to supply themselves with good self-government, and
+efficiently control and direct their own industries and their own
+monopolies.
+
+About the only argument that is made in favor of Federal control and
+against local self-government in the West is that the corporations
+appear to prefer the former. The question is not what the corporations
+prefer but what the Constitution requires; and, in the next place, the
+corporations do not deny the authority of the States because they are
+advised that they cannot and therefore should not attempt to do so, and
+because they are advised that they must in any event submit to local
+self-government and that Federal control would be an additional and not
+a lawful but a wholly unauthorized usurpation of authority. The American
+people, of all people in the world, have earned the reputation of being
+the most obedient to law and the least submissive to usurpation of any
+people in the world. If some of our wealthy men and some of
+corporations have offended against honesty and attempted to circumvent,
+misapply, and misuse the law, these are instances to be regretted,
+condemned, and punished. The practice should be abandoned, and if not
+abandoned rigorously prevented; having it, however, religiously in mind
+that ultimate justice can be done and the law vindicated only by
+adhering to due process of law.
+
+We are told that Switzerland as a Nation regulates and manages its own
+power business. Since, however, Switzerland has no more authority or
+powers of government than California, Colorado, or New York, and since
+it is probably one-tenth the size of these States and its cantons are
+about the size of an ordinary western school district, this would not
+appear to indicate any reason why the western States of the Union could
+not successfully carry out the same function of government.
+
+Our former President has said to us that he would be as swift to prevent
+injustice and unwarranted uprising against property as anyone. This I do
+not doubt, and I am prepared to agree that probably no one living could
+perform the task more cheerfully or effectively; but in this connection
+it might not be improper to reflect that the people have been taught,
+and rightly so, that this is "a government of law and not of men," and
+we rely upon the equal and continued protection of the law for the
+protection of our persons and our property, not upon the life or
+disposition of any man.
+
+We have already referred to the assertion that the remaining resources
+of the Federal Government belong to all of the people and are to be
+administered and revenues obtained for their full benefit. We are not,
+however, deluded with the thought that we are to begin to draw
+individual dividends. The revenues thus obtained are to go into the
+Federal treasury (and allow me parenthetically to suggest that the
+pay-roll will not be far behind the earnings), but if through some
+oversight a balance should be found in favor of all of the people it
+will go into the Federal treasury to reduce taxation to the common
+benefit. Allow me to suggest, and ask all thoughtful people to well
+consider, that if sufficient revenues were collected and paid into the
+Federal treasury to prove of great benefit to a hundred millions of
+people, the collection and payment of these same revenues will of
+necessity amount to some slight imposition and burden upon the ten
+millions of people when they are paid out of their resources and
+revenues.
+
+While we are considering monopolies it might not be inappropriate to
+consider that they are of two classes: private monopolies and government
+monopolies. One of the highest functions of government is to control and
+regulate private monopolies. It is not always easy, but the undoubted
+power exists and if properly applied is effective. History records that
+four-fifths of the exactions and oppressions and human sufferings that
+have existed in the world have come about when the conduct of business
+and the sources of supply were confined and vested in the government
+and constituted a government monopoly. Government monopolies are
+invariably created for the alleged benefit of the people, and throughout
+all history have almost invariably operated to the oppression and
+detriment of the people and ultimately to deprive them of their
+liberties. In the face of these undeniable records of history, the
+people of the western States are invited to surrender their control over
+their industries and their own private monopolies and have substituted
+therefor a Federal Government monopoly over which they could have no
+possible control. The western States are asked not only to surrender
+this control, but along with it to surrender the powers of taxation and
+revenue over all these great resources. My friends, some of you may
+congratulate yourselves that these so-called policies are popular, and
+no doubt to a certain extent they are; we think, however, because they
+are misunderstood. There need be no misunderstanding between us. You are
+welcome to your assumption of victory, and to the assumption of defeat
+for those who adhere to the right of local self-government.
+
+We are correctly told that the ancient doctrine of State rights ended at
+Appomattox. The doctrine was there ended that the Federal Government did
+not have all of the power necessary to protect and continue the Nation
+for the common defense and the general welfare. The undeniable doctrine
+and right of the American people within the several States to continue
+an unrestrained local self-government was at that time neither destroyed
+nor impaired. The right and doctrine of local self-government will
+endure and continue until, if ever, some common disaster shall terminate
+and end the National existence as well as the existence of the several
+States. No question is ever settled until it is settled right. Frankly,
+today may be yours but tomorrow is ours. The Constitution of this
+country is greater and more enduring than any man. Let there be no
+misunderstanding between us. You should not, but if you would you
+cannot, deprive the people of this country in any number of States or in
+any one State of the equal guaranteed constitutional right of local
+self-government.
+
+In recent months, so numerous have been the complaints and utterances
+against the courts that it would almost appear that there was a common
+design to discredit the courts with the American people. For even a
+longer period there have been recurring attacks upon and denials of the
+capability and capacity of the representative branch of our government.
+Even within its obvious jurisdiction the Legislative department has not
+only been excessively criticized but its very powers denied. The
+Executive of the country and each of the States, Congress, and each
+Legislature of each of the States, the Supreme Court and all of the
+subordinate courts, derive all of their authority from the American
+people through the Constitution of the United States. He who acts
+without and in spite of the Constitution acts without authority from the
+people. Constitutions are adopted to safeguard the rights of all men and
+to protect minorities from majorities. The question is not, where the
+Constitution declares the measure of right, what the majority wants, but
+the question is, what does the Constitution declare; and that is the
+beginning and the end of the law. The Government under which we have
+lived is the best vindicated Government in the history of the world. If
+a democratic people, as we have been told, have destroyed more since the
+adoption of the Constitution than has been wasted and destroyed in
+Europe in all of its history, we may admit this and agree that it is
+wise always to prevent waste; but we can with equal truth assert that if
+our free people under our free institutions have destroyed more than the
+people of Europe in their entire history, our people by scientific
+research and invention have added more to the potential and productive
+power of the earth and the elements for the benefit and subsistence of
+mankind than has been added by the people of Europe, Asia, and Africa
+during the entire recorded history of the world--all since the adoption
+of the Constitution of the United States.
+
+Whether it be popular or unpopular, it is true that the tendency to
+belittle the legislative power, to disparage judicial power, and to
+correspondingly exalt the executive power, is the same evil tendency
+that has destroyed every free government that has ever existed. It is
+the same spirit that overthrew the mild judicial government of Samuel
+and made Saul of Tarsus king over Israel. It is the same spirit that
+subverted the free cities and provinces of Greece, and made Alexander,
+the Macedonian, the sole arbiter of the destinies not only of the people
+of Greece but of the whole eastern world. It is the same spirit that
+subverted the Senate and the tribunals of Rome, and made Julius Caesar
+and his successors the emperors and rulers of the entire known world for
+succeeding centuries. We may agree that no such events will recur in
+modern history. But it is the same spirit that brings about such a
+condition in Mexico that nobody knows or cares when Congress meets or
+adjourns, because they never pass or suggest the passage of any laws
+that have not already been approved by the President. They must have a
+Supreme Court in Mexico, because their Constitution is very similar to
+our own. For the same reason we assume that they have States, although
+nobody ever hears of them. Neither do we hear of any one criticizing the
+decisions of the Supreme Court of that country; nobody has ever
+suggested that within the last quarter of a century that court has ever
+decided anything displeasing to the President.
+
+The United States of America today is the world's sole and single
+exception where the people under a constitution through a long period of
+years have been guaranteed and have received the equal protection of the
+law. No guards have been required to stand at our city gates, no
+bayonets have defended our towns; we have all lived and prospered under
+the equal protection of equal laws. (Applause)
+
+These institutions are human, they are imperfect and under them errors
+have been committed, but undeniably under this Government the people
+have received a larger measure of liberty together with a better
+distribution of the benefits of industry than was ever received or
+enjoyed hitherto by any people in the world. We favor that new
+efficiency that is neither National nor State, that under an equal
+respect for the Nation and for the State and for each branch of the
+Government strives for a higher condition of civic virtue, better
+enforcement and greater respect for the law in all of its branches. I
+hope and pray that none of us may ever be required to look beyond the
+years when the Constitution and the law in letter and in spirit are no
+longer supreme in this country and when we shall have reverted to "that
+good old simple plan, that each may take whate'er he may and keep
+whate'er he can." (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Professor CONDRA--Ladies and Gentlemen: A question has been sent to the
+Chair: "Will the Congress close this evening?" We do not know; probably
+the Congress itself will decide. There are several other features in the
+program, and there will be a report by the Committee on Resolutions. It
+may be that the Congress can finish all of its work today if you choose
+to re-convene.
+
+You all know the next speaker, Honorable John Barrett, Director-General
+of the Pan-American Union. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr BARRETT--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentleman: When the captivating
+senior Senator from Indiana fascinated us yesterday, and after holding
+us enthralled by his eloquence ending with that magnificent climax in
+eulogy of Gifford Pinchot, he left this room remarking to the reporters
+that he couldn't stay longer because he must go down and look after his
+State and 3,000,000 people. Now, if some of the rest of us relied on the
+measure of States and population as a reason for not being here, we
+would not come at all. For example, I might have said, when invited to
+take part in the work of this Congress, that I couldn't possibly come
+because I might neglect that which was best for 21 independent Republics
+and 160,000,000 people. What I want to say is this--that I would like to
+multiply twenty times over all the enthusiasm with which Senator
+Beveridge fired us yesterday, and extend it to many millions of people,
+in order that the wave started here by him and other speakers might
+sweep over the whole western hemisphere and remove the slightest
+question that all these Republics are awake to the practical value of
+Conservation.
+
+Possibly some of you do not know very much more about the practical work
+of the Pan-American Union than I knew about the country to which I was
+first appointed minister some sixteen or seventeen years ago--when I
+knew as little about foreign affairs as some of us did a few years ago
+about Conservation. One day the President of the United States, with two
+United States Senators from North Carolina standing near by--if one of
+them had been from North Carolina and the other from South Carolina
+there wouldn't have been any doubt as to what the conversation was to
+be (laughter), but as both came from the same State I was in the
+dark--looked at me and said, "Mr Barrett, I am trying to find some young
+man who is not afraid of hard work and wants to make a reputation for
+himself to go off to a distant country, in another part of the world, to
+settle a case involving several millions of dollars and our treaty
+rights in the Orient; I am looking for a minister to Siam." Well, I
+thought that he wanted me to recommend somebody, and was trying to think
+of somebody in my State that I would like to get rid of and never see
+again, when he added, "I am thinking of appointing you; what do you know
+about Siam?" To save my life I couldn't even remember where it was, and
+I was conscious of the terrible impression I must be making upon the
+Executive, when with a twinkle in his eye he intimated "I have him this
+time." Then, a child-memory coming back, I braced myself and said, "Why,
+Mr President, _I know all about Siam_." "You do? What do you know about
+that country?" "Why, Mr President, Siam is the country that produced the
+Siamese Twins." Whereupon he shook my hand and said he was delighted to
+get hold of a man of such abundant information. (Laughter)
+
+Now, before proceeding further, let me, as one of the officers of this
+Congress--although one who has had very little to do with its hard
+work--join with you in expressing profound appreciation of the splendid
+hospitality that has been shown the Delegates and all others who have
+come here to the city of Saint Paul in the State of Minnesota
+(applause). Moreover, I believe it is only fair and fitting that we
+should also express our gratitude for the hard work and the devotion to
+this Congress shown by President Baker and Secretary Shipp and Professor
+Condra and Chairman White and other men belonging to the Executive
+Committee. (Applause)
+
+I have been asked, as a resident of the District of Columbia, whether,
+if this Congress shall go to the East next year, it might not go to the
+city of Washington, and there arouse the interest and the sympathy of
+the East. The West is awake; and if it be necessary to secure the
+cooperation of the eastern sections, and if the Executive Committee
+hesitates as to where it may go, I can assure them that by the city of
+Washington, the Capital of the Nation, will be given a welcome akin to
+that which has been given by the city of Saint Paul.
+
+Ladies and Gentlemen, one feature of this Congress has made a profound
+impression upon me, of which perhaps too little mention has been made:
+the cooperation and interest of the women. That was a splendid speech
+made the other day by Mabel Boardman; other women have spoken well, and
+others will. I assure you that there is no better omen of the success of
+this movement than this cooperation by women (applause). And I want to
+say right here, that whenever I am able to pay a tribute to the courage
+and the quality of women, I like to do it. It so happened that I was
+your first minister to Panama, in the days which tried men's
+souls--where I, as minister, frequently had to preside where three or
+four splendid boys, graduates from our colleges and high schools, were
+laid under the wet clay in one grave, all victims of yellow fever. When
+I went down there with General Davis, then Governor of the Canal Zone,
+there were some sixteen girls, nurses, picked from all over this
+country--I think one or two came from Saint Paul or Minneapolis--who had
+never seen yellow fever before, had never experienced the pestilential
+conditions faced in Panama when we were "blazing the way" for the
+present sanitary condition. Well, they came and took up their work; and
+in a short time the yellow fever spread until men were dying every day
+in increasing numbers, and both the boys and men came to us and begged
+that they might return to the United States--in the parlance of the
+canal work, they had "cold feet," and it was with the greatest
+difficulty that we were able to hold them there to perform the great
+task of making the zone sanitary as well as digging the canal that the
+oceans might be united; but when the yellow fever was conquered, General
+Davis and I discovered that during all that time of peril and death and
+threatened desertion, not _one_ of those sixteen girls faltered or asked
+permission to leave her station of duty. (Great applause)
+
+Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a pleasure today to be followed by a
+representative of the British government who is a credit to his
+government and to the great man whom he represents here, the Right
+Honorable James Bryce, British Ambassador (applause). There is nothing
+more splendid than the thought of the cooperation of this mighty country
+north of us, Canada, with her 4,000,000 square miles and her ambitious
+men and women with problems akin to ours; and it is both appropriate and
+flattering that the British Empire should have responded to the
+invitation and sent here a special representative of their Embassy
+(applause). We are to be congratulated on his attendance.
+
+It seems to me that during the past three or four days I have heard the
+word "insurgent" used. Am I correct, Mr President?
+
+President BAKER--"Progressive."
+
+Mr BARRETT--I think there have been some references to progressiveness
+and insurgency. Now, as the head of an international bureau whose
+constituency is composed of twenty Latin-American Republics, I want to
+tell you that you don't know anything here about real insurgency
+(applause). Why, we have men in Central America and South America who
+could make Murdock and Madison look like picayune persons if they came
+in competition with them in the matter of insurgency. We have Republics
+that can give Kansas and Wisconsin and Nebraska and Minnesota cards and
+spades and all the trumps in the pack, and then beat them out in
+insurgency. But I want to say this, that in all my experience in those
+countries as minister and my studies of their history, there has never
+been an insurgency or revolution, from Mexico south to Argentina which
+has succeeded without at the same time moving the country forward for
+its benefit (applause). I do not say this in any political spirit,
+because I am not in politics; being an international officer, I am
+neither republican nor democrat, but a citizen of America; yet I do say
+this, that the spirit of onward movement among men shown thus from time
+to time is a splendid sign of the progressive type which characterizes
+the American people, whether they be American of North America or
+American of South America. (Applause)
+
+Ladies and Gentlemen, it would be a splendid thing today if the voice
+that has been sounded here on Conservation could be heard by every
+Pan-American--through that All America comprehending not only our own
+wonderful land but twenty other Nations, covering an area of 15,000,000
+square miles, having a population of 175,000,000 people, and conducting
+a foreign commerce valued at the magnificent total of $2,000,000,000
+annually. Only a few years ago Latin-America seemed almost like an
+unknown land; but today these countries from Mexico and Cuba south to
+Argentina and Chile are making more progress commercially and materially
+than almost any other section of the world. We hear much of the Orient,
+of Japan and of China, whose inhabitants are alien people, alien in
+philosophy, alien in religion, raising the greatest racial question
+before the world; but here at the south of us are twenty sister Nations
+whose peoples have the same ambitions as yours, the same religion, the
+same philosophy, the same hopes--and yet you and I have been sitting in
+cozy corners flirting with Japan and China, and neglecting our own
+sisters in our own family (applause). Last year Argentina--a country
+half as large as our own splendid land, in a temperate zone, with nearly
+7,000,000 splendid white people, having sons whom you would allow your
+daughters to marry and daughters you would allow your sons to
+marry--conducted a greater foreign trade than the 50,000,000 Japanese or
+the 300,000,000 Chinese (applause); and yet we are neglecting them. Now
+these countries gained independence at the hands of leaders who studied
+the life of George Washington (applause), and they have continued their
+existence under the example of such men as Abraham Lincoln. Whether you
+go upon the high Andes or in the valley of the great Amazon, the names
+of Washington and Lincoln are known almost as well as those of their own
+great heroes who helped them to win independence.
+
+Ladies and Gentlemen, it is time that through the cooperation of all
+these countries we should accomplish protection for them and for
+ourselves; and we should have in the near future a great Pan-American
+Conference of Conservation, when all the countries from Canada south
+will send their representatives to join us in working together to
+safeguard their prosperity, to safeguard our own, to promote our mutual
+and several interests until this whole hemisphere from Alaska and the
+Arctic on the north to Chile and the Straits of Magellan on the south
+shall present a united force for the benefit not only of ourselves but
+of those who are to come after us. Is there anything more magnificent
+than this thought that the twenty-one independent Republics and an
+independent Nation like Canada should join hands in such a purpose? The
+details I shall not discuss, but I want it to be a thought that shall
+sink into your minds.
+
+Now, I wish that I could take all the "hot air" that has arisen in this
+great auditorium and make a mighty balloon to take you for a trip over
+our sister countries (applause). I would like to show you Brazil, into
+which you could place all of the United States and still have room left
+over for the German empire; I would like to take you up the Amazon, out
+of which flows five times the volume of the Mississippi; I would like to
+take you to Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, which has a
+population of 1,200,000 and is growing faster than any city in the
+United States with the exception of New York and Chicago--I would like
+to show you its magnificent boulevards, its splendid public buildings,
+its schools, its cathedrals and churches; I would like to take you
+across the Andes over that wonderful tunnel just completed and show you
+Chile, which if placed at the southern end of California would reach up
+into the heart of Alaska, in the very infancy of a splendid development;
+I would like to take you into Bolivia, into which you could put Texas
+three times and still have room left over; into Peru, which would cover
+the whole Atlantic Coast from Maine to Georgia; into Colombia, where you
+could place all of Germany and France; into Mexico, that would cover the
+whole southwestern section of this country; I would like to take you
+over all these countries and show you how they are moving forward, prove
+to you the remarkable fact that during the last fifteen years that part
+of the world has gone ahead with progress almost equal to ours. Now, if
+we in this country are going to meet the great problems of manufacturing
+and the employment of labor and capital in the future, we must aid these
+countries to conserve their resources to supply our manufacturing plants
+with raw material. Hundreds of millions of dollars today are keeping
+occupied by laboring men in this country factories that would have to be
+closed tomorrow if these countries were unable to supply us with their
+raw materials--think of that as we remember where we were only
+twenty-five years ago; and if some God-given influence can empower them
+to see our mistakes we will find, twenty-five years from now, Brazil and
+Argentina and Mexico and Canada providing us with those elements which
+shall make this country forever the greatest power in the world for
+civilization and for commerce. (Applause)
+
+As I stand here before an audience of the West an inspiration comes for
+the work we have in Washington that only those can feel whose residence
+is not entirely in the West. Though born and brought up in New England
+and later taking my residence on the Pacific Coast, I have been much out
+of the country representing you abroad; and I rejoice in the ozone of
+patriotism that I am able to absorb in a State like Minnesota. Time and
+time again, after trips around the world I have arrived in New York or
+in Washington hardly feeling that I was in the United States of America;
+but when I have crossed the Alleghenies into the Mississippi valley,
+into sections like this, then I have felt the pulsing of red blood, that
+impulse and influence which is making our country great; and I am proud
+today to be able to go back to Washington feeling more capable than ever
+before for my humble task because of the contact with representative men
+of the West. (Applause)
+
+There are two personal references that I make before I sit down: When on
+Tuesday I sat on the platform and saw the personality of the foremost
+private citizen of the world exerting its influence, the prime thought
+that came into my mind was, not that he was speaking for the great cause
+of Conservation, not that he was appealing to the moral sense of our
+people, but that there stood a splendid, a perfect example of what the
+young men of this country can do (applause). Is there anything finer
+than to see a man of his physique, with the glow of health upon his
+face, the father of a family of which he can be proud, a man with a
+clear moral life and courageous career, one whose voice has been heard
+all over the world with respect--is there anything finer than that we
+should raise up in this country that class of men? And I tell you it
+would be disgraceful to our country with its 90,000,000 people if we
+could not produce a man of that kind. It is the personal influence of
+Theodore Roosevelt, all over this country, not only among our young men,
+but among our young women, leading to world uplift and to sterling
+character, that we must have in order to fight the battles that are
+before us. (Great applause)
+
+And there is this suggestion about his chief lieutenant who has perhaps
+been the father of this movement: I have known Gifford Pinchot
+personally, as a dear friend, for many years. It makes my heart well up
+with joy, it makes my pride as an American citizen more emphatic than
+ever before, when I think that a man born in affluence of a splendid
+family, born with every opportunity in the most exclusive circles of New
+York and Washington, a man who could own his private yacht or spend his
+time in the gaieties of fashionable resorts, a man who could belong to
+every club and enjoy all its pleasures--that such a man has devoted his
+life unselfishly to the good of the American people and to the cause of
+Conservation (great applause). It is a splendid example of true American
+manhood; and when he speaks here, as he has spoken in other places, the
+influence that he exerts is not merely for the cause of Conservation but
+for the highest ideals which you and I have of American manhood. So I
+rest assured that the cause of Conservation, with such an advocate as
+Theodore Roosevelt and such an apostle as Gifford Pinchot, will not be
+confined within the limits of the United States but will resound through
+Canada and through Mexico and on south even to the limits of the
+southern continent; and I foresee that you and I will be proud that we
+were able to participate in the effort to extend this movement. (Great
+applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A DELEGATE--Mr Chairman: As a member of the Executive Committee of the
+National Conservation Congress, I ask for the privilege of the floor for
+the purpose of introducing a resolution.
+
+Professor CONDRA--That will be in order immediately after the response
+by Honorable Esmond Ovey, Secretary of the British Embassy, which is a
+part of the presentation now in progress.
+
+I take pleasure in introducing Honorable Esmond Ovey. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr OVEY--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: When I arrived here on
+Monday I noticed in the program laid before me a very disquieting item
+to the effect that a speech would be delivered on the subject of
+"Conservation as a World-wide Question" by a visiting representative of
+a foreign nation. I did not think that would mean me, and until
+yesterday evening was still hoping that some other representative would
+be found, more adequate than myself, to take the burden from my
+shoulders. However, no savior has appeared, and I think my best course
+will be, under the circumstances, to make an entirely clean breast in
+the matter and tell you that my knowledge on the subject of the
+technical details of the Conservation of natural resources is very
+meager. The field of natural resources with which I personally am more
+occupied is one which is slightly different from that which forms the
+subject of your deliberations, a field that is perhaps as great and in
+many ways certainly as important; it is a field which requires neither
+phosphates nor potash, nor any of these ingredients of which I
+unfortunately am so ignorant--it is the field of international relation,
+and the crop or harvest is the harvest of peace and good will
+(applause). The duty of the diplomat is to watch this crop ripen. It is
+a crop which can go on forever ripening and getting greater, but there
+is, of course, the possibility of some spark dropping; and it is then
+the duty of the diplomat to attempt, so far as possible to arrest and
+extinguish that spark before it flames up like these wasteful and
+terrible conflagrations which occasionally sweep through the forests of
+this country. In this connection I will point out that in the immediate
+field of international relation between Great Britain and the United
+States there has been an exceedingly long period in which there has been
+no spark dropped (applause); the year after next will, Gentlemen--I may
+call it to your attention--be the 100th birthday of peace between the
+two great English-speaking nations of the world. (Applause)
+
+I have the very great pleasure of being here as the representative of my
+chief, the British Ambassador, Mr James Bryce (applause). The British
+Board of Agriculture were unfortunately unable to send a delegate to
+attend this great conference. Mr Bryce himself was the recipient of a
+very cordial invitation from the President of this Congress, Mr Baker.
+Mr Baker in his letter stated that should Mr Bryce be unable to accept,
+he would be glad if a member of his staff could come. Mr Bryce had long
+pre-arranged and planned a visit to Panama and South America; I can only
+suppose with his great intelligence Mr Bryce (my own immediate chief)
+has gone there for the purpose of improving his mind in the
+contemplation of the achievements of my friend Mr John Barrett
+(applause). I have been commissioned by Mr Bryce to tell you how very
+glad he would have been to be able to accept this invitation.
+Confidentially, I may tell you that, glad as Mr Bryce would have been to
+be here, I do not believe he would have been so glad as I am to be here
+myself. (Applause)
+
+Mr Bryce is a man very difficult to represent (applause). His knowledge
+is encyclopedic. Even if taken by surprise and asked to speak to an
+audience such as this, containing so many representatives of all the
+practical, scientific and technical phases of the great problem which is
+being discussed at this Congress, he would, I am certain, have been able
+to draw on the great storehouse of his knowledge and give you the
+benefit of his accurate observation in a technically interesting form. I
+can, unfortunately, lay claim to no such talents. I will, however,
+refuse to yield to him in the enthusiasm--that sort of contagion to
+which Mr Barrett referred--which I feel here in this great country and
+in the State of Minnesota on the subject of the noble ideals, the
+efforts and the aims of these congresses. It seems to me that the idea
+of careful deliberation and open discussion by persons from all parts of
+the world in an attempt to arrive at the conclusion and basis on which
+to build up a policy of Conservation so you can hand down to posterity
+the great benefits that you enjoy, is a very noble conception.
+
+One of the great characteristic differences between Occidental
+civilization and that of certain less civilized and advanced Oriental
+nations is the great quality of foresight, of looking to the future; and
+this is a quality which you possess in a most extraordinary degree. I do
+not wish to deny that other people to whom I have referred also possess
+this quality; I will, if you permit me, give you an instance to prove
+that it is possessed by them, if in a less perfected form.
+
+There was upon a time a gentleman from some unspecified country in the
+Far East who had an orchard. To protect this orchard from the prevailing
+cold northerly winds which destroyed his fruit in the early winter, he
+built a wall on that side of his property. When he had built his wall he
+called in a friend to admire it. The friend came and admired it. The
+wall was solidly built, six feet high, and twelve feet wide. The friend
+asked him, "Why have you chosen these peculiar dimensions for your
+wall?" He said, "Ah, I have foresight. I built this way for a reason: my
+neighbors' walls are frequently blown over by the wind. When mine is
+blown over, it will be twice as high as it was before." (Laughter) Now,
+that is not the sort of construction in this magnificent building of
+Conservation that you are preparing.
+
+Another quality, if I may be permitted to mention it, that I, as a
+foreigner, have observed, is a great quality which is invariably a
+concomitant of real progress; it is a certain kind of glorious
+dissatisfaction with your own achievements, however great they may be
+(applause). For instance, you have something which is very, very
+great--your country. You never were satisfied with that, you want to
+make it very, very good. You have something which is very, very good,
+the great American people; you want to make them, as far as I can
+understand, as numerous as possible (laughter and applause). You have
+your natural resources, which are very great and very good, perhaps the
+greatest and best on earth, and yet you are not satisfied. What do you
+do then? You say, "Let's make them _everlasting_." (Applause) Now,
+Ladies and Gentlemen, that seems to me a very fine and high ambition on
+which you have set your minds.
+
+Before concluding, I will venture to tell you about an impression that I
+received on my way out to Saint Paul, on this my first visit west of
+Washington. As I looked out of the windows at the flying countryside,
+upon lake after lake, upon mountain, valley, plain, stream, forest,
+farm, garden, factory, city, town, I said to myself, "What manner of
+people then can these well be who have so kindly and courteously asked
+me to a Congress which is apparently convening for the purpose of
+conserving the natural resources? What manner of people can these be
+that by digging, delving, plowing, mining, bridging, tunneling, felling,
+and building roads and railroads on all these countless millions of
+acres of rich and fertile land--many of which are protected from
+approach on the east by apparently uncrossable mountains and unfordable
+streams and what to lesser intelligence might seem unbridgable
+rivers--what manner of people may these be who, in spite of these
+obstacles, in this short period of time, have forced Dame Nature herself
+to cry out, Gentlemen, please hold steady with me for a moment."
+(Applause) Such were my thoughts: and it seems to me that the necessity
+for convening these annual congresses for open discussion of the best
+means of avoiding unnecessary waste and of giving nature a chance of
+recuperation affords the highest compliment that it is possible to pay
+to the enterprise, courage, perseverance, and indomitable pluck of any
+nation.
+
+Can you, therefore, Ladies and Gentlemen, ask if in view of these facts
+the Government of Great Britain is interested in your efforts? As
+Secretary of the British Embassy I myself was instrumental in forwarding
+to my Government in one year, through the kind intermediation of the
+State Department, no less than 110 copies of the report of the Governors
+of 1908 on the Conservation of your National resources, which, if I
+understand rightly, was one of the first expressions of this great
+movement--110 departments of that Government interested in this
+movement. (Applause)
+
+It is my pleasurable duty to inform you that with her own magnificent
+dominions across the seas, with her great enterprises in forestry,
+irrigation, agriculture, and mining, in all scientific exploitation of
+land for the public good in Canada, in Australia, in India, in Egypt, in
+South Africa and British East Africa, and in all the other places
+throughout the world in which Great Britain is now working, the
+Government which I have the honor to serve is in the heartiest possible
+sympathy with the great object of your endeavors in conserving for
+posterity, for people not yet born, the same magnificent heritage which
+you and we enjoy. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Professor CONDRA--All those who wish to say that as Delegates we stand
+for Pan-American conservation of natural resources, and for good
+fellowship and world-wide Conservation of all things best for mankind on
+all lines of industrial development, will please rise.
+
+[The audience rose en masse.]
+
+Professor CONDRA--There was a resolution to be offered at this time.
+
+A DELEGATE--Mr Chairman: I move that the time for the election of
+officers of the National Conservation Congress for the ensuing year be
+fixed for the hour of 8 p.m., Thursday, September 8, and that the
+Committee on Resolutions submit their report immediately following the
+election of officers.
+
+The motion was seconded by Delegates from Iowa, South Dakota, Utah,
+Indiana, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia; and the
+motion was put and carried without dissenting voice.
+
+Professor CONDRA--A recess will be taken until 2 oclock p.m.
+
+
+
+
+_EIGHTH SESSION_
+
+
+The Congress reassembled in the Auditorium, Saint Paul, at 2 oclock
+p.m., Thursday, September 8, President Baker in the chair.
+
+President BAKER--Fellow Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen: It has been
+urged that a nominating committee should be appointed to name officers
+proposed to be elected by the Congress as President, Secretary,
+Executive Secretary, and Treasurer. The Vice-Presidents have been chosen
+by the State Delegations, and their names will be presented this
+afternoon. So, unless some other course be preferred, the Chair will
+proceed to form a nominating committee. [After a pause.] The nominating
+committee will consist of Professor George E. Condra, of Nebraska, as
+chairman; E. T. Allen, of Oregon; E. L. Worsham, of Georgia; Lynn B.
+Meekins, of Maryland; and William Holton Dye, of Indiana. Delegates are
+invited to offer suggestions or nominations to the committee, which will
+hold a meeting during the afternoon.
+
+I have the honor now of presenting as presiding officer, His Excellency
+A. O. Eberhart, Governor of Minnesota. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Governor EBERHART--Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am indeed sorry
+that I am to be engaged elsewhere a portion of this afternoon, so that
+I cannot take part in the entire program. We have this afternoon an
+unveiling of a statue in the Capital, and I will necessarily have to
+take some part in the ceremony; but I shall hasten back just as soon as
+I can, so that I may hear the speakers who are on the program for this
+afternoon.
+
+I do not know whether the President of this Congress has made a special
+effort to secure splendid speakers for this afternoon, but certainly no
+session of the Congress, either forenoon, afternoon, or evening, has had
+better, more sincere, and more earnest and efficient workers along the
+lines of Conservation interests than those for this afternoon; and for
+that reason I am indeed sorry that I shall not hear them all.
+
+I want to say to you that the State of Minnesota and the Twin Cities are
+proud of the Delegates and the guests and the speakers of this
+convention, realizing that perhaps never in the history of the
+Conservation movement will there ever be another meeting so important as
+this, and one that will redound so much to the progressive and effectual
+work of the movement.
+
+I take great pleasure in introducing to you as the first speaker of this
+afternoon a man interested in the Conservation movement from the
+standpoint of public health--Dr F. F. Wesbrook, Dean of the Medical
+Department of our State University--who will speak on "Life and Health
+as National Assets." I consider it one of the most important subjects of
+the Conservation movement. I take great pleasure in introducing Dean
+Wesbrook. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Dean WESBROOK--Mr President, Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen:
+Short-sighted humanity fails to appreciate nature's gifts until
+threatened with their loss. This is true of even the greatest of her
+gifts, life itself. Although belated in our realization of the
+threatened overdraft on nature's storehouse, a compensatory and
+irresistible enthusiasm has developed within the last two years which
+augurs well for the retention by our country of that international
+leadership so manifestly foreordained by nature's bountiful equipment.
+
+It is significant of our failure to value health, which above all other
+considerations makes life worth the living, that the first meeting of
+the Governors in the White House in 1908 failed to provide for the study
+of health problems. The omission was noted, and in the National
+Conservation Commission's Report of January 11, 1909, the general
+schedule gave special consideration to life and health. Only four
+sections, however, were created in the appointment of the National
+Conservation Commission. Health was not provided with a special section
+or with officers. In the North American Conservation Congress, in
+addition to the Conservation of other National resources, the protection
+of game received attention; but among the Commissioners representing the
+various countries, there was seemingly no one whose training and
+paramount interest lay in the field of public health. While it is
+apparent that the initial oversight has been in part repaired it remains
+to be seen what progress will result from the Second National
+Conservation Congress, in relation to this, the people's most important
+natural asset.
+
+The inclusion in the program of a paper entitled "Life and Health as
+National Assets" must not be taken as evidence that there is any doubt
+as to the real and assessable value of life and health. Rather are we
+called upon at this time to realize that they constitute National or
+public resources furnished by nature and are not to be regarded as
+strictly personal or private possessions. The individual life has its
+economic and commercial value to the community and the Nation by virtue
+of the contribution it may be expected to make to society. This view may
+perhaps be novel to some. Our ideas concerning the conservation of other
+natural resources however, have undergone such rapid evolution in the
+recent past that we may easily orient ourselves to the viewpoint
+exhibited by the officers of this Congress, that the individual in
+matters of health, as of other resources, must respect the rights of
+other individuals and of his municipality, State, and Government. The
+health aspect of Conservation, which is its most important aspect,
+cannot and will not be neglected, although it has not been the first to
+which the attention of the Nation has been directed.
+
+Nor can we dissociate health conservation from the other aspects of the
+movement, even if we would. The history of man's progress in the
+knowledge of the natural sciences bears out this statement. Even though
+we ourselves have broken faith with nature, we are able today to make
+her fulfil her promises in forestry, agriculture, and other economic
+matters by the application of our knowledge of those very sciences which
+may be said to owe their birth to man's search for perpetual life and
+youth. One can easily imagine that the medieval conservation commission
+comprised two sections, one on health and the other on minerals. In the
+former, which undoubtedly was basic and dominated all other
+considerations, the papers presented dealt with "elixir vitae" and the
+"touchstone" whilst in the latter the chief interest was displayed in
+the "transmutation of metals." At this stage the studies of health and
+of the control of man's so-called material assets were carried on hand
+in hand; and, if we are logical, they always will be.
+
+In any event, man's health depends on the success of his efforts to
+adapt his environment to his needs, more than it does on the adaptation
+of himself to his environment. Health interests are fused with social
+and economic development, but should undoubtedly dominate rather than be
+dominated by them.
+
+Our lack of interest in matters of health is more apparent than real. It
+is characteristic of many of us that where our most vital interests are
+involved, we betray the least public concern. In nothing is this better
+exemplified than in matters of personal and public health, except it be
+perhaps in matters of religious belief and practice. Nor should we deem
+it strange that a similar attitude of mind obtains in matters of health
+and religion. In medieval times the priest and the physician were one.
+At the present day, aboriginal tribes combine religion and health, and
+to too great an extent, perhaps, do our civilized nations fail to
+discriminate between the two. Particularly is this exhibited in man's
+cowardly attempt to shift his responsibility for disease and death upon
+Providence.
+
+One of the greatest causes of lethargy in the conservation of personal
+and public health is the failure on the part of many to differentiate
+clearly and sharply between disease and death. The former is really a
+manifestation of life and vital force, and is capable of modification,
+prevention, or cure by human agency, since man has shown himself quite
+able to solve nature's other secrets for the benefit of his comfort or
+convenience. We conserve health by the application of the same sciences
+which enable us to conserve our other better recognized but less
+material natural resources. Disease yields to man's mastery; death
+remains man's mystery. Even death, however, may be postponed, and
+Professor Irving Fisher has estimated that over 600,000 deaths occur
+each year in our country which could be postponed by the systematic
+application of the scientific knowledge already available. For those who
+think more easily in terms of dollars and cents, he has estimated this
+appalling annual National loss at over one billion dollars which can and
+should be prevented.
+
+We must not be lulled into any sense of well-being by such statistics.
+There is no royal road to such a goal. Our very success in the
+eradication of one disease or unsanitary condition may lead to undue
+optimism in regard to other problems, which later may be found to be
+dependent on altogether different causes and to require very different
+methods of prevention or cure. Failure to realize the complexities of
+modern social activity and economic development, in their relation to
+health, and, at the same time, to recognize the immense number of
+variable factors and agencies which are involved in health-protective
+measures, cannot but lead to disappointment. The individual whose
+enthusiasm is too easily aroused by the discovery of some hitherto
+unknown cause of disease, or some new method or theory of cure or
+prevention, is a source of danger to the commonwealth. The faddist,
+whether in the matter of such things as food, clothing, fresh air,
+baths, exercise or other therapeutic agents, as well as the individual
+who thinks that he has discovered the one cause of all diseases, is to
+be feared.
+
+Our chief difficulty lies in coordinating the various forces and
+agencies which are essential to success in the eradication of sickness.
+
+There is no blanket method of preventing all diseases. Quarantine and
+fumigation are now found to have but a limited application. Vaccination,
+which is practically an absolute and the only reliable protection
+against smallpox, cannot be applied to such diseases as malaria, yellow
+fever, and diphtheria. The use of antitoxin, which prevents annually
+many thousands of deaths from diphtheria, does not help us in many other
+diseases. Our knowledge of mosquito-borne disease, which has reorganized
+life in Cuba, Panama and the Philippines, is not of much practical use
+in our northern States. As there is no single cause, so there can be no
+single method either of cure or prevention.
+
+These considerations should not discourage us. They show us, however,
+the need of further study, and the imperative demand for employing the
+services of trained physicians, biologists, chemists, engineers,
+statisticians, sociologists, educationists, and other experts and of
+coordinating all their efforts. We must steer a middle course, avoiding
+on the one hand the Scylla upon which those run who become discouraged
+in the face of what they believe to be the unknowable, and, on the other
+hand, the Charybdis of that fateful tendency to minimize the actual
+complexities of the present day health problem. Fatalist and faddist are
+equally dangerous.
+
+It is fair to count upon the same progress in the adaptation of
+physical, chemical, biological, social and other sciences to the
+diagnosis, cure and prevention of disease as in their application to
+man's comfort, convenience and economic development. It is clear that
+the efforts of all the various workers in the different fields must be
+coordinated; yet the difficulties of coordination are at once apparent.
+The forces and agencies may be roughly divided into international,
+National, State, county, municipal and institutional, as well as
+individual. Each one of these is capable of still further subdivision
+into two classes, one of which is official or governmental and the other
+is voluntary. Improvement in public health requires cooperation and
+coordination of _all_ these.
+
+Successful public health administration consists largely in making
+individuals do what they do not wish to do--or that of which they do not
+appreciate the necessity--for the good of themselves and others. This
+brings us naturally to the consideration of another National weakness.
+We encounter some of the same difficulties in public health work that we
+meet in the exercise of our other public functions. Rampant
+individualism is of even greater danger in matters of health
+conservation than in other affairs of public concern, largely on account
+of the fact that health is too often regarded as a purely personal
+rather than a most important public asset. The individualist objects to
+authority in matters of health control. Consequently he resents
+dictation as to his personal action, and fails to recognize the need for
+special training in health administration as in other branches of public
+service.
+
+Public service of many kinds, and particularly that which relates to the
+conservation of health in our country, is all too often relegated to
+voluntary agencies, while in other countries it devolves upon official
+and governmental agencies. This volitional duty is nobly discharged.
+The main function of the volunteer should be, however, to afford to the
+general public object lessons of what is needed and of how progress can
+be made. In this he rarely fails, although he labors under tremendous
+difficulty imposed by lack of authority. Funds which are furnished from
+private sources are frequently insufficient to permit of the employment
+of experts of the highest order. Public apathy, on the one hand, and the
+development of an abnormal interest on the part of voluntary workers on
+the other, frequently lead to their continuance in service long after
+they have ceased to be useful, with the result either that the public
+delays the establishment of an official organization, or, if such an
+organization be established, there is a conflict between the official
+and voluntary forces. If municipal health departments, hospital
+services, police departments, water, school, poor and park boards, and
+other official servants and representatives of the people were supported
+by the people and were quick to see and to seize their opportunities,
+there would be less need of associated charities, of visiting nurses,
+pure water and milk commissions, tuberculosis camps, play-grounds
+associations, and other such voluntary organizations. Is it not
+humiliating that public lethargy made it necessary for Mr Rockefeller to
+provide funds for the investigation and eradication of hookworm disease?
+
+In Germany, the Government, through its public health service and
+universities, provides for medical and other research so that Nation has
+become a leader of the world in scientific health protection and
+scientific economic development.
+
+Having seen some of the difficulties which stand in the way of
+satisfactory conservation of the public health, we might perhaps ask
+ourselves what proof of the possibility of conserving this asset is
+available. If, at this day and time, the American public is unconvinced
+of the need and possibility of conserving public health, it is
+undeserving of the respect of other nations, or even of self-respect.
+The daily and weekly press, our magazines, and governmental and other
+publications, have overflowed with information. Our attention has been
+particularly called to the possibility of preserving the health of men
+in the field by Japan's experience in the recent war with Russia. Our
+life insurance companies have been quick to see the practical
+possibilities of prolonging the lives of their insured and of thus
+increasing the earnings of their stockholders.
+
+As illustrating our progress, the report on "National Vitality, Its
+Wastes and Conservation," which was issued by the American Association
+for the Advancement of Science, is a masterpiece; it was prepared and
+presented by Professor Irving Fisher, of Yale University. The
+publications of the various committees of the American Medical
+Association, and the speech of Senator Owen in the Congressional Record
+of March 24, 1910, as well as Federal, State, municipal and other health
+reports, afford examples of what can be done.
+
+Those who may be skeptical in regard to the ability of our people to
+compete with older nations in the prevention of disease, should note
+what has actually been done by Americans under the greatest of
+difficulties. In Cuba, our Nation overturned the existing order of
+affairs, and scientific discoveries, made and applied to sanitation by
+Americans, afforded a lesson to the world. There has been no greater
+factor in winning the world-wide confidence of other nations than the
+production of the existing sanitary state of affairs in the Canal Zone
+by our own citizens. Our work in Cuba, Panama, and the Philippines has
+served to bring about hygienic conditions in supposedly pestilential
+regions which are vastly superior to those which obtain at home. What
+Americans have done for others they have failed to do for themselves,
+owing largely to the lack of provision of adequate official and
+governmental agencies and to the failure to coordinate those which
+exist. Two Americans in Porto Rico showed the possibility of stamping
+out hookworm disease. The brains were furnished by the United States,
+and the money by the Island. We have the brains at home, but we refuse
+to pay the bills.
+
+It is manifest that a full and complete discussion of life and health as
+National assets is impossible within the limits of a single paper. No
+attempt need be made to present a complete basis either of comparison or
+differentiation of health conservation from the other aspects of the
+National movement. It must be clear to all that in the conservation of
+lands, minerals, waters, and forests, effort is made to prevent the
+individual from taking that which belongs to the public. In the
+conservation of public health, our effort must be directed to preventing
+the individual from giving to the public something which neither he nor
+it desires. This is particularly true of infectious diseases. There are
+many other phases of public health than those which relate to infectious
+disease, but they cannot be discussed at this time.
+
+I have the honor to be a Delegate to this Congress from both the
+American Medical Association and the American Public Health Association,
+which represent factors in the conservation of human life and health
+concerning which the public needs more information than it possesses;
+and with your permission, I shall briefly mention a few important
+matters:
+
+In the past, individual physicians and local medical associations and
+societies have brought a scattering fire to bear upon the inactivity and
+ignorance of the general public in matters which pertain to public
+health. The public fails to believe in the urgency of health needs, when
+presented by individuals or groups of physicians, because of its
+inability to appreciate the motive which leads the physician to urge the
+establishment of machinery and the special education of officials, as
+also the provision of funds to carry on work which to the casual
+observer would mean a diminution of the individual physician's work and
+income. Physicians who have qualified by postgraduate training in
+bacteriology, pathology, epidemiology, and in public health, hospital,
+school and institutional administrative work must be drafted into the
+direct and official service of the people. This need is increasingly
+apparent. Others are required who can present evidence of special
+scientific training in chemistry, engineering, statistical,
+sociological, charity and other work. At present, great as is the actual
+need, the demand on the part of the public and the remuneration offered
+are so small and the possibility of employment so uncertain that
+universities, technical schools, and other institutions which offer
+special courses fail to attract students. The public seems to prefer as
+yet to jeopardize its most valuable asset by employing untrained public
+health servants who develop efficiency after, instead of before, their
+appointment. This means a payment in life and health instead of dollars.
+
+The average individual seems willing to pay, and pay well, for a cure
+when he is sick. Communities pay the cost of epidemics, and will even
+pay for engineering services in relation to public utilities, such as
+water supply and sewage disposal; but this is usually done only under
+the stimulus of some recent or threatened disaster. They, like the
+individual, want a _cure_, not a _protection_. Clinical experts, life
+insurance examiners, and consulting and commercial engineers, are all
+sure of a good livelihood because they can help the individual or
+community out of difficulties. Sanitarians and municipal engineers are
+usually left to semi-starvation, because their function is to prevent
+those same difficulties, without, however, having either available
+public sentiment or funds to enable them to do it.
+
+Physicians are naturally skeptical of the scientific training and
+possession of proper ideals on the part of those who have not been
+especially trained in medicine, and who may have failed to develop the
+"disease point of view." That they are, however, of a receptive frame of
+mind can be shown in many ways. The American Medical Association has a
+number of standing committees, including a Council on Medical Education.
+This Council, in the endeavor to raise the standard of medical teaching
+throughout the United States, prepared a standard schedule of minimal
+requirements, through the agency of ten committees, each of which
+consisted of ten representative men. One of these ten committees (which
+had to deal with hygiene, medical jurisprudence, and medical economics)
+contained in its membership university and college professors of
+chemistry, physiological chemistry, political economy, pathology,
+bacteriology and hygiene. There were also executive officers of State
+and municipal boards of health, and representatives of the Federal
+Health Service; whilst among the collaborators were engineers and many
+university professors. Bear in mind that this was a committee of the
+so-called "medical trust"--the American Medical Association.
+
+Through oversight for which no one is responsible, this Second National
+Conservation Congress and the American Public Health Association are
+meeting on exactly the same dates, September 5-9, we in Saint Paul and
+the Association in Milwaukee--I was just able to get here from
+Milwaukee. This Association consists of some physicians who are in
+practice, but more particularly of Federal, State, municipal and
+institutional administrative officers, as also of laboratory,
+statistical, engineering, and other technical workers. The membership
+includes representatives from all of the leading universities and
+medical and technical colleges. It has three sections, namely,
+laboratory, vital statistics, and municipal health officer sections. You
+are familiar with the work of many of its officers and members. Colonel
+Gorgas, who was responsible for the administrative health work in Cuba,
+and who has made possible the building of the Panama Canal without undue
+loss of life, is a member of both associations. The late Dr Walter Reed,
+who eliminated yellow fever from civilized communities, was
+vice-president. It is an international association in which Canada,
+Mexico, and Cuba also participate, and much can be learned by attendance
+at these annual meetings. One of its chief benefits has been the
+formulation of standard methods of scientific procedure, applicable to
+the suppression of disease in various districts of the several
+countries.
+
+We in this country are compelled to admit that our neighbors upon the
+north and south have much in the way of advantage which is denied to our
+own workers in the United States. In our sister countries, the tenure of
+office depends on the fitness and training of the incumbent. As a rule
+the compensation for public service is relatively higher, and the
+official organizations are better provided with an authority which is
+commensurate with their responsibility than is the case in our own
+country. Time will not permit extended discussion of these conditions,
+but the annual opportunity to compare notes; to tell each other of our
+successes, as also of our failures; and to help in the formulation of
+new methods and in an effort toward a higher standard of efficiency, is
+of untold value. This is, however, a purely voluntary organization
+maintained for over thirty years at the personal expense of its members
+in the face of public apathy. This will be realized if I ask, "How many
+of you knew that we have such an association," and "Did you know that it
+is now in session"?
+
+There yet remain a few matters of which a general understanding would
+bring about yet greater cooperation between the doctor and the general
+public. The medical profession has realized for a number of years that
+its members must become teachers of personal hygiene to their patients
+and families, as also to schools and the general public. It is a new
+viewpoint, and involves the assumption of new responsibilities. The
+doctor has guarded himself against publicity except through his
+professional societies and journals and to his students, though ever
+eager to furnish details of his own discoveries and to recount his
+failures and his successes to those who could understand and sympathize.
+This kind of publicity has been regarded, however, by the lay public as
+a sort of soliloquy carried on in an unknown tongue, and intended for
+the mystification of that same poor public.
+
+Why there should be any failure of the medical profession, as a whole,
+to be understood by the general public, it is difficult to see. The
+general public is composed of individuals, each of whom has a feeling of
+trust, affection, and possibly of veneration for one or more members of
+the medical profession. Why then does the public, as an aggregation of
+individuals, allow itself to become suspicious of the medical
+profession, an aggregation of physicians? Why does the public abhor and
+obstruct the physician in his study of anatomy, dissection, and autopsy
+on the human body? Why is there so much suspicion of the motives and
+work, as well as denial of the benefits which accrue to humanity from
+animal experimentation, when it must be apparent to any right-thinking
+individual that the extension of a physician's knowledge is possible
+only by such means? Why must doctors from time to time be themselves
+forced to urge the necessity of making every hospital a teaching and
+research institution? A moment's thought would convince anyone that if
+this be not done, and if medical knowledge be allowed to die out with
+this generation, there will be no skilled men available for the
+hospitals and patients of the future. It must also be patent to all that
+the patients themselves cannot possibly receive such effective care in a
+hospital in which medical research and teaching are not fostered. Why
+should the burden of maintaining a high standard of entrance to the
+profession and of preventing incompetent and untrained persons from
+assuming the responsibility of physicians rest solely on the medical
+profession, when the object is the protection of private citizens and
+public health?
+
+The physicians of the United States are now thoroughly organized. The
+public should rejoice in this, since it is an attempt to neutralize the
+narrowing effect of isolation and to foster an exchange of information
+which physicians offer freely to each other and publish broadcast to the
+world (applause). County and State associations are affiliated with the
+American Medical Association, which numbers in its membership over
+seventy thousand doctors. Just as the individual physician's concern is
+the care of his patient, so that of the organized medical profession is
+public health and welfare.
+
+The medical profession is, as a rule, underpaid, but members spend their
+hard-earned-money and a large portion of their time in efforts to
+benefit humanity, individually and _en masse_. It is the people's
+concern to demand a broad education and a thorough scientific training
+of all students and practitioners of medicine, public and private. It is
+to their interest to see that every possible facility is afforded for
+teaching and that a rigid standard of teaching, examination, degree
+conference, and licensure is maintained. Nothing is more exasperating to
+the physician of high ideals, whose length and breadth of sacrifice is
+known to none, than to hear the sneer directed at his profession for its
+effort to protect the public. The time has come when the medical
+profession is in a position to demand that the people exercise
+discrimination and protect themselves.
+
+One of the first steps toward the betterment of our public health
+conditions is the coordination of the existing Federal agencies in
+Washington, of which we are all so proud. When no logical reason can be
+advanced in explanation of further delay, it is very discouraging to
+realize that this important matter has been postponed. At the 61st
+Congress, various bills were introduced, including that of Senator Owen.
+In support of these bills appeared those who by special training and
+long experience are recognized at home and abroad as the highest
+authorities on public health. The whole country is waiting to see what
+action her representatives will take to protect her most precious asset.
+
+With your permission, I should like to cite some sixteen reasons why the
+people of the United States should have a department of health at
+Washington, which were published by the Committee of One Hundred of the
+American Association for the Advancement of Science:
+
+     1--To stop the spread of typhoid fever through drinking
+     sewage-polluted water of interstate streams.
+
+     2--To enforce adequate quarantine regulations so as to keep out
+     of the country plague and other similar pestilences.
+
+     3--To supervise interstate common carriers, in so far as
+     without such supervision they prove a menace to the health of
+     the traveling public.
+
+     4--To have a central organization of such dignity and
+     importance that departments of health of States and cities will
+     seek its cooperation and will pay heed to its advice.
+
+     5--To influence health authorities, State and municipal, to
+     enact reform legislation in relation to health matters.
+
+     6--To act as a clearing-house of State and local health
+     regulations, and to codify such regulations.
+
+     7--To draw up a model scheme of sanitary legislation for the
+     assistance of State and municipal health officers.
+
+     8--To gather accurate data on all questions of sanitation
+     throughout the United States.
+
+     9--To establish the chief causes of preventable disease and
+     unnecessary ill-health.
+
+     10--To study conditions and causes of disease recurring in
+     different parts of the United States.
+
+     11--To correlate and assist investigations carried on in many
+     separate and unrelated biological and pathological Federal,
+     State and private laboratories.
+
+     12--To consolidate and coordinate the many separate Government
+     bureaus now engaged in independent health work.
+
+     13--To effect economies in the administration of these bureaus.
+
+     14--To publish and distribute, throughout the country,
+     bulletins in relation to human health.
+
+     15--To apply our existing knowledge of hygiene to our living
+     conditions.
+
+     16--To reduce the death-rate.
+
+In 1912 there will meet in Washington, on the invitation of the
+President and Congress of the United States, the International Congress
+of Hygiene and Demography. This Congress meets triennially in the
+capitals of the world, and brings together the leaders in health
+conservation who are officially delegated by the governments of all
+civilized countries. We have many things to show them of which we can be
+justly proud. Our Federal, State, municipal and other official health
+organizations, however, leave much to be desired: and it behooves us, in
+the few months still at our disposal, to prepare to show the visiting
+nations our methods and successes. We need many other things, but due
+recognition and coordination of our Federal health mechanism is the
+first step which, if we have taken it before the meeting of this
+International Congress, will best enable us to profit by the experience
+of the world's experts there assembled.
+
+Nature has been prodigal in her gifts to our Nation. In no respect has
+she been kinder than in opportunities for health and efficiency. Her
+very prodigality has rendered us careless and extravagant. It is high
+time that Americans do as well for themselves in health protection at
+home as they have done for themselves and others in Cuba, the Canal
+Zone, Porto Rico, and the Philippines (applause). This demands the
+creation and maintenance of official organizations to amplify, extend,
+and ultimately replace the work of our voluntary organizations whose
+lack of authority prevents their complete success, and whose continuance
+is an admission of popular inertia and official incompetence. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[During the foregoing, Governor Eberhart withdrew, and professor Condra
+took the chair.]
+
+Professor CONDRA--Ladies and Gentlemen: In the temporary absence of
+Governor Eberhart I have the pleasure of introducing Mr Wallace D.
+Simmons, of Saint Louis, who will address you on "Our Resources as the
+Basis for Business." (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr SIMMONS--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: The President of the
+United States in opening this Congress called upon the speakers to make
+definite practical suggestions. The ex-President of the United States
+the next day emphasized the need of further enlightenment of the people
+regarding Conservation. It has frequently been my privilege to cooperate
+with both of them, and I will endeavor to do so now by suggesting a
+definite plan for spreading enlightenment in a practical manner.
+
+We of this generation have developed a distinctly new type in our
+American citizenship, one which has no counterpart in the history of any
+other people, one which has become a most potent and influential factor
+in our daily affairs: our modern high-class commercial traveler. In any
+campaign of education, such as I am going to suggest, you can have no
+more efficient allies than the 600,000 commercial travelers covering
+this country--not the old-time drummers of questionable methods, but the
+gentlemen of high character who have won the confidence, the respect and
+friendship of the merchants and the people generally in every part of
+this country; and I may add, as a requisite to their success that they
+are resourceful.
+
+To this development I attribute my having the honor of addressing you
+today regarding our resources as the basis of our business, because the
+organization of which I am president employs probably the largest corps
+of such representatives in the country, and has through them the best
+system of keeping accurately informed regarding all matters that affect
+business.
+
+From conclusions based largely upon the observations of the commercial
+travelers of this country, I will endeavor to outline to you what I
+believe to be the relationship between our business interests and the
+question of natural resources; and I believe this phase of the question
+is most vitally important to the people in whose interest you have
+gathered here from every State in the Union. The primary reason for that
+belief--and the one on which all others hinge--is that we are a Nation
+in trade; a whole people engaged in business. Eighty-odd percent of our
+people are directly or indirectly dependent for their living on business
+conditions. The business interest therefore is the greatest interest,
+collectively, in the country.
+
+Anything which directly affects the living of the majority of our people
+is not only worthy of our most earnest attention, but should be
+approached with due consideration. We should be especially cautious
+about experimenting with legislation that may interfere with the natural
+laws of trade. When this is more generally recognized, and the people
+begin to understand that their individual daily incomes are at stake,
+they will put a stop to using the business interests of the country as a
+football for politics.
+
+Not only does there appear to me to be a direct relation between our
+natural resources and our business, but as I view it our resources are
+the foundation of our business, or as Mr Hill so aptly put it yesterday,
+they constitute the capital on which our business is done.
+
+In business we endeavor, by industrious and intelligent use of our
+capital, to produce as the fruit of our efforts an annual return without
+impairing the capital--without touching the principle or jeopardizing it
+in any manner. In private enterprises, the man who assumes the headship
+of a business organization in which the funds of others are invested as
+capital, and who then makes a show of prosperity by drawing on that
+capital to pay what he represents as dividends, is charged with running
+a "get-rich quick" scheme, and in most States is, by law, held
+personally liable. I commend to your consideration the consistency of
+applying that principle where there is involved the capital of all the
+people--the Nation's resources. (Applause)
+
+If we are a people in trade and mean to continue to be, and if our
+resources are our capital, can there be any doubt about the wisdom of
+handling that capital according to the rules of good business? Can there
+be any doubt where we as a Nation will land if we make annual inroads
+upon that capital; if we, in the management of the people's business,
+follow methods which in private affairs bring those responsible before
+the bar of justice?
+
+We as a Nation take just pride in our business successes; we attribute
+them to the brains we put into our work, to the thoroughness with which
+we study what we do and what others have done that we may profit by
+experience. Is it not well for us thoughtfully to inquire whether the
+histories of any other nations record the handling of their resources on
+the "get-rich quick" plan, that we may see what has been the outcome?
+History is full of such instances; many of them have been pointed out
+by eminent advocates of this movement. I will therefore not attempt
+anything but passing reference to some of them. Volumes could be written
+from evidences found in the Valley of the Euphrates and of the Tigris,
+where stood the great Kingdom of Babylonia, the wonder of the ancient
+world; in the ruins of Palmyra and Palestine; in the Barbary States,
+once famed as the granary of Rome but now a howling wilderness, because
+the Mohammedans who conquered it neglected its natural resources; in the
+ruins of the Cities of the Sahara, whose crumbling courts bring to mind
+the words of Omar Khayyam--
+
+    They say the lion and the leopard keep
+    The courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep.
+
+If we look to history for the other side of the picture--for instances
+where business prosperity has gone on without interruption as long as
+natural resources have been conserved and intelligently maintained--we
+find them so well defined as to lead to but one conclusion. This is
+illustrated in Germany where they have maintained the fertility of their
+soil for centuries. It produces more per acre today than it did many
+generations ago. Their great forest estates have remained intact; they
+have cut a crop of timber from them regularly every year, producing an
+annual income, but the capital--the forest estate--is greater and more
+valuable today than it was before our country was discovered. Fires have
+not destroyed their forests. They have long since learned the wisdom of
+applying, "an ounce of prevention," and fortunately have no
+"pork-barrel" to stand in the way. (Applause)
+
+And we find in our own history many instances where great business
+enterprises have sprung promptly from efforts to intelligently develop
+the resources around us. The State of Illinois was passed over by the
+first settlers as a land of no opportunities. It is today, in
+productiveness and volume of business, one of the greatest States in the
+Union. In the States of Utah and Colorado vast areas formerly looked
+upon as barren and useless wastes, have been, by the intelligent
+handling of natural resources, made to produce annually wonderful crops
+of fruit and vegetables, the traffic in which has become a great
+commercial industry. The development of the Southwest, dependent very
+largely on one resource--the fertility of its soil--has called into
+being such lusty young giants as Wichita, Oklahoma City, Dallas, and
+other cities of that type. In the vicinity of Birmingham, a section
+which before the War was occupied mainly by cotton plantations--wherein
+there was nothing that could be properly called business--where
+generations came and passed to the Great Beyond and never saw the smoke
+of a factory or heard the hum of a busy mart of trade, today, with but
+one generation intervening, we find a live and prosperous modern city,
+the heart of a great industrial region. The change has come from
+developing three great natural resources, which up to the close of the
+War had been allowed to lie idle and unproductive--the forests, the coal
+and the iron.
+
+Here again we find an example of the business dependence of natural
+resources one upon the other. The timber from the forests was needed for
+the mining of the coal, and the coal was needed in the manufactures from
+the iron ore; and again the forests in the development of means of
+transportation to the markets of the world.
+
+So there is ample evidence that business activity follows promptly upon
+the intelligent development of natural resources, and decay with equal
+certainty follows the neglect or wasteful use of the capital which
+nature tenders us, and for the intelligent use of which she holds us
+strictly accountable.
+
+I have frequently been asked by those who know our system of getting
+reliable information, "How do people over the country feel in regard to
+Conservation; are they in favor of it in all its aspects, or do they
+seem to be interested only in certain features?"
+
+As that is a question that has direct bearing on the business of the
+country, we naturally had made careful inquiry regarding it from Maine
+to California, and we had learned that the majority of the people do not
+understand enough about it to hold any real opinion. They have no
+adequate idea what Conservation means as applied, for instance, by this
+organization to our natural resources. In spite of exhaustive reports
+issued by the Government, in spite of scholarly and illuminative
+articles on the subject, the people generally do not yet understand the
+real object of Conservation. A busy people in trade do not have time to
+read Government reports or long speeches on any subject, and of course
+no one can do justice to even one element of this great subject in a
+short article. The net result is therefore that there is no general
+understanding of even the A B C of Conservation such as should be given
+to the people, such as they would be glad to have, and such as they must
+have before there is warrant for feeling that the foundation stones of
+Conservation are so firmly grounded that no transitory wave of agitation
+on unimportant details can be successfully used to dislodge them.
+
+The majority have not yet grasped the idea that one of the prime objects
+of this Conservation movement is to preserve the fertility and
+productiveness of the soil, on which we all depend for our food supply.
+They are not aware that already in many parts of this country, where
+formerly any man who rented farm lands was entirely free to use them
+with indifference to their future, he is now required by the owners to
+enter into a written contract which provides just how the land is to be
+cultivated--how the crops are to be rotated and fertilizers used. The
+owners of these lands today require their tenants to practice
+Conservation. (Applause)
+
+The people do not generally understand that when a territory which has
+been used as a range for cattle is by proclamation withdrawn, as we
+express it, that does not mean it is no longer to be used for pasturage.
+Conservation does not aim to suspend use--its object is to perpetuate
+usefulness in full measure this year, and every year to come. (Applause)
+
+A farmer who owns a pasture--large or small--and rents it for stock
+grazing, takes due care to cover in his agreement the number of head and
+the length of time they are to be kept on his land. He makes sure that
+his pasture is not to be so abused in any one season as to ruin it for
+the future. He cares for his own land as it is the province of the
+Forest Service to care for the public land entrusted to their
+supervision. He practices Conservation because he cannot afford to do
+otherwise.
+
+It is not widely known that instead of wishing to keep settlers out of
+the National Forests, inducements are given to get people to settle
+within their boundaries; homesteaders are free to pasture their domestic
+stock within the reservation and to cut from the forests the timber they
+require for building houses, barns and fences. It is not generally
+understood that making a forest reservation does not mean that no more
+timber is to be cut there for market; on the contrary, its prime object
+is to insure continued cutting and selling of it for all time. It is not
+widely known that the revenue from timber cutting on the public forest
+lands amounts already to a million dollars a year, and the annual
+revenue from the pastures puts another million into the public
+treasury--and that this is only a beginning; or that meanwhile this kind
+of revenue-making regulation also affects the regularity of water supply
+through our rivers and streams--a most vital question as has been shown
+by many able exponents of Conservation.
+
+When this Nation of business people understands that Conservation is
+simply another term for business management of the people's capital, the
+pressure of public opinion will be so strong behind this movement as to
+brook no interference or delay in the passage and enforcement of the
+laws needed to begin at once a business administration.
+
+How to spread more widely a correct understanding of such facts is today
+a most important problem. How shall we reach the people who have not yet
+been reached, and who in all probability will not be reached by anything
+published in the usual way?
+
+I have a suggestion to make which I ask you Delegates to take to the
+Governors who appointed you to attend this Congress; that is, that each
+Governor summon to his Capitol for consultation, say six of the leading
+business men of the State, selecting those who in their own business
+have, by successful use of modern advertising, demonstrated that they
+have learned from experience how to reach the individual and tell him
+something they want him to know. Knowing how to do that is just as much
+a matter of education and experience as are the methods of the Forester
+or of the politician who is a "past master" at the game. Give the people
+of your State the benefit of this experience. It can be had for the
+asking. The business men can be depended on to help whenever called
+upon. They will be particularly ready in this matter which, in
+proportion as it is successful, will make for good trade and stable
+business conditions; and the Conservation of our natural resources
+stands for more stable business conditions year after year, in that it
+tends to reduce the chances of losing our new wealth in crops just when
+it seems to be practically sure.
+
+Ask such a group of successful advertisers to formulate a scheme of
+reaching the public generally with the kind of information they want and
+should have about Conservation. Enlist the cooperation of the army of
+commercial travelers within the State--there are no more loyal American
+citizens anywhere, none who can do more in such a campaign, none who
+will more gladly lend a hand when once they are advised along proper
+lines, and know how great a factor the Conservation of our natural
+resources can be in the upbuilding of business and, through it, the
+general prosperity of our people.
+
+Ask this business council to formulate ways of making known not only the
+facts about forests and water supply, and the importance of these facts
+to every individual man, woman and child in the Nation, but why we in
+the United States average 13-1/2 bushels of wheat per acre, instead of
+23-1/2 bushels, as they do in Germany, and 30-9/10 bushels in Great
+Britain; how this is making homestead lands scarce, and prices high,
+because we only get half the amount of crops we should get from the land
+we have under cultivation. When we find our production less to the acre
+each succeeding year and more mouths to feed, it is time everybody knew
+why.
+
+Tell them in the simplest and most direct manner possible what is meant
+by the "pork barrel" in politics--how it is being used to retard the
+proper development of our natural resources, and why therefore it stands
+in the way of the Nation's progress. Let them know why we all have
+reason to thank God that we have in the White House a President who does
+not let politics silence his tongue on that subject or swerve him from
+his determination to stop this waste of the Nation's funds. (Applause)
+
+Write up a short story of what Reclamation has done and can do in
+relieving the situation by opening up to us millions of acres of land
+which can and will add greatly to our food and meat supply; tell them
+what has already been accomplished and the progress that is still being
+made by reclamation work, to the great benefit of the people. Explain in
+a simple manner that hand in hand with the profitable development of our
+natural resources must go the development of our great waterways and
+railroads--that there can be no general prosperity without railroad
+prosperity; that our railroads and waterways are the connecting links
+which make our natural resources available, and that the practical value
+of our natural resources depends largely on the efficiency of our
+transportation service. (Applause)
+
+Point out to them the lessons which we should get from cases of
+individual effort along the lines of modern methods in farming; how, for
+instance, Mr Claude Hollingsworth, near Colfax, Washington, raised this
+year 45 bushels of wheat to the acre, averaging 62 pounds to the bushel,
+and of barley 72-1/3 bushels to the acre, when his neighbors, with the
+same conditions of soil, climate, and rainfall, averaged only half as
+much; or in South Carolina, where Mr E. McI. Williamson has, by the
+proper application of fertilizers, modern methods, and little additional
+expense, increased his production of corn from 15 bushels per acre to an
+average of nearly 60 bushels, and of cotton from less than half a bale
+to an average of a bale per acre. Such examples are most convincing, and
+will do much to arouse interest in the practical value of Conservation.
+
+The conservation of the National health deserves to be emphasized even
+when we have under consideration this general subject from purely a
+business standpoint. When we consider that tuberculosis alone costs the
+people of the State of New York over $200,000,000 per year, and that it
+is a preventable disease, and that that $200,000,000 might be used as
+capital to give to millions of people profitable and wholesome
+occupation, the relation of the health movement to the business
+interests of the country is self-evident.
+
+Of course, this suggestion is based upon entire confidence in the
+cooperation of the daily press--I have no doubt about that whatever. The
+newspapers and magazines are not only most potent factors in spreading
+enlightenment, but they can always be depended on to take enthusiastic
+hold of any movement that is honestly and disinterestedly for the
+general good. (Applause)
+
+This whole subject of Conservation is fundamentally a business
+proposition--a question of managing the people's business with the same
+care and foresight that we put into private business--a question of
+using the Nation's capital in a way that will produce a regular, steady
+and proper income year after year, and at the same time so safeguard the
+principal that the people of these United States may go on in business
+indefinitely.
+
+History tells of many peoples who have spent their capital and
+disappeared from the face of the earth. Let us so organize this Nation's
+business that it may go on down the centuries as history's exception to
+the general rule of rise and fall (applause). As we point with pride,
+honor and gratitude to the signers of our Declaration of Independence
+and the makers of our Constitution, so may the coming generations of
+Americans, having in mind the fates of other peoples, look back with
+gratitude to us and have occasion to exclaim "See what would also have
+been our lot had it not been for the foresight and business judgment of
+our ancestors of the Twentieth Century--worthy successors of the great
+men who founded this Government of the people by the people and for the
+people, not only for their own time, but for all time." (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--Ladies and Gentlemen: Nothing is more important to
+Conservation than education; and I have the honor now to introduce the
+Commissioner of Education, Dr Elmer Ellsworth Brown, who will address
+you on "Education and Conservation."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Commissioner BROWN--Mr President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: Every uplift
+and reform comes back to education. It is uplift carried to the sticking
+point. It is reform continually going on. In speaking of the educational
+aspect of Conservation, I am not concerned with anything merely
+incidental or subordinate, but have to do with a matter as large and
+vital as any upon which the success of the Conservation movement
+depends.
+
+It must be admitted on the other hand that education has much to get
+from the Conservation movement as well as much to give. The schools are
+learners as well as teachers. To support and further Conservation they
+will need to learn Conservation facts and doctrines. This Congress and
+American education are aiming at the same thing in the end--the
+betterment of American life. What shall it profit to conserve everything
+else on earth if we fail to conserve the spirit and fiber of our
+citizens, young and old? That is a view in which Conservationists and
+educators are fully agreed.
+
+Now, what is our educational establishment, as it stands over against
+the body of our material resources? It is a group of State school
+systems, having in the aggregate a certain National character. We cannot
+insist too strongly that education is primarily a concern of the States.
+This group of State school systems represents a combination of public
+and private agencies, for our State institutions are supplemented by
+many institutions privately supported and controlled. It represents an
+extraordinary unity as between elementary education and the higher
+education, as between the democracy of the lower schools and the science
+of the universities. It represents, moreover, in all of its grades, an
+everlasting devotion to intellectual and moral values, as having to do
+with enlightened citizenship. This is the educational establishment that
+faces the needs and aspirations with which the Conservation Congress is
+concerned. There are three or four ways in which I should like to speak
+of the great work of that establishment as related to your own great
+work:
+
+1. In the first place, there is the fact that our scholastic education
+is facing about and turning its attention toward industry and industrial
+life. This is a new movement in which all States and sections are taking
+part. It is a change which is attended with the gravest difficulty. No
+one who is not familiar with the actual administration of schools and
+colleges can guess how hard a thing it is to introduce a new practice of
+teaching and make it successful at the hands of many teachers in widely
+different communities. Yet our educational leaders have addressed
+themselves to this task with courage and enthusiasm. In 25 States
+provision is now made for teaching agriculture in public schools. Such
+provision takes the form of agricultural high schools in Alabama,
+Massachusetts, Minnesota and Virginia, and in several other widely
+scattered States. In the best of these schools, there is arising a new
+interest in all that relates to the soil and the life on the farm. It is
+no uncommon thing to have class work interrupted by visits from
+neighboring farmers, who consult the expert teachers regarding drainage
+and fertilizers and the care of their horses and cows. The boys try out
+at school the seed corn they are to plant on the home farm, and the
+girls learn at school to raise poultry and vegetables and make from them
+appetizing dishes for home consumption. Large provision has been made
+for consolidated rural schools, and in Minnesota lands are added for
+instruction in the practice of farming. Oklahoma requires the teaching
+of agriculture in all public schools, with the cooperation of the normal
+schools and the agricultural college. This new instruction is spreading
+in unexpected ways. Columbia University, in the heart of New York City,
+has begun to offer courses in agriculture, taking up this work where it
+left it off early in the nineteenth century. And an agricultural
+conference has been held at Bryn Mawr College. After that what more is
+there to be said! (Applause)
+
+But there is still a good deal more. Much might be said about the new
+trade schools in the cities, and the new instruction in household arts
+for girls; but I pass these matters by and go back to the farm. What is
+especially interesting is the freedom with which new modes of teaching
+have been adopted. Corn contests, potato trains, demonstration
+farms--our old manuals of teaching knew nothing of these things. Then
+there is all manner of summer schools, short winter courses, farmers'
+institutes, and an assortment of other teaching devices. The University
+of Idaho is employing three field men, a horticulturist, a dairyman, and
+an irrigation and potato specialist, and is sending regular schools of
+agriculture about the State on wheels. In Virginia and three or four
+other States supervisors of rural schools have been appointed. They are
+making a close study of the resources, industries, and social needs of
+typical sections of their States, and are lending new life to the effort
+to make the schools more directly serviceable.
+
+One of the earlier developments of this movement, and one that comes
+into peculiarly close relations with the Conservation campaign, is the
+setting apart of a day in each year for planting trees. Nebraska is
+looked upon as the original center of this movement. A recent report
+shows the planting of 20,000 trees in a single year in Minnesota, in
+connection with the Arbor Day celebration in this State (applause). The
+observance has received a fresh impetus in more than twenty of the
+States from the publication by the State education offices of attractive
+manuals offering suggestions regarding the celebration.
+
+The leaders of the new movement in our schools have called for a
+redirection of rural education. Such a redirection is actually taking
+place. So much has been begun that it would be easy to believe that the
+work is done. There are many who suppose that this new education is
+already in the saddle and is moving triumphantly forward. But that is a
+mistake. Great changes in education are not brought about so easily.
+There is a long campaign and a hard campaign before us if the desired
+ends are to be attained. State superintendents of public instruction,
+those who are training teachers in colleges and normal schools, and all
+who are engaged in this work in supervisory and teaching positions, will
+need for a long time to come the moral backing and the material support
+which this influential body can command. That is what they should have
+without reserve and without stint. (Applause)
+
+The lack of well-prepared teachers of these subjects is one of the most
+serious difficulties the new movement has encountered. A recent report
+shows about seventy State normal schools offering regular instruction in
+agriculture. The Nelson Amendment to the Agricultural Appropriation Act
+of 1907 provided Federal funds for the training of teachers in the
+land-grant colleges. At least thirty of these colleges are now offering
+such instruction. But this work, too, is only begun.
+
+2. And this suggests the second thing that I wish to say. The new
+movement is making a new demand for men in the business of
+teaching--strong men, technically trained for their work. If education
+is to help Conservation, the teaching profession must be enabled to
+compete with the industries in attracting and holding such men. We are
+considering both ends of our educational system, the scientific end in
+the universities and the popular end in the schools. A man who has
+enough knowledge and skill to train others for an industrial occupation
+has enough to give him a place in the industry itself. And the industry
+pays a great deal better than the teaching. It is not necessary that the
+income of teachers and that of industrial leaders should be equalized.
+Many men will continue to teach because they prefer to teach. But when
+the disparity becomes too great, many good teachers, in fairness to
+themselves and to their families, must give up the struggle and go over
+into the more lucrative employments. This is what has been going on in
+recent years. With a rapidly growing population and an increasing body
+of teachers, we have fewer men engaged in teaching than we had five
+years ago. We need opportunities in the teaching profession that will
+attract strong men to face the work before us (applause). I have the
+highest regard for the work of our women teachers; but both men and
+women are needed to give us a well balanced public education, and I
+welcome the alliance of the schools with the Conservation movement,
+because of the new demand it makes for competent men in the schools.
+
+Let me point out some of the places in our scholastic organization where
+strong men are needed, for Conservation purposes as well as for
+educational purposes. It is generally understood that men of the largest
+caliber are in demand as presidents of technical colleges and
+universities. It should be equally obvious that such men are needed as
+State superintendents of public instruction. We have such men, and have
+had many such in the office of State superintendent--but in many of the
+States that office cannot attract men as do our college presidencies,
+because of the short term of service and other limitations with which it
+is hedged about. We need broad men and strong men as instructors in the
+technical departments of our higher institutions. Those who deal with
+our National resources industriously can know but little of the personal
+strain and sacrifice with which other men have stuck to their task of
+dealing with these same resources educationally. In our secondary and
+elementary education there is not only need of specially trained men as
+teachers, but there is need in particular of specially trained
+supervisors.
+
+I was in Vermont not many days ago, and there I saw one result of a new
+law, which provides for the employment of union district superintendents
+of schools, at a respectable minimum salary. The State superintendent
+had called together these local superintendents in their annual
+conference. There were nearly forty of them, where three years before
+there was not one. Rather young men they were for the most part, though
+well-seasoned in the responsibilities of teaching. College graduates,
+alert and ambitious, they gave themselves over to the business which had
+brought them together, with a heartiness that was vastly encouraging.
+Other States have made provisions for a similar staff of supervisory
+officers. New York is one of the latest to take such action. The great
+States of the West, in which the county is a common unit of school
+supervision, need in their counties traveling supervisors of special
+subjects, particularly those relating to the practical business of life
+on the farm. Such supervisors can become veritable evangelists, bringers
+of good news concerning the things which make our National resources
+interesting and full of hope.
+
+3. I have spoken of the new movement toward industrial education in our
+several States. I have tried to show that this movement is making only
+gradual headway against great difficulties, but that it can become a
+strong reinforcement of Conservation and of other public interests _if
+given a fair chance_. Now, in the third place it should be said that the
+Federal Government is concerned with giving it a fair chance. We have no
+National system of school administration. We do not want such a system.
+No one seriously proposes to relieve the States of their powers and
+responsibilities in this matter. But how can the Nation be indifferent
+to the very stuff out of which it is made? While we have no National
+system of schools, we have and we are bound to have a National program
+of education.
+
+It is no new thing that I am proposing. I would simply propose that the
+program blocked out and entered upon many years ago should be carried
+out and made as useful as possible. This National program is a simple
+one. In the earlier days it consisted in the granting of lands for
+educational purposes. Within the past half-century two additions to this
+earlier plan have been made. The first of these was the establishment
+of a central office of information, the Federal Bureau of Education; the
+second was the annual appropriation of Federal funds for institutions
+serving a special and urgent National need--the acts for the further
+support of the land-grant colleges.
+
+Stated now in other words, our whole American scheme of public
+educational management consists of these four parts: First, the
+independent school and university systems of the several States, aided
+by grants of public lands and supplemented by privately managed
+institutions; second, the free cooperation of the States in educational
+matters of common interest; third, a Federal education office, aiding
+the States by its information service and furthering their cooperation;
+and finally, the distribution of Federal funds, under the supervision of
+the Bureau of Education.
+
+Let me say a few words concerning that part of this plan with which I
+have personally the most to do. It is the business of the Federal Bureau
+to survey the whole field of American education, and make the best
+things contagious throughout that field. In such a subject as industrial
+education, it is to study our present needs in the large, and to set
+before our people the best examples of the successful meeting of such
+needs in this and in foreign lands. It is to promote unity of effort, by
+enabling every part of the country to profit at once by whatever has
+been well done in any other part of the world. As regards such a subject
+as the Conservation of our National resources, it is to take the broad
+view which concerns education in all the States, and to further the
+common treatment of that subject as related to the geography, the
+history, and the industries of the American people. Such work as this it
+is now doing in a preliminary and fragmentary way; but it needs more
+men--expert and informing men--to make of its educational contagion the
+really large and transforming thing that these times demand. Give us the
+men, and we will give the help. When the Nation has made its program, it
+cannot afford to carry it out on less than a National scale. (Applause)
+
+I have said that our National program already involves a measure of
+direct Federal aid to education in the States. There is every reason why
+such aid should be reserved as a last resort. But as a last resort, it
+has its place in our program. It is doubtful whether the industrial
+education which the Nation now requires can be adequately carried out
+without an increase of such Federal participation. But the point to be
+especially emphasized is this: Any such extension of Federal aid should
+be based on an accurate knowledge of the needs, and should be made in
+such ways as will strengthen and not weaken the educational systems of
+the States. For these reasons, a general investigation of the subject of
+industrial education in all sections of the country is one of the next
+things that should be undertaken by the Education Bureau. Such an
+inquiry has already been recommended from the office of the Secretary of
+the Interior. It has been urgently requested by the National Society for
+the Promotion of Industrial Education. Our neighbors of the Dominion of
+Canada already have a strong commission engaged in a similar inquiry. I
+earnestly hope that this Congress will call upon the Congress of the
+United States to institute such an inquiry at the earliest practicable
+date, and provide for carrying it on in a manner commensurate with the
+importance of the subject.
+
+When I speak of our National program in education, it is with warmth and
+conviction. No nation can come to its greatest, industrially and
+politically, save as it comes to its greatest in education. We have in
+our American form of governmental relations the basis for the noblest
+educational structure that any nation has ever erected. In full loyalty
+to the true relations of State and Nation, we have only to go forward
+doing generously the things which may rightly be done, in order to have
+an infinitely varied yet gloriously united educational organization, in
+which our democracy, our science, and our nationality shall all of them
+come to their best.
+
+4. Fourthly and finally, what kind of education is it that the new needs
+call for? I cannot leave the subject without saying a few words on that
+theme.
+
+Our American schools and colleges have stood in the past for liberal
+culture. They have taken pride in doing so and they have believed that
+by so doing they have been serving the ends of democratic citizenship.
+American education from the beginning has looked the almighty dollar
+squarely in the face and passed on in serene devotion to spiritual ends.
+Is all of this to be changed with the new interest in industrial life?
+Is the technical, in other words, to take place of the liberal? I do not
+believe it. In fact, no greater calamity could befall our industrial
+interests. But we are undoubtedly changing our conception of what is
+liberal and what is technical. We may describe a liberally educated man
+as one who has learned so thoroughly how the whole world hangs together
+that he constantly sees his own interests only as related to general and
+permanent human interests (applause). A technical education, on the
+other hand, enables a man to do that which most men cannot do, but which
+has some useful relation to those general human interests. If this is a
+fair statement, there is no field in which a liberal education is more
+to be desired than that of our material resources and our industries;
+for this is the field on which the whole game and drama of human life is
+to be played, though there is no other in which the temptation to
+illiberal, narrow, and selfish views is so great. To make the material
+basis of human society itself a subject of liberal education is one of
+the greatest things that scholastic enterprise can possibly accomplish.
+The next step is to join the training for technical pursuits directly to
+our liberal culture thus broadly conceived, so that every citizen shall
+add some valuable skill to his more general attainments, and every
+special skill shall grow directly out of his general knowledge.
+
+This, I believe, will be the great aim of American education
+everywhere. It is a high patriotic service to further such education.
+Even in the elementary schools, let our pupils learn that their private
+interests are to be advanced only in accord with more general interests,
+and that they are to make their success in life by doing some one thing
+well for which the world at large has need. We have been, according to
+our critics, a Nation whose resources were greater and more impressive
+than our civilization. With such an education as this, we shall be a
+Nation whose civilization shall overtop all of the natural goods that
+may ever be discovered or conserved (applause). Such an education,
+moreover, could do much to overcome some of the chief obstacles which
+the Conservation movement now encounters; for it should give us a people
+who, from engineers and managers to farmers and miners, should not only
+be masters of their own trades but should pursue them with some positive
+regard for the public good (applause). Our education is not big enough
+and virile enough until it can deal with such great National issues as
+this. I am confident that it will come up to that high measure of power
+and efficiency, and that already it has begun to carry those larger
+responsibilities. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--Ladies and Gentlemen: Can there be higher patriotism
+than in the efforts of this Congress to protect the rights of all?
+Conservation is true patriotism; and Mrs Matthew T. Scott,
+President-General of the National Society of Daughters of the American
+Revolution, will now address you on this subject. (Applause, the entire
+audience rising)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs SCOTT--Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen: In behalf of the National
+Society of Daughters of the American Revolution, I wish to make my
+grateful acknowledgments to the Executive Committee (through its
+President, Honorable Bernard N. Baker) for its courtesy in giving to Mrs
+Amos G. Draper, the able Chairman of our D. A. R. Conservation Committee
+who has so splendidly inaugurated and developed this work, and to
+myself, the privilege and honor of taking part in these splendid
+exercises. In its last analysis the generic term "Conservation"--in its
+widest scope, and broadest sense--may be said to be the keynote and
+touchstone of our great D. A. R. organization. The finest brains and
+blood and nerve force of the land have been absorbed and found noble
+expression in various lines of work of the D. A. R. While the Daughters
+have turned their sympathetic attention to various material branches of
+Conservation work, we have not neglected the higher intellectual,
+ethical, and moral Conservation interests; we aim to help preserve the
+glorious heritage that has fallen to us of self-government, and hand
+down the birthright undiminished to those who come after us that the
+priceless boon of "government of the people by the people and for the
+people" perish not from the earth. (Applause)
+
+It has been borne in upon me of late that there are two Conservation
+interests whose importance we have not fully recognized, and they are
+the conservation of true womanliness, and the conservation of the
+supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon race on this continent. As to the former,
+the President of the United States in a recent address at Washington
+before the annual Congress of the D. A. R., said that woman's place and
+sphere are on too high a plane to be even discussed. It is surely an
+inspiration to have the privilege before this splendid assemblage of
+representing the great patriotic movement, which under the banner of the
+D. A. R., marches steadily forward, with ever increasing numbers,
+enthusiasm, prestige, and practical power.
+
+The Daughters of the American Revolution in distinctive and especial
+ways have lent their organized strength to various good causes, which
+may all be practically considered as Conservation interests: among other
+objects, to social uplift, to patriotic education in its widest scope,
+to placing bounds to the abuse of child labor, to playgrounds, to
+juvenile courts, to improvement of hygienic conditions in our great
+cities, to preservation of historic spots and records, to the safe and
+sane celebration of July Fourth; and to cooperation with the S. A. R. in
+their noble work for immigrants landing upon our shores and subsequently
+for these foreigners and their children in the effort to Americanize
+them and to inoculate them with ideals and principles known in this
+twentieth century as Americanism.
+
+Much has been done also among the mountain whites of the South. Every
+mountaineer, child or adult, that in our work we help to educate toward
+intelligent citizenship--and many of these mountaineers are of
+Revolutionary ancestry--is a barrier raised against the anarchistic
+tendencies and the unrest of our great cities; is a guarantee for the
+supremacy of the Caucasian race in America. Read, if you can secure it,
+Mr Thomas Nelson Page's plea for the education of the Southern Mountain
+whites in his magnificent address delivered at Washington before the
+last Continental Congress! We are also preserving, all over this broad
+land, landmarks of history--sacred relics of a vanished age--which are
+object-lessons for our own youth and for the strangers who crowd our
+shores. Every monument we rear, every tablet we place, every statue we
+erect, every old fort or bastian, every Revolutionary relic or
+Revolutionary soldier's grave we honor, is a tribute to those to whom we
+owe the imperishable gifts of liberty, of independence, of the right to
+worship God in our own way. Every fountain or stone recording the trail
+of the pioneer, the priest, the trader, the soldier, or the devotion of
+the Revolutionary heroine, is a breath of incense wafted back to the
+immortals, an inspiration for "tangible immortality" for ourselves, and
+those who come after us. (Applause)
+
+The Conservation of our natural resources is a subject of intensely
+practical importance to the D. A. R. Representing as we do the
+motherhood of the Nation, we feel that it is for us to see that the
+children of this and future generations are not robbed of their
+God-given privileges. It is our high privilege and mission to see to it
+that the future shall be the uncankered fruit of the past. The ideal
+democracy solemnly dedicated by the Founders, we, as their Daughters,
+declare shall not be forestalled. As women we cannot be silent and see
+the high ends at which they aimed made futile by the growth of a
+grovelling lust for material and commercial aggrandizement. This
+headlong haste for enormous gain, the total disregard of the future for
+the present moment, if not stopped will bring us to the condition of the
+Old World where the fertility and habitability of past ages have been
+destroyed forever. We feel that it is for us, who are not wholly
+absorbed in business, to preserve ideals that are higher than
+business--the outlook for the future, the common interests, and the
+betterment of all classes. The wasteful scrambling and greedy clutching
+at our natural treasures has made the present generation rich; but the
+mothers of the future must be warned by us lest they find that our
+boasted prosperity has been bought at the price of the suffering, of the
+poverty, and class war of our descendants. There is no lack of patriotic
+devotion in the country; but the mere thoughtlessness and inability or
+unwillingness of the commercial class to drop the interests of the
+moment long enough to realize how they are compromising the future--this
+hot haste and heedlessness, it is for us with our larger outlook, to
+restrain.
+
+Women have already preserved a large National forest in the Pennsylvania
+mountains; the women of Minnesota have to their credit the Minnesota
+National forests; it was the women of California who saved the
+immemorial groves of the Calaveras big trees. Our own work in behalf of
+the preservation of the Appalachian watersheds, in behalf of the
+preservation of historic sites, as well as the efforts being made by
+various women's organizations to preserve the natural beauty of the
+Palisades, of Niagara Falls, and of other precious scenic treasures of
+the Nation, are all steps in the right direction, are all preparation
+for the larger Conservation interests which the D. A. R. have begun
+actively to champion. It should be a second nature to women, with the
+spirit of motherhood and protecting care innate in them, to take an
+effective stand in the spirit of true patriotism--against the spirit of
+rank selfishness--the anti-social spirit of the man who declines to take
+into account any other interests than his own. (Applause)
+
+There is another great world interest that is peculiarly our own as
+Daughters and descendants of the peace-loving patriots who took up arms
+a century and a half ago. They were not professional soldiers, but plain
+citizens hastily rallied together in often-wavering lines of defense of
+home and country. All the world wondered when at Lexington and Concord,
+on the village green and at the wooden bridge, the embattled farmers
+stood across the line of march of the British regular army, and fired
+"the shot heard round the world." It is the opening decade of the
+twentieth century of the Christian era; it is time that brute force--the
+recourse of primitive, barbaric man--cease to be the last arbitrament
+between great nations calling themselves Christian and civilized, and
+that the Conservation of peace be established by international
+arbitration. (Applause)
+
+Again, it is one of the glories of our great organization that we are
+first, last, and all the time, considering the child. Today in all
+civilized countries the child is leading the way. I am happy to be able
+to say that through the instrumentality of our chapters in different
+parts of the country, interest has been awakened in homeless and
+dependent children; organizations have been formed for children of
+foreign birth to teach them respect for the flag, and some things about
+our form of government. Many chapters provide instructive lectures in
+their own language for foreigners, who listen eagerly. Many chapters
+offer prize medals for the best essays on historical subjects--American
+history especially--and for memorizing our National songs. Nothing is
+more important than our organized work for the "Children of the American
+Revolution"--children of American birth and descent--unless it be our
+work for the "Children of the Republic" in teaching to be American
+citizens boys of foreign parentage who come to us with little idea of
+the difference between liberty and license. For patriotism consists as
+much in making good citizens as in saving the Nation from bad ones
+(applause). Every boy of foreign birth or extraction that we can help to
+transform into a thorough American through this magnificent branch of
+our work, every lad of foreign birth or extraction that we can help
+train to become a useful citizen and grow up into honorable manhood as a
+credit to his adopted land is an added asset to the ethical wealth of
+the country. Think for a moment what it means to help train these young
+foreigners in the plastic period of their life in the patriotic
+principles of their adopted country! A long stride has been taken in
+their patriotic and civic education, when through the exertions of noble
+women they have been given some idea of the great principles which are
+the basis of our form of government.
+
+Another branch of our Conservation work which is especially near my
+heart, and which I think must be near to the heart of every mother in
+this broad land, is that in connection with the splendid crusade now
+being carried on against the evil of child labor. We have attempted, in
+dealing with this as with every other problem, first to obtain a wide
+and sure knowledge of the facts, and secondly to avoid everything
+savoring of the spirit of fanaticism in concentrating our energies on
+some great constructive policy. The committee on child labor, under the
+leadership of its noble chairman--the late Mrs J. Ellen Foster, whose
+life was dedicated to the needs of humanity--has made herculean efforts
+to bring this matter properly before the attention not only of the D. A.
+R. but of all the women of our land who are capable of responding to the
+pathetic appeal of suffering and stunted childhood, that we may wipe
+away this inexcusable stain on our National honor and this irreparable
+blight on that product which is more valuable than all the combined
+harvests of this fertile continent--the splendid American crop of human
+souls. (Applause)
+
+If in a serener atmosphere than that of the politics of the hour, we as
+patriotic women can meet and help to solve these and other equally
+important problems in the eternally feminine way that has always given
+us power over men--if we would indeed, in the words of the old
+Athenians, help to transmit our fatherland not only undiminished but
+better and greater than it was transmitted to us, and if we are indeed
+unwilling to transmit to posterity mere material possessions unillumined
+by divine ideals; if we can but rise to the height and might of a pure,
+disinterested, passionless consecration to the principles which time has
+proved to be the soul of the purpose of the Fathers of the Republic, and
+on that high level, above the distracting personalities and passing
+incidents and accidents of the hour, "live and move and have our being"
+as a National Society, then we shall best establish and preserve the
+useful influence and leadership in the country to which we loyally
+aspire. Our interest and work for these great Conservation interests we
+cannot too often reiterate for our own encouragement and inspiration and
+for the enlightenment of the public.
+
+As I said before, in the light of recent incidents and experiences, it
+has been borne in upon me that there are two great Conservation
+interests we have not yet sufficiently touched. With all the advance in
+learning, all the discoveries of science, all the enlightenment and
+uplifting of religion, all the refining of manners, all the acquisitions
+of men through invention and additions to the facilities for work and
+comfort of living, all the improvements of institutions providing for
+the farther and farther spread of well-being among the children of men,
+still, in the great underlying physical principles of existence, in the
+"main travelled roads" of humanity from birth to death, there is and can
+be no essential change. Nevertheless, there are an infinite number of
+variations and gradations in the product of these eternal operations of
+nature. Man's battle with nature--for human progress is a constant
+struggle against natural conditions, a continual re-making of the
+planet--has been ever accompanied, step by step, by the battle within
+himself against the contradictions in his inescapable heredity. It is
+the degree of success in this struggle for the triumph of the spiritual
+and the intellectual that marks the differences in racial types. Here
+then are the grand elements of the problem, the condition as well as
+theory confronting every well-wisher to humanity, every lover of her
+kind and her country, especially among women. For it is woman who is
+the divinity of the spring whence flows the stream of humanity--nay, she
+is the source herself. To her keeping has been entrusted the sacred
+font. In her hands rests the precious cup, the golden bowl of life.
+Holier than the Holy Grail itself is this chalice glowing ever, with its
+own share of the divine fire, its own vital spark from the altar of
+Almighty power. Never has this office of cup-bearer to creation placed
+greater responsibility upon woman than in this our own day, and this our
+own country. Freely we have received, and generously must we respond;
+and deeply must we realize what a charge to keep we have--nothing less
+than the Conservation of the greatest experiment in enlightened
+self-government the world ever saw. Is that sacred trust to be
+jeopardized by untried, impracticable, uncalled for innovations upon the
+institutions of Government sufficing for the Fathers of the Country, and
+providing for its splendid development thus far? Shall we grasp at a
+shadow in the stream, like the dog in the fable, and drop the substance
+to sink away from us beyond recall? Is any _real_ interest of the women
+of the land in danger? Is any _real_ interest of women inseparable from
+the interests of the fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons of the women
+of the land? Is there any interest of women to be compared in vital
+importance to themselves, with the conservation of true womanliness?
+
+I plead, as the representative of a great National organization of the
+women of the land, for the Conservation of true womanliness, for the
+exalting, for the lifting up in special honor, of the Holy Grail of
+Womanhood. But not merely the cup whence flows the stream of human life,
+must we guard and cherish; we must look to the ingredients which are
+being cast into the cup. We must protect the fountain from pollution. We
+must not so eagerly invite all the sons of Shem, Ham, and Japhet,
+wherever they may have first seen the light, and under whatever
+traditions and influences and ideals foreign and antagonistic to ours
+they may have been reared, to trample the mud of millions of alien feet
+into our spring. We must conserve the sources of our race in the
+Anglo-Saxon line, Mother of Liberty and Self-government in the modern
+world. I would rather our coming census showed a lesser population and a
+greater homogeneity. Especially do I dread the clouding of the purity of
+the cup with color and character acquired under tropical suns, in the
+jungle, or in paradisian islands of the sea alternately basking in
+heavenlike beauty and serenity and devastated by earthquake and tornado
+and revolution. (Applause)
+
+I come of the old Virginia stock (applause) which first passed over the
+Blue Ridge and possessed the great Middle West, just in time to prevent
+it from becoming Spanish or French or British. Some of the pioneers of
+Washington's times have stayed on right there, in that eagle's nest of
+pure Americans where Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia meet in the
+mountains against which Cornwallis' previously invincible raiding
+column--after devastating the Carolinas--dashed itself to pieces, wiped
+out by volunteer mountaineers in that wonderful battle of Kings Mountain
+which no general planned or even heard of until it was over. Personally,
+I would be willing to reduce our population-boast by many millions, had
+the remnant the unadulterated Americanism conserved to this day in these
+mountaineers' descendants! We may be destined to see our cup of liberty,
+which we have so generously proffered to the whole world, grow to the
+proportion of a grand mixing-bowl of races; but if so, will it not at
+least be wise to see that our own race dominate?
+
+We, the mothers of this generation--ancestresses of future
+generations--have a right to insist upon the conserving not only of
+soil, forest, birds, minerals, fishes, waterways, in the interest of our
+future home-makers, but also upon the conserving of the supremacy of the
+Caucasian race in our land. This Conservation, second to none in
+pressing importance, may and should be insured in the best interests of
+all races concerned; and the sooner attention is turned upon it the
+better. (Great applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Pending the foregoing, Governor Eberhart resumed the Chair.]
+
+Professor CONDRA--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: At the instance of
+the President of the Congress, and inspired by the splendid address of
+Mrs Matthew T. Scott, President-General of the Daughters of the American
+Revolution and one of the most eminent of American women, I move that
+the Secretary of the Congress be empowered to prepare a suitable
+expression of the condolence of the Congress to be sent to the family of
+the late Mrs J. Ellen Foster, a member of the Executive Committee of the
+Congress and one of the most militant women of the country in behalf of
+Conservation.
+
+The motion was seconded by several delegates.
+
+Governor EBERHART--Ladies and Gentlemen: You have all heard the motion.
+As many as favor its adoption will please rise to their feet. [The
+entire Congress arose.] The motion is carried unanimously, and the
+Secretary will be instructed to forward the expression.
+
+While the formal addresses of the women of the Nation to this
+Conservation Congress are now concluded, there is a little presentation
+which a lady of our State wishes to make; and in accordance with the
+instructions of the President of the Congress, I am pleased to introduce
+Mrs J. C. Howard, of Duluth. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs HOWARD--Your Excellency, and Ladies and Gentlemen: Mrs Scott asks me
+to present this certificate which I hold in my hand, for her and for the
+D. A. R., to a man whom we all delight to honor.
+
+I used to live in Washington before I grew up and came to Minnesota,
+where I hope to spend the rest of my life; and there in my time I met
+many near-heroes and many heroes. I observed that modesty was always a
+sure sign of the real heroes; and if you had witnessed my efforts with
+Mr Gifford Pinchot to persuade him to come on the stage and stay there
+until I could give him this card, you would have no more doubt than
+before in which category he belongs (laughter and applause). Now,
+Governor, please don't let him get away while my back is turned
+(laughter), because I feel he really ought to have this certificate.
+
+Ladies and Gentlemen, this certificate is a tribute by the D. A. R., in
+the form of a diploma, as you see; it says, in part,
+
+=He that planteth a tree is a servant of God. He provideth a kindness
+for many generations, and faces that he hath not seen shall bless him.=
+
+I have intense pride in presenting it to the man who is first in the
+Conservation war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of all
+tree-lovers.
+
+[Mrs Howard here presented the certificate to Mr Pinchot amid great and
+prolonged applause, with cries of "Pinchot!" "Speech!"]
+
+Mr GIFFORD PINCHOT--Mr Chairman, Mrs Scott, and Mrs Howard: There are
+two reasons, Ladies and Gentlemen, why I am profoundly moved, and
+delighted to receive this certificate: One of them is--and it is not a
+bit modified by the fact that you have so kindly, yesterday and today,
+given me far more credit than I deserve--that I would rather have the
+good opinion of the women who are interested in Conservation than that
+of the men--by far (applause and laughter). The other is, that of all
+the organizations that have been working for the Conservation movement,
+for the preservation of the forests and for the extension of the same
+idea to all our natural resources, there has been none more devoted and
+more effective than the D. A. R. Besides, of all the women in the D. A.
+R., no one has been more devoted or more effective than Mrs Howard's
+mother, Mrs Draper (applause). And in this certificate I have joined
+together in my mind the kindness of Mrs Scott and the organization which
+she represents, the good-will of Mrs Draper which I very deeply prize,
+and that of her daughter, Mrs Howard, who was kind enough to give it to
+me; and I want to thank them all most heartily. (Great applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Governor EBERHART--When our friend Mr Pinchot comes here for the next
+Conservation meeting, after having seen all the charming ladies who have
+attended this Congress and worked in its interest, it is to be hoped
+that there may be still another certificate which he may have in his
+possession at that time (great applause). I am not saying this for the
+purpose of announcing any competition on the part of the ladies, but
+merely because Mr Pinchot himself suggested that he prizes this
+certificate so highly. But he would, I am sure, prize the other one
+still more if he got it (laughter).
+
+Some time ago, when it became necessary to send a man of ability, honor,
+and integrity out West to prosecute land frauds, President Roosevelt
+looked quite a while before he could find the right one. The
+instruction under which that man went was that he should prosecute every
+guilty person, no matter what position in life he held, whether of high
+or low standing; and the man he sent was eminently successful. After
+successfully prosecuting those land frauds, he went to San Francisco and
+continued in the same work with equally great credit and distinction; so
+that in introducing him to you I am introducing the best-known, the
+ablest and strongest, apostle of clean citizenship in the United States,
+a man who stands for a square deal, and who believes in what is best and
+highest and truest and cleanest and purest in American citizenship.
+Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honor and privilege of introducing to
+you that conserver of clean citizenship, who will address you on the
+subject of "Safeguarding the Property of the People," Honorable Francis
+J. Heney, of California.
+
+[Great and prolonged applause and cheers. Voices: "What's the matter
+with Heney?" "He's all right!"]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr HENEY (after asking an attendant to remove the water pitcher)--Mr
+Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen: As I never take water, I have requested
+that it be moved over to another table before I commence. (Laughter)
+
+The efficiency of a democracy must ultimately depend on the intelligence
+of its voters. It was the recognition of that idea which caused the
+Fathers of this Republic to advocate so strongly the establishment of a
+public school system in this country. Any effort on the part of any
+public servant to prevent the voters of this country from having full
+knowledge of all its public affairs is, therefore, a species of treason,
+and any failure on the part of any citizen to acquaint himself as fully
+as possible with our National affairs is a failure to perform one of the
+duties and obligations which are imposed upon every member of a
+democracy. (Applause)
+
+Public opinion, it is said, rules the Nation. It might better be said
+(because it would be more accurate) that public opinion in a democracy
+_should_ rule the Nation; and it might further be said that if we had a
+real democracy, and a real representative government, public opinion
+_would_ rule the Nation (applause). There are some evidences, however,
+that public opinion in this country does not have a free chance to
+operate. I need not mention many instances to convince you. Ninety
+percent of the people of the United States were opposed to men being
+permitted to make a profit by poisoning a people; they wanted a
+pure-food law, and yet it was locked up on the high shelf in Congress
+for sixteen years until Theodore Roosevelt, with the Big Stick, forced
+it out (great applause). What public opinion failed to do the Big Stick
+accomplished. (Renewed applause)
+
+Now, my friends, public opinion should be intelligent; and that requires
+accurate information. A friend of mine, riding on a street-car in the
+city of Washington, at a time when the Ballinger-Pinchot investigation
+was going on, saw two young men, beyond the voting age, reading the
+morning newspaper. They had a paper apiece. He was standing close by
+hanging on to a strap. He heard one of them say to the other, "They are
+having a great fuss up there in Congress over this Ballinger-Pinchot
+controversy, aren't they?" "Yes," said the other; "I see that Ballinger
+has been found three million dollars short in his accounts" (laughter).
+"Yes, I see that," said the first, "and that they found Pinchot has
+stolen a _million acres_ of public land" (laughter). Whereupon both of
+them turned to the sporting column to see whether Johnson or Jeffries
+was predicted to win (laughter). They seemed to have a pretty accurate
+knowledge, also, of which club was ahead in the baseball game.
+
+Now, my friends, that sort of misinformation is one of the diseases with
+which we are afflicted in this Republic, and I again call your attention
+to the responsibility of citizenship; and in that connection I
+congratulate myself, and I congratulate the Nation, that so many women
+are beginning to come to places like this, on occasions like this, to
+learn something about our National affairs (applause), because the
+future of this country is in the hands of the boys who are now growing
+up, and, perchance, the girls--who knows what may become of woman
+suffrage in the next generation? (Applause) Therefore, the more
+information the mothers have the better opportunity the Nation has of
+getting intelligent action from the voters.
+
+The subject of my text today is "Safeguarding the Property of the
+People." Well, my friends, there are just two ways in which the property
+of the people may be safeguarded: one is by the Legislative arm of the
+Government, to whom the Constitution of the United States has entrusted
+the power of disposing of, regulating, and controlling public property;
+the other is the Executive arm of the Government, to which, under the
+Constitution, the power is entrusted of enforcing the laws which have
+been provided by the Legislative body.
+
+Now, it must be apparent to any one that the most efficient Executive
+must fail in safeguarding the property of the people if the laws
+provided for that purpose by the Legislative body are loose, inaccurate,
+or unfitted to conditions. I want to make the charge plainly and
+unequivocally that, when we come (as we shall in a moment) to inquire
+into the safeguarding of the property of this Nation, we will find that
+all the despoiling of the Nation is directly chargeable upon the
+Legislative branch of the Government, the Congress of the United States,
+to whom, under the Constitution, we gave the power of trustees.
+
+In the first place, if unfortunately _our_ representatives in the United
+States Senate--and I use the word "our" figuratively--if the
+representatives in the United States Senate from each State,
+respectively, are there in the interest of specially privileged classes
+instead of in the interest of the average, common man, it will follow
+that the Executive arm of the Government will be inefficient; and I
+have discovered that it _is_ inefficient in the greater part of the
+West, where the greater part of the public property of the Nation
+lies--the Executive arm of the Government _is_, and since the Civil War
+has been the greater part of the time, utterly inefficient to safeguard
+the property of the people (applause). But I would be failing in my
+performance of duty if I failed to tell you why: It is because, while we
+have entrusted to the President of the United States the appointing of
+the United States attorneys for the different districts throughout the
+United States, a rule has grown up in the Senate of the United States
+which has in effect robbed the Executive of any real power in that
+respect, and has placed the appointing of such officials in the hands of
+the United States Senators from the respective States in which those
+districts lie. (Applause)
+
+What is the result? The result is that if the lumber interests in a
+particular district are strong, because of having already succeeded in
+despoiling the people of a large part of their timber interests, they
+are apt to dominate the election of a United States Senator; and those
+lumber interests are also liable to dictate, through that United States
+Senator, the appointment of the United States officials whose duty it
+will be to enforce the laws of the United States against their
+benefactors. (Applause)
+
+I would not dare to make such serious charges if I did not speak from
+absolute experience (applause). When I reached Oregon I found that
+situation existing in Oregon--indeed, I found on investigation before a
+grand jury that the then United States attorney was protecting certain
+men, who belonged to the higher-up class, from indictment, and that he
+had entered into a corrupt conspiracy with both the United States
+Senators from that State, by which they had agreed to have him
+reappointed United States attorney _upon condition_ that these men
+should not be prosecuted (applause). Moreover, I found that when the
+first stealing of timber commenced in Oregon and men were arrested for
+it, a man representing a big and influential timber company had taken to
+the railroad train about twenty-five men at Portland and carried them up
+to Salem and had them file openly on contiguous timber claims, each one
+swearing falsely that he was taking the timber for his own use; and when
+the matter was exposed immediately and the United States attorney took
+the matter before a grand jury and indicted the leaders who had
+instigated those men to go up and make the filings, influential State
+officials appealed to the United States Senators from Oregon to
+interfere, and appeals were sent to the Commissioner of the General Land
+Office and the Secretary of the Interior, so that finally the
+indictments were dismissed. Shortly thereafter about one hundred men
+filed on timber claims, under a contract to turn them over as soon as
+they were acquired, and again the influence of politicians and big
+business men brought about a failure of justice through an assistant
+United States attorney, who was the brother of the attorney representing
+the big interests who had hired these men to make the filings. Case
+after case of that kind came to my knowledge in Oregon; case after case
+of that kind has been brought to my attention in four or five other
+States. All of it can be traced back to the system under which we have
+been electing our United States Senators. (Applause)
+
+Professor Hadley has well said that the fundamental divisions of power
+in the Constitution of the United States are between the voters on the
+one hand and the property owners on the other. That is the fight. That
+always has been the fight. That always will be the fight in this
+country. You heard, probably, all of you, that great address by the
+greatest citizen of the world, made in this hall the other day
+(applause), in which he outlined those conditions.
+
+Now let us come back, for I want to show you wherein our trouble lies;
+and I want to show that great genius in railroad building (who is a
+citizen of your State, and who talked to you yesterday afternoon)--I
+want to show you and him who is responsible for the "extravagance and
+waste" of the great natural resources of this country. (Applause)
+
+I have pointed out to you how big business controlled the execution of
+the laws in practically every place in the West--except, of course,
+Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota; in the early days when there was
+timber here none of these evils existed because these conditions didn't
+exist; your timber lands were not stolen in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and
+Michigan; you didn't have United States attorneys suggested by United
+States Senators who had been selected by owners of large timber tracts
+or railroads. Some States in the Union have suffered from that, but you
+never had any such thing come home to _you_ (laughter). I congratulate
+you (renewed laughter). The Nation has had in its possession, owned in
+common by all of us and our forefathers, 1,800,000,000 acres of land.
+That is _some_ property (laughter); that is more than either you or I
+possess today (laughter). And that included all of the present
+Rockefeller oil possessions, it included all of the Northern Pacific's
+land-grant possessions, it included all of the great anthracite
+companies' coal possessions, it comprised all of the millions of acres
+of timber land throughout the United States, including what there was in
+Minnesota. It belonged to you and me and our fathers and mothers and
+sisters and brothers. We were pretty rich at that time. We _could_ have
+held on to it and developed it, because I can't believe that if we had
+offered to pay a patriotic citizen like James J. Hill the sum of $50,000
+a year to build a railroad for us from Lake Superior to Puget Sound and
+to furnish him the money with which to build it, that he would have
+refused the job (applause); even had he considered it inadequate
+compensation for his great ability, his patriotic love of the people of
+the United States would have led him to do it. (Great applause and
+cheers) In talking with a banker the other night--one of the Big Four of
+New York--I asked him if in his opinion Mr Harriman, in the gigantic
+operations performed by him, was influenced by love of money and the
+desire to gain filthy lucre, or whether he was influenced by the great
+gratification of achievement, and he said undoubtedly by the latter;
+that Mr Harriman would have combined all these railroads for the people
+of the United States on a salary of $50 a month, if we didn't want to
+give him any more, just for the pleasure of doing it. (Laughter and
+applause) But we have received misinformation, and are receiving it yet,
+to the effect that there are no patriots in the United States; that no
+man is willing to develop our coal or our oil or our iron or our
+water-power or anything else that is left unless we give him everything
+in sight. (Laughter and applause)
+
+My friends, the way the people of the United States have been treated in
+regard to this vast property which we owned reminds me of a story I
+heard about a man down South--a white man. He was going along the river
+in flood time in the back country, and the river was full of floating
+logs and refuse and all sorts of timber, and he saw a nigger sitting on
+the bank--and will you pardon me for using the word "nigger" instead of
+"colored man," because I have just been making a visit down in Virginia
+and I suppose I fell into it (laughter); it is not meant as a term of
+reproach, nor is it used as such there or here--and seeing this negro
+sitting on the bank, he said to him, "Sam, what are you doing?"
+"Nothin', Suh." "Whose boat is that?" "That's mine, Suh." "Well, Sam,
+let me tell you what I'll do; you take your boat and go and haul those
+logs out of the river there, and I'll give you half of all you get on
+shore." (Laughter)
+
+It took a little while for that to sink in (laughter). It has taken you
+forty years to let this railroad proposition sink in. (Laughter)
+
+Right while I am on it, while it is fresh in my mind and in yours: Mr
+Hill says, "We have been extravagant." Why, my friends, do you know what
+we gave to Mr Hill? I say we "gave" it; as a matter of fact, we weren't
+consulted (laughter); we didn't have a referendum on it (laughter and
+great applause). We gave the greatest land-grant ever given to an
+individual or a corporation in the history of the world--sixty millions
+of acres; when I say to Mr Hill, of course I mean the Northern Pacific.
+We gave outright a strip of land 2000 miles long, 20 miles wide in the
+States and 40 miles wide in the Territories! Worse than that: instead of
+giving it in a solid body, we gave every even section, so that in timber
+lands it carried an immense advantage over anybody else coming in from
+the outside. Now, it is easy to demonstrate, and I hardly believe Mr
+Hill would care to deny it--and if he does, I'll get the figures and
+demonstrate it (applause)--that this land-grant was worth, at a fair
+figure, ten dollars an acre at the very least. That is six hundred
+million dollars (applause) of _our_ property that we "extravagantly and
+improvidently wasted," as Mr Hill would call it; and I agree with him.
+(Laughter and applause)
+
+But what does that mean? Why, the road is 2000 miles long; $50,000 a
+mile on an average for the entire road is a very fair figure as the cost
+of it, making, if I calculate correctly, $100,000,000, to build it.
+Let's double that, and allow $100,000 a mile for the 2000 miles; that
+certainly would build and equip the road. That is two hundred million
+dollars. And we gave six hundred million dollars worth of land, and the
+railroad was built and now wants _forever_ to charge you rates--upon how
+much of a capitalization? Well, I don't know. But four hundred million
+dollars profit! Why, that would more than build the Panama Canal--and I
+wonder that some private corporation didn't do _that_ (laughter). It
+_would_, undoubtedly, if we had been willing to give to it all of the
+remaining 700,000,000 acres of land that we have left--including Alaska,
+with the coal mines that Guggenheim wants (laughter and applause). We
+_have_ been "improvident"--or somebody has--with the property of the
+people.
+
+Now, who was so improvident? Why, Congress; because the Constitution
+places in the hands of Congress the power to dispose of, regulate, and
+control the property of the United States; and Congress did it--and
+_did_ us, too (laughter and applause). But not satisfied with that,
+Congress gave to the Southern Pacific, the Central Pacific, and the
+Union Pacific 120,000,000 acres more of our inheritance, which we
+purchased with both blood and money--because the war with Mexico led to
+a part of the purchase, in which thousands of American citizens were
+killed, and thousands of American women widowed, and thousands of
+American children orphaned, while we put fifteen millions of _our_
+money--our common pot--into the purchase on top of that human blood; and
+then we "extravagantly and improvidently" gave it away. (Applause)
+
+Not satisfied with that, when we commenced to realize that it was
+necessary to save the forests of this country--some of the forests which
+were left--Congress again passed an act, in 1907, called the New Land
+Act. In 1891 it had passed the law authorizing the President to create
+National forest reserves. At the same time it had passed a law
+authorizing the States to select new lands for the school sections which
+might be included in the National forest reserves. A gentleman in
+California by the name of Frederick A. Hyde, and another gentleman (who
+is since dead, and who served a year in jail, just before his death, for
+defrauding the United States), were actively operating in the State of
+California in school lands. Now, don't get the idea in your heads from
+what I have been saying about the way Congress has handled the lands and
+property of the United States that I am in favor of turning over to the
+States the power to handle any property in the hope that it will be
+better handled, because there, again, my experience teaches me that it
+will be worse--_if possible_ (laughter and applause). Well, under that
+law of 1891, Hyde and his companion adopted this system: Where they
+found that school lands were in reserve (they had a man in the
+Surveyor-General's office who was looking out for them), they would go
+down and get bootblacks, and saloon barkeepers, and Tom, Dick, and Harry
+to sign an application for school lands--under the law of California 320
+acres--the law requiring that in making his filing the applicant should
+swear that he was taking it for his own use and benefit and not for
+speculative purposes. And at the same time that Mr Bootblack signed the
+application, he would sign a transfer of his interest, a conveyance of
+the land, with the date left blank; and a very agreeable notary public
+would put his seal and acknowledgment upon the affidavit and the
+assignment, despite the blanks and the absence even of any description
+of the lands in the application. Then, when Mr Hyde had one or two
+hundred of these, he would go and take up all those school lands, and
+have the agent of the State thereupon locate all of these school lands
+in a body in the finest forest he could find in California--some of the
+finest that ever grew on earth are there, trees two and three hundred
+feet high, sixteen to twenty feet in diameter, cutting so many millions
+of feet to the quarter-section that it would astound even a Minnesota
+lumberman unless he had been out there and seen it; and those
+magnificent virgin forests would be separated from public ownership by
+our "extravagance"--and this, mark you, through Congress passing the
+1891 law for the benefit (?) of the schools of the State so loosely
+drawn that speculators could take advantage of it in this way. So the
+virgin forests went into private ownership; and Mr Hill will tell you,
+"What of it? Doesn't that develop the country?"
+
+Why, my friends, they didn't even put the patents on record, because the
+tax collector of the county would put them on the assessment roll if
+they did (laughter). And so they grabbed millions of acres, that they
+had no idea of using in the present; they were holding it for the profit
+which would come from scarcity of timber through the waste and use which
+is going on. Why, people living in the very neighborhood of the timber
+grabbed don't know that it has passed out of Government ownership! And
+yet those are some of the people who have been living "extravagantly." I
+believe that some of them wear shoes that cost the high price of a
+dollar, and eat bacon that is four-fifths fat. (Laughter and applause)
+
+Let me tell you that extravagance is largely a matter of trying to copy
+after the Higher-ups. No nation was ever destroyed until it had a large
+leisure class to set a bad example (applause) in living to the common
+people; and this Nation has a leisure class which is rapidly growing,
+and which is more wealthy than any leisure class ever known to the
+world, civilized or barbarian. Why? My friends, _solely_ because
+Congress has by bad laws permitted all this vast property of the people
+to get into the hands of the few (applause). There is not a fortune in
+this country today large enough to be a menace to the liberties of the
+common people which has not been acquired by despoiling the people
+through legislation that was either corrupt or the result of such
+ignorance that it ought to be punished as criminal negligence, or else
+through unfair discrimination made by common carriers giving one man an
+advantage over his competitors. (Applause)
+
+Now, I haven't time to finish--I am afraid I have overstepped my time
+already--(Voices: "Go on, go on," and applause) but I want to "go on"
+just a little longer (laughter and applause) because I have something on
+my mind that I want to put on yours. (Laughter)
+
+We didn't lose our great inheritance until after the Civil War.
+Practically all of the rapes of this Nation by Congress have been
+committed since the Civil War, and every land law which Congress has
+placed upon the statute books since 1860 has been vicious--absolutely
+vicious--in its tendencies, and the Commissioner of the General Land
+Office and the Secretary of the Interior have constantly, every year,
+told Congress about it in printed reports and begged and urged Congress
+to change the laws: _and it has refused to do it!_ (Applause)
+
+Of course all members of Congress are not to blame for that; because
+this fight which Hadley says is going on always, and always will go on,
+in the division of power fundamentally between the voters and the
+property owners, has resulted in the property owners having more
+representatives in Congress than the people ever had. (Applause)
+
+Now, I am not here to abuse anybody. I heard a man tell a homely story
+last night that went directly to my heart; it's exactly in line with
+what I think about most of the men who are responsible for the present
+condition; I don't say these men are bad, but only that they have a
+wrong viewpoint--and that was illustrated in the story. This gentleman
+said that one day his boy brought home a fox-terrier. They had poultry
+at his home, some brown leghorns and some white chickens. This
+fox-terrier had been born and raised on a ranch where they had nothing
+but brown leghorns, and consequently when he went out in the
+chicken-yard and saw the feed thrown out he rushed out immediately--of
+course, without being told to do it--and weeded out the white chickens
+from the brown leghorns and drove them away from the feed and let the
+brown leghorns have it all (laughter). Now, it wasn't the fault of the
+dog that the white chickens lost their feed (laughter); we mustn't blame
+him; that had become second nature, from what we would call, speaking in
+reference to human beings, _environment_ (laughter and applause); and
+it's a rare dog who can discover for himself that the white chickens
+ought to have an equal right with the brown leghorns to get _some_ of
+the feed. (Laughter and applause)
+
+When, after the Civil War, business commenced to swing with great
+strides in this country, owing to the great inventions in machinery,
+the discovery of the cotton-gin and so many other things that we can't
+stop to enumerate them, and the growth of the use of electricity in
+later days, a few men commenced to see business enlarge--and they were
+not the men who fought in the War, but the men who remained at home and
+reflected (laughter and applause). Some of them were like the man
+pictured in one of the illustrated papers where there was a cartoon of
+Thomas Jefferson signing the Declaration of Independence, with one of
+the imaginary corporation men of the day--a Tory--rushing in through the
+door and saying, "Hold on, Thomas, don't sign that document; it'll hurt
+_business_" (laughter); and these men said, "Let's stop this War, it's
+hurting business." And there were others who thought the War _made_
+business, though that was before they had commenced to can beef
+(laughter). Then after the War, when the men who had made the fight for
+human liberty and the continuance of equal opportunities in this country
+came home and went to work, they went ahead satisfied to make a living
+for their little families in the best way they could, while these
+_business men_ who had remained at home had discovered that _if_ a man
+can get possession of those natural resources which can be turned into
+energy--the energy which drives modern machinery, which can do the work
+of human hands--he can sit back and fold his arms and say to the eighty
+million people in the United States, "Go ahead; when you want energy to
+run your machinery, you'll have to come to me and buy it; when your
+money is gone the eighty millions of you will have to work for me; and
+when you get to be one hundred and sixty millions, you'll still have to
+work for me." Now, it requires some imagination to see that, but it is
+just as fundamentally true as that the earth is spherical--flattened at
+the poles, as Cook tells us (laughter); and Peary corroborates it.
+(Laughter)
+
+Let me explain; because I want you to take home something, besides
+figures, that you will remember. When a man in the old days, when they
+had no machinery, employed four or five men, he commenced to be a
+business man; and when he began to put profit in his pocket--even at the
+rate of only ten cents a day for the labor of each man working for him,
+if he had five men he was making a clear profit of fifty cents a day,
+and if he had fifty men the profit was five dollars a day--he got on the
+road to "big business." If he could have five hundred men and could make
+fifty cents a day off the labor of each one, he would be making two
+hundred and fifty dollars a day; and if he could have factories spread
+out over the United States in which he had an aggregate of ten million
+men working for him--as in shoe factories when they made shoes entirely
+by hand--and could make fifty cents a day off each of the ten million
+men, he would make five million dollars a day. The figures stagger us.
+Now, with machinery you can take coal, oil, timber, gas, or
+water-power--those are the energy-creating natural resources--and make
+machinery run with them; and if you own enough of those energy-creating
+natural resources to be equivalent to the labor of ten million men, and
+apply it to the right machinery, you can compete with the man who has
+ten million slaves to work for him and does not possess this other
+energy--and you can do better than merely compete, because your
+water-power doesn't wear out shoes at the toes nor coats at the elbows
+nor trousers at the knees; so, my friends, the man who owns the
+water-power is a greater slave-owner--has more energy that can be turned
+into wealth--than all the planters who owned the colored men of the
+South.
+
+Now, at the time of the Civil War we didn't understand this great power
+and the importance of preserving it in the ownership of the
+people--because it all belonged to us then. There is available--so the
+report of the National Conservation Commission says--37,000,000
+horsepower in the streams of this country. What does this mean? Why, my
+friends, the energy expended by an average draft-horse working eight
+hours a day is equal to only four-fifths of the unit horsepower, as we
+use it in speaking of water-power, so that it would be equivalent, for
+an eight-hour day's work, to more than fifty-four million average draft
+horses. Now, machinery used to be driven by man-power before the draft
+horse was made to work in place of the man; that was what they did in
+the old tread-mill before the discovery of steam, which has only been in
+effective use about a hundred years; and in man-power, what does the
+forty million horsepower available immediately for use mean? You don't
+conceive of it, I am sure. A horsepower is equal to the work of at least
+ten men, and forty million horsepower would be equal to the work of
+400,000,000 men! Why, all the people in the United States today are only
+90,000,000, including babies. Four-hundred-million-of-men power! And
+just as sure as the sun will rise, if we permit that to go into
+perpetual ownership of individuals, the day will come when one
+corporation will own it all and one man will dictate and dominate that
+corporation (applause). If you want this country to have material
+progress at the cost of human liberty, let this source of energy slip
+out of your hands (applause); but if you want to hold on to any kind of
+a chance for your children and children's children to have equal
+opportunities like yours, then follow the policies laid down by Theodore
+Roosevelt the other day in regard to those energy-producing
+resources--coal, oil, gas, and water, as well as timber--and this
+country will be so great that all earlier history will never have told
+of such progress as the human race will make within these confines.
+(Applause)
+
+It seems to me that we all ought to be able to realize that no human
+being in the short space of a lifetime can have earned a hundred million
+dollars--he cannot have given an equivalent to mankind for $100,000,000;
+and when we see the example set by some of these great captains of
+industry who go over to Monte Carlo and risk a fortune on one bet and
+one turn of the wheel, and come back to this country and talk about
+their great benevolence, and then find that the Pittsburg "Survey" found
+conditions of human life at their workshops so low that it is bound to
+degrade and pull down the human race--surely it is time to stop and
+consider. (Tremendous and prolonged applause)
+
+My friends, we must have more democracy in this country (applause). I
+know this is no place to talk politics, and I am not here for the
+purpose of talking politics in a partisan sense; but the Conservation of
+the natural resources for the benefit of the human race--not only the
+people of the United States--is of such transcendent importance that it
+rises above all parties and all men (great applause). Why is it that
+some of these men who have profited by our mistakes and our improvidence
+in the past are fighting against this Conservation movement? Is it
+because they fear that we will fail to develop the country rapidly
+enough? No! Every true Conservationist believes in developing the
+country rapidly as possible. But we realize the danger, the menace to
+human liberty, that lies in _parting with the fee title_ to all these
+great energy-producing natural resources; and if we can arouse the
+people of the United States to a realization and understanding of this
+question--which, after all, is simple when we get down to it--there will
+be such a wave of insurgency sweep over this country as will drive the
+representatives of the special interests out of every public office in
+the Nation. (Great and prolonged applause and cheers)
+
+Now, in order to illustrate what I have said about what these people--or
+Congress--have done and failed to do, I must draw your attention to the
+fact that under the Timber and Stone Act, 13,000,000 acres of the finest
+timber in the world have been extravagantly and improvidently disposed
+of and lost to the people through a vicious Act of Congress, and have
+gone largely into the hands of a few owners; for the repeated reports of
+the Secretary of the Interior--even the present Secretary, Mr
+Ballinger--show that ten of the thirteen million acres are in the hands
+of a few individuals and corporations. Ten million acres! Why, that is
+equal to two of the smaller eastern States. In 1878, the then Secretary
+of the Interior, immediately after the Act was passed, said in his
+report for that year (Report of Secretary of Interior, 1878-1879, pp.
+xii-xv):
+
+     While no legislation applicable to all parts of the country
+     with regard to this subject was had, two bills of a local
+     character were passed, one "Authorizing the citizens of
+     Colorado, Nevada, and the Territories to fell and remove timber
+     on the public domain for mining and domestic purposes," and one
+     "For the sale of timber lands in the States of California and
+     Oregon and in Washington Territory."
+
+     In the opinion of the Commissioner of the General Land Office,
+     which is on record in this Department, these two acts are more
+     calculated to _hasten the destruction_ of the forests in the
+     States and Territories named than to secure the preservation of
+     them.
+
+     Of this act the Commissioner of the General Land Office, in a
+     letter addressed to the Secretary of the Interior, expresses
+     the following opinion:
+
+     "It is a fact well known that while almost all the
+     timber-bearing land in those States and all the Territories,
+     except Dakota and Washington, is regarded as mineral, only a
+     small portion is so in reality. The effect of this bill will,
+     in my opinion, be to prevent the survey and sale of any of the
+     timber lands, or the timber upon the lands, in the States and
+     Territories named, thus cutting off large prospective revenues
+     that might and should be derived from the sale of such lands or
+     the timber upon them. It is equivalent to a donation of all the
+     timber lands _to the inhabitants of those States and
+     Territories_, which will be found to be the largest donation of
+     the public domain hitherto made by Congress. This bill
+     authorizes the registers and receivers of the land offices in
+     the several districts in which the lands are situated to make
+     investigations without any specific directions from the
+     Secretary of the Interior or the Commissioner of the General
+     Land Office, to settle and adjust their own accounts, and
+     retain from the moneys coming into their hands arising from
+     sales of lands such amounts as they may expend or cause to be
+     expended. This method will be found exceedingly expensive and
+     result in no good. Experience has shown that the machinery of
+     the land offices is wholly inadequate to prevent depredations."
+
+     The "Rules and Regulations" issued in pursuance of the first
+     section of this act are to be found in the report of the
+     Commissioner of the General Land Office, herewith presented.
+     These rules, drawn up with a view to and the intention of
+     preserving the young timber and undergrowth upon the mineral
+     lands of the United States and to the end that the mountain
+     sides may not be left denuded and barren of the timber and
+     undergrowth necessary to prevent the precipitation of the
+     rain-fall and melting snows in floods upon the fertile arable
+     lands in the valleys below, thus destroying the agricultural
+     and pasturage interests of the mineral and mountainous portions
+     of the country, make it the duty of registers and receivers to
+     see to it that trespassers upon timber lands, not mineral, be
+     duly reported, that upon mineral lands only timber of a certain
+     size be cut, and that young trees and undergrowth be protected,
+     and that timber be cut only for the purposes mentioned in the
+     act. These "Rules and Regulations" will be enforced with all
+     the power left to this department to that end, in order to save
+     what may be saved. But I deem it my duty to call attention to
+     the fact that, as set forth by the Commissioner in the letter
+     above quoted, the machinery of the land offices is utterly
+     inadequate to accomplish the object in view.
+
+     After a careful consideration of the above-named Act and its
+     probable effects, I venture the prediction that the permission
+     given the inhabitants of the States and Territories named
+     therein, to take timber from the public lands in any quantity
+     and wherever they can find it, for all purposes except export
+     and sale to railroads, will be taken advantage of, not only by
+     settlers and miners to provide economically for their actual
+     current wants, but by persons who will see in this donation a
+     chance to make money quickly; that it will stimulate a wasteful
+     consumption beyond actual need and lead to wanton destruction;
+     that the machinery left to this Department to prevent or
+     repress such waste and destruction through the enforcement of
+     the rules above mentioned will prove entirely inadequate; that
+     as a final result in a few years the mountain sides of those
+     States and Territories will be stripped bare of the timber now
+     growing upon them, with no possibility of its reproduction, the
+     soil being once washed off from the slopes, and that the
+     irreparable destruction of the forests will bring upon those
+     States all the calamities experienced from the same causes in
+     districts in Europe and Asia similarly situated.
+
+     It appears to me, therefore, that the repeal of the above-named
+     act, and the substitution therefor of a law embodying a more
+     provident policy, similar to that of the above-mentioned Senate
+     Bill No. 609, is in the highest degree desirable. If the
+     destruction of the forests in those States be permitted, the
+     agricultural and pasturage interests in the mountainous regions
+     will inevitably be sacrificed, and the valleys in the course of
+     time become unfit for the habitation of men.
+
+     The act for the sale of timber lands in the States of
+     California, Oregon, and Nevada, and in Washington Territory,
+     passed by Congress at its last session, is, in a letter
+     addressed to this Department, commented upon by the
+     Commissioner of the General Land Office, in the following
+     language:
+
+     "It is a bill of local and not general application to the
+     timber lands of the United States, and adds one more to the
+     already numerous special acts for the disposal of the public
+     domain. The price fixed is too low, as much of the land is
+     worth from five to fifty dollars per acre.
+
+     "Under the provisions of the bill the timber lands will, in my
+     opinion, be speedily taken up and pass into the hands of
+     speculators, notwithstanding the provisions to prevent such
+     results. The soil should not be sold with the timber where the
+     land is not fit for cultivation. Only the timber of a certain
+     size should be sold, and the soil and young timber retained
+     with a view to the reproduction of the forests. The bill should
+     have limited the sale of the lands to persons who have farms
+     and homes within the State or Territory, and it ought to have
+     required the purchasers to show affirmatively that they had
+     need of timber for domestic uses."
+
+No less emphatic were later recommendations for repeal or amendment of
+the Timber and Stone Acts (Report of Secretary of Interior, 1879-80, p.
+27):
+
+     In my last annual report I discussed the inadequacy of the laws
+     enacted by the last Congress "Authorizing the citizens of
+     Colorado, Nevada, and the Territories to fell and remove timber
+     on the public domain for mining and domestic purposes," and
+     providing "for the sale of timber lands in the States of
+     California and Oregon and in Washington Territory." The opinion
+     I then ventured to express, that the first of these Acts would
+     be taken advantage of not only by settlers and miners to
+     provide economically for their actual current wants, but by
+     persons who see in this donation a chance to make money
+     quickly; that it would stimulate a wasteful consumption beyond
+     all actual need and lead to wanton destruction, and that the
+     machinery left to this Department to prevent or repress such
+     waste and destruction through the enforcement of the rules to
+     be made by the Commissioner of the General Land Office would be
+     found insufficient for that purpose, _has already_ in many
+     places _been verified by experience_; also the predictions made
+     by the Commissioner of the General Land Office with regard to
+     the effect of the second one of the above-named acts. Referring
+     to what was said about these laws in my last annual report, I
+     repeat my _earnest_ recommendation that they be _repealed_, and
+     that more adequate legislation be substituted therefor.
+
+     It is by no means denied that the people of the above-named
+     States and Territories must have timber for their domestic use
+     as well as the requirements of their local industries. Neither
+     is it insisted upon that the timber so required should be
+     imported from a distance, so that the forests in those States
+     and Territories might remain intact. This would be
+     unreasonable. But it is deemed necessary that a law be enacted
+     providing that the people may lawfully acquire the timber
+     required for their domestic use and their local industries from
+     the public lands under such regulations as will prevent the
+     indiscriminate and irreparable destruction of forests, with its
+     train of disastrous consequences. It is thought that this end
+     will be reached by authorizing the Government _to sell timber
+     from the public lands principally valuable for the timber
+     thereon_, _without conveying the fee_, and to conduct such
+     sales by Government officers under such instructions from this
+     Department as will be calculated to _prevent the denudation of
+     large tracts_, especially in those mountain regions _where
+     forests once destroyed will not reproduce themselves_. I have
+     no doubt that under such a law, well considered in its
+     provisions, the people of those States and Territories would be
+     enabled to obtain all the timber they need for domestic as well
+     as industrial purposes at reasonable rates, and that at the
+     same time the cutting of timber can be so regulated as to
+     afford sufficient protection to the existence and reproduction
+     of the forests, which is so indispensable to the future
+     prosperity of those regions. I venture to express the opinion
+     that the enactment of such a law has become a pressing
+     necessity, and cannot much longer be delayed without great and
+     irreparable injury to one of the most vital interests of the
+     people. I therefore again commend to the consideration of
+     Congress the bill introduced as Senate Bill No. 609 in the
+     _last_ Congress:
+
+     "The last clause of the second section will permit any person
+     applying for a tract of timber land and securing a certificate
+     from the Register to sell his right and interest therein
+     _immediately_, and the purchaser, although it may have been
+     obtained by perjury, may be entitled to a patent for the land.
+
+     "Section 5 provides that any person prosecuted under Sec. 2461
+     of the Revised Statutes of the United States, may be relieved
+     of the penalty by the payment of two dollars and fifty cents
+     per acre for the land trespassed upon. This is objectionable,
+     for the reason that the penalty fixed is altogether inadequate,
+     and does not require the payment of costs of prosecution, which
+     are often greater than the penalty to be collected. It should
+     require that the trespasser should pay for the entire
+     subdivision trespassed upon.
+
+     "There can be no doubt that if this bill becomes a law it will
+     be taken advantage of, by persons who want to make money
+     quickly, to acquire the timber lands under its provisions at a
+     very low price, and strip the mountain sides of their forest
+     growth as rapidly as possible. How disastrous such a result
+     will be to these States and Territories need not be detailed
+     here."
+
+My friends, every report from 1878 down to the last report this year,
+tells Congress exactly the same thing, and begs and urges Congress to
+repeal this Timber and Stone Act. Not only that; every report goes on
+and tells that large tracts are being stolen and taken fraudulently,
+and Congress is urged for that reason to repeal it and make a different
+rule in regard to the sale of the timber, not to hold it but to sell the
+timber off the land letting buyers take the mature growth, and
+replanting and reforesting so that the timber will always be there; and
+Congress failed to act until 1892, fourteen years later. After the above
+reports went in, with a report of the same kind every year for fourteen
+years, then, in 1892, with a report before them at the time to the same
+effect, Congress _extended_ the Timber and Stone Act to take in Montana
+and some other States. _Who got them to do it?_ The great amalgamated
+copper interests are in Montana, and the great smelting interests there
+wanted _timber_--that belonged to us, and that they could well afford to
+pay for--and they wanted to get it under this vicious Act, and they
+_did_ get it under this vicious Act; and indictments followed only a
+short time ago, but there was failure of proof although everybody knew
+who was guilty (applause). And, my friends, the Act of Congress in
+extension of the vicious law, with all these reports before them, cannot
+be accounted for upon any other theory than that the people of the
+United States have a minority of representatives in both branches of
+Congress (applause). Now, after the extension, the adverse reports
+commenced to come in again; and they have been followed up every year
+down to the present year, yet that Timber and Stone Act still remains on
+the statute books unamended and unrepealed! _How_ can you account for
+it? I'll tell you how. Why, _there is still some timber to be stolen_!
+(Applause)
+
+Now, I have taken altogether too much of your time. I have not been able
+to present this matter as satisfactorily to myself as I would have liked
+on account of the limitation of time--I suppose most of you are glad of
+that. (Voices: "No, no, no; go on!") I can't go on; it wouldn't be fair
+to other gentlemen who are here to speak, especially to Mr Gifford
+Pinchot who is to talk to you immediately after I conclude, and I know
+you want to hear from him (applause). But I want to say to you that the
+fight to prevent our natural resources from getting into private
+ownership is a war that will have a greater influence upon the future of
+the human race than even the great Civil War in this country had
+(applause); and I want to say to you, further, that I have enlisted in
+that war as a private soldier (applause, and a voice: "We'll make you
+the leader!") for the full term of my natural life. (Great applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Governor EBERHART--The next subject for consideration is "The
+Conservation Program"; and I wish that time would permit me to say some
+of the fine things I would like to say about the speaker. I will say
+just one thing: A short time ago I was in the Belasco Theater in the
+city of Washington and the question of Conservation was up, and this man
+stood on the rostrum and said to that vast congregation that the time
+had come when we must forget personalities and men, and work for
+principles--that it was time for every man interested in the welfare of
+the Nation to come forward in this Conservation work, forgetting the
+past, and forget all personal prejudices and jealousies, and work for
+this one movement; and at the close of his address he was given such an
+ovation at the hands of that gathering as he has frequently received
+here. It is not necessary for me to formally introduce him; you know him
+as the best friend of our forests--Gifford Pinchot. (Great applause and
+cheers)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr GIFFORD PINCHOT--Governor, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am not tired of
+receiving your kindness, but I wonder if you are not tired of receiving
+my thanks! I _do_ want to thank you most earnestly for all your
+kindness; and I have wished all along that one person who has made the
+fight with me could be here, and that is my Mother. (Great applause)
+
+I shall have to read a good deal of my paper to you tonight, because
+there are some things I want to say more exactly than I otherwise could;
+but I will read just as little as possible.
+
+Like nearly every great reform--and Conservation _is_ a great
+reform--the Conservation movement first passed through a period of
+generalities, general agitation and general approval, when all men were
+its friends; and it hadn't yet really begun. You have all noticed that
+when a minister in church makes a general arraignment of wickedness, no
+particular sinner seems to care very much--it passes over his head, or
+he applies it to the other fellow; but when he comes down to particular
+cases, and the special shortcomings, the special desires, the special
+impulses which control each one of us, begin to be the subject of his
+oration, then there is a very different situation. Now, it was just so
+with the Conservation movement. At first everyone approved it, because
+it touched no one nearly; then it passed into a period of practical
+application, out of the sweep of the generalities, and at once the men
+whose particular interests were threatened began to take an active
+interest in the question, and the opposition began; and with that opened
+the second period of the Conservation movement.
+
+When this fight began, it was found that the people believed in
+Conservation all over this Nation, and that fact had to be taken into
+consideration by the people who were opposing the movement. When there
+is a general movement of which all men approve, the regular way in which
+the attack is made upon it is to join in the approval and then get after
+the men and the methods by which the general proposition is being
+carried out. So, now we find that the desire of the opponents of
+Conservation--and there are not so very many of them in numbers--is not
+at all that we should abandon the principle of making the best use of
+our natural resources; they do not urge that we should abandon the ideas
+of doing the best thing for all of us for the longest time; but the
+soft-pedal Conservationists _do_ demand that Conservation shall be safe
+and sane. Safety and sanity, in the meaning of the men who use that term
+most as applied to legislation, means legislation not unfriendly to the
+continued domination of the great interests as opposed to the welfare
+of the people (applause); and safe and sane Conservation, as that
+expression is used by those same men, means Conservation so carefully
+sterilized that it will do no harm to the special interests and very
+little good to the people. (Prolonged applause)
+
+I take it, of course, that every friend of Conservation is fully and
+heartily in sympathy with safety and sanity; that goes without saying,
+for if there ever was a prudent, safe and sane program, it is that of
+the Conservation movement, expressing a prudent, safe and sane spirit,
+and intention as well. But we must never forget that safety and sanity
+from the point of view of the men who are advocating Conservation--from
+the point of view of a great gathering like this--means that, first,
+last, and all the time, the interests of _all_ the people shall be set
+ahead of the interests of any part of the people. (Applause)
+
+Among the things that have been charged against the Conservation
+movement is this, that Conservation does not know what it wants--that
+the Conservation movement is an indefinite striving after no one knows
+exactly what. I want to tell you, on the other hand, that the
+Conservation program is now, and has for at least two years been a
+definite concrete attempt to get certain specific things; and that the
+impression which has been made, or has been sought to be made, that we
+didn't know what we were after, is wholly misleading. (Applause)
+
+The Conservation program may be found, most of it, in the following
+reports--the report of the Public Lands Commission of 1905; the report
+of the Inland Waterways Commission, March, 1908; the great Declaration
+of Principles adopted by the Governors at the White House, in May,
+1908--one of the great documents of our history; the report of the
+Commission on Country Life, January, 1909; and the Declaration of the
+North American Conservation Conference, February, 1909. By the close of
+the last Administration, the Conservation program had grown into a
+well-defined platform, and the only important addition of more recent
+date is a clearer understanding--and we have now a very clear
+understanding--that monopoly of natural resources is the great enemy of
+Conservation, and that monopoly always must depend on the control of
+natural resources and natural advantages of a few as against the
+interests of the many. (Applause)
+
+None of the men, so far as I know, who are engaged in the Conservation
+movement, took hold of that side of the fight because they wanted to. I
+can say, for myself at least, that it was not until I was forced into it
+by experience that I could not doubt, by being defeated over and over
+again in trying to get things I knew were right--it was not until the
+covert opposition of the special interests in Conservation was beaten
+into me, and beaten into the rest of us, that that end of it was taken
+up at all. There are troubles enough in this world without any of us
+hunting a fight; but this fight hunted us (applause), and we are in it
+yet, as Mr Heney declares.
+
+The principles of Conservation are very few and very simple. That is one
+of the beauties of this whole movement--that there is nothing mysterious
+or complicated or hard to understand about it; it is the simplest
+possible application of common sense. The first of the principles is
+this: that the natural resources and the natural advantages both belong
+to all the people and should be developed, protected, and perpetuated
+directly for the benefit of all the people and not mainly for the profit
+of a few (applause). The second principle is that the natural resources
+still owned by the people which are necessaries of life, like coal and
+water-power, should remain in the public ownership and should be
+disposed of only under lease for limited periods and with fair
+compensation to the public for the rights granted (applause). I have
+never sympathized with the ideas we have heard so much of that the
+people must not try to protect themselves because they are not fit to
+handle their own affairs, and especially that they cannot handle their
+affairs in the matter of Conservation. By all means let us have the
+resources cared for, held in ownership by the people of the States as
+well as of the Nation, and handled for the benefit of the people first
+of all. (Applause)
+
+Now, I want to state a few propositions as to each of the four great
+categories of the natural resources, which seem to me to include not all
+but a very considerable proportion of the fundamental things that
+Conservation people seek. It is very likely that some will not agree
+that these are the fundamental things; but I believe these propositions,
+taken together, represent fairly the opinion of most of the many
+millions of men and women who believe in Conservation.
+
+First, as to our waterways: Every stream should be made useful for every
+purpose in which it can be made to serve the public. We have been in the
+habit of sacrificing, for example, irrigation to power, or power to the
+city water supply. Let us study our streams and use them for every
+purpose to which they can be put. The preparation of a broad plan is
+needed without delay for the development of our waterways for
+navigation, domestic supply, irrigation, drainage and power. (Applause)
+
+Second, every water-power site now in State or Federal control should be
+held in that control (applause), and should be disposed of only under
+lease for a limited time and with fair compensation to the public.
+
+Third, in the development of our waterways, the cooperation of the
+States with the Nation is essential to the general welfare. (Applause)
+
+Now, as to our forests: First, all forests necessary for the public
+welfare should be in the public ownership and remain there (applause).
+Among these are the National Forests already in existence and the
+proposed Appalachian and White Mountain National Forests (applause). I
+am glad to hear you applaud the proposition for the Appalachian and
+White Mountain forests--we need them (applause). We want also the State
+forests to be taken care of--the State forests of New York,
+Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and other States.
+
+Second, the protection of forests against fire is the duty of State and
+Nation alike (applause); and that lesson has been driven home this year
+in a way that I think will make our people understand and remember it
+for many years to come. I want to pay a tribute in a word, if you will
+allow me, to the wonderful work done by the boys of the National Forest
+Service, of the Army, and of the great fire-fighting associations of the
+West, and by many private citizens, in making what seems to me to have
+been one of the best, one of the boldest, one of the most devoted fights
+for the public welfare of which I know anything in recent years
+(applause). The way to stop fires in a forest, as in a town, is to get
+men to them as soon as they begin. The maintenance and extension of
+forest fire patrol by the Nation and States and by their subdivisions
+and by associations or private citizens who own timber lands is
+absolutely necessary. And we must have not only a patrol but a
+_sufficient_ patrol.
+
+Third, the development of existing forests by wise use is the first step
+in forestry, and reforestation is the second. Practical forestry in our
+existing forests comes first, tree planting follows; both are absolutely
+essential if we are to handle this problem right. (Applause)
+
+Fourth: Land bearing forests should be taxed annually on the land value
+alone, and the timber crop should be taxed only when cut, so that
+private forestry may be encouraged (applause). Next to fire, there is
+nothing that so stubbornly stands in the way of practical forestry in
+this country as bad methods of taxation. (Applause)
+
+Fifth--and I feel very strongly about this: The private ownership of
+forest lands is in reality a public trust, and the people have both the
+right and the duty to regulate the use of such private forest lands in
+the general interest. (Applause)
+
+Then as to the lands: Every acre of land should be put to whatever use
+will make it most serviceable to all the people (applause). All
+agricultural land should be put to agricultural use. I have never been
+one to maintain that forest-bearing land which could be more useful
+under the plow should be kept for forest uses (applause); I have never
+been one to maintain, either, that land bearing heavy timber, acquired
+ostensibly for agricultural uses, should be cut over and afterward
+abandoned (applause). The fundamental object of our land policy should
+be the making and maintenance of permanent prosperous homes--that is the
+whole story (applause). Land monopoly, and excessive holdings of lands
+in private ownership in great bodies, must not be tolerated (applause).
+One of the very great difficulties in several parts of our country
+arises in huge consolidated holdings of land, which make tenants out of
+men who ought to be freeholders--free men on their own land. (Applause)
+
+Settlement should be encouraged by every legitimate means on all the
+land that will support homes. That is a fundamental proposition. Thus
+the tillable land in public ownership, within and without the National
+Forest, should be disposed of in fee simple to actual settlers, but
+never to speculators. (Applause)
+
+The first and most needed thing to do for our cultivated lands is to
+preserve their fertility by preventing erosion, the greatest tax the
+farmer pays. (Applause)
+
+The non-irrigable and arid public grazing lands should be administered
+and controlled by the Federal Government in the interest of the small
+stockman and the homemaker until they can pass directly into the hands
+of actual settlers (applause). Many millions of acres are now having
+their forage value destroyed because Uncle Sam exercises no control
+whatever over a territory vastly larger than any single State--even
+Texas.
+
+Finally, rights to the surface of the public land should be separated
+from rights to the forests upon it and the minerals beneath it, and each
+should be held subject to separate disposal; _and the Timber and Stone
+Act should be repealed!_ (Applause)
+
+As to our minerals: Those which still remain in Government ownership
+should not be sold--especially coal--but should be leased on terms
+favorable to development up to the full requirements of our people. I
+want to make it plain, if anyone should happen not to understand, that
+the withdrawals which have been made of coal lands and oil lands and
+phosphate lands are not intended to be permanent; they are intended
+simply to prevent those lands from passing into private ownership until
+Congress can pass proper laws for retaining them in the public ownership
+and having them used there (applause). Until legislation to this effect
+can be enacted, temporary withdrawals of land containing coal, oil, gas,
+and phosphate rock, are required in order to prevent speculation and
+monopoly.
+
+It is the clear duty of the Federal Government, as well as that of the
+States in their spheres, to provide, through investigation, legislation,
+and regulation, against loss of life and waste of mineral resources in
+mining. The recent creation of a National Bureau of Mines makes a real
+advance in the right direction. And I want here to pay my tribute to the
+man who has recently and most wisely been appointed director of that
+Bureau of Mines, Joseph A. Holmes, one of the best fighters for
+Conservation that this country has produced. (Applause)
+
+With regard to National efficiency: The maintenance of National and
+State conservation commissions is necessary to ascertain and make public
+the facts as to our natural resources. That seems to me to be
+fundamental. We must have the machinery for continuing this work. Such
+commissions supply the fundamental basis for cooperation between the
+Nation and the States for the development and protection of the
+foundations of our prosperity.
+
+A National Health Service is needed to act in cooperation with similar
+agencies within the States for the purpose of lengthening life,
+decreasing suffering, and promoting the vigor and efficiency of our
+people (applause). I think it is high time we began to take as much care
+of ourselves as we do of our natural resources. (Applause)
+
+These are not all the things for which Conservation stands, but they are
+some of the more important. I had meant to speak here of the conflict
+between State and Federal jurisdictions, which we have seen illustrated
+in this Congress, but I prefer to speak, not of the conflicts, but of
+the chances for cooperation (applause). I believe in the Federal control
+of water-power in navigable and source streams and of water-power sites
+that are now in the Federal hands. I believe equally that every State
+has a great duty to its own people in Conservation, and that only by
+full and free and hearty cooperation between the Nation and the States
+can we all of us get together to control or develop, as the case may be,
+those intrastate or interstate agencies which are attempting for private
+profit to harm all the people (applause). When a question is settled, as
+I think this Congress has pretty well settled in its own mind certain of
+the questions relating to the division of the Federal and State work,
+that is the time to go on and act upon it; and I believe we ought to
+emphasize here most vigorously the functions of the State as well as the
+functions of the National Government, always remembering that the
+Federal Government alone is capable of handling questions which exceed
+the limits of any one State, and that, as Colonel Roosevelt said here
+the other day, nearly all of the great corporations have affiliations
+extending throughout the Nation or at least across State boundaries. I
+am as vigorously for the recognition of the State power and the State
+duty as I am for the recognition of the Federal power and the Federal
+duty, each in its proper place (applause). But should I at any time see
+an attempt made to hide behind either one of these powers at the expense
+of the people, I would not be doing my duty if I didn't stand up and say
+so.
+
+Just a word in closing: No body like this can get together without
+firing a man's imagination and heart. I have been at many great
+meetings, but never at one that seemed to me to contain within itself
+the possibility and power for good that this one does (applause). I have
+watched this Conservation movement grow, as we all have; I see it now on
+the very verge of the most practical kind of results. The clouds have
+cleared away; we know where we stand; we are ready to go forward, and we
+know where we are going and how. There has been gathered here a body of
+men and women whose motive is clearly this, that they propose when they
+depart to leave this good old earth better for their children than when
+they found it (applause), and they are carrying that message to the
+people of the United States more powerfully than it has ever been
+carried before. If any man or any woman were disposed not to be hopeful
+about the Conservation movement, I think this Congress would lift them
+to a new plane; it gives us new hope for the future of our country. I
+thank you. (Great applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Governor EBERHART--Ladies and Gentlemen: Just a few words before we take
+a recess until this evening: I wish on this occasion, as it will be
+perhaps the only one afforded to me, to express my sincere thanks to the
+officers of this Congress for the splendid manner in which they have
+done their work. I have never met a more congenial and kindly set of
+officers than those who are handling this convention (applause), and a
+great deal of the credit of the success of this convention is due to
+their personal, persistent, and strenuous efforts. I take it that this
+is the time at which, as Chief Executive of the State, I should present
+my acknowledgments. I regret that the President of the Congress, who is
+always unselfish, has determined that, in order to give the other
+officers, delegates and guests a chance tonight to be heard, his own
+lecture--which we have all been waiting for--shall not be presented at
+this time.
+
+Among the splendid sentiments which Mr Pinchot has uttered, one of the
+very best, I think, was that the States and the Nation instead of
+struggling among themselves as to how authority should be divided,
+should cooperate (applause) in the Conservation of the resources of the
+country for the benefit of all the people for all time.
+
+After two or three announcements have been made, we will take a recess
+until this evening at 8 oclock.
+
+Professor CONDRA--The Committee on Nominations will meet, immediately
+after this meeting adjourns, in Room 601, Saint Paul Hotel.
+
+Since the report of the Committee on Credentials was received and filed
+with the Secretary yesterday, there has been an additional registration
+of 40 or 50 delegates.
+
+It was announced this morning that the Call of the States would be made
+this afternoon, but it became impossible to do so. President Baker asks
+me to say that tonight the order of business will be, _first_, the
+election of officers; _second_, the reception of the resolutions from
+the Committee on Resolutions; and _third_, special reports from the
+States--this to continue tomorrow if necessary.
+
+Another suggestion: If any of you have anything to be read from the
+platform, please put it in such form that it can be read properly and
+understood clearly. We had an example of misunderstanding this morning,
+which I regret; and I want to advertise the papers of this city by
+asking you to read the report in one of them from which you will see the
+results of that misunderstanding. Do not blame anybody; these things
+come. Do not blame the ladies of this State for any misunderstanding. I
+have had too many thousands of womanly women in my classes at the
+university and elsewhere (and I married one of the most lovely women in
+the world), and I have too much faith in women to blame them. I blame
+myself for trying to read a statement which I had not had the time to
+look at. Let a thing like that not come into this Congress again. Blame
+no one.
+
+Thereupon Governor Eberhart, for President Baker, declared a recess
+until 8 oclock p.m.
+
+
+
+
+_CLOSING SESSION_
+
+
+The Congress was called to order by President Baker in the Auditorium,
+Saint Paul, at 8 oclock p.m., September 8.
+
+President BAKER--Ladies and Gentlemen: The first business in order is
+action on the report of the Nominating Committee, to be followed by
+action on the report of the Resolutions Committee. While waiting for
+these reports we should be glad to hear from some of the States.
+Washington made a special request to be heard. Is the Gentleman from the
+State of Washington present?
+
+[There was no response.]
+
+W. S. HARVEY--Mr President: In the absence of the representative of
+Washington, may the Delegation from the Keystone State, Pennsylvania, be
+heard at this time?
+
+President BAKER--Colonel Harvey has the floor, and will speak for his
+State.
+
+Colonel HARVEY--Mr President and Delegates: On behalf of the
+Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which it is our honor to represent, we
+desire to say first of all that no other State in the whole galaxy
+constituting our Union of States possesses such great natural resources.
+In some, indeed, the resources may be more varied, but in none are they
+of such productive and wealth-creating capacity as in Pennsylvania.
+
+Pennsylvania leads all other States in the production of coal, the value
+of our annual output reaching approximately $325,000,000 per annum. In
+the value of its petroleum, natural gas, clay products, and pig iron it
+has no close second. The annual value of our petroleum production is
+about $18,000,000, and of our natural gas about the same, while the
+value of our pig-iron production reaches about $235,000,000; of our
+clays it might be said we have scarcely begun to develop them, yet the
+value of our clay product is more than $20,000,000 yearly. We are among
+the leading States in the production of cement, roofing-slate, lime, and
+building stone. Among our other mineral products are graphite, glass
+sand, mineral waters, metallic paints, mortar colors, and ochre. It will
+doubtless surprise many to learn that in the year 1907 the total value
+of all of the mineral products of all of the States west of the
+Mississippi was more than $100,000,000 less than the value of the
+mineral products of Pennsylvania for the same year; and that the value
+of our mineral products in the same year was equal to almost one-third
+of the entire value of all of the mineral products of the United States,
+including Alaska. This also includes gold and silver.
+
+We have thus far spoken only of our mineral resources, but when we add
+to this our magnificent resources in agriculture (one of our counties
+leading all others in the United States in the value of its agricultural
+products), of our timber and our water-power, and more important still,
+a population second only to that of the Empire State and nearly equal to
+Canada, it is apparent that we should be vitally interested in the
+subject of Conservation; and we beg now to be permitted to mention what
+has been and now is being done along this line:
+
+Our State has for many years had a Forestry Department with a
+Commissioner and a Forest Reservation Commission, who have purchased for
+the creation of State forest reserves and paid for up to September 1,
+1910, 918,529 acres of land at a cost of $2,061,872.45 or an average of
+$2.25 per acre, and have under contract for purchase about 50,000 acres
+more. The State also has established nurseries for seedlings, and has
+turned out thus far 2,500,000; next spring the increased capacity of
+these nurseries will turn out about 6,000,000 seedlings, and we hope and
+expect to be in a position within a few years to turn out 20,000,000
+each year. These seedlings are being used for reforestation on the State
+reservations and other lands that have been cut over or denuded, and in
+time will produce forests from which the State will derive a large
+revenue. The State has also established a Forest Academy, for which
+appropriations amounting to $96,000 have been made; 39 students have
+been graduated, all of whom, with the exception of two, are now in the
+employ of the State; 30 students are maintained in the academy; and the
+course is three years, 10 students being admitted each year. The State
+has also made provision for protection against, and the extinguishing
+of, forest fires, and the sum of $245,000 has been appropriated for this
+purpose. The State has appropriated for maintenance and administration
+of forest reserves since they were first created the sum of $877,142. In
+addition to the foresters employed, 41 in number, the State employs 116
+rangers and a large labor force.
+
+One of the most important Conservation movements entered into by our
+State has been the conserving of the health of its citizens by
+protecting from pollution, through a Water Commission and the State
+Board of Health, the waterways of the entire Commonwealth. Human life
+and its preservation from disease and impairment of usefulness and its
+loss of producing power is the most fundamental of all subjects of
+Conservation. Pennsylvania has also set an example that we sincerely
+trust may be followed by every other State wherein forest reserves can
+be created, by establishing camps for tuberculosis patients, where those
+who are unable to provide the necessary expense to be cared for in
+private institutions and in climatically suitable locations can be cared
+for by the State. Since 1907 Pennsylvania has appropriated to the State
+Department of Health for the construction of suitable buildings and
+camps for the treatment of tuberculosis on the reservations of the
+State, $3,000,000. The sanitarium established at Mount Alto has treated
+3,301 patients, and 115 dispensaries established throughout the State
+have treated 32,247 patients. The present enrollment at Mount Alto is
+nearly 800, and of dispensary patients 9,000. This work is under the
+supervision of the distinguished and capable gentleman at the head of
+our Health Department, Dr Samuel G. Dixon. The movement for the
+establishment of tuberculosis camps was inaugurated by Dr J. T. Rothrock
+about twenty years ago, and his name with that of others who have been
+influential in this work for the cause of humanity and the conservation
+of health and happiness will continue to be honored in our State.
+
+Pennsylvania also makes much larger appropriations than any other State
+in the Union for its general hospitals, furnishing free of cost the best
+surgical and medical skill to those who are unable to pay for the same,
+thus saving many lives as well as adding to the bread-winning capacity
+of every community.
+
+Our Department of Mines is doing a good work in trying to make more
+secure the lives of the miners and their occupation less hazardous. Our
+system of factory inspection is doing much to protect the lives of our
+workers in mills and factories, and the topographic and geologic survey
+commission of our State is also carrying on a most important work in the
+conservation and development of our natural resources.
+
+Pennsylvania has a Forestry Association that has been in continued
+active existence for 23 years. Its membership extends to every county in
+the State, and it has taken the initiative and been the organizer and
+promoter of the measures that caused the creation by the State of forest
+reserves and a Forestry Commission; and its members have been largely
+instrumental, through the earnest, persistent, public-spirited devotion
+to measures and methods, in educating the people not only of
+Pennsylvania but of other States to appreciate the value and merits of
+conserving all our natural resources; and what Pennsylvania has done has
+helped in no small degree to develop conditions that have made possible
+the present nation-wide movement for Conservation. (Applause)
+
+The State of Pennsylvania has in the above brief statement shown the
+practical interest it has had for years and will continue to have in the
+subject of Conservation; and we earnestly assure this Congress of the
+hearty support and cooperation of the Keystone State in this great
+cause.
+
+Respectfully submitted, on behalf of the State of Pennsylvania, by Wm.
+S. Harvey, G. W. McNees, and Joseph C. Righter. (Applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+President BAKER--Ladies and Gentlemen: We wish to give everybody a
+chance to speak, and I am willing to stay here all night and all day
+tomorrow. We shall have some very important business in a few minutes.
+It might be well under the Call of the States, for speakers to be
+limited to five minutes (applause). Is that your pleasure? All in favor
+of a five minute rule will please say "Aye."
+
+[Many voices: "Aye."]
+
+President BAKER--Are any opposed? (After a pause) It is carried
+unanimously.
+
+A DELEGATE--Mr President: I move you that the States be called in
+alphabetic order. It will save confusion, prevent Delegates from rising
+in all parts of the house, and expedite business.
+
+The motion was seconded, put, and carried without dissent.
+
+Mr E. W. ROSS (of Olympia, Washington)--Mr Chairman: Nobody in this part
+of the house knows what is going on. What is the question before the
+house?
+
+President BAKER--The question before the house just now was on the
+motion that the States be called in alphabetic order, which was carried;
+and the Call of the States is now in order.
+
+Mr ROSS--We have expected, since 9:30 oclock this morning, to have the
+States called in alphabetic order. What is the use in talking to
+Delegates now about calling the States in alphabetic order at 9 oclock
+on next to the last day of this Congress? This is the first time since I
+have attended this Congress that I have heard the Delegates vote on
+something which pertained to their own proceedings. (Confusion on the
+floor) Who brought this anyway? Are we to sit here day after day like a
+flock of cattle and--
+
+President BAKER--The Gentleman is out of order.
+
+Mr ROSS--I have traveled two thousand miles, and I had something to say
+on a proposition germane to what was going on at the time, and I was
+informed that there would be a time later and a motion was put here and
+voted on that at 8:30 this morning the States would be called--
+
+President BAKER--The officers were here at 8:30, but there were no
+Delegates.
+
+Mr ROSS--It is now 9 oclock and you talk about--
+
+President BAKER--We were ready at 8:30 this morning.
+
+Mr ROSS--I was here and the representative of the State of Washington--
+
+President BAKER--Washington was twice called.
+
+Mr ROSS--And he has been--
+
+President BAKER--You are out of order.
+
+Mr ROSS--Has been sitting on the rostrum there since 8 oclock this
+morning, and he hasn't been heard yet!
+
+President BAKER (rapping on the table)--The Gentleman is out of order.
+Is the Chair sustained?
+
+Many Voices: Yes.
+
+A DELEGATE--Mr President: I make the point of order that the Committee
+on Nominations was to report immediately after 8 oclock this evening. I
+therefore call for the previous question and ask that the election of
+officers proceed.
+
+President BAKER--The Committee will be ready to report in a few minutes.
+
+Mr ROSS--Mr Chairman--
+
+President BAKER--You are out of order.
+
+Mr ROSS--The gag rule is trying to be enforced, and I appeal to this
+Congress. That is what we have had from the beginning to the end. Put on
+your gag rule, and we will go home and never forget it--(Calls from the
+floor: "Order, order!")
+
+President BAKER--Will the house be in order?
+
+Mr ROSS--Put the screws down, the harder you do it the greater the
+recoil and the rebound, and the boomerang will hit you in the end--
+
+President BAKER--The Chairman of the Committee on Nominations will now
+report: Professor Condra.
+
+Mr ROSS--And I want to say now that when Theodore Roosevelt occupied the
+platform, myself and 200 delegates walked to the front door and we
+knocked and we knocked and we knocked--
+
+Many Voices: "You are out of order!"
+
+Mr ROSS--and I am tired of the way things have been going on; the
+representative of the State of Washington has been sitting on that
+rostrum since 8:30 this morning waiting for the States to be called and
+the States were--
+
+A DELEGATE--Mr President: I call for the report.
+
+Professor CONDRA--Mr President, and Ladies and Gentlemen: In this
+committee work we have tried to do our best for the interests of
+Conservation throughout the whole country for next year and the ensuing
+years. No member of this committee has been unduly influenced or has any
+axe to grind whatever (applause)--
+
+[Mr Ross interrupts, and momentary confusion ensues]
+
+Professor CONDRA--As to the Delegates that tried to gain admission to
+our room this evening, that is a closed chapter and our report is
+without bias and we hope it will receive your approval (applause). We
+thought of nominating for the Presidency of the Congress, among others,
+two persons now on this platform. We consulted them, and they both said
+it would be better to place in nomination another. One of the two men
+whom we first thought of nominating is Captain White, the other is
+Gifford Pinchot. The Committee will ask the former to nominate the
+President, and the latter to second the nomination. (Applause)
+
+Captain WHITE--Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Delegates to this
+Congress: It is a pleasure that comes to man but seldom in life when he
+can do a great benefit to a people; even if it involves a sacrifice, it
+is often a pleasure to do it. I did not wish to have my name mentioned,
+as it has been (nor did I know that it would be), as a possible nominee
+for the Presidency of this honorable body, nor did I know that my friend
+Mr Pinchot's name would be mentioned; but in thinking it over, after we
+were consulted, we both felt like influencing the Nominating Committee
+to do what was best for the country, this organization, and for all the
+State associations. The great back-bone of this country is the farming
+element. It is the farmers who make the country, and to them we must
+look for prosperity, and when they are prosperous and contented the
+country is prosperous and the people are happy. So, to that department
+of Conservation we have looked for a man to act as President of this
+organization--one who would be satisfactory to the farmers. We found the
+right man. We are going to put in nomination to this Congress a man in
+whom there is no guile, who is not only well known in this country but
+who has international fame; a man who has published for many years one
+of the largest, if not the largest, of farm journals in the country; one
+who was appointed by President Roosevelt as a member of the Country Life
+Commission, who has lived close to the farmer, who has done perhaps more
+than any man in his community, making greater sacrifices according to
+his ability; who has made speeches on many platforms, and during a long
+life has worked earnestly for the benefit of humanity. I take pleasure
+in nominating for the Presidency that prince of men, Mr Henry Wallace,
+of Des Moines. (Great applause)
+
+Mr GIFFORD PINCHOT--Ladies and Gentlemen: I pray your indulgence for a
+moment while I try to say a little of what I think about "Uncle Henry"
+Wallace. I call him "Uncle Henry" for the best of all reasons--that when
+a man has reached his age in a life of usefulness, he becomes, in a
+sense, the forebear of all the rest of us, and our affectionate esteem
+naturally expresses itself in calling him "Uncle"; and I say "Uncle
+Henry" Wallace because I love him. (Applause) I want to add, too, an
+expression of my highest respect for his character, for his achievement,
+and, above all, for his breadth of view, which covers intelligently and
+fully every interest for which this Conservation Congress stands. Mr
+Wallace lives in the center of the country; his main attention has been
+given to our central industry. His advice and assistance have been
+poured forth freely for that class of citizens among us all who have the
+most to do with the fundamental occupation of conserving the earth and
+making it forever fruitful; and I deem it to be a most fitting
+nomination that the Committee has laid before you in suggesting his
+name.
+
+Before I sit down I want, with your permission, to say a word, also
+about Captain White. Captain White and Mr Wallace stand together in my
+mind as two of the finest types of ripened American citizens (applause).
+I am proud to say that I believe I enjoy the friendship of both. I have
+been associated with Captain White for many years in Conservation work.
+He was one of the first of the lumbermen--the very first of the
+lumbermen, I believe--to take an earnest and effective and active
+interest in Conservation. It was to his lands that the first class from
+one of the great forest schools went to study lumbering and forestry on
+the ground; and at every point his helpful, wise, and effective
+assistance has been given to the movement for which this great Congress
+stands. I know that Mr Wallace will not mind my interjecting remarks
+about another man in seconding his nomination, however irregular it may
+appear. I wanted to say (and this is the only chance I have) what I
+think of Captain White; and I want to add that I shall make only one
+suggestion to Mr Wallace, if he is elected, and he will accept it or not
+as he pleases; but I shall certainly advise him to keep Captain White as
+Chairman of the Executive Committee. (Applause)
+
+Mr President, I take the greatest pleasure in seconding the nomination
+of Mr Wallace. (Applause)
+
+A DELEGATE--Mr President: I move that the rules be suspended, and that
+Mr Wallace be elected by acclamation.
+
+The motion was seconded, put, and declared unanimously carried.
+
+Mr BAKER--It gives me very great honor, Mr President Wallace, to present
+to you the gavel. No man will do more, to the extent of his ability, in
+supporting your administration and carrying it forward to success.
+(Applause)
+
+President WALLACE--Mr Baker, and Ladies and Gentlemen: Believe me, this
+is the greatest surprise of my life. No one had said a word to me about
+it until a few moments before I came into this room. I believe that if I
+had had time to think of it I would have declined, but in an unguarded
+moment, I said if the unanimous choice of this Congress I would do my
+best to serve you. I know I am undertaking a very great work; I know I
+shall need all the help of your wisest counsels. I shall probably make
+mistakes. The man who makes no mistakes is the man who does nothing
+(applause). I have made mistakes in other undertakings. It is a rule of
+my life not to mourn over the irreparable past, but to make the best out
+of the available future (applause); to do one day's work well, and be
+ready if possible to embrace the opportunities that may come tomorrow.
+
+Now, I feel conscious of my inability to act as President of your
+organization. I have studiously avoided such offices in the past; I have
+studiously avoided taking office of any kind or class; but this having
+been forced upon me, and the offer coming utterly without my
+knowledge--without a whisper of it, in fact--it gives me an opportunity
+of service which I will do my best to meet. I shall have to ask you to
+excuse me from serving tonight, for I am leaving on a train in a very
+short time. I shall ask you to wait, if I have the Executive Committee
+to appoint (as I am told I have), until I have time to study this
+Conservation movement from the organization's side. I shall make the
+best selections I can; I will do the very best that lies in me, and that
+is all that any man can do. (Applause)
+
+I want to say to you that if there have been any factions in this
+organization, I know nothing of them (applause). I have no part in them.
+I believe in the Conservation of the resources of the country. I believe
+that if this is to be done wisely we must imagine ourselves in the
+position of the men who have differences of opinion here. I realize that
+the Western people have peculiar difficulties; I realize that their
+position must be studied from their standpoint (applause)--that
+whatever help may be given them for the solution of their problems must
+be given; and if I am to be President of this organization, I will be
+President of a National organization (applause), and I will know no
+State (renewed applause), no faction, no party (renewed applause); and,
+so far as I am concerned, there will be no politics (great applause) in
+this association.
+
+I thank you for this unexpected and unsolicited honor, and I accept it
+as an opportunity to serve the American people in this generation and
+perform a service which will be beneficial to generations yet unborn
+(applause); for I believe that the mission of this Nation is not to
+build great cities, not to be a world-power, not to amass wealth untold,
+but to develop character (applause) and manhood that can stand facing
+all the storms that blow, that can solve the problems as they come--a
+manhood that owes its highest obedience not to laws made by mortal man
+but to the laws made for human guidance by Almighty God. (Applause)
+
+Professor CONDRA--Mr President, and Ladies and Gentlemen: Your Committee
+nominate for Executive Secretary Thomas R. Shipp (applause), for
+Recording Secretary James C. Gipe, and for Treasurer D. Austin Latchaw.
+I move the election of these nominees.
+
+President WALLACE--It is moved that Thomas R. Shipp be elected Executive
+Secretary. Is that motion seconded?
+
+The motion was seconded from all parts of the house.
+
+President WALLACE--It is moved and seconded that Thomas R. Shipp be
+chosen Executive Secretary. Are there any remarks?
+
+(Calls of "Question, question!")
+
+Mr ROSS--Mr Chairman: I would like to have a little information on that
+subject. I would like to inquire whether Mr Shipp occupies any position
+of trust or profit in the way of emolument under the United States or
+any State government?
+
+(Calls of "Question!" "Regular order!" "Order!")
+
+President WALLACE--The Chair is unable to give the Gentleman any
+information on that subject. The question is called for. All in favor,
+signify by saying "Aye." (Hundreds of voices: "Aye.") Contrary "No."
+(Pause.) The motion is carried.
+
+VOICES--"Shipp, Shipp!"
+
+Mr ROSS--Mr Chairman--
+
+President WALLACE--Has the Gentleman a motion to make?
+
+Mr ROSS--I was recognized by the Chair and the previous question has not
+yet been voted upon.
+
+President WALLACE--Has the Gentleman any motion to make the order of
+business?
+
+Mr ROSS--I rise to a point of order. I have the floor. The Chairman
+recognized me and the previous question has not yet been voted. I ask
+for a matter of information.
+
+President WALLACE--The Chair has no information to give except that the
+Gentleman is out of order.
+
+Mr ROSS--I ask if Mr Shipp occupies a position or employment in any
+capacity for the United States Government or any State or Territory.
+
+President WALLACE--I don't know. The motion was duly put and was
+carried.
+
+VOICE--"He is out of order."
+
+President WALLACE--He is. The next nominee is James C. Gipe for
+Recording Secretary.
+
+Mr ROSS--Does the Chair rule that I am out of order?
+
+President WALLACE--I have, several times.
+
+Mr ROSS--Thank you, sir. That is the cap sheaf.
+
+President WALLACE--Is there a second to the nomination of Mr Gipe for
+Recording Secretary?
+
+The nomination was seconded.
+
+President WALLACE--Are there remarks on that question?
+
+Many DELEGATES--"Question."
+
+The motion was put and carried, and Mr Gipe was declared unanimously
+elected Recording Secretary.
+
+President WALLACE--The Committee also recommend the election of D. A.
+Latchaw for Treasurer. Is there a second to the motion for his election?
+(The motion was seconded.) Any remarks on the motion?
+
+VOICES--"Question."
+
+The motion was put and carried, and Mr Latchaw was declared elected
+Treasurer.
+
+Delegate HUNT--Mr President: The District of Columbia moves a vote of
+thanks to the Nominating Committee who have done their work so well and
+so pleasingly to this Congress.
+
+The motion received a second, and was put and unanimously carried.
+
+Mr ROSS--Will the Chairman please announce what the motion is? We didn't
+hear a word of it here.
+
+The DELEGATE--That a vote of thanks be tendered to the Nominating
+Committee for the work which they have done so well and satisfactorily
+to this Congress.
+
+Mr ROSS--Mr Chairman, I second that motion. (Laughter)
+
+Colonel FLEMING JONES (of New Mexico)--Mr President: I understand that
+Governor Pardee is about to submit the report of the Committee on
+Resolutions, and I have a resolution here which I should like to see
+embodied in the report.
+
+Mr ROSS--The Gentleman from New Mexico is out of order.
+
+President WALLACE--The Chair thinks the resolution out of order.
+
+Delegate HARDTNER (of Louisiana)--Mr President: I move you that the
+rules be suspended for the purpose of permitting Colonel Fleming Jones
+to submit his resolution.
+
+Delegate DYE (of Indiana)--I second the motion.
+
+The motion being duly put and carried, Colonel W. A. Fleming Jones
+submitted the following:
+
+_Resolved_, That this Congress express its grateful appreciation of the
+highly intelligent, unselfish, and successful services of its first
+President, Mr Bernard N. Baker, of Maryland. Through his untiring effort
+and his purpose to bring into consultation all the interests of
+Conservation, the Congress has resulted in a meeting that will be
+historic in the records of American progress and achievement.
+
+Being formally put, the resolution was adopted unanimously and
+enthusiastically.
+
+Mr BAKER--Mr President: I wish to express my appreciation, and to have
+it show in the Proceedings. I have not taken one moment to present
+anything in which I was directly interested. I thank you very much.
+(Applause)
+
+President WALLACE--We will now hear from the Committee on Resolutions.
+
+Governor PARDEE--Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen: As Chairman of the
+Committee on Resolutions I have been ordered and directed by a majority
+of the Committee--some 26 or 27 out of about 30 present at the last
+session of the Committee--to present the following report, as the report
+of the majority in the proportions I have mentioned:
+
+RESOLUTIONS OF THE SECOND NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONGRESS
+
+The Second National Conservation Congress, made up of Delegates from all
+sections and nearly every State and Territory of the United States, met
+at the call of a great moral issue (applause), now in session assembled
+in the city of Saint Paul and State of Minnesota, does hereby adopt and
+solemnly declare the following platform of opinion and conclusion
+concerning the inherent rights of the People of the United States:
+
+Heartily accepting the spirit and intent of the Constitution and
+adhering to the principles laid down by Washington and Lincoln, we
+declare our conviction that we live under a Government of the People, by
+the People, for the People; and we repudiate any and all special or
+local interests or platforms or policies in conflict with the inherent
+rights and sovereign will of our People. (Great applause)
+
+Recognizing the natural resources of the country as the prime basis of
+property and opportunity, we hold the rights of the People in these
+resources to be natural and inherent, and justly inalienable and
+indefeasible (applause); and we insist that the resources should and
+shall be developed, used, and conserved in ways consistent both with
+current welfare and with the perpetuity of our People. (Applause)
+
+Recognizing the waters of the country as a great National resource, we
+approve and endorse the opinion that all the waters belong to all the
+People (applause), and hold that they should be administered in the
+interest of all the people. (Great applause)
+
+Realizing that all parts of each drainage basin are related and
+interdependent, we hold that each stream should be regarded and treated
+as a unit from its source to its mouth; and since the waters are
+essentially mobile and transitory and are generally interstate, we hold
+that in all cases of divided or doubtful jurisdiction the waters should
+be administered by cooperation between State and Federal agencies.
+(Prolonged applause)
+
+Recognizing the interdependence of the various uses of the waters of the
+country, we hold that the primary uses are for domestic supply and for
+agriculture through irrigation or otherwise, and that the uses for
+navigation and for power, in which water is not consumed, are secondary;
+and we commend the modern view that each use of the waters should be
+made with reference to all other uses for the public welfare in
+accordance with the principle of the greatest good to the greatest
+number for the longest time. (Great applause)
+
+Viewing purity of water supply as essential to the public health and
+general welfare, we urge upon all municipal, State, and Federal
+authorities, and on individuals and corporations, requisite action
+toward purifying and preventing contamination of the waters. (Applause)
+
+Approving the successful efforts of the United States to provide homes
+on arid lands through irrigation, we indorse and commend the Reclamation
+Service (applause) and urge its continuance and the extension of the
+same policy to the drainage of swamp and overflow lands, to be carried
+forward so far as appropriate through cooperation between State and
+Federal agencies. (Great applause)
+
+Viewing adequate and economical transportation facilities as among the
+means of Conservation, and realizing that the growth of the country has
+exceeded the development of transportation facilities, we approve the
+prompt adoption of a comprehensive plan for developing navigation
+throughout the rivers and lakes of the United States, proceeding in the
+order of their magnitude and commercial importance. (Loud applause)
+
+Recognizing the vast economic benefit to the People of water-power
+derived largely from interstate and source streams no less than from
+navigable rivers, we favor Federal control of water-power development
+(applause); we deny the right of State or Federal governments to
+continue alienating or conveying water by granting franchises for the
+use thereof in perpetuity (applause); and we demand that the use of
+water rights be permitted only for limited periods, with just
+compensation in the interests of the People. (Prolonged applause)
+
+We demand the maintenance of a Federal commission empowered to deal with
+all uses of the waters and to coordinate these uses for the public
+welfare in cooperation with similar commissions or other agencies
+maintained by the States. (Loud applause)
+
+Approving the withdrawal of public lands pending classification, and
+the separation of surface rights from mineral, forest, and water rights,
+including water-power sites (applause), we recommend legislation for the
+classification and leasing for grazing purposes of all unreserved public
+lands suitable chiefly for this purpose, subject to the rights of
+homesteaders and settlers, or the acquisition thereof under the land
+laws of the United States; and we hold that arid and non-irrigable
+public grazing lands should be administered by the Government in the
+interest of small stock-men and homeseekers until they have passed into
+the possession of actual settlers. (Applause)
+
+We hold that the deposits of important minerals underlying public lands,
+particularly mineral fuels, iron ores, and phosphate deposits, should be
+leased for limited periods, not exceeding fifty years, but subject to
+renewal, the royalty to be adjusted at more frequent intervals; such
+leases to be in amounts and subject to such regulations as to prevent
+monopoly and unnecessary waste. (Applause)
+
+We hold that phosphate deposits underlying the public lands should be
+safeguarded for the American People by appropriate legislation; and we
+recommend the early opening of the Alaskan and other coal fields
+belonging to the People of the United States for commercial purposes on
+a system of leasing, National ownership to be retained. (Applause)
+
+We urge immediate investigation by the Federal Government of the damage
+done by the smelting of copper ores, and the feasibility of so improving
+methods as to utilize the injurious by-products in connection with
+phosphatic fertilizers.
+
+We favor cooperative action on the part of States and the Federal
+Government looking to the preservation and better utilization of the
+soils by approved scientific methods. (Applause)
+
+We approve the continuance of the control of the National Forests by the
+Federal Government (applause), and approve the policy of restoring to
+settlement such public lands as are more valuable for agriculture. We
+earnestly recommend that the States and Federal Government acquire for
+reforestation lands not more valuable for other purposes, and that all
+existing forests publicly and privately owned be carefully protected by
+State and Federal governments. We recognize the invaluable services of
+the Forest Service to the People (applause), and earnestly recommend
+that it be more generously supported by the Federal Government, and that
+State, Federal, and private fire patrol be more generously provided for
+the preservation of forests and human life; and we appreciate and
+approve of the continuance of the services of the United States Army in
+fire control in emergencies.
+
+We favor the repeal of the Timber and Stone Law. (Applause)
+
+We endorse the proposition for the preservation by the Federal
+Government of the Southern Appalachian and White Mountain forests.
+
+We recommend that the Federal Government conserve migratory birds and
+wild game animals.
+
+We recommend that both public and private schools instruct the youth of
+the land in the fundamental doctrines of Conservation.
+
+We realize that the fullest enjoyment of our natural resources depends
+on the life and development of the people physically, intellectually,
+and morally; and in order to promote this, we recommend that the
+training and protection of the people, and whatever pertains to the
+public health and general efficiency, be encouraged by methods and
+legislation suitable to this end. Child labor should be prevented and
+child life protected and developed.
+
+Realizing the waste of life in transportation and mining operations, we
+recommend legislation increasing the use of proper safeguards for the
+conservation of life; and we also recommend that in order to make better
+provision for securing the health of the Nation a department of public
+health be established by the National Government.
+
+We recommend the adequate maintenance of a National Conservation
+Commission to investigate the natural resources of the country and
+cooperate with the work of the State conservation commissions; and we
+urge the legal establishment and maintenance of conservation commissions
+or corresponding agencies on the part of all States of the Union.
+
+Nothing in these resolutions is to be construed as questioning the
+rights of the States or the People of the United States guaranteed under
+the Federal Constitution.[2] (Prolonged applause)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Governor PARDEE--Mr President: Again reminding you that this is a
+majority report, and that the Committee were told that a minority report
+would be presented (and I am looking directly at the member of the
+Committee who gave this intimation), I move you that the report just
+read be adopted as the voice of this Congress.
+
+Mr G. M. HUNT--Mr President, the District of Columbia seconds the
+motion of the Chairman of the Committee.
+
+Mr FRANK H. SHORT (of California)--Mr President: In view of the remark
+that there was to be a minority report presented to this Congress, I
+think, perhaps, I should say, on behalf of those who have been referred
+to as the minority (who may be "insurgents" some day) that in view of
+the provision in the resolutions that nothing shall be construed as
+contrary to the Constitution of the United States, we do not offer any
+amendment. We think that no person in this country is entitled to
+anything that does not belong to him under the Constitution and the law,
+and we don't think he should ever be offered anything else; and we
+suppose, if a conflict should arise, that the Constitution will prevail.
+
+A DELEGATE--Pennsylvania rises to second the motion to adopt the
+resolutions as read.
+
+A DELEGATE--Mr President: As a Delegate from the State of Illinois, I
+rise to second the motion.
+
+President WALLACE--All in favor of the adoption of these resolutions as
+read will say "Aye." (A chorus of "ayes.") Contrary, "Nay." (There were
+no negative votes.) The resolutions are declared adopted.
+
+Mr ROSS--Mr Chairman--
+
+President WALLACE--We will hear you.
+
+Mr ROSS--That is all I want, that you should hear me. In view of the
+fact that this report is presented and heard by the Delegates at this
+late hour for the first time, and in view of the fact that the report of
+the Committee on Resolutions and the action of the Congress thereon is
+all-important and the final result of such a Congress, and in view of
+the fact that we are to meet tomorrow morning at 10 oclock or half-past,
+or whatever time it is, I move you, Mr Chairman, that action upon this
+report be deferred until the convening of this Congress tomorrow
+morning, in order that the Delegates may be able to read the report,
+section by section, as it may appear in the newspapers tomorrow
+morning--
+
+President WALLACE--The Gentleman is out of order.
+
+Mr ROSS--So we can act intelligently.
+
+President WALLACE--The Gentleman is out of order. The resolutions have
+already been adopted.
+
+Mr ROSS--Mr Chairman, the motion is made. Will somebody second my
+motion? I will see if I am out of order.
+
+Mr JOHNS (of Washington)--Mr President: I move to lay the motion on the
+table. I am from the State of Washington and glory in it, but I do not
+glory in some of the men that the Governor appointed.
+
+The motion to table was seconded, put, and carried with one dissenting
+voice.
+
+President WALLACE--What is the further business before the Congress? Are
+there any other committees to report?
+
+Professor CONDRA--Mr President, and Ladies and Gentlemen: We have
+neglected one matter of business, and with your permission (at the
+request of those who have noticed it) I will read the names of the
+Vice-Presidents selected by State Delegations.
+
+Mr ROSS--Mr Chairman: That is what we expected at 8:30 oclock this
+morning. It is now twenty minutes past 9. I move you that leave to print
+be extended to the various Vice-Presidents and those designated by
+States, and if they can succeed in getting their written speeches
+printed in the record possibly we will have a chance to read them.
+
+Delegate HORR (of Washington)--Mr President, I have a request to make:
+that when you print the address read by Lieutenant-Governor (and Acting
+Governor) Hay, of Washington, you also print, right with it, the
+dispatch from C. B. Kegley, representing 20,000 Grangers, and also the
+dispatch from Charles R. Case, representing the organized labor of
+Washington, both approving the Federal policies of Conservation. I make
+that as a request coming, as I believe, from the majority of the
+patriotic citizens of the State of Washington. (Applause)
+
+Professor CONDRA--Mr President, just a moment. This list of
+Vice-Presidents selected by State Delegations is not the Call of States;
+we will come to that in a few minutes. The reports by State Delegations
+might be turned over to the Secretary who will ask that it be printed in
+the papers in the morning. A few States have not yet sent in the names
+of their Vice-Presidents, so that the list is not quite complete.
+
+A DELEGATE--Read the list.
+
+President WALLACE--Let us hear the list read.
+
+A DELEGATE--Mr Chairman, I rise to a point of order. The report of the
+Nominating Committee is the special order at this hour. Having begun on
+nominations, they should continue until they are closed. The States
+should be called upon to name their Vice-Presidents. (Applause)
+
+Professor CONDRA--Mr President, if agreeable I will read the names which
+we have. Reads list.[3]
+
+President WALLACE--Shall we vote on these Vice-Presidents selected by
+the Delegates from the different States? All who favor the selections
+will please say "Aye" (Pause). Any opposed will say "No" (Pause). The
+selections are approved unanimously.
+
+Mr Pinchot wishes to offer a resolution that you will all agree to.
+
+Mr PINCHOT--_Whereas_, Professor Samuel B. Green, Dean of the School of
+Forestry in the University of Minnesota, and for twenty-two years a
+teacher in the State Agricultural College, has recently been called to
+his reward; and
+
+_Whereas_, Professor Green for years ranked as one of the most prominent
+and progressive instructors in Forestry, and has been a great force in
+the cause of developing and conserving our National resources; therefore
+be it
+
+_Resolved_, That in the death of Professor Green the State of Minnesota
+and the Nation have lost a distinguished citizen, and the cause of
+Forestry one of its most valuable assets.
+
+President WALLACE--Let us take a rising vote. All in favor of the
+resolution please rise. It is unanimously carried.
+
+We are now ready for the Call of the States.
+
+The States were then called alphabetically, whereupon the following
+responded:
+
+Mr A. H. PURDUE (of Arkansas)--As regards Arkansas and Conservation, I
+will say that that subject with us is not a burning question. People are
+not yet clamoring for Conservation. Nevertheless, the movement set on
+foot by those who are promoting it is making itself felt among us, and
+the thoughtful people of the State are giving it their attention.
+
+Mr O. B. BANNISTER (of Indiana)--I will not take five minutes. I first
+want to appeal to your spirit of fairness, and express the hope that at
+the next National Conservation Congress you will not ask Delegates to
+wait until the eleventh hour of the last day of the Convention.
+(Applause)
+
+Indiana is represented here by fourteen Delegates. We have spent about
+$2500 to attend this Congress (applause). We have sat here for four
+solid days and attended every single session, and heard the history of
+things from the birth of our Saviour down to 1908, when Theodore
+Roosevelt called the Governors together for Conservation, but up to this
+moment we have not been heard or given an opportunity to talk at all
+(applause). I just want to call your attention to that fact. I have only
+had three and a half minutes, and I am perfectly willing that the next
+speaker shall have my allotted minute and a half. (Applause)
+
+President WALLACE--The President will say that if you live until the
+next Congress, and I preside over it, you will all have a chance to make
+your speeches as early in the meeting as possible. (Applause)
+
+Mr BANNISTER--Mr President: It is not a question of speeches; it is a
+question of voting and being considered as the rank and file, if you
+please, of this organization.
+
+Mr A. C. MILLER (of Iowa)--The report of the Iowa State Delegation is in
+the hands of the Secretary.[4]
+
+Mr YOUNG (of Kansas)--Our report has been filed with the Secretary.
+
+President WALLACE--Ladies and Gentlemen: I am obliged to leave for my
+train, and I will ask Captain White to act as Presiding officer. (The
+audience rose as Mr Wallace withdrew.)
+
+Mr BERNARD N. BAKER (of Maryland)--I just want to say "Thank you," for
+Maryland, for the opportunity of being here.
+
+Mr FREEMAN THORP (of Minnesota)--Mr Chairman, a way has been found (not
+theoretically but practically and demonstrably) whereby the time of the
+growth of forest trees is reduced to one-half. The Secretary of
+Agriculture, Mr Wilson, who merely hinted at this in the last paragraph
+of his speech the other day, will give you the exact information in
+detail in his bulletins this winter. It is not a theory or wild guess.
+It has been demonstrated, only 150 miles from where you sit. There are
+thousands of trees there, some 11 inches in diameter, grown from seed in
+fifteen years (applause). There are shown at the Minnesota State Fair
+today products of the soil grown upon the lightest sandy soils that we
+have in the State, during the greatest drought ever known, and the corn
+is as large as any in the State, and the clover superior (applause).
+This simply shows the new force and new instrumentality which will be at
+our hands in the great work of Conservation. I will not take your time
+longer because the information will be given you this winter in
+bulletins from the Department of Agriculture at Washington. (Applause)
+
+Dr E. N. LOWE (of Mississippi)--Mr Chairman and Fellow Delegates: We
+from Mississippi have come here to be heard on Conservation and to learn
+about Conservation. We are interested in the subject. We have made some
+progress along the lines of Conservation. I wish to say that the most
+enthusiastic Conservationist in the State of Mississippi is our Chief
+Executive, Governor Noel. Practically all that has been done in
+Conservation in Mississippi has been instigated and encouraged by him.
+We are at the present time engaged in the study of our soil in
+cooperation with the Bureau of Soils at Washington. The work has been in
+progress since December last, and will be prosecuted as rapidly as
+possible. We have four parties in the field at the present time. In
+addition to our soil resources we have, in the southern half of
+Mississippi, a large pine forest; the virgin forest has been depleted
+very rapidly, and we are realizing the necessity of investigation along
+that line.
+
+General NOBLE (of Missouri)--Mr Chairman: I have been appointed to
+attend this Congress as a Delegate from the Trans-Mississippi Commercial
+Congress, and also as a Delegate from Missouri. I have been associated
+in the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress with Mr Larimore, of
+Larimore, North Dakota. We were instructed by the President of the
+Trans-Mississippi Congress to present an invitation to this Congress,
+which was put in the form of a resolution. I want to say that the
+Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress has been in existence for more
+than twenty years. It has been my privilege and honor to attend many of
+its different sessions, and I speak whereof I know when I say that it
+has been one of the most influential bodies in the western country for
+the advancement of western interests, including among others, the great
+proposition of the Conservation of our natural resources for the people.
+
+Now, I wish to present this resolution: (Reading)
+
+"_Whereas_, the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress has for its
+purpose the inauguration and advocacy of great National policies, and
+has for many years been a friend of the beneficent and progressive
+Conservation of our natural resources, and that Congress is to meet at
+San Antonio, Texas, on the twenty-second to twenty-fifth days of
+November next; therefore--
+
+"_Resolved_, That the present Congress at Saint Paul does hereby
+earnestly request the National Conservation Association, by its
+President, to select and send to the approaching session of the
+Trans-Mississippi Congress a delegation of such members as he may deem
+best (say forty in number), to advocate the cooperation of that body in
+support of the measures here approved."
+
+I move you, Mr President, that that resolution be adopted as a
+recommendation of this Congress. You can get no better cooperator and
+successful worker for Conservation in any portion of this country; so
+help us to carry into effect the great purposes of this Congress, the
+Conservation of our natural resources. (Applause)
+
+The CHAIRMAN--Gentlemen, you have heard the resolution.
+
+A DELEGATE--I move that the same be adopted.
+
+The CHAIRMAN--It has been moved and seconded that the resolution be
+adopted. Are there any remarks?
+
+A DELEGATE--I move that it be referred to the Executive Committee for
+such action as they see fit, to be reported tomorrow morning.
+
+The CHAIRMAN--The Committee on Resolutions has made its report. This
+resolution is in order, because it was offered by the Gentleman from
+Missouri as part of his remarks, and it has been moved and seconded that
+it be adopted. An amendment has been offered, which was also seconded,
+that it be referred to the Executive Committee. Are you ready to vote on
+the amendment?
+
+A DELEGATE--It was not put in the form of an amendment; it was put as a
+distinct motion.
+
+The CHAIRMAN--Two motions cannot be entertained at once.
+
+General NOBLE--Mr Chairman: May I explain that this is merely a
+recommendation to the Association. It is not a resolution passed by this
+Congress to send a delegation; it is a recommendation by this Congress
+to the body called the National Conservation Association, to act on it
+or not as they please.
+
+The CHAIRMAN--Gentlemen, we will vote on the original question. All
+those who are in favor of adopting the resolution as read by General
+Noble will say "Aye." (The resolution was adopted)
+
+Professor CONDRA--Would it not be in order to hear from the Executive
+Committee relative to the work in Missouri? I would ask that you grant
+to Chairman White a minute or two to respond for that State. (Applause)
+
+Chairman WHITE--Gentlemen: I will not take much time, as it is getting
+late. I may say that Missouri does not have to be "shown."
+
+On behalf of the Executive Committee, let me say this: We have had a
+pretty hard time in trying to satisfy everybody. I wish to apologize for
+any shortcomings on the part of President Baker and myself. I was
+Chairman of the Executive Committee, and had a great deal to do in
+trying to frame a program that would be satisfactory to every Delegate
+and everybody else who attended the Congress; but it was a hard thing to
+do. The President of the United States and the ex-President of the
+United States occupied two distinct days, and drew great crowds in
+opposition to the State Fair; since then the Fair has been doing
+business in opposition to this Congress. Then we had the Governors here,
+and other great speakers; and the program had to be carried out. I wish
+to say that this organization will remain in session tomorrow if, at the
+close of this session, you so desire. I am going to stay here; I have
+authority to act as President protem tomorrow, and President Baker will
+also stay with me, and we will gladly do all the good we can.
+
+Delegate VON TOBEL (of Montana)--Montana has filed a report.
+
+Professor CONDRA--For Nebraska, I will speak briefly:
+
+I have had the very great privilege and honor of being connected with a
+Nebraska State Commission for eighteen or twenty years. We have a great
+variety of resources, mostly agricultural. He who says Nebraska is a
+poor agricultural spot does not know; he who thinks Nebraska is a
+sand-hill region does not know. In Nebraska there are four great soil
+regions. Some of them are very fertile; some 40,000 square miles are
+unusually fertile, the land values ranging from $100 to $200 per acre.
+We have 18,000 square miles of land worth from $1.00 to $5.00 per acre.
+I am not going to take the time to tell you just how good and how bad
+Nebraska really is; there is enough of it that is especially good.
+
+We have a number of problems that should be taken up in the way of
+Conservation, and we have undertaken to do it. We have irrigation, dry
+farming, forestation of sandhills and the like; also conservation of
+soil fertility, and the conservation of lands. Our Commission is
+non-political; and I believe all States taking up Conservation problems
+should have non-political commissions. We have in Nebraska, working with
+the Commission, some ten or twelve committees, with 30 to 40 men at
+work, studying the problems of the State. We believe in cooperation and
+thorough investigation, and we believe, further, in contributing that
+which is suited to those who wish our contributions.
+
+We held a State Congress not long ago in which it was the sentiment, and
+was declared by the President of the Congress, "We want at this time
+that there may be made no reference to the controversy now waging in the
+Nation." And no man on that floor spoke one word pertaining to the
+controversy. It was said further that, "We wish at this time that our
+work be non-political, that no man will stand here and talk that he may
+gain favor, or gain notice in the State, for political purposes;" and
+with but one exception no man undertook so to talk, and that man was
+stopped immediately (applause). It was also asked that no man take the
+floor unless he had a message and facts for the others, such facts as
+would be worth something to those attending and those at home.
+
+Such is the spirit of Nebraska. We are not the only State, we cooperate
+with others. We have good features and bad; but we want to learn to do
+practical things worth while to the farmers, worth while to those who
+are laboring, and worth while to all the people in the State. One of our
+committees is working on vital resources. We realize that while we grow
+wheat and corn for man and beast, we are working chiefly for the
+elevation of man; and in Nebraska one thing we will see to is that the
+conditions are suitable for crops, for animals, and for man--and we
+propose to do our part in conserving the public health, and in looking
+to better living conveniences and better water supplies in the State.
+
+I have spoken three minutes, but I ask, since I happen to represent the
+Association of Congresses of the various States, that you join with
+those commissioners who were in the meeting last night in practical work
+in the States, and in the United States, so that when we reassemble we
+will have reports from men who are doing practical work. We ask for
+reliable cooperation to the end that our investigations will serve as a
+basis for action of use to the practical people of our country,
+especially the farmers. I thank you. (Applause)
+
+A DELEGATE (from New York)--In the absence of our chairman, the
+Delegation from New York would say, in a word, that we are making
+progress; that we are with this movement first, last and all the time,
+and that we hope at the next Congress there may be opportunity, as
+suggested by the gentleman from Indiana, to draw out fuller information
+regarding resources from the Delegations who have come from all over the
+country. Many of the Delegations have come here at great expense.
+Perhaps no one has listened with greater interest to the able speeches
+that have been made here than have the Delegates from New York, but we
+felt, in a representative organization like this, much in the position
+of the man who, in a legislative body, said that whenever they began to
+make speeches he went to the committee-room and went to work. We
+believed that with combined action (as the Chairman has announced) at
+our next meeting we shall have the speeches and at the same time draw
+out the resources of the people, and so get down to work and make rapid
+progress right along. (Applause)
+
+Delegate R. A. NESTOS (of North Dakota)--Mr Chairman: North Dakota has
+the honor of sending the largest number of Delegates to this Congress
+with the single exception of Minnesota, which shows that it is very much
+interested in the movement of Conservation. North Dakota has more coal
+conserved than any other State in the Union. We have thousands of acres
+of coal, in seams varying in thickness from 5 to 32 feet of solid coal.
+All of our resources, with the exception of coal, are in private hands.
+Our great coal fields, during the last Administration, were put in the
+hands of the Government, and hereafter no settler can get anything more
+than a surface right to those coal fields. The coal belongs to the
+Government. Of course we haven't very much use for coal up there, but we
+are keeping it. Whenever you get chilly, just raise your hand and we
+will send down all kinds of coal for all of the hundreds and thousands
+of our people.
+
+Our chief resource is our soil, which, when properly conserved and
+developed, can produce one-tenth of the food for this entire Nation with
+the present population (applause). We have a larger area perhaps of
+fertile soil than any other State. This is all in the hands of private
+owners. There is simply one way to conserve our natural resources, and
+that is to educate the farmer (applause). There is nothing so cheap as
+education, and nothing so costly as ignorance. If our State will put
+half a million dollars into the Agricultural College at the next session
+of the Legislature, and extend its aid among the different educational
+institutions of the State, this money will come back in a hundredfold.
+It is in this direction that we must expect to conserve our resources.
+The interests of this Nation that lie in private hands are enormously
+greater than those controlled either by the State or by the Federal
+Government, and it does not seem to me right that we should spend so
+much time talking about the rather meager resources of the State and
+Nation and neglecting the manifestly greater resources that are in the
+hands of private citizens, because, in the last analysis, this matter of
+Conservation will be carried out on each and every man's farm. You talk
+about establishing a National Forest in North Dakota, and already the
+Government has planted a few acres in the Bad Lands; but forests in
+North Dakota mean the planting of 10 or 20 acres of quick-growing timber
+on each man's farm (applause). In that way North Dakota and similar
+States will carry out their part of the movement for Conservation.
+
+Mr GEORGE W. LATTIMORE (of Ohio)--Ohio, with characteristic modesty, has
+nothing to say.[5] (Applause)
+
+Mr BENJ. MARTIN (of Oklahoma)--Mr Chairman: I appeared for Oklahoma and
+reported this morning to the Chairman, and I ask that the report be
+printed in the record.
+
+Mr A. W. KRUEGER (of South Dakota)--Mr Chairman: All of our members who
+are speakers have left, and there is no one here from South Dakota
+except myself. I am not an orator, so I will not attempt to make a
+speech; but when I heard from other States I could not help feeling that
+I come from a State that has the richest resources in the world. Our
+greatest resources lie in our inexhaustible soil and its fertility. We
+have people from most of the States in the Union, and when I have asked
+our citizens from several of the eastern States, and other rich States
+like Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Illinois, "Why are you here?"
+they said, "Because we have bettered our condition through the State of
+South Dakota." So I have come to the conclusion that we must have about
+the best State in the Union (laughter). They tell us that we have more
+money per capita for our schools than any other State in the Union--but
+I do not want to make a speech, for I can't do it (laughter), only to
+say that I have had the pleasure and great honor to talk Conservation in
+our State, and the longer I am here the more I am convinced that South
+Dakota is in hearty accord with the doings of this Congress (applause).
+I have not been instructed to say this, but from what our State is
+doing, I cannot see how any true and patriotic American citizen who
+loves his country, home, and fireside, and who wants to leave them to
+his descendants none the worse because he lived in the world, can help
+most heartily endorsing the Conservation of our natural resources, such
+as forests, natural waterways, water-powers, minerals, coal, oil, and
+phosphates by the Federal Government. (Applause)
+
+Mr GEORGE H. EMERSON (of Washington)--Ladies and Gentlemen: I come as
+the calm Pacific instead of the cyclone that at times has swept over
+this audience. I came prepared with a paper that it was proposed to have
+placed before you, but it is not propitious at this late hour, neither
+is the temper of the audience such as to receive it, nor is the time
+that is allowed me sufficient. I ask, therefore, your permission to file
+the same.
+
+The CHAIRMAN--Permission will be given. Washington was called this
+morning but the representative was not present, and Ex-President Baker
+tells me it was also called again this afternoon.
+
+Two DELEGATES--Mr Chairman--
+
+Chairman WHITE--The Gentleman who addressed the Chair first is
+recognized. This Gentleman from Washington (indicating).
+
+Mr WILLIAM DOUGLAS JOHNS (of Washington)--Mr Chairman: I would ask of
+the Delegates here three minutes.
+
+The CHAIRMAN--There are just three minutes left, and you can have them.
+
+Mr JOHNS--Mr Chairman: I wish to tell the Delegates here, for the
+purpose of showing the necessity of Federal control, how the water-power
+sites of the State of Washington--the greatest of them--have passed from
+the hands of the State within a few months, under the administration of
+Land Commissioner Ross, who has made himself so prominent here this
+evening. Two corporations have filed on the lower waters of the mighty
+Columbia, a railroad and water corporation with steamboats plying 100
+miles above and carrying freight and passengers, and an irrigation
+corporation below, using half of the waters of Columbia River, and all
+the State of Washington got was filing fees; and Governor Hay wants us
+to give the balance to him in the same way--the other half of those
+great waters of the mighty Columbia. The lands secured by the railroad
+corporation within a few months on the shore--lands worth millions of
+dollars--were sold by Governor Hay and Land Commissioner Ross for
+$10,000, and Governor Hay wants us to turn over more to him for the same
+purpose. The waters of Chelan River in the Cascades James J. Hill
+secured (125,000 horsepower) by paying filing fees to the State. No
+wonder, in his speech, he favored State control! (Applause)
+
+A few days before I left Washington a dispatch came from Port Townsend
+to the Seattle papers--making a glorious spread--saying that the
+water-power company, capitalized at a million or two, was going to put
+in a 6,000 horsepower plant to supply Port Townsend and the neighboring
+country--and then boasted of the country to show what a good thing it
+was to invest in. They said the company had secured every water-power
+site on the river, right up to its eternal glaciers, and that they had
+been twenty years in securing those sites. Were they doing it for
+development? Never! They were going to take one lower fall and develop
+it, and sell the power at a high price. They had secured all the other
+sites along that river--and for what purpose? To prevent competition
+until the country grew up by paying taxes simply, holding a water-power
+site that amounted to nothing until the people were prepared to pay an
+immense revenue to them. So much for their plea of Governor Hay that he
+wanted the State developed. The Olympia National Forest, reserved by
+President Cleveland, was opened in response to a similar complaint as
+that made by Governor Hay, "You are driving settlers to British
+Columbia." It contains some of the richest timber lands in the State of
+Washington and on the Pacific coast. What was done with it? Part of it
+was covered by scrip, a few quarters were taken by war settlers, the
+balance by speculators. They sold at from $600 to $800 per quarter, a
+few holding on until within the last few years; and the result was that
+it has passed into the hands of the corporations. Since the Milwaukee
+built out there, they burned up much of it; and today you can go into
+great tracts of that land (I have been through it) and you would never
+know that a human foot had stepped there--it is as wild as it was before
+Vancouver sailed along the coast on his voyage of discovery. If the
+National Forests of the State of Washington were turned over by the
+United States Government to the State of Washington and its officials,
+and the tender mercies of Land Commissioner Ross, they probably would go
+just exactly as the Olympia Forest went--into the hands of speculators,
+not to be settled up, not to bring wealth and people and glory to the
+State, but to be held until timber is valuable, to be kept in primeval
+wilderness. Gentlemen, I thank you. (Great applause)
+
+A DELEGATE--Mr Chairman: I wish to correct the Chair in his remark that
+no one was here this morning to present the report from Washington. I
+happen to be chairman of the Delegation. I know all about the meeting
+behind closed doors in the Saint Paul Hotel; I am sorry I couldn't tell
+about it here; but I filed my report this morning at 8 oclock, and
+explained that Mr Emerson would speak for our State.
+
+Mr ROSS--The State of Washington has been exhausted--
+
+The CHAIRMAN--It has not been exhausted. We will give you a few minutes.
+
+Mr ROSS--Under the heading of personal privilege. I am not going to take
+your time to rehash any controversies referred to in the eloquence from
+the State of Washington. I will take sufficient time, however, to tell
+you one or two things. The Gentleman, so far as the Delegation from the
+State of Washington is concerned, speaks for himself and for no one
+else.
+
+Mr JOHNS--Thank God, I do not speak for you! (Applause)
+
+Mr ROSS--The Gentleman who has just spoken sounded the only discordant
+note in a meeting of 500 citizens of Seattle where, to a man, they
+endorsed Richard Ballinger! (Hisses from the house)
+
+He is the only man in the city of Seattle--
+
+Mr JOHNS--The only thing done in Seattle was what Mr Ross did.
+
+Mr ROSS (turning toward Mr Johns)--I quit and allowed you your three
+minutes, although you were not entitled to appear here at all. Now that
+you have aroused me to some extent, and since they have kindly consented
+that I may be heard for a few moments. I wish to tell this vast audience
+that the State of Washington--and I speak solely in my official
+capacity, and I am not ashamed of any act I have ever performed--I wish
+to say that I served the State of Washington as Assistant
+Attorney-General for four years, from 1901 to 1905, all the time dealing
+with our State lands. The people of the State of Washington, on my
+record there, elected me Commissioner of Public Lands two years ago, and
+during the four years that I was Commissioner of Public Lands, I made
+the same fight for the State of Washington that I am making now. I made
+it in the Navigation Congress, in the Forestry Association--and God
+knows how many things there are going on that a busy man cannot keep
+track of--and the people of the State of Washington, every man, woman
+and child, knew E. W. Ross; they knew his record; they knew his fight;
+and in spite of all opposition from everybody in the State, like the
+Gentleman who has just spoken, they nominated me by a popular vote two
+years ago, and I was--(Commotion in the house, many Delegates leaving).
+
+He says we have given away the water-powers. The State of Washington
+commenced her Conservation policy prior to November 11, 1889, when we
+were admitted into the Union. We have one provision in our Constitution
+relative to water-power that I would rather have in the interests of the
+common people than all the discretionary powers you vested in all the
+presidents and all the public officers of the National and State
+governments. We have a provision in our Constitution like this: the use
+of water for irrigation and the like shall forever be a public utility.
+You heard Theodore Roosevelt say that it was the intention of the
+National Government, upon easy terms, to let the water-power out to
+private corporations so that the people of the States could have cheap
+electricity and cheap power furnished by these corporate institutions.
+And let me say to you, you heard the statements made by Governor Hay, of
+my State, as to the accomplishments of the Railway Commission in regard
+to the railway companies. In my State, the State Railroad Commission
+fixes the proper rate, and that ends it (applause). Our objection to the
+movement is this: We are not fanatics; we have conserved beyond the
+possibility of any human agency, State and National governments; we have
+conserved the people's rights, so that when they need protection of the
+law it is vested in our Constitution, and all the people have to do is
+to rise up and enforce it (renewed commotion). That is why we do not
+wish to surrender those powers to the National Government, or to the
+discretion of any man.
+
+Take the power proposition which has been mentioned by the Gentleman:
+Neither the State of Washington, the Board of State Land Commissioners
+(of which Board I have the honor to be chairman), nor the members of the
+State Tax Commission had anything to do with the taking of a site by the
+Hanford Irrigation and Power Company--not a thing. Let me tell you what
+it was. On Columbia River, some 40 to 60 miles above Kennewick, is what
+is known as Priest Rapids. The War Department of the United States
+Government is supposed to control Columbia River. It is navigable for
+all sorts of crafts both below and above Priest Rapids. By virtue of an
+act of the Legislature of 1905, the State of Washington conferred upon
+the Reclamation Service of the United States express authority to
+appropriate, for its own purposes and the purpose of irrigation, all the
+waters of Columbia River and every other stream in the State. The
+Reclamation Service, in compliance with that act, filed upon the waters
+of Columbia River at Priest Rapids, and, in one particular year, filed
+an express relinquishment and abandonment of that project. They stated,
+in cold type, that they would never undertake it. And what next? They
+consented, in writing, that the Hanford Irrigation Company might have
+and enjoy it. The Hanford Company went to the War Department of the
+United States, and obtained a permit to build a concrete dam in Columbia
+River at Priest Rapids to assist irrigation, and the War Department
+consented; and outside of that the Hanford Irrigation and Power Company
+has acquired nothing whatever from the State of Washington. But
+supposing that the Hanford Irrigation and Power Company is using the
+waters of the State of Washington for irrigation and power
+purposes--whenever the people of the State of Washington are convinced
+that the Hanford Irrigation and Power Company is charging an unjust or
+unreasonable price for power, or for water for irrigation, or for the
+annual maintenance fee, thank God we have it vested in the Constitution
+of the State of Washington that the people can fix the price. That is
+our style of Conservation, and that is why we object to Federal control.
+I represent the people of the State of Washington (laughter), and I
+don't care who says to the contrary, and I am proud to oppose the
+surrendering of absolute control by the people in favor of the
+discretion of any man.
+
+Mr E. H. FOURT (of Wyoming)--Mr Chairman, it is now very late. I was not
+able to attend this morning and submit a report or an address. I will
+present this report, and move the Congress that it be printed in the
+record as a report from Wyoming.
+
+The CHAIRMAN--The paper will be received, if there is no objection. (The
+paper was handed to the Secretary.)
+
+Mr B. A. FOWLER (of Arizona)--In answer to the call for Arizona, I want
+to say that at present Arizona is a Territory. One year from now, at the
+next Conservation Congress, we hope that Arizona will be a State
+(applause), and that at that time we will make a State report of which
+you will not be ashamed. (Applause)
+
+Mr G. M. HUNT (of the District of Columbia)--Mr Chairman: I simply want
+to announce the fact that the District of Columbia is on the map
+(applause). Lots and lots of folks are under the impression that the
+District of Columbia only exists from the second Tuesday after the first
+Monday in December until Congress adjourns (laughter); but, on the
+contrary, the District of Columbia is on the map 365 days in the year.
+Further than that, we have a Chamber of Commerce that is working 24
+hours a day during that 365 days. Still further, this Chamber of
+Commerce has authorized and directed me to present an invitation to this
+National Conservation Congress to hold its next annual session in the
+District of Columbia. Washington, D. C., is the capital of the Nation;
+it is your home; it is _your_ capital; you have helped to make it what
+it is, and it is time that you should get there and see how we have
+spent your money. The Far West has been converted to Conservation, and
+with the setting of tomorrow's sun the Middle West will have been
+converted; and we feel that we of the East need conversion, and we want
+you to come to Washington in 1911 and convert us. I thank you.
+(Applause)
+
+Mr HENRY A. BARKER (of Rhode Island)--I think, at this late hour, it is
+not right to take very much time of the Congress. I take pleasure in
+filing the report of the Conservation Commission of the State of Rhode
+Island.
+
+About three weeks ago the Legislature of Rhode Island established the
+Conservation Commission on a new and more efficient basis than that
+which previously existed. Of course I might spend a great deal of time
+in telling you that Rhode Island, like every other State that we have
+heard from so far, is by far the grandest and most splendid of all the
+States of the Nation (laughter and applause); but I think, under the
+circumstances, I will confine myself to reading the last paragraph of
+the report, I will file in order to show you the position Rhode Island
+occupies in certain matters. "Rhode Island has awakened to vital things,
+but even if it had only an indirect interest in Conservation it would
+still feel that it owed its moral influence to the country as a whole,
+and that it is not a selfish little 2-cent Republic all by its lonesome,
+but a part of a great Nation that prefers to be governed from
+Washington"--I mean Washington, D. C. (laughter)--"rather than from Wall
+Street. It prefers to belong to a Nation whose prosperity and power and
+glory need the cooperation and loyalty of every one of its citizens." I
+thank you. (Applause)
+
+The CHAIRMAN: It has just been called to my attention that several
+Delegates who have spoken for their States have not handed in their
+names; they will be privileged to hand their names and addresses, with
+the remarks that they have made, to the Secretary.
+
+Professor L. C. WHITE (of West Virginia)--West Virginia has been
+overlooked; it is on the map. I will not take much of your time,
+Gentlemen; only enough to say that West Virginia has so far fought a
+losing game on the question of Conservation with reference to our oil
+and gas resources. The great corporations have wasted natural gas in
+West Virginia to the value of from $200,000,000 to $300,000,000, and
+this is still going on at the rate of a quarter of million of cubic feet
+daily. Our late Governor Dawson appointed a Commission on Conservation,
+and it made an able report; but the legislators, who are largely
+controlled by the corporations, have taken no notice of it whatever. The
+only thing actually done in the way of Conservation was the
+establishment of a State game and fire warden, who has some power in the
+way of stopping the forest fires--thanks to one great Conservationist,
+Mr Gifford Pinchot (applause), through whose great influence we have
+made some advance in the preservation of our natural resources. And the
+State of West Virginia also owes a debt of gratitude to Dr Joseph A.
+Holmes, whom the President recently appointed Director of the Bureau of
+Mines; at his instance an expert was sent from the great laboratory at
+Pittsburg to the mines of West Virginia to investigate the causes of
+mine explosions--through whom we learned that the dust of the mines
+would explode,--and that expert sacrificed his life in a West Virginia
+mine. The former method of mining has now been entirely abolished, and
+during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1910, out of the sixty or seventy
+thousand miners of West Virginia not a single human life has been lost
+as the result of dust explosion (applause). And now that Dr Holmes is at
+the head of that great bureau (placed there against the wishes of some
+of the members of the cabinet of President Taft), we are sure that other
+discoveries in certain lines will be made in West Virginia for the
+conservation of human life. (Applause)
+
+Mr E. L. WORSHAM (of Georgia)--Mr Chairman, I want to report that
+Georgia, too, is on the map. I am not going to take your time in an
+attempt to make a speech or even a report. There are a number of
+problems I wanted to discuss, but in view of the fact that I know all of
+you have had more Conservation than you can digest in one evening, I
+forbear. I do want to say, however, that the West and the Northwest are
+not the only sections of the country which are interested in
+Conservation. Coming from one of the oldest States of the Union (one of
+the original thirteen) I can say that there is a greater demand for
+systematic Conservation in our section of the country than there is in
+any other. We can appreciate the value of Conservation. Nature has been
+exceedingly kind to this section of the country in the distribution of
+natural resources. Georgia was originally the chief gold-producing State
+of the Union. She still has rich mineral resources. She has water-power
+enough to run all the mills in the Southern States and then have some to
+spare. I can appreciate thoroughly what the water-power proposition
+means, because we are up against that same proposition now, wherein the
+large corporations are trying to gobble up the water-power sites: and
+that is one of the main problems of Conservation which confronts the
+people of Georgia today and will be fought before the State Legislature;
+and I want to assure you, right now, that we are going to depend upon
+the National Government for aid in propositions of this kind. (Applause)
+
+We are interested in Conservation, but our time is too valuable to be
+wasted in the discussion of States' rights, because our people fought
+out that question forty-five years ago (applause). My father spent four
+long years fighting on that problem, and we consider that it has been
+solved to the satisfaction of the great majority (applause).
+
+I want to endorse what Mr Pinchot said this morning in behalf of the
+work which the women have done for Conservation. I don't know how it is
+in the North; but with us the women are the moulders of sentiment, and
+they have been fighting in this movement for a number of years
+(applause). We are going to hold a Southern Conservation Congress in
+Atlanta on October 7 and 8 (applause). That movement is backed by 25,000
+women in the State of Georgia, by the various women's clubs, by the
+press, and by all the leading citizens. If there are any factions, they
+have not made their appearance as yet. We are going to make that
+Congress a success. We plead for your cooperation, because we need all
+the help we can get. (Applause)
+
+A number of telegrams were read.
+
+The CHAIRMAN--If there is nothing further before us--
+
+Mr BENJAMIN MARTIN, JR.--Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: The hour is
+growing late, and it is my pleasure to rise for the purpose of offering
+a motion to adjourn; but before making that motion, as a Delegate from
+Oklahoma, and speaking for the other Delegates, I wish to thank the good
+people of Minnesota, and more especially the people of the Twin Cities,
+for the delightful manner in which they have entertained us. As we
+return to our homes, we do so with the most pleasant memories of our
+visit to this great metropolis. One great inspiration to me, and to most
+of the Delegates, has been the attendance of ladies at the various
+sessions. Now, without further comment, I move that this Congress
+adjourn _sine die_.
+
+Chairman WHITE--Without objection, the Congress will stand adjourned: it
+is adjourned.
+
+
+
+
+SUPPLEMENTARY PROCEEDINGS
+
+
+LAWS THAT SHOULD BE PASSED
+
+FRANCIS G. NEWLANDS
+
+_Senior Senator From Nevada_
+
+Regretting my inability to address the Conservation Congress personally
+on the subject assigned to me, I submit my views briefly by telegraph.
+
+Conservation legislation necessarily involves harmonious action by
+forty-seven sovereigns, the Nation and the States, each acting within
+its jurisdiction. As the legislative bodies cannot confer together, it
+is necessary that there should be some intermediate organization which
+will bring about team work. There should be a National Commission and
+State commissions which can act together, as well as separately, in
+recommending needed legislation. A reactionary Congress disregarded
+Roosevelt's recommendations on this subject, but the progressive
+sentiment of the country will not brook further resistance; and the bill
+for the appointment by the President of a National Conservation
+Commission composed of publicists and experts in civil, hydraulic, and
+electric engineering, in arid and swamp land reclamation, in
+transportation, and in mining and lumbering, reported by the Senate
+Conservation Committee at the last session, should surely pass. With
+Roosevelt as chairman, and Garfield, Pinchot, Newell, and the Chief of
+Engineers of the Army as members of this Commission, we would have the
+men who in practical administration have become more thoroughly informed
+regarding the natural resources of this country than any others.
+
+As to the land laws: It is evident that for years large portions of the
+public domain have been gradually drifting into private and monopolistic
+ownership under antiquated and misfit land laws utterly unadapted to
+existing economic conditions, and therefore stimulating fraud in their
+evasion and perversion. Legislators outside of the public land States
+have taken little interest in the subject, relying mainly upon the
+States involved to suggest legislation. Had the Senators and
+Representatives from the public land States counseled together
+continuously, patiently, and tolerantly regarding the land laws, as they
+did regarding the Reclamation Act, the confusion and scandal and the
+prosecutions of the past six years would have been lessened, and a wise
+solution of needed legislation would have been evolved and accepted by
+the country. At the next session of Congress such a council of western
+Senators and Representatives should be held, and the present deadlock of
+conflicting views ended. In shaping laws regarding the public lands the
+central idea should be a rational development, without monopoly or
+waste; the establishment of individual homes upon the agricultural
+lands; the utilization of the forests and the coal, iron, and oil
+deposits under conditions that will enlist the aid of needed capital
+without monopolistic exaction or excessive prices; and the improvement
+of our waterways, regardless of State lines, so as to promote every use
+to which civilization can put them, and in that connection secure team
+work on the part of the various services, National and State, engaged
+upon them, as well as the cooperation of the Nation and the States, each
+within its appropriate jurisdiction in the work to be done and the
+expenditures to be made.
+
+Until comprehensive plans are developed, the Nation should not part
+permanently with the title to any lands suited for the development of
+water-power, the promotion of navigation, or the establishment of
+transfer facilities and sites, but should hold the National properties
+in such shape that they may be utilized in the working out of
+comprehensive plans involving the union of National and State powers. In
+forming these plans it should be borne in mind that the Nation holds the
+public domain, not for National profit, but in trust for the population,
+present and future, of the public land States which welcome immigration
+from other States whose surplus population there finds a resting place.
+The money realized either from sale or rentals should therefore be
+applied to the schools, roads, reclamation projects, and other public
+development of the States in which the lands are located.
+
+The ultimate purpose of the laws should be to gradually substitute State
+sovereignty for National sovereignty in the direction and control of
+this great public trust; but great care should be taken not to
+prematurely turn over the trust to States too weak to resist powerful
+combinations and monopolies, or until the organization of adequate
+public regulation and control is effected.
+
+
+CONSERVATION OF THE NATION'S RESOURCES
+
+J. B. WHITE
+
+_Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Conservation
+Congress_
+
+In the division of the program set apart for discussion there are many
+ideas and inquiries crowded upon our minds for expression; and while
+much will be made clearer to us, there will be many questions that will
+remain to us unanswered.
+
+Perhaps we may first ask ourselves: Why are we here? What came we here
+to do? What is Conservation? To whom does it apply? Who are
+Conservationists? And who are enemies of Conservation? Are there any,
+and why? What special principles must we subscribe to in order to be
+known as sufficiently orthodox in creed that we will be received as
+worthy disciples in this cause? And who but ourselves (and each for one
+another) shall pass upon our credentials as to our honesty of purpose in
+this great work? To whom are we answerable but to ourselves, the people?
+And why should a great congress of thousands of American people meet
+here, as we are doing this week, on this occasion, when we have a legal
+Congress in Washington representing every district in this broad land,
+whose members we have elected to make such laws as are necessary for our
+present and future welfare?
+
+The answer seems to be that this assemblage represents a popular
+upheaval of public sentiment, animated and encouraged by those who have
+thought along advanced lines and are pioneers in this cause in the press
+and on the rostrum; some of whom have been right, and others of whom
+were almost wholly wrong. We are here to discuss these features, to
+winnow the chaff from the golden grain in this agitation of thought
+which we trust will be the beginning of wisdom, to be crystallized as
+far as practicable into proper National and State laws for the
+regulation of Conservation of public resources, and that the people may
+become awakened to that greater saving principle of personal and private
+Conservation. It is we, the people, instead of we, the politicians, who
+are and should be most in evidence at this Congress.
+
+It has been said that knowledge is power. It is perhaps a better truism
+to say that action, with knowledge, is power. Knowledge without action
+would avail little; and action without knowledge would be groping in the
+dark. But with knowledge and action we can accomplish noble results.
+
+All great reforms and improved conditions spring from the wants, needs,
+and consciences of a dissatisfied people. Sometimes the needed relief
+comes through an armed and sometimes through a peaceful revolution. Some
+man looms up above his fellows from the sea of unrest and his greatness
+is proven by his devotion to the cause, free from the selfish thought of
+personal aggrandizement; and by his wisdom and tact he creates
+confidence in his judgment, in his sagacity, in his fitness for
+leadership. So few there are who are willing to bear the cross from this
+high sense of duty and offer themselves a mark for calumny and
+vituperation, and often in many ways to become a sacrifice to a people's
+cause! And when one is found, it frequently happens that the public are
+slow in showing their gratitude and appreciation for what his
+discernment and discretion saved to a nation; the reward of proper
+recognition is often withheld until long after he is dead, because he
+lived in advance of his time.
+
+But there are fictitious and exaggerated issues which are created and
+developed to huge proportions for the dear people by the sleek
+politician (and his name is Legion) who sets up his scarecrow of
+impending woe that he may rush valiantly in and save his constituents
+and the citizens of a nation from dire calamity, and generations unborn
+from distress and want. It is not my purpose to attempt to lull to sleep
+in fancied security those who have been influenced by those suspected of
+being unnecessarily active in fighting windmills. Always there is need
+of sound, conservative consideration before taking hasty action, and the
+people are becoming better informed and more critical in their
+discriminations, and are learning to know the loud-mouthed pretender
+from the thoughtful, loyal, public-spirited citizen. People now are
+doing their own thinking. Time was not long ago when the greatest
+newspapers of largest circulation manufactured public opinion so
+successfully that they were the great thinking machines for the country.
+It was so much easier for the people than doing the actual thinking and
+logical reasoning for themselves. People read the editorials of their
+respective journals in order to get ideas to use in their arguments
+with each other. I think that as an educator the newspapers then, as
+now, served a most valuable purpose, but it is infinitely of more help
+to the thinking man, who criticizes and analyzes what he reads before he
+accepts and assimilates it as his own. The pen has been mightier than
+the sword, and the "power of the press" has matured and developed
+conditions that had to be arbitrated by the sword.
+
+_The People Deceived_
+
+Much harm has been done by wrong thinking in regard to Conservation, and
+the people have been deceived and prejudiced; and like a strong man
+awakening from a sleep they have reached out in alarm to search for and
+punish, in advance of ascertaining what, if anything, was really the
+matter. Innocent people and innocent industries were maligned and
+injured. The public are now finding that they have been deceived by the
+scheming politicians, and by highly colored newspaper comments, and that
+"Conservation" has been used as a trick word and is not what they
+thought it was. They had been led to believe that it was something that
+someone else ought to do, or should be forced to do, and that they were
+being robbed because Conservation was not practiced; and that if
+Conservation laws should be passed as recommended by these ignorant
+agitators they would be greatly benefited; that everything would be
+cheaper than they had to pay, and that they could get more for what they
+had to sell. They never stopped to reason that Conservation without use
+means holding back from development the natural resources of the country
+and producing stagnation in business, and that if each succeeding
+generation should follow the same policy there never would be any
+improvement.
+
+Those whose education never has extended beyond the three Rs can
+understand the principles of Conservation in reforestation, reclamation,
+and restoration--reforestation where it will pay to reforest;
+reclamation where it will pay to reclaim; and restoration where it will
+pay to restore to the soil the elements needed, and where forestry will
+not pay better.
+
+The great American leader of Conservation always has maintained, and
+especially in his speech at the first Conservation Congress a year ago,
+that the first principles of Conservation is development of resources
+for the benefit of the people who live here now; he stated that there
+might be just as much waste in neglecting the development and use of
+natural resources as there is in their destruction by wasteful methods.
+In the second place, Conservation stands for the prevention of waste;
+and in the third place, Conservation stands for the preservation and
+perpetuation of our resources through wise economy and thrift. And its
+principles apply alike to individuals and to nations. If a policy in any
+department of Conservation requires great outlay of money in order to
+develop and conserve for this and future generations, then the
+Government, the whole people, and succeeding generations may be
+rightfully asked to bear part of the expense, which could be done by the
+selling of bonds, and by exemption from taxation some products of
+growth, like the forests, which are now taxed every year, making the
+owners pay taxes for a hundred years to get for the market only one
+crop. No other crop is taxed like this. The owners of any one resource
+should not bear all the burdens for growing it for future generations;
+and, if it does not pay, the soil will be used for other crops which
+will pay better.
+
+_True Leaders Misunderstood_
+
+As a matter of fact, the true leaders in intelligent Conservation have
+been misunderstood by press and people. The principle has been attacked
+as if it meant the non-use of our natural resources by the present
+generation. Even in Alaska the best known teachers of Conservation urge
+the development of all the resources for the benefit of all the people.
+They wish to encourage pioneering on both a small and on a large scale.
+It is not the purpose of Conservation to preserve from exploration and
+discovery unknown resources if there can be found for new fields men
+brave and fearless enough to take the risks of life and of capital. For
+instance, when in the prospecting of a country's possibilities, and in
+the risks of life and capital incident thereto, there is called into
+action every bit of physical or mental energy to meet conditions that
+seem insurmountable, it is not our purpose to hamper or retard, and say
+that this risk and cost shall be left entirely to future generations. We
+are willing to encourage the cutting out of the way, and doing all we
+can in this generation, believing that the next generation will find new
+duties suited to its advanced condition and change of needful
+requirements.
+
+Wise Conservation with use means the maximum of efficiency and profit
+with the minimum of waste and cost. We do not wish the few to have
+unfair advantage. We desire each and all to have opportunity according
+to their talents and their physical or financial abilities, that the
+known and unknown resources of a country shall not be gobbled up by a
+few without an equal opportunity to others who can furnish the same
+needed measure of requirements to insure success. We realize that
+corporations are necessary to develop a country; that aggregations of
+capital, made up from large and small stockholders of the people, can
+accomplish more with less waste than can individuals. They can put in
+expensive and saving devices and can operate at a far smaller percentage
+of profit.
+
+For example, in gold mining the individual works his placer claim with
+simple equipment; he will leave 50 percent as waste. Then the dredging
+companies will follow, and get half as much more. Then come the big
+hydraulic companies, reaching benches and levels that men with small
+capital could not attain. These companies require millions of capital,
+and they save the waste and are satisfied with a net profit of a few
+cents per ton. Just so with Alaska's coal; Alaska needs the coal, and
+all we ask is that some fair method shall be adopted which will best
+subserve the requirements and will encourage development.
+
+Conservation and economy must enter into our very life, and every effort
+should be made to get the most out of little; to find a use for what now
+we are in various ways wasting. In European countries the hard struggles
+of the masses have produced the saving habit--a virtue we have got to
+learn and practice individually and as a people before Conservation will
+become a National success. Unless we halt in our mad extravagances,
+perhaps there will come to us in some degree those sad experiences of
+suffering that have put the saving principle into the very fiber of the
+old world peoples; and we will learn our lesson as they long ago learned
+theirs. We must each share the burdens of Conservation, and we all
+likewise will share in its blessings.
+
+Conservation is not any one man's opportunity, prerogative, or
+privilege. It is for the use and benefit of each and all, and can be
+practiced in any business or occupation as an important aid to success.
+It is for peasant and prince, rich and poor, and for the Nation as well
+as for the individuals. We must discover some effectual means to prevent
+disastrous forest fires. We must restore the fertility of our soils.
+
+_The Question of Ownership_
+
+Whether Conservation is best promoted by individual ownership of certain
+natural resources is a disputed question, depending on the nature of the
+public utilities, the location, and other conditions. Government
+ownership does not mean that the Government is going into business
+competition with private capital. It means reasonable royalty and
+fairness and protection to the lessee, to enable him to compete under
+prescribed conditions favorable and just alike to all parties.
+
+In most cases ownership causes a man to see the need of conservation and
+economy. The idea of protecting natural resources against waste is not
+so strong with some, if they do not have possession; while with others
+it is true that possession gives them the desire and opportunity to see
+the actual dollars, and they make haste, manufacturing more than the
+market demands so that only the prime and best qualities find a market,
+which causes a grievous waste. Especially is this true in the lumber
+business, but it is not so true in the meat business. The packers of
+meat products have studied the science of saving and conservation, so
+that the entire carcass is utilized in some useful manner absolutely
+without waste. And on the farm the man who is financially able to study
+and practice conservation of the soil prevents its exhaustion, while his
+poorer neighbor, lacking the funds for the initial expenses, sells the
+life of the soil with the crop that he markets, and his farm is soon
+impoverished. We, or some of us, believe that there should be some way
+of extending State aid at a low rate of interest to the poor farmer to
+enable him properly to fertilize his soil; and that the chemistry of
+soils and scientific agriculture should be taught in the common schools.
+Thus would the entire country be benefited, and National efficiency
+strengthened.
+
+_Practical Application_
+
+The science of Conservation, as a philosophy, is wholly independent of
+who owns the property; but its successful practical application often
+depends very much on ownership. Combinations of capital have the
+advantage, and this needed capital gives greater possibilities for
+Conservation. Compare the country butcher and his 50-percent waste with
+the million-dollar packing house which has no waste. It is not the fault
+of Conservation that there are extremes in combinations, resulting in
+trusts or monopolies. They are practicing Conservation in the extreme,
+in saving of raw material by greater utilization, and by the discovery
+of new uses for by-products. The Standard Oil Company is another example
+of the very fineness of division and subdivision of by-products, which
+finds a place in therapeutics and in the arts, and appear in vaseline,
+paints, dyes, and a hundred other valuable chemical products. This is
+Conservation. But there are hundreds of ways where Conservation can be
+practiced to a profit in every occupation of life, to the physical,
+intellectual, and moral betterment of mankind. As corporations are made
+up of many individuals to do certain things that are necessary to be
+done, which it would be impracticable or impossible for any individual
+to do alone, is it not best to recognize them as artificial individuals,
+subject to the control as well as to the protection of wise laws, which
+permit no individual to prosper at the expense, discomfort or injury of
+another individual?
+
+Conservation, as a living, vital principle stands out beyond and above
+selfish partisan politics; and no man or combination of men will ever be
+able to make a political issue of it any more than you can make the
+gospel of spiritual salvation a political issue. But, like the gospel of
+spiritual and physical health, it demands the homage and acceptance of
+all. There will be many men of many minds, crystallizing by their
+combinations into different sentiments, and advocating different
+methods. It is so with churches. But their central doctrine of salvation
+will continue to be the basis of creed. And ours is Conservation, that
+the country and its people may continue to prosper and progress, and
+that the principle and practice of love and charity, which make up the
+Golden Rule, shall not cease to influence the hearts of men. The great
+question to each one should be: Where and how does Conservation apply to
+me?
+
+We are here to build the temple, and to bring men up to the standard
+which we now unfurl to the world.
+
+The sower goeth forth to sow; some sow to discord and strife, and some
+to peace and harmony; some sow to love and some to hate; some sow to
+adversity, and some to prosperity; some sow to selfish greed, and some
+to philanthropy and public good; some sow to prudence and Conservation,
+and some sow to extravagance and waste.
+
+"There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that
+witholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty."
+
+"Be ye not deceived. For whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap."
+
+
+PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF CONSERVATION
+
+A. B. FARQUHAR
+
+_Executive Committeeman National Conservation Congress_
+
+In the forum of argument the Cause of Conservation, as a general
+principle and in every detailed application, has already won. When taken
+on its own merits, hardly a voice is now raised in opposition. Yet it
+has still its enemies, none the less pertinacious or dangerous that
+their antagonism is based not on public but on private interest--enemies
+who are carrying on a bitter contest by indirect methods, and clouding
+the issue by starting side questions. We have all heard of the medical
+practitioner who covered his general ignorance of pathology by the
+device of inducing fits, which were his specialty. So, when anybody
+finds the Conservation policy an obstacle to his pecuniary interest, it
+is an easy expedient to cover his inability to overthrow or confute that
+policy on point of principle by a display of his skill in exposing real
+or fancied weaknesses on irrelevant points.
+
+Instances of this effort to secure an advantage by an adroit befogging
+of the question will occur to everyone who has followed the discussion
+of our subject. Some of these have been so often exposed that it would
+be only wearisome to allude again to them, were it not for the
+importance of being on guard at all times on all points against the
+crafty contrivings of the enemy.
+
+Let us first consider the confusion of Conservation with hostility to
+corporations; of encouragement to enterprise, with license to
+destruction of natural resources. It is true that we have heard and read
+some vigorous protests recently against grants of timber and
+water-rights to certain business corporations, whose profits would be
+sharply curtailed by preventing or limiting their free use of the
+country's forest and river wealth. Perhaps those protests were stronger
+because a combination was to profit by the grants than they would have
+been had the beneficiaries been dissociated individuals; what is certain
+is that they were decidedly stronger because of a belief that the
+concessions were to be granted without exacting for them their full
+money value. Yet, even allowing that objections founded on the
+principles of Conservation may have been mixed in this case with
+objections on other grounds, it is contrary to common-sense to apply to
+the former the invalidity or the validity that may be discovered in the
+latter. Arguments for Conservation are no more or less sound because
+aggregations of capital in large industrial undertakings are dangerous
+or useful to the public. As Conservationists, we are not concerned
+either to palliate the frequent dangers or to depreciate the frequent
+valuable services to the public from such aggregations. But we are
+concerned to see that the National resources are not squandered for
+private gain, if our best efforts can prevent it.
+
+Another example of a confusion of the question, or raising a false
+question, is when a saving of natural resources is identified with
+locking them up; as though energy conserved were to be understood as
+energy neutralized. Quite the contrary: Conservation means so treating
+our resources as to get the most we can from them. In the case of our
+forest wealth, as of any other in which there is growth and decay, a
+judicious degree of consumption of the product is a necessity. After the
+period of most rapid development has been succeeded by a slower rate of
+increase, approaching that when losses by accident and by interior
+degeneration are barely made up by the growing season, there is
+obviously a gain in removing the tree and leaving its place to be filled
+by something that will continue to grow. In a properly conserved forest
+no tree is left standing until attacked by decay, but each is cut when
+its value is greatest, so that the best management is recognized not so
+much by the largest amount of standing timber as by the largest yearly
+gross increase in growth of timber. It is somewhat similar with
+water-power. "The mill never grind with water that is past," so the
+power has to be used when it is within our grasp, or be lost.
+Conservation of water-power is maintenance of the amount of such power
+that so appears, and disappears. It is for use; Conservation for disuse,
+in this case, becomes an absurdity. Even as to mineral resources, which
+cannot be replaced when once withdrawn, Conservation calls only for
+economical use, not for neglect or insufficient use. The argument is
+that we have quite as good a right to the enjoyment of the gifts of
+Nature as our successors have, but not a right so much better than
+theirs as to render a wanton waste of our patrimony justifiable, or even
+pardonable.
+
+In connection with this same identification of forest Conservation with
+neglect of the forests, we should consider the hasty tendency shown in
+some quarters to regard the terrible forest fires of the last few weeks
+as proof that we are safer without a woodland than with it, and that
+therefore our policy is at fault. But our policy is care, and not
+neglect. We would avoid such calamities by preventing them. The recent
+fires appear to have been due very largely to carelessness, from
+meal-preparation or from smoking in presence of dry combustible
+material; and in some instances to actual incendiarism, which was, where
+it occurred, a crime no less serious than wilful murder. These forests
+might have been safeguarded by an expenditure of one-tenth the loss by
+fire, and at no danger to life. Fires from locomotive sparks--a far too
+frequent nuisance--should no longer be classed with unavoidable
+accidents; for the masses of dried grasses, etc., that make the sparks
+dangerous could and should be removed from the track vicinity; or the
+locomotives provided with efficient spark-arresters, or oil used instead
+of coal. From strictly non-preventable accidents such as lightning,
+general conflagrations must be exceedingly rare; and thus the cure for
+the entire evil is within the reach of capable caretakers. Where an
+efficient forest guard is provided, as experience in European countries
+and some American States has demonstrated, these disastrous visitations
+are no longer dreaded. To look on a universal removal of our Nation's
+tree-wealth as the only remedy, is like the old proposition to drive
+rats from the granary by burning the barn.
+
+One more illustration will be enough. It is a great advantage to any
+cause when the opposing advocate can be found in error on any point, no
+matter how trivial or how far aloof from the essential issue; for then
+the convenient presumption of "false in one thing, false in all," can be
+raised, and the weakness of the said cause most effectively disguised.
+This expedient is at least as good as the famous rule in pleading: "When
+you have no case, then abuse the plaintiff's attorney." It is readily
+possible, I dare say, to show that some of our Conservationist champions
+may have in a few cases underestimated the life yet remaining to our
+National resources. Estimate in these matters is necessarily uncertain,
+few or none of the elements of the calculation being well ascertained.
+This is particularly true of our mineral supply. The time when our
+coal, for example, may be expected to become practically exhausted
+cannot be set within a hundred years, for we cannot gauge the stock in
+veins out of sight, nor foresee the rate at which the use of coal will
+be accelerated. But it would seem sufficient to know that, at the
+present rate of extraction (the amount mined in 1906, as the figures
+show, excelled all previous records, and yet the increase in 1907 over
+1906 was more than the total annual supply 10 years earlier), no finite
+quantity could indefinitely survive; hence more attention must be paid
+to avoiding the present lavish waste in mining, as well as applying
+water-power and wind-power wherever adapted to do the work now done by
+burning coal. These economies should be introduced now from choice, not
+left till the disappearance of our fuel-supply drives us to them by
+force. It is a wretched business to allow our boast that "The country's
+coal supply is good for many hundreds of years yet" to uphold us in the
+reckless waste we now make of it.
+
+But I attempted to cover the whole field of Conservation in an address
+at our first Congress, and will not repeat but, in conclusion, will
+touch upon that form of Conservation which all will concede to be of
+supreme importance--the Conservation of the most precious asset of the
+State: its men, women, and children. If the life and health of citizens
+is sacrificed, by vicious measures or by simple neglect, no saving of
+any other of our possessions will at all avail us. The importance of
+efforts, on a National scale, for the maintenance of public health has
+been proved by ample experience, and we should see to the continuance,
+and especially to the proper organization, of such efforts. An important
+step in that direction is the proposed formation of a Department of
+Health under the Federal Government, as contemplated in the bill so ably
+championed by Senator Owen at the last session of Congress. Our race is
+a prey to epidemics which extend far beyond State boundaries, arising
+from causes that often require long-continued and expensive
+investigations for their determination and their counteraction; and it
+is obvious that any effectual work against them must be under charge of
+the General Government. The clear and cogent reasons for this view have
+again and again been given by sanitary experts, and it is needless to
+repeat them. The matter is of sufficient importance to call for action
+from our Congress, and a resolution favoring a Department of Health, at
+the National Capital ought surely to meet with no opposition. I would
+propose the following resolutions:
+
+     _Resolved_, That this Congress declares its hearty approval of
+     the opinion made public last week by our honored Chief
+     Executive, President Taft, that his party and his
+     Administration are pledged "to make better provisions for
+     securing the health of the Nation. The most tangible and useful
+     form that this can take would be the establishment of a
+     National Bureau of Health, to include all the health agencies
+     of the Government now distributed in different departments."
+
+     _Resolved_, That we accept, in principle, the "Health
+     Department" bill of Senator Owen now pending, and strongly
+     recommend that that measure, suitably amended where necessary,
+     be enacted into law.
+
+     _Resolved_, That our Secretary be directed to communicate a
+     resolution advocating a Department of Health to the members of
+     the National Senate and House of Representatives, and that our
+     own membership be urged to use all their individual influence
+     to aid the passage of the measure hereby recommended.
+
+
+REPORT FROM ARKANSAS
+
+SID B. REDDING
+
+_Secretary Arkansas Conservation Commission_
+
+Progress has been made in the Conservation movement in Arkansas through
+the recent organization of the Arkansas Conservation Commission. Up to
+this time we have had no legislation along Conservation lines, and our
+Conservation Commission is one whose members serve without compensation.
+The Commission was appointed by our present Governor, and its officers
+are George W. Donaghey, _Chairman_, and Sid B. Redding, _Secretary_. The
+Commission has effected a permanent organization, and its membership
+includes some of the leading business and professional men of our State.
+The Arkansas Legislature will convene in January, 1911, and at that time
+Governor Donaghey will perhaps recommend legislation covering a fixed
+Conservation policy for our State.
+
+
+REPORT FROM COLORADO
+
+FRANK C. GOUDY
+
+_President Colorado Conservation Commission_
+
+The Colorado Conservation Commission is composed of thirty-six members
+appointed by the Governor of the State February 17, 1909, with Mr Frank
+C. Goudy designated as Chairman. The Commission met on call to organize
+March 11, 1909, at which time Mr Goudy, the Chairman, was elected
+President of the Commission for the ensuing year, and the following
+subjects were fixed upon as embracing the general scope of Conservation
+in Colorado, viz: Lands, Waters, Minerals, Forestry, and Natural
+History. Standing Committees were appointed and put in charge of these
+five divisions of labor.
+
+The organization is composed of men holding all shades of opinion
+concerning Conservation. Some think the Federal Government should turn
+over to the State all the public domain within its borders, together
+with its natural resources of every kind; that the State should own and
+control the public land and all it contains. Others hold that these
+transfers from the Federal Government to the State should be made, but
+that they should be subject to conditions to be named in the grant,
+providing adequate protection against monopoly and other objectionable
+control. Still others believe there should be cooperation with the
+General Government, at least until such laws are enacted as will assist
+in the work of Conservation and until the State is better prepared,
+financially, to meet the expense necessarily attending such a work.
+There are many others who believe in the continued Federal control of
+the public domain and its resources.
+
+Including the first meeting, five sessions have been held, each
+occupying two days. In connection with the several sessions already
+held, considerable labor has been performed. Many papers have been read,
+numerous addresses have been delivered, and the Standing Committees have
+made sundry carefully prepared reports. Of the papers read, more than
+half have been given by persons not members of the Commission, not for
+lack of readiness on the part of our own people, but to divide this
+feature of the work with the public at large. It has never been
+difficult to secure speakers either inside or outside of the Commission.
+The Commission itself is composed of a body of more than ordinary
+intelligence. The Annual Meeting was marked with a banquet to emphasize
+the passing of the year. The last meeting, April 18-19, 1910, was
+devoted entirely to the subject of the water-power resources of the
+State. Numerous letters from men prominent at Washington were received
+and read, and five papers were given by persons interested in the
+subject. All phases of the question were presented, and the most mature
+thought of the present time was elicited.
+
+One of the duties of the Secretary of the Commission is to take notice
+of any unlawful waste or destruction of natural resources and report the
+same to the proper authorities. This work has been sufficiently pursued
+to disclose a field calling for special attention--one that calls for
+legislative recognition, authority, and assistance.
+
+It may be of interest to the Congress to know something of the
+resolutions that have been adopted by this Commission. A brief abstract
+of the elements of a few will suffice to show how the body stands on the
+subject of Conservation.
+
+1--A hearty endorsement of the general policy of the Government in
+control and conservation of the resources of the Nation.
+
+2--Hearty cooperation between the State and Nation in Conservation.
+
+3--That all plans of Conservation should safeguard against monopoly.
+
+4--That in disposing of water-power sites, all franchises should be
+limited to a reasonable period to prevent monopoly and regulate charges.
+
+5--That in taxing forested lands, no account should be taken of the
+timber until it is cut and sold.
+
+6--That all afforested lands over one acre and not over ten acres on a
+tract of 160 acres should be exempt from taxation for a period of ten
+years.
+
+7--That the State, by proper laws and reasonable appropriations, should
+cooperate with the General Government in the protection of the forests
+within the State from fire and lawless depredations of every kind.
+
+Among other things, a committee has been appointed to prepare and submit
+to the next meeting a brief and clear statement, for general
+circulation, as to what Conservation is and what it is not; what it
+stands for, and what it seeks to do. The purpose is to clear away the
+haze of misunderstanding and misapprehension in the public mind
+concerning it.
+
+The Commission is about to publish a full report of its proceedings,
+covering the five sessions already held.
+
+In closing this statement, it may not be out of place to say that
+nature has been lavish of resources in our State--they are many and
+abundant, but in a certain measure undeveloped, and, so far, we have had
+no leisure to take up matters not directly and specifically local to
+Colorado, except in cases where they are necessarily general.
+
+
+REPORT FROM FLORIDA
+
+CROMWELL GIBBONS
+
+_Florida Conservation Commission_
+
+The spirit of Conservation prevaileth everywhere in these modern times,
+and for the reason that during the past several years vicious attacks
+have been made upon the National resources throughout the length and
+breadth of our land, and to such a marvelous extent that our whole
+people have awakened to the fact that something must be done and at once
+if we wish to preserve our general resources sufficiently to care for
+those we expect to come after us, and who are dependent on our country
+for an honest and successful living. We have been greedy and selfish in
+the past, and now is the time for us to curb this vicious appetite and
+think of those who are to come hereafter. Modern times have come to
+stay, but the spirit of Conservation will grow until we have
+accomplished the grand results of providing proper protection to our
+forests, mineral wealth, lands, water-power and waterways, and last but
+not the least our various climates that God Almighty has given us to
+conserve the health of our people.
+
+Much is said as to the methods to be adopted and what necessary
+legislation should take place to obtain actual results of Conservation.
+The idea of giving absolute control over the forests, the inland
+waterways, and the public lands confined within the States to the
+National Government is repugnant to me and I believe to all of the
+people of my State. It has too much the tinge of centralization of power
+in the Federal Government, and we have had enough of this already. The
+notion that giving the States power and control is in favor of the
+special interests is ridiculous when we look back and know what has
+already been done by the Federal Government giving away some of its most
+valuable resources to the trust-monopoly corporations of the country,
+and we view in comparison what the States have done where they have
+controlled many of these resources. I have but to call your attention to
+what we are doing in Florida and have done the past several years in the
+way of Conservation. We realized some years ago that our public lands
+were fast being absorbed by the railways operating in our State, and
+that the time would soon be at hand when our people would be unable to
+secure homesteads, and immigration to our great State would be unable to
+place that energy with the soil of our State and bring about the
+development of resources we were entitled to through the natural course
+of developments. We had within our borders a vast empire of land, over
+4,000,000 acres of fertile land known as the Everglades, all of which
+was looked upon by the land grabbers as not worth 15 cents an acre; but
+greatly to his credit, to Governor Napoleon B. Broward, now our nominee
+for United States Senator, is due the reclamation of this property and a
+saving to the State of lands now valued at over $35,000,000. Against
+great political odds and vigorous contests, the policies of Governor
+Broward were endorsed; and after much litigation through the State and
+Federal courts we have been able to conserve this vast area of land by
+drainage under State supervision and at the expense of the State. The
+policy was greatly doubted, but it has proven a grand success in that
+the State, securing title to these lands, successfully sold half of the
+same at a price sufficient to build the necessary dredges and pay for
+the work of the draining of the entire tract of property by carrying the
+surplus waters from Lake Okeechobee through the trunk canals to the
+waters of the Gulf and to Atlantic Ocean. The work that is now going on
+has accomplished over 100 miles of main canals with locks to preserve
+sufficient water for the purpose of irrigation in dry spells. When the
+work is completed, which will be inside of three years, the State will
+have provided over 275 miles of canals with the lateral canals
+approaching the properties of the various owners, all of which will not
+only result in giving the necessary drainage and irrigation but will
+also furnish water transportation to the Gulf and to the inland water
+route from Key West to Jacksonville (a distance of about 500 miles), as
+well as deep-sea connections at the various ports along this route. By
+this State Conservation we are giving to the people one of the richest
+bodies of fertile lands in the United States, a territory greater than
+the States of Rhode Island and Connecticut combined, every inch of which
+will grow either sugar-cane or truck of all kinds through winter and
+summer. These lands will produce at least three crops a year, and to the
+industrious citizen who desires to live in a country that will give
+renewed youth and a climate unexcelled and a living independent of the
+world. I know of none that can be found better located to give the
+results than this vast empire known as the Everglades, so promptly
+conserved by our State Government and our people.
+
+We are also interested in another line of Conservation, and that is the
+preservation of our pine forests and the prohibiting of the destruction
+of our sapling trees which have been attacked by those who are greedy
+for wealth and have no regard for the future. Much will be accomplished
+in this direction, as our people are absolutely opposed to the complete
+destruction of the forests, as it will provide no future for our timber
+markets; and destruction of our pine forests would undoubtedly affect
+our climate, which by all means should be conserved as well as the
+timber for the building of our homes of the future.
+
+It may be as well for me to call your special attention to the fact
+that, in addition to this great work of Conservation I have related in
+reference to the saving of public land and our efforts in the direction
+of saving the forests, our State has for several years aided in a public
+way in the building of the great inland waterway along the Atlantic
+coast within the State of Florida. These canals have been made during
+the past 15 years, until now we have a thorough water route from Saint
+John's River southward connecting streams and inlets until there has
+been dug over 300 miles of canal, giving this great waterway and
+enabling the people along the eastern coast sections a cheap means of
+transportation to the railway center of the State at Jacksonville.
+
+I think that we have done our part toward Conservation, and all under
+the jurisdiction and authority of our State. There has been no effort at
+graft, but all have worked in harmony in the interests of the public
+welfare, thus demonstrating (so far as Florida is concerned) that she is
+able to control her own affairs; and all she asks of the National
+Government is its aid and assistance.
+
+
+REPORT FROM IDAHO
+
+JEROME J. DAY
+
+We believe that, in the interest of the United States and the State of
+Idaho, the agricultural land within the forest reserves of Idaho should
+be opened to settlement and made available for home building; and that
+the decision as to whether land is good agricultural land or not should
+be referred to those who are primarily agriculturists, rather than to
+those who are primarily arboriculturists, and to those who are familiar
+with farming in Idaho rather than to those who are familiar only with
+farming in general.
+
+We believe that the protection of the forests of Idaho and the safety of
+life and property in Idaho require that good roads be built along the
+lines of streams leading into the heart of the forest reserves; and that
+the land along these roads, whether valuable for agriculture, timber, or
+mineral, should be open to entry, with such provisions in relation to
+habitation and improvement as will secure the presence, between the
+months of June and September, of a local fire-fighting force, consisting
+of men who know the country, have a financial interest in the locality,
+and are skilled in the use of the axe and in methods of fighting a
+forest fire.
+
+We believe in the separate classification of coal lands, oil lands,
+phosphate and mineral lands; and we believe in the administration of
+those lands in such a way as to prevent waste, promote safety in mining,
+and defeat monopoly. We do not believe in a policy for revenue in
+relation to these lands. The revenues to be derived should be
+incidental, and belong of right to the State of Idaho.
+
+We believe in the cooperation of the State and the National Government
+in the conservation and utilization of the water-power within the State
+of Idaho.
+
+We will recommend that the Governor of Idaho call a convention or
+congress to consider questions relating to home Conservation in Idaho,
+and to recommend policies and legislation and a system of administration
+for all forms of public wealth that lie within the borders of the State.
+
+
+REPORT FROM INDIANA
+
+A. E. METZGER
+
+_Indiana Conservation Commission_
+
+The Indiana Conservation Commission was appointed by former Governor
+Frank P. Hawley shortly before he left the gubernatorial chair. The
+Commission as appointed by Governor Thomas R. Marshall, his successor,
+consists of nine members with Mr Henry Riesenberg as chairman. The
+Commission, through its chairman, made an effort to get a bill through
+the Legislature, making an appropriation for the use of the Commission,
+but it failed to pass. Governor Marshall was repeatedly urged to set
+aside a small sum out of the contingent fund so that an investigation
+could be made and published, but this the Governor has repeatedly
+declined to do, and it is thought he is not very favorably disposed
+toward the cause of Conservation. Having no means the Commission could
+do absolutely nothing, and hence may be said to be in a state of
+"innocuous desuetude."
+
+Mr Riesenberg, the chairman, has, however, lectured on the subject
+throughout the State, visiting many points, giving his time freely and
+defraying the expenses out of his own pocket. He has also written
+innumerable articles for the papers of Indiana, and these, together with
+his lectures, have served to keep the subject alive; and Indianians are
+probably as well informed and as fully alive to the subject as people in
+any other State.
+
+
+REPORT FROM IOWA
+
+A. C. MILLER
+
+_Chairman Iowa State Drainage, Waterways and Conservation Commission_
+
+I have been asked to prepare for your consideration and information a
+history of the Conservation movement in Iowa, reviewing briefly the work
+done by the State Drainage, Waterways and Conservation Commission.
+
+The sentiment toward the Conservation of our natural resources has been
+developing gradually for a number of years, keeping pace with the
+development that has been aroused throughout the country. So far as Iowa
+is concerned, it was augmented greatly through the efforts of the
+commercial bodies throughout the State, and especially of those of the
+city of Des Moines, when during the year 1907 they inaugurated a
+movement which had for its object the securing of an appropriation by
+Congress to be used in surveying three of our principal streams in order
+that we might determine whether or not they were subject to improvement
+for navigation, and for the further purpose of ascertaining the value of
+the water-power which might be developed if the rivers were improved for
+navigation.
+
+Great interest was manifested by our people, and we were finally
+successful in securing an appropriation by Congress for a survey of the
+larger of the three rivers, the Des Moines; and the United States
+Government has at this time a corps of some 30 engineers at work. They
+expect to finish their work early in 1911.
+
+The Thirty-third General Assembly of Iowa convened in December, 1908,
+and remained in session until the following spring. The sentiment had
+been aroused to such an extent at this time that there seemed to be a
+general demand for the creation of some kind of a Commission to take
+these matters up and work them out intelligently for the good of our
+people and report with recommendations to the next General Assembly. It
+seemed hard, however, for all to unite on a general plan. Portions of
+our State demanded a Commission for dealing with the question of
+drainage only, leaving it to other Commissions to handle the question of
+water transportations, forestry, and water-power. A compromise was
+finally made, and this Commission was created. It is composed of seven
+members appointed by the Governor: A. C. Miller, _Chairman_, L. W.
+Anderson, E. A. Burgess, A. F. Frudden, T. W. Keerl, Thomas H. McBride,
+and W. H. Stevenson.
+
+_Duties Defined_
+
+_First_--To investigate the present condition of public drainage in Iowa
+and the benefits which can be derived from the best drainage engineering
+practice, the most economical administration of drainage projects, and a
+more economical best method of procedure to bring about the development
+of the water-power of those benefits may be secured.
+
+_Second_--To investigate the present condition of all overflow of
+flood-plain lands of Iowa, showing losses due to floods in the
+destruction of farm crops, the losses due to the destruction of property
+in the cities and towns and built-up districts, the losses due to the
+withdrawal from crop cultivation of such flooded lands, and recommending
+the proper methods of preventing such flood conditions.
+
+_Third_--To investigate and survey at least one representative Iowa
+river to ascertain the available dam sites and the potential water-power
+and report the best method of procedure to bring about the development
+of the water-powers of the State, at the same time retaining the
+ultimate control of the water supply as a property of the State.
+
+_Fourth_--To cooperate with the United States survey provided by act of
+Congress and investigate the possibilities of navigation upon the rivers
+or upon adjoining lands by canal, and to secure the aid of the
+Government experts when practicable in the several matters investigated
+by this Commission.
+
+_Fifth_--To investigate the questions of forests and their preservation
+and culture in the State, especially with reference to the influence of
+forests on the flood conditions of the rivers and the erosion and waste
+of the soils.
+
+_Sixth_--It is the clear intent and purpose of the act providing for the
+Commission that the close interrelation of the several phases of river
+development shall be shown, and the necessity for a broad, comprehensive
+treatment of our rivers shall be studied and reported upon.
+
+_Seventh_--The general question of the relation of the State to the
+preservation of the fertility of the Iowa soils.
+
+_Eighth_--The general question of the wise and conservative development
+and use of the mineral resources of the State, especially with reference
+to the mining of coal.
+
+_Ninth_--The general question of the nature and condition of such lakes
+in Iowa as now belong to the State, and the relation of lakes and
+streams to the preservation of such varieties of fish, birds, and native
+animals as are desirable which now belong to the State.
+
+_Members Serve Without Pay_
+
+We have but $5,000 to carry on the expenses of our two years' work. Out
+of this must be paid our secretary and office expenses, and the cost of
+printing our reports and whatever field work is done by the engineers.
+It would seem that the great State of Iowa, producing annually more than
+$600,000,000 of wealth could well afford to have been more liberal in
+appropriating for this work. The task assigned surely is no small one.
+
+_Work of the Commission_
+
+We have begun to compile our report for the printers, and expect to
+present a report that will be valuable for future reference and we hope
+of much interest to our people.
+
+We have investigated the drainage conditions over the State quite
+extensively, and undertaken to ascertain the number of acres of land not
+available for agriculture through lack of drainage. We will have
+recommendations to make pertaining to this question, but have not yet
+worked out any plan for financing cost at reduced rates. This will be
+considered later, but the Iowa farmer has money and is not so much
+interested in having the interest rates for carrying his debt reduced,
+as he is in getting the first cost reduced.
+
+_Water-Power_
+
+We have investigated and surveyed a number of water-power sites and are
+more and more impressed with the importance of the State looking after
+them and seeing that the control does not slip away. No estimate has yet
+been made as to the value of the undeveloped water-power of the State,
+but I will venture that it will be shown to be several millions of
+dollars. If not looked after, it will be but a short time until it will
+be under the control of individuals or private corporations. Almost
+invariably wherever our engineers have gone, they either find the
+engineer for some crowd of individuals--for some corporation--on the
+job, or find that he has preceded them. I will cite one example in our
+State: On Cedar River, at Moscow, individuals are planning the
+construction of a great dam which will store an immense body of water.
+They have 7,500 acres of land already acquired, adding greatly to the
+power developed by the natural flow of the river itself. When this dam
+is completed, it will turn from the channel into a canal practically the
+entire discharge of the river at low stage, carrying it around the
+country to the city of Muscatine, with an average fall of about ninety
+feet, developing 25,000 horse-power, and finally discharging the water
+into the Mississippi, never returning to the original channel from which
+it was taken. A syndicate plans to finance this proposition on a basis
+of $3,000,000, and if unmolested the probability is that it will be
+carried out successfully. The Commission, however, is powerless, being a
+temporary creation with its duties defined. We, therefore, can only call
+attention in our report and urge upon our Legislature that it take some
+action toward protecting our people in their rights in these matters.
+
+We are working in perfect harmony with the United States Government
+engineers who are on the Des Moines River work at this time. We expect
+much from them in the way of information that we can use in our report.
+Iowa is interested in some 900 miles of navigable streams, either
+touched by her borders or within her territory, and we hope some day to
+again reap the benefit of being able to load and unload freight at docks
+within the corporate limits of our beautiful capital city, as we did for
+many years in its early history; and not only Des Moines but all the
+cities bordering on the great Mississippi or the equally great Missouri.
+
+Iowa occupies a proud position among the States today, rich in fertile
+soil, rich in minerals, coals, and shales, blessed with a happy and
+contented people; if given the benefit of improved waterways like the
+Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Missouri, making them great highways; and
+if at the same time permitted to improve our tributary rivers and the
+water-powers of this great Central West, it will make a mighty empire of
+itself--and Iowa, magnificent State that she is, will be in the center
+of it all.
+
+We are not yet so far advanced with our work that I am able to tell you
+what the Commission will or will not recommend to the next Legislature.
+I am firm in the belief that a permanent Commission should be created,
+with a liberal appropriation for carrying forward the work. Possibly the
+field now covered by our Commission should be divided. It would seem
+that the drainage interests of the State would be of sufficient
+importance to justify the employment of a State engineer, and possibly
+the question of drainage would receive the entire attention of some
+State board. There is a great work that can be done by our Commission in
+the future if the State should see fit to make it permanent and
+appropriate the money to carry forward the work. The beautifying of our
+meandered lakes is something that is attracting the attention of our
+people, and would prove a popular move if started. They are also
+becoming much interested in the treatment and handling of soils, and
+much good would ultimately result to our farmers if this phase of
+Conservation was handled intelligently and carefully. Professor
+Stevenson, of the Iowa State Agricultural College, a member of this
+Commission, is recognized as an expert in this line of Conservation
+work, and I believe that his part of the report when published will be
+instructive and interesting. I can only hope that enough interest will
+be aroused throughout our State to influence the next Legislature to put
+the Commission on a permanent basis, furnishing the means to carry on
+the great work.
+
+
+REPORT FROM LOUISIANA
+
+HENRY E. HARDTNER
+
+_Chairman Louisiana Conservation Commission_
+
+Louisiana was the first State to create a commission for the
+Conservation of Natural Resources by legislative enactment, and enjoys
+the proud distinction of being the first to enact sane and comprehensive
+laws tending to conserve, protect, and perpetuate the natural resources
+of the State. In 1908 the Legislature created a Conservation Commission,
+whose duty it was to report to the Legislature in 1910 as to the
+conditions of the various resources and to recommend necessary laws for
+their use and preservation.
+
+The Commission went to work with a will, holding meetings all over the
+State for the purpose of arousing the people and educating them in the
+great work. The lumbermen were our friends from the beginning; so were
+the owners of timber lands, and operators in the production of oil, gas,
+sulphur, and salt; the farmers dependent on the streams for irrigation
+purposes soon saw the benefit to be derived from a policy that would
+protect and perpetuate our natural resources, and also gave us their
+hearty cooperation. This great work accomplished, the people as a whole
+soon realized that 80 percent of the proceeds of the forests and rivers
+was expended for labor and supplies, and joined heartily in the
+movement; and thus we were prepared to ask the Legislature that certain
+laws be enacted.
+
+Honorable Harry Gamble, our efficient Secretary (and a member of the
+Commission) prepared the various acts, and with such care that they will
+stand the test of any court. It was my pleasure as a member of the
+Legislature from the newly created parish of Lasalle to introduce and
+handle a number of the Conservation measures. Governor Sanders, one of
+the greatest men in the United States, who recently resigned a United
+States senatorship to which he had been unanimously elected because the
+people needed him at the helm of the State Government, gave his hearty
+support to every measure bearing on Conservation. But with all the
+serious obstacles removed, and the advantage of a friendly
+administration, our bills could not be made effective without a
+constitutional amendment; and so we faced a real crisis.
+
+In order to raise a sufficient fund to protect our forests from fires
+and for reforestation purposes, and to prevent the gas and oil fields
+from being recklessly exploited and wasted, it was necessary to levy a
+license-tax on timber and minerals severed from the soil. Our resources
+being in the hands of individuals and corporations, it was just and
+proper that they contribute to the cost of the work for preserving their
+properties, and the people through the State would enact and carry such
+laws into effect as would benefit all. To pass a constitutional
+amendment is not any easy matter; and thus the real work began. The
+Constitution of the State, which provided for a license-tax on nearly
+every profession or business, had left out lumber and minerals, probably
+because it has only been in recent years that there was any development
+along such lines. That part of the amendment referring to natural
+resources was as follows: "Those engaged in severing natural resources,
+as timber or minerals, from the soil or water, whether they thereafter
+convert them by manufacturing or not, may also be rendered liable to a
+license-tax, but in this case the amount to be collected may either be
+graduated or fixed according to the quantity or value of the product at
+the place where it is severed."
+
+When the amendment came up for final passage I spoke in part as follows:
+"The whole Conservation program as recommended by the Conservation
+Commission, of which I had the honor to be chairman, is dependent on
+this amendment of Article 229 of the Constitution. In carrying out the
+idea of Conservation, as in carrying out any other governmental policy,
+it is necessary to raise money. In order to introduce a forestry system
+and to protect your forests from fires, it is necessary to have money to
+employ persons informed along these lines whose special duty it will be
+to look after that kind of business. Now in order to do this, it seems
+no more than fair that the persons who are profiting by the depletion of
+our natural resources should contribute to the payment of these bills;
+but before that can be done, it is necessary to change the Constitution.
+
+"Article 229, as originally made, exempts manufacturers. Notwithstanding
+this fact, in 1902 a general license act was passed in which the
+Legislature, in their wisdom, saw fit to levy a license-tax on the
+manufacture of lumber. When it was attempted to collect this tax, it was
+carried to the Supreme Court which held that a license-tax levied on the
+manufacture of lumber could not be collected for the reason that
+manufacturers were exempt under Article 229, and the sawing of lumber
+was a manufacturing business. The court did not say that the attempt of
+the Legislature to levy a license-tax on the manufacture of lumber was
+inequitable or unjust, but merely that it was unconstitutional according
+to Article 229. This bill, from and including lines 12 to 24, attempts
+to change the Constitution so that the tax may be levied on the severing
+of trees from the soil. It is to be noticed that there is no attempt to
+levy a license-tax on the manufacture of lumber, but it is proposed to
+change the Constitution so that the license-tax may be levied on the
+cutting down of trees in forests.
+
+"As stated before, the Conservation Commission, after having
+investigated this question for two years and examined the laws not only
+of the United States but of foreign countries, has reached the
+conclusion that those persons who are engaged in the exhaustion of the
+natural resources of the State, in justice to the State which permits
+them to do business under this law, in justice to the people, and in
+justice to future generations of the State, should bear a slight
+additional tax in order to restore and protect those resources.
+
+"This, Gentlemen, is the reason why you are asked to change Article 229
+of the Constitution. You are already acquainted with the facts connected
+with the natural resource depletion of this State, and I will not now
+discuss that question. I am simply explaining to you, to the best of my
+ability, the necessity of changing the Constitution as proposed in this
+bill in order that we may have the proper source to raise a revenue in
+order to carry out Conservation policies."
+
+We succeeded in passing the amendment, and then passed the License-tax
+or Revenue Act which provides the following taxes: 3/4 cent per 1,000
+feet log scale on fine and hardwoods severed from the soil; 1 cent per
+100 stave bolts; 3/10 cent for each telegraph and telephone pole; 1 cent
+each for piles; 1/8 cent per cup per year for extracting turpentine from
+growing trees; for production of oil, 2/5 cent per barrel; for natural
+gas, 1/5 cent per 10,000 cubic feet; for mining sulphur, 2 cents per
+ton; for mining salt, 1/5 cent per ton. The license-tax on timber will
+yield about $20,000 annually, and the same amount will accrue from mines
+and mining. The Conservation Commission will use these funds for the
+protection and perpetuation of the State's natural resources.
+
+The Forestry bill, which we consider a good one, was then passed. There
+are no restrictions as to size-limit in cutting timber. Ample provisions
+are made for a complete fire patrol system and methods for preventing
+loss by fires. In Louisiana and all southern States, denuded lands will
+reforest naturally if fires are prevented, and a good crop can be grown
+in from 25 to 40 years. For any one who will engage in the business of
+growing timber, especial inducements are held out. The assessment on the
+land is fixed at $1.00 per acre for 30 or 40 years, and the growing
+timber is not taxed during that period. The Deputy Forester must be a
+man practically and theoretically educated in silviculture, and under
+the State Forester has supervision of forestry work. Consent is also
+given to the United States to acquire by gift or purchase not exceeding
+100,000 acres for a National forest reserve; the State may also acquire
+by gift or purchase lands for forest reserves.
+
+Act 254 provides for the establishment of a department of mining and
+minerals, including oil and gas production, authorizing the prohibition
+of unsafe and wasteful mining and the appointment of a supervisor of
+minerals on recommendation of the Conservation Commission.
+
+Act 265 to "establish a Board of Commissioners for the protection of
+Birds, Game, and Fish," empowers them to employ wardens, officers, and
+assistants, and to provide means to carry the Act into effect; gives
+them complete control and management of all the waters of the State,
+such as the Gulf of Mexico (within the jurisdiction of the State), all
+lakes, bays, sounds, rivers, streams, passes, bayous, creeks, lagoons,
+and ponds by granting management and control of all fish, shell-fish,
+oysters, diamond-back terrapin, turtles, shrimp, crabs, and alligators;
+and provides for oyster, game, and fish reserves by granting them
+control of birds, game, and fur-bearing animals, etc. Birds, game, and
+fish are among the greatest natural resources of the State, yielding an
+enormous food supply and a large revenue.
+
+Act 57 declares that waters found in the bayous, lagoons, lakes, bays,
+and rivers to be the property of the State. The idea is that the State
+will not permit any one to create a monopoly of this resource, which
+belongs to the people.
+
+Act 280 provided for the creation of a Commission for the Conservation
+of Natural Resources.
+
+Act 333 provided for conservation of natural gas and oil by preventing
+waste.
+
+A number of other Conservation measures were enacted into laws, 29 in
+all, but I cannot touch upon them at this time.
+
+We are proud of our success in inaugurating safe and sane policies for
+Conservation; we are proud of our Governor, J. Y. Sanders, who urged the
+passage of the various bills; we are proud of our lumbermen, timber
+owners, gas and oil operators, and miners who recognized the need for
+Conservation and the justness of our bills, and assisted in their
+passage. And above all we are proud of our people as a whole, who are so
+wide-awake on the question of Conservation of natural resources.
+
+
+REPORT FROM MAINE
+
+CYRUS C. BABB
+
+_District Engineer Maine State Water-Storage Commission_
+
+The two principal resources of the State of Maine are its forests and
+its water-powers. Of its total area of 30,000 square miles, 21,000
+square miles, or 70 percent are in forest lands. Over 1500 lakes and
+ponds are located in the State, covering 2200 square miles of water
+surface, and not including the innumerable little ponds of an acre or
+two in area that are located in all directions. There are in the State
+one lake to each 20 square miles of territory, and one square mile of
+lake surface to each 14.3 square miles of territorial area.
+
+Although the State ranks 35 in area, and 30 in population, it ranks
+third in the Union in water-power development, having, according to the
+U. S. Census, a total of over 343,000 horsepower in use. It is surpassed
+only by New York and California in total horsepower.
+
+The State has always conserved its water-power. The Supreme Judicial
+Court of the State has held as follows:
+
+     It is a rule of law peculiar to this State and Massachusetts
+     under the Colonial Ordinance of 1641-7 that all great
+     ponds--that is ponds containing more than 10 acres--are owned
+     by the State.
+
+     While private property cannot be taken for public use without
+     compensation, the waters of great ponds and lakes are not
+     private property.
+
+     Under the ordinance, the State owns the ponds as public
+     property held in trust for public uses. It has not only the jus
+     privatum, the ownership of the soil, but also the jus publicum,
+     and the right to control and regulate the public uses to which
+     the ponds shall be applied.
+
+     The authority of the State to control waters of great ponds
+     and determine the uses to which they may be applied is a
+     governmental power, and the governmental powers of the State
+     are never lost by mere non-use.
+
+_Early Investigation_
+
+Maine has always been in the forefront in the investigation and
+conservation of its resources. Thirty years before the National
+Government authorized its first geological investigations, and over
+forty years before the Federal Geological Survey was established, the
+State of Maine had made such a survey. By Act of the State Legislature,
+March 28, 1836, a geological survey of the State was authorized under
+the direction of Dr Charles T. Jackson, State Geologist. The
+investigation was continued for three years. The results of this
+geological survey, considering the difficulties of transportation at
+that time and the non-existence of accurate maps, are interesting.
+
+A detail survey and report on the natural history and geology of the
+State was made in 1861 and 1862 by Ezekiel Holmes, Naturalist, and C. H.
+Hitchcock, Geologist. Reports were made on the zoology and botany of the
+State, but the most interesting and detailed reports treated of the
+geological resources.
+
+A hydrographic survey of the State was authorized by the Legislature as
+early as 1867. The resulting report of Mr Walter Wells is considered as
+authority even to the present day.
+
+_Present Organizations_
+
+At the present time there are two organizations in this State working
+along geological, topographic, and hydrographic lines. They are known as
+the Maine State Survey Commission, and the Maine State Water-Storage
+Commission. The first organization was authorized by Act of the State
+Legislature March 16, 1899. Its powers were subsequently amended and
+enlarged by an Act approved March 23, 1905. It is authorized to
+cooperate with the U. S. Geological Survey, and its work includes the
+topographic and geological surveys of the State.
+
+The creation of the State Water-Storage Commission was authorized by Act
+of the Legislature April 2, 1909. His Excellency, Governor Fernald, at
+the Conference of Governors in May, 1908, was so impressed with the
+importance of the objects and recommendations there brought forth that,
+at the next meeting of the State Legislature, he advocated and finally
+approved the Act creating said Commission. This Commission is directed
+to collect information relating to the water-powers of the State, the
+flow of rivers and their drainage area, the location, nature, and size
+of the lakes and ponds in the State, and their respective value and
+capacity as storage reservoirs, with a view to conserving and increasing
+the capacity of the water-powers of the State. The Act further provides
+that every person, firm, or corporation before commencing the erection
+of a dam for the purpose of developing any water-power in the State, or
+the creation or improvement of a storage reservoir, shall file with the
+Commission certain prescribed engineering plans.
+
+The first report of the Commission to the Legislature is asked to show,
+in so far as time will allow, a comprehensive and practical plan for the
+creation of such water-storage reservoirs as will tend to develop and
+conserve the water-powers of the State, and to report the necessary
+steps that should be taken by the State to further conserve and increase
+them. The Commission is further requested to ascertain what lands can be
+purchased by the State and the cost thereof, with information as to
+their value as forest reserves or for conserving the water-powers of the
+State, or for reforestation; and further to investigate the question of
+denuded, burnt-over, or barren lands in the State, and their extent and
+value, with a view to their purchase by the State for reforestation.
+
+By an agreement dated December 1, 1909, between the Director of the U.
+S. Geological Survey, the Chairman of the State Survey Commission and
+the Chairman of the State Water-Storage Commission, the work of the
+three organizations in the State is brought under one direction. This
+agreement provides for a cooperative survey of the natural resources of
+the State; that said survey shall include the continuation of
+topographic mapping, a determination of the amount and availability of
+water resources, their present development and the best methods of their
+future utilization; also the further determination of geologic
+resources. The executive officer, under the terms of this agreement, is
+a duly appointed employee of the U. S. Geological Survey, with the title
+of District Engineer.
+
+_State Highway Department_
+
+This department was authorized by legislative Act of 1907. The
+appropriation for the work is based on a tax of 1/3 mill on the State
+valuation. Provision is made in the law whereby the State will aid
+financially, on a sliding scale, the various towns if they raise money
+for highway construction purposes. On the average it may be said that
+for every dollar appropriated by a town, the State will pay an
+additional dollar. The law further provides for a limitation of the
+amount that the towns may raise for this purpose, based on the valuation
+of said town. The sliding scale of appropriation by the State is as
+follows: to towns having a valuation of $200,000 or less, the State will
+pay two dollars for each dollar appropriated by said towns; to each town
+having a valuation of over $200,000 and less than $1,000,000, one dollar
+for each dollar appropriated by said town; to towns having a valuation
+of over $1,000,000 and less than $1,200,000, ninety-two cents; to towns
+having a valuation of over $1,200,000 and not exceeding $1,400,000,
+eighty-five cents; to towns having a valuation of over $1,400,000 and
+not exceeding $1,600,000, eighty cents; to towns having a valuation of
+$1,600,000 and over, seventy-five cents for each dollar appropriated by
+the town; and to unincorporated townships, one dollar for each dollar
+appropriated.
+
+_State Forestry Department_
+
+This department was created by legislative Act of 1891 through the
+appointment of the State Land Agent as Forest Commissioner. This
+Commissioner is directed to institute an inquiry and to report as to the
+extent to which the forests of the State are being destroyed by fires
+and by wasteful cuttings, and the effect of such action on the
+watersheds of the lakes and rivers and on the water-powers of the State.
+His principal duties, however, are the supervision and control of
+measures for the prevention and extinguishment of forest fires in all
+plantations and unorganized townships in the State. An efficient
+fire-fighting organization is now in operation in the State under this
+department, and during recent years valuable tracts of timber have been
+saved that would otherwise have been destroyed.
+
+_Other Organizations_
+
+There are other departments and organizations that are doing very
+valuable work in the preservation of the natural resources of the State
+of Maine. Many pages could be written on their results but at present a
+number of them will only be mentioned by name. Included in this list are
+the Departments of Inland Fisheries and Game, Department of Agriculture,
+Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics, State Board of Health, and
+Department of Harbor and Tidal Waters.
+
+
+REPORT FROM MASSACHUSETTS
+
+FRANK WILLIAM RANE
+
+_State Forester_
+
+HENRY H. SPRAGUE
+
+_Chairman Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board_
+
+While we do not have an authorized Conservation Commission in
+Massachusetts, we nevertheless have many wide-awake and active State
+officials and commissions in charge of work which in the total answers
+the same purpose to the Commonwealth.
+
+Massachusetts is noted for her excellent roads, and she is constantly
+enlarging the mileage. The Fish and Game Commission is perfecting our
+laws and encouraging modern protection and management of both fish and
+game. The propagation and dissemination of each is a large part of their
+work.
+
+General agriculture is undoubtedly improving and various rural
+industries such as apple raising, cranberry growing, asparagus culture,
+and various specialties are receiving renewed attention. The State
+Agricultural College is growing in influence and value to the State.
+
+The increasing population of the State has made it necessary to set
+apart and protect many of the ponds and streams throughout the
+Commonwealth for the purpose of water supply. During the past fifteen
+years the Commonwealth has expended more than $41,000,000 for the
+acquisition and construction of Metropolitan works in order to provide
+the city of Boston and surrounding municipalities with water. One of the
+storage reservoirs constructed for the "Metropolitan District" is the
+largest reservoir in the world built up to the present time for the
+purpose of providing domestic water supply. Large sums have been spent
+not only for the direct protection of the reservoirs from pollution, but
+also in acquiring and improving large marginal areas of woodland, and in
+the planting with trees of many hundreds of acres of cleared lands which
+have been acquired. Cities and towns outside of the Metropolitan
+District have made and are making like provisions for obtaining and
+preserving their water supplies.
+
+Under recent legislation the gradual metering of all water services in
+the Metropolitan District is required, and more vigorous inspection has
+been introduced; so that in the past year or two a material reduction in
+the total consumption has been effected notwithstanding the increasing
+number of water takers.
+
+In the building of the great Wachusett reservoir for the Metropolitan
+Water-works provision has been made for the utilization of the power
+which may be generated by the fall of the water over the dam to the
+level of the aqueduct through which the water is conveyed into the
+Metropolitan District. Machinery for a power plant is about to be
+installed in the power house already erected, by which it is estimated
+that from 2500 to 3000 horsepower may be generated and disposed of, not
+only at a profit to the District, but also to the advantage of the local
+industries.
+
+While the State has permitted the taking, for the benefit of the
+municipalities, of the necessary sources of water supply by the exercise
+of the power of eminent domain, it has adopted the policy of compelling
+the husbanding of the waters by the prevention of unnecessary and
+wasteful consumption, and of utilizing the power generated by water
+works for the benefit alike of the works of the mechanical industries of
+the Commonwealth.
+
+For conserving forest, park, and shade trees, Massachusetts has
+undertaken the great task of suppressing the ravages of the gypsy and
+browntail moths. This work has now extended over a period of years, and
+eminent entomologists concede that nothing equal to this undertaking has
+ever before been attempted. As many as 2700 men at one time have been
+employed by the State in this work. Massachusetts has spent millions of
+dollars in the work, and it is not only a protection to our own people
+but equally prevents the dissemination of these pests to other States.
+Parasites have been collected and introduced from foreign countries, and
+everything possible undertaken to assist in the work. Our improved
+high-power spraying machines with new and improved devices for
+destroying these insects will undoubtedly prove of great value in future
+spraying undertakings throughout the Nation.
+
+The forestry work meets with continued whole-hearted support at the
+hands of our people. The work of reforestation is becoming more popular
+each year, and great good is bound to result therefrom. Our forest fire
+laws are proving to be workable and hence practical. The poorer towns
+are receiving State aid in the purchase of fire-fighting equipment, and
+the wealthier towns are equipping themselves. The past year, as
+heretofore, the Legislature has been inclined to assist the State
+Forester in his various endeavors.
+
+
+REPORT FROM MISSOURI
+
+HERMANN VON SCHRENK
+
+_Chairman Missouri State Forest Commission_
+
+The Forest Commission of the State of Missouri was appointed a year ago
+for the purpose of making recommendations to the Governor concerning a
+future forestry policy for the State.
+
+The Commission, after a thorough study of the conditions prevailing in
+the State, prepared a report to the Governor, the principal feature of
+which was the recommendation that a State Forest Board be established
+with a State Forester. In submitting its report to the Governor, the
+Commission suggested a bill, modeled after what appeared to be the best
+laws already in force in other States. The Commission called particular
+attention to the necessity for establishing fire guards and doing
+educational work among the people of the State. The report and the bill
+were sent to the Legislature by the Governor with a strong
+recommendation that the bill be passed. Owing to the enormous amount of
+other business on hand and the lateness in the year, the Legislature
+did not have time to fully consider the bill, and it will come up again
+at the next session.
+
+The Commission has investigated the forest resources of the State in a
+general way, and feels that there is a large field for the work of
+perpetuating forests, especially in some parts of the State where the
+land is more or less unfit for agricultural purposes. The Commission has
+furthermore planned the organization of a State Conservation
+Association, this to be organized sometime this fall along lines similar
+to those of Associations already existing in many States.
+
+While the Conservation work of this State is as yet in its infancy, the
+general interest awakened is very large, and the Commission anticipates
+large practical results during the coming year.
+
+
+REPORT FROM MONTANA
+
+RUDOLPH VON TOBEL
+
+_Chairman Montana State Conservation Commission_
+
+Probably none of the Governors of States who attended the Conference of
+Governors called by President Roosevelt in May, 1908, returned to their
+constituents more thoroughly imbued with the principles of Conservation,
+or more fully determined to put those principles into practice in this
+State, than Governor Norris, of Montana. Almost immediately, acting on
+the suggestion of Governor Folk at the Conference, he appointed a
+Forestry Commission, consisting of Judge Lew A. Callaway, of Virginia
+City, Ex-Governor Robert B. Smith, of Kalispell, and Ex-Senator Paris
+Gibson, of Great Falls.
+
+It soon became apparent to Governor Norris, in view of the most
+unsatisfactory condition of the land laws of the State, that there was
+work along the lines of Conservation of a broader scope than was
+comprehended in the plans laid down for the Forestry Commission, and he
+appointed what was known as the State Lands Commission, which was
+expected to draft a bill covering all State lands, except timber lands,
+to present to the Legislature. This Commission consisted of Honorable
+David Hilger, of Lewistown, Ex-Governor B. F. White, of Dillon, and
+Honorable Charles S. Hartman, of Bozeman. Subsequently, Mr E. M.
+Brandagee, of Helena, was appointed to fill the vacancy on the Forestry
+Commission caused by the death of Ex-Governor Smith, and Mr Rudolf von
+Tobel, of Lewistown, was appointed on the Land Commission to fill the
+vacancy caused by the resignation of Mr Hartman.
+
+After several meetings had been held by each of these Commissions, it
+was found impracticable to separate the work of the two without
+duplicating much of it and causing some conflict; so the two were
+consolidated, and thereafter worked together in the preparation of a
+bill covering the entire land holdings of the State to present to the
+Legislature. Such a bill was prepared, submitted, and passed by the
+Legislature, and approved by the Governor, March 19, 1909, and is now
+the law of the State.
+
+This Act places all State lands under the control of the State Board of
+Land Commissioners, consisting of the Governor, Secretary of State,
+Attorney General, and Superintendent of Public Instruction. It provides
+for the appointment of a Register of the State Land Office, a State Land
+Agent, a State Forester, and other minor officials. The duties of the
+Register are to attend to the sale of lands, and he is the chief of the
+office. The State Land Agent's duties are, generally, to examine all
+lands in the field; and the State Forester has general charge of the
+timber lands of the State.
+
+The Act further provides that no timber land shall ever be sold, except
+only such as, after being cleared, would be more valuable as
+agricultural land, than it would be for the growing of timber; and that
+only the merchantable timber in the forests of the State shall be sold
+from time to time. It also provides for the reforestation of the lands
+as occasion may require. The State Forester is made the general Fire
+Warden of the State, and the Deputy Forester, all peace officers, and
+the Game Wardens, are made Deputy Fire Wardens, charged with the duty of
+protecting the forests of the State, all being liable to forfeiture of
+office for neglect.
+
+The Act provides for prohibiting the sale of lands known to be coal
+lands, and provides that mines may be opened in the coal lands of the
+State and worked on the royalty basis, the minimum royalty being fixed
+at ten cents per ton; it provides that every patent issued for State
+lands shall reserve to the State the coal, oil, gas, and other minerals
+contained therein, with the right to enter upon the land and extract the
+same: thus reserving to the State all coal and other minerals in State
+lands, whether the same are known at the present time to exist or not.
+It also provides for the location of water-rights by the State for
+irrigation of State lands and provides for the location of mining claims
+on State lands in practically the same manner as it provided for the
+location of such claims under the Federal Statutes.
+
+This, in brief, is an outline of the work accomplished by the
+Commission.
+
+Owing to the facts that the timber lands of the State are not in one
+compact body and that large tracts of timber land lying adjacent to the
+State forests are owned by private parties and corporations, the
+experiences of the past summer in fighting forest fires, has
+demonstrated that all owners are not equally interested in preventing
+the destruction of the timber upon their lands; at any rate that they
+are not equally willing to pay the expense of preserving it. It was
+found that while some few corporations, owning large tracts of timber
+land, furnished their quota of men and money to protect their interests,
+by far the larger number either declined or neglected to furnish either,
+throwing upon the State the burden of protecting the timber of private
+owners in order to protect State property; and it is the intention of
+the Commission to recommend and urge upon the Legislature the passage of
+an Act requiring private owners of timber land to protect their forests,
+and in case of their failure or neglect to do so, authorizing the State
+to do so and to charge the expense thereof to the land.
+
+Inasmuch as the State has a large quantity of timber land within the
+National forests which is unsurveyed, and which if surveyed would be
+school sections, but which the Secretary of the Interior has decided
+belongs to the National Government until surveyed, the State derives no
+benefit whatever from the land and will not derive any until the same
+has been officially surveyed. The Commission proposes to recommend the
+passage of an Act ceding to the Federal Government all of the lands
+within the National Forests which would be school section, upon Congress
+granting to the State a like area of equally good timber land, in one or
+more compact bodies so located that the State can obtain some benefit
+therefrom. This method of handling the matter, I understand, was
+favorably considered by Mr Pinchot while in office, and also by
+President Taft.
+
+The Commission also has in mind the preparation of a bill looking to the
+conservation of the waters of the State. While Montana has many valuable
+water-powers, most of which are still undeveloped, the principal use of
+water in the State is, and always must be, for the irrigation of the
+land; nevertheless, much of the water of the State is available for
+power purposes which could not be made available for irrigation. Under a
+long line of decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States,
+beginning with the case of Martin vs. Waddell (16 Peters, 367) decided
+by Chief Justice Taney in 1842, down to the case of Kansas vs. Colorado
+(206, U. S.), the beds of all navigable streams below high-water mark,
+together with the waters flowing over them, belong absolutely to the
+State, subject only to the right of Congress to regulate commerce, and
+are subject to State control. On the other hand, the land bordering upon
+such streams all belonged to the general Government originally, and in
+many places available for power sites the lands bordering on the streams
+still belong to the General Government. In order to develop these power
+sites the work must be undertaken by both State and Nation, or by their
+joint consent; and it is hoped that some legislation may be secured in
+the State and in Congress regulating this joint control. Much has been
+said and written in regard to the compensation due the Government,
+either State or Nation, from the owners of developed power sites such as
+we have in Montana; but the Montana Commission is more interested in the
+power to regulate rates than in the power to exact compensation for the
+use of the waters, for the reason that all compensation paid to the
+Government must eventually come from the consumer, and in any event
+would be comparatively small, while the regulation of rates to the
+consumer is the only power necessary to complete control and the
+prevention of monopoly--although it is believed that some compensation
+should be exacted. Such legislation would eventually conserve the
+undeveloped water-powers of the State, but other questions arise as to
+those sites which have already been developed.
+
+There are four dams across the Missouri river in Montana, either
+completed or in process of construction, each of which utilizes, or is
+intended to utilize, the entire flow of the river. All of these powers
+were developed under special Acts of Congress passed after Montana
+became a State; but in no case was the consent of the State obtained, or
+even sought. The Commission has not yet decided whether it will attempt
+to bring these developed powers under State control or not, and of
+course has not devised any method of doing so (in case it should be
+deemed advisable to attempt it), although individual members of the
+Commission--including the writer--have expressed themselves as
+decidedly of the opinion that the owners of these developed powers, not
+having obtained any consent from the State for the construction of their
+dams or for the use of the water, may be brought under State control.
+The Montana Commission looks upon this water conservation as its main
+work for the immediate future.
+
+On the whole, the Commission feels that it has already accomplished
+considerable in the way of practical Conservation, but that there is
+much more to be done, some of which it hopes to be able to accomplish at
+the coming session of the Legislature during the first of the coming
+year.
+
+
+REPORT FROM NEW MEXICO
+
+COLONEL W. A. FLEMING JONES
+
+I come from a Territory that for sixty years has been knocking at the
+doors of Congress, seeking admission to the sisterhood of States. The
+treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that our Territory should be
+admitted to Statehood "at the proper time" (which was to be judged by
+the Congress of the United States), and to the enjoyment of all the
+rights of citizens of the United States according to the principles of
+the Constitution. The implied requisites for admission are population,
+taxable wealth, and the desire of Statehood. All of these we have in
+abundance, including a population that exceeds by far that of any of the
+States at the time of their admission, with the single exception of
+Oklahoma, and something that is by no means generally known is the fact
+that our Territory has fewer foreign-born citizens per thousand than any
+State in the Union. However, the present Congress has enacted
+legislation under which we may be admitted, and our Constitutional
+Convention is now in session, framing a fundamental law that I am sure
+will meet with the approval of Congress and the President. But for the
+fact that the best brains of our Commonwealth are engaged in the work of
+framing this Constitution, a much larger representation would have been
+present here.
+
+New Mexico is proud of what she has done in the cause of Conservation.
+The Act of the Thirty-eighth Legislative Assembly creating our
+Conservation Commission is broad in its scope and is a model for those
+States which have not enacted any such legislation.
+
+I hope to attend the Third National Conservation Congress, not from a
+Territory whose people are wards of the Government and not considered
+capable of the management of their own affairs, but as the
+representative of the Great State of New Mexico, the forty-seventh star
+in our flag.
+
+
+REPORT FROM NEW YORK
+
+J. S. WHIPPLE
+
+_Chairman State Forest, Fish and Game Commission_
+
+New York may well be called the Empire State because of its great
+population, its railways, canals, navigable rivers, agricultural
+development, and diversified industries. It also has within its
+boundaries vast forests that give it an important place among the States
+of the Union in regard to woodland products, fish, and game.
+
+No statement regarding the Conservation question in New York would be
+complete without first referring to a few of its assets and their
+stupendous value. Those to which I refer will readily indicate the
+importance of New York as a field for the protection, development, and
+use of natural resources.
+
+The State has an area of 50,203 square miles, or 32,129,920 acres. Of
+this great territory 27 percent is occupied by forests, a proportion
+nearly the same as that of the forest area of Germany. There is standing
+in New York about 41,500,000,000 board feet of timber; the output of our
+forests last year was 1,064,000,000 board feet. There are 2,308
+saw-mills. The value of our forest product in 1907 at the mill was
+$24,000,000. In the manufacture of wood pulp New York leads all other
+States. Last year 245,000,000 board feet of domestic logs were used for
+pulp, and that was only about 20 percent of the total amount used. New
+York also leads in the number of paper-mills. It has approximately 170
+establishments for the manufacture of paper. The paper and wood-pulp
+industry is represented by a capital investment of about $57,000,000.
+
+New York's vast wilderness contains much large game. Over 6,000 deer and
+100 bear are killed each hunting season. The annual commercial value of
+fur and game animals and game birds approximates $750,000. We rank
+third as a fish-producing State; the products of all species, including
+shell-fish, amounts to about $40,000,000 annually, the annual shell-fish
+product being valued at about $12,000,000.
+
+The Adirondack Park contains 3,313,564 acres, the Catskill Park 576,120
+acres, and 1,641,526 acres of land are owned by the State, of which
+one-third is virgin forest or that which is now equally good. Twelve
+large rivers wholly within the State have their source in the
+Adirondacks. The course of each is marked at frequent intervals by falls
+or rapids, and they, with others outside of the Adirondacks (excluding
+the Niagara and Saint Lawrence), have a natural horsepower already
+developed of 630,000; they are capable of furnishing at least 1,500,000
+horsepower. This estimate would indicate that there is still 880,000
+horsepower running into the sea wasted. It has been estimated that New
+York State would derive a revenue of over $15,000,000 annually from its
+fully developed water-power if controlled and sold by the State. Besides
+the Adirondack rivers there are the Delaware, Susquehanna, Chemung,
+Alleghany, Esopus, Genesee, and many other rivers of great value.
+
+New York has over 500 miles of canals, or about 25 percent of the total
+canal mileage of the United States, over which there are transported
+annually some 3,500,000 tons of freight. Mineral production is
+considerable. The mining of iron ore is a well developed industry. One
+of the largest known iron ore deposits in the world is located in the
+Adirondack wilderness. Gas, oil, garnet, graphite and many other mineral
+products are marketed annually to an amount over $5,000,000.
+
+Only three other States yield a greater total value of agricultural
+products. New York ranks first in average value of production per acre.
+One-ninth of the hay and forage of this country are raised in New York,
+and the animal industries are of enormous value. Our hay-producing acres
+are worth $93,000,000. New York has 226,720 farms with an aggregate area
+of 9,522,000 acres, valued at $1,070,000,000, furnishing employment for
+373,650 persons. The annual product of these farms is worth
+$345,000,000. New York has 30 acres of tree nurseries capable of
+producing 12,000,000 trees annually, and will double that acreage during
+the next year. We have taken the lead in the establishment of tree
+nurseries, in planting, and general work of tree propagation.
+
+_Work Accomplished_
+
+These are some of the factors which make Conservation of natural
+resources in New York State very important. The work is being carried on
+by various State Departments rather than by any single commission.
+Governor Charles E. Hughes, and the Departments under him, gave great
+impetus to the work during his term as Governor. Besides $101,000,000
+authorized for canal improvement and $55,000,000 for good roads, over
+$2,000,000 is expended each year by the State in Conservation work as
+represented by the activities of the Forest, Fish, and Game Commission,
+the Agricultural Department, and the State Water Supply Commission.
+
+All sections of the State have been awakened, and active steps are being
+taken in every direction. New York was first to achieve an onward
+movement in the preservation of its natural resources when in 1885 it
+led the way in the establishment of State Forest Preserves, and
+inaugurated the policy of protecting her forests for the health and
+recreation of the people and the protection of water sources. The same
+leadership has been continued in control of water by statute creating
+the State Water Supply Commission in 1905 and vesting it with
+jurisdiction over the water supply of the State.
+
+_Water_
+
+Water is now recognized as one of the most valuable economic resources
+of the earth, and the importance of measures for public control to
+secure full benefit of hydraulic resources to the people is being
+realized very rapidly as the great educational propaganda now carried on
+in New York progresses. The powers of the Water Supply Commission extend
+to the progressive development of water-powers of the State for the
+public use under State ownership and control. It also has the power of
+improving, straightening, and dredging the channel of any water course
+of which the irregular flow is shown to be detrimental to public health
+and safety. Four great reservoir projects have been located and
+surveyed; many other propositions have been tentatively examined, so
+that all water storage possibilities of the State are approximately
+known.
+
+I want to say just a word about the granting of franchises, especially
+in respect to water-power rights in perpetuity. We have become so
+accustomed to the idea of a non-controllable ownership of our natural
+resources that even our agents in the Legislature have seemed at times
+not to fully appreciate the importance of State control and the rights
+of the people at large. No agent of the people has any moral right, nor
+have the people themselves, to bind by water rights in perpetuity future
+generations who will have their own problems to solve and their own
+lives to live. It is therefore of first importance to understand our
+relationship as trustees toward these public resources. Are they ours to
+do with as we please, to use or waste as we see fit, or are they ours to
+use to the best advantage and with the least waste; and is it our duty
+to pass them on unimpaired, improved if possible, for those who are to
+follow us? It is self-evident that this world was not made for us alone.
+After us countless millions will come and go. Could it have been
+intended that during our temporary occupancy we should have such a
+complete control of God's gifts to Man that we, by our own act or
+legislative will, could determine for all time how these blessings might
+be used or enjoyed? We may give them away, we may deprive the people of
+their rights in them; but when on the one hand a road leads to safety
+and on the other a way to danger, there should be no hesitation about
+which we should take. New York has improved on its old policies, which
+can best be illustrated by an extract from an address by Governor
+Hughes:
+
+"Water-power privileges have been granted in the past without any
+provision for a payment to the State in return for what the State gives.
+These grants have frequently been made without proper reservations or
+conditions and without anything constituting a suitable consideration.
+They have amounted simply to donations of public rights for private
+benefit. It does not fetter individual enterprise to insist upon
+protection of the common interest and due payment for what is obtained
+from the public. Last year on the grant of a franchise to a development
+company which was to develop power from Saint Lawrence river it was
+insisted that provision should be made for compensation for the
+privilege upon a sliding scale according to the power developed. And
+thus it was established that hereafter in the State of New York public
+privileges, on terms of justice to the investors and the public alike,
+must be paid for."
+
+_Proposed Legislation_
+
+Last year a measure prepared for the purpose of relieving the tax burden
+on reforested land was presented to the Legislature, but it failed of
+passage. This effort will be renewed until the much desired result is
+obtained. Timber should be treated as a crop and taxed when cut. Timber
+owners and tree planters should be encouraged to conserve and plant by
+making the carrying charges less, that better management may be had and
+more planting done.
+
+The leasing of camp-sites on State land, the building of good roads
+through the Forest Preserve, and the removal of dead and down timber
+were all submitted in the shape of constitutional amendments, but the
+Legislature also failed to sanction these propositions. The public mind
+is not yet ready for complete and comprehensive Conservation in New
+York, to have which requires a change in our Constitution. The need is
+urgent, but, I regret to say, not fully appreciated.
+
+_Agriculture_
+
+The Agricultural Department is performing a splendid work in soil
+Conservation. It assists in the preservation and protection of trees and
+in planting work, as well as the fostering of farm crops and the
+husbandry of meat products. The College of Agriculture is devoted to the
+cultivation of intelligent and scientific methods in all branches of
+crop production. Fertilization of the soil, destruction of injurious
+agents, and new methods of intensive farming, are all taken up in the
+various branches of the Department. In the State College of Agriculture
+there were enrolled last winter nearly 1000 students. We have two
+experiment stations with over fifty scientific men on their staffs. We
+have three lower-grade agricultural schools, and the State is conducting
+farmers' institutes, which have held more than a thousand sessions in
+the past season.
+
+_Forests_
+
+All the foregoing endeavors are closely related to the continued life of
+our forests, and in many respects are dependent on them. A producing
+soil we must always have, or life of all kinds will become extinct.
+Without a fairly regular supply of water a producing soil is
+impossible; producing farm land is impossible. Hence if our water
+sources do not perform their natural functions, we cannot get along very
+well. The absence of forests in a mountainous State like New York will
+prevent a regular flowing water supply, necessary to the demands of good
+soil productivity; therefore, forests very largely hold the key to the
+whole Conservation situation as it bears on the life, health, and
+general welfare of the people of New York State. The question of timber
+supply, water-power, health resorts, and atmospherical conditions, as
+affected by the forests, are matters of secondary consideration in view
+of the indirect but vital influence forests have on our soil production.
+Neither soil nor water can be totally destroyed. They may become
+impaired and unavailable on account of irregularity in rainfall, but to
+some degree they will always perform their natural services for mankind.
+The forests, however, might suffer total obliteration as they have in
+many sections of the Orient and Occident. Wherever this calamity has
+occurred, we find soil and water have reached their minimum of
+usefulness. While we could not exist without water or soil, that does
+not mean that they are the most important subjects for Conservation in
+my State. The question of having to exist without them is entirely
+eliminated; they will always be there in some degree of efficiency or
+inefficiency. They will always be with us in their efficient state if we
+exercise reasonable care in the use of our forests. On the other hand,
+it is within the scope of possibility that our forests might be
+destroyed to all practicable purposes, and history points out that soil
+and water supply would then be of slight utility in a mountainous
+country. The forest is the controlling resource, like the governor of an
+engine without which the engine would destroy itself. Hence forests in
+New York State by their influence upon soil and water flow occupy the
+position of first importance among our natural resources to be
+conserved.
+
+The waste of our forests has been appalling, both by lumbering and
+conflagration. The great "burns" found through all our mountains furnish
+striking evidence of gross carelessness and indifference to the value of
+this great resource. It is time that these acts of colossal folly were
+stopped. Supreme selfishness on the one hand and deadly indifference on
+the other are at the root of it all. Some people do not understand the
+great danger of total forest destruction threatening certain of our
+watersheds. It takes 50 to 100 years to grow a mature tree. The average
+soil may increase about one inch in a century. It requires soil to grow
+trees, and fire, the great enemy of the forest, destroys not only the
+trees but the soil as well. On two or three occasions in the past seven
+years the Adirondack Park has come dangerously near being wiped out by
+fire. Rain alone has saved it. In 1903 and again in 1908 several large
+fires burning at the same time threatened to unite and destroy the
+entire park. No human agency can combat successfully a great forest
+conflagration when once it is under way. In 1908, 177,000 acres of land
+was burned over in New York State; the loss approximated $644,000. In
+1903, 500,500 acres were burned, and the loss was more than $1,000,000.
+Loss of soil and reproduction was not considered in the estimated loss
+and never is.
+
+It is logically evident from the history of forest fires that prevention
+is the right objective in seeking to remedy this great evil. Methods of
+protection after fire starts will fail when certain commonly occurring
+weather conditions prevail. In New York we have devised an effective
+forest fire-fighting organization, based on the principles of
+prevention. The Adirondack and Catskill sections have been divided into
+four districts, three in the Adirondacks and one in the Catskills. A
+superintendent was appointed to take charge of each district. Under him
+there were assigned regular patrolmen and special patrolmen, and to a
+certain extent the superintendent cooperates with supervisors of towns.
+The aggregate number of men engaged in this work this year is 356. In
+addition to this the supervisors in every town in the State of New York
+are responsible personally for damages caused by forest fires in their
+respective towns, if they are negligent in putting them out.
+
+I met the Boards of Supervisors of the various forest preserve counties
+and discussed with them ways and means of fighting fire, explaining the
+law and showing their responsibility. This action was followed by good
+results. The superintendents were in turn assembled at Albany, and
+properly instructed as to their duties and the relationships to be
+carried on between their subordinates and themselves. Twenty observation
+stations were erected on high points, and equipped with strong field
+glasses, range finders, maps, and telephones. The whole territory has
+been covered with telephone lines. These stations have proved an
+incalculable benefit in the apprehension of fires when they are in an
+incipient state. We have also added to the fire-fighting apparatus
+portable fire extinguishers. These are very useful in checking a fire
+at the beginning. Old trails and tote roads are kept clear of
+obstructions to make the woods more accessible. The whole system is
+chiefly valuable in that it is based on the fundamental principles of
+early discovery, immediate alarm, and prompt action. Over 250 fires were
+discovered and extinguished last year so quickly that they attracted no
+public notice, and the damage done was unappreciable.
+
+Another step was taken by the Forest, Fish, and Game Commission when the
+question of oil-burning locomotives running through the Forest Preserve
+was called to the attention of the Public Service Commission. After an
+exhaustive investigation, oil as fuel was substituted for coal by order
+of the Public Service Board. This order required that the railroads
+should install oil-burning engines for use between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
+from April 15 to November 1 each year, all engines to be inspected by
+representatives of the Commission. Coal-burning locomotives still run
+through the Forest Preserve at night which, on account of the heavy dew,
+it is thought in most seasons does not materially increase the fire
+risk; but it is doubtful whether in an extremely dry season coal-burning
+locomotives would not set fires at night as readily as they do during
+the day time. The partially restricted use of coal as fuel was the best
+change obtainable at the time the order was promulgated.
+
+The third factor contributing to reduce fire danger was the provision of
+the new law requiring the lopping of tops of all coniferous trees felled
+in the forest preserve. The value of this provision is realized when it
+is understood that the tops of trees felled a decade ago, when not
+lopped, are still ready to burn, while the debris of lopped trees
+disappears entirely as a fire menace in the same period of time because
+they lie flat on the ground, absorb moisture and rapidly decay.
+
+Scenic assets have a tangible value. Figures have been adduced showing
+that $200,000 was paid in fares to Niagara Falls to the New York Central
+Railroad in three months. The visitors to the Adirondacks leave nearly
+$8,000,000 behind them each season. These figures seem to suggest the
+culture of the esthetic, as that side of the problem is very
+remunerative. There ought to be as much attention paid to the
+acquirement and preservation of places of natural beauty, public
+usefulness, and historic interest, for the full enjoyment and use of all
+the people, as there is for the preservation of natural resources that
+have only a commercial value. To this end the people of the State of New
+York and New Jersey have established an interstate park, and by
+statutory enactment preserved for all time the picturesque and
+historical palisades of the Hudson, and many acres of woodland. To this
+end Mrs Harriman gave 10,000 acres of wild wooded land and $1,000,000 to
+the State last winter, to which the State of New York added by bond
+issue $2,000,000 for the enlargement of the interstate park. By statute
+also about 53 square miles of the historic Highlands of the Hudson south
+of West Point have been saved and set aside for park and forestry
+purposes. Watkins Glen, a beautiful part of Schuyler County near Seneca
+Lake, has been purchased by the State, and its scenic beauty preserved.
+A reservation has been established in the Thousand Islands of Saint
+Lawrence river and one at Niagara Falls preserving these beautiful
+places to the people for all time. Without such places pleasant to the
+eye and conducive to health, a numerous portion of the race thus
+deprived of opportunity for exercise, for recreation, and the quiet
+enjoyment of nature's great gifts of beauty that have existed for the
+full and untrammeled benefit of former generations, we must become a
+nation of human derelicts rather than a nation of healthy-bodied men and
+women. We must have these resources to keep up the physical standard of
+men and women, and more so in the future than in the present because
+conditions of living are changing rapidly in America. In 1800 only 3
+percent of the people dwelt in the cities or large towns; in 1900 more
+than 33 percent lived amid urban conditions.
+
+President Roosevelt never said a more striking thing than when he gave
+as the definition of civilization something to this effect: "The prime
+difference between a civilized and an uncivilized people is that
+civilized man looks beyond his own immediate needs, and even beyond
+those of his lifetime, and provides for generations yet unborn."
+
+In considering the principles of Conservation, development comes first,
+using and improving the natural resources of our country for the benefit
+of the people. The second principle is the prevention of waste.
+Conservation comprehends the substitution as far as possible of
+materials for those that are exhaustible. Conservation reaches out into
+a wide field, and, as often said, it means the "greatest good to the
+greatest number for the longest time." Conservation advocates the use of
+foresight, prudence, thrift, and intelligence in dealing with public
+matters. It means the application of common sense to our public
+affairs. Conservation guarantees progress, efficiency, supremacy,
+perpetuity, the life of the Nation. There is no interest of the public
+to which the principles of Conservation do not apply.
+
+
+SPECIAL REPORT FROM NEW YORK--WATER RESOURCES OF THE STATE
+
+HENRY H. PERSONS
+
+_President State Water Supply Commission_
+
+The people of the State of New York have a deep natural interest in the
+important economic problems now brought so forcibly to the attention of
+the American people through the Conservation movement. That interest is
+properly manifested at this time because, in all probability, no other
+State in the Union is invested with conditions so favorable and
+opportunities so promising for the early accomplishment of material
+progress in the practical conservation of one of its most valuable
+natural resources. In New York State the surface water supply as a
+natural resource is second in value only to the land itself, which
+indeed owes its value largely to the existence of an abundant natural
+water supply. It must be conceded that the value of water for potable
+and domestic purposes cannot be estimated in dollars and cents,
+constituting as it does a necessity of life for which no substitute
+exists. Its money value is represented by whatever it costs to obtain
+the supply, be that much or little.
+
+Aside from any such consideration as this, water is practically the only
+natural resource within the State of New York for the development of
+power, that great and fundamental requisite to the prosperity and
+comfort of a civilized community. The State does not have enough coal of
+its own to operate its existing iron mines, to say nothing of mining the
+whole of the valuable deposit, estimated at 300,000,000 tons. This
+condition is compensated for in a large measure if not altogether by the
+fact that, in addition to the existence of an abundance of water, the
+profiles of the streams and the general topography of a large portion of
+the State are naturally favorable for the establishment of hydraulic
+power developments and the construction of storage reservoirs for the
+regulation of the flow of the streams.
+
+The State has taken a notable step forward by assuming certain
+regulative powers over the disposition of these resources, and by the
+institution of a systematic inventory of them to determine the extent
+not only of the supply but of existing developments and present uses,
+and the possibilities for additional uses and new developments. It has
+also made extensive studies to determine the possibilities for water
+storage, the necessary complement to extensive power developments within
+the State.
+
+_Development of Water Conservation as a State Policy_
+
+A brief statement of the most important historical facts leading up to
+and determining the present status of water conservation within the
+State seems pertinent, and will doubtless be of assistance in furnishing
+a clear prospectus of the controlling conditions and the complicated
+problems involved in the formulation of a comprehensive and practicable
+plan for the regulation of these waters.
+
+In 1902 a special Act of the Legislature created the Water Storage
+Commission. That Commission was directed to make surveys and
+investigations to determine the causes of the overflow of the various
+rivers and water courses of the State, and to determine what, if
+anything, could be done to prevent such overflow. The serious nature and
+wide extent of the floods occurring at more or less frequent intervals
+in a large number of streams throughout the State had long been a source
+of anxiety to the residents of the flooded districts owing to the
+injuries and dangers occasioned by the sudden overflow.
+
+The failure to take proper measures of a corrective nature earlier was
+not due in any sense to a lack of interest, intelligence, or energy on
+the part of the citizens of the State. The interest was usually
+localized, owing to the fact that ordinarily the entire State does not
+suffer from floods at the same time, so that while small communities had
+made some attempts to secure relief there had been no State-wide
+movement or concerted action in that direction. Several obstacles
+usually rendered individual and local remedies comparatively difficult
+and ineffective. The complexity of the hydrographic problems usually
+involved in a study of flood conditions, together with the expense
+incident to a technical investigation to determine the causes and means
+of relief, constitute one of these obstacles. Small municipalities
+cannot usually see their way clear to employ a hydraulic engineer to
+investigate such problems, and conclusions arrived at, or remedies
+applied without such a study are likely to result in an unsatisfactory
+manner. Furthermore, the proper remedies, when ascertained, usually
+require for their execution the acquisition of land and water rights
+which individuals or minor municipalities have no power to condemn.
+Another obstacle arises from the fact that the distribution of the
+burden of expense for any particular improvement can scarcely be made
+equitably, or the payment of the amount enforced by any means other than
+the power of assessment.
+
+These were the conditions which led up to the demand for a State
+investigation and the creation of the State Water Storage Commission.
+That Commission, after about a year's investigation and research with a
+remarkably small appropriation at their disposal, submitted to the
+Legislature an extremely valuable and comprehensive report on the flood
+conditions of the principal streams of the State. The report pointed out
+that storage reservoirs constituted the only practicable solution of the
+problem in the majority of instances, and recommended the construction
+of several such reservoirs at points where conditions were known to be
+favorable. Having submitted its report, the Water Storage Commission
+automatically ceased to exist.
+
+The next step in the development of the water-storage movement was the
+creation of the River Improvement Commission by act of the Legislature
+in 1904. The creation of that Commission was the only practical outcome
+of the valuable report on the causes and remedies of floods in New York
+rivers made by the Water Storage Commission in 1903. The River
+Improvement Commission was invested with power to make preliminary
+investigations, plans, and surveys for the regulation of the course of
+any stream, of which the restricted or unrestricted or irregular flow
+should be shown by petition of local residents to be a menace to the
+public health and safety of the community. If the improvement appeared
+to be of sufficient importance and the Legislature approved, the
+Commission was then authorized to carry out the project and to assess
+the cost of the same according to the benefits received by the various
+individuals and the properties benefited. To provide for carrying on the
+work pending the collection of such assessments, authority was given the
+Commission by the act to issue certificates of indebtedness, or to sell
+bonds, to be retired on the collection of the cost from the
+beneficiaries. That Commission was composed principally of State
+officers as ex-officio members, and while its work was excellent its
+progress was unavoidably slow.
+
+While the River Improvement Commission was still in existence, the State
+Water Supply Commission was created in 1905; the primary object of its
+creation being to insure an equitable apportionment of the sources for
+public water supplies among the various municipalities and civil
+divisions of the State. The Legislature apparently had a very clear
+conception of the need for such a State agency and hence created the
+Water Supply Commission with those specific powers. It soon became
+apparent that this Commission was in better position than the River
+Improvement Commission to study flood conditions, involved as they were
+with the general subject of water supply; so that by Act of the
+Legislature in 1906 the River Improvement Commission was discontinued as
+a separate board, and all its powers and duties were transferred to the
+State Water Supply Commission.
+
+The jurisdiction of the Water Supply Commission was thus considerably
+broadened to include the study of water storage on a large scale. Its
+powers and duties were subsequently extended to an investigation of
+water-powers within the State, and the preparation of a plan for their
+general development. The Commission is therefore engaged in three
+distinct but closely related lines of work: (1) the apportionment of
+municipal water supplies; (2) the improvement of rivers in the interest
+of public health and safety; and (3) the formulation of a plan for the
+general development of the water-power resources of the State.
+
+_Municipal Water Supplies_
+
+In practically working out a comprehensive plan for water conservation,
+the State has rightly begun with the matter of public water supplies.
+Previous to the establishment of the Water Supply Commission, the laws
+of the State permitted any city, village, or other municipal corporation
+to acquire or condemn lands for sources of water supply practically at
+will, and without regard to whether its plans were just and equitable to
+other municipalities and their inhabitants that might be affected
+thereby. Thus, a large city armed with the power of eminent domain might
+take territory from a smaller community regardless of the present or
+prospective needs of the latter for the water sources thus appropriated.
+In fact, the people of the community invaded did not always have the
+foresight to realize that they would sooner or later require those
+sources for themselves. It can readily be seen that such a course might
+involve a serious menace to the future growth of the smaller community.
+Fear of such procedure led to the passage of special prohibitory laws
+for many localities, particularly those adjoining New York City, against
+what was feared might be the ruthless exercise of the great power of the
+larger community. The effect of such legislation, involving as it did so
+much hostility between the different localities of the State, proved
+that the then current practice afforded but a partial, inadequate, and
+unfair method of administering the distribution of sources of water
+supply.
+
+Provision for a pure and adequate supply of water for domestic purposes
+for all its inhabitants is one of the first duties of the sovereign
+State. Through its important effect upon public health alone, the
+general use of pure water is a matter of the gravest importance to every
+man, woman, and child regardless of local divisions of government or
+grouping of citizens. It was with a realization of these principles that
+the Legislature of 1905 wisely determined to delegate the power of
+control over the selection of sources of public water supply to a
+permanent commission which, by the aid of constant and special
+consideration of this subject, should become expert in controlling such
+selection so as to insure equity, among all the inhabitants and civil
+divisions of the State, and the resulting unimpeded prosperity, growth
+and comfort of each and every community. The law, therefore, provides
+that no municipality, or person, or water-works corporation engaged in
+supplying the inhabitants of any municipal corporation with water shall
+have power to acquire lands for any new or additional sources of water
+supply until its plans have been submitted to, and approved by, the
+Water Supply Commission.
+
+In passing upon plans thus submitted to it, the Commission is empowered
+to determine: (1) whether the proposed plans are justified by the public
+necessities of the community; (2) whether the plans are just and
+equitable to other communities, special consideration being given to
+future as well as present needs for water supplies; and (3) whether the
+plans make fair and equitable provision for the determination and
+payment of any and all damages, both direct and indirect, which will
+result from their execution.
+
+Under the operation of this law, which appears to have set a precedent
+among the States of the Union in the general State administration of
+water-supply resources, there has resulted a smoothly adjusted progress
+in the development of public water supplies, without further need of
+appeal to the Legislature for the drastic prohibitory special
+legislation formerly so much sought after.
+
+It is thus well established in the public law of New York State that the
+control of sources of water supply is a State function, and that all
+persons or municipalities must apply to the central State Government and
+receive permission to take what may be determined to be a just share
+from the State's total supply of this indispensable resource. It must,
+therefore, be evident that the State should aim toward an ideal of
+administration of its water resources which would secure fully and
+impartially the rights of each and every one of its inhabitants and all
+of their local groupings to a just and equitable share of the public
+waters. This problem becomes especially complicated under our modern
+conditions of civilization which in promoting the growth of enormous
+cities, call for engineering works of the greatest scope and magnitude
+for the purpose of providing the requisite quantity of pure and
+wholesome water.
+
+One of the most recent and familiar illustrations of this fact is the
+present vast undertaking of New York City, which at a cost of about
+$161,000,000, is going 90 miles to the Catskill Mountains to secure a
+water supply which its engineers estimate will be sufficient for its
+needs for only a comparatively few years. In this great project, as well
+as in the case of many others not so great, there is involved a large
+element of hardship and damage to the locality invaded, in the necessary
+taking of private property for the larger public water supply by
+constructing immense storage reservoirs which permanently occupy the
+lands thus acquired, and furnish no considerable means of support and
+prosperity to the region--as is the case when land is acquired for
+railroad purposes.
+
+This project of New York City constituted the first important case to
+come before the Water Supply Commission for its official approval. After
+extended and careful consideration of all the manifold interests
+involved in this remarkable project, and after a protracted series of
+hearings, the suggestions of the Commission with regard to the
+protection of the rights of all the other municipalities and people
+affected were incorporated into law, and the project received the
+sanction of the Commission. Under the authority thus given New York City
+has entered upon its work of constructing the most pretentious municipal
+water-supply system in the United States.
+
+Subsequent to the New York City petition, many other applications from
+villages and cities, large and small, have been passed upon. By the
+accumulation of special knowledge resulting from comparing the problems
+of different localities, the Commission has been able to bring to the
+aid of the smaller communities of the State a fund of experience and
+counsel which in not a few instances has proved of great benefit and
+assistance. The Commission aims to make its practice simple,
+expeditious, and inexpensive; and the technical points involved in each
+application are carefully passed upon by a competent engineer.
+
+A complete census of all existing water supply plants and systems has
+been made and is revised from time to time, and the progress of each
+applicant whose plans are approved is carefully followed. Construction
+work involving expenditures of $230,000,000 has been passed upon by the
+Commission and undertaken by the municipalities of the State. This has
+entailed the official consideration by the Commission of 85 separate
+applications, in connection with each of which public hearings are
+conducted.
+
+Numerous complaints have been filed with the Commission alleging
+unsatisfactory domestic or fire service both on the part of
+municipalities and water companies. The source of dissatisfaction seems
+to be the lack of foresight on the part of the municipal or water
+company officials, as a result of which they have obtained an inadequate
+supply or insufficient pressure. There are many instances of this
+condition in the State. There are also many consumers who object to
+excessive rates which they claim are imposed upon them by water
+companies. On the other hand, some of the companies themselves have
+attempted to secure legislation to provide that the State shall be the
+arbitrator in the adjustment of water rates. These conditions seem to
+point to the conclusion that in the comparatively near future the State
+will have to assume control over these matters. A certain degree of this
+sort of control is exercised in an indirect way at present in the case
+of applications which are before the Commission for consideration, but
+no jurisdiction lies with the Commission unless the acquisition of lands
+for a new or additional source of supply is involved.
+
+_River Improvement for Health and Safety_
+
+A number of river-improvement petitions presented to the River
+Improvement Commission and still pending at the time that Commission's
+powers were transferred to the Water Supply Commission involved the
+construction of storage reservoirs in the Adirondack forests. The River
+Improvement Commission had considered the constitutional questions
+involved in the utilization of State forest lands for storage reservoir
+purposes, and had reached the conclusion that the force of a clause in
+the Constitution prohibiting the removal of timber was paramount to all
+exercise of the police authority of the State to protect the public
+health and safety; and it had declined further to consider any petitions
+involving the utilization of State forest lands for reservoir purposes.
+The Water Supply Commission on the other hand has held that the statutes
+relating to river improvements in the interest of the public health and
+safety are not sufficiently comprehensive to afford a proper basis on
+which to advance systematic water conservation involving water-powers.
+The existing river improvement law has the health and safety element as
+its basis, whereas the carrying out of a comprehensive conservation
+policy would be of greatest financial value to the existing and new
+power developments, owing to the regulating effect of storage reservoirs
+on the flow of the streams. For this reason the Water Supply Commission
+has not urged the execution of river improvement projects involving
+water storage, under existing statutes, and has recommended to the
+Legislature that the advancement of such projects should await the
+determination of a definite State policy and the formulation of a
+thoroughly comprehensive plan by means of which the storage reservoirs
+shall constitute a source of income to the State, even after the bonds
+are retired. Several projected improvements therefore await the
+enactment of a more suitable statute.
+
+Meantime, however, an important project calling for rather different
+treatment had arisen in the proposed improvement of the Canaseraga
+creek, the most important tributary of Genesee river. This project
+originated with the River Improvement Commission, and the Water Supply
+Commission inherited and actively carried on the consideration of the
+problems involved. For the last 22 miles of its course this creek flows
+through a broad, fertile valley. Owing to the steep declivities of the
+upper water-shed and the resulting suddenness and severity of floods in
+the valley, a large portion of these flat lands were submerged two or
+three times a year, and the channel had gradually become filled with
+silt which raised the prism to such a height that the stream itself and
+its banks were actually higher in places than the adjacent land. In
+times of flood the stream overflowed and the water would stand for
+several days at a time over the low areas, in a large measure destroying
+such crops as were in a growing condition and effectually deterring the
+farmers from cultivating the lands thoroughly and systematically. The
+project of improvement which, after due course of public hearings and
+consideration by the Water Supply Commission received the official
+approval of the Legislature, contemplates the straightening, widening,
+and deepening of the channel of the stream, so as to afford a much more
+capacious flood prism and to shorten the length of the stream through
+the flooded district by about six miles. At the same time lateral
+ditches are proposed to be constructed to carry off the overflowing
+waters from the lower adjacent lands in order to protect them
+permanently from any serious or protracted inundation.
+
+This project did not involve the use of any State forest lands, nor did
+it affect any water-power developments. The fact was readily established
+that the proposed improvement was of great importance to the public
+health and safety of the community, and also of great importance, from a
+financial point of view, to the prosperity and general welfare of the
+community on account of the benefits that would accrue to agriculturists
+from the protection to be afforded by the proposed improvements against
+flood damages. The machinery involved in the working out of the project
+was put in operation and from time to time various obstacles were
+encountered which had to be surmounted by amending the law. Gradually
+the statute has been so moulded that it is now thought to be in
+practical working order, and the proposed Canaseraga creek improvement
+is actually provided for and financed; the bonds having been sold at a
+good premium. The actual work of the construction of the proposed
+improvement will probably be begun in the near future.
+
+The practicability of the method having thus been established the Water
+Supply Commission believes that the State now has a method by which
+floods may be mitigated if there are no water-powers or State forest
+lands involved. On the other hand, the solution of the problem where
+these complications do exist, is much more difficult. In the cases of
+the Genesee, Hudson, and Raquette rivers, petitions for the improvement
+of which have been filed under the public health and safety statute,
+very little real relief can be afforded by straightening or enlarging
+the channels of the streams. Water storage appears to be the only
+practicable solution, and the water-powers which would be improved could
+afford to bear a larger share of the cost of improvement than those who
+would benefit from flood control.
+
+_Water-Power and Water Storage_
+
+The most recent extension of the jurisdiction of the Commission, under
+which it is investigating the water resources of the State, contemplates
+three principal lines of operation. These are: (1) To collect
+information relating to the water-powers of the State; (2) to make plans
+for such specific developments as the Commission deems available; and
+(3) to make such other investigations and studies as will enable it to
+devise a comprehensive and practicable plan for the general development
+of the water-powers of the State for the public use and benefit and the
+increase of the public revenue under State ownership and control. In
+accordance with this statute, the Commission has proceeded to
+investigate in great detail the conditions governing rainfall and
+run-off of streams within the State, and has maintained a number of
+observation and gaging stations in cooperation with the United States
+Weather Bureau and the United States Geological Survey. A detailed
+investigation was also made by competent engineering employees to
+determine the number, capacity, equipment, and other material
+information relating to practically every water-power in the State. A
+general investigation of topographic conditions has also been made and
+practically all promising storage opportunities have been located and
+their approximate possibilities determined. A number of great reservoir
+projects have been surveyed and mapped in great detail. In many
+instances borings have been made to determine the character of
+foundations for dams, and complete detail plans of the dams and other
+structures have been prepared. The financial phases of a number of these
+great projects have been gone into in detail, and an exhaustive study of
+the constitutional and other legal aspects of the problems involved has
+been made by the Commission, and the required comprehensive plan has
+been prepared.
+
+In spite of the great natural advantages which New York State possesses
+in its interior streams with their enormous possibilities for power,
+developed and undeveloped, the fullest utilization of these
+possibilities can never be realized under existing conditions. Every
+river in the State exhibits such irregularity of flow that the
+water-power which may be economically developed from the present minimum
+flow is far below the average which can be attained by means of
+scientific regulation. The difference between maximum and minimum flow
+of most of our streams when stated in figures is startling to the
+layman. The Hudson, which is more or less typical of the streams of the
+State, has a maximum recorded daily discharge of 100 times its least
+daily flow. The Genesee, which is much more flashy, has a maximum daily
+discharge about 400 times the minimum daily flow. On the other hand the
+Oswego, which is naturally more or less regulated by storage in the
+"Finger Lakes," has a maximum discharge about 20 times the minimum. The
+yearly discharge of some of the rivers in a wet year is nearly double
+the yearly flow of a dry year. On a great many streams as much as
+three-fourths of the volume of yearly flow usually runs off in the
+spring and early summer months. These remarkable fluctuations of stream
+flow are principally attributed to the uneven distribution of
+precipitation through the year, which unfavorable conditions are
+undoubtedly aggravated by the varying conditions affecting evaporation,
+which is generally greatest in the months of least precipitation. Over a
+large portion of the State, the greater part of the annual precipitation
+occurs in the winter and spring months. Considerable water is
+temporarily stored in the snow banks, and is usually reduced to the
+equivalent of rain simultaneously with the customary heavy rainfall of
+the early spring months. It is quite common for millions of cubic feet
+of water to run over the falls and dams in the streams during these
+spring freshet periods which, if it could be stored until the drier
+summer and fall months, would be of wonderful utility in not only
+maintaining a higher rate of flow in those dry months, but also doing
+away largely with the damage and inconvenience incident to the sudden
+run-off of flood waters in their natural condition. These conditions
+point to the necessity for large water storage reservoirs as the only
+practical means of accomplishing any considerable degree of regulation.
+
+The investigations of the Water Supply Commission have shown that there
+is an installation of water-wheels having a capacity of about 830,000
+horsepower within New York State, of which amount about 200,000
+horsepower is at Niagara Falls. The average daily output of the plants
+is about 620,000 horsepower, including 145,000 at Niagara Falls. There
+are in all more than 1,800 hydraulic power plants within the State, many
+of which are equipped with steam auxiliary power plants. The total
+capacity of these auxiliary plants is about 124,000 horsepower. The
+investigations have indicated a total development of about 1,500,000
+horsepower to be economically feasible within the State. This would be
+uninterrupted continuous power, exclusive of Niagara river and the
+portion of Saint Lawrence river not under the jurisdiction of New York
+State. A considerable part of this amount is represented by that which
+would be added to the existing developments by the regulation of the
+flow of the streams. A number of individual opportunities exist for
+considerable new developments, some of the more important of which are a
+30,000 horsepower on Genesee river at Portage Falls, a 30,000 horsepower
+on Sacandaga river at Conklingville, a 32,000 horsepower on Raquette
+river at Colton Falls, and many others ranging from 1,000 to 20,000
+horsepower.
+
+The investigations of the Commission have shown that the construction of
+large storage reservoirs for impounding flood waters may be beneficial
+in many ways. Probably not all of the possible advantages would result
+from the construction of any particular reservoir. The extent and
+variety of benefits may be summarized somewhat as follows:
+
+(1) The equalization of stream-flow by storing the water during wet
+seasons and using the same to increase the volume of the stream through
+dry seasons;
+
+(2) A consequent large increase in the power value of the stream, due to
+augmenting the low-water flow, and thus doubling or trebling the
+dependable flow for power purposes;
+
+(3) A consequent decrease in the height of freshets, thereby reducing
+the great pecuniary damages caused by the periodic recurrence of floods;
+
+(4) By increasing the low-water flow of polluted rivers a dilution would
+result which would improve the sanitary conditions on the stream;
+
+(5) Navigation would be benefited by a higher stage of water on the
+lower reaches of the rivers;
+
+(6) The extension of transportation facilities, often to an important
+and desirable extent, by navigation on the proposed reservoirs;
+
+(7) The low lands of the river valleys could be made somewhat more
+tenable, and their agricultural products increased by reducing the
+contingency of floods;
+
+(8) The perpetual submergence of extensive tracts of swamp lands, which
+are now unsightly and a menace to health, would be possible;
+
+(9) The creation of extensive lakes with beautiful shores offering
+desirable locations for permanent homes and great attractions to summer
+visitors seeking recreation and health; and
+
+(10) Inestimable indirect benefit to the State due to the stimulation of
+industrial enterprises, the increase in number and prosperity of the
+people, and the creation of taxable wealth by the progressive
+development of water-powers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Among the more promising opportunities for the inauguration of a State
+policy in storage reservoir construction is that offered by Genesee
+river. The Commission's investigations have shown that it is practicable
+to build a reservoir with a dam near Portage, which would be about
+fifteen miles long and over a mile wide, with a total capacity of about
+18,000,000,000 cubic feet at a cost of about $4,500,000. The regulation
+of the stream by this reservoir would not only practically do away with
+disastrous floods in the Genesee valley, but would add power worth at
+least $200,000 a year to the existing developments at Rochester, and
+develop at least 30,000 horsepower in connection with the dam; the value
+of water-power at Mount Morris would also be greatly enhanced, and the
+nuisance created by the present polluted condition of the river below
+Rochester would be abated. Other opportunities are offered on Sacandaga
+river and other tributaries to the Hudson, on Raquette river, and on
+Black river, where a system of several reservoirs is proposed. Many
+smaller projects are also under consideration. It is estimated that
+$20,000,000 would be sufficient to build the reservoirs whose
+construction is justified under present conditions.
+
+_Problems Involved With Water Storage_
+
+There are in general two acceptable methods of reducing or preventing
+floods. The storage of the water which constitutes the hood wave, or a
+considerable portion thereof, is doubtless preferable if there is a site
+for a reservoir of sufficient capacity and the construction is not too
+expensive. The other method consists of widening, deepening, and
+straightening the channel. In recent years, the public has been rather
+generally educated to believe that storage reservoirs constitute the
+universal and easily applied remedy. There are many rivers in New York
+State on which this method may be used effectively, but on many others
+the absence of basins of sufficient capacity or the excessive cost
+preclude the possibility of complete flood control in this manner.
+
+The problem of absolute flood control is, however, more complex than the
+foregoing simple statement would imply. One complication arises from the
+fact that the damage from floods in New York State is often increased by
+the formation of ice gorges. The formation of these gorges cannot be
+prevented by an ordinary system of storage reservoirs, although the
+temporary holding back of the ice in a reservoir would in a few cases
+undoubtedly be of some assistance. It seems that the most effective
+method of dealing with this condition consists of keeping the ice broken
+up on the reaches of the stream where gorges are most likely to form,
+and thus provide a clear passage for ice brought down by floods. This
+method would probably work hardships or inconvenience to the ice
+harvesters on some of the rivers; but the protection afforded to
+property would doubtless more than offset the disadvantages. The State
+has entered upon a policy of protecting property in this manner along
+the Hudson below Albany.
+
+Another condition by which floods are greatly aggravated is the
+obstruction of the channel by insufficient bridge openings and other
+structures. The cause may be ignorance as to volume of flood run-off, or
+in the struggle to realize a large ultimate income from a small present
+investment the possibility of occasional damages may be carelessly
+disregarded. This encroachment on the channels of streams should be a
+matter for official regulation, and deserves more public attention than
+has yet been given it in this country.
+
+Perhaps the complication which involves the most difficult problems of
+construction and operation of flood-control works is that of combining
+adequate flood protection with equalizing of stream-flow for the
+development of power and other purposes. To materially ameliorate flood
+conditions on large rivers usually requires the provision of an enormous
+amount of storage; logically, the larger the proportion and the greater
+the capacity, up to a certain limit, the better the control. On many
+streams it is doubtless feasible to build systems of reservoirs which
+would entirely do away with destructive floods, provided the reservoirs
+be intelligently operated solely for flood control. It must be frankly
+admitted, however, that the ideal use of storage for flood control is
+not entirely consistent with the best use of the same storage for
+equalizing the flow throughout the year. For the purpose of ideal flood
+control, the reservoirs should be emptied of accumulated flood waters
+immediately after the flood has subsided and as rapidly as possible
+without swelling the stream to dangerous proportions, in order to have
+the storage available for another flood. On the other hand, for the
+purpose of equalizing the flow as completely as possible throughout the
+year, the reservoirs should only be drawn upon when necessary to
+supplement the natural flow in the stream in order to maintain the
+desired average flow. Theoretically, if the extremes both of the rate
+and volume of flow of the stream can be determined (which usually
+requires very long records of discharge), and if sufficient storage be
+provided for the absolute equalizing of the flow, the solution of both
+problems would go absolutely hand in hand, and flood control by storage
+would be synonymous with ideal equalization of stream flow. The most
+practical solution, where conditions will permit, seems to be to
+provide an excess of reservoir capacity so that the portion of the
+reservoir above a certain elevation may be reserved entirely for flood
+control while the portion below that elevation may be used for
+equalizing the flow of the stream. This plan has been proposed by the
+Commission in the case of the projected Portage reservoir on Genesee
+river.
+
+Undoubtedly the greatest economic problem involved in a study of flood
+control is that of the adjustment of the relative rights of the
+residents of the upper and lower sections of the river valley. From the
+point of view of each the matter calls for different modes of treatment.
+The up-river resident believes the solution of the problem will be found
+in facilitating the passage of the flood by his district. This may
+result in discharging a great volume of water on the communities
+down-stream at a time when it would swell the crest of the flood in that
+section. The down-stream resident naturally has to contend with a much
+larger volume of water, so that to restrict it to a channel of moderate
+dimensions is out of the question, and he therefore prefers an
+arrangement whereby the surface waters from the upper stream may be at
+least temporarily stored in the basins containing the lands of his
+up-stream neighbor. The Water Supply Commission has held that the proper
+disposition is the improvement which will work the greatest good to the
+greatest number, provided there is a distinct economic advantage to the
+community in the river valley as a whole.
+
+The matter of municipal water supply is likely to be involved in some of
+the great storage projects, also the water supply for the canals of the
+State. Several streams on which water storage is practicable are at
+present or will be in the future used as sources for canal water supply.
+The plans contemplated by the Commission would result in insuring the
+sufficiency of these supplies, but the uninterrupted maintenance and
+protection of a constant water supply during the navigation season is
+undoubtedly essential to the proper operation of the canal system. In
+these times of extensive municipal water supply systems, it seems
+reasonable to assume that there may be instances in the practical
+working out of a comprehensive plan of water conservation where the
+project of water supply for a municipality or group of municipalities
+may be combined with a water-storage project to good advantage. At any
+rate the careful and prolonged study which has been made of municipal
+and domestic supplies by the Water Supply Commission has given it a full
+appreciation of their prime importance, and the Commission believes that
+in any water-shed the question of municipal water supplies should be
+given first consideration.
+
+It has been believed by many that the State, in the exercise of its
+police power, could construct storage reservoirs which involved the use
+of some of the State's forest lands in spite of the constitutional
+provision that "The lands of the State, now owned or hereafter acquired,
+constituting the Forest Preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever
+kept as wild forest lands," and that "They shall not be leased, sold, or
+exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, or the
+timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed." The River Improvement
+Commission considered the constitutional question thus involved, and
+reached the conclusion that the force of this prohibitory clause in the
+constitution was paramount to all exercise of the police authority of
+the State to protect the public health and safety, and it declined
+further to consider any petitions involving the utilization of State
+forest lands for the construction of storage reservoirs. The Water
+Supply Commission has held practically the same view of this question
+and has accordingly recommended to the Legislature that the Constitution
+of the State be so amended as to permit the flooding of State forest
+lands for the purpose of constructing storage reservoirs which are to be
+forever owned, maintained, and controlled by the State for the public
+use and benefit and for the purpose of providing a public revenue.
+
+The conservation of the water resources of the State on a broad and
+comprehensive basis, which shall give practical consideration to the
+most favorable natural opportunities and produce the most beneficial
+results necessarily involves the flooding of relatively small areas of
+State forest lands in the Adirondacks. The surveys indicate that 55,000
+acres of State land would be required for a complete system of water
+storage, including many reservoirs likely to be built only in the
+distant future, if ever. Even this total of 55,000 acres is only 3.9
+percent of the State's holdings within the boundaries of the Adirondack
+Park; of this amount about four-fifths is low swampy land or is under
+water, and only one-fifth, or eleven thousand acres, is of any
+considerable value for forest purposes. This question of the amendment
+of the Constitution is under consideration by the State Legislature.
+
+The drainage of swamp lands is another problem which tends to complicate
+rather than simplify the water-storage situation. There are within the
+State extensive areas of swamps whose owners would like to have them
+drained and reclaimed for agricultural purposes. Some projects of this
+character have already been carried out, but the questionable
+constitutionality of most drainage laws has interposed to retard any
+very widespread reclamation movement of this character. Here again the
+desires of the up-stream and down-stream residents do not harmonize. The
+down-stream riparian owner, especially if he operates a water-power,
+objects to the drainage of those marsh lands on the ground that they
+constitute a natural storage reservoir which operates to steady the flow
+of the stream. His solution of the problem would be to build dams across
+the outlets from these great swampy tracts and thus increase their
+capacity for storage. In some instances it appears to be entirely
+feasible to do so, while at the same time it seems equally practicable
+to secure the necessary storage by raising the surface of some existing
+lakes and subjecting them to some fluctuation. The question enters as to
+whether it is not better to flood a comparatively small additional area
+around the shores of existing lakes in order to secure the required
+storage and then drain and reclaim swamp lands for agricultural
+purposes.
+
+By special act of the Legislature in 1909 the Water Supply Commission
+was given jurisdiction over certain local improvements to streams which
+contemplated the betterment of both the sanitary and scenic conditions.
+Certain lakes in the State are bordered with large areas of unattractive
+swamp and stump land which the local residents would prefer to have
+permanently submerged. It is claimed that the scope of improvement would
+include not only benefits to the conditions affecting the health of the
+community, but that such improvements would in a number of instances
+result in rendering the region more attractive, especially to summer
+visitors seeking recreation and health. It is also pointed out that in
+some instances the interior navigation on some of the lakes would be
+materially improved, and that the community would materially benefit
+from the improvement in this manner. The State has already carried out
+some improvements of this nature, and it seems quite probable that there
+are possibilities of a number of similar improvements. The problem does
+not appear to enter into the larger storage reservoir projects, and has
+not been given very extended consideration by the Water Supply
+Commission.
+
+New York State and her citizens are justly proud of her scenic falls. Of
+these the American Falls of Niagara are doubtless the most widely known.
+There are, however, other falls on streams within the State which
+constitute local attractions of great interest in their respective
+communities. The Salmon Falls on Salmon river in Oswego County, the
+series of falls in Letchworth Park on the Genesee, and High Falls on the
+Ausable are prominent examples. The Water Supply Commission entertains a
+deep appreciation of the esthetic value of these beautiful masterpieces
+of the hand of nature, and believes intrinsically in their preservation.
+This attitude of the Commission is exemplified in the plans for the
+proposed Portage Falls power development, which provide for a flow
+greatly in excess of the minimum flow over the falls for a period of
+twelve daylight hours in each day. On the other hand, the Commission
+sees also the wonderful amount of quiet comfort which would be afforded
+to modern civilization by electric light and the many other applications
+of power which can be generated by the waters running over some of the
+falls of the State. The major part of the surplus water is wasted in the
+spring months of the year, and does not contribute in any appreciable
+measure to the scenic beauty of the falls; on the other hand, the
+natural flow of the streams frequently is reduced to such a low rate
+that the falls lose something of their attractiveness. It will doubtless
+prove practicable in connection with power developments at some of the
+naturally attractive falls in the State to insure a larger minimum flow
+in the dry weather as well as to conserve the great amount of power at
+present running to waste over the falls in the wet season.
+
+In humid climates irrigation is admittedly more or less of an
+experiment. Its financial feasibility seems to depend on its being
+considered a matter of insurance against the failure of crops in seasons
+of low rainfall. There have been a number of scattered experiments
+carried on at different places in the State, but the plants used,
+especially in the older experiments, were comparatively complicated and
+expensive. The equipment for one particular set of experiments cost
+about $500 per acre. More recent experiments have been conducted in
+sections of the State where the precipitation is light during the
+growing months, and in fact throughout the year, and with a less
+expensive and a more generally practical equipment. In a few instances,
+which have been brought to public attention, the experimenters have been
+able to raise excellent orchards and garden products by means of a
+comparatively inexpensive irrigation plant, whereas other portions of
+the gardens and orchards of the same farms did not produce results
+nearly as satisfactory. One successful experimenter claims that he has
+made 20 percent interest on his investment by the installation of a
+small irrigation plant. The precipitation records show that there are
+portions of New York State where the rainfall during the crop-growing
+months does not amount to more than one-fourth or one-fifth of the water
+which is applied to the same crops where irrigation is conducted on a
+broad scale. The subject has not been entered into in great detail by
+the Water Supply Commission owing to the fact that its statutory
+jurisdiction does not seem to justify such a study, but it appears that
+the possibility of such use of at least a portion of the water supply of
+the State should be borne in mind and its development carefully watched
+in connection with the formulation of a general plan for the
+conservation of the water resources of the State by means of storage
+reservoirs.
+
+_Need for Comprehensive Plan and Definite Policy_
+
+The importance of a fixed policy establishing State leadership and
+control in the matters of water Conservation cannot be overestimated.
+Without it, there is no place for consecutive and correlated action,
+either executive or legislative. In the past the State has had no policy
+of power development, either under public ownership or by encouragement
+and regulation of private or corporate development. Unlike many other
+States, New York has never, under general laws, granted the right of
+eminent domain to individuals or corporations for the purpose of
+flooding lands to create storage ponds and develop water-power.
+Moreover, it must be conceded that in view of the doubtful
+constitutionality of the "mill acts" of other States, and particularly
+in view of the strength of the modern sentiment demanding universal
+sharing in the benefits of natural resources, this State is not likely
+in the future indiscriminately to grant its power of eminent domain for
+this purpose. Unless the State shall define its policy and enter upon
+the work of carrying it out, this feature of its natural resources must
+largely remain in its present undeveloped condition, or be subject to
+the same haphazard and uncontrolled methods of utilization that have
+governed in the past. If we are to permit private interests to build
+storage reservoirs for power purposes on any broad and satisfactory
+plan, it can only be done by amending the Constitution. As adequate
+reservoirs cannot be generally constructed for power purposes by private
+enterprise without constitutional amendment, and possibly not then, the
+better way to accomplish this object is for the State itself to announce
+its policy and undertake its performance in the interest of all classes
+and citizens.
+
+Development by the State ensures the fullest possible utilization of the
+power possibilities of each stream, whereas development by uncontrolled
+private enterprise often involves waste of resources. Private capital,
+seeking the greatest possible immediate return on the investment,
+naturally confines its attention to the most concentrated portion of a
+given fall. The less precipitous portions of the fall above and below,
+involving a large unit outlay in development, are consequently apt to be
+neglected, and in too many cases permanently wasted, because no other
+enterprise is likely to undertake their development afterward, even if
+the rights of the company already on the spot would permit this to be
+done. On the other hand, the State, with its greater power and scope,
+and with financial resources enabling it to defer the return on its
+investment, could undertake the construction of the more extensive works
+necessary to develop the full extent of the fall in the supposed case.
+Without amplifying the point, it should be clear that the State is the
+only authority with sufficient power to ensure the complete development
+of each and every stream so that every foot-pound of energy represented
+by its falling waters may be given up when necessary to the service of
+man.
+
+The prime inclusive reason for the exercise of State authority over the
+control of stream-flow for power development is that under modern social
+and economic conditions this step is necessary to ensure the equal
+participation of all citizens in this form of natural wealth, which is
+peculiarly the heritage of the whole people. Some of the more particular
+supplemental reasons for State control have been mentioned in the
+foregoing. It appears that from all points of view the State is the
+proper authority to undertake and carry out the conservation of its own
+water resources.
+
+The State Water Supply Commission is engaged in studying the subject of
+conserving the falling waters in the rivers and streams of the State. In
+a country where all of the streams both great and small fill their banks
+in the springtime after heavy rains, and then decrease in volume all
+through the dry months so that they become in most instances worthless
+as power streams and of but little value in many other ways, it is clear
+that storage reservoirs of large capacity, the size depending, of
+course, on the water-shed in each case, must be built, if wasted water
+and worthless streams are to be turned into valuable assets. The
+building of storage reservoirs requires available areas to flood,
+favorable sites for dams, and scientific knowledge to supervise the
+construction of such damns and reservoirs. There must be, also, some
+general head to locate and plan such reservoirs on a broad and
+comprehensive scale, so as to store the largest possible amount of water
+in each given case; otherwise opportunities for economic development
+will be lost and money wasted. The plan should be so feasible and
+comprehensive as to include every profitable storage possibility, be it
+either great or small. The plan must permit of doing the work by
+reservoir units, and at such places as make promise of early and
+satisfactory return. With such a plan all who are interested in using to
+the best advantages that which is our own, and saving and conserving for
+the future that which justly belongs to our children, can work in
+harmony. Such a plan will enlist the people of every locality in the
+possibilities of water storage in their own developments, and at the
+same time not interfere in the least with the developments of a similar
+character in other parts of the State.
+
+A plan that will enlist such an interest and make possible such a
+systematic development of a great and wasted natural resource, the Water
+Supply Commission has been trying to devise. It makes no claim to
+perfection, but it does claim that it has devised a workable plan for
+saving and conserving this wasted energy for both public and private use
+and so as to provide a public revenue. The plan includes the building of
+storage reservoirs by the State which shall be owned and controlled by
+it. The scheme is to use the stored water to equalize the flow of each
+stream upon which it is built, and charge the users of the stored water
+for the additional power such stored water gives to mill owners further
+down the stream. This does not contemplate charging a mill owner
+anything for the power he now has, but only for the additional power he
+gets by reason of the equalized flow of the streams due to using the
+stored water when he needs it most.
+
+The Water Supply Commission as a part of its last annual report to the
+Governor and Legislature submitted a bill providing for a systematic
+development of the water-power resources of the State under State
+control. This bill contemplated the return of a net revenue to the State
+and accordingly provided for the assessment of benefits upon individuals
+and properties benefited by reason of the construction and operation of
+storage reservoirs. Many of the provisions of this bill were new in
+principle, and it was to be expected that a measure of such far-reaching
+effect would meet with some opposition. Although the bill provided for
+contracts to be entered into with respect to payments for benefits to be
+conferred, and the power of assessment was only to be resorted to in
+order to forestall an unwilling beneficiary from blocking the progress
+of a great public enterprise, such a provision met with disapproval in
+the Legislature and the bill was not advanced. The Commission believes
+that as the Legislature becomes more familiar with the problems
+involved, it will approve of this policy. For these reasons, the bill
+with amendments in other respects will again be submitted to the
+Legislature in connection with the next annual report.
+
+
+REPORT FROM NORTH DAKOTA
+
+C. B. WALDRON
+
+_State Agricultural College of North Dakota_
+
+While Conservation means the same to all people, namely, the
+perpetuation of those resources and conditions that make a prosperous
+existence possible, yet each Commonwealth must develop its own best
+means for bringing this about.
+
+While it is wise for the Federal and State governments to take what
+steps they may to prevent the wasteful destruction of certain natural
+resources like our minerals and forests, yet if all this be done and
+with the thoroughness that the most ardent of us could demand, still the
+great problem of Conservation taken as a whole would scarcely be
+touched. The utmost that the Government can do directly, though of
+considerable magnitude in itself, is relatively of small importance.
+Even meetings like the present one have a significance and value only as
+they inaugurate and vitalize Conservation movements more important and
+extensive than any Government can ever hope to bring about by direct
+means.
+
+This principle applies to the greatest degree in instances in which
+control of the natural resources has already passed to the individual
+owners. It applies with even added force when such ownership lies in
+agricultural lands. The reason for this lies in the fact that of all
+natural resources the soil is by far the most important, and, further,
+that conservative principles and practices apply with greater directness
+and profit there than in any other field. The conservation of this
+season's plant food and soil moisture means next season's crop. Through
+plant and animal breeding the more prolific and profitable strains are
+conserved, and through battle with plant and soil diseases and with
+pests of all kinds we conserve the purity of our soil and the crops that
+we grow. Such active and constant exercise of Conservation as this may
+be, in a field that directly affects our entire population in the most
+vital and direct manner possible, is a matter for our most earnest
+consideration.
+
+What is being done to train the great body of mankind to whom this
+important task of Conservation is entrusted; and are the present
+measures adequate?
+
+Aside from legislation pertaining to weeds, plant diseases, and insect
+pests, there is little that can be done directly to enforce Conservation
+measures. The friction encountered in enforcing even this body of laws
+indicates the difficulties that arise when public restrictions come into
+conflict with private enterprises. True, it is a crime to waste the
+fertility of the soil on which the very existence of the race depends;
+but until all our traditions change, the only punishment that will be
+visited upon the offender is not from the legally constituted State but
+from nature herself. He whose will is to rob and skin the land may not
+be reached by legal process, but he must be taught that the penalties
+which an outraged nature exacts are as inexorable as the Blind Goddess
+ever pronounced.
+
+While there always will be fools that can learn only in the school of
+experience, yet the great majority are glad to find an easier and
+cheaper way.
+
+Back of the Conservation of the farm must lie the education of the
+farmer; and greater than all the other problems of Conservation is this
+one. We are barely entering upon this field, for the reason that the
+fund of knowledge upon which this education is to be based has been but
+recently acquired. Our knowledge of the soil in its relation to plant
+growth, the control of plant diseases, and the laws of plant
+improvement, have all come to us in recent years. Still, much as there
+is yet to determine, there is already a vast fund of knowledge of untold
+worth; but means are not yet provided for making it useful and
+effective.
+
+Speaking for North Dakota, such natural resources as she possesses,
+aside from her soils, are being well protected and conserved through
+public measures already in force. Her vast fields of lignite coal
+underlain with valuable clays have been withdrawn from homestead entry,
+and hereafter only surface rights in these lands will be granted.
+
+Such forests as the State originally had have long since passed into
+private hands, and the land has mostly been cleared for farming. In
+North Dakota, forestry, like agriculture, will be operated by the
+individual land owners for their direct if not immediate benefit. It may
+be found advisable to plant public forests in parts of the Bad Lands and
+other rough areas, but by far the greater part of tree planting will be
+done upon small areas on the individual farms. The State already
+encourages such planting by a bounty paid in the remission of taxes.
+This is not enough. The land owner in most cases does not know what
+trees will prove the most profitable, nor how they may best be grown.
+Here again the one necessity is education. Object lessons in tree
+planting should be established in each community, and all pupils in the
+public schools should be shown how to grow a grove of trees. Such a
+system would produce immeasurably greater results in the way of timber
+production than would come from the public forests, important as these
+doubtless are.
+
+But agricultural education will conserve something more than the
+fertility of the soil and the vitality and purity of our crops. It means
+also the conservation of a prosperous, virile, self-dependent, and
+intelligent people. It means a prosperous people, for no cost of
+education of the right kind was ever known to impoverish a people, and
+no expenditure rightly made could ever equal the gain. Conservation can
+never be expected of the ignorant. Conservation is but the larger and
+more altruistic expression of the term known as thrift; and ignorance
+and poverty know it not. The means for extending and improving
+agricultural education will develop and expand in the same measure that
+we apply ourselves to the problem.
+
+Agricultural colleges have not rendered the assistance that they should
+in extending agricultural education, because their field has been too
+restricted. Excellent as their instruction may be, it reaches only a
+very small percentage of our people directly. Their scope and activities
+must be enlarged till their influence is felt in every community. They
+should not be shut out from participating in the work of general
+education as they now are in many instances. In a measure we repudiate
+the findings of science, and discount the progress we have made, in not
+providing a wider application for our researches. There is at present no
+adequate means for the dissemination of the vast body of knowledge that
+alone will save to us our own great underlying industry of agriculture.
+
+The world has oftentimes tried the experiment of building a State upon
+other foundations than that of a conservative agriculture and an
+intelligent and prosperous agricultural class, and always with the same
+fatal outcome. The grandeur of cities, the glory and might of great
+armies, the highest culture in the arts, and the noblest of religions
+and philosophies, will not suffice to save the nation that knows not
+nature and defies her laws. That State but hastens the day of its own
+destruction that fails to train its citizens in the right use and
+management of their land holdings. No jealous interest of whatever worth
+in itself should be given consideration at the expense of that which
+maintains all of our interests.
+
+North Dakota has been favored by nature with a soil so productive that,
+properly tilled and conserved, it will feed one-tenth of the present
+population of the entire Nation. It is an asset such as few nations
+ever possessed, and it should be so safeguarded that its great
+contribution to the Nation's existence may steadily increase. The one
+way to do this is to teach the land owners that Conservation in
+agriculture means not only patriotism and good citizenship but
+prosperity as well, that useful education at any price is always cheap
+and ignorance costly, and that no values can be more stable and certain
+than those lying in productive farm lands.
+
+The patriotic sentiment that leads men to sacrifice time and money that
+our natural resources may be conserved is most commendable. Of still
+more service is he who aids in developing a system of education that
+shall teach men to conserve the natural resources entrusted to their own
+hands. The task is a great one, but not beyond the range of possibility;
+and upon its successful accomplishment rests the welfare of the whole
+Nation.
+
+
+REPORT FROM OHIO
+
+WILLIAM R. LAZENBY
+
+_Ohio State University_
+
+_Chairman Executive Committee of the Society for Horticultural Science_
+
+The welfare of our country, as well as that of the States composing it,
+depends on a wise Conservation of its rich and varied natural resources.
+Many of these resources have been so bountiful, and apparently so
+inexhaustible, that we have drawn upon them without a thought of their
+limitations of the dire effects of their exhaustion.
+
+Speaking especially for Ohio, I trust it will be understood that by
+"Conservation" I mean an honest effort to make that State a good one to
+live in for all of us now there, and for all who may come after us.
+
+In addition to the three problems named below, other Conservation
+questions will doubtless require attention; but for these, every
+instinct of justice and humanity insists that we accord them instant and
+earnest consideration.
+
+1--_The Forestry Problem_
+
+I place this first, because the influence of the forests is so
+far-reaching, and we have no clear-cut, well-defined policy in Ohio
+designed to preserve, improve, and extend our forests.
+
+Ohio has an area of 41,000 square miles, and has been tremendously rich
+in hardwood timber. We have cut down this timber most improvidently,
+with no effort to restore the supply, and so far as the State is
+concerned are now on the verge of a timber famine. In 1900, according to
+the Twelfth United States Census, Ohio ranked seventh as a
+lumber-producing State, being exceeded by Michigan, Wisconsin,
+Pennsylvania, New York, Minnesota, and Maine. Since then she has dropped
+to the nineteenth rank, and bids fair in the near future, unless prompt
+and vigorous action is taken, to have so little timber left as not to be
+rated at all. The effects of this wholesale removal of our forests may
+be briefly summarized as follows:
+
+(1) We are compelling those who come after us to pay an almost
+prohibitive price for lumber, and are likely to see an end of some of
+the most important wood-consuming industries of the State. As a source
+of wood supply our forests touch the interests of all. We are a
+universally wood-consuming as well as food-consuming people.
+
+(2) The recent floods in the river-valleys of Ohio, which have caused
+losses of life and of property valued at millions, have followed and
+will continue to follow the denudation of our hills by excessive
+tree-cutting, followed by fire.
+
+(3) In many places the erosion or wash caused by the rapid run-off of
+the rain and melting snow is reducing the deforested hills to barren
+wastes, and is covering much of the fertile soil of the valleys with
+sterile sand and gravel.
+
+The forest problem is the great Conservation problem in Ohio. It affects
+the State, because it concerns every citizen of the State, and it can
+only be solved by action of the State and the Nation.
+
+2--_The Waterway Problem_
+
+In my opinion this question comes next in importance. By waterways I
+mean not only navigable streams and canals, but power sites on
+non-navigable as well as navigable streams. If the forests are properly
+managed, water will be an unfailing source of power. No few men, nor any
+special interest, should control these sources of power, for this means
+a control of all industry that depends on power. Our waterways may not
+be so enormously valuable as those of some other States, and this is all
+the more reason why they should be conserved for the public good.
+
+We shall be needlessly mortgaging the future by allowing any special
+class or interest to use our waterways and water-power sites without
+making some direct payment for these valuable privileges. This is
+important not only for State revenue, but as a recognition of the
+principle that what belongs to the people should not be absolutely
+surrendered to private interests. There is great value in our
+undeveloped water-power. An engineer's inventory of all the waters of
+the State, with their possibilities of power, would cause Ohio to sit up
+and take notice.
+
+If forests and waterways were properly conserved, we would hear less
+from railroads and power companies of the enormous bill of expense from
+floods at one time, and loss from low water at another.
+
+3--_The Mineral Problem_
+
+Ohio is rich in coal, oil, gas, stone, clay, sand, and other mineral
+resources. These should be carefully catalogued, so that the people
+could know more about the material assets of the State.
+
+Mineral lands should be sold only to those who are prepared to develop
+them, and under conditions that will prevent the improvident waste of
+reckless exploitation. For the present it is probable that the actual
+development or working of the mineral properties of the State can best
+be done by private interests acting under some public control, but the
+State has no moral right to permit such valuable privileges to pass from
+its control for nothing in return. It is only by some form of National
+and State Conservation that we can secure an abundant and continuous
+supply of such primal necessities as wood, water-power, and coal.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The control of animal diseases and of insect and fungus pests that are
+spread by interstate transportation, and the preservation of migratory
+birds, which are our best allies in fighting injurious insects, are
+vital subjects for the consideration of a National Conservation
+Congress. The control and destruction of enemies and the protection and
+multiplication of friends by the concentrated and cooperative action of
+the States are subjects that clearly come within the scope and interest
+of National Conservation.
+
+Conservation can only be effective by good laws faithfully executed. By
+proper legislation we can encourage the reforestation of our denuded
+hillsides and stimulate the planting and care of valuable timber trees
+through relieving such land from undue taxation. Timber should be taxed
+like other property, when cut; but to tax land and its timber crop every
+year is manifestly unjust.
+
+In order to rightly conserve our forests we should furnish good
+opportunities for young men to become well trained in forestry. For this
+our schools of forestry must be well equipped. I am pleased to state
+that Ohio has made a splendid beginning in this direction; and there is
+no reason, if properly supported, why this centrally located State
+should not have one of the best forestry schools in the country.
+
+What is needed to properly investigate the conditions and formulate a
+Conservation policy for the State is a good Conservation Commission. In
+addition to this, we need more thought, more study, more science, on the
+part of the public, concerning the natural resources of the State, with
+less blind devotion to the old ways and means of doing things, which if
+ever judicious, have long ceased to be so.
+
+
+REPORT FROM OKLAHOMA
+
+BENJ. MARTIN
+
+I have the honor to represent as a Delegate to this Congress the
+Muskogee Commercial Club of Muskogee, one of the leading organizations
+of Oklahoma, under the influence of which the city of Muskogee grew from
+a town of 4,000 inhabitants in 1900 to its present population of 30,000.
+
+A distinguished citizen of a neighboring State, on a recent visit to our
+city, constituted himself a Grand Jury and indicted each citizen of
+larceny. He charges that Oklahoma for years had been stealing from the
+other States of the Union some of their best brain and brawn, until now
+we have approximately two millions of the choicest sons and daughters of
+the American Republic. To this indictment we now offer ourselves for
+arraignment before this Congress, and plead guilty, and we are ready to
+receive our sentence without a plea that justice be tempered with mercy.
+As to other charges of wrongdoing on the part of some of Oklahoma's
+distinguished sons, which have been much heralded in the press, I most
+emphatically enter a plea of "Not guilty," either in law or morals; and
+time will completely vindicate them.
+
+The resources of Oklahoma are vast, far beyond the conception or
+knowledge of those who have resided within her borders for many years.
+Conservation is of particular importance to us, for yet our resources
+are practically in their virgin state. We heartily join hands with you
+of our sister States in this great movement, in my opinion due to the
+work and wisdom of Gifford Pinchot more than any other American citizen.
+However, his ideas and earnestness were very fully and heartily
+appreciated by that foremost American, Theodore Roosevelt, to whom for
+his great work in inaugurating and fostering Federal Conservation we
+give honor.
+
+Chief among our resources are the vast variety of agricultural products
+which grow in great abundance. In the same field may be seen growing
+enormous yields of corn, cotton, oats, wheat, and alfalfa. No other
+State can excel Oklahoma in the production of these products. We join
+the great corn-belt of Illinois and Iowa in singing the song of
+Whittier--
+
+    Heap high the farmer's wintry hoard,
+      Heap high the golden corn;
+    No richer gift has autumn poured
+      From out her lavish horn.
+
+    Let other lands exulting glean
+      The apple from the pine,
+    The orange from its glossy green,
+      The cluster from the vine.
+
+    We better love the hardy gift
+      Our rugged vales bestow,
+    To cheer us when the storm shall drift
+      Our harvest fields with snow.
+
+The following extract is from the First Biennial Report of the Oklahoma
+State Board of Agriculture:
+
+"Oklahoma is the greatest country on earth, not only because we can grow
+everything here that can be grown anywhere else in the United States,
+but because many crops we can grow here are decidedly more profitable
+than are crops of like character in many other sections of the country."
+
+We join our sister States of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Tennessee,
+Alabama, and others in the endeavor to conserve their vast deposits of
+coal, not solely from patriotic motives, but also because of our
+extensive coal, oil, and gas fields, only a small part of which have yet
+been developed. The supply of timber in the eastern and southeastern
+portions of our State is worthy of the consideration and protection of
+the Conservation movement. Particularly rich is our State in its streams
+of water and its water-power. The principal rivers are the Arkansas, the
+Grand, the Verdegris, the Canadian, the Cimarron, the Washita, and the
+Red, the latter forming the boundary between Oklahoma and Texas. These
+streams within themselves contain great resources, yet in the virgin
+state, awaiting but to be developed and utilized by American genius.
+
+I know of no more appropriate way of closing my statement than in the
+words of Colonel John A. Joyce--
+
+    The rolling hills and mountains,
+      Without their forest dress
+    Will soon bring to the Nation
+      Great hunger and distress;
+    And if we do not listen
+      To the scientific strain,
+    The soil of grand Columbia
+      Will be washed away by rain.
+
+    Brave nature in her glory
+      Works for animated things,
+    And tells the old, old story
+      Of feeding serfs and kings;
+    But man, obtuse and greedy,
+      Will not listen in his pain
+    To the poor, and weak, and needy,
+      Who must live by sun and rain.
+
+    We must save the soil and water,
+      Or a desert there will be
+    For wife, and son, and daughter,
+      In this land of Liberty.
+    And the Congress of the Nation,
+      Must now listen to the brain
+    Of our scientific sages
+      Who would husband soil and rain.
+
+
+REPORT FROM OREGON
+
+E. T. ALLEN
+
+_Assistant Secretary Oregon Conservation Commission_
+
+Oregon's chief Conservation advances of late have been the passage of
+progressive water laws, by the effort of the State Conservation
+Commission, and the progress of private timber owners in the prevention
+of forest fires. The most urgent task now on hand is to secure more
+liberal State aid in forest protection.
+
+Immediately following the Conference of Governors at the White House in
+1908, Governor Chamberlain appointed for Oregon a Conservation
+Commission of 15 members. This semi-official Commission was reduced to 7
+members, and given statutory standing and a small appropriation, by Act
+of Legislature filed February 23, 1909. Its work is "To ascertain and
+make known the natural resources of the State of Oregon, and to
+cooperate with the National Conservation Commission to the end that the
+natural resources of the State may be conserved and put to the highest
+use."
+
+No legislative session has been held since the statutory Commission was
+appointed. In its earlier form, however, it recommended and secured the
+passage, by the same Legislature which gave it official standing, of a
+workable law for the development of Carey act projects, and one for
+complete State control of waters within the State. Both have proved
+excellent, no defects of importance having developed.
+
+The Oregon water law, in particular, is generally regarded as an example
+of good State action. It is based on the police power of the State to
+preserve the public peace and safety of its water users. Under this law,
+rights to the use of water for power development are limited to a period
+of 40 years. A simple and expeditious method is provided for determining
+early water rights, protecting existing rights, and acquiring new
+rights. Prior rights are determined by a Board of Control consisting of
+the State Engineer and the division superintendents of the two water
+divisions into which the State is divided. Established rights are
+protected by a water master in each district of a division, acting under
+the direction of the division superintendent. He may make arrests and
+compel the installment of suitable devices for controlling the use of
+water. New rights are granted by certificate of the Board of Control,
+after proof, under a system based on priority of application and
+beneficial use. Water for irrigation is made appurtenant to the land
+irrigated. Oregon also has a law providing for a State tax, on a
+horsepower basis, upon water-power projects.
+
+Oregon has a non-partisan State Board of Forestry, consisting of
+representatives of the industries and agencies chiefly concerned in
+forest management and protection; also an excellent forest code, so far
+as punitive and regulative provisions are concerned. It lacks
+appropriation or machinery to make this code effective. To secure such
+provision by the next Legislature is the chief present work of the
+Commission. The Commission works under the plan of attacking one point
+at a time, instead of dissipating efforts among all the improvements
+needed. Water and water-power were felt to be the most urgent, forestry
+is considered next, and when the forest laws are made satisfactory,
+other branches of Conservation will receive concentrated effort.
+
+There is also an Oregon Conservation Association which, under the same
+plan, is now chiefly devoted to carrying out the work of the State Board
+of Forestry for which no appropriation exists. Its secretary is
+secretary of the State Board, and the funds of the Association help to
+pay postage and clerical help derived by the State.
+
+Under an alliance called the Oregon Forest Fire Association, affiliated
+in turn with the Western Forestry and Conservation Association embracing
+five States from Montana to California, a large number of the private
+forest owners of Oregon cooperate to secure better protection from
+forest fires. These owners spend from $50,000 a year upward for patrol
+and fire-fighting, their employees having authority from the State as
+fire wardens.
+
+Among the Conservation problems to be taken up next in Oregon are the
+protection of fisheries, good roads, improvement in technical methods in
+irrigation and dry-land farming, topographic surveys, and inventories of
+State resources.
+
+
+REPORT FROM RHODE ISLAND
+
+HENRY A. BARKER
+
+_Chairman Rhode Island Conservation Commission_
+
+This Conservation Congress has been so very generous with its
+invitations that it happens that about every organization in which I am
+interested has been asked to send Delegates. As a result, quite a good
+lot of them have been so kind as to bestow this honor upon me--most of
+them prudently waiting until they found out that I was coming anyhow.
+For that reason my desk in Providence is adorned with a nice little pile
+of beautifully engraved cards, each telling me that this City of Saint
+Paul takes pleasure in extending its hospitality, etc. Along with each
+of them came other cards to warn me that if I wanted hotel
+accommodations I had better speak quick. So I spoke with reasonable
+speed--and eminently satisfactory results; but I am glad I did not have
+to find accommodations for all of the Delegates that I seem to be.
+
+I want to say, also, that if it gives the cordial City of Saint Paul
+pleasure to extend this charming invitation, the pleasure is entirely
+mutual; I am delighted to accept the hospitality.
+
+I am glad that I need not report at this time for anything except the
+State of Rhode Island, and I am sure you will be. You may ask, "What has
+Rhode Island to conserve?" In reply I want to tell you that no State in
+the Union in proportion to its population has so much that needs
+conserving. Some of our friends from the Far West tell us heartbreaking
+things about how the Government has reserved or restricted so much of
+the western area that there isn't enough left to make farms and villages
+on. I think I heard day before yesterday that in the State where I
+attended the First Conservation Congress last year there were Government
+reservations as big as Massachusetts and Rhode Island combined--though I
+should say these wouldn't necessarily look so very big when painted on
+the map of Washington, or seriously hamper the operations of its people.
+And we have this sad condition contrasted with that of the happy East
+where the Government owns no reservations at all; but back in the East
+we do not realize that this is a good fortune. Never having had any land
+in our part of New England owned either by the State or by the Nation,
+we have been somewhat frantically endeavoring to have them secure some
+for the good of our people, even though it now has to be bought.
+Everybody knows how earnestly we wish that the Government might have
+done for us at the beginning of our settlement just what the Government
+is able to do, and is doing, for the West today. There isn't any talk of
+"State rights" in the East. It is a question of the States' necessities.
+The Eastern States are all working to their utmost to get the Government
+to undertake certain enterprises like the Appalachian White Mountain
+reservations, that are of an interstate character; but each State
+expects to cooperate for as much of the remaining work as it can.
+
+You will be glad to know that Little Rhody is trying to do its share. It
+always does its share. It always matches the Government, at least dollar
+for dollar, on any public improvement work. Just now it is spending a
+million dollars on the harbor of Providence to match another million
+that the Government appropriated last year. That is the kind of "State
+rights" the Government gives it. But not much compared with what the
+railroads are putting in.
+
+The formal establishment of a Conservation Commission was almost the
+very last act of the Rhode Island Legislature at its special session,
+only about two weeks ago. We didn't expect, of course, to be quite so
+much up to date, or so early in any new field, as our brethren in
+Montana for example, though we have had a Conservation Commission,
+rather informally appointed by the Governor, ever since that notable
+gathering of the Governors at Washington, and work that such a
+commission would naturally do has been going on, under other names,
+longer than I can remember.
+
+The aim of the new Commission is to secure the maximum of efficiency and
+the minimum of politics. I do not know what the political affiliations
+of its members are, or if they have any, and I do not believe the
+Legislature knows. It is made up of ex officio members, to bring into
+efficient cooperation several well-established departments that have
+long dealt with some phase or other of Conservation. The head of the
+Bureau of Industrial Statistics, which is conducting a State survey of
+natural resources, including soil analysis; the Secretary of the State
+Board of Agriculture; the Director of the Experiment Station of the
+State College; the State Forester; and the Secretary of the Metropolitan
+Park Commission--these departments will now contribute their efforts to
+a common purpose. The State Forestry Department, with advice from the
+National Forest Service, has been getting some very up to date forest
+laws passed, and the Park Commission has made a visible beginning to
+secure for public use and preservation some necessary recreation places
+for the over-crowding population of the Providence "Metropolitan
+District," which has about four-fifths of the population within about
+four-fifths of the area of the Twin Cities combined.
+
+The State College, assisted by the U. S. Bureau of Soils, has been
+showing such farmers as care to take notice that southern New England is
+a very different sort of place agriculturally than it has been the habit
+to suppose, and that at least three ears of corn may be made to grow,
+where, previously, one went to the dogs--or the hogs. The very fact that
+there are more ever-hungry mouths to feed and more manufactures to the
+square inch in southern New England than there are anywhere else makes
+this necessary. We must care for every drop of water that falls on our
+hillsides. The cities need it; the manufacturers need it (and can use it
+first); the great bleacheries--that furnish about all the textiles that
+all of you use and wear--need all they can have; and the people need the
+lakesides and the river banks for recreation as in the past.
+
+At present our markets get most of their "fine Rhode Island turkeys"
+from Vermont and their "new-laid eggs" from beyond the Mississippi. A
+large part of the Rhode Island greenings and Massachusetts Baldwin
+apples come from Oregon and Washington, though not because they refuse
+to grow in their native habitat. But much of the soil must have put back
+into it those elements which previous unscientific generations robbed it
+of. And here is an amusing paradox: With a population growing in density
+faster than in any other State of the Union, and with more markets just
+around the corner, there are, nevertheless, more acres of forest-covered
+lands and more acres of unutilized lands in Rhode Island than there were
+50 years ago--and more in proportion than in almost any other State in
+the Union.
+
+Well, that's where Rhode Island comes in, in this Conservation movement;
+and it has come in none too soon. If it had only had a wise and paternal
+Government to help it administer and develop its natural resources a
+century ago, the cost of living would be less today for every one of its
+inhabitants.
+
+Rhode Island has awakened to vital things, but even if it had only an
+indirect interest in Conservation it would still feel that it owed its
+moral influence to the country as a whole, and that it is not a separate
+selfish little two-cent republic all by its lonesome, but a part of a
+great Nation that prefers to be governed from Washington rather than
+from Wall Street: a Nation whose prosperity and power and glory need the
+cooperation and loyalty of every one of its citizens.
+
+
+REPORT FROM SOUTH CAROLINA
+
+E. J. WATSON
+
+_Commissioner of Agriculture_
+
+_Chairman State Conservation Commission_
+
+South Carolina Commission's full report delayed, so report briefly by
+wire. Active work has been done. A preliminary forest survey has been
+made, and a complete measure for conservation of forests and protection
+against forest fires has been introduced in the General Assembly and
+will be pushed during the coming session. Active steps have been taken
+toward drainage and reclamation of coastal lands, and a measure to
+provide for a complete system under the direction of the State
+Commission is now being prepared for introduction in the Legislature in
+January next. Conservation of human resources has been greatly advanced
+in the past two years, following the enactment of complete factory
+inspection laws. No State is giving more attention to conservation of
+all her resources at this time than is South Carolina. I am heartily in
+sympathy with everything making for Conservation, and greatly regret I
+cannot be with you at the Congress.
+
+
+REPORT FROM SOUTH DAKOTA
+
+DOANE ROBINSON
+
+_Secretary Conservation Commission of South Dakota_
+
+The South Dakota Conservation Commission, consisting of Senator Robert
+J. Gamble (Chairman), Eben W. Martin, Samuel H. Lea, O. C. Dokken, and
+Doane Robinson (Secretary), was appointed by Governor Coe I. Crawford
+in August, 1908, and has been continued by Governor Vessey.
+
+The Commission made a preliminary report on the resources of the State
+in December, 1908. It has been unprovided with funds, but the newspapers
+of the State and of the Northwest have been open to its use, and from
+the beginning the policy was adopted of furnishing a weekly letter,
+educational in its nature, pertaining to the State's resources and their
+Conservation. These articles have received very wide publicity, both
+within and without the State.
+
+The Commission acted as Executive Committee of the South Dakota
+Conservation and Development Congress called by Governor Vessey and held
+at Pierre June 29-July 1, 1910. This was an exceptionally successful
+Congress, in which nearly two thousand citizens participated. Every
+county was represented, and the interest was very marked. The program
+consisted of addresses and papers educational in character, many
+speakers of national reputation participating. An annual Congress is
+contemplated.
+
+
+REPORT FROM TEXAS
+
+WILL L. SARGENT
+
+_Secretary Conservation Association of Texas_
+
+The interests of Conservation in Texas are promoted largely by a
+voluntary organization of citizens, the Conservation Association of
+Texas. The Association held a Congress at Fort Worth in April last, at
+which much enthusiasm was manifested, and plans and policies were
+adopted, largely in the form of resolutions. The substance of these
+resolutions forms the body of this report.
+
+We lay especial stress on the dirt roads of our State. Considering our
+great farming interests and their numerous and increasing yearly output,
+and the impassable condition of roads during certain seasons, we urge
+upon our county and State authorities the immediate betterment of our
+Texas roads by drainage, split-log drag, top-gravel dressing, or other
+up-to-date methods.
+
+As the services of a large number of experts are necessary for the
+intelligent guidance and direction of all plans of Conservation in all
+lines, and as intelligent workers are necessary for the effective
+carrying out of such plans, we urge upon our legislative authorities, as
+the necessary foundation for all Conservation the better financial
+support of our great public school system, the introduction of
+agricultural and industrial studies into these schools, and the better
+equipment and maintenance of our higher educational institutions, and
+that more substantial financial support be accorded to the Agricultural
+and Mechanical College, and the Department of Agriculture, and that
+adequate appropriation be made for those institutions and for farmers'
+institutes to the end that the supply of experts and leaders may be made
+more nearly adequate to the needs of our rapidly growing State.
+
+We know from past experiences that the overflow of our rivers and
+streams have resulted in washing away not only a great deal of rich and
+fertile soil, thereby injuring the lands of our farmers, but that these
+floods have destroyed crops running into millions of dollars in value
+and brought destruction and ruin to hundreds of our most worthy
+citizens. We earnestly recommend that the Legislature shall pass such
+laws as will constitutionally and in practical and adequate way prevent
+or curtail such losses in the future, the details of which can be worked
+out at the proper time and in an appropriate way by the legislative body
+itself.
+
+We deplore the wasteful methods of lumbering practiced in Texas and look
+with dismay at the early day (say fifteen years) when all our best
+timber will be cut and unobtainable except at great cost, when the
+cut-over land, littered with dead branches and decayed treetops, will be
+annually burned over, the humus destroyed and the soil become unfit for
+cultivation and washed into the streams. We also apprehend with dismay
+the direful effects resultant upon our Texas climate when the timber is
+gone and the forest area has become a grassy, burned-over waste. We
+urgently recommend to the people of Texas that they call upon the
+Legislature for the establishment of a forestry department, under charge
+of a trained forester, and under control of the State Agricultural
+Department; and it shall be the duty of said forester also to lecture in
+both the University and the Agricultural and Mechanical College, and
+take charge of all forestry work in the State, and his work shall be in
+connection with the Forest Service of the United States Government, for
+the saving of the forest remnant in our State and the replanting of the
+cut-over area on lands not suitable for agricultural purposes.
+
+We believe in a strict conservation and preservation of the public
+domain of Texas in a way that will best encourage homesteaders, and that
+all laws made for the protection of the State and the people against
+fraudulent entries or the illegal acquisition of the public domain on
+the part of private citizens or corporations should be strictly
+enforced, and we recommend to the next Legislature the passage of a law
+making it a felony against all persons knowingly and fraudulently
+entering into conspiracy to acquire any portion of the public domain in
+violation of the laws of Texas made for the benefit of actual settlers.
+
+Recognizing the importance of fish as a food supply for our people, we
+indorse such laws as have already been enacted for the purifying of our
+rivers and lakes and such further legislation along that line as
+conditions demand, and recommend that hatcheries for the propagation and
+protection of fish be established and maintained by the State.
+
+We indorse the work of the Texas Audubon Society in behalf of the wild
+birds of Texas, and urge that the next Legislature shall enact laws for
+the better protection of the birds, to the end that their extermination
+be prevented, so that they may be allowed to increase in numbers,
+delighting the world with their beauty and song, and also serving the
+economic purpose for which they were created, namely, the protection of
+crops by the extermination of insect enemies.
+
+We congratulate the farmers of Texas for adopting modern methods in
+tilling the soil and in a diversification of crops. The great and
+beneficial results that have come to them through this system have
+clearly demonstrated its practicality.
+
+The Legislature is asked to pass a law covering the features now
+partially covered by several independent laws and providing for a State
+Department of Engineering, which department shall be authorized to make
+surveys, maps, and estimates looking to the reclamation of overflow and
+wet lands anywhere within the State, and further being authorized to
+examine and approve all the plans and estimates of such improvements
+before said improvements can be accomplished, by this means being
+empowered to mutually protect all interests involved, whether these
+interests are at present active or in the future probable.
+
+In order to carry out most economically the Conservation of the wealth
+latent in the soil and water supply of Texas, we recommend the enactment
+of legislation which will provide means and instrumentalities for a soil
+and water survey of the State as a basis for the earliest possible
+development of such wealth for the common good.
+
+We recognize in the reclamation of our arid lands one of the greatest
+factors in the future development of the State, because of the million
+acres of fertile lands that can and should be reclaimed by irrigation.
+Recognizing all vested rights, we encourage the conservation, storage,
+and equitable distribution of natural and flood waters of streams,
+artesian wells, springs, rainfall, and other sources of water supply. We
+favor a uniform system of irrigation laws that will give security for
+the investment of capital in the development of irrigation projects, and
+at the same time fully protect and safeguard the users of water and
+define the rights as well as the obligations of the enterprises
+delivering the water to them. We favor the State never parting with
+title to her water-power and the control of her streams to corporations
+or private individuals; we favor legislation that will secure the aid of
+the State in its conservation and reclamation work, such as the
+construction of reservoirs to be used for power, for irrigation, as well
+as for domestic and other purposes. The State is requested to enact a
+law creating an irrigation commission, acting under the direction of the
+Commissioner of Agriculture, whose duties shall be fully defined by
+statute.
+
+We heartily endorse the purposes and objects of the National
+Conservation Association, and urge all the friends of Conservation in
+Texas to cooperate by becoming members of the National Conservation
+Association.
+
+Recognizing that the prosperity and the happiness of our people depend
+on the utmost protection of their health and the protection of their
+domestic animals from disease, we recommend that the Legislature
+appropriate sufficient funds for the maintenance of the State Board of
+Health and the State Sanitary Board.
+
+Recognizing the great value of the experiment stations and demonstration
+farms located in the various agricultural sections of our State, we
+indorse the work of the stations already established, and recommend that
+a law be passed authorizing the County Commissioners of each county to
+provide, at their discretion, for such stations and demonstration farms,
+in order that the most approved methods of agriculture may be
+exemplified and new facts may be determined.
+
+We believe it would be advisable for the Congress of the United States
+to pass a law repealing all laws authorizing the sale of any of the
+public domain in the United States and its Territories, including the
+Philippine Islands and other possessions, and in the future only sell
+the surface for agriculture and stock raising purposes, and forever
+retain title in the people of the United States of the timber and of all
+minerals and all coal, oil, gases, phosphates, water and water-powers,
+to be worked under control of laws passed by Congress by paying a
+reasonable royalty to the people for the same.
+
+
+REPORT FROM UTAH
+
+O. J. SALISBURY
+
+_Vice-President Utah State Conservation Commission_
+
+The Utah State Conservation Commission was authorized by an Act of the
+State Legislature approved March 22, 1909. The Act prescribed the powers
+and duties of the Commission, and appropriated a certain sum annually to
+be expended for the purposes thereof. Pursuant to the said Act the
+Governor of the State duly appointed a Commission, consisting of seven
+members, who organized and began active operations about the first day
+of October, 1909.
+
+Such legislation was called for and enacted on account of the pressing
+necessity of devising ways and means of preserving and protecting the
+abundant, varied, and valuable natural resources of our young and
+growing State; and it was a source of gratification to this Commission
+to find that such resources had suffered comparatively little waste in
+the years past, and that the duties required of the Commission were to
+ascertain the character and extent of the State's resources, and to work
+along lines of Conservation and protection rather than those of
+restoration.
+
+The Commission prepared and issued a preliminary report on the resources
+of the State late in the year 1909, and 2000 copies were distributed to
+our State legislators, to Government departments, Conservation
+associations, public libraries, etc. Owing to the short time in which
+the Commission had to collect data and prepare the report, it was
+somewhat limited in its scope and general in its character.
+
+The Commission has now in course of preparation a complete map of the
+State, showing the National Forests, ownership of public lands (whether
+Federal or State), character of the soils with analyses thereof, with
+other information to enable it to make an intelligent and accurate
+report to the Governor and State Legislature at the coming session in
+1911, suggesting and recommending such legislation as will best conserve
+and protect the State's natural resources to the benefit and advantage
+of our citizens of present and future generations.
+
+The amount of the annual appropriation for the purposes of the
+Commission is $3,000.00. There was expended during the year 1909 the sum
+of $211.55, and during the year 1910 the sum of $2,767.62.
+
+It is the intention and purpose of the Commission to continue along the
+lines upon which it has started, to ascertain the extent and character
+and point out the location of the agricultural, mineral, power, and
+other natural resources of the State, and to place before the public
+such information concerning these resources as will enable the
+home-seeker, the investor, the manufacturer and all those seeking
+industrial pursuits adapted to our State, to secure for themselves some
+of the advantages which the development of such resources offers.
+
+
+SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT FROM UTAH
+
+E. T. MERRITT
+
+_Delegate from Utah_
+
+The State of Utah has not yet undertaken any great work in the matter of
+Conservation of public resources, although a Commission has been created
+with the Governor as chairman. An office is maintained and the gentlemen
+of the Commission are giving earnest thought and study to the issues
+involved, feeling that they want to be sure they are right before they
+go ahead. However, the General Government has been very liberal in the
+attention it has given us, and we find our phosphate lands, the public
+coal lands, lands adjoining streams suitable for power sites, and
+practically every acre of our forest lands have been withdrawn from
+entry. And yet we feel that we have no quarrel with the Government in
+these matters. We believe that just as soon as equitable and reasonable
+methods have been devised for the sale or lease of the first three named
+they will be placed in such a position to be of practical use and
+benefit to the people, as they should be; in other words, we do not
+believe they will be bottled up or pickled or preserved for future
+generations, but under wise and equitable laws and administration will
+be converted to the use of the people.
+
+The forest reserves are properly cared for in Utah, and their use and
+administration is equitable and fair. Mr Pinchot told us when he began
+his administration that while no doubt mistakes would be made and some
+inconvenience suffered by the people, yet he wanted it understood that
+the forests belonged to the people, and that the purpose of the
+Government was not to exploit them for revenue or for glory or for the
+fun there was in it, but rather to take care of them for the use and
+benefit of the people, especially for the people who had conquered and
+developed the adjoining country; to conserve the water supply, and to
+perpetuate and care for all the resources and homes of the people. He
+further told us that whenever we could suggest betterment of the Service
+in the interest of the people, such suggestions would be gladly
+welcomed. Such promises have been faithfully carried out, and we believe
+the Government has been a kind parent to the State of Utah. We see no
+reason for a quarrel as to the rights of the State and those of the
+Government. We think there is plenty for both to do, and at least to us
+there is profit and benefit for us to go hand in hand in cooperation
+with the Federal Government in the development of our State.
+
+We believe that only by the General Government can the problem of
+water-power sites, particularly on large or interstate streams, be
+handled. The history of Utah shows that some years ago the adjudication
+of water-rights was in the courts of the several Judicial Districts of
+the State, and that in the course of their procedure it was a common
+thing for all the water of the stream to be decreed to the several
+owners residing within that Judicial District, absolutely without regard
+to the rights of other citizens using water from the same stream,
+although residing in some other Judicial District. We changed our laws,
+placing the acquirement and adjudication of water-rights in the State
+Engineer. We found this a big improvement, but we still find ourselves
+in the matter of interstate streams entirely at the mercy of the fellow
+above us. Of course the fellow below can take care of himself. The
+lesson is obvious. We maintain that only the General Government can
+properly and rightly hand out justice and equity in the matter of power
+sites and water-rights as affecting interstate streams.
+
+We have found cooperation with the General Government immensely valuable
+to us in the matter of experiments in the drainage of water-logged or
+alkali lands, measurement and recording of the flow of our streams, the
+eradication of disease among our livestock, and in fact in every
+department where cooperation has been tried.
+
+We are suffering today in Utah, as in many other parts of the country,
+from mistakes and carelessness of the general Government in the handling
+of the public resources, but this is also true of ourselves in our own
+administration; and we are very glad to see an awakening on this
+subject. The people of Utah, in common with all of the people of the
+whole country, are deeply interested in the subject of Conservation in
+all its phases, and believe that the great mistakes of the past, both
+National and in our own State, will not be repeated.
+
+
+REPORT FROM VERMONT
+
+GEORGE AITKIN
+
+_Vermont Conservation Commission_
+
+The Commission on the Conservation of the Natural Resources of Vermont
+has no statutory existence, but was originally appointed by Governor
+Fletcher D. Proctor in support of the general Conservation movement
+instituted by the Conference of Governors at Washington in May of 1908.
+The Commission has been continued by parole of Governor George H.
+Prouty.
+
+It has recognized and been in absolute sympathy with the principles
+fundamental to Conservation work, namely, that conservative use and,
+where practicable, the intelligent maintenance and restoration of
+natural resources are indispensable to the continued prosperity of State
+and Nation and of inter-nations; that State boundaries or National
+boundaries do not confine and limit natural resources; that it has
+become the sacred duty of State and Nation to take measures for the
+preservation on the people's account of all the means of their life,
+welfare, and comfort, including soils, water, minerals, and forests;
+these to be safeguarded as public utilities to be used and treated in
+the interests of future as well as of existing generations, and to be
+stripped of every vestige of monopoly and trust.
+
+Apart from the conservation of these necessary and material things, we
+have been interested in the advancement also of what is nearly as, if
+not more, important, the conservation of health, the retention and
+improvement of our self-governing opportunities, the equalizing and
+qualification of educational opportunity, and of every phase of civic,
+moral and social advance. Vermont is mainly interested directly in the
+conservation and right use of public health, of its soil, of its forests
+and woodlots, of its water supplies, of its quarries of granite, marble,
+and slate, of its game and fish, and in its steadfast attention to
+educational opportunity and the administration of justice. For the
+greater part it possesses a very widespread individual ownership and
+control in all its natural resources and their development and use. It
+has for decades prior to the so-called Conservation movement supervised
+and fostered all these economies through legislation; so that it may be
+said that the State has gradually but definitely applied the principles
+of Conservation to its affairs and its resources for many years prior to
+the existing discussion of the subject. This is true in connection with
+quarrying, agriculture, forestry, and water supplies, though it should
+be added that Conservation subjects have been much more prominently
+considered in recent years with increasing advantage to the farmers of
+the State and also with an increase in manufactures.
+
+Our method of legislation and the machinery of our self-government
+represent an evolution and are the result of much and intimate public
+discussion, and they are working out good economic results. Perhaps this
+may best be indicated by a reference to the legislation passed in 1908.
+There was enacted a law which abolished the Board of Agriculture, and
+substituted in its place a Board of Agriculture and Forestry, consisting
+of the Governor, the director of the State Agricultural Experiment
+Station, and two citizens known to be interested in the advancement of
+agriculture and forestry. The disbursement of the appropriation under
+this Act was left discretionary between agriculture and forestry, and
+the results in the brief elapsing period since its passage have been
+very gratifying. In addition to this there were acts sustaining the work
+of the State Agricultural College, providing for increased support of
+agricultural fairs, for the acquisition of forest reserves, for the
+appointment and maintenance of a State Forester, for the more definite
+supervision of all agricultural interests, and for a more direct
+inspection of cattle and of dairies. The appropriations of 1908 included
+increased provision for the conservation of agricultural, forest, and
+dairy interests, for the care of game, for education and public health,
+and for the investigation of the water resources of the State. Special
+attention was given to amendments of the law which aim to safeguard
+forests from fire and game from extinction, and to prevent the loss or
+misuse of water for domestic, power, and transportation purposes. This,
+however, was not an accident of recent agitation, but more particularly
+an evolution; and it operates, so far as Vermont is concerned, in a true
+appreciation, use, and care-taking of its local resources.
+
+There has been special consideration given of late to public health, and
+laws were enacted governing the inspection of animals, supervising
+control of contagious and infectious diseases, suppressing adulterations
+of foods and drugs, advancing the working plans of the State laboratory
+of hygiene, more closely regulating the practice of medicine and
+surgery, forcing more specific duties on health officers everywhere,
+defining the practice of optometry--in short, all the means by which a
+State government may advance the well-being of its citizens through the
+application of what has been made known in science touching all these
+questions.
+
+The State also advanced the well-being of its people by conserving their
+natural resources, material or acquired, through the creation of a
+Public Utility Commission, whose work has since demonstrated the need
+and value of its existence by its influence in behalf of the public of
+their use and service. We hold here that one of the most effective
+Conservation measures is that which gives the people the best service at
+the lowest cost of all the applications of natural resources, as
+interpreted by science, which nature bestows in the way of power, water,
+light, and drainage. We wish to state positively, however, that these
+problems cannot be treated as accidents of public experience, but as
+subjects of legislation and public treatment which define themselves in
+their true relationship to property rights and individual rights and to
+public necessity by the process of evolution.
+
+This is illustrated by the way in which forestry conservation was
+instituted in Vermont many years back, when a few men of foresight took
+an interest in the subject, formed a society, and kept bringing
+attention to the subject until it was made a part of the law and in
+equal standing with agriculture in this State, and is now apparently an
+assured State subject of continued standing as much as other subjects
+of legislation, like education, public health, the preservation of game,
+and the administration of justice.
+
+The expansion of the granite and marble industries of Vermont has been
+so great as to give it rank among the foremost producing States of the
+Union, and in the art and quality of its material and work it is
+foremost in all respects.
+
+In self-government, as affects all the things which make living
+conditions naturally satisfactory and profitable, there has been marked
+increase in the conservation of all the living opportunities afforded by
+the State; but it is again emphasized that this has been in due course
+of growth and not the incidental recognition of a possibility. Our
+people have been conservative, rational, and human in the development of
+their chance, their natural resources, and their duty in regard to
+these, and have not required either through neglect or by any lapse of
+their rights the service of the National Government in this regard,
+least of all through any material modification of the relationship
+defining State rights and State duties. There is a greater disposition
+here to accept direction as concerns the husbandry of our resources from
+science than from politics, and to insist that the care and supervision
+of such matters will best conserve our interests and our happiness if
+left to the judgment, regulation, and control of our own folks.
+
+There has been in the past few years a marked increase of income per
+acre from cultivated land in Vermont, and a relatively greater income
+per acre than in the leading agricultural States, due, no doubt, to more
+intense farming, and there has also been an increase in the output of
+dairy products, while quarrying and stone-cutting manufactures have
+multiplied and taken a strong grasp on market opportunity. At the same
+time the great glory and strong defense of our State, its forests and
+its woodlots, have been conserved, and planting and scientific cutting
+have more and more become the rule. The reports from the stone
+industries indicate a growing demand for the manufactures of the State
+in granite, marble, and slate. The reports from agriculture indicate an
+increasing tillage and a larger financial return, an advance in the
+price of land, and vastly improved living conditions of the farm. The
+report from all the State commissions charged with the supervision of
+public health and the real life interests of the people supply
+increasing evidence of improved water supplies, of municipal lighting
+and power ownership, of increased transportation facilities, of
+reduction on accident hazards, and of steady advances in the art of and
+provision for public instruction.
+
+In forestry, which is one of the greatest natural resources of Vermont
+apart from its vast contribution to the beauty of the State as a great
+natural park and game preserve, there has been the most marked advance.
+The office of State Forester was established in April of 1909, since
+which date its occupant, Mr A. F. Hawes, has made sixty-three addresses
+upon the subject in various parts of the State before numerous
+associations, agricultural societies, and forestry conventions. The
+State nursery under his direction has become one of the largest in the
+United States, today containing over 3,000,000 trees, and there have
+been sold within the past year--a remarkable exhibit for a State of our
+size--750,000 trees, distributed through every county in our State.
+Private timber holdings have been examined, detailed advices for
+handling many forests have been furnished, and in many instances trees
+have been marked for cutting by State advice on private lands. Besides
+this, there have been established two State forests of 800 acres which
+will be treated as subsidiary reservation nurseries to the one
+established at Burlington.
+
+Attention has been and is being given to all details relating to the
+promotion of agriculture, forestry, dairying, minerals, and water
+powers, so that it is possible to advise you that Vermont is wholly
+alive to all natural, moral, educational, industrial, civic, and
+political propositions as they stand related to the Conservation of
+everything that will best promote the well-being and happiness of its
+people.
+
+
+REPORT FROM WASHINGTON
+
+E. G. GRIGGS
+
+_Chairman Washington Delegation_
+
+On behalf of the Washington delegation, of which I have the honor of
+being Chairman, I desire to congratulate this Congress and every
+delegate on the opportunity afforded us in hearing that grand
+interpretation of Conservation so ably presented by President Taft. It
+will live as an epic, and should be translated throughout the land.
+
+Since that opening day I have been thrilled and electrified by this
+theme of Conservation, which is but another name for Patriotism, the
+husbanding of the Nation's resources.
+
+The country is stirred by that same feeling which I sometimes think
+aroused our Fathers before the Civil War. Let us profit by the great
+forward steps they made in the determination of State and Federal
+rights. To us it has fallen to solve these patriotic, philanthropic, and
+commercial questions of the day.
+
+I deplore the interjection of demagoguery and personal political
+advancement. I believe there is a sane, safe and sound Conservation that
+we can all practice. Above all things, let us eschew politics and throw
+a little more of that unselfish, self-sacrificing effort into this great
+fight for the Nation that characterizes our friend and collaborator,
+Gifford Pinchot.
+
+We should leave this Congress united in this one idea at least, that we
+will stop the Nation's waste and encourage its development, so far as it
+lies within our power.
+
+Eighteen years ago I left the State of Minnesota and this delightful
+city which was my home, to do my share in the development of the Pacific
+Slope--"I love its rocks and rills, its woods and templed hills." Wild
+horses could not drag me back to Minnesota, where fifty years ago my
+father pioneered, and is yet interested--not that I love Minnesota less,
+but only that I love Washington more. You have grown and developed great
+cities. Do not forget to let us do likewise.
+
+We no longer say, with Greeley, "Go West;" we say, Come West. Under the
+classic shades of our noble forests and within easy access of the
+snow-capped peak of Mount Tacoma--that mother of water-powers and
+protector of forests--we are solving _our_ pioneer problems, and we are
+not lagging behind in the race.
+
+Our citizenship is of the highest type and from all of your States, for
+it is composed of that progressive element that first made your own
+cities famous--and did not back out of big problems. We are no longer
+savages devastating the frontier and Uncle Sam's patrimony. He is no
+longer "rich enough to give us all a farm;" but we are citizens alive to
+the big problems of the day--and we are the virgin State in which
+Conservation and common sense can be practiced before it is too late. I
+predict for the State of Washington--with wise Federal and State
+legislation--a shining example of what horse-sense and Conservation will
+bring about.
+
+If we sell our common lumber at the mills on Puget Sound for $8 to $10 a
+thousand, which is two to three dollars less than we got 15 years ago,
+and have to pay $600 to $700 for a team of horses in Minnesota today
+that 15 years ago we could buy for $200 to $300, is it any wonder that
+we lumbermen of the West are interested in Conservation?
+
+Rich beyond measure in timber, coal, fish, mines, and agricultural
+lands, the great State of Washington is with you and your commissions
+that must finally work out and crystallize wise and patriotic
+legislation. Let us Nationally inventory our stocks and resources, unify
+and codify our laws affecting taxation and irrigation, liability and
+responsibility--develop our interstate commerce, and promote the general
+welfare.
+
+
+REPORT FROM WEST VIRGINIA
+
+HU MAXWELL
+
+_Chairman State Conservation Commission_
+
+Near the close of 1908 Honorable W. M. O. Dawson, then Governor of West
+Virginia, appointed a commission of three members, Neil Robinson, James
+H. Stewart, and Hu Maxwell, to prepare a report for the guidance of the
+Legislature in framing laws for the Conservation of the State's
+resources. The report was ready for the Legislature when it convened in
+January, 1909. It recommended a number of changes in existing laws, and
+the enactment of several new ones. Its principal recommendations were as
+follows:
+
+1--A forest law providing for the prevention and suppression of fire,
+and for the care of woodlands and watercourses. A draft of the proposed
+law was included in the report.
+
+2--A law to lessen the waste of natural gas, by requiring the plugging
+of wells when not in use, and saving the gas from others instead of
+permitting it to blow into the air. It was urged that effort be made to
+check the leak from gas mains.
+
+3--For the purpose of checking the tremendous loss of by-products in
+coke making a law was recommended, to take effect five years from its
+passage, prohibiting the erection of any other than by-product ovens,
+but placing no restrictions on any ovens then in use, so long as they
+might last.
+
+4--The State was urged to cooperate with the Federal Government in all
+reasonable ways for the improvement of navigable rivers in the State,
+and in the protection of mountain forests and the building of storage
+reservoirs to check the rush of floods and improve low-water conditions.
+
+5--The establishment of an engineering school was recommended for the
+special purpose of educating men to develop and conserve the State's
+resources. It was pointed out that much of the practical work of
+Conservation does not depend so much on the enactment of laws as on the
+training of men to do the work. In this connection it was shown that
+vast quantities of low grade coal, which is now unmarketable, is thrown
+away or left in the mines, though it would be sufficient, if
+manufactured into producer gas, to furnish power to drive much of the
+machinery in the State and in surrounding regions. If the State's
+water-power were fully developed it would be sufficient to turn every
+wheel in the State, but this development cannot be brought about by laws
+alone; it must depend largely on trained men.
+
+6--Better game and fish laws were recommended to take the place of the
+old laws which had failed to produce the desired results.
+
+7--It was urged that prompt investigation be made of the question of
+municipal water supply in the State with the view to the prevention of
+pollution of the running streams.
+
+8--It appearing probable that certain valleys in West Virginia would
+respond in a satisfactory way to irrigation, it was recommended that
+experiments be carried out to test the matter.
+
+9--The State's natural scenery is such that it might be made a valuable
+asset, in connection with the protection of forests and streams, and the
+Commission recommended that the fact be borne in mind in laying out new
+roads, so that full advantage be taken of all scenic possibilities.
+
+10--An immigration agency was recommended for the purpose of bringing
+into the State desirable immigrants who will cultivate the farms which
+suffer from neglect in many parts of the State.
+
+11--Changes in road laws were urged which would make possible the
+building of permanent, durable, desirable highways in place of the
+gullies and precipitous paths which in many parts have been tolerated as
+roads from the earliest settlement of the region down to the present.
+
+12--The purchase of land by the State in each of the congressional
+districts was recommended for farms to serve as models and object
+lessons for the surrounding farmers; their management to be in the hands
+of trained agriculturists.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Legislature which convened in January, 1909, considered one or two
+of the recommendations of the Commission. A forest and game law was
+enacted, though it was not the measure which the Commission recommended.
+The law, however, is a good one so far as it goes, and if its provisions
+shall be carried out, much good may be expected.
+
+No steps were taken by the Legislature to lessen the waste of natural
+gas or to save the by-products in coke making. A new highway law was
+enacted, and a State commission was appointed to study the road problem.
+
+
+REPORT FROM WISCONSIN
+
+E. M. GRIFFITH
+
+_State Forester_
+
+Governor James O. Davison appointed the Wisconsin State Conservation
+Commission July 24, 1908. The seven members appointed were men whose
+positions gave them a considerable knowledge as to the natural resources
+of the State, and the Governor gave the Commission full authority to
+call upon any State department for detailed information.
+
+During the summer of 1908 the Commission held several meetings in the
+Capitol, and reports were prepared on the three most important and
+pressing Conservation problems in Wisconsin, viz: water-powers, forests,
+and soils. A full report covering these three subjects was then made to
+the Governor, and this the Governor transmitted to the Legislature in
+February, 1909. The Commission made the following recommendations:
+
+WATER-POWERS. 1--That franchises for water-powers be granted under a
+general statute.
+
+2--That the issuing of such franchises be placed in the hands of the
+railroad rate commission, or similar board, under conditions to be
+provided by a general statute.
+
+3--That such franchises be in the nature of leases for a long term of
+years. Such leases should be renewable on equitable terms. Rentals
+should be low, and should be applied to the extension of the State
+forest reserve.
+
+4--That a reasonable Conservation charge be levied on all developed
+water-powers on rivers of which the headwaters are protected by forest
+reserve lands, the income from such charge to be applied to the
+extension of the State forest reserve.
+
+5--That the survey of the water-powers of the State be completed in
+cooperation with the United States Geological Survey.
+
+FORESTS. 1--The State Conservation Commission regard it of the utmost
+importance that the State forest reserve, located about the headwaters
+of the more important streams of the State, be greatly extended. At the
+present time the opportunities to make such extensions are much more
+favorable than they will be in the future, and therefore the Commission
+recommend that immediate action be taken to secure such extensions.
+
+2--The State Conservation Commission recommend to the Governor that, in
+view of the large increase in area of the forest reserves since the last
+session of the Legislature and the probability that in the future such
+holdings will be materially added to, the annual appropriation of the
+State board of forestry for administrative purposes should be largely
+increased.
+
+3--The State Conservation Commission also approved the following
+principles as adopted at the Lake States Forestry Conference, held at
+Madison, December 10, 1908:
+
+"_Resolved_, That forest fires being one of the greatest enemies of the
+State, and thus akin to riot and invasion, the Executive power of the
+State should be employed to the utmost limit in emergencies in their
+suppression and control for the protection of the lives and property of
+the people.
+
+"_Resolved_, That we advocate the patrol system as the only satisfactory
+method of preventing forest fires, and the commanding factor in fighting
+them.
+
+"_Resolved_, That we recommend the retention of the fire warden system
+with the county, rather than the town, as the unit, as being essential
+in securing interest and responsibility among the people most affected.
+
+"_Resolved_, That in all districts covered by State fire patrol a
+reasonable portion of the expense for such patrol should be placed upon
+the unoccupied, unimproved, or wild lands, whether forest or cut-over
+land, preferably in the form of an acreage tax.
+
+"_Resolved_, That the expense of the local fire warden service, and the
+help called out for the suppression of fires, should be borne wholly or
+in part by the county or town, but the payment should first be made by
+the State to insure promptness.
+
+"_Resolved_, That all officials, including public prosecutors, charged
+with the enforcement of fire-protective measures, should be subject to
+severe penalty or removal from office for non-performance of duty.
+
+"_Resolved_, That the successful prosecution and a commensurate
+punishment in case of conviction often cannot be secured in the locality
+where the offense has been committed, and in order that the law shall be
+enforced, in the interest of justice, and under authority of the
+attorney general, a change of venue should be permitted.
+
+"_Resolved_, That it is the sense of this meeting that lands containing
+forests should be taxed in the usual manner so far as the land is
+concerned, said land to be assessed as if it contained no timber; but
+the forest products should be assessed and taxed only when they are cut
+and removed, and then in an appropriate manner; that the harvest timber
+tax should be based on a stumpage value determined by the value of the
+forest product at the place where it is assessed, less the cost of
+placing it there."
+
+SOILS. The State Conservation Commission recommend to the Governor that
+a soil survey of the State be undertaken and carried on at such a rate
+as will give a general view of the soils of the State in about five
+years. The Commission call especial attention to the immediate need of
+such a survey in the central and northern parts of the State, the soils
+of which are now coming rapidly into agricultural use; and also to its
+necessity on lands which may be included in a forest reserve and which
+should be devoted to forestry or agriculture according to the nature of
+their soil.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Let us see what were the results of these recommendations. A number of
+bills were introduced in the Legislature of 1909, seeking franchises to
+dam navigable streams and to create reservoirs and reservoir systems;
+but acting upon the recommendations of the Conservation Commission, all
+such bills were referred to a special committee of the Legislature on
+"Water-powers, Forestry, and Drainage" which has carefully investigated
+the development of the water-powers of the State and will report either
+to a special session of the Legislature or to the regular session in
+1911. Undoubtedly the issuing of such franchises will be placed in the
+hands of a competent board or commission. All forestry bills introduced
+in 1909 were referred to the same special committee of the Legislature.
+Two members of this committee have made their report, and include the
+following recommendations in regard to the forestry work of the State:
+
+1--An act to provide a State tax of two-tenths of one mill for each
+dollar of the assessed valuation of the taxable property in the State,
+to be collected annually for a period of twenty years, the tax when
+levied and collected to constitute "a forestry investment fund" to be
+used for the purchase, improvement, and protection of the forest reserve
+lands.
+
+2--An act to provide for the piling and burning of white Norway and jack
+pine slash.
+
+3--An act to provide for the employment of an efficient fire patrol by
+the State board of forestry.
+
+In accordance with the recommendations of the Conservation Commission,
+the Legislature in 1909 passed an Act providing for a soil survey of the
+State, and this work is being done by the Geological Survey and College
+of Agriculture, for the purpose of ascertaining the character and
+fertility of the developed and undeveloped soils of the State, the
+extent and practicability of drainage of the swamp and wet lands of the
+State, and the means for properly conserving and increasing the
+fertility of the soil of the State.
+
+It will be seen from the above that the work of the State Conservation
+Commission has already shown important results, and it is believed that
+the Legislature and people of Wisconsin have now begun to realize
+clearly the urgent need and also the means which should be taken to
+conserve the great natural resources.
+
+
+REPORT OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
+
+The Conservation of natural resources is a subject in which an American
+academy of political and social science must necessarily have a keen
+interest. The primary purpose of the American Academy being to assist in
+the right solution of the political and economic problems confronting
+the people of the United States, it has actively cooperated with those
+individuals and organizations that have done most to give impetus to the
+Conservation movement.
+
+At the White House Conference called by President Roosevelt in May,
+1908, the American Academy was one of the National organizations
+represented. The following November, the Academy devoted one of its
+regular scientific sessions to Conservation, the chief address of the
+session being delivered by Mr Gifford Pinchot, the Chairman of the
+National Conservation Commission. The Academy was also represented at
+the Conference which met in Washington in December, 1908, upon the
+invitation of the National Conservation Commission.
+
+The most valuable aid the American Academy has given the Conservation
+movement was rendered by the publication, in May, 1909, of a
+comprehensive volume containing eighteen papers especially prepared by
+men prominent in the Conservation movement. The scope and character of
+this volume are indicated by the following list of papers and
+contributors:
+
+     _Forestry on Private Lands_--Honorable Gifford Pinchot, U. S.
+     Forester, and Chairman National Conservation Commission.
+
+     _Public Regulation of Private Forests_--Professor Henry Solon
+     Graves, Director Forest School, Yale University.
+
+     _Can the States Regulate Private Forests?_--F. C. Zacharie,
+     Esq., of the Louisiana Bar, New Orleans.
+
+     _Water as a Resource_--W J McGee, LL.D., U. S. Inland Waterways
+     Commission; Member National Conservation Commission.
+
+     _Water Power in the United States_--M. O. Leighton, Chief
+     Hydrographer, U. S. Geological Survey.
+
+     _The Scope of State and Federal Legislation Concerning the Use
+     of Waters_--Charles Edward Wright, Assistant Attorney to the
+     Secretary of the Interior.
+
+     _The Necessity for State or Federal Regulation of Water-power
+     Development_--Charles Whiting Baker, C. E., Editor-in-Chief
+     Engineering News, New York.
+
+     _Federal Control of Water Power in Switzerland_--Treadwell
+     Cleveland, Jr., U. S. Forest Service.
+
+     _Classification of Public Lands_--George W. Woodruff, Assistant
+     Attorney-General for the Department of the Interior.
+
+     _A Summary of our Most Important Land Laws_--Honorable Knute
+     Nelson, U. S. Senator from Minnesota; Chairman of the Senate
+     Committee on Public Lands, and Chairman of Committee on Lands,
+     National Conservation Commission.
+
+     _Indian Lands: Their Administration with Reference to Present
+     and Future Use_--Honorable Francis E. Leupp, Commissioner of
+     Indian Affairs.
+
+     _The Conservation and Preservation of Soil Fertility_--Cyril G.
+     Hopkins, Chief in Agronomy and Chemistry, University of
+     Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, Urbana.
+
+     _Farm Tenure in the United States_--Henry Gannett, Geographer
+     U. S. Geological Survey.
+
+     _What may be Accomplished by Reclamation_--Honorable Frederick
+     H. Newell, Director U. S. Reclamation Service.
+
+     _The Legal Problems of Reclamation of Lands by Means of
+     Irrigation_--Morris Bien, Supervising Engineer, U. S.
+     Reclamation Service.
+
+     _Our Mineral Resources_--Honorable George Otis Smith, Director
+     U. S. Geological Survey.
+
+     _The Production and Waste of Mineral Resources and their
+     Bearing on Conservation_--J. A. Holmes, Chief, Technologic
+     Branch U. S. Geological Survey; Member National Conservation
+     Commission.
+
+     _Preservation of the Phosphates and the Conservation of the
+     Soil_--Charles Richard Van Hise, President of the University of
+     Wisconsin.
+
+There were 5500 copies of this volume published, and its wide
+distribution at a most opportune time caused it to have an exceptionally
+effective influence. By the end of 1909 the edition was practically
+exhausted, and a new edition became necessary. The Canadian members of
+the American Academy, it is interesting to note, were particularly
+pleased to receive this publication.
+
+It is the belief of those most active in the work of the American
+Academy that the question of the Conservation of American resources
+outranks all other economic questions now before the people of the
+United States. It is especially important that National and local
+organizations should cooperate as fully as possible in educating the
+public as to the present condition of our resources, the manner in which
+they are being used, and the measures that should be taken to make these
+resources of permanent as well as of present value to the American
+people.
+
+                    Respectfully submitted,
+                    [Signed]  EMORY R. JOHNSON, _Chairman_
+                              FREDERICK C. STEVENS
+                              WM. B. DEAN
+                              W. A. FLEMING JONES
+                              WM. L. WEST
+                              CHARLES W. AMES
+                                _Committee_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
+
+When the American Automobile Association was originally honored with an
+invitation to the National Conservation Congress it promptly accepted
+with two objects in view; _first_, to influence, if possible, the
+advocacy of a good highway construction and maintenance policy
+throughout the United States--National, State, and local--in its program
+in order to broaden and help the movement itself, and _second_, to
+enlist the friends of Conservation in advancing highway construction; in
+other words, to make the theory of Conservation cover not only the care
+and perpetuation of natural resources, but all broad economic
+activities, throughout the length and breadth of the country, concerning
+the care and betterment of property, whether natural or artificial. The
+resident in the East must feel that only by bringing within the scope of
+the Conservation movement these somewhat narrower and more artificial
+economic measures can any wide and deeply interested following be
+secured in the more thickly settled eastern States, as most questions of
+bulk ownership and management of natural property in this section have
+long since been settled in law and in fact. If you adopt this theory and
+definition of Conservation, and thereupon, among other efforts, give
+your help to advance the matter of good roads, then the advocates of
+good roads all over the country will have gained an ally, and you will
+have secured new friends.
+
+The American Automobile Association is devoting the major part of its
+time, means, and enthusiasm to advancing and coordinating the activity
+of good highway construction and maintenance, and to the preparation and
+enactment of good National, State, and local legislation regulating
+traffic on these highways all over the country. The Association is
+organized in the large majority of all our States, with a large local
+following in every center, and with an effective central management
+cooperating with the most important like bodies abroad and with such
+associations at home as the U. S. Office of Good Roads; National Grange,
+Patrons of Husbandry; Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union; and
+League of American Wheelmen. It consists of State organizations in most
+of the States, comprising approximately 250 local clubs and over 30,000
+members. It is an active force engaged in useful educational and
+constructive work to better our National life by improving in an
+intelligent and public spirited manner a very important branch of
+transportation. It is and has been for some years the leading spirit in
+this work, as witness the organization of the National Good Roads
+Convention with the above-mentioned cooperating associations to be held
+in Saint Louis toward the end of this month.
+
+Transportation, broadly considered, has been the greatest ruling
+economic force in every civilization created by man. Its absence or
+limitation ever makes for barbarism or the decadence of the people so
+confined. It is the pioneer and prime moving force in the creation of
+progress and enlightenment. Each stage of the world's history that has
+witnessed some pronounced advance in transportation methods has been
+swiftly followed by a more than proportionate advance in progress, in
+wealth, and in happiness of the people affected. Witness the march of
+wealth and education following the practical operation of the steam
+railway in the later half of the last century, and the further advance
+following the practical perfection of electrical transportation during
+the last quarter of the same century. Steam has provided transportation
+for the great bulk of world life; electricity opened the way for
+relatively lighter and cheaper transport, thus opening sections
+otherwise not accessible for economic reasons. The motor-car and the
+public highway have crowned these achievements by providing a means for
+speedy, cheap, safe, and agreeable transport to any corner of the
+country, the qualities just described constituting the essence of what
+is best in transportation.
+
+The public highways in the country, however, which premise the
+reasonable use of motor transportation, have not advanced either in
+quality or quantity with the means of transport itself during the past
+fifteen years. The very existence of steam transport when this country
+was young and sparsely settled and poor and badly developed, and even of
+electrical transport at a later day, had in themselves limited the
+development of a reasonable highway system, when comparison is made with
+other older countries of like wealth, population, and civilization. In
+earlier days military necessity did not compel this Government to build
+National highways for the movement of troops--the railroads did that.
+Economy of transport did not compel the several States to build
+highways--the railway, the steamboat, the electric tram cared for that.
+It was not until the advent of the practical modern motor-car that the
+almost savage condition of this country with respect to highways became
+apparent. Since then, say within the past ten years, the force moving
+all over the country toward reasonable highway development, maintenance,
+and regulation (which had its great inspiration in the army of motor-car
+tourists acquiring a knowledge of the geography and the beauties of this
+country by a new and independent method of travel, and which has more
+recently turned into a flood of growing purpose and organization for
+better highways because of the conviction of the farmer and the business
+man of the United States of their economic value in reducing the cost of
+ton-mile detail haulage to the lines of bulk transportation), as well as
+toward the moral uplift of the entire farming and country life, due to
+releasing the country resident from the unhealthy isolation of former
+times--this force must now be recognized and satisfied, and this
+Conservation Congress is a logical forum for exploiting and advancing
+these aspirations.
+
+A recent phase of this great new interest and industry has been the
+abuse heaped upon it by certain special interests that have been touched
+by the change the motor-car has wrought over the country. The Reverend
+Sam Small once remarked that if you threw a brick in the dark and heard
+a dog howl you knew that you had hit him. The misrepresentation and
+denunciation and apparent lack of understanding of the true meaning of
+this new interest seems to come near those financial and bulk
+transportation interests--with their affected fear of largely
+mythological mortgages--from which the motor-car user in the aggregate
+has detached some profit either in transport or in investment. It needs
+no fine intelligence in these times to understand the weight and purpose
+of this opposition which has assumed an almost proscriptive right to the
+collection and handling of the loose money of the unorganized individual
+all over the country. What is this doctrine that the banker has become
+the censor of the individual's needs and actions with his own money?
+Have the farmer and the business man of this country recently become so
+poor or reckless or so much in debt as to apologize to their fiscal
+agents for the purchase of a motor-car with their own money or lose
+credit? Does this not logically lead to an equal apology and loss of
+credit for owning a decent home instead of a miserable one, or wearing
+good clothing, or eating good food, or getting a good education, or
+buying a carpet, a piano, or any of the other things which in the sum
+constitute the high environment of American life? The tens of thousands
+of users of motor-cars that are today deriving health and pleasure and,
+in a far greater number of cases than generally known, profit from the
+purchase and use of motor-cars, are deflecting interest and capital from
+channels which have long enjoyed them to their great benefit. That is
+the origin of the detraction of the motor-car industry and the
+individuals who created it and who are enjoying it today.
+
+Fair and intelligent consideration is not generally given to the fact
+that speedier transportation wherever possible is inevitable in human
+history; that, when a farmer or a doctor or a real estate agent, or a
+business man of any sort, finds that, at the same cost, he can do, with
+the same personal effort per day, four times more work in a motor-car
+than with a pair of horses, provided decent roads exist--when this
+fundamental economic fact reaches the masses, then good roads teeming
+with motor-cars and trucks and reasonable universal legislation will be
+demanded and gotten. When added to this, the same investment provides
+the means of winging off where fancy leads on a healthful and charming
+tour or visit, who shall deny that the individual is wise to avail
+himself of this new facility?
+
+Finally, sufficient weight is not given to the fact that every ton of
+freight in this broad country must be carried from its primal source,
+not once but several times, to a railroad or steamboat or tram, before
+it reaches the goal of the final user. The perfected motor-wagon and
+truck made in quantity at reasonable cost, provided the good highway
+exists everywhere, is the inevitable source of such reasonable
+transport: and, from the standpoint of utility, or effectiveness, or
+congestion of street areas, or speed--from any standpoint whatsoever--it
+is as distinct an advance over animal traction as was the electric tram
+thirty years ago over animal traction in that field of enterprise. The
+millions of dollars going into this industry spread out through the
+people, irrigating the total prosperity of the country through its
+appropriate channels, just as money spent on everything else the
+individual buys throughout the country, adds its appropriate quota to
+our National prosperity, and should be quite as immune from attack and
+misrepresentation.
+
+Good highways and highway legislation are today a generally recognized
+National necessity. If this country were now through concerted action,
+Nationally, in States, in counties, and in cities, to spend enough money
+to put its streets and highways in a comparable condition with those of
+England or France, and to replace the great percentage of animal
+traction and motor-cars as now made, to carry the bulk of detail tonnage
+on these highways, it could not in any other manner or with any better
+advantage to the coming generation, as concerns its wealth, happiness,
+and profit, invest this enormous sum or, in any other manner, not only
+add to the value of country property but influence so positively and so
+speedily an increase in the happiness and general content of country
+life in the United States.
+
+In conclusion, it is respectfully urged that the project of good
+highways and reasonable uniform State and National legislation governing
+their use should be incorporated in detail in the program of this
+National Conservation Congress and every kindred association throughout
+the length and breadth of the land.
+
+                    Respectfully submitted,
+                    [Signed]  POWELL EVANS
+                                _Chairman, A. A. A. Conservation Committee_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE AMERICAN CIVIC ASSOCIATION
+
+I have already had the honor of presenting some statement of Rhode
+Island's interest in the Conservation movement, and of the ways in which
+she proposes to demonstrate it. But I also bear messages from the
+American Civic Association and other organizations. Perhaps one might
+think, on first consideration, that there was nothing very closely
+related, or perhaps related at all, in the purposes of the Conservation
+Commission of the State of Rhode Island and those of the American Civic
+Association, the Providence Board of Trade, the Metropolitan Park
+Commission of Providence Plantations, the Atlantic Deeper Waterways
+Association, and the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Institute of
+Architects; yet I bring you greetings from all of these. I want to tell
+you that they are all working with all the enthusiasm there is in them
+for some phase or other of the mighty movement for Conservation.
+
+Some people have said--half contemptuously perhaps (I am afraid
+so)--that Conservation is made to cover about every kind of a movement
+there is on this great footstool, but perhaps the statement is about
+true so far as these movements are concerned with the preservation and
+development of any of the great assets of nature or artificial
+achievements of man that are necessary or useful to the well-being of
+our own or future generations. Whether we are considering the forests
+upon the mountain sides that control the floods and affect the farms and
+the water-powers and the navigable streams below, or are thinking how to
+plan and lay out and construct our towns and cities so that they shall
+most worthily and efficiently fulfill their two great purposes as places
+(1) to live happily in and (2) to work most successfully in, we find
+their principles overlapping and leading from one end of the line clear
+to the other. You cannot separate them, and it is not worth while to
+try.
+
+The interests of the American Civic Association, of course, are not
+restricted to any State or section. Its activities are Nation-wide. "For
+a Better and More Beautiful America" is its motto, and it believes that
+a more beautiful America is bound to be a better and more prosperous
+America. It believes also that the Conservation of beauty means the
+Conservation of patriotism; and its distinguished president has
+paraphrased a well-known utterance of Ex-Mayor McClellan to the effect
+that "The country healthy, the country wealthy, and the country wise,
+may excite satisfaction, complaisance, and pride: but it is the country
+beautiful that compels and retains the love of its citizens." It is the
+love of country that lights and keeps glowing the holy fire of
+patriotism, and this love is excited primarily by the beauty of the
+country and the environments of the citizens.
+
+The American Institute of Architects believes that when a thing is most
+usefully done it is most beautifully done. It believes that Conservation
+deals with two great departments closely related in human endeavor, and
+that you cannot divorce the necessity of city planning from the
+development of the resources of nations. A properly planned structure,
+whether it be of a single building or of a whole city, with all its
+homes and shops and streets, means the Conservation of the people's
+efficiency through all the generations that shall ever come to dwell
+therein. Similarly, the park movement, as we see it scientifically
+promoted, is almost wholly a measure of Conservation. It is not, as the
+previous generation believed, primarily to tack on ornate luxuries to
+the urban fabric, but to preserve the necessary recreation places that
+would otherwise be obliterated, but without which the race of city-bred
+dwellers cannot survive. It is to safeguard human efficiency and
+happiness.
+
+The Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association, whose president, Honorable J.
+Hampton Moore, has bidden me extend his greetings, calls for things that
+mean much Conservation of effort. Its project would remove much of the
+material burden of unnecessary cost. There is Conservation of vast
+energy and the saving of huge National burdens in the present eastern
+ambition for the fuller improvement of harbors and development of
+connecting inland waterways. Let me tell you how the improvement of the
+harbors related to the handling of at least 80 percent of the
+$1,500,000,000 worth of all our imports, for this is the proportion that
+comes into the eastern harbors of the Nation. It relates to the
+transportation of products of the eastern States worth over
+$14,000,000,000 a year--of 85 percent of all the cotton that the Nation
+raises, and 58 percent of all our manufactures; to the 765,000,000 tons
+of merchandise that has to be transported through these States in which
+more than 50 percent of all our people dwell, and then transferred in
+various ways for the equal benefit of the other 50 percent. No item in
+the cost of our existence is of more importance than that of
+transportation.
+
+Well, of course, the Board of Trade is interested in all these things,
+though it looks upon them primarily as they bear upon the up-building of
+a city. It believes that it is working to assist the logical development
+of a city of glorious possibilities where certain services to the Nation
+may best be performed. If there were not sound economic reasons for the
+up-building of a great city at any given place, it would be foolish and
+wicked to attempt by artificial means to talk it into being, or try to
+force it by the hothouse method of overheated air. But if you have the
+necessary natural assets and opportunities that but await intelligent
+handling, why here comes the need of Conservation as a vital obligation.
+
+                    [Signed]  HENRY A. BARKER _Delegate_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION
+
+No organization can more appropriately than the American Forestry
+Association make its statement and its appeal to this Congress; for it
+is the first of our Conservation organizations. It has a past of nearly
+thirty years to which it can point with pride of real achievement; an
+active and efficient, though not a noisy, present; and a future of ever
+enlarging opportunity.
+
+In a very real sense we may say that the work of this Association,
+through years of much misunderstood effort, under the able guidance of
+the great leaders of the American forestry movement, made this Congress
+possible; for it was through the study of forestry and its relation to
+the country that the whole problem of our National resources came to be
+understood. The man who has given the Conservation of natural resources
+its impetus, with the help of his distinguished chief, then President of
+the United States, was the recognized leader, the apostle and
+evangelist, of the forestry movement; and today no portion of our
+natural resources holds a more important place than the forests. They
+are inseparably linked with soils and waters, both of which depend on
+them in great measure; and as a product of the soil, nothing exceeds the
+forests in value and in necessity to human welfare. Forests, like
+agricultural crops, belong to the renewable class of products, and their
+maintenance involves much more complicated and permanent problems than
+the non-renewable products like metals, coal, oil, and gas. Therefore we
+conceive the field of our Association to be vital and lasting, and so
+broad, many-sided, and far-reaching as to amply justify the existence of
+an organization dedicated to the advancement of scientific forestry for
+the best utilization of our forest lands for all time.
+
+Our appeal is to the citizen who desires to promote the economic and
+moral welfare of the Nation, for moral welfare comes only through good
+economics and such management of natural resources as makes for
+prosperity; to the lumbermen and to all manufacturers who use forest
+products, for to them this is a subject that touches the permanence of
+their industries; to the educator who looks beyond mere culture and
+believes that our education must more and more fit men and women to cope
+with the complex problems of modern life. In this last connection we
+shall soon announce plans, recently set on foot, for giving practical
+and definite assistance to those teachers who wish to bring the
+fundamental principles of forestry into their work, but who do not know
+how. We shall try to show them how in a systematic and practical way.
+
+Our work is independent of that of the Government, but is conducted in
+close touch with it. As an independent body of citizens we can do and
+say what Government officials cannot do and say. Our program embodies:
+(1) An equitable system of taxation which shall not unduly burden the
+growing crop; (2) adequate protection against fire, which will reduce
+this greatest of forest perils to a minimum; (3) the practice of
+scientific management upon all existing forests; (4) the planting of all
+unoccupied lands which can be utilized more profitably for forestry than
+for any other purpose; and, (5) the whole to be brought about through
+harmonious adjustment of functions between the three classes of
+owners--National, State, and private. We do not believe that either one
+of these agencies is to be relied on alone. Each has its place. I say
+this because our position in this regard is often misconceived. I may
+add (to correct another misapprehension) that we do not believe in
+putting under forest land more valuable for agriculture. Forestry and
+agriculture are not rivals. They go hand in hand.
+
+One specific object to which we have given much effort for several
+years is the establishment of National Forests on the great interstate
+water-sheds of the Northern and Southern Appalachians. The conditions,
+which are acute for the thickly populated East, can only be handled by
+the united action of the National and State governments and private
+owners. The central cores of the White Mountains and the Southern
+Appalachians clearly require National care and management. With this and
+cooperation of the States and private owners with the National
+Government, we can save a rare country of beauty, health, and
+productiveness from being made a depopulated waste. We begin to see the
+light. In the House of the last two Congresses we have passed a bill,
+after fighting to a finish the reactionary element which has controlled
+that body and throttled legislation framed in the public interest. In
+the Senate we have a strong working majority which can only be beaten,
+as in the Sixtieth and Sixty-first Congresses, by filibustering in the
+last hours of the session. If we are not cheated of our reward next
+winter we shall mark a new step in the progress of American forestry by
+making the National Forest system really National.
+
+The Association now has about 6600 members; it maintains an office in
+Washington, where a close watch is kept upon National legislation, and
+through its correspondents, upon State legislation. It provides
+lectures, issues bulletins on important subjects, conducts a
+correspondence bureau, and publishes a monthly magazine, _American
+Forestry_, which is contributed to by the best authorities in the
+country, and is the only popular magazine of its class of National
+scope. We enjoy the cordial cooperation of the U. S. Forest Service and
+of the various State forest bureaus.
+
+We look forward confidently to a future in which the practice of
+scientific forestry will become general throughout the United States,
+when our forest lands will be clearly defined and permanently maintained
+in productive growth, when waste lands will cease to play so large a
+part in our National statistics, when the production of the forests will
+cease to be so much less than the consumption of forest products, and
+when the National wealth will be contributed to largely each year from
+this source. But even with this hopeful outlook we cannot see that our
+work will ever be done, and we welcome the assistance which this
+Conservation Congress can give us.
+
+                    [Signed]  EDWIN A. START
+                                _Executive Secretary_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION
+
+The Committee on Conservation of National Animal Resources (the same
+being a sub-committee of the National Conservation Commission of the
+Federal Government) have the honor to report as follows:
+
+The animal resources of the United States constitute a large proportion
+of its natural productive energy. This country has hundreds of millions
+of dollars invested in horses, mules, cattle, hogs, sheep, and chickens.
+These constitute natural resources which are producing a larger
+percentage of wealth and a larger proportionate return for capital
+invested than almost any one other resource. Furthermore, the actual
+means of sustaining life is more dependent on these resources than on
+all others combined, for aside from the food value of the cattle, hogs,
+sheep, and chickens, and also aside from the other products which are
+received from them, agricultural operations would be rendered largely
+inoperative if the assistance of the larger animals were withdrawn. In
+this way the products of the soil upon which man is so largely dependent
+for sustenance would be materially affected, and without the assistance
+of these animals the supply would diminish to the extent of actual
+starvation for vast numbers of the world's populace. Even if mechanical
+contrivances should replace the labor of beasts, the cost would be
+enormously increased; and the natural fertilizing products being
+removed, the productive value of the soil would also be progressively
+decreased.
+
+From whatever point we look at this important question, the value of our
+animal resources is so great and so fundamental that the Nation may well
+give its best energies and most discriminating intelligence to their
+protection and conservation. It has been estimated that through the
+humane treatment and care of horses the average life of these useful
+creatures can be easily increased from 20 to 25 percent. This likewise
+means a proportionate increase in the results derived from their labor,
+which in the aggregate would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars a
+year. The same is also largely true of the increased value of other
+domestic animals as the result of humane and considerate treatment,
+which in all instances would greatly prolong their lives.
+
+The American Humane Association has been greatly interested in promoting
+the more merciful treatment of range stock, which in the past have been
+largely left to shift for themselves during the cold, bleak winters of
+the Northwestern ranges. This has resulted in the death of vast numbers
+of livestock. A recent report of the Department of Agriculture indicates
+that over 1,000,000 domestic animals die in the United States each year
+from hunger and exposure.
+
+Another department in which the humanitarian societies of the United
+States have been largely interested which bears directly on the
+conservation of a great natural resource, has been the protection of the
+fur seals. These interesting and valuable animals, through piratical
+efforts employed in their destruction, have become partially
+exterminated, and a great source of National wealth has been almost
+annihilated. From vast herds, numbering a great many hundreds of
+thousands, the seals have been reduced until their rookeries in the
+islands of the northern Pacific belonging to the United States have been
+almost depopulated. Friends of the Conservation policy have earnestly
+protested in Congress against this inhumane and economically unwise
+course, and during the last session legislation was passed and signed by
+President Taft, which would insure the ample protection of the seals.
+Grave fears are expressed at the present time lest this result should be
+endangered by unwise administrative measures which are threatened. I
+earnestly hope that the second National Conservation Congress will speak
+in no uncertain terms in regard to this important question, so that the
+seals may be restored once more to their original numbers and productive
+value.
+
+This Committee will not undertake to present all the activities in which
+we have been interested which bear upon this subject, but content
+ourselves with showing the great importance of this particular phase of
+Conservation. We trust that this Committee will continue for another
+year, and that the results of this Congress will be felt in every
+portion of the United States.
+
+                    Respectfully submitted,
+                    [Signed]  WILLIAM O. STILLMAN, _Chairman_
+                              M. RICHARD MUCKLE
+                              ALFRED WAGSTAFF
+                              JOHN PARTRIDGE
+                              SAMUEL WEIS
+                              JOHN L. SHORTALL
+                              GUY RICHARDSON
+                                _Committee_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS
+
+The Committee of the American Institute of Architects on the
+Conservation of Natural Resources has the honor to report as follows:
+
+A wide and increasingly active interest in the subject exists among the
+officers and members of the Institute. The Committee believes that few,
+if any, of the great National organizations touch the subject of
+Conservation at so many points, or are more vitally interested in its
+wise and efficient progress, or can be more directly helpful in the
+application of the principles of Conservation in a great series of
+important industries.
+
+The construction of modern buildings, either for residential or business
+purposes, involves the use in one form or another of practically the
+entire list of materials included under the general meaning of the term
+the "natural resources" of the country, excepting only agricultural land
+and foodstuffs; and in common with all other thinking citizens, the
+architects realize that the continued prosperity of the building
+interests is in the long run dependent on the wise use of these
+resources. Exact statistics of the great building industry of the
+country are not obtainable; but a somewhat extended inquiry recently
+made led to an approximate estimate of the amount of money expended upon
+buildings in the United States per annum at an average of not less than
+$1,000,000,000, practically all of which passes under the hands of the
+architects in the specifications of materials to be used and in
+certification as to quality and cost.
+
+Among the materials used are metals, including iron and its various
+products in rolled steel, sheet metal, pipe, castings, and machinery,
+with copper, lead, graphite, zinc, nickel, silver, and even gold; lumber
+in enormous quantities and of all kinds; clay products, such as brick,
+terra cotta, roofing tiles, drain tiles, floor tiles, and porcelain;
+stone, including granite, marble, limestone, sandstone, and other quarry
+products; cement, lime, sand, glass, oils, gums, hemp, bitumen, asphalt,
+asbestos, barytes, and many other minerals; woven cotton, linen, wool,
+and other fibres. There are also used coal and water-power, and above
+all that greatest of all resources of the Nation, the labor of Man, both
+skilled and unskilled. This but briefly suggests the variety and extent
+of the interests represented in modern building. Therefore the
+profession of architecture, represented by the American Institute of
+Architects, has a most real interest in this great topic, and can and
+does wield a very potent influence upon the use of the products of mine,
+quarry, factory, and field.
+
+It has been stated, with a large measure of truth, that if the
+architects will study the economic use of lumber and specify or permit
+the use of short lengths (such as 2-foot and 4-foot lengths as against
+12-foot and 14-foot lengths) where such are structurally permissible,
+that a quarter of the lumber cut per annum could be saved without
+lessening the amount of lumber used in building. If the architects
+specify concrete to the exclusion of steel, the steel market is
+affected; if brick or clay products, the cement market is affected; if
+copper or sheet iron, or lead, or tile, or slate, or pitch, or even
+thatched straw, for roofing instead of shingles, the number of shingles
+used is correspondingly reduced. It is obvious that if the architects
+will substitute clay products or concrete or steel for lumber now used
+in building, no more effective method of conserving our lumber supply
+could be devised.
+
+Materials used in buildings are not necessarily lost to the future,
+however. On the contrary, a certain class of materials, such as steel
+and other metals, are thus preserved, though temporarily withdrawn from
+use. Who shall say that other needs and other customs of building of a
+future time will not be as different from ours as ours are from those of
+former times? Indeed it is not wholly fantastic to prophesy that the
+skyscrapers of today may become the iron mines of tomorrow.
+
+The architects are only indirectly employers of labor, but as such they
+can, more fairly and with less self-interest than any other class,
+observe the conditions under which labor in the building trades is
+employed. Your Committee believes that the great annual losses by reason
+of accidents to men engaged in the building trades are largely
+preventable; that laws governing the construction of scaffolding,
+hoisting apparatus, derricks, and other machinery used in quarrying or
+manufacturing and building, should be passed where they do not already
+exist, and should be rigorously enforced everywhere; that mechanics and
+laborers should be taught not to take unnecessary risks but should
+suffer their fair share of blame if they do, and that they should be
+encouraged by the public authorities in all reasonable demands for the
+opportunity to pursue their avocations without unnecessary hazard of
+life and limb.
+
+The architects believe in the Conservation of buildings once they are
+erected, and to this end that fire-proof construction should be adopted
+wherever possible. In all American cities today fire is a constant
+menace, and the annual loss from this cause both in life and property is
+appalling. The strict enforcement of wise building laws will largely
+prevent this loss; but some concession in taxation to those erecting
+fire-proof buildings might be found feasible, whereby a premium would be
+given to those owners of buildings who contribute to the greater safety
+of life and property by erecting fire-proof structures--or on the other
+hand an increase of taxation might be made on those erecting buildings
+which endanger the lives and property of their neighbors and whose
+flimsy structures make necessary the present large public expenditure
+for fire-department service in our cities.
+
+This Committee, in common with those who have from the beginning
+promoted the cause of Conservation, believes in the _use_ of our natural
+resources, not in their _abuse_--in their equitable distribution and
+development in the hands of the people or in the hands of the
+Government, not in locking them up in the hands of a few; and that if
+corporate capital can develop them better than individual capital, then
+that it should be so done only under restrictions that will safeguard
+the interests of the people and be subject to Governmental control and
+limitation, while at the same time giving the capital engaged absolute
+assurance of protection, security, and reasonable profit. This Committee
+believes that _use_ does not mean _waste_ or loss, nor does it mean that
+reckless spendthrift policy which would squander in a generation, or
+less, the vast natural resources of this Nation, or permit these
+resources to be monopolized.
+
+The American Institute of Architects is heartily in sympathy with the
+principles of the Conservation of our natural resources--and will do its
+part to advance those principles.
+
+                    [Signed]  CASS GILBERT
+                                _Chairman_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE AMERICAN PAPER AND PULP ASSOCIATION
+
+As long ago as 1898 the officers of the American Paper and Pulp
+Association, realizing the importance of maintaining a perpetual supply
+of pulpwood, devoted the annual meeting of that year principally to a
+discussion of the science and practice of forestry, then almost unknown
+in the United States. At that meeting addresses were delivered by Doctor
+Fernow, then Chief of the Government Forestry Bureau, by Mr Gifford
+Pinchot, his successor, and by Mr Austin Carey, now connected with the
+Forestry Department of the State of New York. Mr Hugh J. Chisholm, then
+President of the Association, in his annual message said:
+
+"Those among us who have weighed the matter carefully are well aware
+that if we as a Nation are to take and permanently hold the foremost
+place in paper making, we must begin at once to husband our resources.
+Fortunately, the science of forestry, until recently but little known
+and heeded less, is ready to point out the way, and we shall learn from
+three of the best authorities of the country, not only why we should,
+but how we may, put in practice the principles of forestry. I hope that
+everyone will go away resolved directly or indirectly to do what he can
+to secure a rational use of this mainstay of our business."
+
+The attitude of the Association, in the past twelve years, has been to
+exert its influence in every way possible in the encouragement of forest
+Conservation. Every year resolutions have been adopted urging timber
+land owners in the paper industry to practice conservative methods; and
+at the same time attention has been called to the vital importance of
+preventing forest fires, and in more recent years the subject of
+taxation of timber lands has also received attention.
+
+Not only has a universal sentiment in favor of Conservation been created
+in the industry, but practical results have been accomplished. It is not
+too much to say that our timber land owners, with possibly here and
+there an exception, have been for a number of years all conducting their
+operations so as not to impair the reproductive capacity of their lands.
+In the first place, they have carefully studied their holdings, in many
+instances being assisted by the Forest Service at Washington; they have
+thus become enlightened as to how far cutting timber can go without
+jeopardizing the future. In the next place, they have voluntarily
+limited the size, or the diameter of trees, below which no cutting shall
+be done. They have very generally, although to just what extent cannot
+be definitely estimated, adopted the method of felling trees with the
+saw instead of the axe, and have in other ways sought to bring the waste
+down to a minimum. But perhaps in no way have they done better service
+than by encouraging legislation and the enforcement of it for the
+prevention of fires.
+
+It is roughly estimated that the paper makers own in the United States
+about 5,000,000 acres, consisting mostly of spruce timber lands. While
+this is insufficient to afford a natural growth equal to the demands,
+the deficit is made up by purchases in the United States and by
+importations from Canada, and the use of other kinds of wood. There is
+still much more spruce cut for lumber than for pulpwood, but the paper
+makers are continually adding to their holdings, and there appears to be
+a readjustment of prices going on which is leading to the substitution
+of pulpwood production for lumber production.
+
+The example set by paper makers is being followed by other timber land
+owners, so that we may confidently say that no timber lands of any
+moment are in any sense being denuded for the production of pulpwood.
+Less than 2 percent of the consumption of wood in this country is
+domestic pulpwood, and with a continuation of the conservative methods
+now in vogue, there need be no fear of diminution of our forests by the
+paper industry. In fact the perpetuation of the industry in the United
+States depends largely on the perpetuation of the forests of the United
+States, so that the paper manufacturers have every incentive to maintain
+them. The use of hemlock and other kinds of wood for pulp making has
+greatly increased, thus tending to relieve any drain there might be on
+the supply of spruce. As most of the paper mills are dependent on
+water-power, the manufacturers have still further incentive to protect
+the water-sheds. The Forest Commissioner of Maine has stated--
+
+"Since the advent of the pulp and paper industry in Maine, covering a
+period of less than twenty years, the system of handling our forest
+lands has been completely revolutionized. Prior to ten years ago, in
+cutting logs in the woods, it has been demonstrated by actual tests and
+measurements that only from 60 to 65 percent of the volume of the lumber
+trees actually cut was saved and utilized for lumber purposes, while
+since that period on account of the paper industry it has been
+demonstrated by later measurements and experiments that from 80 to 85
+percent of the volume of lumber trees is actually utilized, and what is
+of far greater importance is the fact that crooked, seamy and defective
+trees, as well as all of the undersized trees formerly cut and destroyed
+in swamping and in making yards and landings are now utilized. * * *
+Fully one-half of the whole territory of Maine has never as yet produced
+one single log for pulp and paper production. I refer to Saint John
+River drainage, where the same wanton system of lumbering, although
+possibly in a somewhat lesser degree, is being followed as was followed
+through the long period from 1860 to 1900. Were this territory fully
+developed for lumbering by means of proper railroad connections or water
+facilities, it is safe to assert that conservatively managed, as the
+paper companies are endeavoring to do today with the best knowledge
+obtainable, it would supply the entire demand for all the mills now
+located in Maine indefinitely."
+
+In the State of New York all the paper makers who own lands in the
+Adirondacks have an Association, including many other lumbermen, which
+has cooperated with the State authorities in securing legislation which
+would foster conservative cutting and the prevention of fires.
+
+The International Paper Company, owning nearly a million acres of forest
+lands in New England, New York State, and elsewhere in the United
+States, has always conducted its operations with a view to the future
+supply. In eleven years this company has cut less than two-tenths of a
+cord per year per acre, which is believed to be less than the natural
+growth. Two years ago this company started a nursery in Vermont, and
+each year it has been putting in transplants in increasing quantities in
+Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York State, supplementing its own
+supply by purchases of seedlings and transplants at home and abroad.
+This replanting is being done on abandoned farms, pasture lands and
+burns. On their other holdings no replanting is necessary, as there is
+always sufficient growth left for reproduction. Some other companies
+have done replanting, but in general conservative cutting and protection
+from fire render extensive planting unnecessary.
+
+The paper industry has acted on its own initiative, and while
+self-interest may have actuated it the result is none the less
+beneficial from the public point of view, and the policy is more apt to
+be followed permanently than if impractical law, attempting to make
+Conservation compulsory, were passed.
+
+                    [Signed]  E. W. BACKUS
+                                _Delegate_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
+
+The most important interest which this Nation has to guard is human life
+and health. The conservation of National vitality is fundamental to all
+plans for the conservation of property and material welfare. As the life
+is more than meat and the body more than raiment, so is the preservation
+of health and the avoidance of unnecessary sickness and death of far
+greater importance than any other interests. Realizing this, the
+American Medical Association, the National organization of the American
+medical profession, has been in hearty sympathy with the Conservation
+movement from its inception. Composed of 52 State and Territorial
+associations and 1997 local branches with over 70,000 members, this
+Association has for years advocated the conservation of human life
+through the abolition of preventable diseases and the betterment of
+sanitary and hygienic conditions with a view to making the future work
+of the profession prevention rather than cure. For the accomplishment of
+these purposes it is today carrying out a number of important lines of
+work:
+
+1--The American Medical Association has, since its organization in 1847,
+labored constantly for the elevation of medical schools and of the
+standard of medical education. Especially during the last five years it
+has, through its Council on Medical Education, carried on a system of
+inspection of medical schools with the publication of reports thereon,
+which has materially raised the standard of medical education and has
+eliminated a considerable number of low-grade institutions. It is
+obvious that any increase in efficiency of the medical profession of the
+present or of the future cannot but result in increased economy of
+health. The Association is glad to report that medical education in the
+United States is today upon a higher plane than ever before, and that
+the public is coming more and more to realize the value of a thorough
+scientific training for those who undertake the care of the sick.
+
+2--Through its publication, _The Journal of the American Medical
+Association_, it is constantly laboring to improve the economic
+condition of the profession, recognizing as a general principle the fact
+that a poverty-stricken doctor is a dangerous doctor, both to the
+profession and to the community. The physician who is not able to
+procure proper instruments and drugs, or who through poverty cannot keep
+up with the progress of the profession or secure the necessary books and
+medical journals for his instruction, may and often does become an
+actual danger to his patients. Proper efforts on the part of the
+profession for its own material well-being will result in a better class
+of physicians and consequently in better medical services to patients.
+
+3--One of the most important activities of the Association in the past
+five years has been the work of our Chemical Laboratory established for
+the investigation of pharmaceutical preparations offered to physicians
+for administration to patients, and for the analysis of so-called patent
+medicines sold directly to the public. This work has been carried on
+through the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry supported by the
+Association, and has resulted in a much-needed reform in pharmaceutical
+products. Many preparations which were carelessly, ignorantly, or
+fraudulently compounded, as well as many others which were sold under
+false representations, have been investigated and the results published
+to the medical profession. Although much yet remains to be accomplished,
+the reform in pharmaceutical preparations has already resulted in an
+enormous amount of benefit to the people through the enlightenment and
+education of the profession on this important question. An investigation
+of "patent medicines" has also been carried on, and many of the
+preparations offered to the public have been shown, by chemical
+analysis, to be fraudulent; some are positively harmful, some are
+harmless but are not as represented; while extravagant, absurd, and
+impossible claims, false testimonials, and misleading advertisements,
+are common to many of these preparations. The Association, by its work,
+has exposed many swindlers and fakirs, and as a result has earned their
+bitter antagonism.
+
+4--In addition to investigating and exposing frauds in pharmaceutical
+preparations, the Association has also established a bureau for the
+collection and preservation of material regarding medical frauds and
+fakes--including fraudulent "cures" for tuberculosis, cancer, paralysis,
+locomotor ataxia, and other diseases--which are advertised to the public
+through false representation, leading not only to an enormous loss to
+the people through money paid to the swindlers without any beneficial
+results, but also to great loss of life and economic loss through
+illness owing to the victims of these frauds being deprived of proper
+treatment. The Association is cooperating with other organizations and
+with the proper authorities for the detection and punishment of these
+frauds and for the suppression of this most despicable kind of
+swindlers--those who prey upon the sick and, as a means of extorting a
+few dollars of blood money, take advantage of the natural desire of the
+sick or dying to recover health. It has been estimated by the National
+Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis that the money loss alone
+to the people of the United States through fake consumption cures
+amounts to $15,000,000 annually. Probably the loss to sufferers from
+cancer and other incurable diseases is as great. This robbery of the
+sick and helpless should no longer be tolerated in any civilized
+country.
+
+5--The Association has maintained a committee for the past four years on
+the prevention of ophthalmia neonatorum or blindness in infants due to
+gonorrheal infections, a preventable cause of a large percentage of
+existing blindness. The United States Census for the blind and deaf
+taken in 1900 states that 11 percent of the total number of blind lost
+their sight before the completion of the first year of life, and that in
+25 percent the cause of blindness was due to this form of infection. The
+committee of the Association has been laboring for four years past, and
+is still at work, endeavoring to educate the public so as to secure
+proper legislation for the prevention of this form of blindness.
+
+6--Through its State and county branches, as well as through its
+official publications and its connection with State boards of health and
+other agencies, the Association has been endeavoring to educate the
+public on the importance of better hygienic and sanitary conditions and
+laws, with special reference to pure food and water; proper ventilation
+of houses, stores, schools, factories, and work-shops; the prevention of
+avoidable accidents; the development of parks and playgrounds; and the
+avoidance of the evils of intemperance and excesses. Realizing the
+importance of this work and the inadequacy of existing methods for
+bringing practical instruction on sanitary and hygienic questions before
+the public, the Association at its last annual session established a
+Council on Health and Public Instruction, the special function of which
+shall be to place before the people, through the public press,
+magazines, pamphlets, public meetings, addresses, moving pictures, and
+every other available means, the best information obtainable as to the
+preservation of life and the avoidance of disease. The significance and
+importance of this action on the part of the organized medical
+profession of the country can hardly be overestimated. It means that
+physicians as a class have taken up seriously and systematically the
+prevention of disease and the education of the public as to how the
+elimination of avoidable diseases can be secured. With the cooperation
+of the newspapers and of the people many preventable diseases which have
+for centuries claimed a fixed toll of human life can be practically
+eliminated, and hundreds of thousands of lives saved each year.
+
+7--While the Association has labored for the enactment of any laws,
+either State or National, which were for the benefit of the public
+health, it stands particularly committed to legislation on three
+subjects. These are: (_a_) Adequate State laws insuring purity of the
+food supply, (_b_) such State laws as will increase the efficiency of
+State boards of health and enable them to combat and suppress
+unnecessary and controllable diseases, and (_c_) such legislation as
+will provide an adequate plan for the collection and preservation of
+vital statistics, in order that proper data for the study and prevention
+of diseases may be available. It is not to the credit of this country
+that in half of our States human beings are born and die without any
+legal recognition of the fact, that not even as much attention is paid
+to the birth of a human infant as is given to the birth of a race-horse,
+a pedigreed bull, a blooded dog, or even an Angora kitten. It is not to
+our credit as a civilized Nation that human beings die and are buried
+without any legal recognition or record being made of the cause or
+manner of their death. It is in no sense to our credit that in many
+communities diphtheria, scarlet fever, and cerebro-spinal meningitis
+decimate the infant population yet no one knows, nor is it anyone's
+business to find out, how many deaths result from these epidemics, or
+how many persons die from various diseases in the course of a year.
+Proper birth registration lies at the basis of social organization, and
+has been so recognized for years by European nations, yet it does not
+exist today in this country. Vital statistics, showing the relative
+health, morbidity, and mortality of various sections, are of the utmost
+importance, since healthfulness is recognized as one of the best
+business assets which a town and county or a State can possess. Yet
+through lack of proper laws we have today death registration alone in
+only half of the Nation, and practically no registration of births
+whatever. This disgrace on our civilization, which is the wonder and
+amazement of European nations, should be at once removed by the passage
+and enforcement of uniform laws in all of the States.
+
+8--The following resolutions were adopted by the House of Delegates of
+the American Medical Association, June 7, 1910:
+
+"_Resolved_, That the principles of the Owen Bill, having for its object
+the creation of a National Department of Health, now pending in the
+Senate, and similar bills introduced in the House by Representatives
+Simmons, Creager, and Hanna, be, and are hereby, heartily approved by
+this Association, and the cordial thanks of the medical profession of
+the United States, officially represented, are hereby tendered to
+Senator Robert L. Owen, Irving Fisher, and their co-workers for their
+able and unselfish efforts to conserve and promote the most important
+asset of the Nation--the health and lives of its women, its children and
+its men--properly understood the greatest economic question now
+confronting our people.
+
+"The members of this Association stand for pure food, pure drugs, better
+doctors, the promotion of cleaner and healthier homes, and cleaner
+living for individuals, for the State and for the Nation. We believe
+this to be held as equally true by the reputable and informed physicians
+of all schools or systems of practice.
+
+"We welcome the opposition of the venal classes, long and profitably
+engaged in the manufacture of adulterated foods, habit-producing
+nostrums, and other impositions on the people, to the extent of hundreds
+of millions of dollars annually, and express our sympathy for the
+well-meaning men and women who have been misled and worked into
+hysterics by the monstrously wicked misrepresentations of a corrupt and
+noisy band of conspirators, who are being used as blind instruments to
+enable them to continue to defraud and debauch the American people.
+
+"Medical science is advancing, especially on its life-saving side, with
+a rapidity unknown to any other branch of human knowledge. It is known
+of all men that our members in every community in the United States are
+unselfishly working day and night, instructing the people how to prevent
+tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and the other diseases from which
+physicians earn their livelihood. Therefore, we welcome and will wear as
+a badge of honor the slanders of these unholy interests and their
+hirelings."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The American Medical Association, representing as it does the medical
+profession of the country, stands pledged and committed to any measure
+which will improve the public health and preserve the lives of our
+people. Believing as it does that health and life is our greatest
+National asset, and that no nation is truly great whatever its material
+possessions that cannot boast of strong and healthy citizens, we ask
+the support and approval of the American public and of this Congress in
+the efforts which are being made for the preservation of human life.
+
+                    [Signed]  J. T. PRIESTLY, Des Moines
+                              F. F. WESBROOK, Minneapolis
+                              A. R. MITCHELL, Lincoln
+                              CHAS. S. SHELDON, Madison
+                              F. R. GREEN, Chicago
+                                _Committee_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE AMERICAN RAILWAY ENGINEERING AND MAINTENANCE OF WAY
+ASSOCIATION
+
+In October, 1908, the National Conservation Commission invited the
+American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association, in
+connection with other technical bodies of this country, to be
+represented at the Conference in Washington, and to assist the National
+Conservation Commission with suggestions concerning advisable lines of
+inquiry, nature of report to be made, and possibilities of
+accomplishment on the part of the Commission. Acting upon this
+invitation, the Board of Directors of the Association appointed a
+Special Committee to cooperate with the Commission. This Committee
+consisted of eight members of the Association, selected from widely
+separated sections of the country.
+
+The Association, through its Committee, was represented at the joint
+Conservation Conference held in Washington beginning December 8, 1908;
+and the Committee has been keeping in touch with the Conservation
+Commission through Mr Pinchot and the Secretary, Mr Thomas R. Shipp.
+Several meetings of the Committee have been held, and in March, 1909,
+the Committee was addressed by Dr Joseph A. Holmes, of the Commission.
+
+In March, 1909, the Committee, through its Chairman, requested Mr
+Pinchot to furnish, through cooperation with the Forest Service,
+suggestions as to the best methods to be pursued by the railroad
+companies for the prevention and control of forest fires, with
+statistics of the loss from such cause, and urged upon the Commission
+the importance of endeavoring to effect reduction in the tariff on
+cross-ties and in lumber rates, in order to make it possible for the
+railroad companies to import ties and save thereby the home supply. The
+cooperation of the Committee was offered with the forest-products
+laboratory at the University of Wisconsin, or with any of the National
+or State organizations.
+
+On May 13, 1909, an elaborate report was transmitted to the Committee by
+the National Conservation Commission, through Secretary Shipp,
+containing valuable suggestions as to the possibilities of railroad
+companies assisting the work of Conservation by thorough methods of
+prevention and control of forest fires and the cultivation of timber for
+railroad purposes, by the use of sawed instead of hewed ties, the use of
+treated timber and the extension of the supply of creosote, and other
+features, many relating to timber resources. This report was transmitted
+by the Committee to the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of
+Way Association, published by the Association, and distributed
+throughout the country in one of its bulletins. Dealing directly, as it
+does, with those features of Conservation that affect the railroad
+companies and their patrons, and having a circulation among railroad
+officers covering the United States, as well as large portions of Canada
+and Mexico, the results should be exceedingly beneficial to the cause of
+Conservation.
+
+In March of this year the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance
+of Way Association, recognizing the growing importance of the
+Conservation movement, established the Special Committee as one of the
+Standing Committees of the Association, at the same time largely
+increasing its personnel and bringing into membership a number of
+prominent railroad officers of this country and Canada.
+
+The work of the Committee has been divided into sub-committees for the
+purpose of specialization; these, with an outline for investigation are
+as follows:
+
+_No. 1--Tree planting and general reforestation_
+
+     _a_--Extent of existing forests considered in connection with
+     increase of growth and consumption
+
+     _b_--Judicious selection of tree varieties for planting, and
+     locality and soil conditions considered; possibility of value
+     from growth on cut-over land
+
+     _c_--Methods of planting and cultivation, with cost of same,
+     considering possibilities from cut-over lands
+
+     _d_--Anticipated results at maturity from trees so produced
+
+     _e_--Methods and costs of caring for and protecting existing
+     forests
+
+_No. 2--Coal and fuel-oil resources_
+
+     _a_--Extent of existing supplies, considered in connection with
+     consumption
+
+     _b_--Extent of waste in production
+
+     _c_--Economic consumption, giving consideration to practical
+     use of by-products
+
+_No. 3--Iron and steel resources_
+
+     _a_--Supplies of raw material, considered in connection with
+     consumption
+
+     _b_--Waste in production
+
+     _c_--Best methods of protecting finished products from
+     destructive influences
+
+The Committee will continue on the lines of investigation as shown, and
+holds itself in readiness to cooperate with the National Conservation
+Commission and its kindred and subsidiary organizations, as well as
+other National societies, for the furtherance of the great principles of
+Conservation of the Nation's resources.
+
+The Committee:
+
+  A. S. BALDWIN,
+    Chief Engineer Illinois Central R. R. Co. (_Chairman_)
+  MOSES BURPEE,
+    Chief Engineer Bangor and Aroostook Railroad
+  W. A. BOSTWICK,
+    Metallurgical Engineer Carnegie Steel Company
+  E. F. BUSTEED,
+    General Superintendent Canadian Pacific Railway
+  E. B. CUSHING,
+    Southern Pacific Company
+  E. O. FAULKNER,
+    Manager Tie and Timber Department, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe System
+  W. F. H. FINKE,
+    Tie and Timber Agent Southern Railway
+  J. W. KENDRICK,
+    Vice-President Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe System
+  A. L. KUEHN,
+    General Superintendent American Creosoting Company
+  G. A. MOUNTAIN,
+    Chief Engineer Canadian Railway Commission
+  WM. MCNAB,
+    Principal Asst. Engineer Grand Trunk Railway
+  C. L. RANSOM,
+    Resident Engineer Chicago and Northwestern Railway
+
+                    [Signed]  A. S. BALDWIN
+                                _Chairman_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE AMERICAN RAILWAY MASTER MECHANICS' ASSOCIATION
+
+In behalf of the American Railway Master Mechanics' Association I wish
+to thank the officers of the National Conservation Congress for the
+courtesy shown our Association by inviting our President, Mr C. E.
+Fuller, to attend this Congress. Mr Fuller was unable to be present, and
+it was therefore my good fortune, as First Vice-President, to take his
+place.
+
+As you no doubt are aware, the membership of the A. R. M. M. Asso. is
+composed of the heads of the mechanical departments of practically every
+railroad in the United States and a large number from Canada, and all of
+us are heartily in sympathy with the Conservation movement that has had
+such wonderful growth during the five years it has been before the
+public. The enormous amount of lumber, coal, etc., that is used by the
+railways makes it imperative for them to use it as economically as
+possible, and great efforts are being made, by education, to use a pound
+or a ton of coal so that the greatest efficiency may be obtained
+therefrom. During the calendar year ending December 30, 1909, the
+company I am connected with used 4,193,617 tons of coal in its
+locomotives and power plants; we have a large force of instructors,
+including master mechanics, road foremen of engines, and traveling
+firemen who are continually riding the engines and giving the enginemen
+the benefit of their experience in the proper method of handling the
+locomotive so that steam will not be wasted, and that only the proper
+amount of coal will be shovelled into the firebox to produce the desired
+results. The use of feed-water heaters, superheaters, and compound
+locomotives has been hastened by the desire to get as much use out of
+the heat in the coal as possible; the feed-water heater and superheater
+promising the best field for economy in locomotive practice. The lignite
+fields of Wyoming are being opened by using this kind of coal in
+locomotives that have been specially designed to burn it. Heretofore it
+was necessary to haul coal from southern Iowa to Wyoming, a distance of
+about 800 miles, which was a very wasteful operation; a good deal of
+this will be dispensed with by using lignite coal in the territory near
+which it is mined. So that a comparatively poor grade of coal can be
+made better, a washery, with a capacity of about 1800 tons per day has
+been erected and put in operation, which washes out a large percentage
+of the slate and other impurities in the coal; this means that a ton of
+washed coal has a greater heat value than the same amount of unwashed
+coal would have.
+
+The question of conserving the life of the ties used has had due
+consideration, and a treating plant has been in use for nearly six years
+which is expected to increase, by treatment, the life of ties about 40
+percent, besides enabling us to use an inferior kind of timber as ties,
+that before was considered impractical; the importance of thus
+prolonging the life of ties will be appreciated when I say that for the
+calendar year ending December 30, 1909, we used 2,996,957 ties. Other
+wood was used in the same period as follows: piles, 83,201; posts,
+382,556; lumber, 56,172,000 board feet. It therefore makes it very
+necessary on account of the constantly increasing price of lumber to
+reduce the amount used and wasted. The use of concrete has enabled us to
+make things of that material, which a few years ago would have seemed
+impossible; floors in roundhouses and shops, which rapidly deteriorate
+(when made of wood), on account of moisture, are now made of concrete,
+which stands up admirably in that service.
+
+We are enormous consumers of oil, and the same care is exercised in its
+use as with coal and lumber--in fact, under present conditions, it is
+absolutely necessary that the greatest economy be instituted in the use
+of all kinds of material as a matter of self-preservation.
+
+During the time I have spent at your meetings, it has been quite a
+revelation to notice the intense interest that has been manifested by
+everybody on the subject of Conservation; and as the representative of
+the American Railway Master Mechanics' Association I wish to assure you
+of our heartiest cooperation in the work. Again I thank you for the
+opportunity of being present.
+
+                    [Signed]  H. T. BENTLEY
+                                _First Vice-President_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE AMERICAN SCENIC AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION SOCIETY
+
+The suggestions of the Committee of this Society appointed to cooperate
+with the National Conservation Association must naturally be determined
+by the objects for which the Society exists. It is the aim of the
+American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society to protect the
+interesting features of the natural landscape, to save from obliteration
+all historic places and objects, to erect suitable historical memorials
+where they are needed, to promote the beautification of cities and
+villages, and otherwise to develop in the people a regard for the
+beautiful in nature and for the historic in human institutions,
+cultivating this general field by means of free lectures, literature,
+prize competitions, correspondence, and other educational means as well
+as by using influence to have places and scenery preserved as parks and
+reservations. The interest of this Society, therefore, lies not so much
+in the fields of economic production as in the less definite regions of
+historic appreciation and artistic sensitiveness to surroundings. The
+report of its Committee on Conservation will naturally not deal with the
+direct economic questions with which most other cooperating societies
+and organizations would naturally be concerned.
+
+The Committee desires first to express its appreciation of the work of
+the National Conservation Association and to pledge itself to cooperate
+with that Association in the furthering of its work. The Committee holds
+itself in readiness to cooperate in the enterprises originating from the
+National Conservation Congress and the National Conservation Association
+so far as they are within the proper province of the American Scenic and
+Historic Preservation Society. The Committee feels that the establishing
+of the National Conservation Commission, and its successor, the National
+Conservation Association, marks a distinct advance in utilizing for the
+good of all the people the resources which really belong to all the
+people, and which should be used for their welfare, rather than
+exploited for the interest and gain of a few persons or wasted and
+despoiled by the thoughtlessness of the people themselves.
+
+The Committee holds that all natural resources should be protected and
+utilized in a scientific and unselfish way, and that the heritage of the
+earth should be passed over to our descendants with the least possible
+loss consistent with wise use in the present generation. Its special
+interest in the question, however, lies in the belief that all this
+effort should harmonize with the preservation of the beauty of the
+natural landscape and with the Conservation of all places and scenes of
+historic interest.
+
+It is too little appreciated that every natural object makes a two-fold
+appeal to the human mind: its appeal in the terms of its physical or
+material uses, and its appeal to our sense of beauty and of personal
+satisfaction. As the people progresses in civilization, the public mind
+becomes constantly more sensitive to the conditions in which we live,
+and the appeal to the spiritual satisfaction of life constantly becomes
+stronger. It is, therefore, of the very first importance that whatever
+is done by the National Conservation Association shall be executed in
+the feeling that not only shall the physical needs of life be met, but
+that the earth will constantly be made a more satisfactory place in
+which to live, and that the lessons of history must exercise an
+increasing influence.
+
+It is important that we not only save our forests in order that they may
+yield timber and conserve our water supplies, but also that they may
+adorn and dominate the landscape and contribute to the meaning of
+scenery. It is important that our coal supplies be not only conserved
+for their use in manufacture and the arts, but also that smoke does not
+vitiate the atmosphere and render it unhealthful, and discolor the
+objects in the landscape. It is of the greatest importance that water
+supplies be conserved by storage reservoirs and other means, but this
+Conservation should be accomplished in such a way as not to menace
+health or offend the eye or destroy the beauty of contiguous landscape;
+the impounding of waters without regard to preserving natural
+water-falls, streams, and other scenery, is a mark of a commercial and
+selfish age, and is a procedure that cannot be tolerated in a highly
+developed society. It is important that regulations be enacted regarding
+the operation of steam roads through wooded districts not only that the
+timber may be saved, but also that the natural beauty of the landscape
+may be protected from fire and other forms of destruction. The fertility
+of the soil must be saved not only that products may be raised with
+which to feed and clothe the people, but also that the beauty of thrifty
+and productive farms may be saved to the landscape. The property-right
+in natural scenery is an asset to the people, and the best Conservation
+of natural resources is impossible until this fact is recognized.
+
+On this point we call attention to the following paragraph in the report
+of the Commission on Country Life: "In estimating our natural resources,
+we must not forget the value of scenery. This is a distinct asset, and
+it will be more recognized as time goes on. It will be impossible to
+develop a satisfactory country life without conserving all the beauty of
+landscape and developing the people to the point of appreciating it. In
+parts of the East a regular system of parking the open country of the
+entire State is already begun, constructing the roads, preserving the
+natural features, and developing the latent beauty in such a way that
+the whole country becomes part of one continuing landscape treatment.
+This in no way interferes with the agricultural utilization of the land,
+but rather increases it. The scenery is, in fact, capitalized, so that
+it adds to the property values and contributes to local patriotism and
+to the thrift of the commonwealth."
+
+It is especially important, in the opinion of this Committee, that the
+National Conservation Congress and the National Conservation Association
+lend their influence to the establishment of reserves in all parts of
+the country for the preservation of natural features of great scenic
+interest, for the protection of birds, animals, and native plants, and
+also for the Conservation of the lessons of history. The Committee
+earnestly requests that in the program of the activities of the National
+Association these questions may be given their due consideration.
+
+_What the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society has
+Accomplished_
+
+Having now stated its general position and its outlook on the subject of
+the Conservation of our natural resources, the Committee cites, by way
+of illustration, a few of the things that the Society has accomplished.
+
+The American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society is the medium
+through which Honorable Wm. Pryor Letchworth, of Portage, gave to the
+State of New York a superb tract of 1000 acres of land embracing the
+famous Portage Gorge of Genesee River, including the three picturesque
+Portage Falls. This property, which cost the owner about half a million
+dollars, will pass into the official custody of the Society, as Trustees
+for the State of New York, on Mr Letchworth's decease. Letchworth Park,
+as it has been named by the Legislature, possesses not only remarkable
+scenic beauty, but also high scientific and educational value. The
+geological strata here exposed have given the name to that extensive
+formation of rocks known as the Portage Group, and the vegetal and bird
+life of this reservation is remarkably varied and of the greatest
+interest to students of natural history.
+
+The Society also secured the purchase by the State of New York, and is
+official custodian of, the famous Watkins Glen at the head of Seneca
+Lake. This property embraces about 105 acres of land, and includes rock
+exposures that have received the attention of the United States
+Geological Survey and prominent geologists for many years. It presents
+one of the most remarkable examples of stream erosion in the eastern
+States.
+
+Through the intercession of the Society, the State of New York has
+purchased and committed to the care of the Society 35 acres of land on
+the promontory of Stony Point on the Hudson River. Here, in addition to
+an interesting exposure of primitive rocks and varied flora, are the
+historical associations of General Anthony Wayne's exploit during the
+Revolutionary War, which evoked the admiration of the leading military
+men of America and Europe. In like manner the State has purchased and
+committed to the Society's care a small reservation on Oneida Lake
+embracing the remains of Fort Brewerton.
+
+Ten years ago, Governor Roosevelt requested the Society to represent the
+State of New York in concerted measures with the State of New Jersey for
+the Conservation of the Palisades of the Hudson. As the result of this
+initiative, the State of New York appropriated about $450,000, the State
+of New Jersey about $50,000, and the Honorary President of this Society,
+Mr J. P. Morgan, gave $125,000, and today the picturesque cliffs on the
+western side of the lower Hudson for a distance of thirteen miles have
+been rescued from defacement and are in the care of the Palisades
+Interstate Park Commission. As a sequence to this work, and a result of
+the general sentiment developed in favor of scenic and historic
+preservation, Mrs Edward Harriman recently gave to the State of New York
+10,000 acres of land on the western side of the Hudson for a State Park,
+and she, together with Mr Morgan, Mr John D. Rockefeller, Mrs Sage, and
+others, have supplemented the gift with over $2,500,000 of money.
+
+Ten years ago, the Society secured legislation by means of which a
+reservation of 35 acres at the head of Lake George was made by the
+State, for the purpose of preserving scenery and the ground made
+historic by events in the Colonial and Revolutionary Wars.
+
+The long and difficult campaign for the preservation of Niagara Falls,
+in which the Society had an honorable part, is familiar to all, and need
+not be repeated here.
+
+Many other instances could be cited in different parts of the country,
+some connected directly with the Society's work, and all the result of
+the general sentiment which has been developed during the past 25 years
+in favor of conserving natural scenery and creating urban and
+extra-urban parks for the benefit of mankind. Not the least important of
+these in their bearing on conditions of life are the city parks. In New
+York City, for example, the Washington Headquarters Park and Joseph
+Rodman Drake Park were created at the direct instance of the Society;
+and the famous Central Park, in the creation of which our late President
+Andrew H. Green, as Controller of the Park, was an important factor, has
+been protected against invasion by race tracks and many other artificial
+encroachments by the vigilance of the Society. Among the gifts of city
+parks by private individuals stimulated by the sentiment created by the
+Society's work may be cited a series of parks embracing about 500 acres
+and costing with their improvements a quarter of a million dollars or
+more presented in 1907 to the city of Utica by Mr Thomas R. Proctor, a
+Trustee of the Society. In 1909, another member of the Society, Mr Henry
+H. Loomis, gave to the city of Geneva (New York) about 26 acres of
+woodland for a city park. In Jamestown (New York) a park system has been
+developed largely under the influence of a Trustee of this Society. In
+Colorado Springs, within two years, there have been two remarkable
+expressions of this general sentiment which has now become so general
+that no one Society can claim direct connection with its results. We
+refer to the series of completed parks, boulevards, and paths, embracing
+over 1500 acres of superb scenery, given to that city by General W. J.
+Palmer; and the gift of the famous Garden of the Gods to the same city
+by the heirs of the late Charles W. Perkins, of Iowa. These two gifts
+have placed Colorado Springs in possession of what is probably the most
+remarkable series of city parks of the kind in the United States. The
+sentiment created by this Society has also expressed itself in the
+beautifying of many cities by the improvement of open spaces, public
+greens, and church yards, and by the erection of monuments and drinking
+fountains.
+
+Of State parks as distinguished from city parks, those which have
+received the most attention from this Society, outside of the five
+reservations under its immediate control and the Palisades Interstate
+Park, have been the State Park at Niagara Falls and the Adirondack State
+Park. The State Reservation at Niagara Falls, comprising 112 acres of
+land and 300 acres of land under water, and including the American Fall
+and half of the Canadian Fall, was created in 1885; and it was partly on
+account of the lessons taught by that reservation that the President of
+the Niagara Commission, the late Honorable Andrew H. Green, ten years
+later founded the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society. In
+the long campaign for the protection of Niagara Falls from the
+inordinate diversion of their waters and the disfigurement of their
+environment the Society has taken a leading part. The Adirondack Park
+now comprises over 1,500,000 acres. Here, also, it has been necessary to
+maintain a constant campaign to protect the forests from destruction by
+fire, artificial flooding, and the illicit removal of timber.
+
+In the far Southwest the efforts of the Society have been directed
+chiefly to the extension of the Grand Canyon preserve, and the
+protection of the Hetchhetchy valley--a part of Yosemite National
+Park--from what we believe to be an unnecessary project for flooding a
+part of the National Park for the purpose of supplying water to San
+Francisco.
+
+In conclusion, we may say of the movement at large for the preservation
+of remarkable works of nature for the instruction and enjoyment of the
+people, that it is older than the organized movement for the
+Conservation of the material resources of the country; and if it cannot
+be said that one is the outgrowth of the other, it is true that both are
+necessarily closely inter-related and that each should proceed with full
+regard for the other's welfare.
+
+The Conservation Committee:
+
+  L. H. BAILEY (_Chairman_), Ithaca
+  CHARLES M. DOW, Jamestown
+  HENRY E. GREGORY, New York City
+  EDWARD HAGAMAN HALL, L.H.D., New York City
+  SAMUEL V. HOFFMAN, New York City
+  THOMAS P. KINSFORD, Oswego
+  GEO. FREDERICK KUNZ, PH.D., SC.D., New York City
+  WILLIAM P. LETCHWORTH, LL.D., Portage
+  THOMAS R. PROCTOR, Utica
+  COLONEL HENRY W. SACKETT, New York City
+  CHARLES DELAMATER VAIL, L.H.D., Hobart College, Geneva
+
+                    [Signed]  L. H. BAILEY,
+                                _Chairman_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE ADIRONDACKS
+
+The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, with headquarters
+in New York City, was formed ten years ago before the word
+"Conservation" as now used had acquired its present meaning. In the
+light of the present use of that word the object of this Association
+might properly be expressed in the title "Association for the
+Conservation of the Natural Resources of the Adirondacks."
+
+"The Adirondacks," in a general way, is the term used to describe a
+region of about 12,500 square miles in northern New York, lying between
+Lake Champlain on the east, Lake Ontario on the west, Saint Lawrence
+river on the north, and the Mohawk on the south. In the heart of this
+region the State has, by statute, delimited an area of about 3,300,000
+acres, or 5,156 square miles, under the title of the "Adirondack Park."
+Within this more restricted area lie the principal mountains and the
+principal forests of the State. The State owns about one-half of the
+area of Adirondack Park, and its policy is progressively to acquire the
+remainder.
+
+The work of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks for
+the past decade has been directed toward the preservation of the natural
+conditions and the material resources of Adirondack Park for the benefit
+of all the people of the State. During this period, what is now known as
+the movement for the Conservation of natural resources has developed,
+although "Conservation" in fact, if not under that name, was well begun
+in New York State a quarter-century ago when, in 1885, the Legislature
+established the Forest Preserve.
+
+In the State of New York, the natural resources, as that term is
+commonly understood, to the conserving of which public attention is now
+chiefly directed, are the forests and the waters. While the forests lie
+chiefly in the Adirondacks, the streams and water-power sites lie
+chiefly outside of Adirondack Park; but in the protection of the
+Adirondacks is involved the water question as well as the forest
+question, for three reasons: _First_, because many streams take their
+rise in the Adirondacks; _second_, because of the intimate relation
+between the forest covering of water-sheds and stream-flow; and _third_,
+because there are a few possible reservoir sites situated on State lands
+in Adirondack Park which are coveted ardently by private interests
+strongly represented in the State Legislature.
+
+The natural resources of the Adirondacks, however, are not limited to
+the forests and streams. In a State embracing a tenth of the population
+of the United States, including a city embracing a twentieth of the
+population of the Union--a State and a city in which the vocations of
+life are pursued under the highest nervous tension--the Adirondacks
+possess natural resources for the conservation of human vitality (for
+the recuperation of health and the recreation of personal energy) which
+are no less important to the welfare and prosperity of our people than
+the cultivation of a timber supply or the development of hydraulic
+power. In addition to these considerations, two other elements enter
+into the question of Conservation in the Adirondacks: One is the
+preservation, for purposes of science and sportsmanship, of the natural
+wild species of animal life which have become extinct not only in other
+parts of New York, but also generally throughout the eastern States; the
+other is the preservation of the scenic beauty of this great mountain
+resort, which is seriously threatened in ways hereinafter to be
+mentioned.
+
+These latter considerations of health, recreation, and esthetic delight
+are not less entitled to recognition because they cannot be measured in
+terms of board feet or amperes convertible into dollars and cents. Rest
+and recuperation are not the exclusive needs of men of large expenditure
+of brain and nerve force, nor is actual positive pleasure conceded to be
+the exclusive privilege of men of large means. The principle contained
+in the ancient command to do upon six days all that thou hast to do and
+to rest upon the seventh day is receiving a wider application in modern
+industrial conditions which constantly tend to shortened hours of labor
+on the six days and a larger recognition of every man's right to a
+measure of the possible joys as well as the inevitable labors of living.
+
+Therefore, to conserve the Adirondacks as a health and pleasure resort
+for the people at large as well as for a source of a timber supply and
+the fountain head of important water supplies is the object of our
+Association.
+
+_Forest Conservation_
+
+Without entering into statistics of the relative area of forested and
+denuded lands in New York, or the relative rate of forest removal and
+forest growth which is so disproportionate as to threaten the complete
+denudation of the State within 20 or 25 years, we may mention something
+of what has been done in the way of practical forest Conservation in the
+State, partly by the aid of this Association.
+
+There are six principal ways in which the forests can be conserved:
+
+  1--By restriction of commercial lumbering
+  2--By prevention of timber stealing
+  3--By control of forest fires
+  4--By building good roads
+  5--By replanting
+  6--By prevention of flooding
+
+_1--Commercial Lumbering._ There appear to be three ways of reducing the
+danger of the denudation of private forest lands, namely, (_a_) to
+educate the owners as to the unwisdom of indiscriminate and wholesale
+cutting; (_b_) to convert private lands into State lands by purchase,
+and thus bring them under the protection of the Constitution which
+forbids the cutting of trees on State land; and (_c_) the passage of
+laws offering inducements to, or imposing some restrictions on, private
+owners for the purpose of reducing their cut. Of these three methods,
+good progress has been made with the first two; the third has been
+attempted only in a mild way and without effect.
+
+In the past dozen years, the private owners of forests in New York have
+awakened to a lively sense of the shortsightedness of the policy of
+cutting everything in sight. Prior to about 1890, roughly speaking,
+lumbermen as a usual thing took nothing less than two-log trees, leaving
+all that were under 12 inches in diameter on the stump. But with the
+improvements in machinery and processes for the manufacture of wood
+pulp, not only was the range of cutting extended from poplar to spruce,
+hemlock, pine, and balsam, but the lumbermen also disregarded size
+limits and cut all the trees of certain species, large and small. This
+close cutting was disastrous in both its primary and secondary effects;
+it left no provision for future growth, and it thinned the forests so
+much in places that further damage was inflicted by wind and ice storms.
+In the closing years of the last century signs of an awakening to the
+dangers of this policy appeared. In 1898 the Division of Forestry of the
+United States Department of Agriculture issued Circular 21 entitled
+"Practical Assistance to Farmers, Lumbermen, and Others in Handling
+Forest Lands," conveying an offer to cooperate with owners in the
+preparation of working plans for forest lands which presented conditions
+favorable for systematic and conservative management. One of the first
+private owners to appreciate the wisdom of adopting the more
+conservative course recommended by the Government was the late Honorable
+William C. Whitney, owner of a tract of 70,000 acres in Hamilton County.
+Prior to 1898 he had been cutting down to a diameter of 8 inches three
+feet from the ground; but in 1898, after securing expert advice, he
+raised the limit to 10 inches, which was maintained until last spring,
+when lumbering on that preserve was finished. The result of this
+judicious policy has been that there is now a fine growth of young trees
+on the property, which in a few years will come to merchantable size. In
+1900 the State of New York appropriated $2,000 to enable the Forest,
+Fish, and Game Commission to take advantage of the Government offer to
+the extent of working out the theory of conservative forest management
+on a selected tract of land known as "Township 40 of the Totten and
+Crossfield Purchase," embracing Raquette Lake in Hamilton County. This
+could be only a theoretical demonstration as applied to State forest
+land, because (for very excellent reasons) the State adopted a
+Constitutional Amendment in 1894 which provides that--"The lands of the
+State now owned or hereafter acquired constituting the Forest Preserve
+as now fixed by law shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They
+shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation,
+public or private, nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed or
+destroyed" (article VII, section 7). But while only a demonstration on
+paper of a theory and not a demonstration in fact, the result of the
+practical study on the ground and the consequent publicity of the
+conclusions was of value, for it attracted the attention of lumbermen to
+the diameter limits below which it is wasteful in the long run to cut.
+Township 40 is a virgin forest, and taking into consideration all the
+conditions of that particular tract--character and density of growth,
+rate of reproduction, proximity to outlets, cost of logging roads,
+camps, and stream improvements--it was calculated that 12 inches was the
+most advantageous minimum diameter to be used. In the following year a
+forest working plan for townships 5, 6, and 41 was worked out with a
+similar result, namely, the recommendation of a 12-inch minimum limit.
+Since that time conservative lumbering has been adopted on several
+private properties other than the Whitney preserve. One of the most
+notable cases is that of the International Paper Company, the owner of
+very extensive woodlands, which for sometime past has not cut trees less
+than 10 inches in diameter.
+
+It may be said with confidence, therefore, that the campaign of
+education in forest matters during the past ten years in this State, and
+the mathematical demonstration of the wisdom, from the practical
+business standpoint, of placing limitations on the cut, are bearing
+fruit. Not only is the system of culling or selection tending to
+supersede wholesale tree-cutting of all sizes, but there is also reason
+to believe, from the latest available statistics, that in 1908 there was
+an actual change in favor of a reduced cut.
+
+In the past decade there has been material progress in forest
+conservation by the enlargement of the forest land holdings of the
+State. During this period, the State has purchased about half a million
+acres of forest land, and its Forest Preserve, on January 1, 1910,
+embraced 1,641,523 acres, of which 1,530,559 were in the Adirondack
+mountains and 110,964 were in the Catskill mountains. Much of the land
+acquired during the past decade has been lumbered land, and has
+contained little merchantable timber. The purchases have had the
+advantage, however, of increasing the area of wild land which, so long
+as the present forestry section of the State Constitution shall stand,
+will at least have the chance to produce a new forest without risk of
+destruction. In pursuing the policy of building up its Forest Preserve,
+the State has shown in times past regrettable and costly
+procrastination, with the result that it has bought denuded land at
+twice the price at which it could have bought forested land. In this
+respect, the State still lags behind what many believe to be the rate at
+which the State's holdings should be increased. The signs of
+encouragement under this head are evident not only in the increased
+aggregate area of the State Forest Preserve, but also in the improved
+methods of administration. In times past, the forest administration has
+been so lax, not to characterize it more strongly, that while with one
+hand it was spending large sums in purchasing land, with the other it
+was parting with State property on flimsy pretexts, with the result that
+in some years, while purchases were being made, the State's holdings
+were actually decreasing instead of increasing. Weak compromises, by
+which the State parted with its timber and retained the land, involved
+transactions in which the State apparently bought a second time land
+which it already owned; and the purchase of land at exorbitant prices
+from favored friends, were practices of the past, the abatement or
+abolition of which is not the least encouraging evidence of the
+Conservation movement in this State.
+
+In legislation, little has been attempted in the way of offering
+inducements to lumbermen to restrict their cut, and nothing has been
+done in the way of compulsion. In 1893 and again in 1894 Honorable
+Roswell P. Flower, then Governor, in a message to the Legislature
+recommended the enactment of a law which would provide for some
+reasonable compensation to such owners of private forests as should
+consent to cut no trees except under conditions imposed by the State;
+and a Law was enacted embodying that idea, and it now forms section 43
+of the consolidated Forest, Fish and Game Law of 1909. This section
+provides that the Forest, Fish and Game Commission may "contract that
+lands within the Adirondack Park not owned by the State shall, in
+consideration of exemption from taxation for State and county purposes,
+become public as part of the park in like manner as State lands. Such a
+contract must provide against the removal of live timber except spruce,
+tamarack, or poplar, more than twelve inches in diameter three feet from
+the ground, and may reserve to the owner the right to clear not more
+than one acre within each hundred acres of land, and may contain such
+other reservations for occupancy as may be agreed upon. The approval of
+the commissioners of the land office must appear on any such contract by
+the certificate of their clerk. Such contract shall be recorded in like
+manner as conveyances made by commissioners of the land office." This
+law has proved no inducement to forest owners, and has been ineffective
+in limiting their cuttings.
+
+Our Association has considered the subject of legislation providing for
+some discrimination in the taxation of forest lands which, by lowering
+the rate of taxation on immature forests, should offer an inducement to
+forest owners to allow their young timber to stand and grow; but as yet
+no satisfactory plan has been worked out. There is another phase of this
+question, however, which is attracting increasing attention in
+neighboring States, but which as yet has received little consideration
+in New York, namely, the compulsory restriction of timber cutting by
+legislation. Two recent judicial decisions on the power of a State to
+regulate the use of the natural resources of private land bear with much
+force on this subject. The Senate of Maine requested the Supreme Court
+of that State to give, for its guidance, an opinion upon the following
+question:
+
+     In order to promote the common welfare of the people of Maine
+     by preventing or diminishing injurious droughts and freshets,
+     and by protecting, preserving, and maintaining the natural
+     water supply of the springs, streams, ponds, and lakes of the
+     land, and by preventing or diminishing injurious erosion of the
+     land and the filling up of the rivers, ponds, and lakes, and as
+     an efficient means necessary to this end, has the Legislature
+     power under the Constitution, by public general law, to
+     regulate or restrict the cutting or destruction of trees
+     growing on wild or uncultivated land, by the owner thereof,
+     without compensation therefor to such owner?
+
+With the exception of one justice, who declined to give an opinion for
+constitutional reasons, the opinion of the Court was unanimously in the
+affirmative (Opinion of the Justices, 103 Me. 506).
+
+The other decision referred to was in the case of Hathorn vs. Natural
+Carbonic Gas Co., involving the use of the mineral waters at Saratoga
+Springs. The State of New York passed a law entitled "An act for the
+protection of the natural mineral springs of the State and to prevent
+waste and impairment of its natural mineral waters." The object of this
+law was to prevent the practice of artificially accelerating the natural
+flow of mineral waters for the purpose of extracting the carbonic acid
+gas for commercial uses. In the case in question, the Court of Appeals,
+with one dissenting voice, decided that the part of the statute in
+question was constitutional, and affirmed an order of the lower court
+restraining the defendant from doing what the law forbade. Judge Haight,
+the dissenting justice, differed from the majority, though not on the
+general proposition of the State's right to regulate the use of the
+springs; he based his objection on the ground that the statute in
+question did not attempt to regulate the production of the mineral
+waters in order that the public might enjoy the medicinal properties
+contained therein, but absolutely prohibited the pumping of carbonated
+waters throughout the State for the purpose of extracting carbonic acid
+gas. On the general question of the police powers and the conclusion
+that the Legislature may by statute regulate the use of the waters,
+Judge Haight was in full accord with the majority. "Surely," he said,
+"the State, under its police powers, may, in the interests of the
+people, protect such great gifts of nature to mankind."
+
+Decisions like these would seem to be finger-boards pointing in the
+direction of compulsory Conservation if an enlightened self-interest or
+public spirit on the part of private forest owners do not accomplish the
+same purpose.
+
+_2--Timber Stealing._ A very practical form of Conservation in which
+this Association has had a leading part has been the prevention of the
+unlawful removal of timber from State land. In 1905 reports reached us
+to the effect that in the face of the plain prohibition by the
+Constitution private parties had made deliberate arrangements with
+contractors to lumber on State land, and that these operations were
+being carried on with the ample knowledge if not actual collusion of
+the then Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner and his subordinates. To
+verify these rumors, the Association sent to the Adirondacks in the dead
+of winter a representative, who, using snow-shoes when other modes of
+travel were impossible, penetrated into the depths of the forests, and
+found the lumber men in active operation on State lands. As the
+investigation progressed, it developed that between 15,000,000 and
+16,000,000 board feet of timber had been removed unlawfully from State
+land during the preceding year, with the knowledge of the authorities
+whose duty it was to prevent it; and that it was done under a
+well-understood system of friendly cooperation by which the timber
+thieves, technically called "trespassers," were permitted to go through
+a form of confessing judgment and paying for the timber at a rate so low
+as to make the transactions profitable for the trespassers. Not only was
+the mandatory legal penalty not exacted, but the so-called confessions
+of judgment were allowed to be made before country justices of the peace
+in amounts greatly exceeding their jurisdiction, and the timber was
+permitted to be removed from the State land in direct contravention of
+the Constitution. From the perfection with which the system was then
+working it was apparent that the illicit practices were of long
+standing; but the exposure by this Association resulted in the
+retirement from office of the Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner and the
+Chief Game Protector, and the effectual stopping of this form of
+depredation.
+
+_3--Forest Fires._ Substantial progress has also been made in the
+direction of Conservation by fire prevention. The history of forest
+fires in this State may well prove of interest to other States having
+virgin forests. The most prolific source of forest fires in New York
+hitherto has been the steam locomotive. Before the introduction of the
+steam railroad in the Adirondacks, forest fires were infrequent and of
+small extent. With the construction of every new railroad using coal or
+wood for fuel, fires became more numerous. The danger from this
+direction was apparent 30 years ago, but with an indifference for which
+a costly penalty has been paid, the State failed to find a remedy until
+within the past two years. In the tenth United States Census, Professor
+Charles S. Sargent, speaking of the forest fires in the United States
+during the year 1880, said: "In the State of New York, the total area
+burned was, in acres, 149,491; and the value of the property destroyed,
+$1,210,785. Of the causes to which these fires were attributed, 37 cases
+were reported as originating from clearing land; 43 cases as originating
+from sparks from locomotives; 22 cases as originating from hunters." The
+"First Annual Report of the Forest Commission of the State of New York
+for the Year 1885" said: "The statistics show that in New York State at
+least, more forest fires are traced to railroads than to any other
+cause." Three years later (1888) the State Forest Commission was so
+alarmed at the danger of fires from railroads that it formally declared
+the extension of railroads into the forests to be a calamity. It
+declared--
+
+     The extension of railways into the Forest Preserve proper
+     cannot but be regarded as a calamity, and it is respectfully
+     submitted that it would be most expedient to put a check upon
+     their further encroachment by proper legislation. * * * A
+     further extension of 'better means of transportation' by
+     railway or steamboat threatens more danger to the forest than
+     it promises benefit to the public. * * * Complaints are loud
+     against all railroads as being instrumental in scattering fire.
+
+These warnings are cited not so much as an argument against the
+introduction of railroads into forest lands--which can now be done with
+safety by the use of oil fuel or electric power--as to show how early
+was the realization of the danger of forest fires from railroads.
+
+About 1892 another railroad, the Mohawk and Malone, was built through
+the heart of the forests, and the testimony taken from old woodsmen in
+the fire investigation in 1908 showed that the building of the road was
+followed by the inevitable train of fire. The annual fire area in the
+Adirondacks which had previously ranged from a few hundred acres up to
+25 square miles, increased to 80 square miles in 1899 and to 940 square
+miles in 1903. In 1908 an area of 277 square miles was burned over in
+the Adirondacks alone. The maps of the large fires of 1903 and 1908,
+showing the burned areas chiefly bordering the lines of railroads, were
+strong object lessons as to the principal source of the fires, however
+the railroad companies might attempt to disguise them. In 1908 public
+sentiment on this subject became aroused as never before. It was felt
+that whatever may have been the excuse for permitting the advent of
+coal-burning or wood-burning locomotives in the forests 30 or more years
+ago, the further toleration of these fire-spreading agents was little
+short of criminal since electricity and oil fuel had been developed as
+practical agencies for developing power. In the year last mentioned,
+therefore, the Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner, backed up by the
+Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, applied to the Public
+Service Commission for an order to compel the railroads running through
+the Forest Preserve to use oil-burning locomotives during the fire
+danger season. The railroads, as was to be expected, earnestly protested
+against the innovation; but the evidence was so convincingly against
+them that the Public Service Commission ordered the use of oil fuel, and
+the installation of oil-burners has made an encouraging beginning.
+
+With the removal of this prolific cause of forest fires, the enforcement
+of salutary laws which had practically been a dead letter, the enactment
+of certain new laws providing for toplopping by lumbermen, etc, and the
+organization of an improved fire-fighting system by the Forest, Fish and
+Game Commission, it is believed that New York has taken a long step
+forward in the direction of conserving her forests from fire.
+
+_4--Forest Conservation by Good Roads._ The natural conditions in the
+Adirondacks which for so many years made the mountain wilderness
+impregnable by civilization and to a great extent preserved that region
+from the denudation which has characterized the more thickly populated
+parts of the State have also retarded the development of road building.
+The road system of the Adirondacks is therefore rudimentary. Avenues of
+communication are comparatively few, and such as exist are not
+systematically connected and are generally of poor quality. Until
+recently, this comparative impenetrability of the forests has doubtless
+tended toward their preservation; but conditions have changed to such a
+degree in recent years that the construction of good roads in the
+Adirondacks seems to be desirable both for the greater enjoyment of the
+Forest Preserve as a health and pleasure resort and for the greater
+safety of the forests themselves. The increased appreciation of the
+Forest Preserve as a refuge in summer time, the great progress made in
+methods of highway travel, and the increased facility which good roads
+would afford for visiting the woods, are in themselves strong reasons
+for the extension of the present highway system in that region. When, to
+the foregoing considerations, are added the very practical value of
+roads as fire lanes and the advantage which they would afford in
+reaching forest fires, the argument for their construction becomes very
+strong.
+
+The attitude of this Association with reference to the bearing of the
+Constitution on the subject of roads in the Forest Preserve is that if
+good roads be necessary to keep the forest lands as "wild forest lands,"
+in the words of the Constitution, they should be allowed. An opinion of
+Attorney General O'Malley, given to the Forest, Fish and Game
+Commissioner on or about June 22, 1910, however, has been interpreted to
+mean that no roads can be built on Forest Preserve land under the
+Constitution. The question was raised by the Superintendent of Roads in
+Franklin County, who asked permission to use stone from a ledge of rocks
+on neighboring State land for road purposes, promising not to cut away
+any timber or otherwise damage the land. In his opinion, the Attorney
+General said in part, "It was clearly the intent of the framers of the
+Constitution to preserve the lands constituting the forest preserve in
+their natural state, and therefore you have no authority to permit
+county officials to use the stone in the ledge referred to." In order,
+however, plainly to authorize the construction of highways in the
+Adirondacks, our Association caused two alternative propositions to be
+introduced in the Legislature of 1910. One was in the form of a bill
+providing that when validated by an amendment to the Constitution it
+should be lawful to construct upon State lands in the Forest Preserve
+any of the State highways described in section 120 of Chapter 330 of the
+Laws of 1908, and any of the county highways designated upon a map
+already prepared by the State Engineer and Surveyor, as provided by law
+and approved by the Legislature by Chapter 715 of the Laws of 1907. The
+bill limited such highways to a width of 4 rods, provided that they
+should be built and maintained under the supervision of the State
+Highway Commission, and imposed certain other conditions with reference
+to keeping the highways clean, removing inflammable material, the
+exclusion of railroads, the public inspection of maps of routes, etc.
+This bill, if enacted, was not to become effective until validated by an
+amendment to section 7 of Article VII of the Constitution specifically
+referring to it by chapter number and year.
+
+After that bill was introduced it appeared that the same end might be
+attained, without becoming complicated with other questions relating to
+section 7 of Article VII, by amending section 12 of the same article
+referring to Highways. We therefore caused to be introduced a Concurrent
+Resolution to amend section 12 of Article VII of the Constitution by
+inserting after the first sentence these words: "Any county having part
+of the forest preserve therein shall receive its equitable apportionment
+of highways. Highways within the forest preserve shall be opened or
+improved in the same manner as other highways in the State, except that
+they shall not be laid out to a greater width than 100 feet or improved
+for a greater width than other highways in the State under similar
+conditions." But this proposition, so highly desired by the State
+Highway Commissioners, by the Forest, Fish and Game Commission, by the
+local communities in the Adirondacks, and by the visitors to the
+Adirondacks, was smothered in the Ways and Means Committee through the
+opposition of the Chairman, who was also the majority leader in the
+Assembly, who is financially interested in water-storage, and who was
+evidently determined that no legislation beneficial to the Adirondacks
+should be passed until the private interests which he represented had
+secured what they wanted in the way of permission to build storage
+reservoirs on State lands. For this reason, then, forest conservation by
+road building is at a standstill.
+
+_5--Replanting of Denuded Areas._ Constructive forest conservation, that
+is to say, the building up of new forests to take the place of those
+removed, has made some progress in New York, but not so rapid as could
+be wished. The fault has not been that of the Forest, Fish and Game
+Department, but of the Legislature which has not furnished the means for
+the liberal prosecution of this work. The State has good nurseries and
+expert help, but lacks means to prosecute this branch of its work in the
+manner which its importance warrants. Fortunately, private owners are
+taking up the subject of replanting effectively. The International Paper
+Company, for instance, has adopted the policy of tree-planting to renew
+its crops, and has a large nursery at Randolph, Vermont, from which it
+is distributing young plants to different sections of the country,
+including the Adirondacks, where it owns and controls lands. Within the
+limits of the Adirondack Park there are about 120,000 acres of State
+land which should be replanted, and in the Catskill Park about 30,000
+acres. As to the cost of replanting: last year the Forest, Fish and Game
+Commission sold about 1,000,000 trees to 180 private parties for
+reforesting, and a careful analysis and average of their reports by the
+Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner indicate that reforesting cost these
+parties, including cost of stock, expressage, and labor, $8.50 an acre.
+We are informed that the State could reforest to advantage from 2,000 to
+2,500 acres a year, and could supply material for planting at least
+30,000 acres a year on private land.
+
+The importance of conservation by reforestation becomes apparent when
+one takes into consideration the relative rates of forest removal and
+forest reproduction. In the United States at large, we take from our
+forests each year, not counting the loss by fire, three times their
+yearly growth. We take 36 cubic feet per acre for each 12 cubic feet
+grown. We take 230 cubic feet per capita, while Germany uses 37 cubic
+feet and France 25 cubic feet. In the State of New York we are cutting
+away our trees five times as fast as they grow, and at the present rate
+of denudation, the State will be rendered practically barren of forest
+growth--except in the Forest Preserve--within 20 years, unless there is
+a decided change in the proportion between tree-cutting and
+tree-planting.
+
+_6--Tree Destruction by Flooding._ A source of tree destruction of no
+inconsiderable extent in the Adirondacks in years gone by has been
+flooding by lumbermen's dams. The seriousness of this phase of the
+forest question has been greater than the area of destruction might
+indicate, for the reason that, in addition to the loss of the trees
+killed, unsightly and unhealthy conditions have been produced which have
+robbed certain regions of important elements of value. Prior to the
+adoption of the Constitutional Amendment of 1894, which prohibited the
+removal or destruction of timber upon the lands of the Forest Preserve,
+it had been the practice for nearly fifty years to build dams in the
+Adirondack region either for the purpose of driving logs or in
+connection with canal feeders. Those were days of prodigality, when the
+great North Woods stood in almost their pristine condition, and when the
+lumbermen, in the presence of thousands of square miles of luxuriant
+forests, thought nothing of killing thousands of trees by drowning.
+Almost every dam, therefore, that was built in the woods, set back the
+water upon forest land and killed trees. A dam built at Forestport in
+1848 and subsequently enlarged killed so many trees that the State had
+to appropriate thousands of dollars simply to remove the dead trunks.
+About 1879 the State built a dam at Old Forge on Moose river, which is
+the outlet of the famous Fulton Chain of lakes, and subsequently built a
+dam at the outlet of the Sixth lake of the chain. These dams raised the
+water in the various lakes from one to six feet, blighting the adjacent
+timber and producing a scene of desolation the vestiges of which are
+still evident after a lapse of thirty years. In 1886 and 1887 the State
+built a dam on Beaver river at Stillwater, raising the water 9 feet.
+Great areas of timber land for a distance of 20 miles were flooded and
+the trees killed. The whole basin became filled with a tangle of
+drift-wood; great swamps were created beyond the flow line, springs were
+covered up and polluted, and the region rendered so unhealthy that land
+became unsalable. Lovely lakes and ponds were submerged, and favorite
+camp-sites obliterated; feeding grounds for game were destroyed; and
+hunting in that vicinity was ruined. The magnitude of the damage may be
+judged from the fact that one of the adjacent property owners, Mr Wm.
+Seward Webb, sued the State for $184,350 damages. The claim was settled
+by the State buying from the claimant 75,377 acres, including the
+damaged area, for $600,000. In 1865 the building of a dam was authorized
+on Oswegatchie river at the mouth of Cranberry lake; this dam created a
+reservoir of 13 square miles flooding thousands of acres of land,
+destroying large quantities of timber, and creating unsightly and
+unsanitary conditions. About 1882 a dam was built on Raquette river
+below the Tupper lake outlet, with the result that soon the region
+between Big Tupper and Little Tupper lakes looked as if some terrible
+blight had fallen upon it. The scene in 1893 is thus described in the
+Forest Commission's report:
+
+     The serious and extensive damage caused by the dam arrests the
+     eye, presenting one of the saddest and most desolate pictures
+     of destruction ever witnessed. No forest fire or devastating
+     cyclone or ruthless axe of the charcoal burner ever wrought
+     such ruin or left such a blasted scene as this. For ten miles
+     the lands along the Raquette river are covered with the white
+     and ghastly skeletons of the noble trees which once made this
+     spot a sylvan paradise. The bare trunks, bleached by the sun
+     and storm, the gnarled roots and gray, scrawny limbs thrust
+     sharply forth, recall to mind one of Dore's pictures in the
+     "Inferno." The traveler gazes on it all with amazement, and
+     then gives vent to the strongest words that a righteous
+     indignation can supply. And this was once one of the most
+     beautiful rivers in all the wilderness.
+
+Illustrations of this sort could be multiplied to show the spirit of
+indifference to tree destruction in the past, and conditions which are
+now forbidden to be repeated upon State land. The Constitutional
+Amendment adopted in 1894, prohibiting the destruction of trees in the
+Forest Preserve, was aimed at this evil among others, and has been one
+of the most valuable instruments in this State for forest conservation.
+
+_Water Conservation_
+
+The subject of water conservation in the State of New York presents five
+different aspects:
+
+  1--The development of hydraulic or electric power,
+  2--The improvement of commercial waterways,
+  3--Flood prevention,
+  4--Sanitation,
+  5--Domestic use.
+
+As might be expected in the largest manufacturing State in the Union,
+there is in New York a very general appreciation of the importance of
+water storage for the development of power for industrial use;
+therefore, of the different phases of the water-storage question now
+pressed upon public notice, that one probably commands the most
+attention at the present time.
+
+_1--Power Development._ The Association for the Protection of the
+Adirondacks is chiefly concerned with this question as it bears on the
+Adirondacks; but owing to the fact that waters originating in part in
+the Adirondacks flow in many cases to great distances beyond that
+region, it is impossible to treat the subject as one of purely localized
+interest. The question naturally arises, What proportion of importance
+is there between the question of water storage in the Adirondacks and
+water storage in the State at large? On the face of things, the
+proportion seems small. The water-sheds of the whole State aggregate
+30,476,800 acres, while the State lands within the Adirondack Preserve
+with which we are chiefly concerned comprise only 1,530,559 acres, or
+less than 5 percent. A comparison of possible water-power developments
+shows a similar disproportion. The Fourth Annual Report of the State
+Water Supply Commission says that "With the complete utilization of all
+storage possibilities an eventual development amounting to not less than
+1,500,000 horsepower, exclusive of Niagara and Saint Lawrence rivers, is
+possible for the entire State." If, to this estimate be added the
+existing 200,000 horsepower development at Niagara Falls, 100,000
+horsepower as the resource of the lower Niagara, and 400,000 horsepower
+for the Saint Lawrence, an eventual total of 2,200,000 horsepower for
+the whole State does not seem to be beyond the range of possibility.
+From figures derived from the various sources it would appear that about
+7-1/2 percent of this development would require encroachment upon State
+land in the Adirondack Park, which is now forbidden by the Constitution.
+When it is considered that attention has been concentrated for several
+years on the resources of the principal Adirondack streams, while the
+possibilities of the rivers outside of the Adirondacks have not yet been
+completely explored, there is much reason to believe that were the
+census of the hydraulic resources of the State complete it would be
+found that the ratio of the power possibilities of State Forest lands to
+the power possibilities of the whole State is about the same as the
+ratio of the respective water-sheds, or about 5 percent. There are two
+or three reasons, however, why the question of water storage in the
+Adirondacks assumes an importance quite out of proportion to this ratio.
+One is the acknowledged fact that the majority leader of the larger
+house of the State Legislature is personally interested in water-power
+developed from Adirondack waters, and desires to have the Constitution
+amended so that State lands may be flooded for the benefit of his own as
+well as other private corporations. This powerful member of the
+Legislature has the sympathetic support of the Speaker of the Assembly,
+who stands sponsor for a power corporation on Genesee river, on the
+banks of which the Speaker lives. With the water-power interests thus
+strongly represented in the Legislature, and with some of them casting
+covetous eyes on State land from which they are restrained only by the
+Constitution, it is not surprising, perhaps, that in the public
+agitation of the water-storage question such statements should be made
+as that "the most important single obstacle to the carrying out by the
+State of this conservation policy" is "the necessity of amending the
+Constitution" so as to permit the flooding of State land.
+
+Now the attitude of this Association--and this may be of interest to
+other States where the same question may arise--is as follows: At the
+outset, the Association opposed amending the Constitution for the
+purpose of permitting the flooding of State lands on two grounds;
+_first_, on account of the disastrous consequences to the forests which
+have invariably followed the construction of reservoirs in the past, and
+_second_, because it involved the principle of using public lands for
+private purposes without any guarantee of proportionate returns to the
+people whose domain was thus used. For several years the Association,
+with the unquestionable support of public opinion, maintained that
+position for the reason that there appeared to be no safe way of
+compromise.
+
+During the past year, however, as the result of painstaking study of the
+problem by the New York Board of Trade and Transportation and our
+Association, a plan of legislation was evolved which it is believed may
+safely be adopted, and which, while conserving the public interests in
+the Adirondacks, will permit a reasonable use of State land for the
+purpose desired by the water storage people. The first problem
+encountered in working out this plan was presented by the fact that if
+the Constitution were amended generally so as to permit the flooding of
+State land, nobody could foretell to what extent or in what manner the
+lands might be flooded. It was therefore decided to prepare a law which
+should prescribe all the limitations and regulations in advance, and
+which should contain a provision that it should not become effective
+until validated by a constitutional amendment. Then, after this law had
+been enacted, it was proposed to adopt an amendment to the Constitution
+referring to the law specifically by chapter number and year, and
+permitting what was provided therein and nothing more. In pursuance of
+this plan, such a bill was drafted and introduced in the Legislature at
+its session which closed in May, 1910. It provided that storage
+reservoirs might be built upon State lands in certain specified
+water-sheds at certain specified points; that the flow-lines should be
+accurately surveyed and permanently monumented; that the total
+area of State land flooded should not exceed certain stated
+amounts--approximately 3 percent of the total area of the Forest
+Preserve; that all trees, stumps, and other organic material should be
+removed from within the flow-line; and certain other conditions designed
+to protect the public interests in the construction, maintenance and use
+of the reservoirs and the water-power developed therefrom. The law was
+not to become effective until validated by an amendment to the
+Constitution, and the constitutional amendment was to consist simply of
+an addition to the present section 7 of Article VII to the effect that
+"The provisions of this section may be modified as provided in chapter
+---- of the laws of 1910, but in no other respect whatever." By this
+plan it was believed that the safeguards would be erected in advance,
+and in voting for a constitutional amendment our citizens would know
+exactly what they were voting for. The bill, however, was defeated
+through the influence of the majority leader of the Assembly, and
+instead a concurrent resolution to amend the Constitution, proposed by
+him, passed the first of three requisite stages of adoption. The
+provisions of this amendment and the utterances of its author clearly
+reveal the attitude of the water-power interests represented by him, and
+present an issue of importance to every State in which the question of
+Conservation under State auspices may arise. This issue, in brief, is
+whether, after the State has granted the use of land already belonging
+to the people and has acquired additional land in the exercise of its
+power of eminent domain; after it has furnished the capital for building
+storage reservoirs and for managing them when built, the profits shall
+accrue only to the private individuals or corporations benefited
+thereby, or whether the State itself shall derive a reasonable revenue
+from its lands and reservoirs for the relief of taxation, or for public
+improvements, to the consequent benefit of all the people?
+
+The Constitutional Amendment proposed by the water-power interests in
+the last Legislature provides only that the actual cost of the water
+storage shall be paid by the private beneficiaries, leaving to them all
+of the profits and advantages; and the author of the amendment publicly
+declared himself as opposed to the periodical regulation of charges for
+the use of water thus conserved, or to paying anything more than the
+bare cost of construction and administration. On the other hand, the
+proposition of this Association left the question of State revenue open
+for future legislation without any inflexible constitutional provision
+one way or the other. There the matter rests at the present moment. The
+issue remains to be fought out in the future, possibly in the
+Legislature of 1911, possibly at the polls the following November, and
+possibly later. At present the signs of the times are not encouraging to
+the belief that private interests will be given such valuable privileges
+without some reasonable return to the people from whom they are derived.
+
+_2--Improvement of Waterways._ Water conservation for the improvement of
+commercial waterways has little connection with the Adirondacks. The
+principal waterway improvement now in progress in New York State is the
+enlargement of Erie Canal at a cost of $101,000,000. Very little of the
+water for the canal comes from the Adirondacks, and the construction of
+reservoirs on State forest land is not required to augment the supply.
+
+_3--Flood Prevention._ The three principal streams within the borders of
+New York--the Genesee, Mohawk, and Hudson--are subject at times to
+disastrous floods. These are in no small part the result of human folly.
+In the first place, the indiscriminate denudation of forests of the
+greater part of the State has removed one of the most valuable natural
+regulators; and it is the universal complaint that such denudation has
+resulted in the spasmodic flow of streams which are dry or low at one
+season and raging torrents at another. In other cases, as for instance
+at Rochester, on the Genesee, the river has been obstructed by bridge
+piers unscientifically placed, which obstruct the flow of water and
+cause great damage. The Hudson, from the confluence of the Mohawk to
+Albany, is also subject to floods, and as the headwaters of the Hudson
+rise in the Adirondacks it has been argued by those who desire to have
+storage reservoirs for power purposes in Adirondack Park that the
+Constitution should be amended so as to permit the building of
+reservoirs in the Adirondacks to control the floods of the Hudson. As a
+matter of fact, the statistics furnished by competent engineers show
+that 75 percent of the floods at Troy and Albany are due to waters which
+do not originate in the Adirondacks, but can be controlled along the
+Mohawk; and that of the remaining 25 percent over half (say 15 percent)
+are due to water originating along the Hudson and its tributaries
+outside of Adirondack Park. So far, then, as flood control is concerned,
+it has little bearing on Conservation in the Adirondacks.
+
+_4--Sanitation._ Except as a subterfuge, there is practically no
+connection between the subject of water conservation in the Adirondacks
+and sanitation. The Hudson is so polluted from Troy southward with
+sewage that the fish have been almost exterminated, and the industry of
+fishing on the Hudson which thrived within the memory of living men has
+almost disappeared. Sanitation of the Hudson from the head of navigation
+southward cannot be effected by storage reservoirs in the Adirondacks.
+The only prominence which the question of sanitation ever had in
+connection with water conservation in the Adirondacks was from five to
+ten years ago when persons who desired to build storage reservoirs on
+State lands, for the purpose of driving logs or developing power, used
+the plea of "public health and safety" in petitions presented to the
+River Improvement Commission to disguise their real purpose.
+
+_5--Domestic Use._ There are those who think that in time the
+Adirondacks may be drawn upon for municipal water supplies for cities in
+the Hudson valley. The extent to which New York City has reached out for
+her water supply during the past 70 years would seem to lend color to
+such prophecies. In 1842 New York City introduced a water supply from
+the Croton Reservoir 40 miles distant; at the present time it is
+building a great reservoir in the Catskill Mountains 90 miles distant.
+Many people believe that eventually New York will be forced to go to the
+Adirondacks 200 miles away for a pure water supply, and that the
+resources of the Adirondacks should be preserved against that need and
+should not now be parted with for private use when there is the
+possibility that in the future they will be required for all the
+multifarious uses of human existence in the great metropolis. Water
+conservation in the Adirondacks for municipal use, therefore, is
+important chiefly with reference to the future.
+
+_Scientific Forestry on State Lands_
+
+As persons unfamiliar with the history of the Forest Preserve in New
+York may wonder why the State does not utilize commercially the timber
+growing on State lands, it may not be inappropriate to conclude this
+report with a brief explanation of the reasons for the iron-clad
+restriction placed by the Constitution on the removal of State timber.
+The reason for this restriction is two-fold: First, it is not apparent
+that there are enough trained foresters yet available or that the
+problem of the conservative handling of State forest lands for
+commercial purposes is yet sufficiently understood to warrant the State
+in undertaking scientific forestry; and second, the citizens of the
+State are not confident that if the removal of timber were permitted,
+the people at large would derive any benefit from it.
+
+_1--Lack of Practical Men._ At a public meeting held in the American
+Museum of Natural History in New York under the auspices of this
+Association on April 25, 1907, Professor Henry S. Graves, then Director
+of the School of Forestry at Yale University and now Chief Forester of
+the United States, speaking on the subject of scientific forestry on the
+State lands in New York, said: "It would be exceedingly difficult at the
+present time to secure trained men with adequate experience to carry out
+a plan of successful forestry." That situation with respect to the
+dearth of practical foresters still exists and promises to continue
+until relieved either by the more general teaching of forestry in
+colleges and schools or by a more general training in the field, or
+both. Another drawback is the lack of systematic study and knowledge of
+our Forest Preserve. With the exception of Township 40 and adjacent
+territory, and possibly a few other tracts, little has been done in the
+direction of examining the land to determine its value, the amount and
+character of timber, the growth of trees, and the local conditions which
+are factors in the profitable management of the forests; nor has
+anything yet been done toward preparing a comprehensive plan for the
+whole Preserve.
+
+A concrete illustration of the impracticability of scientific forestry
+under existing conditions is afforded by the experimental forest in
+Franklin County established under an act of 1898. The hopes entertained
+in regard to this experiment were well set forth in the message of
+Governor Black to the Legislature on January 5, 1898. The Governor
+pictured in graphic terms the desirability of enlarging the Forest
+Preserve as a health resort and a conserver of the northern New York
+water-sheds, and referred to the rapid inroads made upon the forests by
+commercial lumbering, and to the protection which the Constitution
+extended to State lands. He argued that, properly managed, the State
+forests might be made productive of a substantial revenue; but, he said,
+"The Constitution should not be amended until the people have learned
+prudence instead of waste, and have equipped themselves with knowledge
+and experience adequate to the care of this great domain. Our conditions
+here are not like those in Germany and France, but in what respects they
+differ, few can tell." Then, with a view to the acquisition of this
+necessary knowledge and experience, he recommended the following plan:
+
+     There are students here who have made a careful study of the
+     forests, their capacities and their needs. The number of these
+     gentlemen I understand to be increasing, for through the labors
+     of several of our citizens of great generosity and public
+     spirit, the subject has been studied and discussed, and upon
+     the general ignorance relating to this question there is
+     beginning to be some light. The knowledge necessary to the
+     proper treatment of the woods must come largely through
+     experiment. It cannot be had unless the means of acquiring it
+     are provided. I believe the means can be secured best through
+     the purchase by the State of a tract of ground covered with
+     those trees which are to be the subject of experiment. Such a
+     tract the State could set apart and gain from it the knowledge
+     which will enable it by and by to deal with the millions of
+     acres it has already and will in the meantime acquire. The time
+     will come when the State will sell timber to the lumbermen,
+     spruce to the pulp mills, reap a large revenue for itself and
+     still retain the woods, open to the public, protecting the
+     sources of water, growing and yielding under intelligent
+     cultivation. The management of this experiment should not be
+     subject to the vicissitudes of politics. It should be placed in
+     charge of the Regents, or of the Trustees of Cornell
+     University, or of some similar body not subject to political
+     change. The State should pay such reasonable sum as may be
+     needed to administer the plan. Reports should be made to the
+     Governor and the Legislature annually of progress and results.
+     The income from the tract so acquired should be paid to the
+     State and the land itself should become the absolute property
+     of the State, and a part of the Forest Preserve at the
+     expiration of a period named. I believe such a plan would be
+     soon, if not at once, self-sustaining, for the trees now ready
+     to be cut would produce immediate revenue, and such revenue
+     would be repeated at short intervals. The benefits could be
+     hardly overstated, and in this direction, as in many others,
+     the wisdom of New York entering upon a comparatively new and
+     untried field would be finally approved.
+
+Following Governor Black's recommendation, the Legislature of 1898
+enacted a law pursuant to which 30,000 acres of forest land in Townships
+23 and 26 in Franklin County were purchased for $165,000 and conveyed to
+Cornell University for the purposes of a "New York State College of
+Forestry;" and in the years 1898 to 1902 sums aggregating $110,000 more
+were appropriated for salaries of the Director and instructors in the
+College of Forestry and for working capital for improving, maintaining,
+and administering the College forest. With a view to making the forest
+self-sustaining, the University on May 5, 1900, made a fifteen-year
+contract with the Brooklyn Cooperage Company by which it agreed to
+deliver to the company annually one-fifteenth of the wood and timber
+standing in the College forest. The details of this contract and the
+litigation which ensued are not essential to the present statement, but
+the results of the experiment were highly important; instead of yielding
+the State a revenue, all of the moneys appropriated were used up except
+about $9,000 of working capital, while about 3,100 acres of forest land
+were denuded and only about 440 acres replanted. The results were so
+obviously disappointing that in 1903 Governor Odell vetoed the
+appropriation of $10,000 for that year, and since then no appropriation
+for the College of Forestry has been made except one of $5,000 in 1903,
+exclusively for the purpose of removing the underbrush and for
+replanting trees. Soon thereafter (June, 1903) Cornell University
+discontinued the College of Forestry. In his message to the Legislature
+in 1904, Governor Odell, speaking of the School of Forestry, said: "Its
+operations had for their object the substitution of valuable growths for
+so-called worthless timber, but this has resulted in the practical
+destruction of all trees upon the lands where the experiment was in
+progress. No compensating benefits seem possible to the present
+generation. The preservation of the forests is primarily for the
+protection of the water supply, and this is not possible through the
+denudation of the lands. Therefore this school failed of its object, as
+understood by its founders--a failure which was not due, however, to the
+work of the University, which followed out the letter and the spirit of
+the law."
+
+Mr Justice Chester, of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, in
+his opinion rendered in June, 1910, in the case of the People of the
+State of New York against the Brooklyn Cooperage Company and Cornell
+University,[6] said that there could be no net revenues from the College
+Forest, as the expenses exceeded the income. He also pointed out how,
+under the operation of the contract, practically the entire College
+Forest would be denuded for the benefit of a private industry and not
+for the promotion of education in forestry. "There is proof in the
+case," he said, "that 500 acres were sufficient for conducting
+experiments on the 'clear cutting' system of forestry as distinguished
+from the 'selection' system."
+
+Notwithstanding the failure of the forest experiment, Governor Odell in
+1904 hoped that the Forest School would be continued: "Because," he said
+in his message, "with the lapse of years, a proper understanding of
+scientific forestry will become more and more a necessity." What
+Governor Odell said remains true. But what is needed is not only
+scientific knowledge but also knowledge of local conditions. A high
+order of theoretical knowledge was brought to the management of the
+Cornell tract, but the experiment failed for lack of knowledge of local
+conditions and business prudence.
+
+_2--Lack of Confidence that Benefits will Accrue._ The second obstacle
+to the introduction of scientific forestry upon State lands is the lack
+of confidence that if the forest products were utilized any benefit
+would accrue to the people generally. The feeling may be understood in
+the light of the history of the Forest Preserve. In its beginnings, this
+was not a deliberately planned institution, but grew up in haphazard
+fashion, without forethought or system. Once the State owned nearly all
+the land within the Adirondack wilderness, but prior to 1883 there were
+no laws which prevented the State from parting with its lands, and large
+areas were sold to private parties for almost a song--lands which the
+State has gradually been buying back ever since at constantly increasing
+prices.[7] In a message to the Legislature in 1882, Governor Cornell
+called attention to the shortsightedness of this policy, in these words:
+
+     By far the greater quantity of land within the Adirondack
+     wilderness proper belongs to the State. Individual ownership is
+     now confined to a few hundred thousand acres. Heretofore it has
+     been the practice of the State, with questionable policy, to
+     sell its wild lands at nominal prices to private parties, who
+     have gone on, in most cases, and cut off the marketable timber
+     where accessible, and then abandoned to the State the
+     clearings, worthless generally for agricultural purposes,
+     thereby escaping the payment of taxes. Forest fires have
+     followed and raged with destructive fury, denuding the
+     mountains and checking the flow of springs and streams that
+     supply the navigable waters to the north and the Hudson river
+     to the southward. Furthermore, many of the lakes, the natural
+     reservoirs of the mountain courses, have been damaged by dams
+     and overflow, so that the shores of those lying within the
+     working timber limits present the effects of irreparable
+     injury.
+
+In 1883 a law was enacted which prohibited the sale of any State lands
+in the counties of Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer,
+Lewis, Saratoga, Saint Lawrence, and Warren, and by subsequent acts the
+counties of Oneida, Washington, Delaware, Greene, Sullivan, and Ulster
+were added to the list. Prior to that year the State had recovered about
+800,000 acres of land which the owners had permitted to be sold for
+taxes--patches of land scattered here and there without any system or
+studied continuity. After the passage of the laws forbidding the sale of
+State lands the value of the lands began rapidly to appreciate, and
+private parties, desiring to acquire it endeavored to circumvent the law
+prohibiting the sale by attacking the State's tax titles. With the aid
+of pliant State officials, these efforts in many cases were successful,
+the State either parting entirely with its title or, retaining the title
+to the soil, parting with the title to the timber. In this manner the
+State lost about 100,000 acres of land. A report made to the Comptroller
+in 1895 showed that these cancellations were made with disregard of the
+law and the rights of the State. As the result of all the tax-sale
+transactions of the State, it has acquired about one-half of its present
+forest-preserve holdings in the Adirondacks. The other half was acquired
+by purchase. The first actual appropriation of money for the purchase of
+land for forest purposes was $10,000 appropriated in 1883 during Grover
+Cleveland's administration. In 1885 the Forest Preserve was established
+by law, and since then the building up of the Forest Preserve has
+proceeded with more intelligence and upon a more definite policy. Up to
+the present time, the State has spent about $3,800,000 on the purchase
+of lands for the Adirondack and Catskill forests.
+
+While the Forest Preserve was thus being evolved, other evils than the
+illegal cancellation of State titles developed. While the
+statutes--subject to change at any time at the wish of the
+Legislature--forbade the sale of State lands, there was nothing, to
+prevent the sale of the timber on the land. In 1893 Governor Flower,
+whose friendship for the forests was unquestionable, recommended to the
+Legislature that "the State could acquire considerable revenue by
+granting permission to fell trees above a certain diameter on State
+land." But the policy thus proposed with the best of intentions was a
+disastrous one, for the reason that with the reckless lumbering methods
+employed the lumbermen would destroy fifty trees while taking out
+one.[8] By 1894, with the juggling in titles to State lands, the
+destruction of trees in lumbering operations, the killing of trees by
+flooding, the creation of unsanitary conditions by dams, and the general
+misuse and mismanagement of the State forests, conditions became
+intolerable, and the Constitutional Convention of that year adopted the
+stringent section before quoted (page 399). Every word was carefully
+weighed, and designed to meet some phase of the situation. The necessity
+was so obvious that it was adopted without a dissenting vote by the
+Convention, and subsequently was overwhelmingly ratified by the people.
+
+Since then, persistent efforts have been made by the lumber and
+water-power interests to impair this safeguard, but without success. We
+do not believe that the time has yet come to relax this section of the
+Constitution with respect to timber cutting; for while it is true that
+during the past few years conditions in the management of the Adirondack
+Forest Preserve have greatly improved and the public confidence in the
+possibility of the proper utilization of our forests had begun to take
+root, it is an unfortunate fact that that confidence has received a
+severe set-back by the course of legislation in 1910 with reference to
+the use of Adirondack waters. When the controlling powers in the
+Legislature are hostile to the idea that the State shall derive a
+revenue from its waters, it cannot be said that the auspices are
+propitious for the State's deriving any revenue from its timber. We do
+not believe that the people of the State are prepared to part with their
+forests upon the terms upon which they are asked to build storage
+reservoirs and furnish water-power to private interests, that is to say,
+for the bare original cost of the timber.
+
+It therefore appears to be the part of wisdom for the people to defer
+scientific forestry on State lands while the present attitude of the
+legislative mind continues, and to preserve their forests intact until
+the prospect of deriving a revenue from them is better.
+
+                    [Signed]  WARREN HIGLEY,
+                                _First Vice-President_
+                              EDWARD HAGAMAN HALL,
+                                _Secretary_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE CARRIAGE BUILDERS' NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
+
+Soon after the Conference of Governors called by President Roosevelt in
+the White House, May 3-15, 1908, the Carriage Builders' National
+Association appointed a Committee on National Conservation, which has
+submitted two reports adopted by the Association. The last report,
+recently adopted, covers the items in which the carriage trade is most
+vitally interested. In addition to data taken from the Report of the
+National Conservation Commission, it summarizes the work and opinion of
+our Association on the important subject of Conservation.
+
+A late census report showed in its lumber cut a total of 203,211,000
+board feet of hickory as compared with 9,255,000,000 feet for all
+hardwoods. This would indicate that the hardwood forest at present
+contains a little over 2 percent of hickory; probably as much as 4
+percent for the entire hardwood area. The forest of the eastern half of
+Kentucky has been estimated recently to contain about 5 percent of
+hickory. The lumber cut does not show the large quantity of hickory
+which is cut and shipped in the form of round billets, rived or split
+spoke stock, etc. This form of material is frequently culled from the
+forest ahead of the lumberman, and tends to cause the low percentage of
+hickory in the lumber cut before noted. Including this with the
+203,000,000 feet of hickory lumber would raise the total cut to at least
+350,000,000 feet per year.
+
+Add to this hickory cut for fuel in localities with no transportation
+facilities, and the heart, pecky, and other portions wasted, and the
+total soon amounts to 400,000,000 feet. If hickory forms 3 percent of
+this forest (much of which is culled already for hickory--the lumber cut
+alone showing a little over 2 percent) there would be a total stand of
+12,000,000,000 feet of hickory. Much of this is mature timber, with an
+annual growth of less than 1-1/2 percent. Hence there may be figured a
+growth of less than 180,000,000 feet against a consumption of about
+400,000,000 feet. Though this is to some extent speculation, when
+supported by increasing difficulty in getting hickory timber and with
+rising prices, it is nevertheless sufficient to indicate that a thorough
+study of the growth of hickory is one of the important steps in
+attempting to plan relief measures.
+
+The report made to President Roosevelt was enthusiastically received,
+and an organization was formed to bring about a campaign of education
+among the people of the United States on National Conservation of our
+resources. In turning over the office of President to William H. Taft,
+Theodore Roosevelt recommended to him strongly the work of National
+Conservation, and reports through the press have shown that he is very
+enthusiastic and is taking a live interest, notwithstanding some of the
+newspaper reports regarding the controversy between some of the members
+connected with the Association, which, in our judgment, has been a
+splendid advertisement for the cause.
+
+We are also pleased to report that the National Hickory Association of
+the United States (whose membership is composed largely of the members
+of our Association) have taken a great interest in this work of
+Conservation, and have taken an active interest with the National
+Conservation Commission appointed by President Roosevelt in making up
+their report. They also held an enthusiastic meeting in Cincinnati last
+April, passing resolutions to work toward the end of having a permanent
+National Conservation Committee appointed by the Government, and also in
+the various States.
+
+Your committee recommended that all our members take an active interest
+and cooperate with the members of the National Hickory Association and
+the National Conservation Association, and offered the following
+resolutions which were adopted:
+
+"_Resolved_, That we heartily endorse the work of the National Hickory
+Association and assure them of our hearty cooperation.
+
+"_Resolved_, That we favor the maintenance of Conservation Commissions
+in every State, to the end that each commonwealth may be aided and
+guided in making the best use of those abundant resources with which it
+has been blessed.
+
+"_Resolved_, That we also especially urge on the Congress of the United
+States the high desirability of maintaining a National Commission on the
+Conservation of the Resources of the Country, empowered to cooperate
+with State commissions, to the end that every sovereign commonwealth and
+every section of the country may attain the high degree of prosperity
+and the sureness of perpetuity naturally arising in the abundant
+resources and the vigor and intelligence and patriotism of our people.
+
+"_Resolved_, That a joint committee be appointed by our chairman, to
+consist of six members of our Association, whose duty it shall be to
+work in harmony with the State and National Commissions and the National
+Hickory Association."
+
+                    Respectfully submitted,
+                    [Signed]  H. RATTERMANN, Cincinnati, Ohio
+                                _Chairman_
+                              J. D. DORT, Flint, Mich.
+                              DANIEL T. WILSON, New York City
+                              E. W. M. BAILEY, Amesbury, Mass.
+                              GEORGE H. BABCOCK, Watertown, N. Y.
+                              WILLIAM A. SNYDER, Piqua, Ohio
+                              W. P. CHAMPNEY, Cleveland, Ohio
+                              D. M. PARRY, Indianapolis, Ind.
+                              MAURICE CONNOLLY, Dubuque, Iowa
+                              LUCIUS GREGORY, Chase City, Va.
+                                _Committee_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE DELAWARE STATE FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS
+
+As the one Delegate from the State of Delaware, I feel that I must speak
+a word for her. Delaware has an enviable list of great names, from Caesar
+Rodney, whose memorable ride turned the scale in the vote for liberty,
+with Thomas F. Bayard and John Clayton, down to the present time, when
+we have a man like Judge George Gray to be proud of.
+
+The Delaware State Federation of Women's Clubs, which I represent, goes
+hand in hand with the women of sister States in this great movement. Our
+Legislature has appointed a State Forester--and the Granges and our
+Agricultural College at Newark are working to improve our soil and
+crops, while our women are supplementing their efforts wherever they
+can. We are cooperating with the Red Cross in the fight against the
+White Plague, and have succeeded in having a child labor law enacted,
+and are now working for a juvenile court. We have offered prizes to the
+public school children for the best essay on waterways; and we are
+beautifying our waterfronts and securing pure water. We have no great
+forests, but we raise the best peaches in the world and are rapidly
+coming to the front in apple culture, and we are going to keep up a
+ceaseless educational campaign, so that our people will realize the
+importance of conserving our natural resources.
+
+I consider it a great honor and privilege to represent the women of
+Delaware at this great Congress, and thank you for your attention.
+
+                    [Signed]  CORNELIA R. HOLLIDAY
+
+
+REPORT OF THE FARMERS' UNION OF AMERICA
+
+It is a matter of great regret to me that the National Convention of the
+Farmers' Union occurs almost simultaneously with the gathering of the
+Second National Conservation Congress.
+
+I regard the question of Conservation as one of the very greatest now
+before this country. I regard Gifford Pinchot as the father of the
+Conservation idea in America. I believe that future generations will
+credit his activity in awakening the American conscience to almost
+criminal extravagance in exploiting our resources as one of the most
+practical displays of patriotism in National history.
+
+I trust that the deliberations at Saint Paul will be attended by much
+progress and profit. Let me beg also that while you concentrate on
+resources, you do not overlook the conserving of that greatest of our
+resources--the American Farmer. I regard his uplift of first importance
+to the present welfare and destiny of America.
+
+I shall hope that such steps as you take during the current session will
+be of far-reaching influence in directing the vital thought of an
+aroused people.
+
+                    [Signed]  C. S. BARRETT
+                                _President_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE GENERAL FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS
+
+It gives me great pleasure to report to this Congress the work
+undertaken and accomplished by the Waterway Committee of the General
+Federation of Women's Clubs during the sixteen months of its existence.
+
+Every State federation in the Union was asked to assist in this movement
+by adding to their standing committees one called Waterways; and ready
+responses came from many States. The work as outlined for each State
+falls under three departments, Civic, Educational, and Publicity. In
+this way the work can be systematized and developed along the lines to
+meet the needs of each locality.
+
+We have been told that our country stands foremost in waterway richness;
+with its many splendid rivers and great lakes, as it is well nigh
+girdled by oceans. Plans are rapidly maturing for the celebration of the
+short route to the East through Panama in 1915. From the dawn of history
+to the present time, civilization has followed the water routes; all the
+great cities are on, or in close proximity to, waterways. The date of
+the rapid reaching of railroads in every direction throughout our land
+was the signal for the neglect and non-use of water highways, until in
+the majority of cases the river fronts have been absorbed for railroad
+ways. There are now scarcely any good terminal facilities to be found
+for water transportation. To meet the problems confronting us in regard
+to our waterways, women resolved that there must be instituted a
+campaign for education, such an education that the awakening resulting
+therefrom shall become a force of tremendous energy.
+
+Man must know that in giving development to a stream it must be improved
+from its source to its mouth, and for its every use. Storage dams should
+be built at every available point. The fish raised in the reservoirs
+thereby created will soon pay for the outlay in construction. It is
+estimated that by fully conserving the waters and utilizing the
+water-power developed in connection with storage and other works, three
+times as much land can be reclaimed in the western half of the United
+States. Such dams will decrease largely the annual damage from flood
+waters, with which we are so familiar, as well as regulate a more even
+stream-flow. A larger and purer water supply will be assured; water for
+irrigation in the more accessible regions will be afforded. An improved
+stream provides cheaper power for manufacturing purposes, stimulates
+various industries, and thereby furnishes larger fields of employment.
+If the limitation of streams as self-clarifiers were better understood
+there would be such protection given to them and their water-sheds that
+there would be no more refuse, laden with typhoid, cholera and
+inflammatory intestinal germs given to them, especially if the great
+distances these germs travel and their tenacity of life were better
+known. The developed stream affords water for transportation when the
+stream is navigable, which affects both the producer and consumer from
+the remotest section to the heart of the Nation.
+
+It costs no more to develop the average stream than to build a railroad
+of the same mileage, but the improved stream carries 125 times as much
+freight per year as can be carried by rails, and at one-sixth the cost.
+Some 75 percent of the total freight commodities originating on the
+traffic lines in the United States consist of heavy raw materials, the
+staple productions of the farms, the forests, the mines, and the live
+stock ranges of the interior. These are commodities where economy of
+transportation is a prime essential to production. The even stream-flow
+which comes from improvement gives moisture to the agricultural lands
+along the banks; the trees at the head waters and outlining its
+meanderings testify to the interdependence of forests and streams. An
+improved river system as outlined in these suggestions also necessitates
+drainage of all lowlands, save those suffering from the encroachments of
+the sea.
+
+At a glance we readily see that the development of waterways affects the
+Nation at large and man individually in a more vital way than any other
+of the natural resources. The idea is generally prevalent that the
+development of our Nation's waterways is pre-eminently man's work, and
+that there is nothing for the women to do. Yet there is not one phase of
+waterway development that does not directly or indirectly touch every
+home of this Nation. Who is there, then, to say that it is not the duty
+of every woman as mother and citizen to inform herself thoroughly on so
+vital a subject that she may be among the most active educators in this
+great campaign? In almost every great sociological and reform movement,
+women have been the originators; and today they are the dynamic forces
+which destroy the evils that are opposing civic righteousness. Shall
+the homemaker refuse to protect her household from one of the greatest
+sources of physical infection which follows in the wake of modern
+indifference to pure water supply? Purity in water means health,
+impurity means sickness and death.
+
+Every year millions of dollars are spent by Americans in travel in the
+older countries. We read beautiful descriptions of voyages down the
+Rhine. Along the Thames the Victorian embankment adds glory to London.
+The little River Seine with its many canals, making Paris, though
+inland, one of the greatest ports in France, remains beautiful
+throughout its length; flowing through the center of Paris, it has been
+kept decorative, banked with foliage and flowers, skirted by long lines
+of graceful masonry, with pleasure promenades, bordered on either side
+with beautiful statuary and sparkling fountains. Does it not fill your
+heart with a sense of mortification to compare these water fronts of
+European cities with the water fronts of our American cities? Public
+beauty excites that love of country which is at the very foundation of
+true patriotism. Let us resolve within ourselves to reverse these
+conditions, and bend our energies to improve and make of our waterways
+the most beautiful in the world.
+
+Reports from the 39 States now in active work along these lines have
+shown great returns from the efforts put forth. We have 619 federated
+clubs showing definite results of their undertakings. In one State a
+splendid reference library on "Waterways" has been established; in
+another a great warfare was waged for pure drinking-water, the women
+going to the polls and making a fight for the sand filtration plan.
+Sixty-three clubs have reported making sanitary and parking water fronts
+as their especial work with splendid results. Prizes have been offered
+in many States to school children for the best essay on "Inland
+Waterways": over 5000 children in one State alone entered this contest.
+Placing Conservation in the public schools has been accomplished in
+several States; in every State great work is being done along
+educational lines, with the hearty cooperation and support of the
+superintendents and teachers. This subject has been given place on 150
+programs of State, district, and local meetings of various
+organizations; and many speakers have addressed schools and club
+assemblies. The press has been most courteous in every State in its
+cooperation with this Committee; 101 different articles have been
+published in all the prominent newspapers throughout the States. The
+Waterway Committee of the General Federation have sent delegates to
+waterway conventions in a number of States. There is scarcely a club in
+the Federation that has not given at least one number on its program, if
+not the entire program, to the Conservation of our natural resources.
+
+Fifty thousand circulars and pamphlets have been sent from the
+Chairman's office and distributed throughout the States by the different
+chairmen. The great demand for waterway literature from every quarter
+convinces us of the growing interest in this subject. Thus we stand as
+strong allies in this great Conservation movement.
+
+                    [Signed]  Mrs J. D. WILKINSON,
+                                _Chairman Waterways Committee_
+                    (Reported through Mrs G. B. SNEATH)
+
+
+REPORT OF THE LAKES TO GULF DEEP WATERWAY ASSOCIATION
+
+I bring greetings from three different bodies allied in this work: the
+Business Men's League of Saint Louis; the Missouri Waterways Commission,
+of which I have the honor to be Chairman; and the Lakes to the Gulf Deep
+Waterway Association, of which I have the honor to be President. On
+behalf of Governor Hadley and the State of Missouri, I wish to extend to
+this Congress the assurance that Missouri is for the policy of
+Conservation of natural resources in the way in which it is understood
+by most of you; that is to say, she is for the economical development of
+her resources in the highest degree, and at the same time for the
+preservation of the rights of the people in the control of those
+resources.
+
+Some time ago, following out the policy advocated by Mr Gifford Pinchot
+and by President Roosevelt, Governor Hadley appointed the Missouri
+Waterways Commission to examine and report upon the water resources of
+the State. In this department, Missouri is richer than many other States
+in the Union. Located in the center of the most fertile valley in
+America, she possesses two great rivers; the Mississippi, forming her
+entire eastern border, and the Missouri, exactly bisecting the State,
+connecting her two great principal cities. In addition to these there
+come down out of the Ozark Mountain region a series of smaller navigable
+rivers, the Osage, the Gasconade, the Big Piney, the Current, the Black,
+the White, and many smaller streams flowing into the great rivers and
+enabling boats to reach almost every part of the interior. In the course
+of time all of these rivers will be very much improved, and many of them
+made navigable. The sources of these streams are in the Ozarks, and they
+are fed by the most beautiful springs which are known to exist in
+America; one of these springs, named after our Governor, discharges, it
+is estimated, 50,000,000 gallons a day, even in the driest season--an
+amount equal to the entire consumption of a city of probably 50,000
+inhabitants. There are many more which flow from 5,000,000 to 10,000,000
+gallons a day. You cannot go a quarter of a mile along any valley road
+in the Ozark region without coming upon a spring oozing out of the
+limestone or sandstone cliffs, and adding its limpid waters to some
+brook or river. The crest of the Ozarks is 2,000 feet above the sea,
+more than 1,500 feet above Saint Louis, and all of these streams flow
+pell-mell down the hills to their navigable portions; so that the State
+has a very large amount of latent water-power. It is well to remember
+that the Ozarks remain forested, and that it is in the shelter of these
+forests that the waters gather to form the abundant springs and streams.
+
+The Missouri Waterways Commission has employed one of the best-known
+hydraulic engineers in America, Mr M. L. Holman, to make a preliminary
+survey of these and other resources; and on this he is now engaged. When
+this has been completed, a report will be made to Governor Hadley
+embodying a policy for the control and development of this power, and
+this policy, it is expected, will be recommended to the next State
+Legislature by the Governor with the view of securing legislation
+conserving at the same time the water resources and the people's rights
+in them.
+
+This is not, of course, the full extent of the Waterway Commission's
+work, for we have also to consider the use of the streams for
+navigation, a department in which the State is as much interested as the
+Federal Government, although we are not allowed to tamper with the
+navigable rivers themselves. We are also to consider the reclamation of
+swamp lands, the preservation of soil, and the general use of water,
+which is today the Nation's greatest asset. In the last Congress an
+appropriation of $1,300,000 was made for Missouri river, which means as
+much to Missouri as a part of its Conservation work as it does to the
+cities and the Nation for its value to navigation. Both the Missouri and
+the Mississippi are great devourers of soil. The Missouri will tear out
+an entire farm and ruin a farmer in an incredibly short space of time
+when it is changing its bed. The application of revetment to the banks
+and the contraction system in the effort, certain of success, to obtain
+a 6-foot permanent channel between Kansas City and Saint Louis, will
+return to the farmer, it is estimated, more than the entire outlay in
+additional capital wealth represented by the rich accretions of the
+Missouri bottoms. The securing of this appropriation and the very large
+appropriations also for the Mississippi fronting the State and leading
+from this beautiful city of Saint Paul all the way down to the Gulf of
+Mexico, has been largely stimulated by the work and activity of the
+Lakes to the Gulf Deep Water Association; and many of you will remember
+how much that organization has had to do with the doctrines of
+Conservation.
+
+This reference to the Lakes to the Gulf Deep Waterway Association may be
+pardoned, when it is remembered that this Association has always stood
+for the complete utilization of the waterways for all purposes for which
+they are available, and that it has thereby become one of the most
+effective Conservation agencies in the world. It may interest you to
+know that we of the Lakes to the Gulf Waterway Association played an
+historic part in the early history of Conservation in this country. In
+October, 1907, the Association chartered a fleet of steamers and carried
+President Theodore Roosevelt from Saint Louis to Memphis to show a
+President of the United States for the first time the necessity of
+improving the inland waters. One of the steamboats which made that trip
+was the General McKenzie, and the passengers on the McKenzie were the
+Inland Waterways Commission appointed by President Roosevelt, upon the
+suggestion of our Association, to examine the question in hand. One of
+the members of this Commission was Gifford Pinchot; another was Mr
+Frederick H. Newell, head of the Reclamation Service; another was Dr W J
+McGee, Secretary of the Commission; another was Herbert Knox Smith, head
+of the Bureau of Corporations; and another was Alexander McKenzie,
+always a friend of the waterways. On the steamer Alton, escorting the
+President, were the Governors of 22 States; and still another vessel
+bore about 75 members of the Federal Congress.
+
+The second night out from Saint Louis was a stormy night; the rain fell
+in torrents, and the vessels made their way with great difficulty
+through the intricate channel of Point Pleasant reached from New Madrid
+southward. On that memorable night Gifford Pinchot and his associates in
+the Inland Waterways Commission came aboard the steamer Alton, and on
+the deck of that steamboat, protected from the storm by canvas awnings,
+held the historic meeting that gave birth to two great movements:
+Conservation, and the House of Governors. As a result of that meeting,
+where the policy of Conservation was fully laid out, President Roosevelt
+announced in his speech at the Lakes to the Gulf convention in Memphis
+that he would call a meeting of the Governors, and did call this
+memorable meeting of May 15-18, 1908, at which public sanction was given
+to the Conservation movement, and the House of Governors became an
+established organization. We have always felt that the place of the
+Lakes to the Gulf Deep Waterway Association in bringing about this
+meeting is one of the proudest achievements that the Association has on
+its records, and will live in history.
+
+The Lakes to the Gulf Deep Waterway Association has always felt the
+necessity of allying itself with the Upper Mississippi River Improvement
+Association, the Ohio River Improvement Association, and the general
+Conservation movement for the best development of all river channels.
+The Mississippi today has the largest storage reservoirs in the world,
+although they are almost equaled now by the storage in the Salt River
+Irrigation Project in Arizona. But because of the cutting and burning of
+the forests, and the failure of the Government to complete the
+reservoirs, the Mississippi this year has been unnavigable above Saint
+Louis through the whole summer season. Nothing but conservation of the
+head-waters--and it must be remembered that adequate attention should be
+given to the forests about the head-waters--can prevent a recurrence of
+that circumstance in the next drought. The reservoirs which are now
+established should be supplemented by others on the Wisconsin, the
+Flambeau, the Chippewa, the Minnesota, and all the other streams flowing
+into the upper river, and some scheme for conserving the waters of the
+Ohio, although it will come at great expense; and the Tennessee also
+must be dammed and reservoired, both to withhold the floods and to
+conserve the water for dry-season navigation. Costly as these reservoir
+systems may be, it will require but little figuring to show that, again
+in league with the Conservation policy and a light charge by the
+Government on the water-power in these navigable streams, they will
+return interest and sinking fund on the cost of the improvements. Here
+in Saint Paul, and between here and Minneapolis, we have an illustration
+of the great lack of proper development in the series of falls and
+rapids--not half of which is properly utilized--on which the Government
+has spent much money and for which the people receive no return
+whatever.
+
+But the Lakes to the Gulf channel is a magnificent illustration of
+Conservation. It requires, as in Illinois, the cutting of 100 miles of
+canal through rock and riverbed, and the building of dams which will
+develop 150,000 horsepower; and the use of the money from that power now
+going to waste will pay the entire cost of this expensive rock channel
+(this in itself is an ideal example of Conservation). In the Mississippi
+reach between Grafton and Cairo, which is to be deepened to 14 feet or
+more by three large dams, will be developed more than 600,000
+horsepower, and this in return will also pay for the cost of the work
+and a surplus besides. Below Cairo the improvement of the river
+contemplates--and the present appropriations are carrying this out--the
+revetment of the banks in every bend, which will save to the Nation in
+soil an amount every year which it is impossible to calculate, but which
+is worth many millions of dollars; will allow the building of levees
+close to the waterfront without danger of their caving in, and so
+reclaim possibly 100 square miles of additional land in the Delta; and
+will make a permanent and safe drainage system for the great swamps
+along the river, from which a few years' crops will more than pay for
+the entire Lakes to the Gulf Deep Waterway.
+
+Swamp drainage, storage to prevent floods, storage to provide
+water-power and better channels, the establishment of suitable banks and
+good levees--all of these are a part of the Conservation policy that was
+launched on that memorable trip on which Theodore Roosevelt inspected
+the Mississippi.
+
+                    [Signed]  W. K. KAVANAUGH,
+                                _President_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE LEAGUE OF AMERICAN SPORTSMEN
+
+The Committee appointed by the League of American Sportsmen to make
+recommendations to the National Conservation Congress beg leave to
+report briefly as follows:
+
+_Federal Laws_
+
+The United States should enact laws so that in addition to those now in
+force, the following will be possible:
+
+The protection by the United States Government of migratory birds and
+fishes.
+
+The setting apart and protection of game refuges, parks, and breeding
+grounds, and scientifically caring for same. Some of these should be
+established in the forest reserves now existing that are suitable for
+this purpose, and competent caretakers put in charge. The Wichita
+Reserve is a good example to follow. Marsh lands and water should not be
+forgotten, as all bird and forest life must be considered.
+
+Trained Government game-keepers or experts should be provided, that can
+be furnished upon applications received from State or private game
+parks--same to be paid by the applicant served.
+
+_The States_
+
+The States should each and all set apart game refuges and parks and care
+for them practically. Competent care-takers and trained game-keepers
+should be put in charge. These game refuges for wild life should be
+distributed as generally in each State and cover as wide an area as
+possible; for it must not be forgotten that the song and insectivorous
+birds are as important to save and find refuges for, as is what is
+usually denominated "game."
+
+The game laws of the States should be as nearly the same as geographical
+and local conditions will permit.
+
+The enforcement of the game, bird, and fish laws, together with the care
+of game preserves, should be divorced from politics. At present in most
+of the States the selection of a game warden is based not upon training
+or fitness for the position, but is the reward of party or personal
+political fealty. Should by chance the appointee show adaptability and
+really study the subject of game protection, by the time his education
+is well under way and he has become valuable to the State, the political
+wheel turns again and some one else is to be rewarded.
+
+So-called game laws to be enforcible must be practical and have the
+sympathy of the people. Therefore, the work of education must be
+continued and amplified by both the State and Federal powers to show,
+_first_, the value of bird life to the farmer and all the people as
+insect and weed-seed destroyers; _second_, the value of game and fish as
+food products; _third_, their value as an incentive to a life
+out-of-doors and health; _fourth_, the value to the State because of the
+tourist and sportsmen's travel attracted thereby (statistics on this
+subject should be gathered by both Federal and State authorities, and
+given constant and wide publicity); _fifth_, the non-resident hunting
+and fishing license should be made as nearly alike in the several States
+as possible, and a reasonable amount of fish or game allowed to be taken
+home by the terms of said license; _sixth_, resident licenses issued by
+the State should furnish funds for carrying on the work of game, bird,
+and fish protection and propagation, and we recommend a careful
+consideration of this subject by those States that have not already such
+laws in force; and _seventh_, the so-called spring shooting of
+water-fowl should be stopped.
+
+All of which is respectfully submitted:
+
+                    [Signed]  WM. B. MERSHON, Saginaw, Mich.
+                                _Chairman_
+                              JNO. F. LACEY, Oskaloosa, Iowa
+                              F. SHAROIR, Stamford, Conn.
+                              J. H. MCDERMOTT, Morgantown, W. Va.
+                              J. ADAMS BROWN, New York City
+                              R. D. EVANS, Washington, D. C.
+                                _Conservation Committee_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE NATIONAL BOARD OF FIRE UNDERWRITERS
+
+Since the commencement of the Conservation movement, the National Board
+of Fire Underwriters has been deeply interested in the governmental and
+associational activities aiming to foster and protect the natural
+resources with which our country has been so bountifully blessed. Our
+representation at the Washington Conferences of 1908 indicated our
+sympathy with the propositions presented, and the continuance of our
+Conservation Committee is a manifestation that we have been and are ever
+ready to cooperate in a furtherance of those principles which you as an
+organization stand pledged to advance. We believe that unless there is
+an intelligent development and utilization of our natural resources, the
+comfort, prosperity, and happiness of future generations will be
+seriously impaired, and we are in hearty accord with all legislation
+having for its object the preservation from destruction of Nature's
+gifts and Man's handiwork.
+
+The address which this Committee presented to the Joint Conservation
+Conference sought to set forth some very important facts concerning the
+excessive fire waste which persists in the United States and suggested
+remedial measures, which we still firmly believe, if adopted, would
+materially diminish the grievous loss of life and the tremendous and
+unnecessary destruction of created values by fire. We therefore beg to
+reaffirm those suggestions at this time, as follows:
+
+     The present fire waste in this country is an unnecessary
+     National calamity, and to reduce it it is essential--
+
+     _First_--That the public should be brought to understand that
+     property destroyed by fire is gone forever, and is not replaced
+     by the distribution of insurance, which is a tax collected for
+     the purpose.
+
+     _Second_--That the States severally adopt and enforce a
+     building code which shall require a high type of safe
+     construction, essentially following the code of the National
+     Board of Fire Underwriters.
+
+     _Third_--That municipalities adopt ordinances governing the use
+     and keeping of explosives, especially inflammable commodities,
+     and other special hazards, such as electric wiring, the storing
+     of refuse, waste, packing materials, etc. in buildings, yards,
+     or areaways, and see to the enforcement of such ordinances.
+
+     _Fourth_--That the States severally establish and support the
+     office of fire marshal, and confer on the Fire Marshal by law
+     the right to examine under oath and enter premises and to make
+     arrests, making it the duty of such officer to examine into the
+     cause and origin of all fires, and when crime has been
+     committed requiring the facts to be submitted to the grand jury
+     or proper indicting body.
+
+     _Fifth_--That in all cities there be a paid, well disciplined,
+     non-political fire department adequately equipped with modern
+     apparatus.
+
+     _Sixth_--That an adequate water system with proper distribution
+     and pressure be installed and maintained. In the larger cities,
+     a separate high pressure water system for fire extinguishment
+     is an absolute necessity, to diminish the extreme imminence of
+     general conflagrations.
+
+The publication by the U. S. Geological Survey of Bulletin 418, known as
+"The Fire Tax and Waste of Structural Materials in the United States,"
+is worthy of high commendation, and we believe a wider distribution of
+this pamphlet and the preparation and dissemination annually of similar
+information, will materially serve to awaken the public to a realization
+of the enormous values in utilized resources which are destroyed by fire
+beyond recall, and cause action to be taken by States, municipalities
+and individuals to enact such laws and regulations as will make for the
+exercise of greater care and forethought in the preservation of
+materials produced from our natural resources. It must be evident that
+the conservation of our forests and mines will fail of its full results
+if the utilized products therefrom are to continue to be unnecessarily
+destroyed by fire to a degree that is a National disgrace.
+
+We share the pride of all our fellow citizens in the remarkable growth
+and prosperity of this country, in the extensive building operations,
+and in the increased commercial values; but, if we would conserve those
+natural resources which have been the principal foundations of our
+success, we submit that it is equally important to adopt and enforce
+such measures as will lessen the steadily and rapidly increasing fire
+waste of our utilized resources.
+
+The National Board of Fire Underwriters has for years devoted its
+energies and activities principally to the reduction of the fire waste
+and the safeguarding of life and property. Standard rules and lists of
+hazardous and protective devices and materials are distributed free of
+charge, the results of the tests conducted at the Underwriters'
+Laboratories are made known to anyone evincing an interest, a model
+Building Code, prepared under the advice of experts in construction and
+engineering, has been urged for adoption in every municipality of the
+country, and as a result our advice and cooperation are sought in the
+revision and adoption of the building laws of our cities. Under the
+immediate direction of our Committee on Fire Prevention, expert
+engineers investigate the fire-fighting facilities and structural
+conditions of our cities, submitting copies of the reports, with
+suggestions for improvements, to the officials of the city visited and
+to the press; the expense of the work of this Committee alone, for the
+last six years, has amounted to $432,742.
+
+We have persistently endeavored to influence the introduction of
+improved and safe methods of building construction, to encourage the
+adoption of better fire protective measures, to secure efficient
+organization and equipment of fire departments with adequate and
+improved water systems, and to have adopted rules regulating the storage
+and handling of explosives and inflammable products; and we contend that
+successful efforts along these lines will very largely lessen the fire
+waste of the utilized resources, the destruction of which at the rate of
+over $216,000,000 annually (1900-1909, inclusive) is one of the
+greatest drains upon our natural resources and one which can be
+corrected, if the Nation, State, city, and citizen will cooperate along
+the lines indicated above.
+
+The destruction of our utilized resources by fire is increasing at such
+a rapid rate that the subject of its reduction should be very prominent
+in the minds of the people. Losses recorded for the past thirty-five
+years, not including forests, mine or marine fires, total the enormous
+sum of $4,906,619,240. Unrecorded losses, if obtainable, would
+materially increase these figures. These annual fire losses run from
+$64,000,000 in 1876 to $518,000,000 in 1906. In 1907, a normal year, our
+recorded losses were $215,084,709, and our estimated fire defense cost
+$241,401,191, or a total amount equaling about 50 percent of the value
+of the new buildings erected that year in the entire country. In 1908,
+also a normal year, our ash-heap cost $217,885,850, and the relations of
+defense-cost and fire loss to new buildings remained about the same. Our
+contributions to fire that year were over $1,250,000 each day of the
+year, a sum equal to the operating expenses of our Government, including
+those of our army and navy, for the same year; and in 1909 we gave to
+fire over $25,000,000, more than was spent in that year for the same
+governmental functions.
+
+No one organization can effect the needed reform. Since 1880 the
+population has increased 73 percent, while the fire loss for the same
+period increased 134 percent. The National Fire Protection Association
+and the National Credit Men's Association are spreading the doctrine of
+reform in the recklessness with which our utilized resources are
+destroyed by fire. Each organization should be encouraged. Membership is
+open to all in the former, and in the latter to the business men and
+merchants of our cities. The work, however, is carried on without State
+or municipal cooperation and therein lies the chief reason of delayed
+success.
+
+If the office of State Fire Marshal were created by every commonwealth,
+and that official and his deputies were given power to enforce good
+fire-prevention laws, to investigate and if necessary prosecute cases of
+arson or criminal carelessness in the starting or spreading of fires, to
+ascertain the cause of every fire, and by the distribution of literature
+to educate the citizen to the need of care and forethought in the
+protection of his property, a distinct conserving of the utilized
+resources in that State would follow.
+
+If our municipalities will enact and enforce improved and safe methods
+of building construction and cause the removal or reconstruction of
+existing structures which constitute, because of their construction, a
+menace to adjoining properties, our cities will be freer from the
+imminent conflagration which now threatens them. Eliminate defective
+chimney flues, unprotected external and internal openings, excessive
+areas, weak walls, and combustible roofs; prohibit the storage of
+rubbish, and demand the safe use and handling of dangerous inflammable
+liquids and oils; regulate the use of explosives; and the destruction of
+our values, created from the natural resources but enriched many-fold by
+human toil, industry, and skill, will be materially diminished.
+
+If the citizens of a community, as members of their local civic bodies
+and boards of trade, will create in such organizations a Committee on
+Fire Prevention, whose duty it shall be to study the subject and awaken
+among their associates a realization of individual and communal
+responsibility, and if our boards of education will emulate the action
+of the State of Ohio in prescribing primary education of the school
+children as to the chemistry of fire, the causes of fires in our homes
+and how to guard against them, and how to extinguish incipient fires or
+hold them in check while awaiting the response of the fire department, a
+preparation will be made in that community which will check the
+constantly increasing fire waste.
+
+And so while this Congress discusses and formulates policies for the
+Conservation of our natural resources, it should, at least, as
+representing the official, professional, commercial, and industrial life
+of the Nation, distinctly and emphatically advocate such regulation as
+will preserve those resources which are the embodiment of the thrift and
+industry of our people--the utilized resources--from unnecessary and
+wasteful destruction by fire.
+
+                    Respectfully submitted,
+                    [Signed]  A. W. DAMON, Springfield
+                                _Chairman_
+                              GEO. W. BABB, New York
+                              C. G. SMITH, New York
+                              W. N. KREMER, New York
+                              R. M. BISSELL, Hartford
+                              R. DALE BENSON, Philadelphia
+                              R. EMORY WARFIELD, New York
+                                _Committee_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE NATIONAL BOARD OF TRADE
+
+In response to the invitation of this Congress, the National Board of
+Trade, which participated in the Conference of Governors at the White
+House in 1908, is permitted to take part in its deliberations. The
+National Board of Trade, as its name implies, is National in character,
+and is composed of a large number of Boards of Trade, Chambers of
+Commerce, and other organized bodies representing many of the large
+commercial and industrial centers of the entire United States. It was
+organized 42 years ago for the purpose indicated in the following
+declaration: "The National Board of Trade was formed for the purpose of
+promoting the efficiency and extending the usefulness of the various
+Commercial and manufacturing organizations of the United States of
+America, securing unity and harmony of action with reference to business
+usages and laws, and especially the proper consideration of and
+concentration of opinion upon questions affecting the financial,
+commercial, and industrial interests of the country at large, and to
+provide a concerted action regarding National legislative measures and
+Governmental department affairs."
+
+It will be seen from this declaration that the object of the National
+Board of Trade is to attempt to harmonize public opinion on National
+questions. About 15 years ago it became impressed with the wanton
+wastefulness and public neglect of our National forests, and resolutions
+were adopted inviting public attention to and legislation for the
+preservation and conservation of the timber resources of the United
+States. In a very short time it became evident there were other
+important questions involved in the regulating of forests, primarily the
+grave necessity of creating forest reserves and protecting them from
+depreciation by Government control and administration; and the
+establishment of a Bureau of Forestry was advocated. The National Board
+of Trade was also a pioneer in advocating the reclamation of arid lands
+and the drainage of swamp and overflow lands and practical
+reforestation, and adopted resolutions urging legislation to this end.
+
+The activity of the National Board of Trade in promoting the measures it
+has advocated consists of the printing and the distribution of many
+thousands of copies of reports of committees and resolutions, as well as
+large numbers of its annual report in permanent book form, which of
+itself constitutes a valuable commercial library of reference; these
+publications have been sent to Members of Congress and the officials of
+the National Government, to State officials and members of State
+Legislatures, and to mayors and other officials of many cities having
+more than ordinary interest in public-welfare questions. The
+dissemination of this information has required a great deal of time and
+the expenditure of no small sum of money, and the National Board of
+Trade and its constituent members, together with all others interested
+in its work, appreciate the patriotism and generosity of its President,
+who has done so much to carry on its work.
+
+The commercial interests of the entire country are thoroughly alive to
+the merits of, and are earnestly championing, the cause of Conservation
+of all our natural resources. Economic use that does not destroy, but
+protects and fosters reproduction where reproduction is possible,
+prolongs and perpetuates the industries dependent on natural products
+for their maintenance; and these compose the larger part of all our
+manufactures. The National Board of Trade in its 42 years of existence
+has been the exponent of the principles upon which alone permanent trade
+and commerce can be maintained and extended--high standards of
+commercial honor and integrity, and doing unto others as we would that
+others should do unto us.
+
+There are in this Congress, on the invitation of its officers, Delegates
+from National organizations which have contributed greatly to various
+phases of Conservation problems, which are now crystallizing into a
+National policy. So far as we are informed, it appears from the report
+of the Committee on Credentials and other committees that have been
+announced that no representation has been given these Delegates to
+enable them to participate in the active work of the Congress. We, as
+Delegates from the National Board of Trade, representing the commercial
+interests of the entire country, recommend that in case invitations are
+extended to National organizations to be represented at future
+congresses that suitable provision be made for their representatives to
+participate in the practical work.
+
+The National Board of Trade rejoices with this Congress in the advanced
+thought that the campaign of education has created in the minds of the
+American people, and it also feels great satisfaction in that it has for
+many years earnestly advocated and been instrumental in the adoption of
+the wise, beneficent, and economic measures that are in the interest of
+not only the present generation but of generations yet unborn.
+
+Respectfully submitted on behalf of the National Board of Trade,
+
+                    [Signed]  A. T. ANDERSON, Cleveland
+                              WILLIAM S. HARVEY, Philadelphia
+                                (_Chairman Committee on Forestry,
+                                Irrigation, and Conservation_)
+
+
+REPORT OF THE NATIONAL BUSINESS LEAGUE OF AMERICA
+
+I deeply appreciate the privilege, and am not insensible of the honor,
+of briefly addressing this great Congress of representative men in every
+field of human endeavor, who are met to plan for the Conservation of our
+natural resources.
+
+First, I wish to emphasize the fact that the patriotic men who are
+planning Conservation today are mostly not the men who will execute. The
+men who are to conserve our lands and waters and minerals, and
+perpetuate our forests, are now running around in knickerbockers, or
+being rocked in the cradles of the Nation. They and their children and
+their children's children, down along the line of centuries, will carry
+out the vital precepts and principles of this great Conservation
+movement--this timely warning cry against careless National
+extravagance, this imperative codicil to the Declaration of
+Independence.
+
+There are some resources we cannot restore, but may conserve or
+substitute. As one door closes another opens. Coal, iron, copper, and
+other products of the mine, when once consumed cannot be reproduced; but
+for all time the tree may be perpetuated--the friendly, faithful, useful
+tree that conserves the rain-drop with its treasures of light, heat,
+power, and life-giving properties for vegetation, and fills the world
+with inspiring beauty. The restoration and preservation of our forests,
+then, and an adequate policy of accomplishment, become of the weightiest
+importance.
+
+In this connection I beg to suggest the American farmer boy. It is
+proposed to organize the farmer boys and young men of this country into
+a great National body, to be known as the Tree Planters of America. The
+plan involves instruction and actual practice in tree-planting and
+tree-culture, with suitable prizes for excellence and results. It aims
+to permanently check the wastefulness of go-as-you-please forestry now
+evident from every car-window in this country. In brief, without
+entering into details, the suggestion seeks to organize all farmer boys
+from twelve to twenty years of age as Tree Planters, in every
+commonwealth, county, and township of the United States; with the
+cooperation of the Forest Service at Washington, Governors of States,
+and the proper official heads of town and county governments.
+
+The plan in general unifies the individual, the State, and the Nation,
+into one vast organized body for the practical reforestation of the
+country. The system once made operative will become an inseparable part
+of the life of the farmer of the future. It is kindred to the splendid
+educational and philanthropic work of Mr Bernard N. Baker, the ideal and
+actual President of this Congress; and I hope it may merit your approval
+as _one_ practical means to the end we all are aiming at.
+
+The time for talking has gone by. The time for action has come.
+Therefore let us begin at the foundation and organize the coming men who
+are to do the actual work of reforestation. The mind of the American boy
+is plastic. The impressions he receives remain to the end. Teach him,
+then, to practice those things that make for permanent universal
+betterment; for with his brain and brawn he determines the destiny of
+this great American Republic.
+
+                    [Signed]  AUSTIN A. BURNHAM
+                                _General Secretary_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE MISSOURI VALLEY RIVER IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION
+
+When the Missouri Valley River Improvement Association was organized in
+August, 1906, practically no one in the valley thought the Missouri
+navigable in its then unimproved state, and only a few people believed
+it worth while to solicit Government aid in trying to make it
+navigable. The general impression seemed to be that the Missouri had
+outlived its usefulness. Compare this feeling with the sentiment that
+exists today! The people of Kansas City and the entire Missouri Valley
+have become awakened to the great possibilities of this river as a means
+of cheap transportation. Through the efforts of our Association and the
+people of the valley, the Congress of the United States in 1907 made an
+appropriation of $400,000 for the improvement of the Missouri; in 1909
+Congress made another appropriation of $555,000, and in June, 1910,
+still another of $1,465,000 for improving the river from its mouth to
+Fort Benton.
+
+So great is the interest in the Missouri river project that the people
+of Kansas City recently raised a fund of over $1,000,000 for the purpose
+of navigating the Missouri with modern and up-to-date boats especially
+adapted to this river. Experiments are now being made with different
+kinds of boats to determine which are the most practical. With the
+opening of navigation in the spring of 1911, we hope to have a modern
+boat line in operation between Kansas City and Saint Louis. In addition
+to raising $1,000,000 for navigating the Missouri, Kansas City at her
+bond election in the spring of this year, voted $75,000 bonds for the
+improvement of her harbor.
+
+The sentiment in favor of improving and navigating the Missouri was
+brought about to a great extent by some of the business men of Kansas
+City who in 1906 organized a boat-line company to maintain regular
+steamboat service between Kansas City and Saint Louis to demonstrate
+that the river was navigable even in its then unimproved state. This
+company, not waiting to build boats suited to the river, bought two old
+boats, and in 1907 and 1908 operated them with great success, carrying
+freight between Kansas City and Saint Louis at two-thirds of the
+railroad rates. When the people of Kansas City saw what could be done
+with the antiquated type of boat, they became interested in navigating
+the river with first-class steel-hull boats, built especially for the
+Missouri--which resulted in the organization of the Million Dollar Boat
+Line.
+
+A movement is now under way to organize a company for the purpose of
+building a large dam across one of Missouri's streams within 120 miles
+of Kansas City. It is proposed to put up a plant that will generate
+30,000 horsepower; this to be transmitted to Kansas City and sold to the
+consumers at the low price of one cent per kilowatt-hour. The largest
+consumers of electric power in Kansas City are now paying 2-1/2 cents
+and the smaller consumers from 8 to 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. The
+proposition has the appearance of being feasible, and if it can be
+carried through it means a great deal to the future growth of the
+Missouri Valley, as it will furnish cheap power to prospective
+manufactories.
+
+                    Respectfully submitted,
+                    [Signed]  JEROME TWICHELL
+                                _Chairman_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION
+
+How to conserve the natural resources of every land has become an
+absorbing theme throughout the civilized world, and I think no one is
+more alert in reference thereto than the inhabitants of the former
+Northwest Territory and of the Louisiana Purchase. They are of the salt
+of the earth; yet notwithstanding their power they have permitted
+constant encroachments by predatory greed and covetousness, mostly by
+the corporate monopoly rampant world-wide in this Twentieth Century. It
+is thus fitting that this magnificent assembly of progressive
+public-spirited Delegates from nearly every avocation and locality
+should here gather at the head of navigation of the great flowing stream
+that drains the most fertile valley on this mundane sphere. Viewing
+these fertile lands, it would be most natural to expect that the rights
+of this people declared by the law of Congress enacted in 1787 should be
+deemed wise, especially this provision:
+
+     _Article IV._ The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi
+     and Saint Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same,
+     shall be common highways and forever free as well to the
+     inhabitants of the said Territory as to the citizens of the
+     United States and those of any other States that may be
+     admitted into the Confederacy, without any tax impost or duty
+     therefor.
+
+The Association that I represent has labored during the past decade to
+so awaken public sentiment in this valley that a six-foot channel will
+be provided from here to the Gulf; and I bring the message to you that
+we have aided much in arousing the people from lethargy to a forceful
+activity for cheaper transportation by inland waterway improvement,
+which has been assured to this upper river within the succeeding dozen
+years by Congressional action at the last session.
+
+The problem to be grappled with now is how best to regain for the public
+the landings for boats, which we find have been obtained and are largely
+held by private interests antagonistic to thorough use of the stream.
+Generally for a mere pittance the landing rights, to the thread of the
+stream, passed to private ownership needlessly and without any
+consideration to the original grantor, the Government. Each city and
+village along the river is now up and doing, as is this city of Saint
+Paul in providing a municipal wharf at enormous expense; they are now
+fully apprised of the importance of these holdings, which we ardently
+hope will be regained for free public use, so that improved machinery
+for loading and unloading cargoes of modern boats and barges by a single
+power lift may become effective, as may be seen along the Rhine. When
+this is done, boats will again ply this great river and its tributaries,
+carrying the abundant products of every kind that this valley annually
+produces at a much cheaper rate than by rail.
+
+We, who people this Central Northwest, were pioneers in opposing
+rapacious transportation rates; it was the Granger movement hereabouts,
+nearly forty years since, that aroused the law-making powers to the
+necessity of conferring on State and Federal commissions the power to
+regulate rates; and further results are yet to be hoped for in the
+regulation of charges for freight, passenger, express, sleeping-car, and
+mail service, together with telegraph and telephone charges. This valley
+between the Alleghany and Rocky Mountains was ordained by nature to
+supply foodstuffs for a goodly portion of the globe's people; and with
+the opening of the Panama Canal, along with the development of our
+inland waterway transportation, the problem of traffic rates must be
+solved.
+
+While the general Government has been using the people's money to
+improve rivers and build canals, no sooner does the Government undertake
+to develop power incidental to some praiseworthy project than it finds
+that the water-power was absorbed by private interests, which were at
+all times alert to obtain grants in perpetuity (now worth millions)
+without any regulation to redound to the people's good--as shown by the
+reports of our waterway conventions. The best sites are already taken
+away from the people; shall we bend every energy to save what remains?
+This should be all changed in future grants of power-rights in flowing
+water; a census of the Nation's water-power resources should be taken,
+and all grants hereafter should be determined, with the respective
+values of the same, for use at equitable rates. When once the law-makers
+realize that the people are truly in earnest about Conservation, a halt
+will be called upon reckless legislation in the interest of exploiters;
+then sincere citizens may be induced to stand as legislative candidates,
+without fear of being pilloried by a subsidized press and venal
+poll-workers at every turn in a canvass.
+
+Our waterway improvement conventions in this valley have spoken plainly,
+and the rivers and harbors are faring better than ever before--in fact,
+our efforts along these lines have done wonders to bring to the people,
+by acts of Congress, what is justly their own. Will the Conservationists
+array themselves against all law-makers who have proven recreant by
+their attitude toward clean-cut legislation in aid of Conservation
+throughout the United States? Smooth words, without conscientious acts
+in the interests of our lofty aims, should meet with a lasting rebuke!
+"Fight it out on this line if it takes several summers," should be our
+slogan.
+
+                    [Signed]  M. J. MCENIRY
+                                _Chairman Conservation Committee_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE WASHINGTON STATE FEDERATION OF LABOR
+
+The Washington State Federation of Labor will not be represented by any
+of the Washington State Delegates at the Second National Conservation
+Congress. We are, however, deeply interested in the question of
+conservation of natural resources for the people, and as President of
+this organization, with a membership of over 20,000, I believe I am
+expressing the sentiment of the workingmen of this State when I say that
+I am in entire accord with the declaration of views and recommendations
+of the Governors of States and Territories of the United States, as
+adopted at the Conference of Governors, called by President Roosevelt,
+in May, 1908.
+
+Our vast forests, our water supply (for irrigation and power projects),
+and our fisheries are of inestimable value to the people if properly
+developed under a control that will make the very best use of them with
+due regard to their future possibilities and greatness. Forestry,
+irrigation, and water power are to a great extent dependent on one
+another in their successful development, and the magnitude of the
+undertaking requires the hearty cooperation of State and Nation if it
+reaches the degree of success that we hope for.
+
+I trust that the Congress will strengthen and perfect plans adequate for
+the protection of the people's interests and the development of these
+resources with an eye to their future greatness.
+
+                    Respectfully submitted,
+                    [Signed]  CHAS. R. CASE
+                                _President_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE WESTERN FORESTRY AND CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION
+
+Let us concede that Conservation means that we, as a people, should
+manage all our resources with the intelligence and prudence that an
+individual should devote to managing his own property. Let us use them
+profitably, as he would; neither destroying or wasting them
+unnecessarily, nor giving them heedlessly to anyone who needs them less
+and will use them less to our advantage. But let us not, during
+excursions into Constitutional problems, State rights, and other
+bewildering issues, forget that first of all comes protection from
+destruction and waste! The great danger now is that our resources will
+disappear while we are deciding to whom they shall belong.
+
+It is of this kind of Conservation alone, the Conservation that
+conserves, that I bring you a message from the Pacific Northwest. The
+Western Forestry and Conservation Association does not decry the
+necessity for wise action by State and Nation in the safeguarding of
+water-power, minerals, and lands; but the settlement of such affairs is
+not our function. I come only to tell you of the work of the most
+perfectly organized and successful Conservation movement ever undertaken
+by private individuals in this country--the forest-protective
+associations of the Pacific slope. We talk little, but we work, spend
+money, and accomplish.
+
+In our five States from Montana to California stands half the
+merchantable timber in the United States, the majority in private hands.
+The control of this stupendous community resource entails grave
+responsibilities. To preserve it for the fullest use, to replace it when
+used, if possible--this is the timber-owner's duty. His ownership is
+largely a public trust. Nowhere else has he realized this so promptly
+and acted so adequately as in the Pacific Northwest. I have come to
+report his stewardship, and to show you that you need not wonder whether
+he will follow the Conservation banner.
+
+The Western Forestry and Conservation Association has no individual
+membership. It is the central medium or clearing house for a dozen
+subsidiary associations of timber-land owners, representing millions of
+acres, who cooperate in order to apply to the best advantage the most
+modern and efficient systems of forest protection. Through this means
+they employ a trained forester to assist them in solving problems of
+reforestation, forest legislation, education, and like matters demanding
+expert knowledge or central facilities. Its meetings are attended not
+only by delegates from these timber-owners' organizations, but also by
+the leading State and Forest Service officials and representatives of
+the public Conservation associations. All work in the closest harmony to
+devise and execute practical and effective policies. There are no
+dissensions at these meetings; no question as to who is most competent
+by right of law or geography. Every man there, be he a humble officer of
+the Forest Service, State Forester, or timber owner, is there because he
+wants to do his own part, with his own hands or money, in preserving the
+magnificent forests of the West. He knows what he is talking about, and
+the rest are mighty glad to hear him.
+
+But we do not stop with meetings, and herein is perhaps our chief
+difference from a great many advocates of Conservation. You have all
+read of the recent fires in our northwestern country. They have been
+greatly exaggerated, the area injured really being very limited.
+Nevertheless, while we talk here of generalities, bands of weary,
+half-blind men are still battling to prevent fresh outbreaks; the smoke
+still curls over the blackened forms of those who met a fearful death to
+save the lives of others; scores who fought till they could fight no
+more still lie bandaged and sightless in the extremity of mortal agony.
+No honor is too great to do these heroes. We of the West owe a sacred
+debt to them, one and all, and not least to the men of the Forest
+Service whose training made them as efficient as they were brave. We
+want more, not fewer, of them. But side by side with the bravest,
+equally efficient, equally trained and disciplined, worked the patrolmen
+of our fire associations. Conservationists employed by private effort.
+We have had no time to prepare nice statistics, for our fire fighters
+have something else to do; but I venture to say that our Associations'
+expenditures for forest protection this year will be over $300,000. In
+the Coeur d' Alene fires alone, a single one of our Associations put 850
+men in the field.
+
+And yet this is not much to boast of. There should have been no fires to
+fight. The way to prevent fire is to prevent it, not fight it when
+almost or quite beyond control. The only solution of the fire question
+is better enforcement of better laws, better public sentiment, and
+better patrol. There must be an organized force of trained and vigilant
+men, ample in numbers during the dry season to reach all fires in their
+incipiency. It is in this that our Associations now lead all other
+agencies. They handle the fire situation in a much better and more
+comprehensive manner than even the Government has ever done, because
+they spend three times as much money per acre for patrol. Thoroughly
+excellent as are the methods in the National Forests--they are identical
+with those of the most progressive practical timberman--Congress does
+not sustain them adequately.
+
+Our own system is by no means perfect yet. Although in the territory
+covered by our Association in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon we have
+perhaps 500 organized and equipped patrolmen, each authorized to hire
+help when needed, there is still much unorganized area, and not all
+timbermen within our territory contribute as they should. We need more
+men and more money from our own brethren, and heartier cooperation from
+public, State, and Government. But we confidently expect to get all
+this, just as we have in greater measure each year in the past. And
+when, as already in Washington last year, one Association protects
+8,000,000 acres with a loss of but 1,000 acres; when this small loss was
+caused by less than 6 fires out of 1,200 extinguished; when in this
+historic year of 1910 we have controlled our countless fires so that
+actual disasters can be counted on the fingers, and our loss as a whole
+is insignificant--we feel that no one has done more to prove his
+willingness and competence to practice Conservation that counts than the
+northwestern forest owner.
+
+The northwestern timberman approves all measures that will give the
+greatest number of people the greatest permanent opportunity to profit
+by the fullest use and least waste of all our resources. Thus they will
+be most prosperous and use most lumber. He is doing more than anyone
+else, Government or State, to protect both old and growing forests from
+wasteful destruction, so there may be most lumber to use. I take it this
+is Conservation.
+
+                    [Signed]  E. T. ALLEN
+                                _Forester_
+
+
+REPORT OF THE UNITED MINE WORKERS
+
+I regret very much that serious complications in the mining industry of
+our country, together with an enormous amount of important matters
+requiring my immediate attention, makes it impossible for me to keep my
+engagement to address the Conservation Congress on the subject, "Are we
+mining intelligently?" I am intensely interested in the subject of
+conserving our natural resources, but I am still more interested in
+protecting the lives and health of our people. We are not mining
+intelligently, as I will explain by letter.
+
+Success to the work of the Conservation Congress! It means much for the
+future generations of this greatest industrial country on earth.
+
+                    [Signed]  T. L. LEWIS
+                                _President_
+
+
+TIMBER CONSERVATION
+
+GEORGE H. EMERSON
+
+_Hoquiam, Washington_
+
+To save our Nation's resources is the wish of all; to save our timber is
+the special wish of all timber owners--no one is so much interested as
+he who has his private gain or loss joined to his interest in the public
+good.
+
+The American people are a prodigal folk. They have looked upon their
+resources as inexhaustible, their lands as unlimited. They have called
+upon all nations to come, and to all comers they have given lands,
+mines, timber, water-power. Has this course been right? Up to a point in
+our development, yes; of late, no--most emphatically NO! These resources
+are entrusted to us as a heritage for our children and generations yet
+to come. "America for Americans" should have been sounded 25 years ago;
+had it been, there would today be no cry of approaching timber shortage.
+
+What more absurd disposition of our timber land could have been made
+than the laws under which it has passed to private hands? The Homestead
+and Preemption acts, framed for prairies, requiring the settler to live
+on and cultivate the soil, have been extended to our forests, and to
+comply with their terms, thousands of men have withdrawn from vocations
+by which they were increasing the wealth of the Nation, and with
+blankets and provisions strapped on their backs and axe and compass in
+hand have worked their weary way through the pathless forests to vacant
+Government lands, on which they filed. Then with axe and fire they spent
+months destroying the property they proposed to acquire title
+to--destroying the resources of the Nation instead of increasing its
+wealth; and in doing so, fires reached beyond their control and
+destroyed still other timber. The law and the ruling of the Land Office
+have made this destruction one of the considerations of acquiring title.
+Settlers must prove they "have cleared and planted and maintained a
+residence on the land;" that is, they must prove they have cut and
+burned a certain amount of the Nation's timber, and have wasted
+or--worse--employed in destruction certain of the Nation's time, and
+this to acquire title to land upon which they could no more live than in
+the middle of a desert! Lands whose only value was in timber they were
+compelled, in part, to destroy; and this where they never intended to
+settle, other than to comply with the letter of the law, and never
+expected to return after acquiring title. The months or years wasted in
+complying with these foolish laws they might better by far have been
+spent in jail at the public expense. It would have cost the Nation far
+less, and would have been less dangerous to life than the lonely
+existence remote from other human beings, where any accident to limb
+costs a life.
+
+Sometimes there was an actual settler who wanted a farm or a pasture. He
+considered the timber only in the light of its cost to remove, and with
+axe, saw, and fire, he proceeded to its destruction. And why not? That
+which cost nothing looked to be of no value! Timber appeared as free as
+air and sunshine.
+
+Later the lumberman came, and up to 1885 our Government offered him in
+Washington hundreds of thousands of acres of the best-timbered land for
+$1.25 per acre. Michigan and Wisconsin had been so offered, and mostly
+sold. The lands of the Northern Pacific could then be had at $2.50 per
+acre and paid for in the bonds of the Company, then worth half their
+face. The lumbermen looked upon the timber as inexhaustible. Only that
+near water could be harvested by known methods; only the best of the
+trees could be sawed and sold at a profit; only western markets appeared
+possible. What wonder fires were set to burn the choppings and make
+pastures? No people save that which cost nothing, and for which they
+have no use and cannot sell. When things become of value they are
+conserved, and when of enough value they are manufactured or grown; and
+the ratio between cost and selling price regulates the supply of things
+manufactured or grown.
+
+Up to within a few years there has been plenty of timber land that could
+be taken under the Homestead, Preemption, or Timber and Stone Acts, or
+scripted or bought of the railroads. The blame, then, for the waste of
+our timber has been with the laws that made it valueless. The men we
+have sent to Washington to make our laws have given this timber to all
+comers of all nations. They are the men our people should hold
+responsible for the waste of our resources. These same men now tell us,
+"We are on the verge of a timber famine," and that the lumbermen are
+wantonly wasting the Nation's timber. Is it not the old cry of "Stop
+thief!" sounded by the culprit? By their acts they have made this timber
+valueless. Had the Government estimated the cost of growing a timber
+crop and sold its timber at about that price, timber would have been
+protected, conserved, and replanted, and its use would be as in Europe,
+about 60 feet per capita per annum, instead of 600 feet as in America.
+
+Since our timber has taken on a value, its destruction by fire has
+greatly decreased. Timber owners now use precautions, and employ fire
+patrols. So, too, with harvesting; it is cut cleaner, sawed with thinner
+saws, manufactured with better appliances, and great saving has been
+effected in every branch of the industry--all because of greater values.
+Now, if just tax laws were passed, taxing no crop until harvested, and
+taxing reforested land as stump land; if rates of interest were lower,
+and if stringent fire laws and careful patrol were enforced; if stumpage
+was a little higher or labor a little lower, or the railroads were to
+make a reduced rate on low-grade products, the law of supply and demand
+(or the ratio of cost to selling price) would reforest old choppings.
+Toward these things we are rapidly advancing, and before our timber is
+exhausted we shall have reached this point.
+
+If our Government would hold her reserved timber at cost of
+reproduction, and protect the timber of the Nation by import duty, the
+question of timber shortage in America would soon be settled. Instead,
+they threaten reduction of its present value and increase of its waste
+by the removal of duty on imports. There is no way to conserve any
+commodity but to give it value, and no way to make people manufacture
+goods or grow crops except to offer a price that covers cost and a
+profit.
+
+If the public would buy lumber of strength and durability suited to the
+purposes required, instead of ordering grades better than needed, they
+would help the Conservation of our timber far more than by essays and
+speeches. The most unreasonable of all buyers are our Government
+officials; with them there seems to be no purpose for which ordinary
+lumber is suited. So, too, if our State legislators would pass just tax
+laws, they would make a grand move toward timber Conservation. Instead,
+counties are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars--which the timber
+owners must pay--estimating the number of feet of standing timber, so as
+to be sure they find it all and tax it out of existence. This generation
+owes posterity laws that will save some of our present timber and leave
+to them growing timber crops instead of charred and desolate stump lands
+telling only of their fathers' greed and lack of foresight.
+
+Wonderful tables have been prepared showing the upward tendency in
+prices of timber lands. Far better prepare a table showing the cost of
+growing a timber crop, and causes that have deprived it of its
+legitimate value. Water always rises to its level when the pressure is
+removed. Timber-value level is costly to produce. The greatest pressure
+to hold timber values down in the past have been our land laws; first
+the Federal laws for the sale of timber, second the State laws for
+taxes--and lack of all laws for protection and planting.
+
+Our Nation is still a prodigal. She taps the fuel supply of future
+generations and allows the gas to burn and the oil to run to waste. More
+of the timber of the Nation has been burned for clearing and pasture
+than has been sawed by the mills; but when the lumbermen are accused of
+destroying their property, or not utilizing all that will return cost
+for their labor, they are accused of lack of good intelligence--and that
+we resent. New England and New York have a greater area in timber than
+they had 50 years ago. Nearly every town site has a saw mill that
+supplies local demand and makes shipments to nearby cities. The few days
+I spent in New Hampshire last spring, and the auto trips I took through
+the places I knew in my youth, impressed these facts with force. Rail
+trips through Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
+Vermont, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland revealed the fact that
+thousands of acres once under cultivation are now in timber, and that
+old forest lands are reproducing. Pine groves, cut when I was a boy, are
+being harvested, and fields where I picked rocks every spring are
+growing beautiful pine forests; the present owner of the old homestead
+in New Hampshire has put in a little saw and shingle mill to cut trees
+that were not sprouted when I left the old farm. The small saw-mills
+that are supplying the local demand are cutting the largest of the new
+growth, and the supply of that portion of the States where the timber
+was once exhausted will hereafter be adequate to local demands. As it is
+in New England and the Middle States, so it is in the South, in the
+West, in California and Oregon and Washington; if we keep out the fires
+in the old choppings, the new growth will be ready before the old is
+gone--and the waste of today kept always damp by the young growth,
+brush, ferns, and vines, will rival in value the portion of the tree we
+are now able to market.
+
+Again consumption in all things is in proportion to price. Advance the
+price of lumber, and you reduce the consumption. Stone, brick, concrete,
+and steel are ready substitutes, as the price of lumber advances. In
+Europe, lumber is no longer a necessity, only a luxury, and not one much
+cared for at that; this has been forced home to me in countries I have
+visited during the past six months. Six days from New York we touch the
+Azores, a land where no lumber is used except for floor-joists and
+rafters in the cheaper buildings; next we touched Madeira, and found a
+city of stone. So with Gibraltar, southern Spain, Egypt, Syria, Greece,
+Italy, France; not a lumber yard in all these countries that we could
+find. A cargo a year would supply the demand for all purposes. The
+wonder was not how these people get along without lumber, but how they
+use the 60 feet per annum they are reported to require. I do not think
+there is one shingle roof in all those countries, and I expect a very
+good knowledge of Arabic would be needed to explain to those people what
+a shingle is and its use. In Constantinople we found a few miserable
+board shacks. Lumber comes to that market at a low price from the Black
+Sea, and it appears to be a detriment rather than a good. In Switzerland
+and southern Germany, some houses are built of wood above the lower
+story; but I think there are no shingle roofs. These countries are well
+timbered, with trees in rows showing they are planted. The price of
+common lumber is only a little higher than with us, but labor is cheap,
+and growing timber exempt from taxes. Trees there can find a profitable
+market, trunks, limbs, stump, and roots. It is then, little wonder
+mountain sides, impossible for agriculture, should be planted to timber.
+Those timber areas do not use much of their lumber. In Switzerland and
+Germany we found saw mills, some of them of fair capacity, and shipping
+by rail, but their towns were built of stone. The mills select the
+largest trees, and replace with new plants. In time we shall reach some
+of these same conditions, and plant our timber instead of allowing it to
+grow at will. All this will come about when proper laws are enacted.
+
+American people will some time awaken to the fact, long since known in
+Europe, that timber is no necessity; only a makeshift. Bridges of rock,
+houses of brick and stone and steel, with roofs of tile, are for the
+centuries; buildings of wood are only for the years and the flames.
+Lumber is cheap in the new countries, and convenient for quick shelter;
+and it is there forests are found. Big timbers may become scarce, but
+their demand is also decreasing. Already our cities have fire limits.
+Bridges and spars are of steel; and if our farmers could obtain money at
+city rates, it is doubtful if it would not be cheaper for them to build
+fire-proof houses than to pay higher insurance on wooden buildings.
+Already roofs of shingles are in balance with roofs of other and safer
+material, and the price of shingles is fixed by this competition. As it
+is with shingles it will be with lumber, and is for many purposes; in
+many countries for nearly all purposes.
+
+Do not think I underestimate the value of our timber, or fail to
+advocate its protection and reproduction; but he who says we are
+approaching the time when timber values are to be much greater than now,
+and he who predicts a timber famine, have both overlooked facts that
+will come to the front with the years. The cry of "Fire!" never stopped
+a conflagration. The cry of Conservation will never stop the waste of
+valueless commodities. Action is needed in both instances, if results
+are to be attained. To conserve our timber we must give it value. Let
+the Government refuse to sell from its reserves except for cost of
+reproduction; also protect us from foreign competition. Educate our
+loggers to the enormity of the crime of burning choppings fit only for
+the timber crop. Let States impose rigid fire laws and make liberal
+appropriation for forest protection. Let our legislators see the folly
+and injustice of taxing the same crop year after year; a crop that can
+contribute nothing toward paying those taxes until marketed, a crop that
+is of far less value per acre than the yield of fruit gathered each
+year. Do not be afraid the few remaining timber owners are going to be
+benefited at the expense of the many; rather the benefit will be for our
+children and our children's children. Above all, remember the timber
+owner is not to blame, only fortunate that he bought timber that our
+Government was willing to part with for a song; and hold our laws and
+their makers responsible for results for which they, only, are to blame.
+
+The forest fires of the West today are more often set by the railroads
+than by all others. Their locomotives are torches of demons, tearing
+through our forests, streaming fire from their stacks and leaving all
+behind in flames. From the rear platforms of trains I have seen hundreds
+of little fires spring up as we passed--this, when the woods were dry
+and conditions right. The timber they burn is their resources for
+freight. The destruction they create is a loss of millions to their own
+business. It would seem prosecution for damage done should follow their
+wanton torches, and that laws should be made for the protection of their
+own interests they so recklessly ignore. It is no longer the logger or
+the settler that causes our forest fires. Our laws and public opinion,
+and vast sums expended by timber owners prevent the setting of careless
+fires; but the railroad locomotives still scatter fire along their
+pathway through the woods. Let the railroads learn a lesson from the
+recent Montana fires that stretched along their lines on either side and
+crossed the rivers where they cross--fires that have destroyed millions
+of young pines that a few years hence would have yielded a freight of
+from $10 to $30 each tree for their transportation to market.
+
+Let the loggers awaken to the fatal folly of allowing the first fire in
+their cuttings, and our legislators to the necessity of forest
+protection. Stop the first fire where land is only adopted to the timber
+crop.
+
+Out in the West where our mountains are the highest; where our streams
+spring from the eternal glaciers and are fullest when the weather is
+warmest; where water falls the farthest; where our soils are most
+productive when moistened; where our fruit is the finest; where trees
+grow the largest; where our hills contain coal, iron, silver, copper,
+and gold; where our ocean is the greatest and our fisheries are most
+prolific, our people are all Conservationists. They are for Conservation
+that is practical and adapted to their peculiar conditions; Conservation
+that shall develop and utilize their resources, and that shall yield the
+greatest good to the greatest number, and to the future as well as the
+present.
+
+Where all things are on so grand a scale, the people cannot be small and
+narrow. They are as are their woods, their mountains, and their
+torrents, grand and active; and they are to be trusted. They will solve
+the problem of conserving their timber. They will keep out fires. They
+will enact just tax laws. They will guard their holdings. They will
+encourage new growth. They will be first to awaken to the best methods
+of forest Conservation adapted to their needs. They will solve the
+problem of conserving our western forests.
+
+
+FORESTS AND STREAM-FLOW
+
+WILLIAM S. HARVEY
+
+_Philadelphia_
+
+Professor Willis L. Moore, Chief of the United States Weather Bureau, in
+his address before the Atlantic Deeper Waterways Convention in
+Providence, September 1, 1910, made the statement that the waterways
+were in no way affected by the forests; that he had records made for
+many years that clearly prove that the waterways have in no way been
+affected by the acts of man; that he was aware that he would destroy a
+popular impression by making this statement, and that he based his
+statement upon the facts as he knew them. The following eminent men in
+articles published in _American Forestry Magazine_ for April, 1910, take
+exception to and refute the statements and claims made by Professor
+Moore (and which he had previously expressed): Professor Filibert Roth,
+University of Michigan, Forester; Professor L. C. Glenn, Vanderbilt
+University, Geologist; and Professor George F. Swain, Harvard
+University, Engineer. These gentlemen represent geology, forestry, and
+engineering, and their training, knowledge, and experience qualify them
+to speak intelligently and with authority on this question of the
+influence and effect forests have upon streams.
+
+Mill owners and operators on various rivers in New England have
+practical demonstration that denuding or partial denuding of the forests
+on the head-waters of the stream on which they are dependent for power
+has seriously impaired the uniformity of flow and lessened the amount of
+power which they are able to secure for the same number of days in a
+year: that denuding also allows the rainfall to run off rapidly, causing
+erosion, which erosion is filling and choking the streams and rivers and
+in seasons of flood depositing silt in valleys which have heretofore
+been of agricultural value, thus largely impairing or destroying their
+fertility. This condition equally applies to various streams and rivers
+in other sections of the United States. It is moreover denied and
+refuted by the greatest financial and manufacturing interests, who have
+spent and are spending hundreds of millions of dollars in the
+development of electric power on the waterways of the United States.
+They have in their employ the most competent engineers known, who have
+investigated the entire situation, studied the maximum and minimum
+rainfall for a long period of years, and conditions influencing the
+territory embraced on the streams and rivers upon which they propose to
+make and are making and have made developments. These great interests,
+vital to commerce and trade, emphatically state that the flow of streams
+is affected by the forest cover, and that they are most anxious and are
+earnest in efforts to have the forest cover protected in all territory
+in which they operate, claiming that if the hillsides or mountains on
+the headwaters of water-sheds are denuded the volume of power will be so
+diminished, impaired, or destroyed that the value of the bonds issued
+for the development of these powers, and heretofore considered one of
+the safest and most desirable investments, will be seriously imperilled.
+
+In addition to the authorities above named, and to whose articles I have
+referred, there are others who have refuted and contradicted Professor
+Moore from his own premises and data. His Excellency M J. J. Jusserand,
+Ambassador from France, publicly stated the absolute principle: "No
+forests, no waterways." Without forests regulating the distribution of
+water, rainfalls are at once carried to the sea, hurried sometimes,
+alas! across the country. After having devastated the neighboring
+fields, the rivers find themselves again with little water and much
+sand; and with such rivers, how will you fill your canals?
+
+The question is as clear as can be; do you want to have navigable
+rivers, or do you prefer to have torrents that will destroy your crops
+and never bear a boat? If you prefer the first, then mind your forests.
+If the Mississippi is the "Father of Waters," the forest is the father
+of the Mississippi. The French Ambassador, you will note, says, "We can
+tell you, for we know. France is now spending many millions of dollars
+to reforest the mountain-sides denuded many years ago, which have
+seriously affected her waterways."
+
+Some of us feel it is unwise to take too seriously all the deductions
+and predictions that are made by academic, scientific, idealistic
+theorists, especially if the department of science with which they are
+most intimately identified relates almost exclusively to atmospheric
+conditions, which are still so imperfectly understood that they not
+infrequently elude prediction; though where the results of scientific
+deductions are proven correct and add to the fund of knowledge, they are
+deserving of our greatest respect and regard. We have much confidence,
+for example, in the conclusion of Gifford Pinchot and his staff of
+assistants, who have made a practical as well as scientific study of the
+effect of forest cover on the flow and supply of water in streams, which
+conclusions unqualifiedly refute the statements made by Professor Moore.
+
+
+THE CONSERVATION OF MINERALS AND SUBTERRANEAN WATERS
+
+GEORGE FREDERICK KUNZ, PH.D.
+
+_New York_
+
+The necessity for conserving the forests has been fully recognized, and
+it may be said that as to what is in the ground a clear and satisfactory
+distinction has been established between what must be conserved for the
+good of the people as a whole, and what can safely be left to the
+exclusive control, management, and ownership of individuals or
+corporations. In regard, however, to the material wealth that lies
+beneath the ground, whether diamonds, gold, silver, copper, oil, or
+clay, or, indeed, anything that has a material value and can be included
+as such in the domain of mining statistics, there has been and still is
+a considerable difference of opinion touching what should be done.
+
+The existence of these materials beneath the ground is not usually
+evident, and the judgment of the best experts is frequently required to
+determine whether they exist in a given tract or not; on the other hand
+they may sometimes be casually found where their presence was not
+suspected. The Government of the United States still owns great tracts
+of land, and it is most important that the whole people of the United
+States should receive the full benefit of all the mineral wealth that is
+below the ground--the invisible wealth of the Nation, as it may be
+termed.
+
+In order to avoid any collusion on the part of officials engaged by the
+Government to make investigations, or of those who, though no longer in
+the Government service, might learn the results of these investigations
+and might in some manner try to obtain control of these lands before the
+Government knew they had a distinct value, it would seem that a
+Conservation Act should be passed making it imperative that all minerals
+contained in any land beneath the surface should forever remain the
+property of the Government. With lands containing minerals, there should
+further be an assurance that the deposits will be effectively worked,
+thus preventing an entire mineral supply from being locked up for many
+years, so as to maintain an artificial value for the material. Again,
+little-understood minerals, or those that have been very little worked
+and yet may have a value in the future, such as bauxite, which is
+valuable in the manufacture of aluminum; monazite sand, which is used in
+the making of the Welsbach incandescent light; and carnotite, whose
+value as a radium ore has been discovered within the past ten
+years--should all be made to yield royalties to the Government.
+
+It is very evident that many minerals not considered to have any
+commercial value today may prove to be of the greatest industrial value
+in the future. Furthermore, as we are likely to discover new elements,
+and new uses for old minerals, the Conservation Act might be made to
+provide for a payment of 20, 30, or even 60 percent of the total value
+of the mineral as taken from the ground in royalty to the Government of
+the United States, exactly as the South African Government exacts as a
+royalty 60 percent of the product of all the diamond mines within its
+territory. This would be a more generous treatment of private owners
+than was accorded them in some instances in the past. The French
+crown-deeds read in the Seventeenth Century that gold, silver,
+lapis-lazuli, etc, should belong exclusively to the crown. In reality,
+the Government should only sell to private owners what is in sight on
+the land and the right to what could be grown on it, not what is below
+the ground. The franchises of subways and tunnels and all mineral rights
+should be retained, as well as the right to condemn at a fair valuation
+any property needed for the development of a mine or a water-power.
+
+The term "mineral" should apply to every substance found in the ground
+that is either a mineral or an associate of minerals, that is, rock,
+sand, clay, or even a swamp, that may have a value in the arts,
+sciences, agriculture, or any other monetary value. The word should be
+used in its broad sense and not in the more restricted scientific
+meaning of the word used by mineralogists, which is that a mineral must
+be a definite mineral compound.
+
+The subterranean waters of the United States are a great and valuable
+asset of the Nation. Nearly all of our water companies sell water either
+for power or for consumption. As each owner of a piece of property ought
+to be entitled to an interest in the water under it, some provision in
+Conservation should be made for the actual ownership of the waters; not
+that they can be drained from under the property, for a series of
+springs could be threatened with ruin if this were done, just as were
+the famous springs in Saratoga. In other words Government lands should
+not be robbed of their subterranean waters to be in turn sold to those
+who have a joint right in them.
+
+
+THE QUESTION OF LAND TITLES
+
+FRANKLIN MCCRAY
+
+_Indianapolis_
+
+All the territory west of Mississippi river was acquired by the
+Government by three means, purchase, conquest, and treaty. This
+territory, having been obtained by the diplomacy and blood and treasure
+of our common country, belonged to the people of the whole country, and
+was held in trust by the Federal Government for them. It was subject
+only to their call for settlement.
+
+The charge is made that practically all the looting of the public domain
+is in the Louisiana purchase, the territory wrested from Mexico, that
+acquired from Great Britain by the Ashburton-Webster treaty in the
+settlement of our northern boundary line, and that purchased from
+Russia. This land, being held in trust by the Federal Government for the
+people and being subject only to their call for actual settlement, it is
+charged, has been plundered through fraud and corruption of the trustee,
+the Government of the United States, in collusion with the grantees, who
+have obtained vast tracts and withdrawn the same from settlement by
+floating them into a different channel than that for which the
+Government held them in trust. By this corrupt and fraudulent method, it
+is charged that these vast estates have been monopolized by corporate
+greed and accumulated wealth, and that no less than 6,000,000 acres are
+now being held by two individuals alone within the State of California.
+
+If this be true, then, under a well-settled principle of law, the
+Government has conferred no title upon such grantees, because fraud
+vitiates all contracts, and courts of equity have complete power under
+proper proceedings to follow this property, thus fraudulently obtained,
+in its labyrinthian processes and seize it by judicial decree, lay its
+stern hand upon it and restore it to its rightful owners, the people of
+the United States, and float it anew into the channel of settlement
+where it rested prior to its spoliation. I suggest that this Congress
+petition the United States Congress to investigate the titles of these
+grantees and, if found to be fraudulent, the Department of Justice
+should be instructed to institute proceedings calculated to restore the
+land to its rightful owners.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The full report by Mrs Wilkinson appears on later pages.
+
+[2] The members of the Resolution Committee were chosen by their
+respective State Delegations, and met at the call of a Temporary
+Chairman (and member-at-large), Ex-Governor George C. Pardee, of
+California, who was afterward chosen by the committee as Permanent
+Chairman. The full personnel of the committee follows:
+
+  ALABAMA, John L. Kaul, Birmingham
+  ARIZONA, B. A. Fowler, Phenix
+  ARKANSAS, John A. Fox, Blytheville
+  CALIFORNIA, Frank H. Short, Fresno
+  COLORADO, P. T. Coolidge, Colorado Spgs.
+  COLUMBIA (District of), W J McGee, Washington
+  CONNECTICUT, A. Fletcher Marsh, New Haven
+  FLORIDA, Cromwell Gibbons, Jacksonville
+  GEORGIA, C. L. Worsham, Atlanta
+  IDAHO, Jerome J. Day, Moscow
+  ILLINOIS, Alfred L. Baker, Chicago
+  INDIANA, William Holton Dye, Indianapolis
+  IOWA, Robert Hunter, Sioux City
+  KANSAS, Governor William R. Stubbs, Lawrence
+  KENTUCKY, C. C. Grassham, Paducah
+  LOUISIANA, Robert Roberts, Jr., Minden
+  MAINE, Cyrus C. Babb, Augusta
+  MARYLAND, Lynn R. Meekins, Baltimore
+  MASSACHUSETTS, C. A. Start, Boston
+  MICHIGAN, Francis King, Alma
+  MINNESOTA, E. W. Robinson, Minneapolis
+  MISSISSIPPI, H. L. Whitfield, Columbus
+  MISSOURI, George B. Logan, Saint Louis
+  MONTANA, F. L. Newman, Havre
+    Rudolph Van Tolbel, Lewistown
+  NEBRASKA, Woodruff Ball, Valentine
+  NEW HAMPSHIRE, Geo. B. Leighton
+  NEW JERSEY, Frederick W. Kelsey, Orange
+  NEW MEXICO, W. A. Fleming Jones, Las Cruces
+  NEW YORK, J. S. Whipple, Salamanca
+  NORTH DAKOTA, James E. Boyle, Grand Forks
+  OHIO, Charles Lathrop Pack, Cleveland
+  OKLAHOMA, Benjamin Martin, Jr., Muskogee
+  OREGON, M. A. Moody, The Dalles
+  PENNSYLVANIA, M. I. McCreight, Dubois
+  RHODE ISLAND, H. A. Barker, Providence
+  SOUTH CAROLINA, E. W. Durant, Jr., Charleston
+  SOUTH DAKOTA, P. H. O'Neill, Faulkton
+  TEXAS, S. H. Cowan, Fort Worth
+  UTAH, Harden Bennion, Salt Lake City
+  VERMONT, George Aitkin, Woodstock
+  WASHINGTON, George H. Emerson, Hoquiam
+  WEST VIRGINIA, I. C. White, Morgantown
+  WISCONSIN, William Irvine, Chippewa Falls
+  WYOMING, E. H. Fourt, Lander
+
+[3] The corrected list appears elsewhere (page iv).
+
+[4] The reports submitted by States as mentioned in the responses to the
+Call of States are printed in the Supplementary Proceedings, beginning
+on page 327, and are entered in the Contents and Index of the volume.
+
+[5] The formal report for Ohio appears in the Supplementary Proceedings.
+
+[6] In the opinion he held that the plaintiff was entitled to judgment,
+declaring the Brooklyn Cooperage Company and Cornell University contract
+void, and directed the University to convey to the State of New York the
+30,000 acres constituting the College Forest.
+
+[7] The relative prices of forest lands sixty years ago and now may be
+judged from the fact that in 1850 a Law (Chapter 250) was passed
+providing that the State should not sell public land on Raquette river
+for less than 15 cents an acre. The State is now paying over $7.00 an
+acre for the same kind of land.
+
+[8] Declaration of Colonel David McClure in the Constitutional
+Convention of 1894.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Agriculture in schools, 265
+  Work of the Department of, 194
+
+AITKIN, GEORGE, Report by, 373
+
+Alaska coal lands, 21, 310
+
+ALLEN, E. T., Report by, 367, 424
+
+American Academy of Political and Social Science, Report of, 379
+
+American Automobile Association, Report of, 380
+
+American Civic Association, Report of, 383
+
+American Forestry Association, Report of, 384
+
+American Humane Association, Report of, 385
+
+American Institute of Architects, Report of, 386
+
+American Medical Association, Report of, 389
+  Work of, 255
+
+American Paper and Pulp Association, Report of, 388
+
+American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association,
+  Report of, 392
+
+American Railway Master Mechanics' Association, Report of, 393
+
+American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, Report of, 394
+
+AMES, CHARLES W., Report by, 380
+
+ANDERSON, A. T., Report by, 420
+
+Arizona, Report from, 324
+
+Arkansas, Report from, 314, 333
+
+Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, Report of, 397
+
+Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association, Report of, 383
+
+
+BABB, CYRUS C., Report by, 341
+
+BABB, GEORGE W., Report by, 418
+
+BABCOCK, GEORGE H., Report by, 411
+
+BACKUS, E. W., Report by, 389
+
+BAILEY, E. W. M., Report by, 411
+
+BAILEY, LIBERTY HYDE, Address by, 203
+  Report by, 397
+
+BAKER, A. L., Address by, 222
+
+BAKER, BERNARD N., Introductory remarks by, 7
+  Report by, 314
+  Resolution of thanks to, 308
+
+BALDWIN, A. S., Report by, 393
+
+BALLINGER, R. A., Reference to work of, 76
+
+BANNISTER, O. B., Report by, 314
+
+BARKER, HENRY A., Report by, 324, 368, 384
+
+BARRETT, JOHN, Address by, 80, 237
+
+BARRETT, C. S., Report by, 411
+
+BENSON, R. DALE, Report by, 418
+
+BENTLEY, H. T., Report by, 394
+
+BEVERIDGE, Senator ALBERT J., Address by, 146
+
+BISSELL, R. M., Report by, 418
+
+BLANCHARD, Ex-Governor NEWTON C., Address by, 121
+
+BOARDMAN, Miss MABEL, Address by, 94
+
+BROOKS, Governor BRYANT B., Address by, 72
+
+BROWN, ELMER ELLSWORTH, Address by, 264
+  Letter from, 165
+
+BROWN, J. ADAMS, Report by, 416
+
+BRYCE, JAMES, Tribute to, 243
+
+BURNHAM, AUSTIN A., Report by, 420
+
+Business interest in Conservation, 222, 257
+
+
+California, Resources of, 116
+
+Call of States, Announcement of, 134, 171, 226, 298
+  Resumption of, 213, 299, 313
+
+Capital, Relation of, to resources, 226
+
+Carriage Builders' National Association, Report of, 410
+
+CASE, CHARLES R., Report by, 423
+
+CHAMPNEY, W. P., Report by, 411
+
+Cities, Wastes of, 309
+
+CLAPP, Senator MOSES E., Presiding Officer, 168
+
+CLEVELAND, GROVER, quoted on monopoly, 224
+
+Colorado, Report from, 334
+
+Columbia (District of), Report from, 324
+
+CONDRA, GEORGE E., Announcement by, 71
+  Explanation by, 298
+  Report by, 317
+
+Conference of Governors, Reference to work of,
+  87, 225, 245, 247, 293, 379, 415
+
+CONNOLLY, MAURICE, Report by, 411
+
+Conservation
+  of Minerals and Subterranean Waters, 429
+  of the Nation's Resources, 328
+  Practical Aspects of, 331
+  Problems, Address on, 106
+  Program, The, 292
+
+Constitution of the Congress, ix
+  Adoption of, 79
+
+Country Life as related to Conservation, 203
+
+CRAIGHEAD, EDWIN BOONE, Address by, 168
+
+Credentials Committee, Appointment of, 79
+  Modification of, 106
+  Report of, 145
+
+
+DAMON, A. W., Report by, 418
+
+Daughters of the American Revolution, Work of, 270
+
+DAVIDSON, JAMES H., Address by, 132
+
+DAY, JEROME J., Report by, 336
+
+DEAN, WILLIAM B., Report by 380
+
+Delaware State Federation of Women's Clubs, Report of, 411
+
+DENEEN, Governor CHARLES E., Address by, 59
+
+Denmark, Successful agriculture of, 200
+
+DIXON, SAMUEL G., Reference to Work of, 301
+
+DORT, J. D., Report by, 411
+
+DRAPER, Mrs BELLE MERRILL, Reference to work of, 167
+
+
+EBERHART, Governor A. O., Address by 3, 298
+  Presiding Officer, 246
+
+EDSALL, Right Reverend SAMUEL COOK, Invocation by, 134
+
+Education and Conservation, 264
+
+EMERSON, GEORGE H., Report by, 320
+  "Timber Conservation," 424
+
+EVANS, POWELL, Report by, 382
+
+EVANS, R. D., Report by, 416
+
+Executive Committee, Report from, 317
+
+Executive powers, Definition of, 108
+
+Exports, Diminution of, 183
+
+
+Farm, Efficiency of the, 211
+  production, 136, 182, 190, 197
+  values, Losses in, 5
+
+Farmers' Union of America, Report of, 411
+
+FARQUHAR, A. B., "Practical Aspects of Conservation," 331
+
+Fertility, Conditions of, 210
+
+Forests
+  and Stream Flow, 57, 216, 364, 400, 428
+  and the Nation, Address on, 214
+  Condition of, in Washington, 68
+  Conservation of, 199, 294, 398, 426
+  Destruction of, 11
+  National, Utilization of, 86, 261
+
+Forest Service, Reference to work of, 180
+
+FOSTER, J. ELLEN, Resolution in memory of, 276
+  Tribute to, 274
+
+FOURT, E. H., Report by, 324
+
+FOWLER, B. A., Report by, 324
+
+FINLEY, W. W., Address by, 135
+
+Fire Losses, Magnitude of, 418
+
+FISHER, IRVING, Reference to Work of, 249
+
+FISHER, WALTER L., Address by, 129
+
+Florida, Report from, 335
+
+
+GARFIELD, JAMES R., Address by, 106
+
+General Federation of Women's Clubs, Report of, 412
+
+Georgia, Report from, 325
+
+GIBBONS, CARDINAL, Greetings from, 3
+
+GIBBONS, CROMWELL, Report by, 335
+
+GILBERT, CASS, Report by, 387
+
+GIPE, JAMES C., Election of, as Recording Secretary, 307
+
+GLENN, L. C., Reference to work of, 428
+
+GOUDY, FRANK C., Report by, 334
+
+Government, Cost of, 185
+
+Governors, Western, Resolutions by, 72
+
+GRAVES, HENRY S., Address by, 214
+
+GREEN, F. R., Report by, 392
+
+GREEN, SAMUEL B., Resolutions in memory of, 313
+
+GREGORY, LUCIUS, Report by, 411
+
+GRIFFITH, E. M., Report by, 377
+
+GRIGGS, E. G., Report by, 375
+
+
+HALL, EDWARD HAGAMAN, Report by, 409
+
+HAMILTON, ALEXANDER, quoted on executive powers, 112
+
+HARDTNER, HENRY E., Report by, 339
+
+HARRIMAN, E. H., Reference to work of, 281
+
+HARVEY, WILLIAM S., "Forests and Stream Flow," 428
+  Report by, 299, 420
+
+HAY, Governor M. E., Address by, 64
+
+Health and Life as National assets, 247, 263
+
+HENEY, FRANCIS J., Address by, 278
+
+HIGLEY, WARREN, Report by, 409
+
+HILL, JAMES J., Address by, 177
+  Control of water-power by, 321
+  Explanation by, 194
+  Reference to Work of, 281
+  Tribute to, 13
+
+HOLLIDAY, CORNELIA R., Report by, 411
+
+HOLMES, J. A., Tribute to, 296, 325
+
+HORR, CHRISTOPHER G., Remarks by, 120, 313
+
+HOWARD, Mrs JAY COOKE, Address by, 167
+  Presentation by, 276
+
+HOWE, FREDERIC C., quoted on export trade, 184
+
+HUNT, G. M., Report by, 324
+  Resolution of thanks by, 307
+
+
+Idaho, Report from, 336
+
+Illinois, Resources of, 59
+
+Indiana, Report from, 314, 336
+
+Invocation by Archbishop Ireland, 1
+  Bishop Edsall, 134
+  Reverend J. S. Montgomery, 81
+
+Iowa, Report from, 337
+
+IRELAND, Archbishop, Invocation by, 1
+
+Iron ore of Minnesota, 12
+
+Irrigation, Extension of, 55
+
+
+JOHNS, WILLIAM DOUGLAS, Report by, 320
+
+JOHNSON, EMORY R., Report by, 380
+
+JONES, W. A. FLEMING, Report by, 347, 380
+  Resolution of thanks by, 307
+
+JUSSERAND, J. J., Quoted on forests and waterways, 428
+
+
+KAVANAUGH, W. K., Report by, 415
+
+KELLER, Mayor HERBERT E., Address of welcome by, 13
+
+KREMER, W. N., Report by, 418
+
+KRUEGER, A. W., Report by, 319
+
+KUNZ, GEORGE FREDERICK,
+  "The Conservation of Minerals and Subterranean Waters," 429
+
+
+LACEY, JOHN F., Report by, 416
+
+Lakes-to-Gulf Deep Waterways Association, Report of, 413
+
+Land
+  Laws, 17, 35
+  Laws, Needed reformation in, 288, 296, 425
+  taxation, 152
+  Titles, The Question of, 430
+
+Lands, Conservation and utilization of, 295
+
+Lands, Public, 16
+  Disposition of, 181
+
+LATCHAW, D. AUSTIN, Address by, 171
+  Election of, as Treasurer, 307
+
+LATTIMORE, GEORGE W., Report by, 319
+
+Laws That Should be Passed, 327
+
+LAZENBY, WILLIAM R., Report by, 364
+
+League of American Sportsmen, Report of, 415
+
+Legislative functions, Failure in performing, 280
+
+LEWIS, T. L., Report by, 424
+
+Life and Health, Address on, 247
+
+Louisiana, Report from, 339
+  Resources of, 124
+
+LOWE, E. N., Report by, 315
+
+
+MACKENZIE, ALEXANDER, Reference to work of, 414
+
+Maine, Report from, 341
+
+MARSHALL, Chief Justice JOHN, Opinions by, 109
+
+MARTIN, BEN J., JR., Report by, 319, 365
+  Resolution of thanks by, 326
+
+Massachusetts, Report from, 343
+
+MAXWELL, HU, Report by 376
+
+MCCRAY, FRANKLIN, "The Question of Land Titles," 430
+
+MCDERMOTT, J. H., Report by, 416
+
+MCENIRY, M. J., Report by, 422
+
+MCGEE, W J, Reference to work of, 414
+
+MCNEES, G. W., Report by, 301
+
+MCVEY, FRANK L., Address by, 152
+
+MERRITT, E. T., Report by, 372
+
+MERSHON, WILLIAM B., Report by, 416
+
+METZGER, A. E., Report by, 336
+
+MILLER, A. C., Report by, 314, 337
+
+Minerals, Conservation of, 296, 429
+
+Minnesota, Deforestation of, 11
+  Farm Value in, 6
+  Iron Ore in, 12
+  Report from, 315
+
+Mississippi, Report from, 315
+  Resources of, 48
+
+Missouri, Report from, 315, 344
+  Valley River Improvement Association, Report of, 420
+  Waterways Commission, work of, 414
+
+MITCHELL, A. R., Report by, 392
+
+Monopoly, Growth of, 224
+  of Power, 101
+  of resources in California, 116
+  of transportation, 191
+
+MOORE, WILLIS L., Reference to work of, 428
+
+Montana, Report from, 345
+  Resources of, 52
+
+MONTGOMERY, Reverend J. S., Invocation by, 81
+
+MUCKLE, M. RICHARD, Report by, 386
+
+
+National Board of Fire Underwriters, Report of, 416
+  Board of Trade, Report of, 419
+  Business League of America, Report of, 420
+  Conservation Association, Endorsement of, 371
+  Conservation Commission, Reference to Report of, 247
+  Efficiency, Promotion of, 296
+
+Nebraska, Report from, 317
+
+NELSON, Senator KNUTE, Address by, 35
+
+NESTOS, R. A., Report by, 318
+
+NEWELL, F. H., Reference to work of, 414
+
+NEWLANDS, Senator FRANCIS G., "Laws that Should be Passed," 327
+
+New Mexico, Report from, 347
+
+New York, Report from, 318, 347, 352
+
+NOBLE, JOHN W., Report and resolution by, 315
+
+NOEL, Governor EDMOND N., Address by, 48
+  Tribute to, 315
+
+Nominating Committee, Creation of, 246
+  Report of, 303
+
+NORRIS, Governor EDWIN L., Address by, 52
+
+North American Conservation Congress, Work of, 247
+
+North Dakota, Report from, 318, 362
+
+
+Ohio, Report from, 364
+
+Oklahoma, Report from, 365
+
+Oregon, Report from, 367
+
+OVEY, ESMOND, Address by, 243
+
+
+PAGE, THOMAS NELSON, Reference to work of, 271
+
+Pan-American Union, Work of, 237
+
+PARDEE, Ex-Governor GEORGE C., Address by, 115
+  Report of Resolutions Committee by, 308
+
+PARRY, D. M., Report by, 411
+
+PARTRIDGE, JOHN, Report by, 386
+
+Pennsylvania, Report from, 299
+
+PERSONS, HENRY H., Report by, 352
+
+Phosphate lands, Withdrawal of, 29
+
+PINCHOT, GIFFORD, Address by, 292
+  Memorial resolution by, 313
+  Nominating address by, 304
+  Presentation of certificate to, 276
+  Reference to work of, 54, 166, 373
+  Response by, 152, 277
+  Tribute to, 48, 76, 117, 151, 159, 221, 242, 325
+
+PLUNKETT, Sir HORACE, Reference to work of, 87
+
+Power, Address on, 101
+
+Press (The), Address on, 171
+
+PRIESTLY, J. T., Report by, 392
+
+Property, Safeguarding public, 278
+
+PURDUE, A. H., Report by, 314
+
+
+Railway control of waterways, 64
+  subsidies, Magnitude of, 283
+
+Railways, Control of, to prevent forest fires, 351, 401
+  of the South and Conservation, 135
+
+RANE, FRANK WILLIAM, Report by, 343
+
+RATTERMANN, H., Report by, 411
+
+Reclamation Service, Reference to work of, 178
+
+Red Cross, Address on work of, 94
+
+REDDING, SID B., Report by, 333
+
+Republics, Address on American, 237
+
+Resolutions adopted by the Congress, 308
+
+Resolutions Committee, Announcement of, 80, 145
+  Composition of, 311
+  Report by, 308
+
+Resources as the basis for business, Address on, 222, 257
+
+Rhode Island, Report from, 324, 368
+
+RICHARDSON, GUY, Report by, 386
+
+RICHTER, JOSEPH C., Report by, 301
+
+Rivers, Federal control of, 125
+
+Roads, Value of good, 11
+
+ROBINSON, DOANE, Report by, 369
+
+ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, Address by, 82
+  cited on civilization, 351
+  Reference to work of, 242
+  Tribute to, 13, 38, 59, 76, 116, 151
+
+ROSS, E. W., Interlude by, 302, 312
+  Privileged statement by, 322
+
+ROTH, FILIBERT, Reference to work of, 428
+
+ROTHROCK, J. T., Reference to work of, 301
+
+
+SALISBURY, O. J., Report by, 372
+
+SARGENT, WILL L., Report by, 370
+
+SCOTT, Mrs MATTHEW T., Address by, 270
+
+Senate, Policies of the, 279
+
+SHELDON, CHARLES S., Report by, 392
+
+SHIPP, THOMAS R., Election of, as Secretary, 306
+
+SHORT, FRANK H., Address by, 226
+
+SHORTALL, JOHN L., Report by, 386
+
+SIMMONS, WALLACE D., Address by, 257
+
+SMITH, C. G., Report by, 418
+
+SMITH, HERBERT KNOX, Address by, 101
+
+SMYTHE, WILLIAM E., Address by, 127
+
+SNEATH, Mrs G. B., Address by, 166
+  Report through, 414
+
+SNYDER, WILLIAM A., Report by, 411
+
+Soil as a Resource, 6, 205, 259
+  Impoverishment of, 198
+
+South Carolina, Report from, 369
+
+South Dakota, Report from, 319, 369
+  Resources of, 77
+
+SPRAGUE, HENRY H., Report by, 343
+
+START, EDWIN A., Report by, 385
+
+STEVENS, Representative F. C., Address by, 201
+
+STEVENS, FREDERICK C., Report by, 380
+
+STILLMAN, WILLIAM O., Report by, 386
+
+STUBBS, Governor W. R., Address by, 75, 81
+  Presiding Officer, 35
+
+SWAIN, GEORGE F., Reference to work of, 428
+
+
+TAFT, President, Address by, 14
+  Cited on National functions, 116
+  Tribute to, 13
+
+Taxation
+  of forests, 295
+  of National resources, Address on, 152
+
+Texas, Report from, 370
+
+THORP, FREEMAN, Report by, 315
+
+Timber Conservation, 424
+
+TOMKIES, Mrs HOYLE, Address by, 163
+
+Trans-Mississippi Congress, Resolution concerning, 315
+
+Tree Planters of America, Proposed organization of, 420
+
+TWICHELL, JEROME, Report by, 421
+
+
+United Mine Workers, Report of, 424
+
+Upper Mississippi River Improvement Association, Report of, 421
+
+Utah, Report from, 372
+
+
+Vermont, Report from, 373
+
+VESSEY, Governor, Address by, 77
+
+Vice-Presidents, Ratification of the, 313
+
+VON TOBEL, RUDOLPH, Report by, 317, 345
+
+VON SCHRENK, HERMANN, Report by, 344
+
+
+WAGSTAFF, ALFRED, Report by, 386
+
+WALDRON, C. B., Report by, 362
+
+WALLACE, HENRY, Address by, 188, 305
+  Nomination and election of as President, 304
+
+WARFIELD, R. EMORY, Report by, 418
+
+Washington, Report from, 320, 375
+  Resources of, 64
+  Sentiment of, 120
+
+Washington State Federation of Labor, Report of, 422
+
+Wastes of civilization, 309
+
+Water conservation, 404, 429
+
+Water-power, Address on, 101
+  Control of, 222, 365, 405
+  Disposition of, 30, 54, 59, 105, 129, 156, 294, 321, 338, 349, 356
+  Value of, 287
+
+Water resources of New York, 352
+
+Water supply, Conditions of, 343, 353
+
+Waterways, Development of, 163, 412
+  Utilization of, 83, 294, 364
+
+WATSON, E. J., Report by, 369
+
+WEIS, SAMUEL, Report by, 386
+
+WELCH, Mrs GEORGE O., Address by, 160
+
+WESBROOK, F. F., Address by, 247
+  Report by, 392
+
+WEST, WILLIAM L., Report by, 380
+
+Western Forestry and Conservation Association, Report of, 423
+
+West Virginia, Report from, 324, 376
+
+WHIPPLE, J. S., Report by, 347
+
+WHITE, L. C., Report by, 324
+
+WHITE, J. B., Address by, 158
+  "Conservation of the Nation's Resources," 328
+  Nominating Address by, 303
+  Report by, 316
+
+WHITNEY, MILTON, Reference to work of, 136
+
+Women's Clubs, Work of, 161
+
+WORSHAM, E. L., Report by, 325
+
+WILKINSON, Mrs J. D., Report by, 415
+
+WILLIAMS, Mrs LYDIA PHILLIPS, Reference to work of, 161
+
+WILSON, DANIEL T., Report by, 411
+
+WILSON, Secretary JAMES, Address by, 194
+  Tribute to, 183, 191
+
+Wisconsin, Report from, 377
+
+Wyoming, Report from, 324
+  Resources of, 72
+
+
+YOUNG, P. C., Report by, 314
+
+
+
+
+  J. H. BERKSHIRE, President
+  O. W. FISHER, Vice-Pres.
+  J. B. WHITE, Sec'y-Treas. and Gen'l Mgr.
+
+=Missouri Lumber & Land Exchange Company=
+
+  MISSOURI SOFT PINE
+  LONG LEAF YELLOW PINE
+  SHORT LEAF YELLOW PINE
+  OAK FLOORING
+
+
+LOUISIANA MILLS:
+
+  LOUISIANA LONG LEAF LUMBER CO.,       FISHER, LA.
+  1 Pine and 1 Oak Flooring Mill
+
+  LOUISIANA LONG LEAF LUMBER CO.,       VICTORIA, LA.
+  1 Pine Mill
+
+  LOUISIANA CENTRAL LUMBER CO.,         CLARKS, LA.
+  2 Pine Mills
+
+  LOUISIANA CENTRAL LUMBER CO.,         STANDARD, LA.
+  1 Pine Mill
+
+
+MISSOURI MILLS:
+
+  MISSOURI LUMBER & MINING CO.,       WEST EMINENCE, MO.
+  1 Pine Mill
+
+  OZARK LAND & LUMBER CO.,            WINONA, MO.
+  1 Pine and 1 Oak Mill
+
+  Annual Capacity 250,000,000 Feet
+
+
+  =High Grades=      =Quick Shipments=
+
+  MAIN OFFICE       1111 LONG BUILDING
+  KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI
+
+
+
+
+=Missouri Lumber & Land Exchange Company=
+
+
+SHIPMENTS
+
+We ship stock of our own manufacture exclusively. We carry large, well
+assorted stocks and quote only when we are sure of being able to comply
+with grade and time requirements. As our mills are located on four (4)
+different railroads we can always ship orders without delay.
+
+
+FINISHING LUMBER
+
+We specialize on FINISHING lumber and every care is exercised to make it
+THE BEST. By separating all widths and lengths, we are in a position to
+quote on any particular width or length desired. We carry in stock
+Finish as wide as 26 inches, in 4-4, 5-4, 6-4 and 8-4 thicknesses. Our
+MISSOURI FINISH, owing to its flexibility, lightness, softness and
+figure, is peculiarly adapted to all finishing work. We also carry all
+grades of Finish in 4, 6 and 8 feet lengths.
+
+
+=If You want GOOD GRADES and PROMPT SERVICE, write the "EXCHANGE"=
+
+
+
+
+=Missouri Lumber & Land Exchange Company=
+
+
+PINE YARD AND SHED STOCK
+
+We carry a large stock of all yard and shed material, which is piled
+scientifically to avoid sap-staining and bluing and to insure dryness
+
+  Our upper grades are all
+  STEAM KILN DRIED
+  and a large percentage of our lower grades
+  are either
+  STEAM KILN DRIED
+  or
+  SODA DIPPED
+
+Either process precludes the possibility of sap-staining
+
+
+=If You want GOOD GRADES and PROMPT SERVICE, write the "EXCHANGE"=
+
+
+
+
+=Missouri Lumber & Land Exchange Company=
+
+
+OAK FLOORING
+
+In the manufacture of our "DIAMOND BRAND" Oak Flooring the greatest
+possible care is taken in every department. Our Oak Flooring, owing to
+our method of drying and working, gives COMPLETE SATISFACTION in all
+climates. Due to the fact that our mill is located at the same point
+where we operate a pine plant we can ship Oak Flooring and Pine in the
+same car
+
+
+Oak Timbers, Factory Stock, Etc.
+
+We manufacture Oak Timbers, Ties, Car Framing, Grain Doors, Factory
+Stock, Etc. We can ship Oak, rough or dressed, in mixed cars with Yellow
+Pine
+
+
+=If You want GOOD GRADES and PROMPT SERVICE, write the "EXCHANGE"=
+
+
+
+
+=Missouri Lumber & Land Exchange Company=
+
+
+RAILROAD MATERIAL
+
+We manufacture large quantities of Bridge Timbers, Cross Ties (Both Oak
+and Pine), Braces, Etc., with or without heart specifications, shipping
+same rough or surfaced as may be desired.
+
+
+CAR MATERIAL
+
+By specializing on car material we are in a position to handle
+satisfactorily orders for Sills, Framing (both Oak and Pine), Lining,
+Roofing, Siding, Insulation, Grain Doors, Etc.
+
+
+=If You want GOOD GRADES and PROMPT SERVICE, write the "EXCHANGE"=
+
+
+
+
+=Missouri Lumber & Land Exchange Company=
+
+
+SHORTS
+
+We carry in stock 4, 6 and 8 foot lengths, in all grades from No. 3
+Common to "A," in both 4-4 and 8-4 stock. All widths and lengths are
+_stacked separately_. We will work these "shorts" to any pattern desired
+or ship rough, trimming to any length specified
+
+
+SPECIAL MATERIAL
+
+We manufacture any special items desired, in Oak and Pine, such as
+Spreader Slats, Step-Ladder Material, Pulley Stiles, Crating Stock, Etc.
+If you use anything in "shorts," regardless of grade, length, width or
+pattern, send us your inquiry.
+
+
+=If You want GOOD GRADES and PROMPT SERVICE, write the "EXCHANGE"=
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes
+
+
+Spelling irregularities where there was no obviously preferred version
+were left as is. Variants include: derivatives of "Allegheny" and
+"Alleghany;" "antitoxin" and "anti-toxin;" "benefited" and "benefitted;"
+"Caesar" and "Caesar;" "caretakers" and "care-takers;" "Chile" and
+"Chili;" derivatives of "criticise" and "criticize;" "drought" and
+"drouth;" "employes" and "employees;" "entry-man" and "entryman;"
+"endorse" and "indorse;" "fellowmen" and "fellow-men;" derivatives of
+"fiber" and "fibre;" "fulfil" and "fulfill;" "headwaters" and
+"head-waters;" derivatives of "homeseeker" and "home-seeker;"
+"horsepower" and "horse-power;" "inappreciable" and "unappreciable;"
+"lawmakers" and "law-makers;" "lifetime" and "life-time;" "livestock"
+and "live-stock;" "patrolmen" and "patrol-men;" derivatives of "payroll"
+and "pay-roll;" "Phoenix" and "Phenix;" "playgrounds" and
+"play-grounds;" derivatives of "postoffice" and "post-office;"
+"preeminently" and "pre-eminently;" derivatives of "preempt" and
+"pre-empt;" "prerequisite" and "pre-requisite;" "rainfall" and
+"rain-fall;" "Savior" and "Saviour;" derivatives of "short-sighted" and
+"shortsighted;" derivatives of "stockman" and "stock-man;" derivatives
+of "theater" and "theatre;" "Rudolph von Tobel," "Rudolf von Tobel" and
+"Rudolph van Tolbel;" "traveled" and "travelled;" "upbuilding" and
+"up-building;" "waterfalls" and "water-falls;" "watershed" and
+"water-shed," and their plurals; "workaday" and "work-a-day;"
+"workshops" and "work-shops."
+
+Some of the index entries are not in strict alphabetical order, but they
+were left as is.
+
+Changed "Mrs." to "Mrs" for consistency on page iii: "Mrs J. Ellen
+Foster."
+
+Changed "Governer" to "Governor" on page v: "Ex-Governor Blanchard."
+
+Changed "Thorpe" to "Thorp" on page vii.
+
+Inserted missing "8." into caption of figure following page xii.
+
+Changed "by" to "be" on page 2: "hallowed be Thy name."
+
+Inserted missing comma after "fruit-raising" on page 10.
+
+Changed "wth" to "with" on page 10: "with so many attractions."
+
+Changed "non-irrigible" to "non-irrigable" on page 17: "applying to
+non-irrigable lands."
+
+Changed "mattter" to "matter" on page 21: "set in this matter."
+
+Changed "Phosphorous" to "Phosphorus" and "phosphorous" to "phosphorus"
+on page 29.
+
+Changed "nothwithstanding" to "notwithstanding" on page 48:
+"notwithstanding the land."
+
+Changed "believeing" to "believing" on page 49: "believing that our
+rights."
+
+Changed "640 acre-tracts" to "640-acre tracts" on page 53.
+
+Changed "reregarding" to "regarding" on page 59: "regarding this
+program."
+
+Changed "Lakes-to-the-Gulf" to "Lakes-to-Gulf" on page 60: "the
+Lakes-to-Gulf deep waterway."
+
+Changed "cooeperate" to "cooperate" on page 63: "cooperate and work
+together."
+
+Changed "attenton" to "attention" on page 68: "call your attention."
+
+Changed "fadists" to "faddists" on page 71: "faddists, dreamers, and
+enthusiasts."
+
+Changed "o'clock" to "oclock" on page 78, for consistency.
+
+Changed "Tumultous" to "Tumultuous" on page 93: "Tumultuous applause."
+
+Changed "Brifly" to "Briefly" on page 96: "Briefly, then."
+
+Changed "subcommittee" to "sub-committee" on page 96: "A sub-committee,
+six of whom."
+
+Changed "devasting" to "devastating" on page 98: "devastating hand."
+
+Changed "prevent" to "prevents" on page 111: "that prevents all
+progress."
+
+Changed "phase" to "phrase" to correct the quotation from Alexander
+Hamilton on page 112: "another phrase for a bad execution."
+
+Changed "essenial" to "essential" on page 112: "not less essential."
+
+Changed "differene" to "difference" on page 112: "a wide difference."
+
+Changed "Mr." to "Mr" twice on page 132 for consistency: "Mr Bernard N.
+Baker" and "Mr Chairman."
+
+Changed "re-forested" to "reforested" on page 142: "mountain sides are
+to be reforested."
+
+Changed "multi-millionaries" to "multi-millionaires" on page 150.
+
+Changed "queston" to "question" on page 158: "the question of taxation."
+
+Changed "recources" to "resources" on page 160: "natural resources."
+
+Changed "foresty" to "forestry" on page 161: "the line of forestry."
+
+Changed "Mrs." to "Mrs" on page 165: "Mrs Hoyle Tomkies."
+
+Changed "extravagancies" to "extravagances" on page 194: "all their
+extravagances."
+
+Changed "offences" to "offenses" on page 227: "failures and offenses."
+
+Changed "fertilty" to "fertility" on page 250: "the fertility of the
+soil."
+
+Changed "gaities" to "gaieties" on page 242: "the gaieties of
+fashionable resorts."
+
+Removed mismatched double quotation character on page 245, before
+"Gentlemen, please hold steady."
+
+Changed "re-assembled" to "reassembled" on page 246: "The Congress
+reassembled."
+
+Changed "his" to "this" on page 261: "this kind of revenue-making
+regulation."
+
+Changed "responsibilties" to "responsibilities" on page 267: "their
+powers and responsibilities."
+
+Changed "innoculate" to "inoculate" on page 271: "to inoculate them."
+
+Changed "devasted" to "devastated" on page 275: "devastated by
+earthquake."
+
+Changed "Lascruses" to "Las Cruces," "Lewiston" to "Lewistown" and
+"Aitken" to "Aitkin" in the footnote 2.
+
+Changed "Mississipppi" to "Mississippi" on page 315: "We from
+Mississippi."
+
+Inserted "as" on page 315: "prosecuted as rapidly as possible."
+
+Changed "Washingon" to "Washington" on page 321: "the State of
+Washington and its officials."
+
+Changed "sovereignity" to "sovereignty" on page 327: "National
+sovereignty."
+
+Changed "dividuals" to "individuals" on page 330: "than can
+individuals."
+
+Changed "extravagence" to "extravagance" on page 331: "extravagance and
+waste."
+
+Changed "non-preventible" to "non-preventable" on page 332:
+"non-preventable accidents."
+
+Changed "Metzer" to "Metzger" on page 336.
+
+Changed "necesssary" to "necessary" on page 342: "the necessary steps."
+
+Changed "perserved" to "preserved" on page 351: "preserved for all
+time."
+
+Changed "runoff" to "run-off" on page 356: "run-off of streams."
+
+Changed "Henry A. Baker" to "Henry A. Barker" on page 368.
+
+Changed "Greely" to "Greeley" on page 376.
+
+Changed "Agronomony" to "Agronomy" on page 380: "Chief in Agronomy and
+Chemistry."
+
+Changed "viligance" to "vigilance" on page 396: "the vigilance of the
+Society."
+
+Changed "his" to "this" on page 405: "The provisions of this section."
+
+Changed "Mrs." to "Mrs" and "S. B." to "G. B." on page 413: "Mrs G. B.
+Sneath."
+
+Changed "centre" to "center" on page 413: "center of the most fertile
+valley."
+
+Changed "acretions" to "accretions" on page 414: "the rich accretions."
+
+Changed "sportsmens'" to "sportsmen's" on page 416: "sportsmen's
+travel."
+
+Changed "kilowat" to "kilowatt" twice on page 421.
+
+The index entry for "Blanchard" incorrectly references page 94, rather
+than page 121. Page 94 should be the reference for Miss Boardman, which
+is missing. These errors were corrected.
+
+Changed "Emeprson" to "Emerson" in the index entry for "Emerson, George
+H."
+
+Changed "Commitee" to "Committee" in the index entry for "Executive
+Committee, Report from."
+
+Changed "Mathew" to "Matthew" in the index entry for "Scott, Mrs Matthew
+T."
+
+Changed "Philips" to "Phillips" in the index entry for "Williams, Mrs
+Lydia Phillips."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Proceedings of the Second National
+Conservation Congress, by Various
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