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 Cæsar 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
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
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)
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
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
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
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)
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
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 21/2 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
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
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
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
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
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.