CHAPTER XX

NATIONAL RESOURCES

149. The Governors' Conference, 1908

DURING the past century, the federal government granted away to private persons millions of acres of forest, mineral, and arable lands for the purpose of securing the settlement of the great West and stimulating the development of industries and transportation facilities. The unexpected rapidity, however, with which our industries have drawn upon our natural resources has brought us within recent years to a keen realization of the fact that this lavish recklessness cannot go on indefinitely. Wide publicity was given to the problem of conserving our resources by the action of President Roosevelt in calling a conference of the governors of all the states to take the question into serious consideration. The conference met at Washington in May, 1908, and after a few days' deliberation issued the following declaration of principles:

resources the foundation

We, the Governors of the States and Territories of the United Material States of America, in conference assembled, do hereby declare the conviction that the great prosperity of the country rests upon the abundant resources of the land chosen by our forefathers for their prosperity. homes and where they laid the foundation of this great nation.

We look upon these resources as a heritage to be made use of in establishing and promoting the comfort, prosperity and happiness of the American people, but not to be wasted, deteriorated or needlessly destroyed.

We agree that our country's future is involved in this: that the great natural resources supply the material basis upon which our civilization must continue to depend and upon which the perpetuity of the nation itself rests.

We agree, in the light of facts brought to our knowledge and

of our

Resources threatened with exhaustion.

What are our

resources?

What should be done.

from information received from sources which we cannot doubt, that this material basis is threatened with exhaustion. Even as each succeeding generation from the birth of the nation has performed its part in promoting the progress and development of the republic, so do we in this generation recognize it as a high duty to perform our part, and this duty in large degree lies in the adoption of measures for the conservation of the natural wealth of the country.

We declare our firm conviction that this conservation of our natural resources is a subject of transcendent importance which should engage unremittingly the attention of the nation, the States and the people in earnest co-operation. These natural resources include the land on which we live and which yields our food; the waters, which fertilize the soil, supply power and form great avenues of commerce; the forests, which yield the materials for our homes, prevent erosion of the soil and conserve the navigation and other uses of our streams, and the minerals, which form the basis of our industrial life and supply us with heat, light and power.

We agree that the land should be so used that erosion and soil wash should cease, that there should be reclamation of arid and semi-arid regions by means of irrigation and of swamp and overflowed regions by means of drainage; that the waters should be so conserved and used as to promote navigation, to enable the arid regions to be reclaimed by irrigation, and to develop power in the interests of the people; that the forests, which regulate our rivers, support our industries and promote the fertility and productiveness of the soil, should be preserved and perpetuated; that the minerals found so abundantly beneath the surface, should be so used as to prolong their utility, that the beauty, healthfulness and habitability of our country should be preserved and increased; that the sources of national wealth exist for the benefit of all the people and that the monopoly thereof should not be tolerated.

We commend the wise forethought of the President in sounding the note of warning as to the waste and exhaustion of the natural

state governments should

resources of the country and signify our high appreciation of his Federal and action in calling this Conference to consider the same and to seek remedies therefor through co-operation of the Nation and the coöperate. States. We agree that this co-operation should find expression in suitable action by the Congress within the limits of and coextensive with the national jurisdiction of the subject and, complementary thereto, by the Legislatures of the several States within the limits of and coextensive with their jurisdiction.

We declare the conviction that in the use of the natural resources our independent States are interdependent and bound together by ties of mutual benefits, responsibilities and duties.

conferences.

We agree in the wisdom of future conferences between the Future President, members of Congress and the Governors of the States on the conservation of our natural resources with a view to continued co-operation and action on the lines suggested. And to this end we advise that from time to time, as in his judgment may seem wise, the President call the Governors of the States, members of Congress and others into conference.

our

resources.

We agree that further action is advisable to ascertain the A present condition of our natural resources and to promote the conservation of the same. And to that end we recommend the appointment by each State of a commission on the conservation of natural resources to co-operate with each other and with any similar commission on behalf of the Federal Government.

servation.

We urge the continuation and extension of forest policies adapted Forest conto secure the husbanding and renewal of our diminishing timber supply, prevention of soil erosion, the protection of headwaters and the maintenance of the purity and navigability of our streams. We recognize that the private ownership of forest lands entails responsibilities in the interests of all the people, and we favor the enactment of laws looking to the protection and replacement of privately owned forests.

We recognize in our waters a most valuable asset of the people Irrigation. of the United States and we recommend the enactment of laws

looking to the conservation of water resources for irrigation, water

Consumption of

timber.

The forests

will pay.

supply, power and navigation, to the end that navigable and source streams may be brought under complete control and fully utilized for every purpose. We especially urge on the Federal Congress the immediate adoption of a wise, active and thorough waterway policy, providing for the prompt improvement of our streams and conservation of their watersheds required for the uses of commerce and the protection of the interests of our people.

We recommend the enactment of laws looking to the prevention of waste in the mining and extraction of coal, oil, gas and other minerals, with a view to their wise conservation for the use of the people and to the protection of human life in the mines.

Let us conserve the foundations of our prosperity.

150. Why Forest Reservations Should Be Made

In 1906, the Senate committee in charge of the bill providing for the purchase of vast areas in the Appalachian and White mountains for forest reservations made this argument in support of the policy they were advocating:

First. The creation of these reserves is a wise public policy. Between the census of the years 1850 and 1900, the population of the country increased from 23,000,000 to 76,000,000, or 330 per cent., but the money value of the lumber product which it consumed increased from $60,000,000 to $566,000,000 or 940 per cent. Both the per capita consumption of timber and the price of timber are increasing. It is estimated that 24 per cent. of the Southern Appalachian region has been deforested. Deforestation means loss of power to produce future forests. It is in the public interest that these lands should be acquired and held by the Government as permanent sources of timber supply.

Second. The acquisition of these lands by the Government will be good business policy. The use of the western reserves is just beginning, but the Government receipts from these reserves are approximating one-half the outgo. Within a short term of years, they will undoubtedly carry themselves. At the same time their

property value is rising and will continue to rise, both from the increasing value of the timber and from the greater productiveness of the forests under management. With a present value of not less than $250,000,000, these western reserves are being administered at an annual cost of one third of one per cent of this sum while they are increasing in value fully 10 per cent a year. This is in addition to their enormous indirect returns to the public welfare from their indispensable relation to successful irrigation, to mining and other industries which demand lumber, to settlers, and to stock grazing.

deforestation on

Third. The creation of these reserves is, now or later, a neces- Effect of sary policy. Sooner or later the certain consequences of forest destruction which is now taking place will force the national navigation government to step in. The question is not merely that of preventing the impoverishment of the immediate localities and the conversion of productive land into a waste of barren rock. The loss of the forest is followed by the loss of the soil and by recurring floods. The headwaters of every important river south of the Ohio and the Potomac and east of the Mississippi including the tributaries of these streams, rise in the southern Appalachians, while the White Mountains feed important rivers of every New England state except Rhode Island. The rainfall of both regions is heavy and distributed throughout the year.

sandbars.

After denudation, every rain turns the shrunken streams into Floods and mountain torrents which devastate property and bear down vast quantities of silt to obstruct navigable rivers. The sand bars thus formed accentuate the effect of alternating high and low water periods, and large government expenditures for dredging and harbor improvements are entailed. The clearing of river channels and harbors in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama is now being urged. Yet deforestation is only in its first stage. Eventually in this country, as has been the case in France, the stripped mountains will become so inimical to the public good that the Government will have to take charge of them and reforest them. But the expense of this, when once the forests are gone,