THE JOINT CONSERVATION CONGRESS 



lands and mines, and invited the Governors 

 to appoint State commissions to consider 

 and report upon the condition of the same 

 resources in the several States and Terri- 

 tories. This meeting has been appointed for 

 a conference of the National and State Com- 

 missions, in order to assist in devising ways 

 and means for future conservation of the 

 natural resources of the country by appro- 

 priate legislation, National and State. The 

 Oregon commission is here to-day repre- 

 sented by the Chairman, Mr. J. N. Teal, 

 with a splendid report on the natural re- 

 sources of our State, and I presume all the 

 other States will be represented and re- 

 ported upon. 



I have been honored by an invitation to 

 address you on behalf of the Governors, and 

 I have accepted with some reluctance, be- 

 cause I fully understand that the views of 

 the executives of the different States may 

 be so divergent, with respect to the matters 

 to be considered, the topography, climatic 

 conditions and needs of the commonwealths 

 comprising the Union so unlike, that it would 

 be impossible for me to voice their senti- 

 ments on a subject of such vast importance 

 to the present and future welfare of the 

 Nation. 



We are probably all agreed upon one 

 point. Conservation of the natural resources 

 is necessary to the well-being of our country, 

 the protection of generations yet vmborn 

 and the perpetuation of our institutions; and 

 cooperation of State and Federal authorities 

 is essential if we are to accomplish bene- 

 ficial results. As to the means to be adopted 

 to attain the ends desired we may differ 

 radically. In the outset, therefore, I dis- 

 claim an intention to be the mouthpiece of 

 the executives of the different States in the 

 suggestions I may make as to the steps which 

 I believe are essential to bring about the 

 greatest good for the greatest number. It 

 was undoubtedly timely that the Forestry 

 and Reclamation branches of the Federal 

 Government first sounded a warning as to 

 the wanton destruction of the forests and 

 the resultant consequences — fuel famine, soil 

 erosion, flood waters at certain seasons and 

 at others an insufficient supply for domes- 

 tic, industrial, irrigation and navigation pur- 

 poses. It is questionable, indeed, if this 

 warning, unsupported in other directions, 

 would have been sufficient to arouse the 

 people to vigorous action. But the distin- 

 guished President of the United States, with 

 the energy which has characterized his whole 

 official life, early took up the subject, and 

 on the 14th day of March, 1907, appointed 

 the Inland Waterways Commission, not only 

 to prepare and report upon a comprehensive 

 plan for the improvement and control of 

 the river systems of the United States, but 

 upon the correlated subjects of forests and 

 their conservation, soil erosion, and, gen- 

 erally, upon the control and use of the navi- 

 gable and other waters of the country for 

 navigation and industrial purposes. 



, The conclusions reached by the Forestry 

 and Reclamation services were sustained and 

 strengthened by the investigations of the In- 

 land Waterways Commission. All were 

 practically agreed that the navigability of our 

 waterways and the maintenance of uni- 

 formity of depth and flow depended upon the 

 tributary supply streams, and these in turn 

 upon the protection of the forests along the 

 watersheds and upper reaches. In other 

 words, that the preservation of the forests", 

 the distribution of water for irrigation, 

 domestic and industrial purposes, its use for 

 the generation of power, light, heat, and the 

 navigability of the rivers, were so correlated 

 and interdependent that the consideration of 

 means for the preservation and protection 

 of one involved consideration of means for 

 the preservation and protection of all. 



I*"rom the earliest days of the Republic 

 the public lands, agricultural and mineral, 

 arid and semi-arid, the waters on and under 

 the earth, and all the resources of sea and 

 land have been given away with wanton and 

 reckless prodigality, until much that is most 

 valuable and essential to National strength 

 has gone into individual or corporate owner- 

 ship. 



As a result, magnificent resources, that 

 should have remained under government 

 control for the use and enjoyment of the 

 whole people, have been dissipated and un- 

 economically administered, to the enrich- 

 ment of the few and the impoverishment of 

 the many. The forests of the country, on 

 the mountains of the headwaters of many 

 of the navigable streams, as well as in the 

 valleys, have been denuded until now the 

 date can almost be named when, if present 

 methods be pursued without reforestation, 

 there must inevitably be a lumber famine 

 with all that such a condition entails ; the 

 coal mines are being exhausted, with an 

 ever increasing fuel demand; natural oils 

 and gases are being used extravagantly and 

 wasted wantonly as though the supply were 

 inexhaustible; soil erosion is taking place 

 so rapidly by reason of the destructions of 

 the forests that vast areas of agricultural 

 lands are being washed into the navigable 

 waterways, impairing the navigability of 

 these important avenues of commerce; the 

 increased and increasing demand for iron 

 and steel seriously threatens the exhaustion 

 of the mines ; and until now no step has 

 been taken to call a halt to wasteful ex- 

 travagance or to safeguard to present and 

 future generations the little of these re- 

 sources that remain. I do not underesti- 

 mate the creative and inventive genius of 

 our people, but it is no answer to the 

 charge of wasteful extravagance in the use 

 of our magnificent resources to say that 

 substitutes for them all may be found when- 

 ever the necessity arives. That is not the 

 history of other countries and of other 

 peoples who have ruthlessly squandered the 

 gifts of a beneficent Providence. 



