20 



CONSERVATION 



has linked science to the plow. You will 

 find a young man at the head of the For- 

 estry Bureau who, filled with patriotic 

 devotion, is bringing science and energy to 

 her aid. The Geological, Reclamation, and 

 Weather Bureaus are established on high 

 principles and are rendering great scientific 

 service. This is true of all other depart- 

 ments except that of operative mining, which 

 receives no direct aid of any kind from the 

 National Government. 



For development and conservation of our 

 mineral resources two governmental insti- 

 tutes for research are necessary — one for 

 the baser and one for the precious minerals. 

 These should be equipped with every modern 

 appliance and managed by a small, compact 

 force of the best experts and scientists 

 obtainable. These institutes should be lo- 

 cated in fields of active mining — one, say, in 

 Pennsylvania and the other in Colorado. 

 They should lead, direct, and instruct in the 

 best methods for saving life, arresting the 

 terrible destruction and waste now going 

 on ; they should give reliable data and in- 

 formation for finding and treating new 

 minerals. 



The need of such institutes has been 

 forcibly shown recently, when our Govern- 

 ment had to borrow scientists from other 

 countries to solve the causes of the terrible 

 explosions in coal mines, with the accom- 



panying horrifying loss of life. You, too, 

 will soon see the need of such institutes to 

 go to in your work for information and 

 advice. 



Gentlemen, I have taken up much of your 

 time. I ask you not to throw a blanket of 

 sleepy inactivity over these questions of great 

 National importance. Shut out the law- 

 breaker and the grafter, but encourage the 

 prospector, the homesteader, and the honest 

 investor. Conserve the people's rights. Be 

 just to the present, but do not forget the 

 future. Stand for the people and make them 

 your allies in accomplishing the good work 

 which you have undertaken. 



In closing, let me express my appreciation 

 for the heads of our departments and their 

 assistants. I know many of them intimately, 

 and believe that no government receives 

 more faithful service than ours. 



It has become a good deal of a habit for 

 certain classes to hurl criticism at public 

 men and corporations regardless of whether 

 they are trying to do their duty or not. 

 Honesty and dishonesty are often but the 

 reflex of the status of the body politic. It 

 rests with the masses to make your task 

 easier. It is the people who can create pub- 

 lic sentiment, which will not only conserve 

 our National resources, but what is more dear 

 to every lover of his country, uplift and im- 

 prove the standard of that priceless heritage 

 — American citizenship. 



The chairman, at the conclusion of 

 Mr. Walsh's address, alluded to the 

 fact that the Governors present "had 

 the right of way, but seemed disin- 

 clined to avail themselves of it." He 

 then called upon Gov. John A. John- 

 son, of Minnesota, for an address on 

 the subject of minerals, Governor 



Johnson responding with a forceful 

 and interesting speech. He dwelt 

 upon the iron resources of the Mesaba 

 Range, in Minnesota; but, departing 

 from the subject of minerals, he paid 

 particular attention to the subject of 

 forestry and the related subject of 

 waterways. 



ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR JOHNSON 



1AM at quite a loss to know exactly how 

 to discuss this or any other question 

 identified with this movement. I cer- 

 tainly am not in a position to discuss the 

 matter of mineralogy or mining from a tech- 

 nical standpoint, either as to the matter of its 

 waste, or its chemistry, or any other particu- 

 lar feature of it. If I were to say anything 

 at all it would be to take rather an optimistic 

 view of the situation so far as the matter of 

 iron mining is concerned. It seemed to me, 

 as I listened to the discussions of mining both 

 at this conference and the one held last May 

 at the White House, that probably we got the 

 pessimistic opinion in our heads someliow that 

 within a very short space of time the iron re- 

 sources of the country are going to be en- 

 tirely exhausted. I am quite sure that is not 

 exactly the case, and that there is no immedi- 

 ate danger of our running out of iron. I 



remember in May Mr. Carnegie read a very 

 delightful and very able paper at the White 

 House in which he said that the Lake Superior 

 country or particularly that portion of it 

 located in Minnesota, where they originally 

 believed they had five or si.x million tons of 

 iron ore, had now, they were quite certain, 

 a billion and a half tons of iron ore. The 

 statisticians who are going to present figures 

 here later during this meeting have now items 

 from the Oliver Iron Mining Company, an 

 institution to which Mr. Carnegie is related 

 in at least a very small way — the Federal 

 Steel Company — estimating, from measure- 

 ment made through the diamond drill process, 

 that they liave two and a half billion tons of 

 ore. If the product has increased a billion 

 tons within a year and the production has 

 decreased from forty-two million tons to 

 twentv-six million tons in the same length of 



