34 



CONSERVATION 



are sending that valuable element into the 

 sea. Here in the City of Washington itself 

 there is going down into the Potomac and 

 into the sea this valuable fertilizer. Upon 

 that point, we have made a rough computa- 

 tion and we estimate that through the sewer- 

 age systems of the United States which dump 

 their material into the sea. the equivalent of 

 at least 1,200,000 tons of phospliate rock are 

 lost annually. Upon the soil depends our 

 food and clothing, and of all the fundamental 

 questions which can come before this Com- 

 mission, the preservation of the fertility of 

 the soil is the most fundamental. If this is a 

 correct conclusion, we must in some way stop 

 this criminal waste of valuable fertilizer; for 

 after all the amount exported is small, com- 

 pared with the amount that is wasted by our 

 improper methods. 



Here is a great responsibility, and a great 

 opportunity for the Governors and the 

 teachers of agriculture all over the country. 

 The people must be taught to realize their 

 responsibilities in this matter. They must be 

 brought to understand that unless elements 

 of fertility are preserved, unless soil erosion 

 is controlled, these fundamental resources, 

 more fundamental than all other resources 

 together, will become greatly depleted and 



will be able to sustain only a relatively small 

 population. 



You will ask the question, if I am right, 

 how is it that the crops grow well in China 

 and Japan and in Germany? In Japan es- 

 pecially, and to some extent in China, all the 

 fertilizing element produced by animals and 

 by man goes back into the soil. If this is 

 done, the phosphate may be used over and 

 over again and the fertility of the soil in 

 phosphate may be perpetually maintained. 



I dwell upon this subject at perhaps too 

 great length because it seems to me to be one 

 of the great fundamental questions before us 

 and comes not only in connection with the 

 matter of soil but also in connection with the 

 report of the Conservation Commission which 

 refers to education. This is one of the ques- 

 tions which the Commission in Wisconsin has 

 taken up with reference to the question of its 

 State, but you can readily see we cannot take 

 it up in our State without thinking of the 

 situation in the Southern States and in the 

 Western States. No other subject shows 

 more clearly how our future welfare is inter- 

 locked and how the Nations and the States 

 and the individual must cooperate in this 

 matter of retaining and conserving our natu- 

 ral resources. 



Mr. R. H. Richards, president of the 

 American Mining Congress, followed 

 with a short talk upon the necessity for 

 popular education along the lines of 

 conservation of resources, referring to 

 the necessity, also, for changes in laws 

 governing mining and mine operation, 

 so that the man underground may have 

 the same legal and constitutional pro- 

 tection as the man above the ground. 

 He was followed by Gov. N. C. 

 Blanchard, of Louisiana, who com- 

 mented at length on the report of the 

 Section of Lands. Governor Blanch- 

 ard took issue with Governor Johnson 



as to the impending exhaustion of iron 

 ore deposits, and stated that it was his 

 belief that the Governor of Minnesota 

 was unduly optimi.stic in his views. He 

 made a strong appeal for legislative 

 action on the part of the different 

 States, saying that through such action 

 the great masses of the people of the 

 country would be better and more 

 quickly informed as to actual, present 

 conditions than in any other manner. 



Governor Blanchard was followed 

 by Chairman Teal, of the Oregon 

 State Conservation Commission, who 

 read the report of that Commission. 



ADDRESS OF J. N. TEAL 



THE Governor of our State appointed a 

 commission, of which I had the honor to 

 be elected chairman. That commission 

 has prepared a report and has printed it and 

 filed it with the National Commission. There 

 is one thing, however, that we discovered, 

 which doubtless any State conservation com- 

 mission will discover if it will go into the 

 matter, and that is the tremendous wastage 

 of our natural resources. Without going into 

 that question at all, I think it is conceded that 

 that is the fact. The next fact, which is also 

 conceded, is that there must also be a stop- 

 page of this waste. 



The third question of law, which ought to 

 be conceded, and if it is not conceded there 

 is little good of going any further, is a ques- 

 tion upon which we can all work with safety, 

 and that is that we are trustees of a trust, 

 that we have no more right to dissipate the 

 principal of the fund that has been placed in 

 our hands while we are temporarily here upon 

 earth, any more than a trustee under a will, 

 or a guardian, has a right to dissipate the 

 funds of the children who have been placed 

 in his charge. 



Now, that is a fundamental fact. To illus- 

 trate. You take the question of a great water 



