THE CONFERENCE PROPER 



41 



ADDRESS OF SENATOR EDWARDS 



THIS is the first time I have ever appeared 

 before an audience of the great Republic 

 of the United States, and it gives me 

 great pleasure, I assure you, to do so on a 

 subject which is very near and dear to me, 

 that of the conservation of our natural re- 

 sources. 



I am here at the instance of the Govern- 

 ment of Canada, a government having the 

 kindliest feelings of regard for everything 

 which means the promotion of the good of 

 tlie great United States. 



Before leaving Canada, I asked his Ex- 

 cellency, the Governor-General, "Have you 

 anything to suggest to me about what I shall 

 say or to which I shall particularly refer?" 

 He said, "No, further than to join with that 

 great and progressive man, Mr. Pinchot, in 

 promoting the object which he has in view in 

 this gathering." 



Before I overlook it in the short time I 

 have to address you, I wish to mention now 

 that I also asked our Prime Minister if he 

 had anything special to mention. "No," he 

 said, "I think you are full of the subject upon 

 which you are going, but there is just one 

 thing on which it would give me great pleas- 

 ure, if the Congress which is to meet in 

 Washington on the conservation of natural 

 resources would pass a resolution, suggesting 

 that the Government make most stringent 

 laws with regard to railways, in regard to the 

 prevention of fires, for in my opinion they are 

 great disseminators of forest fires." His rea- 

 son for making that suggestion is that if it 

 should come authoritatively from this source, 

 he would have it in his hand as a lever to 

 enable him to pass a similar law in Canada. 



I wish before proceeding, to congratulate, 

 in the most hearty terms, your President and 

 your worthy chairman for what they are do- 

 ing in this respect, in the promotion of the 

 conservation of the resources of your great 

 country. I have heard, during the speeches 

 and addresses here, matters which interested 

 me intensely. I am repaid for coming here, 

 if to have heard nothing at all but the pre- 

 sentation of the first report and inventory of 

 your natural resources, and I would have 

 gone many, many miles to have heard it and 

 many miles to have heard many of the other 

 speeches. 



The question this morning is that of the 

 conservation of your forest resources. Like 

 ourselves in Canada, you have been prodigal 

 with your resources. You have unduly de- 

 stroyed that great resource, and so have we. 

 A speaker a short time ago said, however, 

 that twenty times as much had been destroyed 

 by forest fires as ever was destroyed by the 

 lumberman's ax,e. I subscribe to that. That 

 is my opinion. Therefore, the greatest means 

 of preventing that great destruction is the 

 prevention of forest fires. 



What is the meaning of preserving our for- 

 est resources? Not only their conservation 

 for the people, but also the conservation of 



our waters for power and the many other 

 purposes to which water may be applied. In 

 Canada we are devoting ourselves today to 

 the same objects to which you are devoting 

 yourselves — aided and promoted very largely 

 by our friend the chairman, who occasionally 

 visits us in Canada on this very important 

 subject. 



We have heard something of your inven- 

 tory in other resources as well as those of 

 lumber. Your country, of course, is a very 

 large one, and your resources in respect to 

 lumber have been greater than ours, but to- 

 day we are supposed still to have 535,000,000 

 acres of forest lands. Out of this quantity of 

 forest lands, the government has set aside, as 

 forest reserves, 121,000,000 acres. I do not 

 know how that compares with yours, but I 

 will say this : Thanks to forestry, thanks to 

 the initiative which has taken place with re- 

 gard to the conservation of our resources in 

 that respect, if Canada takes the lessons that 

 it should take from such gatherings as this, 

 and even at this late day awakens to the neces- 

 sity of conservation and promotion of for- 

 estrv. Canada, in so far as her own needs are 

 concerned, need never want for a supply of 

 timber. I am not of the opinion that Canada 

 can be a large exporting country for many 

 years to come, but it will be a great thing for 

 Canada if she is able to conserve lumber for 

 her own needs. Let us hope that the great 

 American Republic will do the same thing, 

 and I believe it will do so, if regard is paid 

 to the lessons which are here taught, if this 

 country becomes imbued, as I hope it will, 

 with this great necessity; and if this comes, I 

 think possibly the United States also need 

 never want for a lumber supply. 



In listening to the speeches that have taken 

 place here, two things have been very forcibly 

 impressed upon my mind. I never thought 

 before of the important part water may take 

 in the conservation of your coal supply and 

 in the conservation of our coal supply. Our 

 coal supply and your coal supply may become 

 exhausted. Your iron and our iron may in 

 many years become exhausted ; but our water 

 supply, if we preserve the headlands in our 

 forests, never will become exhausted. We are 

 doing exactly what you suggest ; we are be- 

 ginning to impound our headwaters to con- 

 serve our water supply. If you do what you 

 can do in that respect, look at the great pos- 

 sibilities that there are of today beginning to 

 conserve your coal, which is a disappearing 

 quantity. 



Another thing which impressed me was, 

 what are we going to do when our iron sup- 

 ply becomes exhausted? I was a little sur- 

 prised to hear that in the middle of the pres- 

 ent century iron, as used today, of the quality 

 used today, will become exhausted. To my 

 mind there is one article anyway that can be 

 considered in the way of conservation of iron 

 ore to a very great extent, and that is the use 

 of cement. I am a lumberman, and a lumber- 



