82 



CONSERVATION 



can pull together, we will be irresistible. Bear 

 in mind, my friends, that there is a deficit 

 facing Congress to-day, a deficit of $58,000,000 

 of last year, a reported deficit of $114,000,000 

 for the fiscal year ending June 30 next, and 

 an estimated deficit of $143,000,000 for the fol- 

 lowing fiscal year, and that Congress is a 

 little chary about making a liberal appro- 

 priation for forests, for rivers and harbors, 

 or for anything which seems to be able to 

 wait. Now, the friends of the waterways, 

 foreseeing this deficit, foreseeing the trouble 

 in hand, have been asking and are now ask- 



ing that Congress issue $500,000,000 of bonds 

 in order properly to improve every deserving 

 waterway in the country. We do not want 

 this issue to be emitted at once. We wish 

 it to be authorized in order that the bonds 

 may be sold and about $50,000,000 a year for 

 the next ten years may be expended. I hope 

 you will help us in that. If you do, I believe 

 that you will develop something that will 

 benefit every cititzen of the country and put 

 Congress and the American people on a 

 much higher plane of prosperity than they 

 are to-day. 



An illustrated lecture by Dr. Bailey 

 Willis followed, the slides used being 

 magnificent ones. Doctor Wills said, 

 in part : 



"We have behind us in the known 

 recorded history of our race, some 

 4,000 years of experience since the 

 time when we started from Central 

 Asia and began our migrations west- 

 ward, ever westward, absorbing the 

 people native to the lands as we came, 

 and passing on, ever on, until, passing 

 across the Atlantic, we came toward 

 the last land toward the West which 

 we might occupy. In that land we 

 came face to face with the old prob- 

 lem of how much we shall use of its 

 natural resources. We have inherited 

 from these 4,000 years the practice of 

 abusing them instead of using them ; 

 but with modern science and modern 

 purpose, we are turning our eyes to- 

 ward purposeful use, toward proper 

 conservation, and it is to be hoped that 

 we shall learn the lesson in time to 

 use them wisely and to save them from 

 destruction! 



One part of our lesson, however, is 

 to look backward, to see what has been 

 done in other lands and what is the 

 result of our action and of various 

 other causes in regard to these impor- 

 tant questions, the forest and the water- 

 ways, which are so intimately linked. 



I shall ask you to cast your thoughts 

 far, far back. I shall ask you to accept 

 my statement that there has been a time 

 when all of Asia and all of Europe and 

 all of North America were covered 

 with forests. I shall ask you to accept 

 my statement that the forests are older 

 than the mountains which now diver- 

 sify the land ; that there was a time 



when those lands were plains, when 

 there were no considerable heights on 

 any of the continents, and when the 

 climate was a genial Southern tem- 

 perate climate from far South as far 

 north as Greenland. 



Under those conditions the forests 

 prevailed over Asia, over Europe and 

 over North America, and some of the 

 species of trees which lived in those 

 ancient forests are living to-day. For 

 instance, the magnolia and the tulip 

 tree, which is one of the gems of our 

 southern forests in North Carolina and 

 Georgia. 



In consequence of the changes which 

 have come over the earth's surface, 

 mountain ranges have been upraised, 

 climates have been changed, and the 

 great uniform condition which existed 

 in that ancient time has given place to 

 one of great diversification. In the 

 course of these changes the forests 

 have met with certain influences which 

 they could not withstand. A tree must 

 have moisture, or it cannot grow. 



Where the climate has become too 

 arid, the forests have gone. In other 

 regions, the climates have remained 

 moist or have become even more moist 

 than they were then, and there is a pre- 

 vailing jungle which nothing can des- 

 troy. But between those two extremes 

 there is a wide range of climate, par- 

 ticularly in the temperate zones, where 

 the trees can survive if they meet no 

 other enemies, but where, if to the try- 

 ing conditions of climate there are add- 

 ed the activities of man and the effect 

 of his herds of sheep and cattle graz- 

 ing upon the young trees and the 

 sprouts, then the forests vanish from 

 those regions and they become like the 



