666 



CONSERVATION 



in the past. JJut, considering the ex- 

 pense of planting the timber on them, 

 and the time before returns can be 

 secured, they become the most costly 

 class of lands that can be purchased." 



It appears, then, that efforts to se- 

 cure Government aid for preservation 

 of the Appalachian forests have so far 

 had no practical results, except to make 

 their destruction more rapid and certain 

 and their rehabilitation more remote, 

 difficult, and expensive, and it will re- 

 quire many years of active work, and 

 expense without returns, to reproduce 

 even as favorable forest conditions as 

 existed "eight years ago." 



In the West, where the Government 

 owned the lands, large areas have been 

 reserved within the last ten years for 

 the preservation and extension of Na- 

 tional Forests ; but in the East, where 

 private ownership controls, it certainly 

 appears as if all efforts for the pres- 

 ervation of the forests have thus far 

 accomplished less than nothing. 



The Government spends hundreds of 

 millions in dredging the rivers and har- 

 bors. And now it is proposed to dig a 

 deep waterway from the Lakes to the 

 Gulf, dredge out the rivers and build 

 great reservation dams to regulate the 

 streamflow and provide a national sys- 

 tem of inland water transportation and 

 water-power. It is a great scheme and 

 its accomplishment greatly to be de- 

 sired ; but we are a great people, and 

 the glamour of great undertakings is 

 alluring. 



We have already proved that if we 

 sball say unto the mountain, "Be thou 

 removed, and be thou cast into the sea ; 

 it shall be done ;" but we have not yet 

 proved our ability to stop the mountain 

 on its way, or prevent the destruction 

 that its removal may cause. The res- 

 ervation dams may, for a time, check 

 the flood and delay the movement ; but 

 the delay will be but temporary, for, 

 once started on its way, the detritus 

 will fill up the reservation ponds, lakes, 

 and river-beds, and finally reach the 

 ocean harbors. 



Therefore it is suggested that before 

 undertaking the expenditure of two or 

 three hundred million dollars on the 

 Lakes-to-Gulf deep waterway, and a 



thousand or two millions more reclaim- 

 ing the remainder of our waterways, 

 it might be well to consider the econ- 

 omy of beginning at the headwaters 

 and eliminating the causes of decad- 

 ence of our water-courses rather than 

 burdening the country with the con- 

 tinuous expense of trying to undo the 

 efifects. 



We know, of course, that the forest 

 covering cannot control the water-flow 

 altogether, but it is the best known reg- 

 ulator of the run-off and a nearly per- 

 fect protection against erosion ; and, 

 reinforced by the reservation dams to 

 hold back the flood, would at least 

 greatly reduce the cost of construction 

 and maintenance of the deep water- 

 ways. And besides giving protection 

 to the land and waterways, the forest 

 will furnish material for useful em- 

 ployment of the water-powers, and com- 

 modities for transportation more valu- 

 able than mud and sand. 



We are talking conservation, but lit- 

 tle is yet being done to stop the need- 

 less, wasteful works of destruction. 



We are reclaiming desert lands in 

 the West, but we are making deserts 

 much faster in the East. We are de- 

 stroying more acres of forest every 

 week than we are recreating in the 

 whole year ; and, while we are propos- 

 ing a great national system of deep 

 waterways, we are stripping our steep 

 hill and mountain lands of their only 

 protection against erosion and turning 

 loose additional billions of tons to fill 

 up the already clogged rivers and har- 

 bors. 



We are despoiling the earth and 

 wasting its resources as much faster 

 than any people who have gone before 

 us as the swift-running railroad train 

 is faster than the slow-going pedestrian. 



If present wasteful and destructive 

 ways are continued we shall, in the near 

 future, have little to export from the 

 products of our forests, our fields, or 

 our mines, and a dearth of the where- 

 withal to feed, clothe, and employ our 

 own people, and will be facing ques- 

 tions of vastly greater consequence 

 than the fixing of tariff schedules, 

 building inter-ocean canals, or hunting 

 open doors for our surplus commodities. 



