1908 



THE GOVERNORS' CONFERENCE 



307 



enough ; if labor could be saved and profits 

 gained by taking out but a third or a half 

 of the richest part of the seam, leaving the 

 rest to be rendered inaccessible by caving, 

 so be it. No one thought of it as improvi- 

 dent. Now that the coal in the ground is 

 recognized as part, and a great part, of the 

 value of coal lands, self-interest impels the 

 operator to take out all he can, and leads 

 the "miner to work close to floor and roof. 

 Bad results may sometimes follow, as in the 

 anthracite region, where the entire forest 

 growth has been stripped and both land 

 and streams ruined to timber the mines, 

 and in those terrible accidents when in re- 

 moving the pillars of coal the miners are 

 buried. Coal mining cries out for expert 

 knowledge whereby the full yield may be 

 obtained without needless risk or loss ; and 

 for wise police regulation whereby life may 

 be protected against ignorance and cupid- 

 ity- 



The most promising check on coal con- 

 sumption is the substitution of other power. 

 Naturalists tell us that coal is a reservoir 

 of solar energy stored up in ages past, and 

 that the same is partly true also of other 

 chemically complex substances, including 

 ores. The sun-motor still runs ; its rays 

 render the globe habitable, and may yet be 

 made to produce power by solar engines 

 or may be concentrated in furnaces — as in 

 the Portuguese priest's heliophore at the St. 

 Louis Exposition, with its temperature of 

 6,000 degrees F., in which a cube of iron 

 evaporated like a snowball in a Bessemer 

 converter. The sun helps to raise the tides, 

 which some day will be harnessed; and still 

 more practically it raises vapor from the 

 sea to fall as rain and supply our mill- 

 streams and rivers, which it is estimated 

 may some day yield over 30,000,000 horse- 

 power — or more than all now produced 

 from fuel by all our engines combined. Dr. 

 Pritchett is responsible for the statement 

 that on a clear day, when well above the 

 horizon, the sun delivers upon each square 

 acre of the earth's surface exposed to its 

 rays the equivalent of 7,500 horsepower, 

 working continuously. Thus, there is 

 abundance of power lying around us, if we 

 only knew how to harness it. It is only 

 within the past decade that electrical trans- 

 mission has made water-power generally 

 available for driving machinery, for smelt- 

 ing, and for moving trains, and has at the 

 same time created a new market for cop- 

 per : yet it is a safe forecast that this 

 method of using solar energy (for such 

 water is as the product of sun heat) will 

 soon aflFect the constantly increasing drain 

 on our coal. And just as the woods and 

 the ores and the mineral fuels have become 

 sources of wealth and power within our 

 memory, so will become the running waters 

 within a few years ! 



No practical man can study our mineral 

 supplies without seeing that they are melt- 

 ing away under our national growth at a 



geometrically increasing rate, and without 

 realizing that unless the loss is checked his 

 descendants must suffer; nor can he con- 

 sider ways of preserving the supply with- 

 out realizing the need of wider and deeper 

 knowledge than we now possess. It was 

 not resources alone that gave this country 

 its prosperity, but inventive skill and indus- 

 trial enterprise applied to its resources. In- 

 dividually we have been both forehanded 

 and foreminded. Nationally we have been 

 forehanded chiefly by the accident of dis- 

 covery by John Smith and Walter Raleigh, 

 but nationally we are not yet foreminded. 

 So far as our mineral wealth is concerned, 

 the need of the day is prudent foresight, 

 coupled with ceaseless research in order 

 that new minerals may be discovered, new 

 alloys produced, new compounds of com- 

 mon substances made available, new power- 

 producing devices developed. The most 

 careful inventory of the family patrimony 

 should be made. I plead for economy, that 

 the next generation and the next may be 

 saved from want — -but especially I urge re- 

 search into and mastery over Nature, in 

 order that two blades may be made to grow 

 where one grew before, that the golden 

 grain may be made to replace woody grass, 

 that crude rocks may be made to yield fine 

 metals. 



I urge on the Executives here assembled 

 as our greatest need to-day the need for 

 better and more practical knowledge. It 

 was never more true than now that "Knowl- 

 edge is power." The states have done much, 

 the Federal Government has done much, in- 

 dividual men have done much for research; 

 in the history of this country knowledge 

 has advanced as never before, and thereby 

 the materials and forces of nature have 

 been brought under control as no man 

 dreamed when the Nation was founded. Yet 

 if our career of prosperity is to continue, 

 it must be on the basis of completer con- 

 trol of national sources of material and 

 power than we have thus far exercised, a 

 control to be gained only by research. 



In conclusion, Mr. President and Gov- 

 ernors of our states, it seems to me our 

 duty is : 



First, conservation of forests, for no for- 

 ests, no long navigable rivers ; no rivers, no 

 cheap transportation. 



Second, to systematize our water trans- 

 portation, putting the whole work in the 

 hands of the Reclamation Service, which 

 has already proved itself highly capable by 

 its admirable work. Cheap water trans- 

 portation for heavy freights brings many 

 advantages and means great saving of our 

 ore supplies. Railroads require much steel, 

 water does not. 



Third, conservation of soil. More than a 

 thousand millions of tons of our richest 

 soil are swept into the sea every year, clog- 

 ging the rivers on its way and filling our 

 harbors. Less soil, less crops; less crops, 

 less commerce, less wealth. 



