3o8 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



June 



The way is not new : Washington and his 

 compatriots pushed into the unknown in 

 projecting a Nation on new principles. 

 Franklin grasped a hardly known principal- 

 ity through the Geneva Treaty, and Jefferson 

 seized an unexplored half-continent despite 

 protests of those whose knowledge was 

 even less than his own ; Fulton, Morse, 

 Henry, Edison and Bed came to stand as 

 kings among men by pushing into the un- 

 known. To-day the time is ripe for a fur- 

 ther advance; our President, with far- 

 sighted patriotism, has arisen to lead effort 

 and action. He deserves, and I am sure 

 will receive, your earnest support and that 

 of all citizens who understand the impor- 

 tance of the problems involved. 



The authoritative remarks of the 

 great ironmaster ehcited prolonged 

 applause at frequent intervals, and 

 when the twenty-minute limitation 

 prevented the completion of his ad- 

 dress unanimous consent to an exten- 

 sion of time was instantly given. 



Following the address of Mr. Car- 

 negie, Dr. I. C. White, State Geologist 

 of West Virginia, discussed "The 

 Waste of Our Fuel Resources," his 

 paper being given here '\n full : 



A great geologist once said. "The na- 

 tions that have coal and iron will rule 

 the world." Bountiful nature has dowered 

 the American people with a heritage of 

 both coal and iron richer by far than that 

 of any other political division of the earth. 



It was formerly supposed that China 

 would prove the great store-house from 

 which the other nations could draw their 

 supplies of carbon when their own had be- 

 come exhausted, but the recent studies of a 

 brilliant American geologist in that far-off 

 land, rendered possible by the generosity of 

 the world's greatest philanthropist, tell a 

 different story. The fuel resources of 

 China, great as they undoubtedly are, have 

 been largely over-estimated, and Mr. Willis 

 reports that they will practically all be re- 

 quired by China herself, and that the other 

 nations cannot look to her for this all im- 

 portant element in modern industrial life. 



A simple glance at a geological map of 

 the United States, will convince any one 

 that nature has been most lavish to us in 

 fuel resources, for we find a series of great 

 coal deposits extending in well scattered 

 fields almost from the Atlantic to the Pa- 

 cific, and from the Lakes to the Gulf, while 

 even over much of New England and the 

 coastal plains, vast areas of peat, the primal 

 stage of coal, have been distributed. But 

 coal of every variety from peat to anthra- 

 cite is not all of nature's fuel gifts to for- 

 tunate America. Great deposits of both pe- 

 troleum and natural gas occur in nearly 



every state where coal exists, and in some 

 that have no coal. What greater dowry of 

 fuels could we ask when we find them 

 stored for us within the bosom of our 

 mother earth in all three of the great types, 

 coal, petroleum and natural gas, only await- 

 ing the tap of the pick and drill to b'-ing 

 them forth in prodigal abundance? 



What account can we as a Nation give 

 of our stewardship of such vast fuel treas- 

 ures? Have we carefully conserved them, 

 using only what was necessary in our do- 

 mestic and industrial life, and transmitting 

 the remainder, like prudent husbandmen, 

 unimpaired to succeeding generations? Or 

 have we greatly depleted this priceless her- 

 itage of power, and comfort, and source of 

 world-wide influence, by criminal waste 

 and wanton destruction? The answer 

 should bring a blush of shame to every pa- 

 triotic American, for not content with de- 

 stroying our magnificent forests, the onl> 

 fuel and supply of carbon known to our 

 fore-fathers, we are with ruthless hands 

 and regardles.s of the future applying both 

 torch and dj'namite to the vastly greater re- 

 sources of this precious carbon which prov- 

 ident nature had stored for our use in the 

 buried forests of the distant past. The 

 wildest anai'chists determined to destroy 

 and overturn the foundations of govern- 

 ment could not act in a more irrational and 

 thoughtless manner than have our people 

 in permitting such fearful destruction of 

 the very sources of our power and great- 

 ness. Let me enumerate some of the de- 

 tails of this awful waste of our fuel re- 

 sources that has been going on with ever 

 increasing speed for the last 40 years. 



First let us consider how we have wasted 

 natural gas, the purest form of fuel, ideal 

 in every respect, self-transporting, only 

 awaiting the turning of a key to deliver to 

 our homes and factories, heat and light and 

 power. Partial nature has apparently de- 

 nied this greM boom to many other lands. 

 It is practically unknown in France, Ger- 

 many and Great Britain, our chief competi- 

 tors in the world of industry. Even wood 

 and coal must first be converted into gas be- 

 fore they will burn, but here is a fuel of 

 which nature has given us a practical mo- 

 nopoly, lavish in abundance, already trans- 

 muted into the gaseous stage and stored 

 under vast pressure to be released wherever 

 wanted at our bidding. The record of 

 waste of this our best and purest fuel is a 

 national disgrace. 



At this very minute this unrivaled fuel 

 is passing into the air within our domain 

 from uncontrolled gas wells, from oil wells, 

 from giant flambeaus, from leaking pipe 

 . lines and the many other methods of waste 

 at the rate of not less than one billion cubic 

 feet daily and probably much more. 



Very few appear to realize either the 

 great importance of this hj'dro-carbon fuel 

 resource of our country, or its vast original 

 quantity. Some of the individual wells, if 

 we may credit the measurements, have pro- 



