1908 



THE GOVERNORS' CONFERENCE 



313 



the opening of the next century, and prac- 

 tically no cheap fuel left in the entire Ap- 

 palachian basin with which to maintain our 

 supremacy in the iron and steel trade of the 

 world. 



The prospect is not a pleasing one to con- 

 template. That celebrated word picture of 

 Lord Macaulay in which he describes a 

 future traveler as standing on a broken 

 arch of London bridge, in the midst of a 

 vast solitude, sketching the ruins of St. 

 Paul's, may find its substantial counterpart 

 much nearer home than we could wish. 

 True, the natural wealth of our beloved 

 Union is so great and varied ; our riches of 

 soil, of forest, and stream are so vast, if 

 preserved, and their boundless possibilities 

 thoroughly utilized, that we would prob- 

 ably have the advantage of all other nations 

 in the struggle for existence even after 

 our fuel resources have been exhausted; 

 but this is no reason why we should not 

 do everything possible to conserve them so 

 that we may retain, to a remote future, the 

 great benefits which their possession as- 

 sures. 



Honorable Governors of the several 

 states, the questions involved in this dis- 

 cussion are those in which you and your 

 constituents are most vitally interested. Our 

 patriotic President, ever watchful of the 

 Nation's welfare, and of the people's inter- 

 ests, ever alert to guard against dangers 

 from without, or the more insidious foes 

 that would betray the people's liberties from 

 within, has summoned you to a conference 

 more important to the future of our great 

 Republic than any council that has ever 

 before met in the history of our country. 

 Our honored President would protect this 

 Nation not alone from perils on the ocean, 

 but from the graver ones on land. The 

 dangers that confront us on the Pacific as 

 well as upon the Atlantic are serious and 

 of far-reaching importance to the future 

 of our country, and the people's President, 

 under whose wise administration there is 

 happily no North, no South, no East, no 

 West; to whom in his official capacity the 

 rights of all citizens, whether rich or poor, 

 white or black, look alike, will be sustained 

 by a united country in the request which 

 he has made of Congress to provide "big 

 sticks" in the shape of an adequate navy 

 for both oceans as the surest and best guar- 

 antee of either peace or respect from the 

 other nations of the earth. But the dangers 

 that confront the great Republic from 

 abroad are as nothing compared to the 

 perils that lurk in the shadows at home. 

 What will it profit this Nation to have won 

 the wreath of industrial supremacy if in our 

 thirst for gold and sudden riches we permit 

 corporate greed, as well as individual avar- 

 ice and selfishness, to waste and devastate 

 the very sources of our prosperity? For 

 just as sure as the sun shines, and the sum 

 of two and two is four, unless this insane 

 riot of destruction and waste of our fuel 

 resources, which has characterized the past 



century, shall be speedily ended, our indus- 

 trial power and supremacy will, after a me- 

 teor-like existence, revert before the close 

 of the present century to those nations 

 that conserve and prize at their proper 

 value their priceless treasures of carbon. 



Whatever is possible in the shape of leg- 

 islation for the protection of our fuel re- 

 sources should be done by the individual 

 states which you represent. Twenty-nine 

 of the 46 states of the Union produce coal, 

 and 24 of these produce more than a miUion 

 tons annually, while practically the same 

 number produce vast quantities of both pe- 

 troleum and natural gas. The percentage 

 of coal left in the ground beyond recovery, 

 as we have seen, varies from 40 to 70 in the 

 different fields, to say nothing of the waste- 

 ful and extravagant use of the portion ex- 

 tracted, while the waste of natural gas, the 

 most precious fuel of all, is so vast that no 

 one can even approximate the percentage. 

 The task before you and your constituencies 

 is indeed formidable. The forces of greed 

 and selfishness are so intrenched behind 

 corporate power and influence that to attack 

 them may often appear to you as useless as 

 the labors of Sisyphus. But as you love 

 your states and country, I adjure you to 

 take up this fight for the conservation of 

 our fuel resources, with the determination 

 never to surrender until the forces of greed 

 and avorice, which are so rapidly sapping 

 the very foundations of our country's great- 

 ness, capitulate and agree to end the wild 

 riot of destruction that has characterized 

 the past. 



Mr. President, I greatly regret that the 

 part assigned me in this discussion has led 

 along such unpleasant lines. The story of 

 the awful waste of our most valuable nat- 

 ural resources is one of such a disgraceful 

 character that its exposition to the world 

 is necessarily mortifying to all patriotic 

 Americans ; but a sense of duty to our 

 common country compels that the truth be 

 told, however humiliating to our national 

 pride. 



This conference will not have met in 

 vain if it shall result in awakening public 

 sentiment to the peril which overshadows 

 the Republic in this uncontrolled waste and 

 dissipation of our fuel resources. These 

 eminent Governors, whom you have sum- 

 moned to hear this narrative of rapine and 

 devastation, to many of whom the story is 

 new and almost unbelievable, owe you a 

 debt of gratitude which they can only ade- 

 quately repay by arousing the citizens in 

 their respective states to such a realization 

 of the gravity of the dangers which follow 

 in the wake of unbridled waste that what- 

 ever i^ possible for legislation may be speed- 

 ily enacted into law. Forewarned is fore- 

 armed, and this conference, which has 

 brought together so many influential citi- 

 zens from every state in the Union, should 

 not fail to be productive of untold good to 

 the Nation's future. 



