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iSfational Conservation Congress 



Tlic chief topic for cousideration before the session of the 

 National Conservation Congress at Indianapolis, on October 1, 2, 3 

 and 4, was the conservation of life and human resources. The policy 

 of the Congress has always been to provide a special topic at each 

 session, although the general theme of conservation of the whole 

 resources of the country is carried out at more detailed meetings. 

 It was provided at this year's session to give particular attention 

 next year to the question of the prevention of tire waste and bene- 

 ficial results of good roads. 



A very fair percentage of the 4,641 delegates named for this 

 congress, from all over this country and Canada, was in attendance. 

 A considerable body of luniberuien and foresters were in attendance , 

 as well as on the speaker's program, which evidenced the general 

 endorsement of the conservation principles by these branches of the 

 national government and the nation's business. 



Th3 various sessions of the Congress were held at the Murat Thea- 

 tre, the German House, Tomlinson Hall, the Claypool Hotel, and at 

 the Fair Grounds Coliseum. 



Ex-Vice-President Charles W. Fairbanks of Indianapolis opened 

 the Tuesday morning session with an address of welcome on behalf 

 of the state, while Eichard Lieber addressed the delegates on behalf 

 of the city. The commercial organizations of Indianapolis were 

 represented on t)ie platform by W. T. Miller. 



President White included responses to these addresses of welcome 

 in his address, following the reading of which he read a message 

 from President Taft, in which the chief executive regretted his in- 

 ability to attend the Congress, and extended his cordial good wishes 

 and hearty support of the purpose and methods of the National 

 Conservation Congress. President 'White's address in part follows: 



We waste In production as well as in consumption. In agriculture wc 

 will say that we will make the soil produce so many bushels per acre per 

 man. The man will be flnst in his wise application of labor and methods 

 and of means to an end. The "limits of subsistence" under what political 

 economists used to call their "law of diminishing returns" has no tear 

 for the conservationist. The developing of human intelligence is enlarg- 

 ing the production of the soil. Irrigation, where possible, and where 

 impossible, the science of what is called dry farming, brings increasing 

 results. Old farms in Europe produce more than they did 300 years ago. 

 and this will prove true with us, and there will be no starvation tor the 

 human race because of increasing population. 



We will protect our watersheds by growing forests, and learn to con- 

 trol our floods, prevent soil erosion, and store the water, and convert 

 its power into electricity, and from electricity produce light, heat and 

 power in undiminishing ijuantity forever. In nearly every state there is 

 daily flowing to waste power enough, it arrested and utilised on its way 

 to the sea, to turn every wheel of industry and to move the traffic of 

 commerce, and furnish light and heat for every city. It is said that the 

 wheel does not turn with water that is passed, but other wheels farther 

 down the stream do, and the power is used again and again aud finally 

 pumped back by the sun to the mountains and plains to forever repeat 

 the process of service to mankind. New discoveries are being made, and 

 the use for by-products is being multiplied so that they are often found to 

 be of greater use than the product from which they are derived. We must 

 protect our forests by preventing forest fires. Government and state 

 appropriations must be made sufHeient for this purpose. In the report 

 of the Conservation Commission to the rresidenl, it is stated that fifty 

 million acres are burned over annually, and since 1S70 there has been 

 lost each year an average of fifty lives and fifty million dollars' worth 

 of timber. The lumbermen's interests are to prevent Ures and to stop 

 waste ; and they are anxious to co-operate with the slate and with asso- 

 ciations for this purpose, and are already doing so in many places. The 

 true, saving features of forestry are Ix'coming better understood, and 

 better applied ; and we will save our forests, and will grow trees, wher- 

 ever necessary and profitable, the same as any other crop ; and there 

 will be no timber famine in the near or distant future. Our foresters 

 are studying the experience of France, .\ustria, Italy and Switzerland, 

 coupled with our own experience, and we are making successful progress. 

 In Kansas five years ago, according to I'resident Waters of the State 

 .Vgricultural College, there was only one school that taught agriculture. 

 -Now nearly five hundred high schools and more than six thousand rural 

 schools are teaching the principles ot agriculture, forestry and domestic 

 science. 



May this congress, which now begins the work of its program prove to 

 be another step in advance of its predecessors in the labor of love and 

 of progressive activities. The work in this vineyard is for both men and 

 women ; for him with one talent as well as for him with ten talents. 



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Conservation should be taught in our .schools and preached in oui 

 churches. It is a call of aud for all the people. 



And in the language of the official call, the objects of this congres.'. 

 are defined to be. "To provide for discussion of the resources of the 

 United States as the foundation for the prosperity of the people ; to fur- 

 nish definite information concerning the resources and their development. 

 use and preservation, and to afford an agency through which the people 

 of the country may frame policies and principles affecting the conserva- 

 tion and utilization of their resources, and to be put into effect by their 

 represeutatives in state and federal government." 



President Taft's official representative. Secretary Stimson, was 

 summoned from Fort Yellowstone to be in attendance. His address 

 followed that of President Wbite, and reviewed the conservation 

 policy adhered to by President Taft, touching j)articularly upon the 

 feature dealing with water power grants. Ex-President Roosevelt 

 was named by the speaker as the originator of the effort to make 

 the gianting of water power rights a public benefit. 



Regarding the recently decided case concerning the Cunningham 

 coal claims in Alaska, Secretary Stimson said of Secretary of the 

 Interior Fisher: 



Of course, the main work which the federal goveruraeut performs in 

 regard to consei-vation is doue through the Department of the Interior. 

 Incidentally, the trust of all indications of the interest with which the 

 I'resident regards the conservation of the natural resources of this coun- 

 try lies in the character atid attainments, of the man who he has placed 

 at the head of that department in order to conserve them — Walter L. 

 Fisher. 



You will, all of you, remember how his thorough investigation and 

 clear-cut decision of the famous Cunningham claims has settled and dis- 

 posed ot in the interest ot the jieoplo one of the most bitter controTersies 

 of our cause. You are also undoubtedly familiar with the careful in- 

 vestigation which he made last year into the very complicated and serious 

 problems of conservation which confront the country in Alaska, and 

 with the luminous address with wliich he reported his conclusions and 

 pointed out a solution of these questions. 



Though the work ot his department in investigating and conserving in 

 llie publi.^ interest, the water power sites which remain on our public 

 lands, and our remaining beds of coal and phosphate, have not attraeteii 

 so much attention as his work in these former more controverted matters, 

 yi't there is. I think, a very general and well founded feeling that the 

 interests of the people of the United- States are being thoroughly pro- 

 tected by the .Secretary of the Interior in accordance with the most in- 

 telligent and thorough views of conservation. 



E. T. Allen, forester of the Western Forestry and Conservation 

 Association, followed Secretary Stimson. Mr. Allen said in part: 



What our forests need most is more patrolmen, more trails and tele- 

 phones, more funds and organization to marshal the fire-fighting crews 

 when required, better fire laws and courts that will enforce them, public 

 appreciation that forest fire departments are as necessary as city fire 

 departments, more consideration for life and property by the fool that is 

 careless with match and spark, realization by more lumbermen that it 

 pays in more ways than one to do their part, state officials who will 

 handle state laws intelligently, tax laws that will permit good privat<' 

 management, consumers who will take closely utilized products, and a 

 few other things need specific study and action. 



Professor G. E. Condra of Lincoln, Neb., reviewed the work of the 

 states in connection with national conservation. Some of tlie chief 

 results have been accomplished in the way of building .ind main- 

 taining good roads, and further, according to the speaker, the active 

 interest of the states has resulted in many eases in the complete 

 removal of the question of conservation from politics. The intimate 

 and local interest made possible through the activity of the states 

 in conservation questions has led to the alignment of such questions 

 with educational institutions. The speaker further touched upon the 

 public movement looking to the elimination of fraud and the cutting 

 down of extravagant expenditures in the public service, and told 

 many other ways in which the evidence of the spirit of conservation 

 is making itself manifest thro-aghout the country. 



Dr. Harvey W. Wiley spoke Tuesday evening on the "Conservation 

 of Man." His address followed a reception at the Claypool Hotel 

 by the officers of the Congress and the local board of managers, 

 tendered to the delegates and visitors. 



Melville W. Mix of the Dodge Manufacturing Company of Mish- 

 awaka, Ind., president also of the Manuf.acturers' Bureau of Indiana, 

 addressed a sectional meeting at the German House on Wednesdav 



