80 The Barrier of Cost 



Edmund James, one of the conferees, expressed the broad concept of 

 conservation that has always prevailed amongst thoughtful and in- 

 formed people. Moreover, Gifford Pinchot, who was President Roose- 

 velt's mentor in matters concerning conservation, was no layman. 

 When he returned from studying forest management in Europe he was 

 placed in charge of the Biltmore forest in North Carolina, and 

 prompdy demonstrated there that conservation and the proper har- 

 vesting of timber are not incompatible practices. Even Andrew Car- 

 negie, who probably knew more about the benefits to be derived from 

 a high tariff on steel than he did about conservation, pleaded for re- 

 search and practical knowledge, items that would scarcely be needed 

 if hoarding were to be a policy. All in all, it seems to me that the 

 ideas of conservation expressed at the conference were not naive. 



The conferees in 1908 were concerned with some real and very 

 important problems. True, they underestimated the progress that sci- 

 ence and technology would make in the next fifty years, and their 

 guesses as to when the natural resources cupboard would be bare 

 were in error. Nevertheless, it was high time that responsible people 

 took note of the declining fertility of farm lands, unchecked soil ero- 

 sion, wasteful practices in the harvesting of timber, the rapid rate of 

 depletion of high-grade ore deposits, and, in general the heedless 

 exploitation of natural resources with little or no regard for the 

 future. There was no reason to be complacent over the situation that 

 prevailed in 1908, and I must say that I see no reason to be compla- 

 cent over today's situation. 



In the background of the 1908 conference, though not played up 

 strongly there, was the question of who is to benefit from natural re- 

 sources — people everywhere or just a few favored individuals. The 

 Inland Waterways Commission had mentioned "the equal opportunity 

 of all our People" to share in the heritage of natural resources. Presi- 

 dent Roosevelt was certainly not blind to the fact that for a hundred 

 years it had been federal policy to deliver natural resources to private 

 interests with no regard for the public's stake in these resources. It 

 was even more wicked in 1908 than it is today to impose any restric- 

 tions on "the American way of Hfe" as practiced by big business. In 

 1906 President Roosevelt vetoed a "give-away" bill covering poten- 

 tial water power development. If he had publicly repudiated the Ten 



