24 Conservation of Natural Resources in California. 



any enemy to prosperity. He is in danger of having it thought of him 

 that he does not take pride in our great achievements, that he is not a 

 very good American. But in reality it is no sign that a man lacks pride 

 in the United States and the wonderful things our people have done in 

 developing this great country because he wants to see that development 

 go on indefinitely. On the contrary, real patriotism and pride in our 

 country make it the first of all duties to see that our nation shall con- 

 tinue to prosper. In sober truth, we have brought ourselves into a 

 condition in which the very serious diminution of some of our most 

 necessary resources is upon us. 



What We Face. 



Forest Resources. A third of the land surface of this country was 

 originally covered with what were, all in . all, the most magnificent 

 forests of the globe a million square miles of timberland. In the 

 short time, as time counts in the life of nations, we have been here we 

 have all but reached the end of these forests. We thought it unim- 

 portant until lately that we have been destroying by fire as much timber 

 as we have used. But we have now reached the point where the growth 

 of our forests is but one third of the annual cut, while we have in store 

 timber enough for only twenty or thirty years at our present rate of 

 use. This wonderful development, which would have been impossible 

 without the cutting, of the forests, has brought us where we really face 

 their exhaustion within the present generation. And we use five or six 

 times as much timber per capita as the European nations. A timber 

 famine will touch every man, woman, and child in all the land; it will 

 affect the daily life of every one of us ; and yet without consideration, 

 without forecast, and without foresight, we have placed ourselves, not 

 deliberately, but thoughtlessly, in a position where a timber famine is 

 one of the inevitable events of our near future. 



Canada can not supply us, for she will need her timber herself. 

 Siberia can not supply us, for the timber is too far from water trans- 

 portation. South America can not supply us, because the timbers 'of 

 that vast continent are of a different character from those we use and 

 ill adapted to Our need. We must suffer because we have carelessly 

 wasted the forest, this great fundamental condition of success. It is 

 impossible to repair the damage in time to escape much suffering, 

 although not too late to work hard to reduce it as much as we can. 



Minerals, Oil, and Natural Gas. But forests only begin the story of 

 our impaired capital. Our anthracite coals are said to be in danger of 

 exhaustion in fifty years, and our bituminous coals in the beginning of 

 the next century; some of our older oil fields are already exhausted; 

 the natural gas has been wasted, burning night and day in many towns 

 until the supply has failed. Our iron deposits grow less each year. 



