THE CONFERENCE PROPER 



of forested headwaters to equable 

 stream flow. He declared his deep and 

 intense interest in the work of the 

 Conference, particularly as it related to 

 the conservation of soils, saying that 

 if the Conference accomplished nothing 

 more than to make people think, and 

 act upon their thoughts, with a view 

 to preserving for their children and 

 their children's children the natural 

 resources of land, waters, forests, and 

 minerals to which they will justly be 

 heirs, it will have done much. 



Governor Broward, of Florida, fol- 

 lowed with a few remarks along 

 similar lines ; after which Senator 

 Newlands, of Nevada, offered some 

 suggestions for practical cooperation 



between the States and the Nation in 

 the work of conserving the natural 

 resources of the 'country. His sugges- 

 tions were for legislative or executive 

 action on the part of the individual 

 States, following a plan to be adopted, 

 for the sake of securing uniformity of 

 laws as between the States. The Sen- 

 ator's remarks called forth the state- 

 ment from the Chair that already 

 twenty-eight States have appointed 

 conservation commissions, and that 

 thirty or more National organizations 

 have done likewise. The discussion 

 was followed by the reading of the re- 

 port of the Alabama Conservation 

 Commission by Mr. W. P. Lay. The 

 report follows : 



ADDRESS OF MR. W. P. LAY 



AS TO the reports from the States and 

 the conservation commissions ap- 

 pointed by the States, I have the honor 

 of being Chairman of the Commission, ap- 

 pointed for Alabama. We prepared a re- 

 port and turned it in to your secretary, 

 which I believe you have before you. I 

 reserved a copy of that for myself. It con- 

 tains probably fifty or seventy-five pages 

 and takes up the subject fairly well, as best 

 we could in the short time in which we 

 had to compile it. We only reached the 

 point where we could realize the arduous 

 duties attached to the work, and the im- 

 portance of the work. The further we 

 looked into it, the more apparent became 

 its importance. 



We took up the agricultural question and 

 the land question, as well as the question of 

 waterways and the question of forestry and 

 minerals. We found the study of some of 

 those subjects extremely interesting. 



I took up the subject of our waterways, 

 and gave that matter considerable study and 

 attention. I was one of these individuals 

 whom you might probably say was suffering 

 from water on the brain because of great 

 study of this water question, and I had 

 been for a number of years. In looking into 

 the matter I found some very interesting 

 facts and the field is one that offers great 

 opportunities for study and research. Of 

 our natural resources, I do not know of 

 any that promises more results than are 

 promised by a proper conservation of our 

 Waterways. Of course, I only took up 

 Alabama. I did not go beyond the possi- 

 bilities of our own State, but as a point 

 on that, I will just quote a little here on 



the possibilities of Alabama and the water 

 powers that can be developed in conjunc- 

 tion with the improvement of our streams 

 for navigation. 



We recommended very heartily a dual sys- 

 tem of navigation and water power develop- 

 ment, as our report will show, in connection 

 with the system of impounding or storing 

 water. Around the headwaters of our 

 streams, as is the case in almost every 

 instance in the United States, is generally 

 found admirable locations for the impound- 

 ing and storage of water. A careful study 

 of that question promises very great results. 

 As for the power development, it will prom- 

 ise about five to one, where you can in- 

 crease the power development about five to 

 one, but in my compilation here I have 

 figured it on a basis of about three to one, 

 leaving the balance of the flood waters to go 

 to waste. In figuring it on a basis of three 

 to one, I think the most economical and 

 practical conditions, applicable to the Coosa 

 River and the Alabama River in Alabama, 

 are applicable to almost every stream in 

 our country. Under question D-2 Water 

 Powers, "What are the undeveloped water 

 powers of the United States?" I said: 



"Tennessee, with minimum natural flow, 

 162,000 H. P. 



"Tennessee, with practical conserved flow, 

 396,000 H. P. 



"Coosa, with minimum natural flow, 120,- 

 ooo H. P. 



"Coosa, with practical conserved flow, 360,- 

 ooo H. P. 



''Chattahoochee, with minimum natural 

 flow, 115,000 H. P. 



"Chattahoochee, with practical conserved 

 flow, 230,000 H. P. 



