THE PERIOD OF CONSERVATION 



149 



rith Charles W. Eliot as president. In 1909, a conservation com- 

 lission was also created in Canada. ^^ 



OTHER INDICATIONS OF CONSERVATION SENTIMENT 



The railroad companies began experiments in tree planting in the 



[early seventies, and some of them are still trying to work out a system 



)f timber culture which will at least provide a part of the future tie 



supply. The Louisville & Nashville, the Michigan Central, the Illinois 



!^entral, the Big Four, the St. Louis & San Francisco, and the 



[orfolk & Western have made various sporadic attempts to develop 



)lantations. The Santa Fe has made systematic efforts to grow 



eucalyptus on some of its lands in southern California; and the 



*ennsylvania Railroad has planted several million trees on its unused 



land.'' 



Nowhere was the interest of the people in timber conservation more 



jlearly indicated than in the party platforms of 1908 and 1912. The 



)emocratic platform adopted at Denver in 1908 announced, "We 



^nsist upon the preservation, protection and replacement of needed 



forests." The Republican platform of the same year stated, "We 



lendorse the movement inaugurated by the administration for the 



conservation of natural resources, and we approve of all measures 



to prevent the waste of timber." Four years later the Republican, 



[Democratic, Progressive, and Prohibition platforms all had con- 



[servation planks, the Progressive platform being particularly com- 



iprehensive in that respect.'® 



BROADENING SCOPE OF THE CONSERVATION MOVEMENT 

 It was during the first decade of the twentieth century that the 

 "conservation movement" acquired something of its present signifi- 

 ;ance and importance. Under the influence of Pinchot largely, the 

 idea of conservation was extended to other natural resources than 

 Itimber — -coal, oil, gas, iron, grazing lands, irrigable lands, water and 

 |Water power, and at the same time acquired a broader meaning than 

 that involved in the mere "saving" of these resources. With Pinchot 



17 Information here is taken from current issues of Forestry and Irrigation, 

 Conservation, American Forestry, and the Canadian Forestry Journal. 



'i^^ Forest Leaves, Aug., 1907, 50: American Forestry, Apr., 1910, '26: Proceed- 

 igs. Society of Am. Foresters, Vol. 4, 30 et seq. 



19 World Almanac and Encyclopedia, 1910 and 1913. 



