4 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



open up and improve new lands. To conserve human resources 

 means to increase the quantity and quality of human activity that 

 can be applied to production; to lessen social evils and injury to 

 health under established conditions — a matter of economy — and simul- 

 taneously to develop conditions in the future which will remove the 

 causes of such evils, a matter of still greater economy. Hence to 

 conserve human and natural resources means not only to prevent 

 waste in what we have but also to plan and develop for future growth. 

 Considered in that sense nearly every social problem in Canada is 

 a problem of conservation. 



Out of the total area of 2,306,502,153 acres of land in Canada, 

 it is computed that 358,162,190 acres of land are capable of being used 

 for productive purposes.* The population of the Dominion in 1911 

 was 7,206,643, or 1 -9 persons to each square mile of territory. We have 

 35,582 miles of railway, or about one mile to every 200 persons, pro- 

 viding means of distribution by railway in advance of the needs of 

 commerce. The natural resources may be said to be unlimited in 

 extent, subject to proper conservation and development; and the 

 means of distribution by main railways may be regarded as capable 

 of no limitation in meeting demands for many years to come. But, 

 while there is practically an unlimited quantity of natural resources, 

 and of railways to distribute them, we are limited in the economic 

 use to which we can put them. Wealth is produced not from the 

 existence of natural resources but from the conversion of these resources 

 into some form for human use. Canada is seriously limited in actual 

 resources by the extent to which it lacks sufficient population to apply 

 the human activity necessary to adequately use and distribute its resources. 

 Hence there is nothing so vital in the interests of production in Canada 

 as to conserve and develop human life — not merely to conserve the phy- 

 sical qualities, but also to develop the intellectual qualities. 



We have, perhaps, made the error that all that matters as re- 

 gards population is increase in quantity. But productivity depends 

 on quality as well as on quantity of human material — on intelligence 

 and organization as well as on physique. If, by increase of popula- 

 tion, we can secure a higher level of prosperity per capita we should 

 strive for that increase; if a lower level of prosperity we should strive 

 against it. History shows that it is possible for a population to grow 

 in a country of ample resources and yet to diminish in productivity 

 and prosperity as it grows. With improved methods and organiza- 



Censusfor 1911, Vol. IV, p. 7 



