OOTOBEB 23, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



539 



gently made. Our land is nearly all taken 

 up. There is remaining in the possession 

 of the government a comparatively small 

 amount excepting that which is useless for 

 cultivation. Nearly all the forests have 

 disappeared; in some sections entirely so, 

 and very little effoijt has been made to 

 replace them. Our coal and iron are rap- 

 idly disappearing and will in time entirely 

 disappear. Our waterways are injured 

 and many of them are entirely useless for 

 navigation or for power. The question of 

 the conservation of our natural resources is 

 then a serious one and deserves careful and 

 mature deliberation. Even with the nat- 

 ural resources not in danger of exhaustion 

 it would seem wise to use them to the best 

 advantages. 



On May 13, 14 and 15 there was held at 

 the White House in Washington a confer- 

 ence on the conservation of the natural 

 resources of the country. This conference 

 gathered at the invitation of the President 

 of the United States and was composed of 

 the governors of the states with three dele- 

 gates from each state appointed by the 

 governor; of the members of the cabinet, 

 the judges of the supreme court, some of 

 the members of congress, and representa- 

 tives from all the great engineering socie- 

 ties. As president of this society I re- 

 ceived an invitation and attended the con- 

 ference. This meeting was one of the 

 most notable ever held in the country. The 

 President of the United States opened each 

 session and presided at the first and last. 

 At the opening session he delivered a strong 

 address upon the question of conservation 

 which is one that has received his earnest 

 attention for many years. The governors 

 of forty-four states were present. Many 

 members of the cabinet, of the supreme 

 court and of both houses of congress ac- 

 cepted the invitation and attended one or 

 more of the sessions. 



Addresses were made upon the subjects 



of forestry, fuel, mineral products, soil 

 wastage, irrigation and the waterways. 

 Papers were read by Mr. Andrew Carnegie 

 and Mr. James J. Hill, who have taken a 

 great interest in the questions under con- 

 sideration. Many of the governors and 

 quite a number of the other delegates took 

 part in the discussion. Every one present 

 seemed to be impressed with the importance 

 of the gathering. To many of the govern- 

 ors and their associates the subject seemed 

 to be entirely new. It had never been 

 directly presented to them and they had 

 not, of course, understood its importance, 

 but there was not a dissenting voice as to 

 the necessity of conserving our natural 

 resources and making them serve the na- 

 tion as long as possible. A number of the 

 governors stated that upon their return 

 home they would immediately appoint for- 

 estry and other commissions which would 

 study these questions within the borders of 

 their states, and th^ when these commis- 

 sions made their reports they would do all 

 in their power to carry out the recom- 

 mendations. 



The representatives of the scientific so- 

 cieties probably appreciated the condition 

 of afiiairs and the momentous possibilities 

 of the questions discussed better than any 

 one else with, perhaps, the exception of the 

 president. Some of them read papers and 

 a number took part in the discussions. At 

 the close of the session a statement of the 

 present condition of affairs and a recom- 

 mendation as to the proper steps to be 

 taken to conserve the natural resources of 

 the country were adopted as the sense of 

 the convention. 



The engineer adapts the forces of nature 

 to the use of men and this adaptation 

 should be done both economically and effi- 

 ciently. It is not enough to show that a 

 certain force can be made to work when a 

 machine transforms raw into finished prod- 

 uct. The work must be done efficiently — 



