3o8 Proceedings of the 



deliberations of this Congress may point the way to 

 that solution. 



Prodigal in the use of our woods, and forgetful of 

 the resulting damage to our mountain streams and 

 springs, perhaps we have too long neglected the care 

 of our forests ; or does our rapid progress in the devel- 

 opment of the manifold resources of this country, 

 which calls for generous quantities of forest products, 

 merely lead us to imagine that such is the case? I 

 incline to the former belief, and I think that a visit to 

 the denuded areas within regions once forested, and 

 to the dry places where springs of clear water once 

 flowed, will bear me out. If this is true, we must 

 meet the demands of such rapid progress, or a halt 

 must be called. 



I do not believe that the American people are built 

 upon lines that would make palatable the calling of a 

 halt in their onward march, but that, the necessity 

 being made apparent to them, they will rise to the 

 occasion as one man, and with all of the energy with 

 which they are by nature endowed quickly set about 

 correcting the sins of omission of which they have 

 heretofore been guilty. 



Fresh from the southwestern corner of South 

 Dakota, the former home of the Sioux Indians, who 

 once thought, and perhaps yet think, that in defending 

 their forest home death in tribal warfare was an honor 

 rather than a calamity, and where I have resided for 

 over a quarter of a century, I have noted with much 

 concern the slow but sure dwindling of the forest. 

 Although the extensive operations in that region of 

 the great mining industry with which I have been 

 connected have during that period been conducted, and 

 are still being pursued, with the view of conserving 

 the forest, the dwindling of the forest area still goes 



