April, 1909,] 



383 



Miscellaneous. 



moments of Egypt, to the earliest cities 

 of the Babylonian plain. 



When the founders of this Nation 

 met in Independence Hall, in Phila- 

 delphia, the conditions of commerce had 

 not fundamentally changed from what 

 they were when the Phoenician keels 

 first furrowed the lonely waters of the 

 Mediterranean. The differences Avere 

 those of degree, not of kiud, and they 

 were not in all cases even those of 

 degree. Mining was carried on funda- 

 mentally as it had been carried on by 

 the Pharaohs in the countries adjacent 

 to the Red Sea. 



In 1776 the wares of the merchants of 

 Boston, of Charlston, like the wares of 

 the merchants of Ninevah and Sidon, 

 if they went by water, were carried by 

 boats propelled by sails or oars ; if 

 they went by land, were carried in 

 wagons drawn by beasts of draft or in 



5>acks on the backs of beasts of burden, 

 ["he ships that crossed the high seas 

 were better than the ships that 3,000 

 years before crossed the Aegean ; but 

 they were of the same type, after 

 all— they were wooden ships propelled 

 by sails ; and on land the roads were 

 not as good as the roads of the Roman 

 Empire, while the service of the posts 

 was probably inferior. 



In Washington's time anthracite coal 

 was known only as a useless blackstone ; 

 and the great fields of bituminous coal 

 were undiscovered. As steam was un- 

 known, the use of coal for power pro- 

 duction was undreamed of. Water was 

 practically the only source of power, 

 save the labour of men and animals ; and 

 this power was used only in the most 

 primitive fashion. But a few small iron 

 deposits had been found in this country, 

 and the use of iron by our countrymen 

 was very small. Wood was practically 

 the only fuel, and what lumber was 

 sawed was consumed locally, while the 

 forests were regarded chiefly as obstruc- 

 tions to settlement and civilization. 



Such was the degree of progress to 

 which civilized mankind had attained 

 when this Nation began its career. It is 

 almost impossible for us in this day to 

 realize how little our Revolutionary 

 ancestors knew of the great store of 

 natural resources, whose discovery and 

 use have been such vital factors in the 

 greatness of this Nation, and how little 

 they required to take from this store in 

 Order to satisfy their needs. 



Since then our knowledge and use of 

 the resources of the present territory of 

 the United States have increased a 

 hundredfold. Indeed, the growth of 

 this Nation by leaps and bounds makes 

 one of the most striking and important 



chapters in the history of the world. 

 Its growth has been due to the rapid 

 development, and alas ! that it should 

 be said, to the rapid destruction of our 

 natural resources. Nature has supplied 

 to us in the United States, and still 

 supplies to us, more kinds of resources 

 in a more lavished degree than has ever 

 been the case at any other time or with 

 any other people. Our position in the 

 world has been attained by the extent 

 and t horoughness of the control we have 

 achieved over nature ; but we are more, 

 and not less, dependent upon what she 

 furnishss than at any previous time of 

 history since the days of primitive man. 



Yet our fathers, though they knew 

 so little of the resources of the country, 

 exercised a wise forethought in re- 

 ference thereto. Washington clearly 

 saw that the perpetuity of the States 

 could only be secured by union, and 

 that the only feasible basis of union was 

 an economic one ; in other words, that 

 it must be based upon the development 

 and use of their natural resources. 

 Accordingly, he helped to outline a 

 scheme of commercial development, and 

 by his influence an Interstate Waterways 

 Commission was appointed by Maryland 

 and Virginia, 



It met near where we are now meeting, 

 in Alexandria, adjoined to Mount 

 Vernon, and took up the consideration 

 of interstate commerce by the only 

 means then available, that of water. 

 Further conferences were arranged, first 

 at Annapolis and then at Philadelphia. 

 It was in Philadelphia that the re- 

 presentatives of all the States met for 

 what was in its original conception 

 merely a Waterways Conference ; but 

 when they had closed their deliberations 

 the outcome was the Constitution which 

 made the States into a Nation. 



The Constitution of the United States 

 thus grew in large part out of the 

 necessity for united action in the wise 

 use of our natural resources. The wise 

 use of all our natural resources, which 

 are our natural resources as well, is the 

 great material question of to-day. 1 

 have asked you to come together now 

 because the enormous consumption of 

 these resources, and the threat of 

 imminent exhaustion of them, due to 

 reckless and wasteful use, once more 

 calls for common effort, common action. 



Since the days when the Constitution 

 was adopted, steam and electricity have 

 revolutionized the industrial world. 

 Nowhere has the revolution been so 

 great as in our own country. The dis- 

 covery and utilization of mineral fuels 

 and alloys have given us the lead over 

 all other nations in the production of 



