Miscellaneous. 



[April, 1909. 



steel. The discovery and utilization 

 of coal and iron have given us our 

 railways, and have led to such in- 

 dustrial development as has never 

 before been seen. The vast wealth of 

 lumber in our forests, the riches of our 

 soils and mines, the discovery of coal 

 and mineral oils, combined with the 

 efficiency of our transportation, have 

 made the conditions of our life unparallel- 

 ed in comfort and convenience. 



The steadily increasing drain on these 

 natural resources has promoted to an 

 extraordinary degree the complexity of 

 our industrial and social life. Moreover, 

 this unexampled development has had 

 a determining effect upon the character 

 and opinions of our people. The demand 

 for efficiency in the great task has given 

 us vigour, effectiveness, decision, and 

 power, and a capacity for achievement 

 which in its own lines has never yet 

 been matched, (Applause.) So great and 

 so rapid has been our material growth 

 that there has been a tendency to lag 

 behind in spiritual and moral growth 

 (laughter and applause); but that is not 

 the subject upon which I speak to you 

 to-day. 



Disregarding for the moment the 

 question of moral purpose, it is safe 

 to say that the prosperity of our people 

 depends directly on the energy and in- 

 telligence with which our natural re- 

 sources are used. It is equally clear 

 that these resources are the final basis 

 of our national power and perpetuity. 

 Finally, it is ominously evident that 

 these resources are in the course of 

 rapid exhaustion. 



This Nation began with the belief 

 that its landed possessions were illimit- 

 able and capable of supporting all the 

 people who might care to make our 

 country their home; but already the 

 limit of unsettled land is in sight, and 

 indeed but little land fitted for agri- 

 culture uow remains unoccupied save 

 what can be reclaimed by irrigation 

 and drainage. We began with an un- 

 approached heritage of forests; more 

 than half of the timber is gone. We 

 began with coal fields more extensive 

 than those of any other nation, and 

 with iron ores regarded as inexhaust- 

 able, and many experts now declare 

 that the end of both coal and iron is 

 in sight. 



The mere increase in the consump- 

 tion of coal during 1907 over 190G ex- 

 ceeded the total consumption in 1876, the 

 Centennial year. The enormous stores 

 of mineral oil and gas are largely gone. 

 Our natural waterways are not gone, 

 but they have been so injured by 



neglect, and by the division of responsi- 

 bility and utter lack of system in dealing 

 with them, that there is less navigation 

 on them now than there was fifty 

 years ago. Finally, we began with soils 

 of unexampled fertility, and we have so 

 impoverished them by injudicious use 

 and by failing to check erosion, that 

 their crop-producing power is diminish- 

 ing instead of increasing. In a word, 

 we have thoughtlessly, and to a large 

 degree unnecessarily, diminished the 

 resources upon which not only our pros- 

 perity but the prosperity of our chil- 

 dren must always depend. 



We have become great because of 

 the lavish use of our resources, and we 

 have just reason to be proud of our 

 growth. But the time has come to in- 

 quire seriously what will happen when 

 our forests are gone, when the coal, the 

 iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted, 

 when the soils shall have been still 

 further impoverished and washed into 

 the streams, polluting the rivers, 

 denuding the fields, and obstructing 

 navigation. The questions do not relate 

 only to the next century or to the next 

 generation. It is time for us now as a 

 Nation to exercise the reasonable fore- 

 sight in dealing with our great natural 

 resources that would be shown by any 

 prudent man in conserving and wisely 

 using the property which contains the 

 assurance of well being for himself and 

 his children. 



The natural resources I have enumer- 

 ated can be divided into two sharply 

 distinguished classes accordingly as 

 they are or are not capable of renewal. 

 Mines if used must necessarily be ex- 

 hausted. The minerals do not and can- 

 not renew themselves. Therefore, in 

 dealing with the coal, the oil, the gas, 

 the iron, the metals generally, all that 

 we can do is to try to see that they are 

 wisely used. The exhaustion is certain 

 to come in time. 



The second class of resources consists 

 of those which cannot only be used in 

 such manner as to leave them un- 

 diminished for our children, but can 

 actually be improved by wise use. The 

 soil, the forests, and the waterways 

 come in this category. In dealing with 

 mineral resources, man is able to im- 

 prove on nature only by putting the 

 resources to a beneficial use, which 

 in the end exhausts them ; but iu 

 dealing with the soil and its products 

 man can improve on nature by compell- 

 ing the resources to renew and even 

 reconstruct themselves iu such manner 

 as to serve increasingly beneficial uses, 

 while the living water* can be so con- 

 trolled as to multiply their benefits. 



