right—that hay and straw do not belong to the farmer, but to the farm.
And whenever hay or straw, or any of the vegetable substances which are
made into manure, are taken to the city, they should be considered as
lent, not sold. Getting them out to the farms—not the identical farms,
of course, but the farms—is a railway problem. And it should rest on the
conscience of the people and of the railways, as did the similar problem
on the conscience of my German friend.
I am aware that the railways of the country are not entirely oblivious
to the wisdom of the policies here urged upon them. In some places they
are making commendable efforts to get the manure of the cities out to
the farms. In other instances, they are making what they probably regard
as very low rates on fertilizers and lime. Just recently a railway in
Virginia has made a rate of from one-half to three-fourths of a cent per
ton mile on lime. But I do not find that they have anywhere made any
such heroic efforts to cut down the cost of carriage of fertilizers and
manures for the farms, as they have in the case of coal from the mines
to the docks on Lake Erie, or grain from the elevators at the foot of
the lake to New York, or ore from lake ports to Pittsburgh, or packing
house products from Missouri river points to Chicago. In my opinion, true
national welfare demands that the fertility of our farms be sustained
at all costs, and that no freight is entitled to rates as low as ground
phosphate rock, ground limestone, and manures.
THE GREATEST RAILWAY FOLLY.
The demands made here upon the railways may be regarded in some quarters
as unwarranted. I am quite aware of their scope and character as
innovations. They go deeper than the relations between the railroads and
the farmers, and rise to the point of an outline for a national rate
policy for our railways. In what I have said I have regarded the railways
as public utilities in the strictest sense of the word. I have scarcely
more than alluded to the rights of investors in railway properties, and
I mention them now for the sole purpose of stating that in my opinion
no demands will ever be made in the interests of the public welfare, or
should be made, inimical to the rights of investors to a proper return
on their investment made for the purpose of serving the transportation
needs of the Nation. None of the things which I suggest are at variance
with these principles. The railways may properly adopt the policy of
hauling, or may properly be forced to haul certain public necessities
at or for less than cost, so long as on the whole job of transportation
they are allowed to earn legitimate profits. I do not believe that
in the long run the profits on the fertilizer traffic should be made
directly out of their haulage. I do believe that the time will come when
no transportation folly will rank as greater in the eyes of our railway
managers than that of allowing rolling stock to remain idle, while
there is a chance to get loads of ground lime, ground phosphate rock
or manure at almost any rate. I am not unaware of the various private
interests which would demand and secure monopoly prices if the railways
should transport these things at low rates or even gratis, if that were
possible; but this is not the time for the discussion of these things.
They must be dealt with by the statesmanship of the future. Institutions
must be gradually moulded to the end that the agriculture of the Nation
may be enabled to flourish; for on its agriculture and the status of its
agricultural population rests in the last analysis the welfare of the
Nation and its railroads. It may be urged that the present railway system
of the land will not permit of the exercise of the beneficent functions
outlined here. If that be so, it is no affair of mine. My task is to
follow truth as I see it, wherever it may lead. If the railway system
under which we happen to be doing business be at variance with the final
demands of national welfare, there is ground for optimism in the historic
fact that nothing changes more readily than railway systems. They have
been almost revolutionized in the past decade—and these considerations of
national welfare of which I am here privileged to speak will take many
decades in coming to a final decision.
Mr. Quick closed by reading the following telegram from O. C. Barber of
Akron, Ohio:
Regret exceedingly my inability to attend Conservation
Congress. I note from several different programs there will
be distinguished speakers on the question from all over the
states. I hope as a result of the meeting something more than
speeches will be accomplished in conservation of the equities
of all American citizens. Things vital for their comfort have
been transferred to corporate power by unjust legislation,
without adequate legal restraint on corporate power compelling
fair play and justice to all interested. A special interest
should be elicited to compel a rate of freight on all
fertilizers for land from which we all derive our sustenance.
Not more than four-tenths of a cent per ton mile should be
permitted for long hauls, nor five-tenths of a cent per ton
mile for short hauls. Any well managed railroad could haul
fertilizer for that price at a profit—referring to all kinds of
fertilizer, lime, phosphate, rock, etc. If you would take such
action as would accomplish this one thing, you would do more
for the good of mankind than all the conservation efforts have
accomplished to date. Wishing you great success, I am sincerely,
O. C. BARBER.
President WALLACE—I have appointed the following committee on
nominations: C. E. Condra, E. G. Griggs, A. B. Farquhar and H. C.
Wallace, and B. N. Baker, Chairman.
Get together and be ready to report nominations promptly tomorrow.
Remember, we will have a very busy Congress. I want you to be here at
2 o’clock promptly, because we will commence at 2 o’clock if there is
anybody here, and some of you will be. This afternoon, I am very sorry
to say, we will not have the privilege of hearing Brother W. H. Page.
I have a letter stating that sickness prevents his attendance. Instead
of that we will take up the report from conservation committees, and as
far as possible from the states. Let me urge you to cut your speeches
down to five minutes, or I will shut every man off after five minutes,
no matter who he is. Don’t tell us about your resources. We know about
them. Tell us what you are doing. Make it specific and to the point, and
then this Congress will hear you patiently, but they won’t hear you after
that, and I won’t either. We must come down to business. This afternoon
we are to have Professor Mumford on the subject of live stock and soil
fertility, a matter of immense importance. The ladies will come in after
that, and I hope you will all bring your wives and sisters and cousins
and aunts. We will have an address on the “Farmer’s Wife,” who you have
heard is the most important person on the farm and the one who bears the
greatest burden—by Mrs. Ashby of Iowa, followed by Mrs. J. N. Lewis of
Kansas. Tonight we are to have a great treat. Mrs. Moore of the General
Federation of Women’s Clubs; then the “Church and the Open Country,” by
Dr. Warren H. Wilson, New York City, superintendent of home missions of
the Presbyterian Church, and then finally, to round up, an address by Dr.
Harvey W. Wiley, Washington, D. C., Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry,
United States Department of Agriculture, of whom you have all probably
heard. That will be the closing address this evening. Be here promptly at
2 o’clock. The Congress will now stand adjourned until 2 o’clock.
_FIFTH SESSION._
Recording Secretary GIPE—Will the Congress please come to order. The Rev.
Dr. George Hamilton Combs will pronounce the invocation.
INVOCATION.
Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for this
world in which we live; for its beauty, for its adaptation
to our needs, for the skies that arch it over, for the grass
beneath our feet, for the seasons with their lessons, for
all the wonderful stories of life. Thou hast made it for man
and Thou art in it now. Help us to realize that this world
is instinct with Thy life, and may we see and hear God, not
only in the skies and in the singing of the stars, but in the
humbler things beneath us, and in that stiller music of all
growing things. May we seek this priceless heritage, may we
preserve this good world unimpaired, handing it down enriched
and beautified, to our children, those who shall come after.
We thank Thee for this Congress and for the great purposes
and ideals for which it stands, and upon the men and women
gathered here we pray Thy blessing, upon their homes while
they are absent, that their children, their wives, their all,
may be defended from harm. Upon them, in their deliberations
here, grant that in wisdom they may plan and in strength they
may execute, and that they may have a vision, not only of the
day, but of the years that shall come after. We thank Thee for
this good work, and oh, do Thou help us that we forget not that
while in the pursuit of this material good we do err; that
after all and that above all the riches of our people are not
in the mines, in its fertile fields, in its forests, but in its
men and in its women, and so send us the greater harvest, not
merely of corn and wheat, but of charity, of goodness, of the
great and patient fidelities of life, and help us all to live
that we shall have advanced at least a little the coming of
the day when righteousness shall cover the earth even as the
waters cover the sea. And so upon this earth of ours may God’s
sovereign will be done even as it is in Heaven. Amen.
Recording Secretary GIPE—I am asked by Mr. Baker, the chairman of the
committee on nominations, to announce that a meeting of that committee
will be held at 3 o’clock this afternoon at room 775 of the Baltimore
Hotel. I now have the honor to present Governor R. S. Vessey of South
Dakota, who will address the Congress and remain in the Chair after he
has finished that address. Governor Vessey of South Dakota. (Applause)
Governor VESSEY—Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Conservation
Congress: I have no set speech to make this afternoon, and I think, if I
remember aright, the president said we would be permitted to talk five
minutes on what we have done in our state in regard to conservation. So
I just want to enumerate a few things that we have done up in our new
state, practically only of age, twenty-one years old, in the past half
a dozen years. We have reclaimed, by drainage, several hundred thousand
acres, and we are reclaiming by irrigation something like a quarter of a
million of acres, and nearly one-half of that is a Federal enterprise.
We are in all parts of the western part of the state planting newer and
similar individual irrigation plants that will develop a large part of
the state. We have in the past been endeavoring to conserve the fertility
of our soils. We are endeavoring to conserve manhood and womanhood by
making them more efficient in the great agricultural work, by sending out
into their community and out in their neighborhoods teachers along the
line of agricultural and domestic science, and other matters pertaining
to make the home more efficient and more modern. We believe that the
time is coming, and that very soon, when every rural district will have
a social and educational center for the upbuilding of that community.
And when that is done, I look to see the day when the people will not,
as soon as they have accumulated some wealth, move into the city for the
purpose of giving their children an education, largely so they may enter
vocations in life other than the farm life. We believe also that the
heart should be educated the same as the mind. A committee of educators
in our state has reported, not only along this line, favorably, but they
have compiled a text-book and are introducing it into our schools, and
we expect that our teachers will be trained along the lines of giving
to our students ethical as well as material education. So that we can,
at the same time we are improving the mind, build a character that will
mean more to us in the future than the accumulation of dollars and cents.
We have, I think, a progressive state, and we want to create conditions
so that people from the further East and the more congested centers of
population will find a haven of rest and a place where they can come
and not only better their financial condition but better their social
condition as well. I appreciate very much indeed having this opportunity
of saying these few words in the interest of the conservation of our
resources. I think that we have been looking so long upon the land that
has been turned over to us by the United States Government, as something
that is only for use for our own material well-being. We are beginning to
learn that we are only here for a short time, and that if we are going to
be honest with those that are coming after us, that it is our duty not
to rob that soil, but to turn that soil over to our children, and from
them to their children’s children, in just as good a state of fertility
as it comes to us in its virgin state. And when we do not do this, we are
robbing our posterity of something future generations are entitled to,
that they are just as much entitled to as they are to our good name. And
this, I believe, is a wonderful revelation. And it seems to be taking all
over the country, to know that in farming a section of land that I have
an obligation to those who may farm it a hundred years from now, and that
it should be my intention, that it is my duty, and I am under obligations
to keep that in just as good state of fertility when I leave it as it is
when I take the responsibility of taking the products that are needed
to sustain life from that land. It is a pleasure to meet the people of
this Congress, the Third Conservation Congress. Now we will listen to the
further program by the secretary.
President WALLACE—I have great pleasure in reading to this Congress
a letter from a man you have heard about, commonly known as “Teddy.”
(Applause. Hurrah for Teddy.) I wrote him a month ago and asked him to
address this Congress. He declined to do so, but I would not accept his
declination. Then I had a letter from him, a personal letter, which I did
not care to read to this Congress without his permission. Unfortunately,
I do not have it here, but expect to get it this afternoon or tomorrow
from my office in Des Moines. So I will simply read you the letter giving
permission to read another letter which I do not have, but you shall have
if I get it in time. Here is the letter:
My Dear Mr. Wallace: I greatly wish I could attend the
Congress. You are very welcome to read as much of my letter as
you desire, or as much of this letter as you desire. I most
emphatically believe that there is no movement in our country
at the present time of such importance as the developing of a
higher country life. This was the object of the Country Life
Commission which I established. What we need most is good
citizenship; that is, a good family life, a high quality of
individual manhood and womanhood; and above all things, we
need these in the country districts, for in the long run every
nation’s welfare must primarily depend upon the welfare of
those who till the soil. The man is greater than his work.
The farm can only be made what it should be by paying chief
attention to the securing of the right man and woman on the
farm. To develop soil fertility, we must develop rural manhood
and rural womanhood. We must have a social life on the farm far
better worth living than such life has been in the immediate
past. Pray accept my heartiest sympathy and good will. Very
sincerely yours,
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
(Applause)
Recording Secretary GIPE—We are now going to have brief reports from some
of the national organizations. Mr. W. E. Mullin of New York will report
for the National Board of Fire Underwriters.
Mr. MULLIN—Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: The National Board of
Fire Underwriters has been interested for many years in every element
of conservation. They believe in the conservation of the soil, the
conservation of the waterways, the conservation of the mines, the
conservation of childhood and the conservation of our homes. We believe
in everything that savors of practical conservation, but they are
specially concerned in the conservation of our utilized forces.
[Mr. Mullin’s paper in full will be found in Supplementary Proceedings.]
President WALLACE—I must ask a favor. I will not ask the Congress to
listen to more than three-minute speeches on these reports, and I wish
all the speakers to understand that when that bell rings it is time for
them to quit. They must learn to boil down. (Applause) As I said before,
we do not care about the resources of your states. We can read that in
books. We want to know what you have done in the way of conservation. You
can say all you ought to say in three minutes. Moody used to say that a
man had no business to pray more than three minutes, that he could ask
the Lord all he really wanted in three minutes, and then it was time to
quit. (Applause)
I take pleasure now in introducing Major E. G. Griggs, president of the
National Lumbermen’s Manufacturers’ Association, who will give the report
for that association.
[Mr. Griggs’ paper is in Supplementary Proceedings.]
Chairman VESSEY—We will now hear from Mr. W. J. Rushton, of the American
Association of Refrigeration. I have pleasure in introducing him to you.
[Mr. Rushton’s paper will be found in Supplementary Proceedings.]
Chairman VESSEY—We will now hear a report from Hon. E. T. Allen, Forester
for Western Forestry and Conservation Association, entitled, “Private
Conservation on the Pacific Coast.”
Mr. ALLEN—The Western Forestry and Conservation Association, for which
I report, is a league or alliance of a dozen coöperative forest fire
associations maintained by timber owners in the Pacific forest states:
Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California.
These five states contain over half the standing timber in the United
States. Already furnishing a fifth of the Nation’s lumber, they
constitute its great remaining storehouse of future supply. In other
words, they contain the mature timber which must bear the burden of
bridging national shortage until an adequate new crop is ripe. Because
of climatic conditions and rapid growing species, they also contain
the deforested land which, by reason of adaptability, most demands
encouragement to produce this new crop, to which you must turn in the
future for timber as you do to this region for iron and to the South for
cotton. This is why you are directly and vitally interested in what every
agency is doing to protect and foster these forests of the West.
Believe as you may concerning division of responsibility between state
and nation, or policies of controlling the development of natural
resources; but never forget that the forest ranger is actually on the
job, saving the forests for the rest of us to talk about. If he had not
been there for the last ten years, the national forests would be mostly
old burns not worth arguing about. We want more, not fewer, of him, and
we want Congress to spend more money to hire him and build trails for him
to use.
The states, too, are waking up, but progress in this direction seems slow
when we consider that of the tremendously important forest resources in
the West the majority is in private hands, and that it is the attitude of
the commonwealth that governs the ability of the private owner to manage
it to best advantage for all concerned.
All these conditions I have hinted at—failure by Congress to give the
forest service adequate funds, slow awakening of state responsibility,
and realization that the Pacific Coast is both the last and the most
promising field of forest industry—have inspired the most vigorous and
efficient private movement for forest conservation ever known—the allied
coöperative associations of timber owners in the Pacific Northwest. They
fully realize that the control of such a stupendous community resource
entails grave responsibilities; that their ownership is largely a public
trust and that they must account for their stewardship. They also know
that no new fields remain and that this is by no means inexhaustible;
that to avoid heavy loss they must guard the forests they have, and
to perpetuate their business they must have new ones coming on.
Self-interest, more potent than philanthropy, demands abandonment of the
wasteful methods prevalent in the past history of their industry.
With this new point of view, the Northwestern lumberman, far from being
an element requiring regulation by the public in the interest of forest
preservation, has become the leader in reform. It has been chiefly
through his aggressive campaigning that state laws have been improved,
bearing as rigidly on the careless member of his own brotherhood as
upon anyone else. He gives his financial support to educational work
directed at both lumbermen and public. He hires professional foresters
to help him try such better management as conditions will permit. But
particularly, through coöperative associations, he has taken the lead
in fire prevention. And admitting his motive to be largely selfish, the
benefit to the consumer is none the less. To the man who needs lumber, to
keep it from burning up is conservation that counts.
After so much preamble you may wonder what we have actually to report;
what we can offer in the way of results. Here are some of them: Last
year was one of the worst for forest fires in American history. Loss
of life and property was terrific. But the private protective systems
allied with the Western Forestry and Conservation Association carried
safely through the season fully 16,000,000 acres of forest, containing at
least the stupendous amount of 300 billion feet of timber. They kept the
loss of private timber in Idaho, Washington and Oregon, the three states
hardest hit, down to one-fourth of one per cent. How did they do this? By
raising and spending $700,000 for patrol and fire fighting, and actually
extinguishing 5,580 fires.
It was a telegram from the president of the Western Forestry and
Conservation Association, with the standing of our work behind it,
that caused the ordering out of the United States Army to assist the
undermanned forest service on the national forests.
This year’s records are not compiled, but will be quite as interesting.
Through their alliance the associations turned to account every lesson
each learned in 1910, and spread increased patrols equipped with new
advantages of perfected organization, telephone and trail systems,
supply storage, and automobile and motorcycles where these could be
used. Organization permitted close and systematic coöperation with
state and federal forces. Every association ranger served as a police
officer and one Washington association alone got over thirty convictions.
Offending lumbermen were made the first examples. Hundreds of fires were
extinguished but not one was allowed to become serious in 1911.
Our association serves as the one and only common meeting ground for all
agencies for forest protection, including state and federal as well as
private fire officials, and employs a trained forester to collect and
disseminate for all information that will assist in solving problems of
reforestation, legislation, education and like matters demanding expert
knowledge or central facilities. It thus had the chief responsibility
for forest legislation in several Western states last winter and did more
than had been done in all preceding Legislatures.
It has published the first comprehensive book on reforestation and forest
management in the West ever issued, now used as a text-book by the Forest
Service and forestry schools.
It furnishes all newspapers in the Northwest with regular bulletins
throughout the fire season, not only giving reliable news but keeping the
necessity and method of precautionary measures before the public.