NATURAL RESOURCES AND CONSERVATION
_The purpose of this chapter is to show what nature has done for the
United States, and to explain the relation between national
prosperity and natural resources._
[Sidenote: The source of America’s greatness:]
=The Things that Make a Nation Great.=—Three things have contributed
greatly to the upbuilding of the American nation. The first is the wide
extent, the richness, and the varied character of American territory.
The United States is not only a vast country, surpassed in area by very
few other countries of the world, but it possesses great natural
advantages. [Sidenote: 1. The land and its resources.] It contains, as
will be seen presently, extensive regions which are well-suited for
almost every form of human activity, including agriculture in all its
branches, manufacture, mining, forestry, transportation, and trade. It
is abundantly provided with natural harbors and waterways. In soil and
climate there is great variety. No other country of the world can
produce so many different things under such favorable conditions.
[Sidenote: 2. The initiative and industry of its people.]
But it is not enough that a country shall have natural resources. It
must have a people with initiative and industry to develop them. The
American people have spent three centuries at the task of making the
land yield its increase and they have much to show for it. Originally,
for the most part, of Anglo-Saxon stock, the population has been
enriched by the addition of immigrants from every country of the old
world. This mingling of many races into one people has given the nation
vigor and versatility. It has helped to develop among the American
people that alert and progressive spirit which is one of their most
valued characteristics; it has also given strength to democratic ideals.
[Sidenote: 3. The national deals.]
The enduring greatness of a nation does not depend, however, upon its
material achievements alone. It cannot be measured by figures of
population and wealth. What a nation contributes to the progress and
permanence of civilization depends not only upon its economic prosperity
but in an even greater degree upon its spiritual and intellectual
strength. This vast land, so richly endowed by nature and with its
riches so fully utilized by man, has won and can retain its foremost
place among the nations of the world by promoting justice and
contentment among its people, upholding the reign of law, diffusing
education among all, and holding true to the ideals of democratic
government.
[Sidenote: Importance of the soil.]
=The Land.=—Soil is the fundamental resource of any country. Its
fertility determines, in large measure, the size of the population that
can be supported. It is probable that more than thirty per cent of the
American people are today engaged in earning their living from the soil;
at any rate the whole population is in one way or another dependent upon
it. From the soil comes almost our entire food supply.
[Sidenote: The land of the country is privately owned.]
Outside the original thirteen states practically the entire area of the
country has been at some period in the hands of the national government
as part of the public domain.[154] By far the greater part of it,
however, has been sold or granted into private ownership. In the course
of this disposal many corporations and individuals managed to obtain
large tracts of land for very little outlay, because careful attention
was not always given to the administration of the land laws;
nevertheless the policy of selling land cheaply and giving it free to
settlers helped to build up the great Western territories. Out of a
public domain which at one time or another included nearly two-thirds of
the entire United States only six hundred million acres now remain in
the federal government’s hands. Most of this is desert, mountain land,
or land that is otherwise unfit for cultivation.
=The Need of Conservation.=—So long as land remained plentiful and
natural resources seemed to be abundant, very little thought was given
to the possibility that some day both of these things would become
scarce. The land in some parts of the country was exhausted by wasteful
methods of cultivation and then abandoned. [Sidenote: Some examples of
wasted wealth.] There are thousands of abandoned farms in the New
England states. Coal, iron, and copper were mined in ways that permitted
enormous wastage. Through negligence much of our forest wealth was
destroyed by fire. By the beginning of the twentieth century it began to
dawn upon the people that the natural resources of the country were
rapidly melting away, that practically all the good land was gone, while
the natural resources in the way of coal and timber were being so
wastefully used that they would both be exhausted within relatively few
decades unless something were done to conserve them. Accordingly a
movement for the conservation of natural resources was started and since
1900 it has made considerable progress both in securing the passage of
laws and in the education of the public to the urgency of the situation.
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SCIENCE REVEALING THE TREASURES
OF THE EARTH
By Edwin A. Abbey
From a mural painting in the Pennsylvania State
Capitol at Harrisburg.
In this picture the artist portrays an open coal
mine into which several mine-workers are descending.
They are stalwart, young, artless pioneers, eager
for discovery. They impart dramatic energy and
realism to the picture.
Science is pointing the way. She is accompanied by
Fortune, the latter blindfolded and tiptoeing on her
wheel. Grasping Fortune’s right hand is Abundance,
with an overflowing cornucopia, or horn of plenty,
on her shoulder. These mythological figures lend the
picture its symbolism.
The artist portrays a great truth. Human labor,
wisely guided by science, has found fortune and
abundance in the mines and quarries of the earth.
[Illustration:
SCIENCE REVEALING THE TREASURES OF THE EARTH. By Edwin A. Abbey
_Copyright by Edwin A. Abbey. From a Copley Print, copyright by Curtis
& Cameron, Boston. Reproduced by permission._]
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Sidenote: Conservation means three things:]
=What Conservation Means.=—Conservation means three things: [Sidenote:
1. Retention.] First, that public lands still in the hands of the nation
and the states shall not be thoughtlessly turned over to private
corporations and individuals for their own profit, but shall be
administered so far as practicable by the public authorities for the
benefit of the whole country; second, [Sidenote: 1. Retention.]that such
portions of our timber, coal, oil, and mineral resources as have already
passed into private hands shall be so regulated by law as to prevent
their wasteful exploitation; and [Sidenote: 3. Replacement.]third, that
the government shall do its best to encourage the replacement of such
natural resources as can be replaced (for example, by the reforesting of
land and the restocking of lakes with fish).
[Sidenote: Coal and iron.]
=The Mines.=—No country can ever become great in industry unless it has
ready access to minerals, especially iron and coal. It was the
possession of iron and coal in great quantities that served to make
England during the nineteenth century the industrial leader of Europe.
Various regions of the United States possess these great stores of
mineral wealth and have made good use of them. There is one great
difference between mineral resources and other natural resources,
namely, that when minerals are once taken from the earth there is no way
of renewing them. Soil can be replenished, and forests regrown; but
minerals form an endowment which, when once drawn from the bowels of the
earth, can never be replaced. Hence the urgent need for a policy of
conserving these important sources of national wealth. Coal and iron,
while they are the natural resources upon which the growth of industry
mainly depends, are not the only forms of wealth drawn from below the
surface of the ground in this country. [Sidenote: Other minerals.] In
the mining of silver and gold the United States is one of the foremost
among the various producing countries. Copper, lead, oil, zinc,
aluminum, quicksilver, and other natural materials are also taken from
the earth in large quantities each year.
[Sidenote: The earlier practice.]
=The Conservation of Coal, Oil, and Minerals.=—Until about fifty years
ago, land containing coal or other mineral resources was sold and
granted by the government like any other lands. The individual or
corporation became the owner of whatever wealth might happen to lie
beneath the surface. In this way an enormous amount of wealth was
practically given away. It was not until a few years ago that the
government decided to reserve for itself all coal and minerals which
might be discovered in lands given to settlers. [Sidenote: The present
coal situation.] But this action came too late, for most of the
coal-bearing lands had already passed into private ownership. By its
failure to take due thought for the morrow the government had sold, for
a few dollars per acre, what might have been a source of enormous
revenue. If the practice of reserving the right to all coal, oil, and
minerals in granted lands had been adopted in 1810 instead of in 1910
the value of these rights today would be greater than the entire
national debt.
A large and steady supply of coal is of the utmost value to industry; in
fact modern industry depends upon it. Yet when coal is once taken out
and burned it cannot be replaced; there is only so much of it in the
country and when that is gone there will be no more. It took nature many
millions of years to produce the coal that is there now. At the present
rate of increase in yearly consumption all the coal that is known to
exist in the United States will be gone in about one hundred and fifty
years. Some saving can be made by the use of oil and water power. Some
economies in mining and in the use of coal are also possible. But these
will hardly avail to prevent the ultimate exhaustion of the supply. At
best we can only set that day a bit further off.
[Sidenote: Conservation of oil.]
Speaking of oil, the amount of crude petroleum or fuel oil now actually
known to be available in the United States will be exhausted in less
than fifty years if the present rate of consumption is maintained. There
is every likelihood that this rate of consumption will be increased
owing to the greater use of gasoline and kerosene for motor power. Large
quantities of oil, however, are, available in Mexico. Within recent
years it has been hoped that, with the progress of mechanical
appliances, it will be practicable to obtain oil from shale rock.
[Sidenote: The wastage of our forest wealth.]
=The Forests.=—When the first European settlers came to America, the
colonists depended heavily upon the forests. From the woods they
obtained timber for their houses and barns, wood for fuel and, by
hunting, a considerable part of their food supply. In all stages of
civilization men have depended upon the forests to satisfy many of their
diversified wants. Nowadays steel has taken the place of timber in the
construction of buildings and ships; coal and oil have largely replaced
wood as fuel; the days when men subsisted by hunting are past; and
mankind is no longer so heavily dependent upon the forests as in the
olden days. Yet the forests of America are still a great source of
wealth even though the timber resources have been heavily drawn upon
during the past hundred years. This is one of the natural resources
which has been wastefully used and it is only in recent years that
attention has been given to conserving what is left of it. The forests
are needed, not only as a source of timber supply, but in order to
preserve the fertility of the soil and to retain in it the moisture
which is otherwise evaporated or run off.
[Sidenote: The earlier practice.]
=The Conservation of Timber.=—In the days when so much of the land was
covered with timber the chief concern was to get it out of the way so
that the ground could be used for agriculture. No one seemed to realize
that the day would ever come when forest land would be more valuable
than corn land. Before 1878 the national government sold off many
million acres of valuable forest land at low prices to individuals and
corporations and they, in turn, used it in whatever ways would yield the
largest profit to themselves. [Sidenote: The Timber and Stone Act,
1878.] By the Timber and Stone Act of 1878, however, it was provided
that only a limited area of government land containing timber or stone
could be sold to any one person or corporation and then only at a higher
price than agricultural land. But even this did not prove a sufficient
measure of waste-prevention, and in 1891 Congress adopted the policy of
withdrawing large areas of government forest land from the market
altogether. [Sidenote: Forest reserves.] These tracts were set aside as
national forest reservations and today there are about one hundred and
fifty million acres set apart to ensure the country’s future supply of
timber. The national government is also permitted to buy from private
owners forest lands in the watersheds of navigable streams in order to
protect the natural flow in such waterways. The administration of all
the forest reservations is in the hands of the United States Forest
Service, which forms part of the Department of Agriculture.
[Sidenote: Forest policy of the states.]
The area of timber land owned by the states, by corporations, and by
individuals is very much greater than that contained in the national
reservations. It is here, moreover, that the greatest amount of waste is
taking place. Forest fires, most of which are due to carelessness, burn
up enormous quantities of timber every year. The states which still
possess considerable forest resources, such as New York, Minnesota, and
California, are also adopting the policy of creating reservations and
everywhere more effective measures are being taken to prevent
destruction by forest fires. These measures include the maintenance of
fire patrols, the construction of fire-breaks on the ridges of hills,
the clearing out of underbrush, and the stricter supervision of camping
parties.
Timber, fortunately, is a natural resource which can be replaced. Lands
which have been cut-over can be reforested and used to supply timber for
future generations. Large trees take a long time to mature, however, and
the lands which are being planted with seedlings today will not be
yielding material for the sawmill until the middle of the twentieth
century has faded into the past. Both the national and state governments
are now reforesting on a large scale. To some extent private
corporations and individuals have followed their lead.
[Sidenote: Harbors, lakes, and waterways.]
=Other Natural Resources.=—All the nation’s wealth does not come,
however, from the fields, the mines, and the forests. In fisheries
America leads the entire world. The harbors and the waterways of the
country are as important to commerce as the soil is to agriculture. No
other country is better provided with natural harbors, lakes, and
navigable rivers than the United States. All the largest cities are
located upon them, and were it not for the waterways, we would not have
the great cities. Run over in your mind the ten or fifteen largest
cities of the United States and see if you can name any that are not
situated on one of the oceans, the Great Lakes, the great navigable
rivers, or on the Gulf of Mexico. It is not a mere accident that none of
the great industrial centers are without facilities for trade by water.
Geography, not man, determines for the most part the situation of all
great industrial communities. Water power is another natural heritage.
[Sidenote: Water power.] From the giant Niagara to the smallest
cataract, thousands of these water powers have been harnessed and made
to function as the servant of man, running factories and generating
electricity. Water power does the work of coal.[155] Its presence has
often determined the location of large industries.
[Sidenote: How geography determines a nation’s progress.]
=Geography and the Future.=—From what has been said in the last four
sections it will thus be seen that natural resources are a great factor
in determining the progress and prosperity of a nation. [Sidenote: The
energy of man cannot replace the bounty of nature.] No amount of
intelligence and industry on the part of the people will ensure rapid
economic progress if they occupy a country which lacks a fertile soil,
is devoid of minerals, possesses no forests or fisheries, and is
deficient in natural harbors and waterways. Man can do much, but his
powers are limited without the aid of nature. Animals and plants can be
carried from one part of the world to another and made to thrive in
their new environment; but mineral resources were laid down many
millions of years ago in certain definite places and there they have
stayed. A country which has no mineral resources cannot create them by
the genius or industry of its people. On the other hand, if great
natural resources are at hand, progress becomes merely a question of
applying human intelligence and industry to these resources. The rise of
the American nation to its present position, therefore, is not
surprising, although it has taken a relatively short period of time. It
is the joint result of nature’s bounty and man’s efficiency. To which of
these we owe the larger share of the nation’s progress no one can say.
If the country had lacked either, it could not have progressed in any
such measure during the past three hundred years.
[Sidenote: Natural resources and national power.]
The same things have been true of other countries. England, during the
greater part of the nineteenth century, was the leading industrial
country of the world. This was unquestionably due not only to the
enterprise of Englishmen but to the great natural resources of the
country in coal and iron. When Germany defeated France in 1870 she took
away from the French certain territories which were rich in minerals.
With the aid of these materials Germany in the course of fifty years was
able to become a great industrial power. Now, as the result of the World
War, the French have recovered these territories and we may look for a
marked revival in the industries of France. During the peace
negotiations more importance was attached to small areas of coal and
mineral lands than to whole provinces of agricultural land.
As the mineral resources of older countries become exhausted it is
altogether likely that industrial supremacy will pass with them. New
countries, which today have unexplored possibilities in coal and iron,
will then have their turn in industrial prominence. Who knows where the
balance of industrial power will be lodged a hundred years hence. China,
for aught we know, may be the chief manufacturing country of the world
in the twenty-first century. If we knew exactly how long the natural
resources of Europe and America will hold out, and if we knew also just
how much mineral wealth there is in the Far East, we could predict these
things with reasonable certainty.
[Sidenote: How geography will influence the future progress of America.]
Certain it is, at any rate, that the past history of America has been
determined, in no small degree, by geographical conditions. The same
factors are likely to influence the future. The country is becoming less
agricultural, less dependent upon the soil. As it becomes more
industrial our dependence upon its other natural resources, upon coal,
iron, oil, copper, timber, and water power must necessarily increase.
The commerce of the country keeps on growing, and with this growth the
reliance of the nation upon its harbors and waterways will inevitably
become greater. As population expands there will be a heavier demand
upon the food supply and the time will doubtless come when the United
States will have no food for export. Indeed the day may arrive when
agricultural products will have to be imported from outside. All this
points to the need for emphasis upon conservation. It means that we
should avoid all wastage of natural resources. The fertility of the soil
should be preserved by scientific methods of agriculture. The mineral
wealth of the country should be utilized in such a way as to give the
greatest advantage over the longest period of time. We must reforest our
unused lands. Harbors and waterways should be developed to aid commerce.
If these things are done, America can face the future with confidence.
General References
GREGORY, KELLER, and BISHOP, _Physical and Commercial Geography of the
United States_, pp. 252-350;
A. P. BRIGHAM, _Geographic Influences in American History_, especially
pp. 70-104;
E. C. SEMPLE, _Influences of Geographic Environment_, pp. 51-71;
O. W. PRICE, _The Land We Live In_, pp. 99-138;
N. S. SHALER, _Man and the Earth_, pp. 1-19;
C. R. VAN HISE, _The Conservation of Natural Resources in the United
States_, especially pp. 263-306;
T. N. CARVER, _Sociology and Social Progress_, pp. 174-270 (The
Influence Exerted by Physical Laws over the Organization of Society and
the Character of Individuals, by T. H. BUCKLE); _Ibid._, _Principles of
National Economy_, pp. 3-14; 123-152;
C. A. BEARD, _American Government and Politics_, pp. 405-416; _Ibid._,
_Readings in American Government and Politics_, pp. 368-374;
P. S. REINSCH, _Readings in American Federal Government_, pp. 538-589;
M. H. GREGORY, _Checking the Waste_, pp. 42-85;
ISAAC LIPPINCOTT, _Economic Development of the United States_, pp.
149-182.
ISAIAH BOWMAN, _The New World: Problems in Political Geography_ (see
index).
Group Problems
=1. The civilization of the future as determined by the exhaustion and
development of natural resources.= When European and American resources
in coal, oil, and iron give out, what substitutes can be used and to
what extent? What countries have the resources to enable them to forge
ahead when that time comes? Show the connection between industrial
progress and each type of natural wealth. Consider whether there is any
way in which a country may keep its industrial supremacy despite the
exhaustion of natural wealth. =References=: _Encyclopedia Britannica_;
_Statesman’s Year Book_; GREGORY, KELLER, and BISHOP, _Physical and
Commercial Geography_, especially pp. 252-350; 384-394; C. R. VAN HISE,
_The Conservation of Natural Resources in the United States_, especially
pp. 359-379; H. T. BUCKLE, _History of Civilization in England_, Vol. I
(1868 edition), pp. 39-151; ISAIAH BOWMAN, _The New World_, _passim_.
=2. Conservation and its apostles, especially President Roosevelt.=
=References=: H. R. BURCH, _American Economic Life_, pp. 101-108; C. R.
VAN HISE, _The Conservation of Natural Resources in the United Stales_,
pp. 1-14; 359-379; ELY, HESS, LEITH, and CARVER, _Foundations of
National Prosperity_, pp. 19-20; GIFFORD PINCHOT, _The Fight for
Conservation_, pp. 40-70; THEODORE ROOSEVELT, _Autobiography_, pp.
408-436.
=3. The coal industry: its past, present, and future.= =References=: W.
J. NICOLLS, _The Story of American Coal_; PETER ROBERTS, _The Anthracite
Coal Industry_, pp. 3-16; 212-227; ELY, HESS, LEITH, and CARVER, _The
Foundations of National Prosperity_, pp. 191-209.
Short Studies
1. =The relation of human progress to geographic conditions.= GREGORY,
KELLER, and BISHOP, _Physical and Commercial Geography_, pp. 126-179; T.
H. BUCKLE, _History of Civilization_, I, pp. 174-270.
2. =What are the fundamental factors in national prosperity?= T. N.
CARVER, _Principles of National Economy_, pp. 3-15; ISAAC LIPPINCOTT,
_Economic Development of the United States_, pp. 14-34.
3. =American forest reservations.= H. D. BOERKER, _Our National
Forests_, pp. 170-232; O. W. PRICE, _The Land We Live In_, pp. 65-98;
ERNEST BRUNCKEN, _North American Forests and Forestry_ (1900), pp.
161-182; U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, _Circulars_.
4. =The oil situation.= DAVID WHITE, in the _Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science_ (May, 1920); C. R. VAN HISE,
_The Conservation of Natural Resources in the United States_, pp. 47-61.
5. =The growth of the iron and steel industry.= H. N. CASSON, _The
Romance of Steel_, pp. 1-26; 72-100; J. R. SMITH, _The Story of Iron and
Steel_, pp. 108-126; ANDREW CARNEGIE, _Autobiography_, pp. 130-197.
6. =The conservation of water power.= C. R. VAN HISE, _Conservation of
Natural Resources in the United States_, pp. 144-161.
7. =The conservation of iron and copper.= ELY, HESS, LEITH, and CARVER,
_Foundations of National Prosperity_, pp. 210-231.
8. =The settlement and use of the national domain.= ALBERT SHAW,
_Political Problems of American Development_, pp. 87-115.
9. =The homestead system.= C. R. VAN HISE, _Conservation of Natural
Resources in the United States_, pp. 279-287; G. M. STEPHENSON, _The
Political History of the Public Lands_, pp. 190-245.
10. =The reclamation of desert and swamp lands.= H. R. BURCH, _American
Economic Life_, pp. 93-99.
Questions
1. Mark on an outline map the chief geographical divisions of the United
States. State the chief characteristics of each.
2. Locate on the map the chief agricultural areas, the chief mining
districts, the chief industrial centers, and the chief harbors of the
United States.
3. Why do the great railroads of the United States run east and west
rather than north and south?
4. Do you approve of granting free lands to bona fide settlers? Under
what restrictions?
5. Mark on the map the location of (_a_) the principal coal areas; (_b_)
the principal oil-bearing areas; (_c_) the national forests.
6. Show what natural resources are utilized in the building of a house,
from cellar to garret, and tell what section of the United States is the
largest center of production for (_a_) oak timber; (_b_) glass; (_c_)
steel beams; (_d_) electric wire; (_e_) sewer pipe.
7. Name the harbors of the United States in the order of their (_a_)
natural advantages; (_b_) commercial importance.
8. Compare the general geographical advantages of North and South
America. To what extent has the difference in the relative economic
progress of the two continents been due to geographical differences?
9. Which do you regard as the more urgent need at the present day: the
conservation of timber or of coal or of oil? Give your reasons.
10. Compare the relative geographical advantages of the following
cities: Pittsburgh, Detroit, Atlanta, San Francisco, Baltimore.
Topics for Debate
1. The United States should adopt a rental system for all public lands
on which there are mineral resources or water powers.
2. The United States should insist upon free access to foreign natural
resources (for example, in Mexico).