of good State action. It is based on the police power of the State to
preserve the public peace and safety of its water users. Under this law,
rights to the use of water for power development are limited to a period
of 40 years. A simple and expeditious method is provided for determining
early water rights, protecting existing rights, and acquiring new
rights. Prior rights are determined by a Board of Control consisting of
the State Engineer and the division superintendents of the two water
divisions into which the State is divided. Established rights are
protected by a water master in each district of a division, acting under
the direction of the division superintendent. He may make arrests and
compel the installment of suitable devices for controlling the use of
water. New rights are granted by certificate of the Board of Control,
after proof, under a system based on priority of application and
beneficial use. Water for irrigation is made appurtenant to the land
irrigated. Oregon also has a law providing for a State tax, on a
horsepower basis, upon water-power projects.
Oregon has a non-partisan State Board of Forestry, consisting of
representatives of the industries and agencies chiefly concerned in
forest management and protection; also an excellent forest code, so far
as punitive and regulative provisions are concerned. It lacks
appropriation or machinery to make this code effective. To secure such
provision by the next Legislature is the chief present work of the
Commission. The Commission works under the plan of attacking one point
at a time, instead of dissipating efforts among all the improvements
needed. Water and water-power were felt to be the most urgent, forestry
is considered next, and when the forest laws are made satisfactory,
other branches of Conservation will receive concentrated effort.
There is also an Oregon Conservation Association which, under the same
plan, is now chiefly devoted to carrying out the work of the State Board
of Forestry for which no appropriation exists. Its secretary is
secretary of the State Board, and the funds of the Association help to
pay postage and clerical help derived by the State.
Under an alliance called the Oregon Forest Fire Association, affiliated
in turn with the Western Forestry and Conservation Association embracing
five States from Montana to California, a large number of the private
forest owners of Oregon cooperate to secure better protection from
forest fires. These owners spend from $50,000 a year upward for patrol
and fire-fighting, their employees having authority from the State as
fire wardens.
Among the Conservation problems to be taken up next in Oregon are the
protection of fisheries, good roads, improvement in technical methods in
irrigation and dry-land farming, topographic surveys, and inventories of
State resources.
REPORT FROM RHODE ISLAND
HENRY A. BARKER
_Chairman Rhode Island Conservation Commission_
This Conservation Congress has been so very generous with its
invitations that it happens that about every organization in which I am
interested has been asked to send Delegates. As a result, quite a good
lot of them have been so kind as to bestow this honor upon me--most of
them prudently waiting until they found out that I was coming anyhow.
For that reason my desk in Providence is adorned with a nice little pile
of beautifully engraved cards, each telling me that this City of Saint
Paul takes pleasure in extending its hospitality, etc. Along with each
of them came other cards to warn me that if I wanted hotel
accommodations I had better speak quick. So I spoke with reasonable
speed--and eminently satisfactory results; but I am glad I did not have
to find accommodations for all of the Delegates that I seem to be.
I want to say, also, that if it gives the cordial City of Saint Paul
pleasure to extend this charming invitation, the pleasure is entirely
mutual; I am delighted to accept the hospitality.
I am glad that I need not report at this time for anything except the
State of Rhode Island, and I am sure you will be. You may ask, "What has
Rhode Island to conserve?" In reply I want to tell you that no State in
the Union in proportion to its population has so much that needs
conserving. Some of our friends from the Far West tell us heartbreaking
things about how the Government has reserved or restricted so much of
the western area that there isn't enough left to make farms and villages
on. I think I heard day before yesterday that in the State where I
attended the First Conservation Congress last year there were Government
reservations as big as Massachusetts and Rhode Island combined--though I
should say these wouldn't necessarily look so very big when painted on
the map of Washington, or seriously hamper the operations of its people.
And we have this sad condition contrasted with that of the happy East
where the Government owns no reservations at all; but back in the East
we do not realize that this is a good fortune. Never having had any land
in our part of New England owned either by the State or by the Nation,
we have been somewhat frantically endeavoring to have them secure some
for the good of our people, even though it now has to be bought.
Everybody knows how earnestly we wish that the Government might have
done for us at the beginning of our settlement just what the Government
is able to do, and is doing, for the West today. There isn't any talk of
"State rights" in the East. It is a question of the States' necessities.
The Eastern States are all working to their utmost to get the Government
to undertake certain enterprises like the Appalachian White Mountain
reservations, that are of an interstate character; but each State
expects to cooperate for as much of the remaining work as it can.
You will be glad to know that Little Rhody is trying to do its share. It
always does its share. It always matches the Government, at least dollar
for dollar, on any public improvement work. Just now it is spending a
million dollars on the harbor of Providence to match another million
that the Government appropriated last year. That is the kind of "State
rights" the Government gives it. But not much compared with what the
railroads are putting in.
The formal establishment of a Conservation Commission was almost the
very last act of the Rhode Island Legislature at its special session,
only about two weeks ago. We didn't expect, of course, to be quite so
much up to date, or so early in any new field, as our brethren in
Montana for example, though we have had a Conservation Commission,
rather informally appointed by the Governor, ever since that notable
gathering of the Governors at Washington, and work that such a
commission would naturally do has been going on, under other names,
longer than I can remember.
The aim of the new Commission is to secure the maximum of efficiency and
the minimum of politics. I do not know what the political affiliations
of its members are, or if they have any, and I do not believe the
Legislature knows. It is made up of ex officio members, to bring into
efficient cooperation several well-established departments that have
long dealt with some phase or other of Conservation. The head of the
Bureau of Industrial Statistics, which is conducting a State survey of
natural resources, including soil analysis; the Secretary of the State
Board of Agriculture; the Director of the Experiment Station of the
State College; the State Forester; and the Secretary of the Metropolitan
Park Commission--these departments will now contribute their efforts to
a common purpose. The State Forestry Department, with advice from the
National Forest Service, has been getting some very up to date forest
laws passed, and the Park Commission has made a visible beginning to
secure for public use and preservation some necessary recreation places
for the over-crowding population of the Providence "Metropolitan
District," which has about four-fifths of the population within about
four-fifths of the area of the Twin Cities combined.
The State College, assisted by the U. S. Bureau of Soils, has been
showing such farmers as care to take notice that southern New England is
a very different sort of place agriculturally than it has been the habit
to suppose, and that at least three ears of corn may be made to grow,
where, previously, one went to the dogs--or the hogs. The very fact that
there are more ever-hungry mouths to feed and more manufactures to the
square inch in southern New England than there are anywhere else makes
this necessary. We must care for every drop of water that falls on our
hillsides. The cities need it; the manufacturers need it (and can use it
first); the great bleacheries--that furnish about all the textiles that
all of you use and wear--need all they can have; and the people need the
lakesides and the river banks for recreation as in the past.
At present our markets get most of their "fine Rhode Island turkeys"
from Vermont and their "new-laid eggs" from beyond the Mississippi. A
large part of the Rhode Island greenings and Massachusetts Baldwin
apples come from Oregon and Washington, though not because they refuse
to grow in their native habitat. But much of the soil must have put back
into it those elements which previous unscientific generations robbed it
of. And here is an amusing paradox: With a population growing in density
faster than in any other State of the Union, and with more markets just
around the corner, there are, nevertheless, more acres of forest-covered
lands and more acres of unutilized lands in Rhode Island than there were
50 years ago--and more in proportion than in almost any other State in
the Union.
Well, that's where Rhode Island comes in, in this Conservation movement;
and it has come in none too soon. If it had only had a wise and paternal
Government to help it administer and develop its natural resources a
century ago, the cost of living would be less today for every one of its
inhabitants.
Rhode Island has awakened to vital things, but even if it had only an
indirect interest in Conservation it would still feel that it owed its
moral influence to the country as a whole, and that it is not a separate
selfish little two-cent republic all by its lonesome, but a part of a
great Nation that prefers to be governed from Washington rather than
from Wall Street: a Nation whose prosperity and power and glory need the
cooperation and loyalty of every one of its citizens.
REPORT FROM SOUTH CAROLINA
E. J. WATSON
_Commissioner of Agriculture_
_Chairman State Conservation Commission_
South Carolina Commission's full report delayed, so report briefly by
wire. Active work has been done. A preliminary forest survey has been
made, and a complete measure for conservation of forests and protection
against forest fires has been introduced in the General Assembly and
will be pushed during the coming session. Active steps have been taken
toward drainage and reclamation of coastal lands, and a measure to
provide for a complete system under the direction of the State
Commission is now being prepared for introduction in the Legislature in
January next. Conservation of human resources has been greatly advanced
in the past two years, following the enactment of complete factory
inspection laws. No State is giving more attention to conservation of
all her resources at this time than is South Carolina. I am heartily in
sympathy with everything making for Conservation, and greatly regret I
cannot be with you at the Congress.
REPORT FROM SOUTH DAKOTA
DOANE ROBINSON
_Secretary Conservation Commission of South Dakota_
The South Dakota Conservation Commission, consisting of Senator Robert
J. Gamble (Chairman), Eben W. Martin, Samuel H. Lea, O. C. Dokken, and
Doane Robinson (Secretary), was appointed by Governor Coe I. Crawford
in August, 1908, and has been continued by Governor Vessey.
The Commission made a preliminary report on the resources of the State
in December, 1908. It has been unprovided with funds, but the newspapers
of the State and of the Northwest have been open to its use, and from
the beginning the policy was adopted of furnishing a weekly letter,
educational in its nature, pertaining to the State's resources and their
Conservation. These articles have received very wide publicity, both
within and without the State.
The Commission acted as Executive Committee of the South Dakota
Conservation and Development Congress called by Governor Vessey and held
at Pierre June 29-July 1, 1910. This was an exceptionally successful
Congress, in which nearly two thousand citizens participated. Every
county was represented, and the interest was very marked. The program
consisted of addresses and papers educational in character, many
speakers of national reputation participating. An annual Congress is
contemplated.
REPORT FROM TEXAS
WILL L. SARGENT
_Secretary Conservation Association of Texas_
The interests of Conservation in Texas are promoted largely by a
voluntary organization of citizens, the Conservation Association of
Texas. The Association held a Congress at Fort Worth in April last, at
which much enthusiasm was manifested, and plans and policies were
adopted, largely in the form of resolutions. The substance of these
resolutions forms the body of this report.
We lay especial stress on the dirt roads of our State. Considering our
great farming interests and their numerous and increasing yearly output,
and the impassable condition of roads during certain seasons, we urge
upon our county and State authorities the immediate betterment of our
Texas roads by drainage, split-log drag, top-gravel dressing, or other
up-to-date methods.
As the services of a large number of experts are necessary for the
intelligent guidance and direction of all plans of Conservation in all
lines, and as intelligent workers are necessary for the effective
carrying out of such plans, we urge upon our legislative authorities, as
the necessary foundation for all Conservation the better financial
support of our great public school system, the introduction of
agricultural and industrial studies into these schools, and the better
equipment and maintenance of our higher educational institutions, and
that more substantial financial support be accorded to the Agricultural
and Mechanical College, and the Department of Agriculture, and that
adequate appropriation be made for those institutions and for farmers'
institutes to the end that the supply of experts and leaders may be made
more nearly adequate to the needs of our rapidly growing State.
We know from past experiences that the overflow of our rivers and
streams have resulted in washing away not only a great deal of rich and
fertile soil, thereby injuring the lands of our farmers, but that these
floods have destroyed crops running into millions of dollars in value
and brought destruction and ruin to hundreds of our most worthy
citizens. We earnestly recommend that the Legislature shall pass such
laws as will constitutionally and in practical and adequate way prevent
or curtail such losses in the future, the details of which can be worked
out at the proper time and in an appropriate way by the legislative body
itself.
We deplore the wasteful methods of lumbering practiced in Texas and look
with dismay at the early day (say fifteen years) when all our best
timber will be cut and unobtainable except at great cost, when the
cut-over land, littered with dead branches and decayed treetops, will be
annually burned over, the humus destroyed and the soil become unfit for
cultivation and washed into the streams. We also apprehend with dismay
the direful effects resultant upon our Texas climate when the timber is
gone and the forest area has become a grassy, burned-over waste. We
urgently recommend to the people of Texas that they call upon the
Legislature for the establishment of a forestry department, under charge
of a trained forester, and under control of the State Agricultural
Department; and it shall be the duty of said forester also to lecture in
both the University and the Agricultural and Mechanical College, and
take charge of all forestry work in the State, and his work shall be in
connection with the Forest Service of the United States Government, for
the saving of the forest remnant in our State and the replanting of the
cut-over area on lands not suitable for agricultural purposes.
We believe in a strict conservation and preservation of the public
domain of Texas in a way that will best encourage homesteaders, and that
all laws made for the protection of the State and the people against
fraudulent entries or the illegal acquisition of the public domain on
the part of private citizens or corporations should be strictly
enforced, and we recommend to the next Legislature the passage of a law
making it a felony against all persons knowingly and fraudulently
entering into conspiracy to acquire any portion of the public domain in
violation of the laws of Texas made for the benefit of actual settlers.
Recognizing the importance of fish as a food supply for our people, we
indorse such laws as have already been enacted for the purifying of our
rivers and lakes and such further legislation along that line as
conditions demand, and recommend that hatcheries for the propagation and
protection of fish be established and maintained by the State.
We indorse the work of the Texas Audubon Society in behalf of the wild
birds of Texas, and urge that the next Legislature shall enact laws for
the better protection of the birds, to the end that their extermination
be prevented, so that they may be allowed to increase in numbers,
delighting the world with their beauty and song, and also serving the
economic purpose for which they were created, namely, the protection of
crops by the extermination of insect enemies.
We congratulate the farmers of Texas for adopting modern methods in
tilling the soil and in a diversification of crops. The great and
beneficial results that have come to them through this system have
clearly demonstrated its practicality.
The Legislature is asked to pass a law covering the features now
partially covered by several independent laws and providing for a State
Department of Engineering, which department shall be authorized to make
surveys, maps, and estimates looking to the reclamation of overflow and
wet lands anywhere within the State, and further being authorized to
examine and approve all the plans and estimates of such improvements
before said improvements can be accomplished, by this means being
empowered to mutually protect all interests involved, whether these
interests are at present active or in the future probable.
In order to carry out most economically the Conservation of the wealth
latent in the soil and water supply of Texas, we recommend the enactment
of legislation which will provide means and instrumentalities for a soil
and water survey of the State as a basis for the earliest possible
development of such wealth for the common good.
We recognize in the reclamation of our arid lands one of the greatest
factors in the future development of the State, because of the million
acres of fertile lands that can and should be reclaimed by irrigation.
Recognizing all vested rights, we encourage the conservation, storage,
and equitable distribution of natural and flood waters of streams,
artesian wells, springs, rainfall, and other sources of water supply. We
favor a uniform system of irrigation laws that will give security for
the investment of capital in the development of irrigation projects, and
at the same time fully protect and safeguard the users of water and
define the rights as well as the obligations of the enterprises
delivering the water to them. We favor the State never parting with
title to her water-power and the control of her streams to corporations
or private individuals; we favor legislation that will secure the aid of
the State in its conservation and reclamation work, such as the
construction of reservoirs to be used for power, for irrigation, as well
as for domestic and other purposes. The State is requested to enact a
law creating an irrigation commission, acting under the direction of the
Commissioner of Agriculture, whose duties shall be fully defined by
statute.
We heartily endorse the purposes and objects of the National
Conservation Association, and urge all the friends of Conservation in
Texas to cooperate by becoming members of the National Conservation
Association.
Recognizing that the prosperity and the happiness of our people depend
on the utmost protection of their health and the protection of their
domestic animals from disease, we recommend that the Legislature
appropriate sufficient funds for the maintenance of the State Board of
Health and the State Sanitary Board.
Recognizing the great value of the experiment stations and demonstration
farms located in the various agricultural sections of our State, we
indorse the work of the stations already established, and recommend that
a law be passed authorizing the County Commissioners of each county to
provide, at their discretion, for such stations and demonstration farms,
in order that the most approved methods of agriculture may be
exemplified and new facts may be determined.
We believe it would be advisable for the Congress of the United States
to pass a law repealing all laws authorizing the sale of any of the
public domain in the United States and its Territories, including the
Philippine Islands and other possessions, and in the future only sell
the surface for agriculture and stock raising purposes, and forever
retain title in the people of the United States of the timber and of all
minerals and all coal, oil, gases, phosphates, water and water-powers,
to be worked under control of laws passed by Congress by paying a
reasonable royalty to the people for the same.
REPORT FROM UTAH
O. J. SALISBURY
_Vice-President Utah State Conservation Commission_
The Utah State Conservation Commission was authorized by an Act of the
State Legislature approved March 22, 1909. The Act prescribed the powers
and duties of the Commission, and appropriated a certain sum annually to
be expended for the purposes thereof. Pursuant to the said Act the
Governor of the State duly appointed a Commission, consisting of seven
members, who organized and began active operations about the first day
of October, 1909.
Such legislation was called for and enacted on account of the pressing
necessity of devising ways and means of preserving and protecting the
abundant, varied, and valuable natural resources of our young and
growing State; and it was a source of gratification to this Commission
to find that such resources had suffered comparatively little waste in
the years past, and that the duties required of the Commission were to
ascertain the character and extent of the State's resources, and to work
along lines of Conservation and protection rather than those of
restoration.
The Commission prepared and issued a preliminary report on the resources
of the State late in the year 1909, and 2000 copies were distributed to
our State legislators, to Government departments, Conservation
associations, public libraries, etc. Owing to the short time in which
the Commission had to collect data and prepare the report, it was
somewhat limited in its scope and general in its character.
The Commission has now in course of preparation a complete map of the
State, showing the National Forests, ownership of public lands (whether
Federal or State), character of the soils with analyses thereof, with
other information to enable it to make an intelligent and accurate
report to the Governor and State Legislature at the coming session in
1911, suggesting and recommending such legislation as will best conserve
and protect the State's natural resources to the benefit and advantage
of our citizens of present and future generations.
The amount of the annual appropriation for the purposes of the
Commission is $3,000.00. There was expended during the year 1909 the sum
of $211.55, and during the year 1910 the sum of $2,767.62.
It is the intention and purpose of the Commission to continue along the
lines upon which it has started, to ascertain the extent and character
and point out the location of the agricultural, mineral, power, and
other natural resources of the State, and to place before the public
such information concerning these resources as will enable the
home-seeker, the investor, the manufacturer and all those seeking
industrial pursuits adapted to our State, to secure for themselves some
of the advantages which the development of such resources offers.
SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT FROM UTAH
E. T. MERRITT
_Delegate from Utah_
The State of Utah has not yet undertaken any great work in the matter of
Conservation of public resources, although a Commission has been created
with the Governor as chairman. An office is maintained and the gentlemen
of the Commission are giving earnest thought and study to the issues
involved, feeling that they want to be sure they are right before they
go ahead. However, the General Government has been very liberal in the
attention it has given us, and we find our phosphate lands, the public
coal lands, lands adjoining streams suitable for power sites, and
practically every acre of our forest lands have been withdrawn from
entry. And yet we feel that we have no quarrel with the Government in
these matters. We believe that just as soon as equitable and reasonable
methods have been devised for the sale or lease of the first three named
they will be placed in such a position to be of practical use and
benefit to the people, as they should be; in other words, we do not
believe they will be bottled up or pickled or preserved for future
generations, but under wise and equitable laws and administration will
be converted to the use of the people.
The forest reserves are properly cared for in Utah, and their use and
administration is equitable and fair. Mr Pinchot told us when he began
his administration that while no doubt mistakes would be made and some
inconvenience suffered by the people, yet he wanted it understood that
the forests belonged to the people, and that the purpose of the
Government was not to exploit them for revenue or for glory or for the
fun there was in it, but rather to take care of them for the use and
benefit of the people, especially for the people who had conquered and
developed the adjoining country; to conserve the water supply, and to
perpetuate and care for all the resources and homes of the people. He
further told us that whenever we could suggest betterment of the Service
in the interest of the people, such suggestions would be gladly
welcomed. Such promises have been faithfully carried out, and we believe
the Government has been a kind parent to the State of Utah. We see no
reason for a quarrel as to the rights of the State and those of the
Government. We think there is plenty for both to do, and at least to us
there is profit and benefit for us to go hand in hand in cooperation
with the Federal Government in the development of our State.
We believe that only by the General Government can the problem of
water-power sites, particularly on large or interstate streams, be
handled. The history of Utah shows that some years ago the adjudication
of water-rights was in the courts of the several Judicial Districts of
the State, and that in the course of their procedure it was a common
thing for all the water of the stream to be decreed to the several
owners residing within that Judicial District, absolutely without regard
to the rights of other citizens using water from the same stream,
although residing in some other Judicial District. We changed our laws,
placing the acquirement and adjudication of water-rights in the State
Engineer. We found this a big improvement, but we still find ourselves
in the matter of interstate streams entirely at the mercy of the fellow
above us. Of course the fellow below can take care of himself. The
lesson is obvious. We maintain that only the General Government can
properly and rightly hand out justice and equity in the matter of power
sites and water-rights as affecting interstate streams.
We have found cooperation with the General Government immensely valuable
to us in the matter of experiments in the drainage of water-logged or
alkali lands, measurement and recording of the flow of our streams, the
eradication of disease among our livestock, and in fact in every
department where cooperation has been tried.
We are suffering today in Utah, as in many other parts of the country,
from mistakes and carelessness of the general Government in the handling
of the public resources, but this is also true of ourselves in our own
administration; and we are very glad to see an awakening on this
subject. The people of Utah, in common with all of the people of the
whole country, are deeply interested in the subject of Conservation in
all its phases, and believe that the great mistakes of the past, both
National and in our own State, will not be repeated.
REPORT FROM VERMONT
GEORGE AITKIN
_Vermont Conservation Commission_
The Commission on the Conservation of the Natural Resources of Vermont
has no statutory existence, but was originally appointed by Governor
Fletcher D. Proctor in support of the general Conservation movement
instituted by the Conference of Governors at Washington in May of 1908.
The Commission has been continued by parole of Governor George H.
Prouty.
It has recognized and been in absolute sympathy with the principles
fundamental to Conservation work, namely, that conservative use and,
where practicable, the intelligent maintenance and restoration of
natural resources are indispensable to the continued prosperity of State
and Nation and of inter-nations; that State boundaries or National
boundaries do not confine and limit natural resources; that it has
become the sacred duty of State and Nation to take measures for the
preservation on the people's account of all the means of their life,
welfare, and comfort, including soils, water, minerals, and forests;
these to be safeguarded as public utilities to be used and treated in
the interests of future as well as of existing generations, and to be
stripped of every vestige of monopoly and trust.
Apart from the conservation of these necessary and material things, we
have been interested in the advancement also of what is nearly as, if
not more, important, the conservation of health, the retention and
improvement of our self-governing opportunities, the equalizing and
qualification of educational opportunity, and of every phase of civic,
moral and social advance. Vermont is mainly interested directly in the
conservation and right use of public health, of its soil, of its forests
and woodlots, of its water supplies, of its quarries of granite, marble,
and slate, of its game and fish, and in its steadfast attention to
educational opportunity and the administration of justice. For the
greater part it possesses a very widespread individual ownership and
control in all its natural resources and their development and use. It
has for decades prior to the so-called Conservation movement supervised
and fostered all these economies through legislation; so that it may be
said that the State has gradually but definitely applied the principles
of Conservation to its affairs and its resources for many years prior to
the existing discussion of the subject. This is true in connection with
quarrying, agriculture, forestry, and water supplies, though it should
be added that Conservation subjects have been much more prominently
considered in recent years with increasing advantage to the farmers of
the State and also with an increase in manufactures.
Our method of legislation and the machinery of our self-government
represent an evolution and are the result of much and intimate public
discussion, and they are working out good economic results. Perhaps this
may best be indicated by a reference to the legislation passed in 1908.
There was enacted a law which abolished the Board of Agriculture, and
substituted in its place a Board of Agriculture and Forestry, consisting
of the Governor, the director of the State Agricultural Experiment
Station, and two citizens known to be interested in the advancement of
agriculture and forestry. The disbursement of the appropriation under
this Act was left discretionary between agriculture and forestry, and
the results in the brief elapsing period since its passage have been
very gratifying. In addition to this there were acts sustaining the work
of the State Agricultural College, providing for increased support of
agricultural fairs, for the acquisition of forest reserves, for the
appointment and maintenance of a State Forester, for the more definite
supervision of all agricultural interests, and for a more direct
inspection of cattle and of dairies. The appropriations of 1908 included
increased provision for the conservation of agricultural, forest, and
dairy interests, for the care of game, for education and public health,
and for the investigation of the water resources of the State. Special
attention was given to amendments of the law which aim to safeguard
forests from fire and game from extinction, and to prevent the loss or
misuse of water for domestic, power, and transportation purposes. This,
however, was not an accident of recent agitation, but more particularly
an evolution; and it operates, so far as Vermont is concerned, in a true
appreciation, use, and care-taking of its local resources.
There has been special consideration given of late to public health, and
laws were enacted governing the inspection of animals, supervising
control of contagious and infectious diseases, suppressing adulterations
of foods and drugs, advancing the working plans of the State laboratory
of hygiene, more closely regulating the practice of medicine and
surgery, forcing more specific duties on health officers everywhere,
defining the practice of optometry--in short, all the means by which a
State government may advance the well-being of its citizens through the
application of what has been made known in science touching all these
questions.
The State also advanced the well-being of its people by conserving their
natural resources, material or acquired, through the creation of a
Public Utility Commission, whose work has since demonstrated the need
and value of its existence by its influence in behalf of the public of
their use and service. We hold here that one of the most effective
Conservation measures is that which gives the people the best service at
the lowest cost of all the applications of natural resources, as
interpreted by science, which nature bestows in the way of power, water,
light, and drainage. We wish to state positively, however, that these
problems cannot be treated as accidents of public experience, but as
subjects of legislation and public treatment which define themselves in
their true relationship to property rights and individual rights and to
public necessity by the process of evolution.
This is illustrated by the way in which forestry conservation was
instituted in Vermont many years back, when a few men of foresight took
an interest in the subject, formed a society, and kept bringing
attention to the subject until it was made a part of the law and in
equal standing with agriculture in this State, and is now apparently an
assured State subject of continued standing as much as other subjects
of legislation, like education, public health, the preservation of game,
and the administration of justice.
The expansion of the granite and marble industries of Vermont has been
so great as to give it rank among the foremost producing States of the
Union, and in the art and quality of its material and work it is
foremost in all respects.
In self-government, as affects all the things which make living
conditions naturally satisfactory and profitable, there has been marked
increase in the conservation of all the living opportunities afforded by
the State; but it is again emphasized that this has been in due course
of growth and not the incidental recognition of a possibility. Our
people have been conservative, rational, and human in the development of
their chance, their natural resources, and their duty in regard to
these, and have not required either through neglect or by any lapse of
their rights the service of the National Government in this regard,
least of all through any material modification of the relationship
defining State rights and State duties. There is a greater disposition
here to accept direction as concerns the husbandry of our resources from
science than from politics, and to insist that the care and supervision
of such matters will best conserve our interests and our happiness if
left to the judgment, regulation, and control of our own folks.
There has been in the past few years a marked increase of income per
acre from cultivated land in Vermont, and a relatively greater income
per acre than in the leading agricultural States, due, no doubt, to more
intense farming, and there has also been an increase in the output of
dairy products, while quarrying and stone-cutting manufactures have
multiplied and taken a strong grasp on market opportunity. At the same
time the great glory and strong defense of our State, its forests and
its woodlots, have been conserved, and planting and scientific cutting
have more and more become the rule. The reports from the stone
industries indicate a growing demand for the manufactures of the State
in granite, marble, and slate. The reports from agriculture indicate an
increasing tillage and a larger financial return, an advance in the
price of land, and vastly improved living conditions of the farm. The
report from all the State commissions charged with the supervision of
public health and the real life interests of the people supply
increasing evidence of improved water supplies, of municipal lighting
and power ownership, of increased transportation facilities, of
reduction on accident hazards, and of steady advances in the art of and
provision for public instruction.
In forestry, which is one of the greatest natural resources of Vermont
apart from its vast contribution to the beauty of the State as a great
natural park and game preserve, there has been the most marked advance.
The office of State Forester was established in April of 1909, since
which date its occupant, Mr A. F. Hawes, has made sixty-three addresses
upon the subject in various parts of the State before numerous
associations, agricultural societies, and forestry conventions. The
State nursery under his direction has become one of the largest in the
United States, today containing over 3,000,000 trees, and there have
been sold within the past year--a remarkable exhibit for a State of our
size--750,000 trees, distributed through every county in our State.
Private timber holdings have been examined, detailed advices for
handling many forests have been furnished, and in many instances trees
have been marked for cutting by State advice on private lands. Besides
this, there have been established two State forests of 800 acres which
will be treated as subsidiary reservation nurseries to the one
established at Burlington.
Attention has been and is being given to all details relating to the
promotion of agriculture, forestry, dairying, minerals, and water
powers, so that it is possible to advise you that Vermont is wholly
alive to all natural, moral, educational, industrial, civic, and
political propositions as they stand related to the Conservation of
everything that will best promote the well-being and happiness of its
people.
REPORT FROM WASHINGTON
E. G. GRIGGS
_Chairman Washington Delegation_
On behalf of the Washington delegation, of which I have the honor of
being Chairman, I desire to congratulate this Congress and every
delegate on the opportunity afforded us in hearing that grand
interpretation of Conservation so ably presented by President Taft. It
will live as an epic, and should be translated throughout the land.
Since that opening day I have been thrilled and electrified by this
theme of Conservation, which is but another name for Patriotism, the
husbanding of the Nation's resources.
The country is stirred by that same feeling which I sometimes think
aroused our Fathers before the Civil War. Let us profit by the great
forward steps they made in the determination of State and Federal
rights. To us it has fallen to solve these patriotic, philanthropic, and
commercial questions of the day.
I deplore the interjection of demagoguery and personal political
advancement. I believe there is a sane, safe and sound Conservation that
we can all practice. Above all things, let us eschew politics and throw
a little more of that unselfish, self-sacrificing effort into this great
fight for the Nation that characterizes our friend and collaborator,
Gifford Pinchot.
We should leave this Congress united in this one idea at least, that we
will stop the Nation's waste and encourage its development, so far as it
lies within our power.
Eighteen years ago I left the State of Minnesota and this delightful
city which was my home, to do my share in the development of the Pacific
Slope--"I love its rocks and rills, its woods and templed hills." Wild
horses could not drag me back to Minnesota, where fifty years ago my
father pioneered, and is yet interested--not that I love Minnesota less,
but only that I love Washington more. You have grown and developed great
cities. Do not forget to let us do likewise.
We no longer say, with Greeley, "Go West;" we say, Come West. Under the
classic shades of our noble forests and within easy access of the
snow-capped peak of Mount Tacoma--that mother of water-powers and
protector of forests--we are solving _our_ pioneer problems, and we are
not lagging behind in the race.
Our citizenship is of the highest type and from all of your States, for
it is composed of that progressive element that first made your own
cities famous--and did not back out of big problems. We are no longer
savages devastating the frontier and Uncle Sam's patrimony. He is no
longer "rich enough to give us all a farm;" but we are citizens alive to
the big problems of the day--and we are the virgin State in which
Conservation and common sense can be practiced before it is too late. I
predict for the State of Washington--with wise Federal and State
legislation--a shining example of what horse-sense and Conservation will
bring about.
If we sell our common lumber at the mills on Puget Sound for $8 to $10 a
thousand, which is two to three dollars less than we got 15 years ago,
and have to pay $600 to $700 for a team of horses in Minnesota today
that 15 years ago we could buy for $200 to $300, is it any wonder that
we lumbermen of the West are interested in Conservation?
Rich beyond measure in timber, coal, fish, mines, and agricultural
lands, the great State of Washington is with you and your commissions
that must finally work out and crystallize wise and patriotic
legislation. Let us Nationally inventory our stocks and resources, unify
and codify our laws affecting taxation and irrigation, liability and
responsibility--develop our interstate commerce, and promote the general
welfare.
REPORT FROM WEST VIRGINIA
HU MAXWELL
_Chairman State Conservation Commission_
Near the close of 1908 Honorable W. M. O. Dawson, then Governor of West
Virginia, appointed a commission of three members, Neil Robinson, James
H. Stewart, and Hu Maxwell, to prepare a report for the guidance of the
Legislature in framing laws for the Conservation of the State's
resources. The report was ready for the Legislature when it convened in
January, 1909. It recommended a number of changes in existing laws, and
the enactment of several new ones. Its principal recommendations were as
follows:
1--A forest law providing for the prevention and suppression of fire,
and for the care of woodlands and watercourses. A draft of the proposed
law was included in the report.
2--A law to lessen the waste of natural gas, by requiring the plugging
of wells when not in use, and saving the gas from others instead of
permitting it to blow into the air. It was urged that effort be made to
check the leak from gas mains.
3--For the purpose of checking the tremendous loss of by-products in
coke making a law was recommended, to take effect five years from its
passage, prohibiting the erection of any other than by-product ovens,
but placing no restrictions on any ovens then in use, so long as they
might last.
4--The State was urged to cooperate with the Federal Government in all
reasonable ways for the improvement of navigable rivers in the State,
and in the protection of mountain forests and the building of storage
reservoirs to check the rush of floods and improve low-water conditions.
5--The establishment of an engineering school was recommended for the
special purpose of educating men to develop and conserve the State's
resources. It was pointed out that much of the practical work of
Conservation does not depend so much on the enactment of laws as on the
training of men to do the work. In this connection it was shown that
vast quantities of low grade coal, which is now unmarketable, is thrown
away or left in the mines, though it would be sufficient, if
manufactured into producer gas, to furnish power to drive much of the
machinery in the State and in surrounding regions. If the State's
water-power were fully developed it would be sufficient to turn every
wheel in the State, but this development cannot be brought about by laws
alone; it must depend largely on trained men.
6--Better game and fish laws were recommended to take the place of the
old laws which had failed to produce the desired results.
7--It was urged that prompt investigation be made of the question of
municipal water supply in the State with the view to the prevention of
pollution of the running streams.
8--It appearing probable that certain valleys in West Virginia would
respond in a satisfactory way to irrigation, it was recommended that
experiments be carried out to test the matter.
9--The State's natural scenery is such that it might be made a valuable
asset, in connection with the protection of forests and streams, and the
Commission recommended that the fact be borne in mind in laying out new
roads, so that full advantage be taken of all scenic possibilities.
10--An immigration agency was recommended for the purpose of bringing
into the State desirable immigrants who will cultivate the farms which
suffer from neglect in many parts of the State.
11--Changes in road laws were urged which would make possible the
building of permanent, durable, desirable highways in place of the
gullies and precipitous paths which in many parts have been tolerated as
roads from the earliest settlement of the region down to the present.
12--The purchase of land by the State in each of the congressional
districts was recommended for farms to serve as models and object
lessons for the surrounding farmers; their management to be in the hands
of trained agriculturists.
* * * * *
The Legislature which convened in January, 1909, considered one or two
of the recommendations of the Commission. A forest and game law was
enacted, though it was not the measure which the Commission recommended.
The law, however, is a good one so far as it goes, and if its provisions
shall be carried out, much good may be expected.
No steps were taken by the Legislature to lessen the waste of natural
gas or to save the by-products in coke making. A new highway law was
enacted, and a State commission was appointed to study the road problem.
REPORT FROM WISCONSIN
E. M. GRIFFITH
_State Forester_
Governor James O. Davison appointed the Wisconsin State Conservation
Commission July 24, 1908. The seven members appointed were men whose
positions gave them a considerable knowledge as to the natural resources
of the State, and the Governor gave the Commission full authority to
call upon any State department for detailed information.
During the summer of 1908 the Commission held several meetings in the
Capitol, and reports were prepared on the three most important and
pressing Conservation problems in Wisconsin, viz: water-powers, forests,
and soils. A full report covering these three subjects was then made to
the Governor, and this the Governor transmitted to the Legislature in
February, 1909. The Commission made the following recommendations:
WATER-POWERS. 1--That franchises for water-powers be granted under a
general statute.
2--That the issuing of such franchises be placed in the hands of the
railroad rate commission, or similar board, under conditions to be
provided by a general statute.
3--That such franchises be in the nature of leases for a long term of
years. Such leases should be renewable on equitable terms. Rentals
should be low, and should be applied to the extension of the State
forest reserve.
4--That a reasonable Conservation charge be levied on all developed
water-powers on rivers of which the headwaters are protected by forest
reserve lands, the income from such charge to be applied to the
extension of the State forest reserve.
5--That the survey of the water-powers of the State be completed in
cooperation with the United States Geological Survey.
FORESTS. 1--The State Conservation Commission regard it of the utmost
importance that the State forest reserve, located about the headwaters
of the more important streams of the State, be greatly extended. At the
present time the opportunities to make such extensions are much more
favorable than they will be in the future, and therefore the Commission
recommend that immediate action be taken to secure such extensions.
2--The State Conservation Commission recommend to the Governor that, in
view of the large increase in area of the forest reserves since the last
session of the Legislature and the probability that in the future such
holdings will be materially added to, the annual appropriation of the
State board of forestry for administrative purposes should be largely
increased.
3--The State Conservation Commission also approved the following
principles as adopted at the Lake States Forestry Conference, held at
Madison, December 10, 1908:
"_Resolved_, That forest fires being one of the greatest enemies of the
State, and thus akin to riot and invasion, the Executive power of the
State should be employed to the utmost limit in emergencies in their
suppression and control for the protection of the lives and property of
the people.
"_Resolved_, That we advocate the patrol system as the only satisfactory
method of preventing forest fires, and the commanding factor in fighting
them.
"_Resolved_, That we recommend the retention of the fire warden system
with the county, rather than the town, as the unit, as being essential
in securing interest and responsibility among the people most affected.
"_Resolved_, That in all districts covered by State fire patrol a
reasonable portion of the expense for such patrol should be placed upon
the unoccupied, unimproved, or wild lands, whether forest or cut-over
land, preferably in the form of an acreage tax.
"_Resolved_, That the expense of the local fire warden service, and the
help called out for the suppression of fires, should be borne wholly or
in part by the county or town, but the payment should first be made by
the State to insure promptness.
"_Resolved_, That all officials, including public prosecutors, charged
with the enforcement of fire-protective measures, should be subject to
severe penalty or removal from office for non-performance of duty.
"_Resolved_, That the successful prosecution and a commensurate
punishment in case of conviction often cannot be secured in the locality
where the offense has been committed, and in order that the law shall be
enforced, in the interest of justice, and under authority of the
attorney general, a change of venue should be permitted.
"_Resolved_, That it is the sense of this meeting that lands containing
forests should be taxed in the usual manner so far as the land is
concerned, said land to be assessed as if it contained no timber; but
the forest products should be assessed and taxed only when they are cut
and removed, and then in an appropriate manner; that the harvest timber
tax should be based on a stumpage value determined by the value of the
forest product at the place where it is assessed, less the cost of
placing it there."
SOILS. The State Conservation Commission recommend to the Governor that
a soil survey of the State be undertaken and carried on at such a rate
as will give a general view of the soils of the State in about five
years. The Commission call especial attention to the immediate need of
such a survey in the central and northern parts of the State, the soils
of which are now coming rapidly into agricultural use; and also to its
necessity on lands which may be included in a forest reserve and which
should be devoted to forestry or agriculture according to the nature of
their soil.
* * * * *
Let us see what were the results of these recommendations. A number of
bills were introduced in the Legislature of 1909, seeking franchises to
dam navigable streams and to create reservoirs and reservoir systems;
but acting upon the recommendations of the Conservation Commission, all
such bills were referred to a special committee of the Legislature on
"Water-powers, Forestry, and Drainage" which has carefully investigated
the development of the water-powers of the State and will report either
to a special session of the Legislature or to the regular session in
1911. Undoubtedly the issuing of such franchises will be placed in the
hands of a competent board or commission. All forestry bills introduced
in 1909 were referred to the same special committee of the Legislature.
Two members of this committee have made their report, and include the
following recommendations in regard to the forestry work of the State:
1--An act to provide a State tax of two-tenths of one mill for each
dollar of the assessed valuation of the taxable property in the State,
to be collected annually for a period of twenty years, the tax when
levied and collected to constitute "a forestry investment fund" to be
used for the purchase, improvement, and protection of the forest reserve
lands.
2--An act to provide for the piling and burning of white Norway and jack
pine slash.
3--An act to provide for the employment of an efficient fire patrol by
the State board of forestry.
In accordance with the recommendations of the Conservation Commission,
the Legislature in 1909 passed an Act providing for a soil survey of the
State, and this work is being done by the Geological Survey and College
of Agriculture, for the purpose of ascertaining the character and
fertility of the developed and undeveloped soils of the State, the
extent and practicability of drainage of the swamp and wet lands of the
State, and the means for properly conserving and increasing the
fertility of the soil of the State.
It will be seen from the above that the work of the State Conservation
Commission has already shown important results, and it is believed that
the Legislature and people of Wisconsin have now begun to realize
clearly the urgent need and also the means which should be taken to
conserve the great natural resources.
REPORT OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
The Conservation of natural resources is a subject in which an American
academy of political and social science must necessarily have a keen
interest. The primary purpose of the American Academy being to assist in
the right solution of the political and economic problems confronting
the people of the United States, it has actively cooperated with those
individuals and organizations that have done most to give impetus to the
Conservation movement.
At the White House Conference called by President Roosevelt in May,
1908, the American Academy was one of the National organizations
represented. The following November, the Academy devoted one of its
regular scientific sessions to Conservation, the chief address of the
session being delivered by Mr Gifford Pinchot, the Chairman of the
National Conservation Commission. The Academy was also represented at
the Conference which met in Washington in December, 1908, upon the
invitation of the National Conservation Commission.
The most valuable aid the American Academy has given the Conservation
movement was rendered by the publication, in May, 1909, of a
comprehensive volume containing eighteen papers especially prepared by
men prominent in the Conservation movement. The scope and character of
this volume are indicated by the following list of papers and
contributors:
_Forestry on Private Lands_--Honorable Gifford Pinchot, U. S.
Forester, and Chairman National Conservation Commission.
_Public Regulation of Private Forests_--Professor Henry Solon
Graves, Director Forest School, Yale University.
_Can the States Regulate Private Forests?_--F. C. Zacharie,
Esq., of the Louisiana Bar, New Orleans.
_Water as a Resource_--W J McGee, LL.D., U. S. Inland Waterways
Commission; Member National Conservation Commission.
_Water Power in the United States_--M. O. Leighton, Chief
Hydrographer, U. S. Geological Survey.
_The Scope of State and Federal Legislation Concerning the Use
of Waters_--Charles Edward Wright, Assistant Attorney to the
Secretary of the Interior.
_The Necessity for State or Federal Regulation of Water-power
Development_--Charles Whiting Baker, C. E., Editor-in-Chief
Engineering News, New York.
_Federal Control of Water Power in Switzerland_--Treadwell
Cleveland, Jr., U. S. Forest Service.
_Classification of Public Lands_--George W. Woodruff, Assistant
Attorney-General for the Department of the Interior.
_A Summary of our Most Important Land Laws_--Honorable Knute
Nelson, U. S. Senator from Minnesota; Chairman of the Senate
Committee on Public Lands, and Chairman of Committee on Lands,
National Conservation Commission.
_Indian Lands: Their Administration with Reference to Present
and Future Use_--Honorable Francis E. Leupp, Commissioner of
Indian Affairs.
_The Conservation and Preservation of Soil Fertility_--Cyril G.
Hopkins, Chief in Agronomy and Chemistry, University of
Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, Urbana.
_Farm Tenure in the United States_--Henry Gannett, Geographer
U. S. Geological Survey.
_What may be Accomplished by Reclamation_--Honorable Frederick
H. Newell, Director U. S. Reclamation Service.
_The Legal Problems of Reclamation of Lands by Means of
Irrigation_--Morris Bien, Supervising Engineer, U. S.
Reclamation Service.
_Our Mineral Resources_--Honorable George Otis Smith, Director
U. S. Geological Survey.
_The Production and Waste of Mineral Resources and their
Bearing on Conservation_--J. A. Holmes, Chief, Technologic
Branch U. S. Geological Survey; Member National Conservation
Commission.
_Preservation of the Phosphates and the Conservation of the
Soil_--Charles Richard Van Hise, President of the University of
Wisconsin.
There were 5500 copies of this volume published, and its wide
distribution at a most opportune time caused it to have an exceptionally
effective influence. By the end of 1909 the edition was practically
exhausted, and a new edition became necessary. The Canadian members of
the American Academy, it is interesting to note, were particularly
pleased to receive this publication.
It is the belief of those most active in the work of the American
Academy that the question of the Conservation of American resources
outranks all other economic questions now before the people of the
United States. It is especially important that National and local
organizations should cooperate as fully as possible in educating the
public as to the present condition of our resources, the manner in which
they are being used, and the measures that should be taken to make these
resources of permanent as well as of present value to the American
people.
Respectfully submitted,
[Signed] EMORY R. JOHNSON, _Chairman_
FREDERICK C. STEVENS
WM. B. DEAN
W. A. FLEMING JONES
WM. L. WEST
CHARLES W. AMES
_Committee_
REPORT OF THE AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
When the American Automobile Association was originally honored with an
invitation to the National Conservation Congress it promptly accepted
with two objects in view; _first_, to influence, if possible, the
advocacy of a good highway construction and maintenance policy
throughout the United States--National, State, and local--in its program
in order to broaden and help the movement itself, and _second_, to
enlist the friends of Conservation in advancing highway construction; in
other words, to make the theory of Conservation cover not only the care
and perpetuation of natural resources, but all broad economic
activities, throughout the length and breadth of the country, concerning
the care and betterment of property, whether natural or artificial. The
resident in the East must feel that only by bringing within the scope of
the Conservation movement these somewhat narrower and more artificial
economic measures can any wide and deeply interested following be
secured in the more thickly settled eastern States, as most questions of
bulk ownership and management of natural property in this section have
long since been settled in law and in fact. If you adopt this theory and
definition of Conservation, and thereupon, among other efforts, give
your help to advance the matter of good roads, then the advocates of
good roads all over the country will have gained an ally, and you will
have secured new friends.
The American Automobile Association is devoting the major part of its
time, means, and enthusiasm to advancing and coordinating the activity
of good highway construction and maintenance, and to the preparation and
enactment of good National, State, and local legislation regulating
traffic on these highways all over the country. The Association is
organized in the large majority of all our States, with a large local
following in every center, and with an effective central management
cooperating with the most important like bodies abroad and with such
associations at home as the U. S. Office of Good Roads; National Grange,
Patrons of Husbandry; Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union; and
League of American Wheelmen. It consists of State organizations in most
of the States, comprising approximately 250 local clubs and over 30,000
members. It is an active force engaged in useful educational and
constructive work to better our National life by improving in an
intelligent and public spirited manner a very important branch of
transportation. It is and has been for some years the leading spirit in
this work, as witness the organization of the National Good Roads
Convention with the above-mentioned cooperating associations to be held
in Saint Louis toward the end of this month.
Transportation, broadly considered, has been the greatest ruling
economic force in every civilization created by man. Its absence or
limitation ever makes for barbarism or the decadence of the people so
confined. It is the pioneer and prime moving force in the creation of
progress and enlightenment. Each stage of the world's history that has
witnessed some pronounced advance in transportation methods has been
swiftly followed by a more than proportionate advance in progress, in
wealth, and in happiness of the people affected. Witness the march of
wealth and education following the practical operation of the steam
railway in the later half of the last century, and the further advance
following the practical perfection of electrical transportation during
the last quarter of the same century. Steam has provided transportation
for the great bulk of world life; electricity opened the way for
relatively lighter and cheaper transport, thus opening sections
otherwise not accessible for economic reasons. The motor-car and the
public highway have crowned these achievements by providing a means for
speedy, cheap, safe, and agreeable transport to any corner of the
country, the qualities just described constituting the essence of what
is best in transportation.
The public highways in the country, however, which premise the
reasonable use of motor transportation, have not advanced either in
quality or quantity with the means of transport itself during the past
fifteen years. The very existence of steam transport when this country
was young and sparsely settled and poor and badly developed, and even of
electrical transport at a later day, had in themselves limited the
development of a reasonable highway system, when comparison is made with
other older countries of like wealth, population, and civilization. In
earlier days military necessity did not compel this Government to build
National highways for the movement of troops--the railroads did that.
Economy of transport did not compel the several States to build
highways--the railway, the steamboat, the electric tram cared for that.
It was not until the advent of the practical modern motor-car that the
almost savage condition of this country with respect to highways became
apparent. Since then, say within the past ten years, the force moving
all over the country toward reasonable highway development, maintenance,
and regulation (which had its great inspiration in the army of motor-car
tourists acquiring a knowledge of the geography and the beauties of this
country by a new and independent method of travel, and which has more
recently turned into a flood of growing purpose and organization for
better highways because of the conviction of the farmer and the business
man of the United States of their economic value in reducing the cost of
ton-mile detail haulage to the lines of bulk transportation), as well as
toward the moral uplift of the entire farming and country life, due to
releasing the country resident from the unhealthy isolation of former
times--this force must now be recognized and satisfied, and this
Conservation Congress is a logical forum for exploiting and advancing
these aspirations.
A recent phase of this great new interest and industry has been the
abuse heaped upon it by certain special interests that have been touched
by the change the motor-car has wrought over the country. The Reverend
Sam Small once remarked that if you threw a brick in the dark and heard
a dog howl you knew that you had hit him. The misrepresentation and
denunciation and apparent lack of understanding of the true meaning of
this new interest seems to come near those financial and bulk
transportation interests--with their affected fear of largely
mythological mortgages--from which the motor-car user in the aggregate
has detached some profit either in transport or in investment. It needs
no fine intelligence in these times to understand the weight and purpose
of this opposition which has assumed an almost proscriptive right to the
collection and handling of the loose money of the unorganized individual
all over the country. What is this doctrine that the banker has become
the censor of the individual's needs and actions with his own money?
Have the farmer and the business man of this country recently become so
poor or reckless or so much in debt as to apologize to their fiscal
agents for the purchase of a motor-car with their own money or lose
credit? Does this not logically lead to an equal apology and loss of
credit for owning a decent home instead of a miserable one, or wearing
good clothing, or eating good food, or getting a good education, or
buying a carpet, a piano, or any of the other things which in the sum
constitute the high environment of American life? The tens of thousands
of users of motor-cars that are today deriving health and pleasure and,
in a far greater number of cases than generally known, profit from the
purchase and use of motor-cars, are deflecting interest and capital from
channels which have long enjoyed them to their great benefit. That is
the origin of the detraction of the motor-car industry and the
individuals who created it and who are enjoying it today.
Fair and intelligent consideration is not generally given to the fact
that speedier transportation wherever possible is inevitable in human
history; that, when a farmer or a doctor or a real estate agent, or a
business man of any sort, finds that, at the same cost, he can do, with
the same personal effort per day, four times more work in a motor-car
than with a pair of horses, provided decent roads exist--when this
fundamental economic fact reaches the masses, then good roads teeming
with motor-cars and trucks and reasonable universal legislation will be
demanded and gotten. When added to this, the same investment provides
the means of winging off where fancy leads on a healthful and charming
tour or visit, who shall deny that the individual is wise to avail
himself of this new facility?
Finally, sufficient weight is not given to the fact that every ton of
freight in this broad country must be carried from its primal source,
not once but several times, to a railroad or steamboat or tram, before
it reaches the goal of the final user. The perfected motor-wagon and
truck made in quantity at reasonable cost, provided the good highway
exists everywhere, is the inevitable source of such reasonable
transport: and, from the standpoint of utility, or effectiveness, or
congestion of street areas, or speed--from any standpoint whatsoever--it
is as distinct an advance over animal traction as was the electric tram
thirty years ago over animal traction in that field of enterprise. The
millions of dollars going into this industry spread out through the
people, irrigating the total prosperity of the country through its
appropriate channels, just as money spent on everything else the
individual buys throughout the country, adds its appropriate quota to
our National prosperity, and should be quite as immune from attack and
misrepresentation.
Good highways and highway legislation are today a generally recognized
National necessity. If this country were now through concerted action,
Nationally, in States, in counties, and in cities, to spend enough money
to put its streets and highways in a comparable condition with those of
England or France, and to replace the great percentage of animal
traction and motor-cars as now made, to carry the bulk of detail tonnage
on these highways, it could not in any other manner or with any better
advantage to the coming generation, as concerns its wealth, happiness,
and profit, invest this enormous sum or, in any other manner, not only
add to the value of country property but influence so positively and so
speedily an increase in the happiness and general content of country
life in the United States.
In conclusion, it is respectfully urged that the project of good
highways and reasonable uniform State and National legislation governing
their use should be incorporated in detail in the program of this
National Conservation Congress and every kindred association throughout
the length and breadth of the land.
Respectfully submitted,
[Signed] POWELL EVANS
_Chairman, A. A. A. Conservation Committee_
REPORT OF THE AMERICAN CIVIC ASSOCIATION
I have already had the honor of presenting some statement of Rhode
Island's interest in the Conservation movement, and of the ways in which
she proposes to demonstrate it. But I also bear messages from the
American Civic Association and other organizations. Perhaps one might
think, on first consideration, that there was nothing very closely
related, or perhaps related at all, in the purposes of the Conservation
Commission of the State of Rhode Island and those of the American Civic
Association, the Providence Board of Trade, the Metropolitan Park
Commission of Providence Plantations, the Atlantic Deeper Waterways
Association, and the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Institute of
Architects; yet I bring you greetings from all of these. I want to tell
you that they are all working with all the enthusiasm there is in them
for some phase or other of the mighty movement for Conservation.
Some people have said--half contemptuously perhaps (I am afraid
so)--that Conservation is made to cover about every kind of a movement
there is on this great footstool, but perhaps the statement is about
true so far as these movements are concerned with the preservation and
development of any of the great assets of nature or artificial
achievements of man that are necessary or useful to the well-being of
our own or future generations. Whether we are considering the forests
upon the mountain sides that control the floods and affect the farms and
the water-powers and the navigable streams below, or are thinking how to
plan and lay out and construct our towns and cities so that they shall
most worthily and efficiently fulfill their two great purposes as places
(1) to live happily in and (2) to work most successfully in, we find
their principles overlapping and leading from one end of the line clear
to the other. You cannot separate them, and it is not worth while to
try.
The interests of the American Civic Association, of course, are not
restricted to any State or section. Its activities are Nation-wide. "For
a Better and More Beautiful America" is its motto, and it believes that
a more beautiful America is bound to be a better and more prosperous
America. It believes also that the Conservation of beauty means the
Conservation of patriotism; and its distinguished president has
paraphrased a well-known utterance of Ex-Mayor McClellan to the effect
that "The country healthy, the country wealthy, and the country wise,
may excite satisfaction, complaisance, and pride: but it is the country
beautiful that compels and retains the love of its citizens." It is the
love of country that lights and keeps glowing the holy fire of
patriotism, and this love is excited primarily by the beauty of the
country and the environments of the citizens.
The American Institute of Architects believes that when a thing is most
usefully done it is most beautifully done. It believes that Conservation
deals with two great departments closely related in human endeavor, and
that you cannot divorce the necessity of city planning from the
development of the resources of nations. A properly planned structure,
whether it be of a single building or of a whole city, with all its
homes and shops and streets, means the Conservation of the people's
efficiency through all the generations that shall ever come to dwell
therein. Similarly, the park movement, as we see it scientifically
promoted, is almost wholly a measure of Conservation. It is not, as the
previous generation believed, primarily to tack on ornate luxuries to
the urban fabric, but to preserve the necessary recreation places that
would otherwise be obliterated, but without which the race of city-bred
dwellers cannot survive. It is to safeguard human efficiency and
happiness.
The Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association, whose president, Honorable J.
Hampton Moore, has bidden me extend his greetings, calls for things that
mean much Conservation of effort. Its project would remove much of the
material burden of unnecessary cost. There is Conservation of vast
energy and the saving of huge National burdens in the present eastern
ambition for the fuller improvement of harbors and development of
connecting inland waterways. Let me tell you how the improvement of the
harbors related to the handling of at least 80 percent of the
$1,500,000,000 worth of all our imports, for this is the proportion that
comes into the eastern harbors of the Nation. It relates to the
transportation of products of the eastern States worth over
$14,000,000,000 a year--of 85 percent of all the cotton that the Nation
raises, and 58 percent of all our manufactures; to the 765,000,000 tons
of merchandise that has to be transported through these States in which
more than 50 percent of all our people dwell, and then transferred in
various ways for the equal benefit of the other 50 percent. No item in
the cost of our existence is of more importance than that of
transportation.
Well, of course, the Board of Trade is interested in all these things,
though it looks upon them primarily as they bear upon the up-building of
a city. It believes that it is working to assist the logical development
of a city of glorious possibilities where certain services to the Nation
may best be performed. If there were not sound economic reasons for the
up-building of a great city at any given place, it would be foolish and
wicked to attempt by artificial means to talk it into being, or try to
force it by the hothouse method of overheated air. But if you have the
necessary natural assets and opportunities that but await intelligent
handling, why here comes the need of Conservation as a vital obligation.
[Signed] HENRY A. BARKER _Delegate_
REPORT OF THE AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION
No organization can more appropriately than the American Forestry
Association make its statement and its appeal to this Congress; for it
is the first of our Conservation organizations. It has a past of nearly
thirty years to which it can point with pride of real achievement; an
active and efficient, though not a noisy, present; and a future of ever
enlarging opportunity.
In a very real sense we may say that the work of this Association,
through years of much misunderstood effort, under the able guidance of
the great leaders of the American forestry movement, made this Congress
possible; for it was through the study of forestry and its relation to
the country that the whole problem of our National resources came to be
understood. The man who has given the Conservation of natural resources
its impetus, with the help of his distinguished chief, then President of
the United States, was the recognized leader, the apostle and
evangelist, of the forestry movement; and today no portion of our
natural resources holds a more important place than the forests. They
are inseparably linked with soils and waters, both of which depend on
them in great measure; and as a product of the soil, nothing exceeds the
forests in value and in necessity to human welfare. Forests, like
agricultural crops, belong to the renewable class of products, and their
maintenance involves much more complicated and permanent problems than
the non-renewable products like metals, coal, oil, and gas. Therefore we
conceive the field of our Association to be vital and lasting, and so
broad, many-sided, and far-reaching as to amply justify the existence of
an organization dedicated to the advancement of scientific forestry for
the best utilization of our forest lands for all time.
Our appeal is to the citizen who desires to promote the economic and
moral welfare of the Nation, for moral welfare comes only through good
economics and such management of natural resources as makes for
prosperity; to the lumbermen and to all manufacturers who use forest
products, for to them this is a subject that touches the permanence of
their industries; to the educator who looks beyond mere culture and
believes that our education must more and more fit men and women to cope
with the complex problems of modern life. In this last connection we
shall soon announce plans, recently set on foot, for giving practical
and definite assistance to those teachers who wish to bring the
fundamental principles of forestry into their work, but who do not know
how. We shall try to show them how in a systematic and practical way.
Our work is independent of that of the Government, but is conducted in
close touch with it. As an independent body of citizens we can do and
say what Government officials cannot do and say. Our program embodies:
(1) An equitable system of taxation which shall not unduly burden the
growing crop; (2) adequate protection against fire, which will reduce
this greatest of forest perils to a minimum; (3) the practice of
scientific management upon all existing forests; (4) the planting of all
unoccupied lands which can be utilized more profitably for forestry than
for any other purpose; and, (5) the whole to be brought about through
harmonious adjustment of functions between the three classes of
owners--National, State, and private. We do not believe that either one
of these agencies is to be relied on alone. Each has its place. I say
this because our position in this regard is often misconceived. I may
add (to correct another misapprehension) that we do not believe in
putting under forest land more valuable for agriculture. Forestry and
agriculture are not rivals. They go hand in hand.
One specific object to which we have given much effort for several
years is the establishment of National Forests on the great interstate
water-sheds of the Northern and Southern Appalachians. The conditions,
which are acute for the thickly populated East, can only be handled by
the united action of the National and State governments and private
owners. The central cores of the White Mountains and the Southern
Appalachians clearly require National care and management. With this and
cooperation of the States and private owners with the National
Government, we can save a rare country of beauty, health, and
productiveness from being made a depopulated waste. We begin to see the
light. In the House of the last two Congresses we have passed a bill,
after fighting to a finish the reactionary element which has controlled
that body and throttled legislation framed in the public interest. In
the Senate we have a strong working majority which can only be beaten,
as in the Sixtieth and Sixty-first Congresses, by filibustering in the
last hours of the session. If we are not cheated of our reward next
winter we shall mark a new step in the progress of American forestry by
making the National Forest system really National.
The Association now has about 6600 members; it maintains an office in
Washington, where a close watch is kept upon National legislation, and
through its correspondents, upon State legislation. It provides
lectures, issues bulletins on important subjects, conducts a
correspondence bureau, and publishes a monthly magazine, _American
Forestry_, which is contributed to by the best authorities in the
country, and is the only popular magazine of its class of National
scope. We enjoy the cordial cooperation of the U. S. Forest Service and
of the various State forest bureaus.
We look forward confidently to a future in which the practice of
scientific forestry will become general throughout the United States,
when our forest lands will be clearly defined and permanently maintained
in productive growth, when waste lands will cease to play so large a
part in our National statistics, when the production of the forests will
cease to be so much less than the consumption of forest products, and
when the National wealth will be contributed to largely each year from
this source. But even with this hopeful outlook we cannot see that our
work will ever be done, and we welcome the assistance which this
Conservation Congress can give us.
[Signed] EDWIN A. START
_Executive Secretary_
REPORT OF THE AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION
The Committee on Conservation of National Animal Resources (the same
being a sub-committee of the National Conservation Commission of the
Federal Government) have the honor to report as follows:
The animal resources of the United States constitute a large proportion
of its natural productive energy. This country has hundreds of millions
of dollars invested in horses, mules, cattle, hogs, sheep, and chickens.
These constitute natural resources which are producing a larger
percentage of wealth and a larger proportionate return for capital
invested than almost any one other resource. Furthermore, the actual
means of sustaining life is more dependent on these resources than on
all others combined, for aside from the food value of the cattle, hogs,
sheep, and chickens, and also aside from the other products which are
received from them, agricultural operations would be rendered largely
inoperative if the assistance of the larger animals were withdrawn. In
this way the products of the soil upon which man is so largely dependent
for sustenance would be materially affected, and without the assistance
of these animals the supply would diminish to the extent of actual
starvation for vast numbers of the world's populace. Even if mechanical
contrivances should replace the labor of beasts, the cost would be
enormously increased; and the natural fertilizing products being
removed, the productive value of the soil would also be progressively
decreased.
From whatever point we look at this important question, the value of our
animal resources is so great and so fundamental that the Nation may well
give its best energies and most discriminating intelligence to their
protection and conservation. It has been estimated that through the
humane treatment and care of horses the average life of these useful
creatures can be easily increased from 20 to 25 percent. This likewise
means a proportionate increase in the results derived from their labor,
which in the aggregate would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars a
year. The same is also largely true of the increased value of other
domestic animals as the result of humane and considerate treatment,
which in all instances would greatly prolong their lives.
The American Humane Association has been greatly interested in promoting
the more merciful treatment of range stock, which in the past have been
largely left to shift for themselves during the cold, bleak winters of
the Northwestern ranges. This has resulted in the death of vast numbers
of livestock. A recent report of the Department of Agriculture indicates
that over 1,000,000 domestic animals die in the United States each year
from hunger and exposure.
Another department in which the humanitarian societies of the United
States have been largely interested which bears directly on the
conservation of a great natural resource, has been the protection of the
fur seals. These interesting and valuable animals, through piratical
efforts employed in their destruction, have become partially
exterminated, and a great source of National wealth has been almost
annihilated. From vast herds, numbering a great many hundreds of
thousands, the seals have been reduced until their rookeries in the
islands of the northern Pacific belonging to the United States have been
almost depopulated. Friends of the Conservation policy have earnestly
protested in Congress against this inhumane and economically unwise
course, and during the last session legislation was passed and signed by
President Taft, which would insure the ample protection of the seals.
Grave fears are expressed at the present time lest this result should be
endangered by unwise administrative measures which are threatened. I
earnestly hope that the second National Conservation Congress will speak
in no uncertain terms in regard to this important question, so that the
seals may be restored once more to their original numbers and productive
value.
This Committee will not undertake to present all the activities in which
we have been interested which bear upon this subject, but content
ourselves with showing the great importance of this particular phase of
Conservation. We trust that this Committee will continue for another
year, and that the results of this Congress will be felt in every
portion of the United States.
Respectfully submitted,
[Signed] WILLIAM O. STILLMAN, _Chairman_
M. RICHARD MUCKLE
ALFRED WAGSTAFF
JOHN PARTRIDGE
SAMUEL WEIS
JOHN L. SHORTALL
GUY RICHARDSON
_Committee_
REPORT OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS
The Committee of the American Institute of Architects on the
Conservation of Natural Resources has the honor to report as follows:
A wide and increasingly active interest in the subject exists among the
officers and members of the Institute. The Committee believes that few,
if any, of the great National organizations touch the subject of
Conservation at so many points, or are more vitally interested in its
wise and efficient progress, or can be more directly helpful in the
application of the principles of Conservation in a great series of
important industries.
The construction of modern buildings, either for residential or business
purposes, involves the use in one form or another of practically the
entire list of materials included under the general meaning of the term
the "natural resources" of the country, excepting only agricultural land
and foodstuffs; and in common with all other thinking citizens, the
architects realize that the continued prosperity of the building
interests is in the long run dependent on the wise use of these
resources. Exact statistics of the great building industry of the
country are not obtainable; but a somewhat extended inquiry recently
made led to an approximate estimate of the amount of money expended upon
buildings in the United States per annum at an average of not less than
$1,000,000,000, practically all of which passes under the hands of the
architects in the specifications of materials to be used and in
certification as to quality and cost.
Among the materials used are metals, including iron and its various
products in rolled steel, sheet metal, pipe, castings, and machinery,
with copper, lead, graphite, zinc, nickel, silver, and even gold; lumber
in enormous quantities and of all kinds; clay products, such as brick,
terra cotta, roofing tiles, drain tiles, floor tiles, and porcelain;
stone, including granite, marble, limestone, sandstone, and other quarry
products; cement, lime, sand, glass, oils, gums, hemp, bitumen, asphalt,
asbestos, barytes, and many other minerals; woven cotton, linen, wool,
and other fibres. There are also used coal and water-power, and above
all that greatest of all resources of the Nation, the labor of Man, both
skilled and unskilled. This but briefly suggests the variety and extent
of the interests represented in modern building. Therefore the
profession of architecture, represented by the American Institute of
Architects, has a most real interest in this great topic, and can and
does wield a very potent influence upon the use of the products of mine,
quarry, factory, and field.
It has been stated, with a large measure of truth, that if the
architects will study the economic use of lumber and specify or permit
the use of short lengths (such as 2-foot and 4-foot lengths as against
12-foot and 14-foot lengths) where such are structurally permissible,
that a quarter of the lumber cut per annum could be saved without
lessening the amount of lumber used in building. If the architects
specify concrete to the exclusion of steel, the steel market is
affected; if brick or clay products, the cement market is affected; if
copper or sheet iron, or lead, or tile, or slate, or pitch, or even
thatched straw, for roofing instead of shingles, the number of shingles
used is correspondingly reduced. It is obvious that if the architects
will substitute clay products or concrete or steel for lumber now used
in building, no more effective method of conserving our lumber supply
could be devised.
Materials used in buildings are not necessarily lost to the future,
however. On the contrary, a certain class of materials, such as steel
and other metals, are thus preserved, though temporarily withdrawn from
use. Who shall say that other needs and other customs of building of a
future time will not be as different from ours as ours are from those of
former times? Indeed it is not wholly fantastic to prophesy that the
skyscrapers of today may become the iron mines of tomorrow.
The architects are only indirectly employers of labor, but as such they
can, more fairly and with less self-interest than any other class,
observe the conditions under which labor in the building trades is
employed. Your Committee believes that the great annual losses by reason
of accidents to men engaged in the building trades are largely
preventable; that laws governing the construction of scaffolding,
hoisting apparatus, derricks, and other machinery used in quarrying or
manufacturing and building, should be passed where they do not already
exist, and should be rigorously enforced everywhere; that mechanics and
laborers should be taught not to take unnecessary risks but should
suffer their fair share of blame if they do, and that they should be
encouraged by the public authorities in all reasonable demands for the
opportunity to pursue their avocations without unnecessary hazard of
life and limb.
The architects believe in the Conservation of buildings once they are
erected, and to this end that fire-proof construction should be adopted
wherever possible. In all American cities today fire is a constant
menace, and the annual loss from this cause both in life and property is
appalling. The strict enforcement of wise building laws will largely
prevent this loss; but some concession in taxation to those erecting
fire-proof buildings might be found feasible, whereby a premium would be
given to those owners of buildings who contribute to the greater safety
of life and property by erecting fire-proof structures--or on the other
hand an increase of taxation might be made on those erecting buildings
which endanger the lives and property of their neighbors and whose
flimsy structures make necessary the present large public expenditure
for fire-department service in our cities.
This Committee, in common with those who have from the beginning
promoted the cause of Conservation, believes in the _use_ of our natural
resources, not in their _abuse_--in their equitable distribution and
development in the hands of the people or in the hands of the
Government, not in locking them up in the hands of a few; and that if
corporate capital can develop them better than individual capital, then
that it should be so done only under restrictions that will safeguard
the interests of the people and be subject to Governmental control and
limitation, while at the same time giving the capital engaged absolute
assurance of protection, security, and reasonable profit. This Committee
believes that _use_ does not mean _waste_ or loss, nor does it mean that
reckless spendthrift policy which would squander in a generation, or
less, the vast natural resources of this Nation, or permit these
resources to be monopolized.
The American Institute of Architects is heartily in sympathy with the
principles of the Conservation of our natural resources--and will do its
part to advance those principles.
[Signed] CASS GILBERT
_Chairman_
REPORT OF THE AMERICAN PAPER AND PULP ASSOCIATION
As long ago as 1898 the officers of the American Paper and Pulp
Association, realizing the importance of maintaining a perpetual supply
of pulpwood, devoted the annual meeting of that year principally to a
discussion of the science and practice of forestry, then almost unknown
in the United States. At that meeting addresses were delivered by Doctor
Fernow, then Chief of the Government Forestry Bureau, by Mr Gifford
Pinchot, his successor, and by Mr Austin Carey, now connected with the
Forestry Department of the State of New York. Mr Hugh J. Chisholm, then
President of the Association, in his annual message said:
"Those among us who have weighed the matter carefully are well aware
that if we as a Nation are to take and permanently hold the foremost
place in paper making, we must begin at once to husband our resources.
Fortunately, the science of forestry, until recently but little known
and heeded less, is ready to point out the way, and we shall learn from
three of the best authorities of the country, not only why we should,
but how we may, put in practice the principles of forestry. I hope that
everyone will go away resolved directly or indirectly to do what he can
to secure a rational use of this mainstay of our business."
The attitude of the Association, in the past twelve years, has been to
exert its influence in every way possible in the encouragement of forest
Conservation. Every year resolutions have been adopted urging timber
land owners in the paper industry to practice conservative methods; and
at the same time attention has been called to the vital importance of
preventing forest fires, and in more recent years the subject of
taxation of timber lands has also received attention.
Not only has a universal sentiment in favor of Conservation been created
in the industry, but practical results have been accomplished. It is not
too much to say that our timber land owners, with possibly here and
there an exception, have been for a number of years all conducting their
operations so as not to impair the reproductive capacity of their lands.
In the first place, they have carefully studied their holdings, in many
instances being assisted by the Forest Service at Washington; they have
thus become enlightened as to how far cutting timber can go without
jeopardizing the future. In the next place, they have voluntarily
limited the size, or the diameter of trees, below which no cutting shall
be done. They have very generally, although to just what extent cannot
be definitely estimated, adopted the method of felling trees with the
saw instead of the axe, and have in other ways sought to bring the waste
down to a minimum. But perhaps in no way have they done better service
than by encouraging legislation and the enforcement of it for the
prevention of fires.
It is roughly estimated that the paper makers own in the United States
about 5,000,000 acres, consisting mostly of spruce timber lands. While
this is insufficient to afford a natural growth equal to the demands,
the deficit is made up by purchases in the United States and by
importations from Canada, and the use of other kinds of wood. There is
still much more spruce cut for lumber than for pulpwood, but the paper
makers are continually adding to their holdings, and there appears to be
a readjustment of prices going on which is leading to the substitution
of pulpwood production for lumber production.
The example set by paper makers is being followed by other timber land
owners, so that we may confidently say that no timber lands of any
moment are in any sense being denuded for the production of pulpwood.
Less than 2 percent of the consumption of wood in this country is
domestic pulpwood, and with a continuation of the conservative methods
now in vogue, there need be no fear of diminution of our forests by the
paper industry. In fact the perpetuation of the industry in the United
States depends largely on the perpetuation of the forests of the United
States, so that the paper manufacturers have every incentive to maintain
them. The use of hemlock and other kinds of wood for pulp making has
greatly increased, thus tending to relieve any drain there might be on
the supply of spruce. As most of the paper mills are dependent on
water-power, the manufacturers have still further incentive to protect
the water-sheds. The Forest Commissioner of Maine has stated--
"Since the advent of the pulp and paper industry in Maine, covering a
period of less than twenty years, the system of handling our forest
lands has been completely revolutionized. Prior to ten years ago, in
cutting logs in the woods, it has been demonstrated by actual tests and
measurements that only from 60 to 65 percent of the volume of the lumber
trees actually cut was saved and utilized for lumber purposes, while
since that period on account of the paper industry it has been
demonstrated by later measurements and experiments that from 80 to 85
percent of the volume of lumber trees is actually utilized, and what is
of far greater importance is the fact that crooked, seamy and defective
trees, as well as all of the undersized trees formerly cut and destroyed
in swamping and in making yards and landings are now utilized. * * *
Fully one-half of the whole territory of Maine has never as yet produced
one single log for pulp and paper production. I refer to Saint John
River drainage, where the same wanton system of lumbering, although
possibly in a somewhat lesser degree, is being followed as was followed
through the long period from 1860 to 1900. Were this territory fully
developed for lumbering by means of proper railroad connections or water
facilities, it is safe to assert that conservatively managed, as the
paper companies are endeavoring to do today with the best knowledge
obtainable, it would supply the entire demand for all the mills now
located in Maine indefinitely."
In the State of New York all the paper makers who own lands in the
Adirondacks have an Association, including many other lumbermen, which
has cooperated with the State authorities in securing legislation which
would foster conservative cutting and the prevention of fires.
The International Paper Company, owning nearly a million acres of forest
lands in New England, New York State, and elsewhere in the United
States, has always conducted its operations with a view to the future
supply. In eleven years this company has cut less than two-tenths of a
cord per year per acre, which is believed to be less than the natural
growth. Two years ago this company started a nursery in Vermont, and
each year it has been putting in transplants in increasing quantities in
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York State, supplementing its own
supply by purchases of seedlings and transplants at home and abroad.
This replanting is being done on abandoned farms, pasture lands and
burns. On their other holdings no replanting is necessary, as there is
always sufficient growth left for reproduction. Some other companies
have done replanting, but in general conservative cutting and protection
from fire render extensive planting unnecessary.
The paper industry has acted on its own initiative, and while
self-interest may have actuated it the result is none the less
beneficial from the public point of view, and the policy is more apt to
be followed permanently than if impractical law, attempting to make
Conservation compulsory, were passed.
[Signed] E. W. BACKUS
_Delegate_
REPORT OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
The most important interest which this Nation has to guard is human life
and health. The conservation of National vitality is fundamental to all
plans for the conservation of property and material welfare. As the life
is more than meat and the body more than raiment, so is the preservation
of health and the avoidance of unnecessary sickness and death of far
greater importance than any other interests. Realizing this, the
American Medical Association, the National organization of the American
medical profession, has been in hearty sympathy with the Conservation
movement from its inception. Composed of 52 State and Territorial
associations and 1997 local branches with over 70,000 members, this
Association has for years advocated the conservation of human life
through the abolition of preventable diseases and the betterment of
sanitary and hygienic conditions with a view to making the future work
of the profession prevention rather than cure. For the accomplishment of
these purposes it is today carrying out a number of important lines of
work:
1--The American Medical Association has, since its organization in 1847,
labored constantly for the elevation of medical schools and of the
standard of medical education. Especially during the last five years it
has, through its Council on Medical Education, carried on a system of
inspection of medical schools with the publication of reports thereon,
which has materially raised the standard of medical education and has
eliminated a considerable number of low-grade institutions. It is
obvious that any increase in efficiency of the medical profession of the
present or of the future cannot but result in increased economy of
health. The Association is glad to report that medical education in the
United States is today upon a higher plane than ever before, and that
the public is coming more and more to realize the value of a thorough
scientific training for those who undertake the care of the sick.
2--Through its publication, _The Journal of the American Medical
Association_, it is constantly laboring to improve the economic
condition of the profession, recognizing as a general principle the fact
that a poverty-stricken doctor is a dangerous doctor, both to the
profession and to the community. The physician who is not able to
procure proper instruments and drugs, or who through poverty cannot keep
up with the progress of the profession or secure the necessary books and
medical journals for his instruction, may and often does become an
actual danger to his patients. Proper efforts on the part of the
profession for its own material well-being will result in a better class
of physicians and consequently in better medical services to patients.
3--One of the most important activities of the Association in the past
five years has been the work of our Chemical Laboratory established for
the investigation of pharmaceutical preparations offered to physicians
for administration to patients, and for the analysis of so-called patent
medicines sold directly to the public. This work has been carried on
through the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry supported by the
Association, and has resulted in a much-needed reform in pharmaceutical
products. Many preparations which were carelessly, ignorantly, or
fraudulently compounded, as well as many others which were sold under
false representations, have been investigated and the results published
to the medical profession. Although much yet remains to be accomplished,
the reform in pharmaceutical preparations has already resulted in an
enormous amount of benefit to the people through the enlightenment and
education of the profession on this important question. An investigation
of "patent medicines" has also been carried on, and many of the
preparations offered to the public have been shown, by chemical
analysis, to be fraudulent; some are positively harmful, some are
harmless but are not as represented; while extravagant, absurd, and
impossible claims, false testimonials, and misleading advertisements,
are common to many of these preparations. The Association, by its work,
has exposed many swindlers and fakirs, and as a result has earned their
bitter antagonism.
4--In addition to investigating and exposing frauds in pharmaceutical
preparations, the Association has also established a bureau for the
collection and preservation of material regarding medical frauds and
fakes--including fraudulent "cures" for tuberculosis, cancer, paralysis,
locomotor ataxia, and other diseases--which are advertised to the public
through false representation, leading not only to an enormous loss to
the people through money paid to the swindlers without any beneficial
results, but also to great loss of life and economic loss through
illness owing to the victims of these frauds being deprived of proper
treatment. The Association is cooperating with other organizations and
with the proper authorities for the detection and punishment of these
frauds and for the suppression of this most despicable kind of
swindlers--those who prey upon the sick and, as a means of extorting a
few dollars of blood money, take advantage of the natural desire of the
sick or dying to recover health. It has been estimated by the National
Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis that the money loss alone
to the people of the United States through fake consumption cures
amounts to $15,000,000 annually. Probably the loss to sufferers from
cancer and other incurable diseases is as great. This robbery of the
sick and helpless should no longer be tolerated in any civilized
country.
5--The Association has maintained a committee for the past four years on
the prevention of ophthalmia neonatorum or blindness in infants due to
gonorrheal infections, a preventable cause of a large percentage of
existing blindness. The United States Census for the blind and deaf
taken in 1900 states that 11 percent of the total number of blind lost
their sight before the completion of the first year of life, and that in
25 percent the cause of blindness was due to this form of infection. The
committee of the Association has been laboring for four years past, and
is still at work, endeavoring to educate the public so as to secure
proper legislation for the prevention of this form of blindness.
6--Through its State and county branches, as well as through its
official publications and its connection with State boards of health and
other agencies, the Association has been endeavoring to educate the
public on the importance of better hygienic and sanitary conditions and
laws, with special reference to pure food and water; proper ventilation
of houses, stores, schools, factories, and work-shops; the prevention of
avoidable accidents; the development of parks and playgrounds; and the
avoidance of the evils of intemperance and excesses. Realizing the
importance of this work and the inadequacy of existing methods for
bringing practical instruction on sanitary and hygienic questions before
the public, the Association at its last annual session established a
Council on Health and Public Instruction, the special function of which
shall be to place before the people, through the public press,
magazines, pamphlets, public meetings, addresses, moving pictures, and
every other available means, the best information obtainable as to the
preservation of life and the avoidance of disease. The significance and
importance of this action on the part of the organized medical
profession of the country can hardly be overestimated. It means that
physicians as a class have taken up seriously and systematically the
prevention of disease and the education of the public as to how the
elimination of avoidable diseases can be secured. With the cooperation
of the newspapers and of the people many preventable diseases which have
for centuries claimed a fixed toll of human life can be practically
eliminated, and hundreds of thousands of lives saved each year.
7--While the Association has labored for the enactment of any laws,
either State or National, which were for the benefit of the public
health, it stands particularly committed to legislation on three
subjects. These are: (_a_) Adequate State laws insuring purity of the
food supply, (_b_) such State laws as will increase the efficiency of
State boards of health and enable them to combat and suppress
unnecessary and controllable diseases, and (_c_) such legislation as
will provide an adequate plan for the collection and preservation of
vital statistics, in order that proper data for the study and prevention
of diseases may be available. It is not to the credit of this country
that in half of our States human beings are born and die without any
legal recognition of the fact, that not even as much attention is paid
to the birth of a human infant as is given to the birth of a race-horse,
a pedigreed bull, a blooded dog, or even an Angora kitten. It is not to
our credit as a civilized Nation that human beings die and are buried
without any legal recognition or record being made of the cause or
manner of their death. It is in no sense to our credit that in many
communities diphtheria, scarlet fever, and cerebro-spinal meningitis
decimate the infant population yet no one knows, nor is it anyone's
business to find out, how many deaths result from these epidemics, or
how many persons die from various diseases in the course of a year.
Proper birth registration lies at the basis of social organization, and
has been so recognized for years by European nations, yet it does not
exist today in this country. Vital statistics, showing the relative
health, morbidity, and mortality of various sections, are of the utmost
importance, since healthfulness is recognized as one of the best
business assets which a town and county or a State can possess. Yet
through lack of proper laws we have today death registration alone in
only half of the Nation, and practically no registration of births
whatever. This disgrace on our civilization, which is the wonder and
amazement of European nations, should be at once removed by the passage
and enforcement of uniform laws in all of the States.
8--The following resolutions were adopted by the House of Delegates of
the American Medical Association, June 7, 1910:
"_Resolved_, That the principles of the Owen Bill, having for its object
the creation of a National Department of Health, now pending in the
Senate, and similar bills introduced in the House by Representatives
Simmons, Creager, and Hanna, be, and are hereby, heartily approved by
this Association, and the cordial thanks of the medical profession of
the United States, officially represented, are hereby tendered to
Senator Robert L. Owen, Irving Fisher, and their co-workers for their
able and unselfish efforts to conserve and promote the most important
asset of the Nation--the health and lives of its women, its children and
its men--properly understood the greatest economic question now
confronting our people.
"The members of this Association stand for pure food, pure drugs, better
doctors, the promotion of cleaner and healthier homes, and cleaner
living for individuals, for the State and for the Nation. We believe
this to be held as equally true by the reputable and informed physicians
of all schools or systems of practice.
"We welcome the opposition of the venal classes, long and profitably
engaged in the manufacture of adulterated foods, habit-producing
nostrums, and other impositions on the people, to the extent of hundreds
of millions of dollars annually, and express our sympathy for the
well-meaning men and women who have been misled and worked into
hysterics by the monstrously wicked misrepresentations of a corrupt and
noisy band of conspirators, who are being used as blind instruments to
enable them to continue to defraud and debauch the American people.
"Medical science is advancing, especially on its life-saving side, with
a rapidity unknown to any other branch of human knowledge. It is known
of all men that our members in every community in the United States are
unselfishly working day and night, instructing the people how to prevent
tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and the other diseases from which
physicians earn their livelihood. Therefore, we welcome and will wear as
a badge of honor the slanders of these unholy interests and their
hirelings."
* * * * *
The American Medical Association, representing as it does the medical
profession of the country, stands pledged and committed to any measure
which will improve the public health and preserve the lives of our
people. Believing as it does that health and life is our greatest
National asset, and that no nation is truly great whatever its material
possessions that cannot boast of strong and healthy citizens, we ask
the support and approval of the American public and of this Congress in
the efforts which are being made for the preservation of human life.
[Signed] J. T. PRIESTLY, Des Moines
F. F. WESBROOK, Minneapolis
A. R. MITCHELL, Lincoln
CHAS. S. SHELDON, Madison
F. R. GREEN, Chicago
_Committee_
REPORT OF THE AMERICAN RAILWAY ENGINEERING AND MAINTENANCE OF WAY
ASSOCIATION
In October, 1908, the National Conservation Commission invited the
American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association, in
connection with other technical bodies of this country, to be
represented at the Conference in Washington, and to assist the National
Conservation Commission with suggestions concerning advisable lines of
inquiry, nature of report to be made, and possibilities of
accomplishment on the part of the Commission. Acting upon this
invitation, the Board of Directors of the Association appointed a
Special Committee to cooperate with the Commission. This Committee
consisted of eight members of the Association, selected from widely
separated sections of the country.
The Association, through its Committee, was represented at the joint
Conservation Conference held in Washington beginning December 8, 1908;
and the Committee has been keeping in touch with the Conservation
Commission through Mr Pinchot and the Secretary, Mr Thomas R. Shipp.
Several meetings of the Committee have been held, and in March, 1909,
the Committee was addressed by Dr Joseph A. Holmes, of the Commission.
In March, 1909, the Committee, through its Chairman, requested Mr
Pinchot to furnish, through cooperation with the Forest Service,
suggestions as to the best methods to be pursued by the railroad
companies for the prevention and control of forest fires, with
statistics of the loss from such cause, and urged upon the Commission
the importance of endeavoring to effect reduction in the tariff on
cross-ties and in lumber rates, in order to make it possible for the
railroad companies to import ties and save thereby the home supply. The
cooperation of the Committee was offered with the forest-products
laboratory at the University of Wisconsin, or with any of the National
or State organizations.
On May 13, 1909, an elaborate report was transmitted to the Committee by
the National Conservation Commission, through Secretary Shipp,
containing valuable suggestions as to the possibilities of railroad
companies assisting the work of Conservation by thorough methods of
prevention and control of forest fires and the cultivation of timber for
railroad purposes, by the use of sawed instead of hewed ties, the use of
treated timber and the extension of the supply of creosote, and other
features, many relating to timber resources. This report was transmitted
by the Committee to the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of
Way Association, published by the Association, and distributed
throughout the country in one of its bulletins. Dealing directly, as it
does, with those features of Conservation that affect the railroad
companies and their patrons, and having a circulation among railroad
officers covering the United States, as well as large portions of Canada
and Mexico, the results should be exceedingly beneficial to the cause of
Conservation.
In March of this year the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance
of Way Association, recognizing the growing importance of the
Conservation movement, established the Special Committee as one of the
Standing Committees of the Association, at the same time largely
increasing its personnel and bringing into membership a number of
prominent railroad officers of this country and Canada.
The work of the Committee has been divided into sub-committees for the
purpose of specialization; these, with an outline for investigation are
as follows:
_No. 1--Tree planting and general reforestation_
_a_--Extent of existing forests considered in connection with
increase of growth and consumption
_b_--Judicious selection of tree varieties for planting, and
locality and soil conditions considered; possibility of value
from growth on cut-over land
_c_--Methods of planting and cultivation, with cost of same,
considering possibilities from cut-over lands
_d_--Anticipated results at maturity from trees so produced
_e_--Methods and costs of caring for and protecting existing
forests
_No. 2--Coal and fuel-oil resources_
_a_--Extent of existing supplies, considered in connection with
consumption
_b_--Extent of waste in production
_c_--Economic consumption, giving consideration to practical
use of by-products
_No. 3--Iron and steel resources_
_a_--Supplies of raw material, considered in connection with
consumption
_b_--Waste in production
_c_--Best methods of protecting finished products from
destructive influences
The Committee will continue on the lines of investigation as shown, and
holds itself in readiness to cooperate with the National Conservation
Commission and its kindred and subsidiary organizations, as well as
other National societies, for the furtherance of the great principles of
Conservation of the Nation's resources.
The Committee: