Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1907-10-10
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT POINTS
TO NECESSITY OF CON-
SCRANTON.
PRESERVATION OF FORESTS
Consumption of Timber Is Three
Times Greater Than Its Reproduc-
tion--Hope for the Future Should not
Be Destroyed in Advance-EyiI of
Unrestricted Securities.

Memphis, Tenn, Oct 8.-"Hitherto
such opportunities for using water to
double purpose have not always been
seized. Thus it has recently been
shown that water enough is flowing
) unused over government dams, built
to improve navigation, to produce
many hundreds of thousands of horse
power. 1t is computed that the annual
value OF the available but unused wa
ter power in the United States exceeds
the annual value of the products of
all our mines. Furthermore, it is cal
culated that under judcious handling
the power OF our streams may be made
to pay for all the work required for
the complete development and control
of our inland waterways"
This interesting declaration was
made by President Roosevelt in his
address yesterday before the water
ways convention. The president said
the forests are the most effective pre-
venters of floods, especially when they
grow on the higher mountain slopes
The national forest policy, inaugurated
primarily to avert or mitigate the tim
Der famine which is now beginning
to be felt, has been effective also in
securing partial control of floods by
retarding the run-off and checking the
erosion of the higher slopes within the
national forests. Still the loss from
soil wash is enormous. 1t is com
puted that one-fifth of a cubic mile
In volume, or one billion tons in weight
OF the richest soil matter of the Unit
ed States, is annually gathered in
storm revulets, washed into the riv-
ers. and borne into the sea. The loss
to the farmer is in effect a tax greater
than all other land taxes combined
and one yielding absolutely no return.
The department of agriculture is now
devising and testing means to check
this enormous waste through improved
methods Of agriculture and forest
management.
He advised the Waterways Commits
sion that it had a task broader than
the consideration of waterways alone;
that there is an intimate relation be-
tween our streams and the develop
ment and conservation of all the other
great permanent sources of wealth.
Many of these sources" he said,
which we have been in the habit of
calling inexhaustible are being rapidly
exhausted or in certain regions have
actually disappeared. Coal mines, oil
and gas fields, and iron mines in i'm
portant numbers are already worked
out. The coal and oil treasures which
remain are passing rapidly, or have
actually passed into the possession of
great corporations, who acquire omin-
Gus power through an unchecked con-
troll of these prime necessities Of life;
a control without supervision of any
kind We are consuming our forests
three times faster than they are being
reproduced. Some of the richest tim
Der lands of this continent have al
ready been destroyed, and not replaced
land other vast areas are on the verge
of destruction. Yet forests, unlike
mines, can be so handled as to yield
the best results of use. without ex-
haustion. just like grain fields. 1t is
the plain duty of those of us who for
the moment are responsible to make
Inventory of the natural resources
which have been handed down to us.
to forecast as well as we may the
needs of the future, and so to handle
the great sources OF our prosperity as
not e. destroy in advance all hope for
the pro sperity of our descendants"
| The president spoke again of the
Panama canal declaring it to be one
Of the greatest of national projects.
The work is one. he said that entails
grave responsibilities that must grow
out of it, Turning then to the ques-
ton OF control and supervision he said
In conclusion;
SIN the matter OF supervision of the
great railway corporations we are act.
/ ing as all civilized governments have
already acted or are cG the point Of
aetpg The unresr .cted issue OF rail.
say securities without any supervis.
ion. and under circumstances which
often result in the grNvest scandal,
should not be permitted. and only by
governmental action car 1t be prevent.
ed. 1t is already thus prevented in
England and Germany, for instance.
OF course, in any government looking
to the regulation of vast corporate
wealth engaged in interstate business.
connected herewith. there will at
times be suffering in which. unfor.
tunately, may innocent people will be
involved. Bat such suffering OF the in.
nocent Is unavoidable in every great
movement OF lie. Able and unscru.
pulous men are sure to deceive certain
innocent outsiders and persuade them
to invest in ventures under conditions
which render loss certain when the