The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-05

the population ana wealth or seven teen States and Territories have been largely increased through irrigation. Yet this means of national develop ment is still in it's infancy, and it . will doubtless long continue to multi ply homes and increase. the produc- tiveness and power of the nation. The reclamation of overflow lands and marshes, both in the interior and along the coasts, has already been carried on with admirable results, but in this field, too, scarcely more than a good beginning has yet been made. Still another fundamentally important question is that of water power. Its significance in the future develop ment of our whole country, and espe- cially of the west, is but just begin ming to be understood The plan of , the city of Los Angeles. for example, to bring water for its use a distance of nearly 250 miles-perhaps the i boldest project of the kind in modern times-promises not only to achieve | its purpose, but in addition to produce water power sufficiently valuable to
 pay large interest on the investment of over $2S,00O,OOO.
 Hitherto such opportunities for us- ing water to double purpose have not | always been seized. Thus it has re- 1 gently been shown that water enough is flowing unused over government 1 dams, built to improve navigation, to l produce many hundreds of thousands i of horsepower. It is computed that the annual value of the available but unused water power in the United i States exceeds the annual value f the products of all our mines. Furth-
 ermore, 1t Is calculated that under
 judicious handling the power of our streams may be made to pay for all | the works required for the complete
 development and control of our in- i land waterways.
 Forests are the most effective pre-
 venters of floods, especially when they
 grow on the higher mountain slopes
 The national forest policy, inaugural
 ed primarily to avert or mitigate the
 timber famine which is now begin ming to be felt, has been effective also i in securing partial control of floods
 by retarding the run-off and check
 ing the erosion of the higher slopes within the national forests. still
 the loss from soil wash is enormous. It is computed that one-fflh of cu-
 bic mile in volume, or ore billion tons
 in weight of the richest soil matter of
 the United States, is annually gath cred in storm rivulets, washed into
 the rivers, 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 agri-
 culture is now devislng and testing
 means to check this enormous waste
 through improved methods of agri-
 culture and forest managefnnt.
 Citizens of all portions of the coun-
 try are coming to realize that, how
 ever important the improvement of
 navigation may be, 1t Is only one of
 many ends to be kept In view. The
 demand for navigation is hardly more
 pressing than the demands for re-
 claiming lands by irrigation in the
 arid regions and by drainage in the humid lowlands or for utilizing the
 water power now running to waste, or
 for purifying the waters so as to re-
 duce or remove the tax of soil waste.
 to promote manufactures and safe
 guard life. It Is the part of wisdom
 to adopt not tumble of unrelated
 plans, but aq single comprehensive
 scheme for meeting all the demands
 so far as possible at the same time , and by the same means. This is the
 reason why the Inland waterways
 commission was created in March
 last, largely in response to petitions
 from citizens of the interior, including
 many of the members of this con gress. Broad instructions were given , to the commission in accordance with
 this general policy that no plan
 should be prepared for the use of any
 stream for single purpose without
 carefully considering, and so far as
 practicable actually providing for,
 the use of that stream for every oth- CT purpose. Plans for navigation
 and power should provide with spe-
 eial care for sites and terminals not
 only for the immediate present but
 also for the future. It is because of
 my conviction in these matters that I
 am here. The Inland Waterways
 commission has task broader than
 the consideration of waterways alone. There is an Intimate relation between z our streams and the development and
 conservation of all the other great permanent sources of wealth. It is not possible rightly to consider the one without the other. No study of
 the problem of the waterways could hope to be successful which failed to , consider also the remaining factors in , the great problem of conserving all our resources. Accordingly. I have , asked the waterways commission to take account of the orderly develop , ment and conservation, not alone of 7 the waters, but also of the soil, the ' forests, the mines, and all the other 7 natural resources of our country.
 Many of these resources which we have been in the habit of calling in-
 exhaustible are being rapidly exhaust. 5 ed or In certain regions have actually - disappeared Coal mines, oil and 3 gas fields, and iron mines in import 7 ant numbers are already worked out l The coal and oil measures which re. l main are passing rapidly, or have I actually passed, into the possession o1 l great corporations, who acquire om- 8 inous power through an unchecked - control of these prime necessities oi . modern life; a control without super. = vision of any kind. We are consum. t ing our forests three times faster thar : they are being reproduced. Some o.