Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-05-14

to improve on nature only by putting
the resources to a beneficial use which
in the end exhausts them; but in deal
ing with the soil and it's products man
can improve on nature by compelling
the resources to renew and even re-
construct themselves in such manner
as to serve increasingly beneficial
uses-while the living waters can be
so controlled as to multiply their bene-
fits.
Neither the primitive man nor the
pioneer was aware of any duty to
posterity in dealing with the renew
able resources. When the American
settler felled the forests, he felt that
there was plenty of forest left Tor the
sons who came after him. When he
exhausted the soil of his farm he felt
that his son could go West and take
up another So 1t was with his i'm
mediate successors. When the soil
wash from the farmers field choked
the neighboring river he thought only
OF using the railway rather than boats
for moving his produce and supplies.
Now all this is changed. On the
average the son of the farmer of today
must make his living on his fathers
farm. There is no difficulty in doing
this if the father will exercise wis
dom. No wise use of a farm ex-
hausts it's fertility. So with the for
ests. We are over the verge of a
timber famine in this country, and it
is objectionable for the Nation or the
States to permit any further cutting
of our timber save in accordance with
IT. Io
next generation shall see the timber
increased instead of diminished. More
over, we can add enormous tracts of
the most valuable possible agricultural
land to the national domain by irriga-
ton in the arid and semiarid regions
and by drainage of great tracts of
swamp land in the humid regions.
We can enormously increase our
transportation facilities by the canal
iZation of our rivers SO as to COM
plete great system of waterways on
| the Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf coasts
and in the Mississippi Valley, from
the Great Plains to the Alleghenies
and from the northern lakes to the
mouth of the mighty Father of
Waters But all these various uses of
our natural resources are so closely
connected that they should be
ooordinated, and should be treated as
| part of one coherent plan and not in
| haphazard and piecemeal fashion.
| 1t is largely becaues of this that I
appointed the Waterways Commission
last year and that 1 have sought to
| perpetuate it's work. u wish to take
| this opportunity to express in hearth
eI,,, 4 oil
| the members of the Commission. AT
great personal sacrifice of time and eff
| fort they have rendered a service to
the public for (which we can not be
| too grateful. Especial credit is due
to the initiative, the energy, the devo-
! ticn to duty and the .farsightedness of
iN'c-I PinclioE to whom We owe SO
much of the progress we have already
made in handling this matter of the
coordina ton and conservation OF
natural resources. If it had not been
fer him this convention neither would
nor could have been called.
| We are coming to recognize as never
before the right of the Nation to
guard it's own future in the essential
matter of natural resources. In the
past we have iadmitted the right Of
the individual to injure the future
of the Republic for his own present
profit. The time has come for a
change. AS a people we have the
right and theE duty, second to none
other but the right and duty of obey
irg the moral law, of requiring and
doing Justice, TO protect ourselves and
our children against the wasteful de-
velopment of our natural resources,
whether that waste is caused by the
actual destruction of such resources or
by making them impossible of develop
nent hereafter
Any right thinking father earnestly
desires and strives to leave his son
both an untarnished name and a rea-
sonable equipment for the struggle of
| life. So this Nation as a whole
should earnestly desire and strive to
leave to the next generation the ma
tionai honor unstained and the ma
tiCnal resources unexhausted. There
are signs that both the Nation and the
| State are waking to a realization of
| this great truth. On March 10, 1905.
the supreme court of Maine rendered
| an exceedingly important judicial de-
cision. This opinion was rendered in
response to questions as to the right
| Of the legislature to restrict the cut
| ting of trees on private land for the
prevention of droughts and floods, the
preservation of the natural water sup
ply and the prevention of the erosion
of such lands, and the consequent fill
ing up of rivers. ponds, and lakes.
| The forests and water power of Maine
constitute the larger part of her
wealth and form the basis of her in
dnstriai life, and the question sub
mitted by the Maine senate to the su-
pceme court and the answer of the
| sunreme court alike bear testimony to
the wisdom of the people of Maine,
ard clearly define policy of con-
servation Of natural resources, the
adoption of which is of vital impor-
lance not merely to Maine but to the
whole country.
| Sucli a policy will preserve soil, for
esfs, water power as heritage for
the children and the children's chill
dren of the men and women of this
generation; for any enactment that
provides for the wise utilization of
the forests. whether in public or
private ownership. and for. the con-
1