Bisbee daily review., 1908-05-14
THE GOVERNORS
 IN CONFERENCE
 AT WHITE HOUSE
Dr. l. c. White, State Geologist
 of West Virginia Spoke or Waste of Our Fuel Resour- ces Other Speakers.

WASHINGTON, May 13.-President Roosevelt and Andrew Carnegie spoke this evening at the conference of governors at the White House.
 Dr. l. C. White, State Geologist ol West Virginia, spoke of "The Waste of Our Fuel Resources." He said in part:
 "A great geologist once said: The 1 Nations that have coal and iron will rule the world. Bountiful nature has lowered the American people with a | heritage of both coal and iron richer | by far than that of any other political | division on the earth.
 What accounts, can we, as a Ma tion give of our stewardship of such vast fuel treasures? Have we care fully conserved them, using only what was necessary in our domestic and | industrial life, and transmitted the ic- nainder like prudent husbandmen, unimpaired to succeeding genera tions? Or have we greatly depleted this priceless heritage of power and | comfort and source of world wide in- l fluence, by criminal waste and wan | ton destruction? The answer should 1 bring a blush of shame to every pa- triotic American, for not content with destroying our magnificent forests, the only fuel and supply of carbon I known to our foreIathers, we are with ruthless hands and regardless of the | future applying both torch and dyna- mite to the vastly greater resources of this precious carbon which provi- dent Nature has stored for our use in | the buried forests of the distant past The widest anarchists determined 10 destroy and oyerturn the foundations of government could not act in a more | irrational and thoughtless manner than have our people in permitting such fearful destruction of the very sources of our power and greatness.
 "The prospect Is not a pleasing one to contemplate. True the natural wealth of our beloved Union Is great and varied; our riches of soil, of for est, and stream are so vast if pre- served. and their boundless possibili- ties thoroughly utilized, that we would probably have the advantage of all other nations in the struggle for existence even after our Tuel re sources have been exhausted, but this l Is no reason why we should not do everything possible to conserve them so that we may retain to a remote future the great benefits which their possessions assures.
 Honorable Governors of the sever al states, the questions involved are those iu which you and your constitu- ents are yitally interested.
 ssThe dangsrs that confront the great Republic fTom abroad are as nothing compared to the perils that lurk in the shadows at he1ne. What | FO ! the wreath of industrial supremacy, #, in our thirst for gold and sudden riches. we permit corporate greed. <s well as individual avarice and selfish ness to waste and deyastate the very | sources of our prosperity? For just as sure as the sun shines and the sum Of two and two is four, unless the in sane riot of destruction and waste of our fuel resources which have charac- terized the past century, shall be speedily ended. our industrial power and supremacy will, after a meteor like existence, revert before the close oF the present century to those nations that conserve and prize at their prop CT value their priceless treasures ot
 carbon.
 l ''whatever is possible in the shape
 of legislation for the protection of our fuel resources must. from the nature of our federal constitution, be left en. tirely to the individual states which
 you represent. Twenty-nfne of the
 forty-six states of the Union produce
 coal and twenty-four of these produce
 more than a million tons annually
 while practically the same number pro
 duce vast quantities Of both petroleum
 and natural gas. The percentage of coal left in the ground beyond recovery
 there is from forty to seventy per cent in the different fields, to say nothing of the wasteful and eXtraya' gant use of the portion extracted
 while the waste cf natural gas, the
 most precious fuel of all. Is so vast tha. no one can even approximate the percentage. The task before you and
 your constituencies is in5eed fermid.
 able. The forces of greed and selfish
 ness are So entrenched behind cor
 porate power and influence, thar to
 attack them may often appear to you
 las useless as the labors of Sisyphus
 But as you love your states and coun
 try adjure you to take up this Tight
 for the conservation of our fuel re
 sources with the determination never
 to surrender until the forces of greed
 and avarice which are so rapidly sap
 ping the very foundations of our coun
 uy's greatness, capitulate, and agree
 to end the wild riot of destruction
 that has characterized the past.
 "The story of the awful waste ol
 our most valuable natural resources
 is one of such disgraceful character
 that it's exposition to the world i:
 necessarily nortifying to all patriotic Americans, but sense of duty to oul
 common country compels that thS truth be told, however humihating tC our national pride.
 'Forewarned is forearmed. and thi: conference, which has brought togeth CT so maay influential citizens from every state in the Union, should no lFap to be productive of unt1;d eOoC