Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-05-13
CONFERENCE FOR CONSERVATION
OF NATIONS RESOURCES OPENS
WITH LEADING men ATTENDING


this average man from the actual re-
sources of the country. Yet, rather
curiously, at the same time the aver
age man is apt to lose his realization
of this dependence upon nature.
"Savages, and very primitive peo-
pies generally, concern themselves
only with superficial natural resources;
with those which they obtain from the
actual surface of the ground. AS peo-
pies become little less primitive.
their industries, although in a rude
manner, are extended to resources be-
low the surface; then, with what we
call civilization and the extension OF
knowledge, more resources come into
use, industries are multiplied, and
foresight begins to become necessary
and prominent factor in life. Crops
are cultivated, animals are domestica-
ted, and metals are mastered
Usc More Natural Resources.
Every step of the progress of man
kind is marked by the discovery and
use of natural resources previously
unused. Without such progressive
knowledge and utilization of natural
resources population could not grow,
nor industries multiply, nor the hidden
wealth of the earth be developed for
the benefit of mankind.
From the first beginnings of civil
ization, on the banks of the Nile and
the Euphrates, the industrial progress
of the world has gone on slowly, with
occasional setbacks, but on the whole
steadily, through tens of centuries to
the present day. But of late the rapid
ity of the process has increased at
such rate that more space has been
actually covered during the century
and quarter occupied by our national
life than during the preceding 5000
years that take us back to the earliest
monuments of Egypt, to the earliest
cities of the Babylonian plain.
Striking Chapter I'm History.
"The growth of this nation by leaps
and bounds makes one of the most
striking and important chapters in the
history of the world. Its growth has
been due 10 the rapid development.
and, alas, that it should be said. to the
rapid destruction of our natural re-
sources. Nature has supplied to us in
the United States, and still supplies to
us, more kinds of resources in a more
lavish degree than has ever been the
people Our position in the world has
been attained by the extent and thor
oughness of the control we have
achieved over nature; but We are
more, and not less, dependent upon
| what she furnishes than at any pre-
vious time of history since the days
of primitive man.
| "It is safe to say that the prosperity
of our people depends directly on the
energy and intelligence with which our
natural resources are used 1t is equal
| ly clear that these resources are the
final basis of national power and per
petuity. Finally, it is ominously evi
dent that these resources are in the
course of rapid exhaustion.
| Once Believed IncxhaustibIe.
"This nation began with the belief
that its landed possessions were il
limitable and capable of supporting al
the people who might care to make oul
country their home; but already the
limit of unsettled land is in sight, an(
/ indeed but little land fitted for agri
lculture now remains unoccupied save
what can be reclaimed by irrigation
and drainage We began with an un
approached heritage of forests; mor'
THAN half of the timber is gone w,
Ibegan with coal fields more extensiv,
than those of any other nation ant
with iron ores regarded as inexhausti
Bile, and many experts now declar
that the end of both iron and coal i
in sight.
Gives Striking Figures.
"The mere increase in our consumT
Ition of coal during 1907 over 1906 eA
lceeded the total consumption in 1S7t
the centennial year The enormou
stores of mineral oil and gas are large
ly gone. Our natural waterways ar
not gone, but they have been so IL
jured by neglect, and by the divisio
of responsibility and utter lack of sy!
tenn in dealing with them, that ther
: is less navigation on them now tina
there was so years ago Finally, W
began with soils of unexampled fe
tility, and we have so impoverishe
: them by injudicious use and by failin
to check erosion that their crop pr
ducing power is diminishing instead {
, increasing. In word, we have though
] llessly, and TO large degree, sunnece
sarily, diminished the resources upo
(which not only our prosperity but II
prosperity of our children must a
ways depend
Great Through Lavish Use.
"We have become great because
; the lavish use of our resources, al
h We have just reason to be proud
+, lour growth But the time has. come
d inquire seriously what will happe
If when our forests are gone, when Il
D coal, the iron, the OIL and the gas a
IS exhausted, when the soils shall ha'
" been still further impoverished al
Is washed into the streams, polluting Il
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