Evening star., 1908-01-29
WILSON'S WELCOME
Secretary of Agriculture
Greets Forestry Association
AT ANNUAL Meeting TODAY
Reports of Board of Directors and
the Treasurer Read.
ADDRESS BY CLIFFORD PINCHoT
Conservation Of the Natural Re-
sources Of Country Regarded
as Vital Question.

as Vital Question.
Secretary Wilson of the Department
of Agriculture welcomed the members
of the American Forestry Association,
of which he is president. at it's 9th
annual meeting. which opened in the
red room OF the New Willard at ten
| o'clock this morning. The secretary said
that the nation had come to point when
it must decide whether it is to lose the
use of the rivers in the east and south.
| those in the west being fairly well taken
care Of. He hoped that Congress would
take action to assure the beginning Of
the work of preservation of the forests
and safeguarding Of the watersheds.
| Secretary Wilson was obliged to leave
the meeting and he called to the chair
Col. William S. Harvey. Reports of the
board Of directors and OF the treasurer,
were then read by Thomas E. Will, Sec
retary and Otto Luebkirk. treasurer,
from which it appeared that the present
membership OF the association is 6555.
and that 1,I35 of the members have
been added during the past year as
the result Of an active vampaisn. En-
L q
the progress of forestry work in various
| states, and the effort to interest the public
| In the proposed White Mountain-Appa-
lachian park was described.
Col. Harvey then introduced Clifford
| Pinchot. forester. paying high honor for
| the work which he has done for the ma
tion, and describing him as "the custodian
and trustee of the largest and most valu-
able asset OF any single corporation in the
| world-1620 600 acres of land, of which
l almost imnOgafhIa n ho
| present value. in billions. and of which
the future value is beyond estimate
Mr.. Pinchot's Address.
Mr.. Pinchot spoke, in part, as follows:
/ "The question Of the conservation of the
natural resources is coming to be a vital
question in the minds of our people This
is the first time in history that great
nation has declared that it will take in
telligent charge Of the land over which it
has control and will make the best use of
the natural resources which have been
gwen TO 1t, both for the present and for
the future. BY virtue of this conception
or the duty of the nation. our natural
resources. which We have undertaken to
handle along many different lines, be-
come so many elements in the solution
of the great single problem.
Wnether IT is a conservation of the
| forests for the sake Of the timber. and the
preservation of the water power for the
| domestic supply. or for the sake of navi-
cation. whether it is the protection of the
| public lands of the west in order to
provide more homes for the people,
whether 1t is the safeguarding OF min
Ieral fuel 10 prevent the exhaustion OF that
prime necessity of our civilization. what
ever unit Of conservation it may be. we
know at last that 1t is but part of one
single problem. the elements of which
are SO interrelated that it is impossible to
problem of conservation and all its other
elements. You can no more separate
forestry from navigation than you can
seperate mining from the timber supply,
for the one great essential for navigation
is to prevent the filling of channels with
silt. and that depends directly upon forest
protection. 1t follows that the conserva-
ton of the soil at the headwaters Of
streams is in very real sense at the
root Of the great movement for better
waterways, which you have wonder
fully advanced at this meeting.
Each Problem Considered.
There are men working exclusively at
! each one of these problems-at forestry.
irrigation navigation. water power. recla-
nation of the public lands and conserva-
ton of fuel: but in whatever single one
of these movements man may be most
interested. whether it is in navigation
1t is in the Mississippi valley and fourteen
| feet from the lakes to the gulf or the Co
| lumbia, the Colorado or the Sacramento
| rivers. whatever part of this great gen
erai movement a man may be pushing.
| he is a unit in one great marching army,
| and the progress of one means the prog
| rcSs of all. Every man who is committed
to one element Of this problem is avail
| able to help every man who Is interested
| in any other element of it, and as we
i shoulder n
| shall carry all our projects through be-
cause all are for one and one for ALL
| This movement has a greater meaning
than the wisest of us are yet able to
| fully comprehend. It's influence will be
| far-reaching; it will greatly help the ma
| ton in our time. but its advantages will
be still more apparent in the future. The
orderly development and intelligent use
| Of our natural resources by the nation
| In the same way that a man would de-
| velop and use property which he wanted
| to hand down to his sons means for the
| nited states great and happy future
me waste OF tnese resources means that
We shall repeat the conditions we see in
| north Africa, in Greece. in Spain and in
| Palestine. We are no more beyond the
| operation of natural laws than the older
nations were. and the same neglect OF
the funda mental basis of land and water
Will bring upon us or upon our descend
ants the same results that have come
| 10 those countries.
| Work in the States.
J. I. Rothrock. secretary OF the Penn.
sylvania State Forestry Association. then
| spoke briefly of the work in his state.
urging earnestly that young forests should
not be so taxed as to force owners ia
cut them down. He was followed by Gen
| Alfred Noble. Secretary of the interior
| under President Harrison. Gen. Noble is
sued the first orders for forest reserves
those setting apart the Yellowstone ana
Yosemite national parks. He urged a
| continuation of the present forest policy
so that the nation might redeem the mast
and be true TO the trust which it held for
| future generations.
Representative Reeder of Kansas, chair
man of the House committee on Irrigation
spoke in approval Of the aims Of the asso-
citation. asserting himself an earnest ad-
| vocate of forest preservation James
Peck Of Cleveland. Ohio. and Lakewood
l L ad