Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-05-14
TO CONSIDER RESOURCES.
Continued from Page One)

-
in which he asked Heavens help in the
deliberations to be had. At the conclu-
sion of the invocation, the President,
| without preliminary ceremony, began
| his address to the governors, saying in
part:
Governors of the several States; and
Gentlemen:
l welcome you to this conference at
the White House. You have come
! hither at my request so that we may
join together to consider the question
of the conservation and use of the
great fundamental sources of wealth
| of this Nation. So vital is this ques-
ton, that for the first time in our
history the chief executive officers of
the States separately, and of the
| States together forming the Nation,
| have met to consider it.
| With the governors come men from
each State chosen for their special ac-
quaintance with the terms of the
| problem that is before US. Among
them are experts in natural resources
| and representatives of national or
| CARNATIONS concerned in the develop
| ment and use of these resources; the
| Senators and Representatives in Con-
gress; the Supreme Court. the Cabinet,
and the Inland Waterways Commits
sion have likewise been invited to the
conference, which is therefore national
| in a peculiar sense.
This conference on the conservation
of natural resources is in effect a
meeting of the representatives of all
the people of the United States called
to consider the weightiest problem
now before the Nation; and the oc-
casion for the meeting lies in the fact
that the natural resources of our coun-
try are in danger of exhaustion if we
| permit the old wasteful methods OF
exploiting them longer to continue.
| With the rise of peoples from
savagery to civilization, and with the
consequent growth in the extent and
variety of the. needs of the average
man, there comes steadily increas-
| ing growth of the amount demanded
by this average man from the actual
resources of the country. Yet rather
| curiously, at the same time the
average man lis apt to lose his
realization Of this dependence upon
nature.
Savages, and very primitive peoples
generally. concern themselves only
with superficial natural resources;
: with those which they obtain from
the actual surface of the ground. AS
peoples become a little less primitive,
their industries, although in 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 a necessary
and prominent factor III life. Crops
are cultivated; animals are domesti-
Gated; and metals are mastered.
Every step of the progress of man
kind is marked by the discovery and
use of natural resources previously IN
used. Without such progressive knowl-
edge and utilization of natural re-
sources 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 civiliza-
ton. on the banks of the Nile and the
Euphrates, the industrial progress VI
II the world has gone on slowly, with oc-
casional setbacks, but on the whole
steadily, through tens of centuries, to
the present day. But of late Sthe
rapidity of the process has increased
at such a rate that more space has
been actually covered during the
century and a quarter occupied by our
national life than during the preceding
six thousand years that take us back
to the earliest monuments of Egypt, to
the earliest cities of the Babyloniar
plain
When the founders of this nation
met at Independence Hall in Philadel-
phia the conditions of commerce hao
not fundamentally changed from
what they were when the Phoeniciar
keels first furrowed the lonely waters
of the Mediterranean. The differ
ences were those of degree, not OF
kind, and they were not in all cases
even those of degree. Mining was
carried on fundamentally as it had
been carried on by the Pharaohs in
the countries adjacent to the Red
Sea.
/ The wares of the merchants of Bos-
ton, of Charleston, like the wares OF
the merchants of Nineveh and Sdon
if they went by water, were carried
by boats propelled by sails or oars; if
they went by land were carried in
wagons drawn by beasts of draft OF
in packs on the backs Of beasts of bur-
den. The ships that crossed the high
seas were better than the ships that
had once crossed the Aegean, but
they were of the same type, after all
they We're wooden ships propelled by
sails; and on land, the roads were not
as good as the roads of the Roman
| Empire, while the service of the posts
II was probably inferior.
II In Washington's time anthracite
coal was known only as useless
black stone; and the great fields OF
/ bituminous coal were undiscovered
/ AS steam was unknown. the use OF
coal for power production was un-
II dreamed of. Water was practically
the only source of power. save the
labor of men and animals; and this
Il power was used only in the most
4 primitive fashion. But a few small
iron deposits had been found in this
Il country, and the use of iron by our
countrymen was very small. Wood
was practically the only fuel. and