Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1908-05-22

should ms nation STRIVE " puilu anu save
for the next generation-this was the
KEYNOTE Of President Roos"velts address
at the opening of the conference on the
conservation of natural resources.
If the future is not wisely anticipated.
President Roosevelt believes, the country
as a whole will suffer greatly. lnasmuch
as it is now within the power of the gov
ern ment and of the people to begin a sane
md sensible program of conservation, why
not do it? The President emphasized
these points strongly. He opened his
speech with a word of welcome, and then
said in part:
This conference on the conservation or
natural resources is In effect n meeting or
the representatives Of all the people OF the
United States called TO consider the weight
lest problem now before the nation ana
the occasion for the meeting lies in the lact
that the natural resources OF our country
are in danger of exhaustion II we permit
the old wasteful methods of exploiting them
longer to continue.
1t is almost impossible for us in this
day to realize how little our revolutionary
ancestors knew of the great store of natural
resourCeS whose discovery and use nave been
such vital factors in the growth ana great
ness of this nation. and how little they re-
CURED to take from this store in order 10
satisfy their needs.
Since then our knowledge and use of the
resources of the present territory of the
United States have increased a hundredfold,
Indeed, the growth of this nation by
leaps and bounds makes one of the most
striking and important chapters in the MS
tory Of the world.
Its growth has been due to the rapid
Development. and alas! that it should be
said, to the rapid destruction, OF our nat
ural resources.
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 case at any other time or
With any other people.
Our position in the world has been at
tanned by the extent and horoughness 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.
sources. which are our national resources
as well, is the great material question OF
to-day.
have asked you to come together now
because the enormous consumption OF these
resources and the threat of imminent eX-
h%austion of some of them, due to reckless
and waStcful use, once more calls for com
mon effort, common action.
Disregarding for the moment the ques-
ton of moral purpose. 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 equally clear that these resources are
the final basis of national power and per-
petuity. Finally, it is ominously evident
that these resources are in the course OF
rapid exhaustion.
This nation began with the belief that its
landed possessions were illimitable and
capacle of supporting all the people who
might care to make our country their home
but already the limit of unsettled land is
in sight. and indeed but little land fitted
for agriculture now remains unoCcupied
save what can be reclaimed by irrigation
and drainage.
Timber Half Gone.
We began with an unapproached heritage
Of forests more than half of the timber
is gone; :.
sive than those of any other nation and
with iron ores regarded as ineXhaustible
and many experts now declare that the enc
of both iron and coal is in sight.
The mere increase in 0Gr consumpti1n
total consumption in 1876, the centennial
year.
The enormous stores of mineral oil and
gas nre largely gone.
Our natural waterways are not gone, but
they have been SO injured by neglect, and
by the division of Responsibility and utter
there is less navigation on them now than
there was fifty years ago:
Finally, we began with soils of unex
ampled fertility and we have so impover
lshed them by iniudicious use and by failing
to check erosion that their crop-producing
power is diminishing instead of increasing
We have become great because of the
lavish use of our resources and we have
just reason to be proud of our growth.
But the time has come to inquire seri,
ously what will happen when our forests
are gone, when the coal. the iron, the oil,
and TIE gas are exhausted, when the soils
shall have been still further impoverished
and washed into the streams, polluting the
rivers. denuding the fields, and obstructing
navigation.
1t Is time for us now as a nation to
exercise the same reasonable foresight in
dealing with our great natural resources
in conserving and widely using the prop
erty which contains the assurance of well
being for himself and his children.
Cannot Renew Minerals.
The natural resources l have enumerated
can be divided into two sharply distinguish
ed classes accordingly as they are or are
not capable of renewal.
Mines If used must necessarily be ex-
hausted. The minerals do not and cannot
renew themselves Therefore in dealing with
the coal, the oil, the gas. the iron, the
metals generally, all that We can do is to
try to see that they are wisely used. The
exhaustion is certain to come in time.
The second class of resources consists
Of those which can not only be used in such
manner as to leave them undininished for
our children, but can actually be improved
by wise use. The soil, the forests, the
waterways come in this category.
In dealing with mineral resources, man
is able to improve on nature only by put
ting the resources to a beneficial use which
in the end exhausts them but in dealing
with the soil and it's products man can
improve on nature by compelling the re-
sources to renew and even reconstruct them
selves in such manner as to serve increas-
ingly beneficial uses-while the living
waters can be so controlled as to multiply
their benefits.
Neither the primitive man nor the pioneer
was aware of any duty to posterity in deal
ing with the renewable resources.
When the American settler felled the
forests. he felt that there was plenty of
forest left for 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 it was with his immediate
successors.
When the soiI-wash from the farmers
fields choked the neighboring river he
thought only of using the railway rather
than boats for moving his produce and sup
plies. .
Now all this is changed. On the aver
age the son of the farmer of today must
make his living on his fathers farm.
There is no diff guilty in doing this if
the father will exercise wisdom. No wise
use of a farm eShausts its fertility. SO
with the forests. 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 tim
Der save in accordance with a system which
will provide that the next generation shall
see the timber increased instead of dimin-
ished.
Value of Irrigation.
Moreover, we can add enormous tracts
If the most valuable possible agricultural
land to the national domain by irrigation in
the arid and Semiarid regions and by drain
age of great tracts OF swamp land in the
humid regions.
We can enormously increase our trans
portation facilities by the canalization of
our rivers so as to complete a great sys-
TEN of waterways on the Pacific, Atlantic,