Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-05-14
CONFERENCE IS
UNPRECEDENTED
GOVERNORS MEET WITH THE
PRESIDENT
DISCUSS THE PRESERVATION OF
RESOURCES
Cabinet Officers, Supreme Court
Judges, Senators and Other Dig
nitaries Take Part in His
toric Conference
,oontinued from Page One,

CONTINUED from Page one)
before the nation; and the occasion for
the meeting lies in the fact that the
natural resources of our country are in
danger of exhaustion if we permit the
old wasteful methods of exploiting
them longer to continue.
Nature Is Kind
Nature has supplied to us in the Unit
ed states and still supplies to us more
kinds of resources in a more lavish oe-
gree than has ever been the case at
any other time and with any other peo-
nile. Our position i'm the world has been
attained by the extent and thorough
ness of the control we have achieved
over nature; but we are more, ana not
less. dependent upon what she fur
nishes than at any previous time OF MS
tory since the days of primitive man.
Yet our fathers, though they knew
so little of the resources of the coun-
try, exercised a wise forethouSnt III
reference thereto. WASHINGTON Cieal ~
saw that the perpetuity of the state
could only be secured by union, anu
that the only feasible basis of union
was an economic one; in other WORDS
that il must be based on the develop
ment and use of their natural re-
sources. Accordingly he helped TO out
line a scheme of commercial ueNeIop
ment, and by his influence an interstate
waterways commission was appolii'eu
bv Virginia and Maryland.
Considered Waterways
II met near where we are now meet
ing. in Alexandria, adjourned 10 NOUN
Ia
of Interstate commerce by the ohly
means then available, that of water
Further conferences were arranged
f;rst al Annapolis and then at Philddel-
mia. IT was in Philadelphia that the
representatives of all the States me- nct
for what was in its original cohcePtIoiti
merely A. waterways conference; put
When thew had closed their delibera-
tions the outcome was the constitution
which made the states into natloh'
The constitution of the United States
thus grew in large part out Oh the ne
cessity for united action III the Wise usO
of one of our natural resources Inc
wise use of all of our natural resources,
which are our national resources as
we'll is the great material question
ne TODAY. have asked you to come
together now because the enormous
consumption of these resources anu
the threat of imminent exhaustion oi
some of them. due to reckless anu anu
wastefuI use, once more CANS lor eoi"
mon effort, common action. A.,
Disregarding for the moment the
question of moral purpose, IL Is sale
Ia saw that the prosperity OF our peo-
ME denends directly on the energy dho
intelli yence with which our natural re-
sources are used 1t is equally cleai
that these resources are the hnal naslS
of national power and perpetuity
FINALLY it is ominously evident thal
these resources are in the course oil
rapid exhaustion.
Thought Possessions Unlimited
This nation began with the belief
that its landed possessions were him.
table and capable 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 agrlcul-
ture now remains unoccupled save
what can be reclaimed by irrigation
and drainage. We began with an UNI
annroached heritage of forests; more
than half of the timber is gone. we
began with coal fields more extensive
than those of any other nation anc
with iron ores regarded as lneXhaust'
ible, and many experts now declare
that the end of both iron and coal II
in sight.
The mere increase in our consump
tion Of coal during 1907 over 1906 ex
ceeded the total consumption in 1876
the centennial year. The enormous
stores of mineral oil and gas are large
w gone. Our natural waterways arr
not gone, but they have been so injured
nv neglect and by the division OF re
responsibility and utter lack OF system
in dealing with them that there is les
navigation on them now than there wa
fifty years ago
exampled fertility and we have so i'm
noverished them by injudicious use an
nv failing to Chez erosion that thel
crop producing power is diminishing
instead of increasing. In a WORD, w
have thoughtlessly, and to large de
gree unnecessarily, diminished the re
sources upon which not only our pros
perity but the prosperity of our chill
dren must always depend.
Greatness Due to Resources
We have become great because Q
the lavish use of our resources and w
have lust reason to be proud or GU
growth But the time has come I
inquire seriously what will happe
when our forests are gone, when IN
coal the iron. the oil and the gas ar
heen still further impoverished an
washed into the streams, polluting tn
rivers. denuding the fields and oh
structing navigation. These question
do not relate only to the next centur
or to the next generation. 1t IS TIM
, for us now as a nation to exercise IN
same reasonable foresight in dealin
y with our great natural resources tina
would be shown by any prudent ma
in conserving and wisely using tn
ntonerty which contains the assuranc
of well-being for himself and his chi
dren.
Timber Famine
We are over the verge of a timbo
famine in this country, and 1t is ur
pardonable for the nation or the state
to permit any further cutting of OF
timber save i'm accordance with sys
tenn which will provide that the ne2
generation shall see the timber ir
creased instead of diminished More
over. we can add enormous tracts {
the most valuable possible agriculture
land to the national domain by irrief
tion in the arid and semi-arid region
and by drainage of great tracts
swamp land in the humid regions.
We can enormously increase OF
transportation facilities by the canal
cation of our rivers so as 10 compile
a great system of waterways ON II
Pacific, Atlantic and gulf coasts an
i'm the Mississippi valley from II
great plains to the Alleghenies al
from the northern lakes 90 the mOut
of the mighty Father of Waters. ~
All these various uses of our natur
,lng ~ q