Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-11
When the Governors
OF the States Meet

inroads of industry A century more can
not pass before the Lake Superior ore
beds will have ceased to be the greatest
source of our ore sui plies. however
many centuries will pass before the ore
reserves will be well used up. Nations
are not founded for present days alone
The hope of man from the earliest dawn
of civilization has been to transmit to
posterity the blessings of a stable gov
ernment and opportunities for individual
welfare Indeed. high heaven itself
stopped to earth to promise to Abraham
a posterity as numberless as the sands
of the sea shore and to equip that pos
terity with the power of working out its
own happiness.
And so today the United States stands
on the threshold of a new era We have
jealously guarded the governmental ma
chine that the fathers prepared for us.
and each loyal American citizen would
today freely defend it with his life to in
sur it's perpetuity. And since the lead
ers of thought in the nation have called
attention to these things it is expected
that men everywhere will join in the
movement to promote the material as
well as the political wellbeing of those
who live after them. Conservation of
Resources" will become the motto of this
new era. Man will be taught to use the
wealth that God and nature have given
them with a wise regard for the centuries
that are to come. The government will
teach them how to get the greatest use
out of the least material.
Coke makers now burn half as much
coal as they use. In iron and steel we
lead the world and soon will produce as
much as the rest of the world combined.
German blast furnaces make 200 tons of
pig iron a day, while there are those in
Ar,erca which make 600 tons, or solid
trainload, in twenty-four hours. Yet the
American furnace seems all but deserted
as compared with the ones in Germany.
for giant machinery takes mans place.
We have eliminated the human element
down to the last degree, yet we have been
a prodigaI of prodigals with our fuel.
Reveling in newly discovered joys of
much power we have forgotten to reckon
up its cost We have forgotten that as
the mill cannot grind with the water that
is past, so the fire cannot burn with the
coal that has been used. Every pound of
steel has cost more than pound Of ore
and two pounds of coal In 1880 the per
capita consumption of coal was one and a
half tons; today 1t is five tons. The per
capita consumption has increased twenty
fold in fifty years.
1t is estimated that each ton of coal
consumes $1,000 pounds of oxygen and
gives off $1,000 pounds of carbonic acid
gas. Thus the consumption of coal in
the United States make 5000, 900, ,000 600
pounds of this gas in a single year. Prac-
tically all of his escapes without doing
a bit of work. Yet 1t has been ehown
that producer gas for power purposes is
from two to three times as efficient as
steam. This gas can be made from
bituminous coal. The United States ge-
illogical survey has been conducting
experiments along this line and it's DEM
onstrations have been so wonderful as to
strain the credulity of even the most ex-
perienced manufacturers
Its activities find a counterpart in the
work of the forest service. This institu.
tion is ransacking the ends OF the earth
to find ways to utilize the annual wastes
in the timber fields. 1t is overlooking nc
opportunity to avert that disastrous day
when the forests shall be no more. But
everywhere it is realized that everything
the government and the states can dc
will amount to but little if there is not ar
educated public sentiment behind it. II
Is on the willingness Of the people tc
make use of the efforts of the government
/ that the success of the movement must
depend. Therefore a campaign of educa.
ton is the first thing on the program. II
was the realization of such necessity
that led President Roosevelt to issue his
unprecedented call. so that the world
would halt for once and give attention
1t was done to give impetus TO the spread
OF the conserving propagal. "a.