Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1908-05-20
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT SPEAKS
TO cNvENTIoN OF GOVERNORS
AND SCIENTISTS
GREATNESS HAS COME BECAUSE
OF LAVISH AND WASTE
Full USE.
NATION MUST GUARD ITS OWN
IN THE FUTURE OR DISASTER
WILL FOLLOW

Washington, May l4.-~This nation
began with the belief that its landed
possessions were illimitable and cap
Fable of supporting all the people who
! might care to make our country their
home; but already the limit Of unset
tied land is in sight, and indeed but
lit land fittel for agriculture now re-
! mains unoecupied save what can be
reclaimed by irrigation and drainage.
We began with an unapproaened herr
tage of forests; more than half of the
| timber is gone. We began with coal
feds more extensive than those of
any other nation with iron ores re-
garded as inexhaustible. and many ex-
perts now declare that the end of both
iron and coal is in sight"
So said President Roosevelt yester-
day when he addressed the conference
of governors. scientists and specialists
gathered at the white house to discuss
the questions involved in that compre-
hensiye view, the conservation of ma
tional resources.
The president said that the mere in
crease in our consumption of coal dur
ing 1907 over 1906 exceeded the total
consumption in 1876, the centennial
year, The enormous stores of min
eral oil and gas are largely gone.
Our natural waterways are not gone,
but they have been so injured by
neglect, and by the division of respon-
sibility and utter lack of system in
dealing with them, that there is less
navigation on them now than there
was fifty years ago. Fina ly, we began
with soils of unexampled fertility AMI
we have so impoverished them by
injudicious use and by falling to check
erosion that their crop producing
power is diminishing instead of increas-
! ing In a word, we have thoughtlesslg
and to a large degree unnecessarily,
diminished the resources upon which
not ony our prosperity but the pros
perity of our children must always de,
pend.
| We have become great because OF
the lavish use of our resources said
Mr.. Roosevelt and we have just rea
| son to be proud of our growth Bui
the time has come to inquire seriously
what will happen when our forests arr
gone when the coal, the iron, the OF
and the gas are exhausted, when thC
soils shall have been still further i'm
lpoyerished ard washed into the
streams, polluting the rivers, denud
ling the fie DIS, and obstructing navaga
Ition 1t is time for us now as a ma
ton to exercise the same reasonable
foresight in dealing with our great
natural recources that would be
shown by any prudent man in conserv
ing and widely using the property
which contains the assurance of well
being for himself and his children.
THE natural resources have epun;
Grated can be divided into two sharply
distinguished classes accordingly as
they are or not capable of renewal
Mines il used must necessarily be ex
hausted. The minerals do not and
can rot 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 exhaus
| ton Is certain to come in time.
J THE second class of resources
consists of those which can not only
be used in such manner as to leave
them undiminished for our children
| but can actually be improved by wise
use The soil. the forests, the water
ways come In this category In deal
ing with mineral resources, man il
able to improve on nature only by put
ting the resources to a beneficial use
which in the end exhausts them, but
nj dealing with the soil and its pro
ducts man can improve on nature b.
/ compelling the resources to renew ana
even reconstruct themselves in sucf
manner as to serve increasingly bene
fcial 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 pos
terity in dealing with the renewable
iresources. When the American set
tier fel1ed the forests, he felt thai
there was plenty of forest eft for this
SONS who came after him. When ht
exhausted the soil of his farm he fell
that his son could go west and take
up another So it was with his i'm
mediate successors. When the soil
wash from the farmers fields choket
the neighboring river he thought on
Of using the railway rather than boats
for moving his produce and supp les
| The President declared that all tint
is changed now and that on the aver
age the son Of the farmer OF TO-DAY
must make his living on his father
farm. There Is no difficulty in doinl
this II the father viii exercise wisdom
No wise use of farm exhausts III
fertility. So with the forests. We ar
over the verge of timber famine ii
this country. and il is unpardona.
for the nation or the states 70 perrHi
any further cutting Of our timber say
in accordance with system whicl
will provide that the next generation
shall see the timber increased in
s'ead Of diminished. Moreover. "
can add enormous tracts Of the mos
~aIuah'e mss bile agrienltura' lana {