The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1908-12-15
FAVOR JOINT ACTION
TO SAVE RESOURCES
Thirty Governors Approve Fed
eraI and State Cooperation.
PLAN TO STOP TIMBER WASTE
Conservation Conference at Washing
ton, ID. O., Hears Reports on
Forests and Waterways = Esti-
mates of Loss Startling.

Washington, D. prophetic O.
far-reaching results growing out O.
the joint conservation conference is
report drafted by more than thirty
Governors, approving the principle o.
cooperation among the States and
between the States and the Fedora
Government in the conservation oil
the country's natural resources and
emphasizing the Importance of such
cooperation.
The conference heard addresses
from Andrew Carnegie, Governor
Woodruff, of Connecticut; Governor
Ansel of South Carolina; Governor
Broward, of Florida; Governor De-
ueen, of Illinois; former Governor
Blanchard, of Louisiana, and other
distinguished men.
The joint conference, through a
Committee on Resolutions, summed
up it's deliberations and gave hearty
approval to the work and principles
of the commission. The enactment
of such laws as may be necessary to
extend cooperation was strongly
urged, and the policy of separate dis
posal of surface, timber and mineral
rights remaining on public lands was
commended.
A resolution was adopted provid-
ing for the appointment of a joint
committee of six members of State
commissions and three members of
the National Commission to prepare, a
plan for united action by all organi-
cations concerned,
The first figures of the inventory
of the forests of the United States
which the National Conservation
Commission has made were present
ed to the conference by Senator Reed
Smoot, of Utah, chairman of the sec
ton of forests The report said:
"Our forests now cover 100000
900 acres, or about one-fourth of the
United States The original forests
covered not less than $4,000, 900.
1--WE take from the forests each
year, not counting the loss by fire,
three and one-half times their yearly
growth.
eve invite by over-taxation the
misuse of our forests. We destroy
by fire enough standing timber in one
year to last the nation for three
months. We should plant, to protect
farms from wind and to make stripped
or treeless lands productive, an area
larger than that of Pennsylvania,
Ohio and West Virginia combined.
But so far lands successfully planted
to trees make total area smaller
than Rhode Island"
The report of the Inland Water
ways Commission, acting as the Sec
ton of Waters, was presented. 1t
said:
1T has been roughly estimated that
the inland waterways of the country
could be improved in ten years at a
cost of $50,000,000 annually in such
manner as to promote interstate COM
MERGE and at the same time greatly
reduce the waste and extend the use
of the waters. If done at the cost of
the people, the burden would be sixty
two and a half cents per capita per
year, or 1925 in all.
ut is roughly estimated that the
direct benefits would comprise an an
nual saving in transportation OF
$3.50, 100000, an annual saving In
food damage of 50,000,000, an
average annual saving in forest fires
of at least $25,000,000, an annual
benefit through cheapened power OF
fully SIS, 900, and an annual saw
Ing in soil erosion (of corresponding
benefit through increased farm pro
duction) of 100000, O00--a total OF
$1,000. 900, 900, or $12.50 per capita
annually, l. e.. twenty times the cost.
Reckoning the total cost of do,
nestle traffic by rail and water and
wagon, with freightage on imports, II
Is probable that the average American
family pays for transportation of food
and clothing more than twenty-five
per cent. of their actual cost. e.,
our consumers pay too much and our
producers get too little for the neces-
saries of life. This condition would
be relieved by the development of
water transportation on an adequate
scale"