Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1908-05-26

4
deavors to lay foundation for the pro-
motion of the fortunes of his son, so
should this nation strive to build and save
| for the next generation-this was the
keynote of President Rooseyelt's 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 whole viii suffer greatly. Inasmuch
as it is now within the power of tbs gov
eminent and of the people to begin sane
and 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 of
| natural resources is in effect a meeting of
| the representatives of all the people of the
| United States called to consider the weight
| lest problem now 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 Gid wasteful methods of exploiting them
| logger 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 have been
| such vital factors In the growth and great
ness or this nation, and how little they re-
| satisfy their needs
Since then our knowledge and use OF the
resources of the present territory of the
! United States have increased hundredfold
| Indeed, the growth of this nation by
leaps and bounds makes one of the most
striking and important chapters in the his
| 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
or resources in a more lavish degree than
! ass 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 thoroughness of
| the control we have achieved over nature
| but we are more. and not less, dependent
| upon what she furnishes than at any pre-
| vfous time of history since the days of
/ primitive man.
| The wise use OF all of our natural re-
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
haustion OF some of them, due to reckless
| and wastefuI use, once more calls for COM
| mon effort. common action
Disregarding for the moment the ques
ton of roral purpose, il 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 It's
| landed possessions were illimitable 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 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.
We began with coal fields more extern
| siye than those of any other nation and
with iron ores regarded as inexhaustible
/ and many experts now declare that the end
/ of both iron and coal is in sight.
| The mere increase in our consumption
| of coal during 1907 over 1906 exceeded the
| total consumption in 1875, the centennial
| year.
| The enormous stores of mineral oil and
| gas largely gone.
1 Our natural waterways are not gone, but
| they have been so injured by neglect, and
| by the division of responsibility and utter
| lack of system in dealing with them, that
/
| there was fifty years ago
| Finally, we began with soils of unex-
! ampled fertility and we have so impover-
ished them by injudicious 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-
| ousy what will happen when oar forests
| are gone, when the coal. the iron, the oil
| and the gas are exhausted, when the soils
| shall have been still further impoverished
| and washed into the streams polluting the
! rivers denudng 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 natuI al resources
| that would be shown by any prudent man
| in conserving and widely using the prop
erty which contains the assurance of we'll
| being for himself and his children.
Cannot Renew Minerals.
| The natural resources / have enumerated
| can be divided into two sharply distinguish
| ed classes accordingly as they are or are
| not capable of renewal
| Mines IL 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 undiminished 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 its 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 feIled 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
when the sOiI-wash from the farmers
/ fields choked the neighboring river be
| thought only of using the railway rather
| than boats for moving his produce and sup
| plies
| age the son of the farmer of to-day must
| make his living on his fathers farm
| There is no difficulty in doing this If
| the father will exercise wisdom. No wise
use of a farm exhausts its fertility. SO
| with the forests We are over the verge
| of a timber famine in this country and il
| is objectionable for the nation or the States
/ to permit any further cutting of our tim
| Der save in accordance with 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
| of 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 as TO complete a great sys-
/ tan nf nnfarwazs on the Pacific Atlantic