The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1908-05-19
Timber Hall Exhausted.

This nation began with the belief that
its 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
hand is in sight, and indeed but little land
fitted for agriculture now remains unoc-
cupied save what can be reclaimed by ir-
rigation and drainage. We began with
an unapproached heritage of forests; more
than half of the timber is gone. We be-
gan with coal fields more extensive 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 1876, the centennial
year. The enormous stores of mineral oil
and gas are largely gone. Our natural
waterways are not gone, but they have
been so injured by neglect and by the di-
vision of responsibility and utter lack of
system in dealing with them that there is
less navigation on them now than there
was fifty years ago Finally we began
with soils of unexampled fertility, and
we have so impoverished them by 1njudi-
cious use and by failing to check erosion
that their crop producing power is dimin-
fishing instead of increasing. In a word,
we have thoughtlessly and to a large de-
gree unnecessarily diminished the re-
sources upon which not only our pros
perity but the prosperity of our children
must always depend.
The natural resources I have enumer-
ated can be divided into two sharply dis
tinguished classes accordingly as they are
or are not capable of renewal. Mines if
used must necessarily be exhausted The
minerals do not and cannot renew them
selves Therefore in dealing with the coal,
the oil, the gas, the iron, the metals gen.
orally, all that we can do Is to try to see
that they are wisely used. The exhaus-
ton is certain to come in time,
Resources That May Be Increased.
The second class of resources consists
of those which cannot only be used in
such manner as to leave them undimin-
ished for our children but can actually
be improved by wise use. The soil, the
forests the waterways, come in this cate
CORY.
Neither the primitive man nor the pio-
neer was aware of any duty to posterity
in dealing with the renewable resources
When the American settler felled the for
ests, he felt that there was plenty of for
est left for the sons who came after him.
Now all this is changed. On the aver
age the son of the farmer of today must
make his living on his fathers farm.
There is no difficulty in doing this IL the
father will exercise wisdom. No wise use
of farm eXhausts its fertility. So with
the forests. We are over the verge of a
timber famine in this country, and 1t is
objectionable for the nation or the states
to permit any further cutting of our TIM
Der save in accordance with a system
which will provide that the next genera
tion shall see the timber increased instead
of diminished. Moreover, we can add enor-
nous tracts of the most valuable possible
agricultural land to the national domain
by irrigation in the arid and semiarid re-
gions and by drainage of great tracts OF
swamp land in the humid regions. We
can enormously increase our transporta-
ton facilities by the canalization of our
rivers so as to complete great system OF
waterways on the Pacific Atlantic and
gulf coats and in the Mississippi valley,
from the great plains to the Alleghanies
and from the northern lakes to the mouth
of the mighty Father of Waters But all
these various uses of our natural re-
sources are so closely connected that they
should be co-ordinated and should be
treated as a part of the coherent plan
and not in haphazard and piecemeal fash
ion.
In addressing the conference, which
adjourned after three days session,
President Roosevelt declared that the
national government sought no usurpa-
ton of state powers; that all he de,
sired was to see the states act where
the power to act was vested in them.
The governors effected a permanent
organization. They will meet next year
at a place yet to be determined A
committee Of FIVE, of which Governor
Swanson OF Virginia is chairman, was
vested with the power to carry out
this arrangement
The question of state rights and fed
eral power was raised by Governor
Conner of Alabama, who has been in
conflict with the federal courts over
railroad legislation and control. The
president sought to clear the atmos-
phere. He spoke with emphasis and
enthusiasm as follows:
'Just word of what has been call
ed the twilight land between the pow
ers Of the federal and state govern
ments Ny primary aim in the legls-
Ia Il !