The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1908-05-15

telligence with which our natural re
sources are used. 1t is equally cleal
q that these resources are the final basi.
) of national power and perpetuity. Fin
I ally, it is ominously evident that these
resources are in the course Of rapit
r exhaustion.
Limit Of Unsettled Land Near.
7 This nation began with the belle!
that its landed possessions were Him
J liable and capable Of supporting al
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 fol
agriculture now remains unoccupied
save what a be reclaimed by irriga,
ton and drainage. We began with an
un~approached heritage Of forests; more
than half Of the timber is gone. We
began with coal fields more extensive
than those Of any other nation and
with iron res regarded as ~inexhaust,
ible, and many experts now declare
that the end of both iron and coal is
in sight.
LESS Navigation Than SO Years Ago.
The mere increase in our consump.
ton Of coal during 1907 over 1906 ex.
ceeded the total consumption in 1876,
the Centennial year. The enormous
stores of mineral oil and gas are large.
" gone. Our natural waterways are
not gone, but they have been so In
jured by neglect, and by the division
of responsibility and utter lack of
system in dealing with them, that
there is less navigation on them now
than there was SO years ago. Finally,
we began with soils of unexampled
fertility and we have so impoverished
them by injudicious use and by failing
to check erosion that their crop pro
ducing power is diminishing instead Of
increasing. In a word, we have
thoughtlessly, and to a large degree
unnecessarily, diminished the re-
sources pom which not only our pros
perity but the prosperity of our chill
dren must always depend.
/; Lavish Use Of Resources.
We have become great because of
the lavish use of resources and
we have just reason to be proud of our
growth. But the time has come to in
quire seriously what will happen when
our forests are gone, when the coal,
the iron, the oil, and the gas are ex-
hausted, when the soils shall have
been still further impoverished and
washed into the streams, polluting the
rivers, denuding the fields, and OBJ
structing navigation. These questions
do not relate only to the next century
or to the next generation. 1t is time
for US now as a nation to exercise the
same reasonable foresight in dealing
with our great natural resources that
would be shown by any prudent man
in conserving and widely using the
property which contains the assur-
ance of well-being for himself and his
| children.
Exhaustion Of Mines Certain to Come.
The natural resources I have enum-
Grated can be divided into two sharply
distinguished classes accordingly as
they are or are not capable of renew
al. Mines if used must necessarily be
exhausted. The minerals do not and
can not 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 ex-
haustion is certain to come in time.
The second class of con-
sists 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 putting the
resources to a beneficial use which in
the end exhausts them; but in deal
ing with the soil and its products
man a improve on nature by COM
pelling the resources to renew and
even reconstruct themselves in such
manner as to serve increasingly bene-
fetal uses-while the living waters
can be so controlled as to multiply
their benefits.
No Thought Of Economy.
Neither the primitive man nor the
pioneer was aware of any duty to pos
terity in dealing with the renewable
resources. When the American settler
felled the forests, he felt that there
was plenty of forest left for the sons
who came after him. When he ex-
hausted the soil on his farm he felt
that his son could go west and take
up another. So it was with his imme-
date successors. When the soil-wash
from the farmers fields choked the
ne%ighboring river he thought only of
using the railway rather than boats
for moving his produce and supplies.
Now all this is changed. On the
average the son of the farmer of today
-...- - ~ - So {. =. ~ 49,