The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-09-23
CONSERVATION, THEME Of
MENDENHALL and HOSMER


would disappear for an hour at MONDAY
month or year or century later,
would have been jeered at. Now we do
not question the accuracy of predictions
of lunar eclipses. Eighteen years ago
when Mai. j. w. Powell, second direc-
tor of the u. S. Geological Survey, told
a great gathering of irrigators and pro-
moters in the Southwest that when
every available drop of water in the
arid states and territories was fully
utilized, not FIVE per cent of the deserts
could be irrigated, he was greeted by
wells of derision He was right by a
wide margin, and the 10000 who con-
tradicted him were wrong, but he could
not prove his point, because the neces-
sary facts had not been collected. This
collection was soon begun, however, and
the foundation for the Reclamation Ser
vice was thereby laid. When fifteen
or twenty years ago forest conservation
was first advocated IN the United States
the advocate was told that he was a
fool, that the timber resources Of the
mainland were so vast that they could
not be exhausted, and though he did not
believe it, he could not prove his point;
but the mapping of forest areas and
the estimation of standing timber and
of its annual reduction began forth
with, and now with these estimates
fairly complete, the Forest Service is
able to tell us authoritatively that with
out radical change in policy, our for
ests viii disappear in 30 or 40 years.
From time to time voices have been
heard advocating regulation of coal and
iron mining, because of danger OF ex-
haustion of the reserves of these min
erals but the facts have not existed I'M
til recently to prove this anxiety TO be
well based. As the result, however, of
more than 25 years of patient explora-
ton and investigation and careful map
ping, the e. S. Geological Survey is
now able to present fairly satisfactory
estimates of the reserves Of these and
many other natural resources, and of
their rate of exhaustion, SO that here
also tie advocate of policy of con
servation mas facts upon which to base
his argument. AS a result, the word
with which in the old days he was al
ways halted, namely, "inexhaustible,
has disappeared from the vocabulary of
the opponents of the policy
Thus you see that the movement for
which this meeting stands and in the
practical application of which the Ter
ritory of Hawaii has made great ad-
vances, is not one of sudden nor of
particularly recent growth. The Fed
eral Bureaus have been patiently pre-
pairing for that time, when evidence
should exist that would enable the ire
sistible logic of the movement to he
| asserted, and when a champion should
arise TO whom the people should listen.
! The man and the hour arrived in
Roosevelt 8 administration and the
effective champion appeared in Clifford
[ Pinehot, with his broad grasp, his earn
| est practical idealism and his. charm
ling personality.
With the contemporaneous appear
/ ance of all these favorable factors the
movement suddenly blossomed out like
/ the eereus, in night as it were, and
the nation woke up to realization
that great movement was underway.
! Now that realization of the wisdom
of the policy and of the need of action
has been forced upon the nation, the
time for definite constructive policies,
and for legislation is here. This does
not mean that the stock taking period
is past. The census of our existing re.
s sources is not by any means complete
and must be continued; and it does not
:. mean either that there has been no con-
servation legislation. There are initial
laws among our Federal statutes and
you have territorial enactInents that
give force to the movement. In short,
the periods of the propaganda and of
action, legislative and executive, over
lap; nevertheless, that period upon
which we have just entered is essen.
tally one of translating into law, those
conservation policies which are sufi-
.. GENTLY fully tested to justify this &C.
, ton. There is danger in this move
ment, as in any movement that has be-
come popular. that its unwise friends
. may bring about the passage of prema-
ture or of ill-considered laws that may
retard instead Of advance the funda-
mental idea of conservation, namely
, the maximum possible beneficial use OF
all resources, now and in the future
or as it has been recently well ex,
pressed, "the greatest good of the
greatest number, for the longest timee'
1T opposes undue sacrifice of the future
for the present but it does not, as
some of its opponents maintain, advo
cate undue sacrifice of the present fol-
the future. It always opposes needless
. waste.
The work which Mr.. Leighton and
/ are beginning here by invitation OF
your Governor and other territorial of
tieials, has to do with the stock taking
phase of one branch of conservation
| work, namely, conservation of the watel
: resources. As all arid or semi-arid sec
lions increase in population, there comes
time when the mounting value OF
agricultural land brings about kee1
demand Tor water, through whose USE
l alone, dry lands can be made produc
: tive.
. shortsighted policy leads to tn,
i easiest use In the cheapest possible way
r of the most obvious sources, to tn
: neglect of others of perhaps equal pc
: tential value. And the construction O.
canals and irrigation systems on thi
b basis may make impossible the fna
e utilization of all the sources, just a
!, hurried careless numbering may rende
n unavailable for man s use, more timbe
I than is harvested
Il A farsighted policy on the othe
: hand calls first for study of all tn
sources, their relations to one another
e their character, the habit of flow o