Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1909-01-27
SAVE RESOURCES
AND YET USE THEM
LANDS AND FORESTS coNsTl-
TUTE IMPROBABLE NATION
AL ASSETS.
HIGH GRADE IRON ORES suFFI-
GENT ONLY FOR END OF
CENTURY.
FIRE LOSS I'M 1907 EQUAL TO
oNE-HALF OF COST OF
CONSTRUCTION.

unsurpassed profusion, the sense OF
responsibility to the future has been
slow to awaken. Beginning without
appreciation of the measure or the
value of natural resources other than
land with water for commercial uses,
our forefathers pushed into the wilder,
ness and, through a spirit of enter
prise which is the glory of the nation,
developed other great resources. For
ests were cleared away as obstacles
to the use of the land; iron and coal
were discovered and developed, though
for years their presence added nothing
to the price of the land; and through
the use of native woods and metals
and fuels, manufacturing grew beyond
all precedent, and the country became
a power among the nations of the
world
Such is the thought introducing the
report of the national conservation
commission submitteds to President
Roosevelt by Chairman Clifford
Pinchot.
although the natural resources are
interrelated," says the report, they
are unlike and each class requires
distinct treatment The land is a
fixed quantity which can not be ma
terially increased, though its prOduc-
tivity and availability for the uses OF
man may be greatly augmented; the
forests are variable in quantity and
may be destroyed by fire, waste, and
improvident use, or protected and inn
proved in such way as to meet human
necessities. Together the lands and
the forests are improbable resources.
1.-The minerals are limited in guam
tity and can not be increased or i'm
proved by anything which man may
do. They are expendable resources.
"The fresh waters are limited in
quantity, though the supply is perma-
nent They form naturally renewal
BILE resource which man may do moth
ing to increase, but may do much in
the way of conservation and better
utilization.
1.-The treatment applied to each
class should be adapted to its own full
est development and best utilization
and to those of the other classes of
resources.
1.-The waste which most urgently re-
uuires checking varies widely in char
acter and amount. The most repre-
hensible waste is that of destruction,
as in forest fires, uncontrolled flow OF
gas and oil, soil wash, and abandon
ment of coal in the mines. This is at
tributable. for the most part to ignor-
ance. indifference. or false notions of
economy, to rectify which is the busl-
ness of the people collectively
Mineral Resources.
The report calls attention to the
fact that the mineral production of
the United States for 1907 exceeded
50. 900, 600 900. and contributed 65 per
cent of the total freight traffic of the
country The waste in the extraction
and treatment of mineral products
during the same year was equivalent
to more than 300,c00,000.
The production for 1907 included
395. OOO, 900 tons of bituminous and S.
100000 tons of anthracite coal. 1861
100000 barrels of petroleum, 45,0O0,-
GOO tons of high-grade and 100000
tons of low-grade iron ore, 100000
tons of phosphate rock. and $4,000
600 pounds of copper. The values OF
other mineral products during the
same year included clay products,
S162 100000; stone, s7n 100000; &C.
ment, S56.0O0,0O0; natural gas, $780,
100000; gold, s9O.OO0.O0O; silver. s37.
100000. lead s39,000000, and zinc,
S26,000,00ol
The available and easily accessible
supplies of coal in the United States
aggregate approximately 1,400, 000, 000,
600 tons. At the present increasing
rate of production this supply viii be
so depleted as to approach exhaustion
before the middle of the next century
the known supply OF high-grade iron
ores in the United States approximates
S,S40.000,000 tons, which at the pres
ent increasing rate consumption can
not be expected to last beyond the
middle of the present century. In adj
dition to this. there are assumed to be
59,000,000,e00 tons of lower grade iron
ores which are not available for use
under existing conditions.
Fire Cost Enormous.
The building operations of the coun-
try now aggregate about 81 900 .0oO.-
00o per year. The direct and indirect
losses from fire in the United States
during 1907 Appropriated $3.50, 000,-
e00 or one-half the cost of construc-
ton. OF this loss four-fifths. or an
average of $1,000. goo per day, could be
prevented. as shown by comparison