Chapter XXVI: Act 333: provided for conservation of natural gas and oil by preventing (4)

There has been in the past few years a marked increase of income per acre from cultivated land in Vermont, and a relatively greater income per acre than in the leading agricultural States, due, no doubt, to more intense farming, and there has also been an increase in the output of dairy products, while quarrying and stone-cutting manufactures have multiplied and taken a strong grasp on market opportunity. At the same time the great glory and strong defense of our State, its forests and its woodlots, have been conserved, and planting and scientific cutting have more and more become the rule. The reports from the stone industries indicate a growing demand for the manufactures of the State in granite, marble, and slate. The reports from agriculture indicate an increasing tillage and a larger financial return, an advance in the price of land, and vastly improved living conditions of the farm. The report from all the State commissions charged with the supervision of public health and the real life interests of the people supply increasing evidence of improved water supplies, of municipal lighting and power ownership, of increased transportation facilities, of reduction on accident hazards, and of steady advances in the art of and provision for public instruction.

In forestry, which is one of the greatest natural resources of Vermont apart from its vast contribution to the beauty of the State as a great natural park and game preserve, there has been the most marked advance. The office of State Forester was established in April of 1909, since which date its occupant, Mr A. F. Hawes, has made sixty-three addresses upon the subject in various parts of the State before numerous associations, agricultural societies, and forestry conventions. The State nursery under his direction has become one of the largest in the United States, today containing over 3,000,000 trees, and there have been sold within the past year--a remarkable exhibit for a State of our size--750,000 trees, distributed through every county in our State. Private timber holdings have been examined, detailed advices for handling many forests have been furnished, and in many instances trees have been marked for cutting by State advice on private lands. Besides this, there have been established two State forests of 800 acres which will be treated as subsidiary reservation nurseries to the one established at Burlington.

Attention has been and is being given to all details relating to the promotion of agriculture, forestry, dairying, minerals, and water powers, so that it is possible to advise you that Vermont is wholly alive to all natural, moral, educational, industrial, civic, and political propositions as they stand related to the Conservation of everything that will best promote the well-being and happiness of its people.

REPORT FROM WASHINGTON

E. G. GRIGGS

_Chairman Washington Delegation_

On behalf of the Washington delegation, of which I have the honor of being Chairman, I desire to congratulate this Congress and every delegate on the opportunity afforded us in hearing that grand interpretation of Conservation so ably presented by President Taft. It will live as an epic, and should be translated throughout the land.

Since that opening day I have been thrilled and electrified by this theme of Conservation, which is but another name for Patriotism, the husbanding of the Nation's resources.

The country is stirred by that same feeling which I sometimes think aroused our Fathers before the Civil War. Let us profit by the great forward steps they made in the determination of State and Federal rights. To us it has fallen to solve these patriotic, philanthropic, and commercial questions of the day.

I deplore the interjection of demagoguery and personal political advancement. I believe there is a sane, safe and sound Conservation that we can all practice. Above all things, let us eschew politics and throw a little more of that unselfish, self-sacrificing effort into this great fight for the Nation that characterizes our friend and collaborator, Gifford Pinchot.

We should leave this Congress united in this one idea at least, that we will stop the Nation's waste and encourage its development, so far as it lies within our power.

Eighteen years ago I left the State of Minnesota and this delightful city which was my home, to do my share in the development of the Pacific Slope--"I love its rocks and rills, its woods and templed hills." Wild horses could not drag me back to Minnesota, where fifty years ago my father pioneered, and is yet interested--not that I love Minnesota less, but only that I love Washington more. You have grown and developed great cities. Do not forget to let us do likewise.

We no longer say, with Greeley, "Go West;" we say, Come West. Under the classic shades of our noble forests and within easy access of the snow-capped peak of Mount Tacoma--that mother of water-powers and protector of forests--we are solving _our_ pioneer problems, and we are not lagging behind in the race.

Our citizenship is of the highest type and from all of your States, for it is composed of that progressive element that first made your own cities famous--and did not back out of big problems. We are no longer savages devastating the frontier and Uncle Sam's patrimony. He is no longer "rich enough to give us all a farm;" but we are citizens alive to the big problems of the day--and we are the virgin State in which Conservation and common sense can be practiced before it is too late. I predict for the State of Washington--with wise Federal and State legislation--a shining example of what horse-sense and Conservation will bring about.

If we sell our common lumber at the mills on Puget Sound for $8 to $10 a thousand, which is two to three dollars less than we got 15 years ago, and have to pay $600 to $700 for a team of horses in Minnesota today that 15 years ago we could buy for $200 to $300, is it any wonder that we lumbermen of the West are interested in Conservation?

Rich beyond measure in timber, coal, fish, mines, and agricultural lands, the great State of Washington is with you and your commissions that must finally work out and crystallize wise and patriotic legislation. Let us Nationally inventory our stocks and resources, unify and codify our laws affecting taxation and irrigation, liability and responsibility--develop our interstate commerce, and promote the general welfare.

REPORT FROM WEST VIRGINIA

HU MAXWELL

_Chairman State Conservation Commission_

Near the close of 1908 Honorable W. M. O. Dawson, then Governor of West Virginia, appointed a commission of three members, Neil Robinson, James H. Stewart, and Hu Maxwell, to prepare a report for the guidance of the Legislature in framing laws for the Conservation of the State's resources. The report was ready for the Legislature when it convened in January, 1909. It recommended a number of changes in existing laws, and the enactment of several new ones. Its principal recommendations were as follows:

1--A forest law providing for the prevention and suppression of fire, and for the care of woodlands and watercourses. A draft of the proposed law was included in the report.

2--A law to lessen the waste of natural gas, by requiring the plugging of wells when not in use, and saving the gas from others instead of permitting it to blow into the air. It was urged that effort be made to check the leak from gas mains.

3--For the purpose of checking the tremendous loss of by-products in coke making a law was recommended, to take effect five years from its passage, prohibiting the erection of any other than by-product ovens, but placing no restrictions on any ovens then in use, so long as they might last.

4--The State was urged to cooperate with the Federal Government in all reasonable ways for the improvement of navigable rivers in the State, and in the protection of mountain forests and the building of storage reservoirs to check the rush of floods and improve low-water conditions.

5--The establishment of an engineering school was recommended for the special purpose of educating men to develop and conserve the State's resources. It was pointed out that much of the practical work of Conservation does not depend so much on the enactment of laws as on the training of men to do the work. In this connection it was shown that vast quantities of low grade coal, which is now unmarketable, is thrown away or left in the mines, though it would be sufficient, if manufactured into producer gas, to furnish power to drive much of the machinery in the State and in surrounding regions. If the State's water-power were fully developed it would be sufficient to turn every wheel in the State, but this development cannot be brought about by laws alone; it must depend largely on trained men.

6--Better game and fish laws were recommended to take the place of the old laws which had failed to produce the desired results.

7--It was urged that prompt investigation be made of the question of municipal water supply in the State with the view to the prevention of pollution of the running streams.

8--It appearing probable that certain valleys in West Virginia would respond in a satisfactory way to irrigation, it was recommended that experiments be carried out to test the matter.

9--The State's natural scenery is such that it might be made a valuable asset, in connection with the protection of forests and streams, and the Commission recommended that the fact be borne in mind in laying out new roads, so that full advantage be taken of all scenic possibilities.

10--An immigration agency was recommended for the purpose of bringing into the State desirable immigrants who will cultivate the farms which suffer from neglect in many parts of the State.

11--Changes in road laws were urged which would make possible the building of permanent, durable, desirable highways in place of the gullies and precipitous paths which in many parts have been tolerated as roads from the earliest settlement of the region down to the present.

12--The purchase of land by the State in each of the congressional districts was recommended for farms to serve as models and object lessons for the surrounding farmers; their management to be in the hands of trained agriculturists.

* * * * *

The Legislature which convened in January, 1909, considered one or two of the recommendations of the Commission. A forest and game law was enacted, though it was not the measure which the Commission recommended. The law, however, is a good one so far as it goes, and if its provisions shall be carried out, much good may be expected.

No steps were taken by the Legislature to lessen the waste of natural gas or to save the by-products in coke making. A new highway law was enacted, and a State commission was appointed to study the road problem.

REPORT FROM WISCONSIN

E. M. GRIFFITH

_State Forester_

Governor James O. Davison appointed the Wisconsin State Conservation Commission July 24, 1908. The seven members appointed were men whose positions gave them a considerable knowledge as to the natural resources of the State, and the Governor gave the Commission full authority to call upon any State department for detailed information.

During the summer of 1908 the Commission held several meetings in the Capitol, and reports were prepared on the three most important and pressing Conservation problems in Wisconsin, viz: water-powers, forests, and soils. A full report covering these three subjects was then made to the Governor, and this the Governor transmitted to the Legislature in February, 1909. The Commission made the following recommendations:

WATER-POWERS. 1--That franchises for water-powers be granted under a general statute.

2--That the issuing of such franchises be placed in the hands of the railroad rate commission, or similar board, under conditions to be provided by a general statute.

3--That such franchises be in the nature of leases for a long term of years. Such leases should be renewable on equitable terms. Rentals should be low, and should be applied to the extension of the State forest reserve.

4--That a reasonable Conservation charge be levied on all developed water-powers on rivers of which the headwaters are protected by forest reserve lands, the income from such charge to be applied to the extension of the State forest reserve.

5--That the survey of the water-powers of the State be completed in cooperation with the United States Geological Survey.

FORESTS. 1--The State Conservation Commission regard it of the utmost importance that the State forest reserve, located about the headwaters of the more important streams of the State, be greatly extended. At the present time the opportunities to make such extensions are much more favorable than they will be in the future, and therefore the Commission recommend that immediate action be taken to secure such extensions.

2--The State Conservation Commission recommend to the Governor that, in view of the large increase in area of the forest reserves since the last session of the Legislature and the probability that in the future such holdings will be materially added to, the annual appropriation of the State board of forestry for administrative purposes should be largely increased.

3--The State Conservation Commission also approved the following principles as adopted at the Lake States Forestry Conference, held at Madison, December 10, 1908:

"_Resolved_, That forest fires being one of the greatest enemies of the State, and thus akin to riot and invasion, the Executive power of the State should be employed to the utmost limit in emergencies in their suppression and control for the protection of the lives and property of the people.

"_Resolved_, That we advocate the patrol system as the only satisfactory method of preventing forest fires, and the commanding factor in fighting them.

"_Resolved_, That we recommend the retention of the fire warden system with the county, rather than the town, as the unit, as being essential in securing interest and responsibility among the people most affected.

"_Resolved_, That in all districts covered by State fire patrol a reasonable portion of the expense for such patrol should be placed upon the unoccupied, unimproved, or wild lands, whether forest or cut-over land, preferably in the form of an acreage tax.

"_Resolved_, That the expense of the local fire warden service, and the help called out for the suppression of fires, should be borne wholly or in part by the county or town, but the payment should first be made by the State to insure promptness.

"_Resolved_, That all officials, including public prosecutors, charged with the enforcement of fire-protective measures, should be subject to severe penalty or removal from office for non-performance of duty.

"_Resolved_, That the successful prosecution and a commensurate punishment in case of conviction often cannot be secured in the locality where the offense has been committed, and in order that the law shall be enforced, in the interest of justice, and under authority of the attorney general, a change of venue should be permitted.

"_Resolved_, That it is the sense of this meeting that lands containing forests should be taxed in the usual manner so far as the land is concerned, said land to be assessed as if it contained no timber; but the forest products should be assessed and taxed only when they are cut and removed, and then in an appropriate manner; that the harvest timber tax should be based on a stumpage value determined by the value of the forest product at the place where it is assessed, less the cost of placing it there."

SOILS. The State Conservation Commission recommend to the Governor that a soil survey of the State be undertaken and carried on at such a rate as will give a general view of the soils of the State in about five years. The Commission call especial attention to the immediate need of such a survey in the central and northern parts of the State, the soils of which are now coming rapidly into agricultural use; and also to its necessity on lands which may be included in a forest reserve and which should be devoted to forestry or agriculture according to the nature of their soil.

* * * * *

Let us see what were the results of these recommendations. A number of bills were introduced in the Legislature of 1909, seeking franchises to dam navigable streams and to create reservoirs and reservoir systems; but acting upon the recommendations of the Conservation Commission, all such bills were referred to a special committee of the Legislature on "Water-powers, Forestry, and Drainage" which has carefully investigated the development of the water-powers of the State and will report either to a special session of the Legislature or to the regular session in 1911. Undoubtedly the issuing of such franchises will be placed in the hands of a competent board or commission. All forestry bills introduced in 1909 were referred to the same special committee of the Legislature. Two members of this committee have made their report, and include the following recommendations in regard to the forestry work of the State:

1--An act to provide a State tax of two-tenths of one mill for each dollar of the assessed valuation of the taxable property in the State, to be collected annually for a period of twenty years, the tax when levied and collected to constitute "a forestry investment fund" to be used for the purchase, improvement, and protection of the forest reserve lands.

2--An act to provide for the piling and burning of white Norway and jack pine slash.

3--An act to provide for the employment of an efficient fire patrol by the State board of forestry.

In accordance with the recommendations of the Conservation Commission, the Legislature in 1909 passed an Act providing for a soil survey of the State, and this work is being done by the Geological Survey and College of Agriculture, for the purpose of ascertaining the character and fertility of the developed and undeveloped soils of the State, the extent and practicability of drainage of the swamp and wet lands of the State, and the means for properly conserving and increasing the fertility of the soil of the State.

It will be seen from the above that the work of the State Conservation Commission has already shown important results, and it is believed that the Legislature and people of Wisconsin have now begun to realize clearly the urgent need and also the means which should be taken to conserve the great natural resources.

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

The Conservation of natural resources is a subject in which an American academy of political and social science must necessarily have a keen interest. The primary purpose of the American Academy being to assist in the right solution of the political and economic problems confronting the people of the United States, it has actively cooperated with those individuals and organizations that have done most to give impetus to the Conservation movement.

At the White House Conference called by President Roosevelt in May, 1908, the American Academy was one of the National organizations represented. The following November, the Academy devoted one of its regular scientific sessions to Conservation, the chief address of the session being delivered by Mr Gifford Pinchot, the Chairman of the National Conservation Commission. The Academy was also represented at the Conference which met in Washington in December, 1908, upon the invitation of the National Conservation Commission.

The most valuable aid the American Academy has given the Conservation movement was rendered by the publication, in May, 1909, of a comprehensive volume containing eighteen papers especially prepared by men prominent in the Conservation movement. The scope and character of this volume are indicated by the following list of papers and contributors:

_Forestry on Private Lands_--Honorable Gifford Pinchot, U. S.
Forester, and Chairman National Conservation Commission.

_Public Regulation of Private Forests_--Professor Henry Solon
Graves, Director Forest School, Yale University.

_Can the States Regulate Private Forests?_--F. C. Zacharie,
Esq., of the Louisiana Bar, New Orleans.

_Water as a Resource_--W J McGee, LL.D., U. S. Inland Waterways
Commission; Member National Conservation Commission.

_Water Power in the United States_--M. O. Leighton, Chief
Hydrographer, U. S. Geological Survey.

_The Scope of State and Federal Legislation Concerning the Use
of Waters_--Charles Edward Wright, Assistant Attorney to the
Secretary of the Interior.

_The Necessity for State or Federal Regulation of Water-power
Development_--Charles Whiting Baker, C. E., Editor-in-Chief
Engineering News, New York.

_Federal Control of Water Power in Switzerland_--Treadwell
Cleveland, Jr., U. S. Forest Service.

_Classification of Public Lands_--George W. Woodruff, Assistant
Attorney-General for the Department of the Interior.

_A Summary of our Most Important Land Laws_--Honorable Knute
Nelson, U. S. Senator from Minnesota; Chairman of the Senate
Committee on Public Lands, and Chairman of Committee on Lands,
National Conservation Commission.

_Indian Lands: Their Administration with Reference to Present
and Future Use_--Honorable Francis E. Leupp, Commissioner of
Indian Affairs.

_The Conservation and Preservation of Soil Fertility_--Cyril G.
Hopkins, Chief in Agronomy and Chemistry, University of
Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, Urbana.

_Farm Tenure in the United States_--Henry Gannett, Geographer
U. S. Geological Survey.

_What may be Accomplished by Reclamation_--Honorable Frederick
H. Newell, Director U. S. Reclamation Service.

_The Legal Problems of Reclamation of Lands by Means of
Irrigation_--Morris Bien, Supervising Engineer, U. S.
Reclamation Service.

_Our Mineral Resources_--Honorable George Otis Smith, Director
U. S. Geological Survey.

_The Production and Waste of Mineral Resources and their
Bearing on Conservation_--J. A. Holmes, Chief, Technologic
Branch U. S. Geological Survey; Member National Conservation
Commission.

_Preservation of the Phosphates and the Conservation of the
Soil_--Charles Richard Van Hise, President of the University of
Wisconsin.

There were 5500 copies of this volume published, and its wide distribution at a most opportune time caused it to have an exceptionally effective influence. By the end of 1909 the edition was practically exhausted, and a new edition became necessary. The Canadian members of the American Academy, it is interesting to note, were particularly pleased to receive this publication.

It is the belief of those most active in the work of the American Academy that the question of the Conservation of American resources outranks all other economic questions now before the people of the United States. It is especially important that National and local organizations should cooperate as fully as possible in educating the public as to the present condition of our resources, the manner in which they are being used, and the measures that should be taken to make these resources of permanent as well as of present value to the American people.

Respectfully submitted,
[Signed] EMORY R. JOHNSON, _Chairman_
FREDERICK C. STEVENS
WM. B. DEAN
W. A. FLEMING JONES
WM. L. WEST
CHARLES W. AMES
_Committee_

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION

When the American Automobile Association was originally honored with an invitation to the National Conservation Congress it promptly accepted with two objects in view; _first_, to influence, if possible, the advocacy of a good highway construction and maintenance policy throughout the United States--National, State, and local--in its program in order to broaden and help the movement itself, and _second_, to enlist the friends of Conservation in advancing highway construction; in other words, to make the theory of Conservation cover not only the care and perpetuation of natural resources, but all broad economic activities, throughout the length and breadth of the country, concerning the care and betterment of property, whether natural or artificial. The resident in the East must feel that only by bringing within the scope of the Conservation movement these somewhat narrower and more artificial economic measures can any wide and deeply interested following be secured in the more thickly settled eastern States, as most questions of bulk ownership and management of natural property in this section have long since been settled in law and in fact. If you adopt this theory and definition of Conservation, and thereupon, among other efforts, give your help to advance the matter of good roads, then the advocates of good roads all over the country will have gained an ally, and you will have secured new friends.

The American Automobile Association is devoting the major part of its time, means, and enthusiasm to advancing and coordinating the activity of good highway construction and maintenance, and to the preparation and enactment of good National, State, and local legislation regulating traffic on these highways all over the country. The Association is organized in the large majority of all our States, with a large local following in every center, and with an effective central management cooperating with the most important like bodies abroad and with such associations at home as the U. S. Office of Good Roads; National Grange, Patrons of Husbandry; Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union; and League of American Wheelmen. It consists of State organizations in most of the States, comprising approximately 250 local clubs and over 30,000 members. It is an active force engaged in useful educational and constructive work to better our National life by improving in an intelligent and public spirited manner a very important branch of transportation. It is and has been for some years the leading spirit in this work, as witness the organization of the National Good Roads Convention with the above-mentioned cooperating associations to be held in Saint Louis toward the end of this month.

Transportation, broadly considered, has been the greatest ruling economic force in every civilization created by man. Its absence or limitation ever makes for barbarism or the decadence of the people so confined. It is the pioneer and prime moving force in the creation of progress and enlightenment. Each stage of the world's history that has witnessed some pronounced advance in transportation methods has been swiftly followed by a more than proportionate advance in progress, in wealth, and in happiness of the people affected. Witness the march of wealth and education following the practical operation of the steam railway in the later half of the last century, and the further advance following the practical perfection of electrical transportation during the last quarter of the same century. Steam has provided transportation for the great bulk of world life; electricity opened the way for relatively lighter and cheaper transport, thus opening sections otherwise not accessible for economic reasons. The motor-car and the public highway have crowned these achievements by providing a means for speedy, cheap, safe, and agreeable transport to any corner of the country, the qualities just described constituting the essence of what is best in transportation.

The public highways in the country, however, which premise the reasonable use of motor transportation, have not advanced either in quality or quantity with the means of transport itself during the past fifteen years. The very existence of steam transport when this country was young and sparsely settled and poor and badly developed, and even of electrical transport at a later day, had in themselves limited the development of a reasonable highway system, when comparison is made with other older countries of like wealth, population, and civilization. In earlier days military necessity did not compel this Government to build National highways for the movement of troops--the railroads did that. Economy of transport did not compel the several States to build highways--the railway, the steamboat, the electric tram cared for that. It was not until the advent of the practical modern motor-car that the almost savage condition of this country with respect to highways became apparent. Since then, say within the past ten years, the force moving all over the country toward reasonable highway development, maintenance, and regulation (which had its great inspiration in the army of motor-car tourists acquiring a knowledge of the geography and the beauties of this country by a new and independent method of travel, and which has more recently turned into a flood of growing purpose and organization for better highways because of the conviction of the farmer and the business man of the United States of their economic value in reducing the cost of ton-mile detail haulage to the lines of bulk transportation), as well as toward the moral uplift of the entire farming and country life, due to releasing the country resident from the unhealthy isolation of former times--this force must now be recognized and satisfied, and this Conservation Congress is a logical forum for exploiting and advancing these aspirations.

A recent phase of this great new interest and industry has been the abuse heaped upon it by certain special interests that have been touched by the change the motor-car has wrought over the country. The Reverend Sam Small once remarked that if you threw a brick in the dark and heard a dog howl you knew that you had hit him. The misrepresentation and denunciation and apparent lack of understanding of the true meaning of this new interest seems to come near those financial and bulk transportation interests--with their affected fear of largely mythological mortgages--from which the motor-car user in the aggregate has detached some profit either in transport or in investment. It needs no fine intelligence in these times to understand the weight and purpose of this opposition which has assumed an almost proscriptive right to the collection and handling of the loose money of the unorganized individual all over the country. What is this doctrine that the banker has become the censor of the individual's needs and actions with his own money? Have the farmer and the business man of this country recently become so poor or reckless or so much in debt as to apologize to their fiscal agents for the purchase of a motor-car with their own money or lose credit? Does this not logically lead to an equal apology and loss of credit for owning a decent home instead of a miserable one, or wearing good clothing, or eating good food, or getting a good education, or buying a carpet, a piano, or any of the other things which in the sum constitute the high environment of American life? The tens of thousands of users of motor-cars that are today deriving health and pleasure and, in a far greater number of cases than generally known, profit from the purchase and use of motor-cars, are deflecting interest and capital from channels which have long enjoyed them to their great benefit. That is the origin of the detraction of the motor-car industry and the individuals who created it and who are enjoying it today.

Fair and intelligent consideration is not generally given to the fact that speedier transportation wherever possible is inevitable in human history; that, when a farmer or a doctor or a real estate agent, or a business man of any sort, finds that, at the same cost, he can do, with the same personal effort per day, four times more work in a motor-car than with a pair of horses, provided decent roads exist--when this fundamental economic fact reaches the masses, then good roads teeming with motor-cars and trucks and reasonable universal legislation will be demanded and gotten. When added to this, the same investment provides the means of winging off where fancy leads on a healthful and charming tour or visit, who shall deny that the individual is wise to avail himself of this new facility?

Finally, sufficient weight is not given to the fact that every ton of freight in this broad country must be carried from its primal source, not once but several times, to a railroad or steamboat or tram, before it reaches the goal of the final user. The perfected motor-wagon and truck made in quantity at reasonable cost, provided the good highway exists everywhere, is the inevitable source of such reasonable transport: and, from the standpoint of utility, or effectiveness, or congestion of street areas, or speed--from any standpoint whatsoever--it is as distinct an advance over animal traction as was the electric tram thirty years ago over animal traction in that field of enterprise. The millions of dollars going into this industry spread out through the people, irrigating the total prosperity of the country through its appropriate channels, just as money spent on everything else the individual buys throughout the country, adds its appropriate quota to our National prosperity, and should be quite as immune from attack and misrepresentation.

Good highways and highway legislation are today a generally recognized National necessity. If this country were now through concerted action, Nationally, in States, in counties, and in cities, to spend enough money to put its streets and highways in a comparable condition with those of England or France, and to replace the great percentage of animal traction and motor-cars as now made, to carry the bulk of detail tonnage on these highways, it could not in any other manner or with any better advantage to the coming generation, as concerns its wealth, happiness, and profit, invest this enormous sum or, in any other manner, not only add to the value of country property but influence so positively and so speedily an increase in the happiness and general content of country life in the United States.

In conclusion, it is respectfully urged that the project of good highways and reasonable uniform State and National legislation governing their use should be incorporated in detail in the program of this National Conservation Congress and every kindred association throughout the length and breadth of the land.

Respectfully submitted,
[Signed] POWELL EVANS
_Chairman, A. A. A. Conservation Committee_

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN CIVIC ASSOCIATION

I have already had the honor of presenting some statement of Rhode Island's interest in the Conservation movement, and of the ways in which she proposes to demonstrate it. But I also bear messages from the American Civic Association and other organizations. Perhaps one might think, on first consideration, that there was nothing very closely related, or perhaps related at all, in the purposes of the Conservation Commission of the State of Rhode Island and those of the American Civic Association, the Providence Board of Trade, the Metropolitan Park Commission of Providence Plantations, the Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association, and the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Institute of Architects; yet I bring you greetings from all of these. I want to tell you that they are all working with all the enthusiasm there is in them for some phase or other of the mighty movement for Conservation.

Some people have said--half contemptuously perhaps (I am afraid so)--that Conservation is made to cover about every kind of a movement there is on this great footstool, but perhaps the statement is about true so far as these movements are concerned with the preservation and development of any of the great assets of nature or artificial achievements of man that are necessary or useful to the well-being of our own or future generations. Whether we are considering the forests upon the mountain sides that control the floods and affect the farms and the water-powers and the navigable streams below, or are thinking how to plan and lay out and construct our towns and cities so that they shall most worthily and efficiently fulfill their two great purposes as places (1) to live happily in and (2) to work most successfully in, we find their principles overlapping and leading from one end of the line clear to the other. You cannot separate them, and it is not worth while to try.

The interests of the American Civic Association, of course, are not restricted to any State or section. Its activities are Nation-wide. "For a Better and More Beautiful America" is its motto, and it believes that a more beautiful America is bound to be a better and more prosperous America. It believes also that the Conservation of beauty means the Conservation of patriotism; and its distinguished president has paraphrased a well-known utterance of Ex-Mayor McClellan to the effect that "The country healthy, the country wealthy, and the country wise, may excite satisfaction, complaisance, and pride: but it is the country beautiful that compels and retains the love of its citizens." It is the love of country that lights and keeps glowing the holy fire of patriotism, and this love is excited primarily by the beauty of the country and the environments of the citizens.

The American Institute of Architects believes that when a thing is most usefully done it is most beautifully done. It believes that Conservation deals with two great departments closely related in human endeavor, and that you cannot divorce the necessity of city planning from the development of the resources of nations. A properly planned structure, whether it be of a single building or of a whole city, with all its homes and shops and streets, means the Conservation of the people's efficiency through all the generations that shall ever come to dwell therein. Similarly, the park movement, as we see it scientifically promoted, is almost wholly a measure of Conservation. It is not, as the previous generation believed, primarily to tack on ornate luxuries to the urban fabric, but to preserve the necessary recreation places that would otherwise be obliterated, but without which the race of city-bred dwellers cannot survive. It is to safeguard human efficiency and happiness.

The Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association, whose president, Honorable J. Hampton Moore, has bidden me extend his greetings, calls for things that mean much Conservation of effort. Its project would remove much of the material burden of unnecessary cost. There is Conservation of vast energy and the saving of huge National burdens in the present eastern ambition for the fuller improvement of harbors and development of connecting inland waterways. Let me tell you how the improvement of the harbors related to the handling of at least 80 percent of the $1,500,000,000 worth of all our imports, for this is the proportion that comes into the eastern harbors of the Nation. It relates to the transportation of products of the eastern States worth over $14,000,000,000 a year--of 85 percent of all the cotton that the Nation raises, and 58 percent of all our manufactures; to the 765,000,000 tons of merchandise that has to be transported through these States in which more than 50 percent of all our people dwell, and then transferred in various ways for the equal benefit of the other 50 percent. No item in the cost of our existence is of more importance than that of transportation.

Well, of course, the Board of Trade is interested in all these things, though it looks upon them primarily as they bear upon the up-building of a city. It believes that it is working to assist the logical development of a city of glorious possibilities where certain services to the Nation may best be performed. If there were not sound economic reasons for the up-building of a great city at any given place, it would be foolish and wicked to attempt by artificial means to talk it into being, or try to force it by the hothouse method of overheated air. But if you have the necessary natural assets and opportunities that but await intelligent handling, why here comes the need of Conservation as a vital obligation.

[Signed] HENRY A. BARKER _Delegate_

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION

No organization can more appropriately than the American Forestry Association make its statement and its appeal to this Congress; for it is the first of our Conservation organizations. It has a past of nearly thirty years to which it can point with pride of real achievement; an active and efficient, though not a noisy, present; and a future of ever enlarging opportunity.

In a very real sense we may say that the work of this Association, through years of much misunderstood effort, under the able guidance of the great leaders of the American forestry movement, made this Congress possible; for it was through the study of forestry and its relation to the country that the whole problem of our National resources came to be understood. The man who has given the Conservation of natural resources its impetus, with the help of his distinguished chief, then President of the United States, was the recognized leader, the apostle and evangelist, of the forestry movement; and today no portion of our natural resources holds a more important place than the forests. They are inseparably linked with soils and waters, both of which depend on them in great measure; and as a product of the soil, nothing exceeds the forests in value and in necessity to human welfare. Forests, like agricultural crops, belong to the renewable class of products, and their maintenance involves much more complicated and permanent problems than the non-renewable products like metals, coal, oil, and gas. Therefore we conceive the field of our Association to be vital and lasting, and so broad, many-sided, and far-reaching as to amply justify the existence of an organization dedicated to the advancement of scientific forestry for the best utilization of our forest lands for all time.

Our appeal is to the citizen who desires to promote the economic and moral welfare of the Nation, for moral welfare comes only through good economics and such management of natural resources as makes for prosperity; to the lumbermen and to all manufacturers who use forest products, for to them this is a subject that touches the permanence of their industries; to the educator who looks beyond mere culture and believes that our education must more and more fit men and women to cope with the complex problems of modern life. In this last connection we shall soon announce plans, recently set on foot, for giving practical and definite assistance to those teachers who wish to bring the fundamental principles of forestry into their work, but who do not know how. We shall try to show them how in a systematic and practical way.

Our work is independent of that of the Government, but is conducted in close touch with it. As an independent body of citizens we can do and say what Government officials cannot do and say. Our program embodies: (1) An equitable system of taxation which shall not unduly burden the growing crop; (2) adequate protection against fire, which will reduce this greatest of forest perils to a minimum; (3) the practice of scientific management upon all existing forests; (4) the planting of all unoccupied lands which can be utilized more profitably for forestry than for any other purpose; and, (5) the whole to be brought about through harmonious adjustment of functions between the three classes of owners--National, State, and private. We do not believe that either one of these agencies is to be relied on alone. Each has its place. I say this because our position in this regard is often misconceived. I may add (to correct another misapprehension) that we do not believe in putting under forest land more valuable for agriculture. Forestry and agriculture are not rivals. They go hand in hand.

One specific object to which we have given much effort for several years is the establishment of National Forests on the great interstate water-sheds of the Northern and Southern Appalachians. The conditions, which are acute for the thickly populated East, can only be handled by the united action of the National and State governments and private owners. The central cores of the White Mountains and the Southern Appalachians clearly require National care and management. With this and cooperation of the States and private owners with the National Government, we can save a rare country of beauty, health, and productiveness from being made a depopulated waste. We begin to see the light. In the House of the last two Congresses we have passed a bill, after fighting to a finish the reactionary element which has controlled that body and throttled legislation framed in the public interest. In the Senate we have a strong working majority which can only be beaten, as in the Sixtieth and Sixty-first Congresses, by filibustering in the last hours of the session. If we are not cheated of our reward next winter we shall mark a new step in the progress of American forestry by making the National Forest system really National.

The Association now has about 6600 members; it maintains an office in Washington, where a close watch is kept upon National legislation, and through its correspondents, upon State legislation. It provides lectures, issues bulletins on important subjects, conducts a correspondence bureau, and publishes a monthly magazine, _American Forestry_, which is contributed to by the best authorities in the country, and is the only popular magazine of its class of National scope. We enjoy the cordial cooperation of the U. S. Forest Service and of the various State forest bureaus.

We look forward confidently to a future in which the practice of scientific forestry will become general throughout the United States, when our forest lands will be clearly defined and permanently maintained in productive growth, when waste lands will cease to play so large a part in our National statistics, when the production of the forests will cease to be so much less than the consumption of forest products, and when the National wealth will be contributed to largely each year from this source. But even with this hopeful outlook we cannot see that our work will ever be done, and we welcome the assistance which this Conservation Congress can give us.

[Signed] EDWIN A. START
_Executive Secretary_

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION

The Committee on Conservation of National Animal Resources (the same being a sub-committee of the National Conservation Commission of the Federal Government) have the honor to report as follows:

The animal resources of the United States constitute a large proportion of its natural productive energy. This country has hundreds of millions of dollars invested in horses, mules, cattle, hogs, sheep, and chickens. These constitute natural resources which are producing a larger percentage of wealth and a larger proportionate return for capital invested than almost any one other resource. Furthermore, the actual means of sustaining life is more dependent on these resources than on all others combined, for aside from the food value of the cattle, hogs, sheep, and chickens, and also aside from the other products which are received from them, agricultural operations would be rendered largely inoperative if the assistance of the larger animals were withdrawn. In this way the products of the soil upon which man is so largely dependent for sustenance would be materially affected, and without the assistance of these animals the supply would diminish to the extent of actual starvation for vast numbers of the world's populace. Even if mechanical contrivances should replace the labor of beasts, the cost would be enormously increased; and the natural fertilizing products being removed, the productive value of the soil would also be progressively decreased.

From whatever point we look at this important question, the value of our animal resources is so great and so fundamental that the Nation may well give its best energies and most discriminating intelligence to their protection and conservation. It has been estimated that through the humane treatment and care of horses the average life of these useful creatures can be easily increased from 20 to 25 percent. This likewise means a proportionate increase in the results derived from their labor, which in the aggregate would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The same is also largely true of the increased value of other domestic animals as the result of humane and considerate treatment, which in all instances would greatly prolong their lives.

The American Humane Association has been greatly interested in promoting the more merciful treatment of range stock, which in the past have been largely left to shift for themselves during the cold, bleak winters of the Northwestern ranges. This has resulted in the death of vast numbers of livestock. A recent report of the Department of Agriculture indicates that over 1,000,000 domestic animals die in the United States each year from hunger and exposure.

Another department in which the humanitarian societies of the United States have been largely interested which bears directly on the conservation of a great natural resource, has been the protection of the fur seals. These interesting and valuable animals, through piratical efforts employed in their destruction, have become partially exterminated, and a great source of National wealth has been almost annihilated. From vast herds, numbering a great many hundreds of thousands, the seals have been reduced until their rookeries in the islands of the northern Pacific belonging to the United States have been almost depopulated. Friends of the Conservation policy have earnestly protested in Congress against this inhumane and economically unwise course, and during the last session legislation was passed and signed by President Taft, which would insure the ample protection of the seals. Grave fears are expressed at the present time lest this result should be endangered by unwise administrative measures which are threatened. I earnestly hope that the second National Conservation Congress will speak in no uncertain terms in regard to this important question, so that the seals may be restored once more to their original numbers and productive value.

This Committee will not undertake to present all the activities in which we have been interested which bear upon this subject, but content ourselves with showing the great importance of this particular phase of Conservation. We trust that this Committee will continue for another year, and that the results of this Congress will be felt in every portion of the United States.

Respectfully submitted,
[Signed] WILLIAM O. STILLMAN, _Chairman_
M. RICHARD MUCKLE
ALFRED WAGSTAFF
JOHN PARTRIDGE
SAMUEL WEIS
JOHN L. SHORTALL
GUY RICHARDSON
_Committee_

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS

The Committee of the American Institute of Architects on the Conservation of Natural Resources has the honor to report as follows:

A wide and increasingly active interest in the subject exists among the officers and members of the Institute. The Committee believes that few, if any, of the great National organizations touch the subject of Conservation at so many points, or are more vitally interested in its wise and efficient progress, or can be more directly helpful in the application of the principles of Conservation in a great series of important industries.

The construction of modern buildings, either for residential or business purposes, involves the use in one form or another of practically the entire list of materials included under the general meaning of the term the "natural resources" of the country, excepting only agricultural land and foodstuffs; and in common with all other thinking citizens, the architects realize that the continued prosperity of the building interests is in the long run dependent on the wise use of these resources. Exact statistics of the great building industry of the country are not obtainable; but a somewhat extended inquiry recently made led to an approximate estimate of the amount of money expended upon buildings in the United States per annum at an average of not less than $1,000,000,000, practically all of which passes under the hands of the architects in the specifications of materials to be used and in certification as to quality and cost.

Among the materials used are metals, including iron and its various products in rolled steel, sheet metal, pipe, castings, and machinery, with copper, lead, graphite, zinc, nickel, silver, and even gold; lumber in enormous quantities and of all kinds; clay products, such as brick, terra cotta, roofing tiles, drain tiles, floor tiles, and porcelain; stone, including granite, marble, limestone, sandstone, and other quarry products; cement, lime, sand, glass, oils, gums, hemp, bitumen, asphalt, asbestos, barytes, and many other minerals; woven cotton, linen, wool, and other fibres. There are also used coal and water-power, and above all that greatest of all resources of the Nation, the labor of Man, both skilled and unskilled. This but briefly suggests the variety and extent of the interests represented in modern building. Therefore the profession of architecture, represented by the American Institute of Architects, has a most real interest in this great topic, and can and does wield a very potent influence upon the use of the products of mine, quarry, factory, and field.

It has been stated, with a large measure of truth, that if the architects will study the economic use of lumber and specify or permit the use of short lengths (such as 2-foot and 4-foot lengths as against 12-foot and 14-foot lengths) where such are structurally permissible, that a quarter of the lumber cut per annum could be saved without lessening the amount of lumber used in building. If the architects specify concrete to the exclusion of steel, the steel market is affected; if brick or clay products, the cement market is affected; if copper or sheet iron, or lead, or tile, or slate, or pitch, or even thatched straw, for roofing instead of shingles, the number of shingles used is correspondingly reduced. It is obvious that if the architects will substitute clay products or concrete or steel for lumber now used in building, no more effective method of conserving our lumber supply could be devised.

Materials used in buildings are not necessarily lost to the future, however. On the contrary, a certain class of materials, such as steel and other metals, are thus preserved, though temporarily withdrawn from use. Who shall say that other needs and other customs of building of a future time will not be as different from ours as ours are from those of former times? Indeed it is not wholly fantastic to prophesy that the skyscrapers of today may become the iron mines of tomorrow.