Volume Vi Part 14 (1/2)

This commission while carrying on its investigations discussed the general policy of conservation and suggested to the President the calling of a convention for the purpose of discussing the conservation of the nation's resources. Thus originated the celebrated White House conference of May 13-15, 1908. The opening session presented an impressive scene, for there were a.s.sembled in the east room of the White House, upon the invitation of the President, the Vice-President, seven members of the cabinet, all of the justices of the Supreme Court, most of the representatives and senators, thirty-four governors of States together with their advisers, and representatives of the governors of the remaining States, governors of the Territories, representatives of sixty-eight national societies, and numerous special guests.

The opening address of President Roosevelt was a notable effort. ”This conference,” he said, ”on the conservation of natural resources is in effect a meeting of the representatives of all the people of the United States called to consider the weightiest problem now before the nation.

... We have become great in a material sense because of the lavish use of our resources, and we have just reason to be proud of our growth. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone; when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted; when the soils shall have been still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields, and obstructing navigation. These questions do not relate only to the next century or the next generation. One distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristic of really civilized men is foresight; we have to, as a nation, exercise foresight for this nation in the future, and if we do not exercise that foresight, dark will be the future!”

During the meeting numerous addresses were made on the conservation of the minerals, of the soils, of the forests, and of the waters of the country. In his address on the conservation of ores and related minerals, Andrew Carnegie declared that during the three-fourths of a century from 1820 to 1895 nearly 4,000,000,000 tons of coal were mined by methods so wasteful that 6,000,000,000 tons were either destroyed or allowed to remain in the ground forever inaccessible. From 1896 to 1906 as much coal was produced as during the preceding seventy-five years.

During this decade 3,000,000,000 tons were destroyed or left in the ground beyond reach for future use. Basing his statements on the investigations of scientists, he showed that at the present rate of increase in production the available coal of the country would be exhausted in two hundred years and the workable iron ore within a century.

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Copyright by Underwood and Underwood.

The President, Governors, and other leading men at the National Resources Conference, at the White House, May 13 to 15, 1908.

Similarly, James J. Hill demonstrated that the forests of this country are fast disappearing and that from three to four times as much timber was consumed each year as forest growth restored. His statements regarding the tremendous soil waste in our farming methods were likewise astounding. Resolutions were adopted covering the entire subject of conservation as shown in one of them as follows: ”We agree that the land should be so used that erosion and soil-wash shall cease; that there should be reclamation of arid and semi-arid regions by means of irrigation, and of swamps and overflowed regions by means of drainage; that the waters should be so conserved and used as to promote navigation, to enable the arid regions to be reclaimed by irrigation, and to develop power in the interests of the people; that the forests which regulate our rivers, support our industries, and promote the fertility and productiveness of the soil should be preserved and perpetuated; that the minerals found so abundantly beneath the surface should be so used as to prolong their utility; that the beauty, healthfulness, and habitability of our country should be preserved and increased; that the sources of national wealth exist for the benefit of the people, and that monopoly thereof should not be tolerated.” It was recommended that the States should establish conservation commissions to co-operate with one another and with a similar national commission.

On June 8, 1908, the first national conservation commission was created by President Roosevelt. Its forty-nine members were men well known in politics, in the industries, and scientific work. Gifford Pinchot was chairman of this commission which submitted its first report at a conference in Was.h.i.+ngton, December 8-10, 1908. The delegates consisted of governors and other representatives from the States and from national organizations. This report was received with favor and it was recommended that the work of the commission should be continued.

Congress declined to make the necessary appropriation of $25,000 for this purpose, although it was strongly endorsed by the President.

In 1901 the National Conservation a.s.sociation was formed, a voluntary organization of public and scientific men. The purpose of this a.s.sociation is to carry on the movement for conservation in every State.

Within seven months after the White House conference, forty-one State conservation commissions were created and fifty-one conservation commissions representing national organizations were formed.

President Roosevelt carried the movement still farther in calling the first North American conservation congress. Representatives to this conference met in Was.h.i.+ngton, February 18, 1909. They came from Canada, Newfoundland, and Mexico as well as the United States. Broad general principles of conservation applicable to the North American continent were adopted.

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Gifford Pinchot, President of the Conservation Commission.

The movement was materially strengthened also through the withdrawal of large areas of the public domain from private entry. Thus 148,000,000 acres of forests and 80,000,000 acres of coal land were withdrawn during President Roosevelt's administrations.

Directly connected with the problems of conservation are those of irrigation. The so-called arid regions const.i.tute two-fifths of the area of the United States, or some 1,200,000 square miles. Of this vast region, it has been estimated that about one-tenth can be irrigated to advantage. By the end of the year 1908, some 13,000,000 acres had been reclaimed, or nearly one-third of the total amount suitable for irrigation purposes. This has brought about the rapid growth of cities and a substantial industrial advance in the former arid regions of the far West. The most notable impulse to this movement was made in 1902 when Congress pa.s.sed a law, the Reclamation act, providing that the proceeds from the sales of public lands in thirteen States and three Territories should be expended by the National Government in the construction of irrigation works.

The total receipts from the sales of these lands amounted to $28,000,000 by the end of the year 1905, and twenty-three projects, dams, reservoirs, or ca.n.a.ls were in different stages of construction. The most important of these undertakings were the Roosevelt Dam, the Shoshone Dam, and the Truckee-Carson Ca.n.a.l.

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Built by the U. S. Reclamation Service.

Roosevelt Dam from the road.

The Roosevelt Dam is the chief work of construction in what is called the Salt River project. By the completion of this work at least 200,000 acres in the vicinity of Phoenix, Arizona, were reclaimed. This dam is 284 feet high, 1,080 feet long on the crest, and 165 feet thick at the base. The resulting reservoir with a storage area of 16,320 acres will be the largest artificially formed lake in the world. It forms a body of water 25 miles long, almost 2 miles broad, and with a maximum depth of 220 feet. The main ca.n.a.ls are 119 miles in length and the lateral ca.n.a.ls 208 miles. Not only will this structure insure a supply of water in the Salt River valley where, in recent years, orchards and other products have perished, but it will prevent the floods which have devastated that region from time to time. Water-power amounting to 25,000 horse-power has been developed by the construction. This power is used in part for pumping, and another area, estimated at 40,000 acres, outside the territory covered by the ca.n.a.ls has been reclaimed.

The power is also used for lighting, for manufacturing, and for mining.

It was seen that the Shoshone River, in northwestern Wyoming, during the season of melting snows, carried away more waste water than would be adequate to reclaim many thousands of acres in the arid regions of the lower alt.i.tudes. Two million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars were allotted for the construction of the Shoshone Dam which will form a reservoir of water sufficient to irrigate 75,000 acres of land 50 miles farther down the river.

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Shoshone Dam, Wyoming.