CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES

Toward the close of the nineteenth century, attention was called to the fact by scientific men that the methods employed in the use of our soil, mines, forests, and water supply were extremely wasteful.  During the previous decades the resources of the country were regarded as inexhaustible.  As stated by President Roosevelt in 1907:  “Hitherto as a nation we have tended to live with an eye single to the present, and have permitted the reckless waste and destruction of much of our national wealth.”  At the same time the call came for the conservation of our natural resources.

The destruction of the forests first attracted attention.  The first national reservation of forests was made in 1891, and in 1898 a marked advance was made by the establishment of a division of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture.  Gifford Pinchot, as chief of the division, called attention of the people to the interdependence of the forests and the waterways.

In 1906, after long effort, the famous Mariposa Grove of large trees in California was made a national reservation.  During the same year a bill was passed by Congress providing for the preservation of Niagara Falls.  Public opinion had been aroused by the campaign of the American Civic Association.  Power companies had multiplied so rapidly that it seemed the whole volume of water was about to be used for commercial purposes and that the most famous object of natural scenery in the United States would be destroyed.

In response to appeals from the people of the interior, President Roosevelt, March 14, 1907, appointed the Inland Waterways Commission.  In his letter which created the commission he said:  “The time has come for merging local projects and uses of the inland waters in a comprehensive plan designed for the benefit of the entire country. . . .  I ask that the Inland Waterways Commission shall consider the relations of the streams to the use of all the great permanent natural resources and their conservation for the making and maintenance of prosperous homes.”

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 assembled 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 distinguishing 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.

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 Washington, 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 Association was formed, a voluntary organization of public and scientific men.  The purpose of this association 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 Washington, 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.

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 constitute 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 passed 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 canals were in different stages of construction.  The most important of these undertakings were the Roosevelt Dam, the Shoshone Dam, and the Truckee-Carson Canal.

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 canals are 119 miles in length and the lateral canals 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 canals 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 altitudes.  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.

The Truckee-Carson project provides for the irrigation of 150,000 acres in western Nevada.  The water of the Truckee River, which flows out of Lake Tahoe, is distributed by canals having an aggregate length of 670 miles.  The main canal was opened in 1905.

By the close of the year 1906, over $39,000,000 had been allotted for works under actual construction, and this amount had increased to $119,500,000 within four years.  It has been estimated that the land thus reclaimed will alone be worth $240,000,000.  The additional cost of a project is assessed against the land.  When the land is sold, the money received is used for the development of new irrigation areas.

Another significant plan outlined by the irrigation congress in its meeting, 1911, provided for bringing about the complete reclamation of all swamp and overflowed land.  The swampland area of the United States exceeds 74,500,000 acres, or an amount greater than the area of the Philippine Islands by 1,000,000 acres.

The Mississippi basin has been called the heart and soul of the prosperity of the United States.  Two-fifths of the area of the country, comprising one-half the population, is tributary to the Mississippi system, which has over 20,000 miles of navigable waters.  This valley produces three-fourths of our foreign exports.  The network of railroads covering this territory has for a number of years furnished altogether inadequate transportation facilities, and conditions have grown steadily worse.  Traffic experts throughout the United States have been advising river improvement as a means of relieving the congestion of freight.  This situation has led to a revival of interest in the deep waterway from the Lakes to the Gulf which has been talked and written about for nearly three-quarters of a century.

Concerted action was not taken until 1907, when the Lakes to the Gulf Deep Waterways Association was formed at St. Louis, having for its object the deepening of the water-way between Lake Michigan and the Gulf.  The proposal to construct a canal by the way of the Illinois River to the Mississippi, large enough to carry ships, was declared feasible by government engineers and a route was surveyed.  President Roosevelt endorsed the scheme.  In his message to Congress, December 3, 1907, he said:  “From the Great Lakes to the mouth of the Mississippi there should be a deep water-way, with deep water-ways leading from it to the East and the West.  Such a water-way would practically mean the extension of our coast line into the very heart of our country.  It would be of incalculable benefit to our people.  If begun at once it can be carried through in time appreciably to relieve the congestion of our great freight-carrying lines of railroad.  The work should be systematically and continuously carried forward in accordance with some well-conceived plan . . . .  Moreover, the development of our water-ways involves many other important water problems, all of which should be considered as part of the same general scheme.”

He appointed an Inland Waterways Commission which was to outline a comprehensive scheme of development along the various lines indicated.  Their leading recommendation had to do with the proposal for a deep water-way from Chicago to New Orleans.  The completion of the drainage canal by the city of Chicago, at a cost of $55,000,000, really created a deep waterway for forty miles along the intended route.  It was reported to Congress by a special board of surveyors that the continuation of such a water-way to St. Louis would cost $31,000,000.

The legislature of Illinois, following the recommendation of Governor Charles S. Deneen, submitted to the people an amendment of the constitution which would enable the State to assume a bonded indebtedness of $20,000,000 for the purpose of constructing a deep waterway from Chicago to St. Louis.  The measure was approved by popular vote November 3, 1907.  Thereupon, the State Senate passed a bill providing for the construction of the canal.  This failed in the House.  It was again introduced into the legislature, 1910, but failed to pass.

Among the other important projects submitted by the Inland Waterways Commission are the following:  To connect the Great Lakes with the ocean by a twenty-foot channel by the way of the Erie Canal and the Hudson River, an inner channel extending from New England to Florida; to connect the Columbia River with Puget Sound and deepen the Sacramento and the San Joaquin Rivers, so as to bring commerce by water to Sacramento and other interior California cities.

With the hope that New York City might again come into a mastery of the trade with the West, as at the time when the Erie Canal was first completed and because of the inability of the railroads to meet the demands of traffic, the legislature of New York, in 1903, appropriated $100,000,000 for the enlargement of that waterway and the two branch canals, the Oswego and Champlain.  The proposed uniform depth is twelve feet and it is otherwise to be large enough for boats of a thousand ton cargo or four times the capacity of boats now on the canal.