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Lesson One
The Conservation of Natural Resources in the United States, by Charles
Richard Van Hise
NOTE: This is an excerpt. For the full document, see The
Conservation of Natural Resources in the United States in The Evolution of the Conservation
Movement, 1850-1920
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HISTORY OF THE CONSERVATION MOVEMENT
Until late in the nineteenth century the resources of this country were
commonly regarded as inexhaustible. Some of them were considered an obstruction
to the country's development. Over very large areas of the country the
forests were regarded as an enemy to be destroyed and burned. Indeed at
the present time this is locally true. Our were supposed to be illimitable.
Any man might have a farm for the asking. It was held, and indeed is held
by many at this time, that our mineral resources will last through the
indefinite future, and therefore that they may be drawn upon advantageously
as rapidly as possible.
It is under the prevalence of these ideas that our laws and customs
have grown up. The laws customs have been adapted to the ideas of the people.
If the ideas are incorrect, it may be that our laws in reference to the
natural resources are defective.
Resources not limitable.
That these ideas in reference to the illimitable supply of our natural
resources are incorrect has been appreciated by the scientist for many
years. The foresters, the physiographers, the geologists, have shown the
severe limitations of many of them. These views have been emphasized by
the situation in other countries. The mountains of France, of Spain, of
China, have been denuded of their forests in large
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measure, so that the supply of wood is inadequate to meet the needs
of the people. In consequence of removal of the forests from the mountains,
the soil and disintegrated rock have been carried away by the running water
and the bare rocks left protruding where once was thick vegetation resting
upon abundant soil. The dbris carried down from the mountains to the lowlands
has destroyed extensive areas of once rich land.
It has long been known that in Spain and Italy, warm countries, because
of insufficient fuel, the people suffer more from the cold than here in
America. In the absence of forests and coal, fuel is so expensive as practically
to be unavailable to the average citizens of those countries; and hence
they shiver through the winter.
People go to bed hungry.
Many intelligent men have appreciated that in India and China a large
proportion of the people are insufficiently nourished. It is probably true
that more than half of the people of the world to-night will go to bed
hungry; at least they will have received sufficient nourishment during
the day to be the most efficient to-morrow. You, who have read history,
know during the years of abundant rains, the people of India and China
multiply, and how in dry years famine and scourge come and reduce them
again to the number that can be supplied by the fruits of the land. In
scripture we read that the seven fat years were eaten up by the seven lean
years; and this has been the history of eastern countries for thousands
of years.
Conservation movement due to scientific men.
The modern conservation movement is the direct result the work of scientific
men. The question of conservation has been more forwarded by the rapid
reduction of our forests than by any other cause. The forests are the one
natural resource which has been so rapidly destroyed that in the early
seventies it began to be appreciated that, if existing practice were continued,
the end was not in the far distant future.
As the result of a memorial presented by the American Association for
the Advancement of Science in 1873, reforced by another memorial of the
association in 1890, the
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movement was inaugurated which resulted in a forestry bureau in the
department of agriculture, and in laws which led to the first national
reserve in 1891. The national forest movement was further advanced later
as the result of an elaborate consideration of the question by the National
Academy of Sciences in 1897. The principle of the national forest once
established, these forests were enlarged from time to time, but the great
withdrawals of the forests from private entry have been during the past
ten years.
Another line of forces which resulted in the modern conservation movement
came directly from the work of Major J.W. Powell, and especially the publication
of his "Lands of the Arid Region." Mainly as a result of this volume and
the influence of Major Powell, in 1888 an irrigation division of the United
States Geological Survey was established; and authority was given to the
Secretary of the Interior to withdraw from private entry reservoir sites
and other areas which in the future would be necessary for irrigation purpose.
For the past quarter of a century many of the scientific men of the
country have been raising a warning voice in reference to the other natural
resources of the country. The limitations of our supplies of gas, oil and
coal have been pointed out. Many described the denudation of the land and
the widespread destruction of the soil; but notwithstanding the above facts,
it cannot be said that there was any national movement for conservation.
Indeed, it is probable that such a movement could not have been inaugurated
until the situation has become grave, until the menace to the future had
become serious.
Among the men who have promoted the modern conservation movement, Mr.
Gifford Pinchot has first place. While his work was primarily directed
to the conservation of the forest, his vision, with enlarging horizon,
saw the connection of the forests to the other resources of the country;
and he therefore extended his campaign of education to include with the
conservation of the forest the conservation of all natural resources which
are limited in amount.
It was seen by Mr. Pinchot and other scientists, notably
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McGee, that there is a close connection between the forests and waters.
There was as strong public demand that our rivers maintain a uniform flow
for water powers and for navigation. Therefore those primarily interested
in forests and those interested in waters became associated in the conservation
movement. In consequence of the public sentiment in reference to waterways
and forests, President Roosevelt, on March 14, 1907, appointed the Inland
Waterways Commission. This commission included a number of representative
congressmen, an engineer, a statistician, a forester, an irrigation chief,
and a geologist. 1 This Inland Waterways Commission
in its first report to the President emphasized the interlocking character
of the problem of natural resources, and pointed out how the control and
use of water would conserve coal and iron and the soil, and at the same
time also make necessary the preservation of the forests.
1 The Inland Waterways Commission consisted of
the following: Theodore E. Burton, Chairman; Francis G. Newlands, Vice
Chairman; W J McGee, Secretary; William Warner, John H. Bankhead, Alexander
MacKenzie, F.H. Newell, Gifford Pinchot, Herbert Knox Smith. The
White House Conference.
The White House Conference grew out of the Inland Waterways Commission.
On a trip of that commission in May, 1907, it was suggested that there
be a conference at Washington the ensuring year to consider the conservation
of the natural resources.
Chairman Theodore E. Burton and Commissioner Gifford Pinchot were authorized
to convey to the President the ideas of the commission in reference to
this matter. Later it was suggested that since the question of conservation
concerned not only the nation, but every state, such conference should
include the governors. On October 3, 1907 the Inland Waterways Commission,
through its chairman and secretary, Mr. Burton, and Mr. W J McGee, sent
to President Roosevelt a letter, requesting that he call a conference which
should primarily be a congress of governors.
Conference called by President Roosevelt.
The President approved the plan and in November of that year called
conference of the governors, each governor being invited to be accompanied
by three assistants or advisers.
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But as the time approached for the meeting, the idea grew and there
were finally included in the invitation of the President, the Vice President,
members of the Cabinet, both branches of Congress, heads of the scientific
bureaus of Washington, representatives of the great national societies,
both scientific and industrial, representatives of journals, and notable
citizens.
Thus there assembled May 13, 1908, at the East Room of the White House,
the President, Vice President, seven members of the Cabinet, nine justices
of the Supreme Court, many members of Congress, the governors of thirty-four
states, and representatives of the other twelve, the governors of all the
territories, including Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico, the President of
the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia, representatives
of sixty-eight national societies, four special guests, forty-eight general
guests, and the members of the Inland Waterways Commission.
Character of White House Conference.
Never before in the history of the nation had so representative an audience
gathered together. For the first time in the history of the country the
governors were assembled to consider a great national question. Even during
the extreme stress of the Civil War the governors had not been asked to
consult with the President and with one another upon the state of the nation.
Apparently President Roosevelt must have thought that the question of conservation
was one of fundamental importance before he tool so far-reaching a step.
Never before in the history of the nation had the scientific men of the
country met upon equal footing with those engaged in politics. This in
itself was sufficient to mark the White House Conference as a meeting of
the first importance in reference to the future of the nation.
The audience of the 13th of May was indeed an impressive one. Upon the
right of the President sat the Vice President and the members of his Cabinet.
Upon his left were the justices of the Supreme Court. Before his were assembled
the governors, the members of Congress, many of the leading scientific
men of the country, and numerous other delegates.
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Address of President Roosevelt.
The conference was opened by a notable address by President Roosevelt.
And he, I think, above any other public man of the country has shown a
wonderful capacity to quickly and broadly comprehend the salient points
of a great new movement.
Resolutions of governors.
Hence he was able, although not a man of science, to present most effectively
and in wonderful proportion the views which the scientific men had been
developing through the past twenty-five years with reference to conservation.
Resolutions of governors.
Following President Roosevelt's address there were a series of addresses
by scientific men, by governors, by eminent citizens. The scope of these
papers extended to the minerals, the forests, the soils, and the waters
of the country. 1 The facts presented in reference
to our important resources were so startling that the governors drew up
strong series of resolutions 2 covering the entire
subject of conservation, pointing out the extravagance and reckless waste
of the past, and making it clear that upon the conservation of our natural
resources depends the foundation of our prosperity. The governors unanimously
requested the President from time to time as occasion demanded to again
call them together to consider with him and with Congress the great question
of conservation. Also they recommended the states to establish conservation
commissions to coperate with one another and with a similar national commission.
Several of the governors announced that their very first acts upon reaching
their respective states would be to appoint such Commissions.
1 Proceedings of a Conference of Governors in
the White House, Washington, D.C., May 13-15, 1908. Washington, Government
Printing Office, 1909. 2 This declaration of
principles is so comprehensive and so important that it is republished
as Appendix I of this volume. See pp. 381-384.
Appointment of National Conservation Commission.
Shortly after the White House Conference the President appointed the
National Conservation Commission, consisting of forty-nine well-known men,
about one-third of whom are engaged in politics, one-third in the industries,
and one-third in scientific work. This commission was divided into four
sections, assigned respectively to the minerals, the waters,
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the forests, and the soils. Gifford Pinchot, generally recognized as
the most potent force underlying the conservation movement, was appropriately
named chairman of the Conservation Commission. 1 Since
the White House Conference to December, 1909, forty-one state conservation
commissions and fifty-one conservation commissions, representing national
organizations, have been created.
1 The full personnel and organization of the
National Conservation Commission are found in the Report of the National
Conservation Commission, Vol. I, pp. 115-117. Inventory
of natural resources.
At the first meeting of the executive committee of the National Conservation
Commission, held in Chicago, June 19, 1908, it was agreed that the initial
step was to have made an inventory of our natural resources. It was there
pointed out that to the present time, we, as a nation, are in the position
of a man, who, bequeathed a fortune, has gone on spending it recklessly,
never taking the trouble to ask the amount of his inheritance, or how long
it is likely to last.
This executive committee therefore determined so far as practicable
to have made an estimate of the existing available resources, what proportion
of these resources have already been utilized or exhausted, the rate of
increase in their consumption, and if this rate continues how long these
resources will last. The commission had no funds at its disposal, and therefore
was obliged to depend upon existing organizations for this work. Fortunately
the President gave an order directing that the heads of the scientific
bureaus at Washington utilize their forces in making investigations requested
by the commission, so far as such investigations lay in their respective
fields. As a result of requests by the National Conservation Commission,
the heads of several bureaus placed a considerable number of experts upon
conservation work during the summer and autumn of 1908.
Report of National Conservation Commission.
The full national commission assembled December 1 of that year to hear
the reports of the experts and the secretaries of the four sections. Based
upon these reports the commission drew up a report which they presented
to the governors again assembled December 8, 1908, and by the governors
this report was, with their indorsement, transmitted
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to the President January, 11, 1909. The report of this commission,
the statements of the secretaries, and the reports of the experts have
since been published in three volumes. 1 These volumes
give the first available inventory of the natural resources of the nation.
This inventory is of course but an approximation of the truth, but it is
an immense advance over guesses as to the natural wealth of the nation.
It does furnish a basis for quantitative and therefore scientific discussion
of the future of our resources. In advance of the appearance of the report
it would not have been possible to give this set of lectures. Indeed, they
are based upon the material contained in these volumes to a greater extent
than upon all other sources of information.
1 Report of the National Conservation Commission,
Senate Document No. 676, 60th Congress, 2d Session. Washington, Government
Printing Office, 1909. North American Conservation
Conference.
The next step of President Roosevelt, after appointing the national
commission, was to invite the governors of Canada and Newfoundland, and
the President of Mexico, to appoint commissioners to consider with the
commissioners of the United States the question of conservation. In consequence
of these invitations the first North American Conservation Conference was
held in Washington, February 18, 1909. As the White House Conference, a
broad statement was adopted embodying the principles of conservation applicable
to the North American continent, which the commissioners were expected
to urge upon their respective countries. 2
2 Sec Appendix II.
To crown the brilliant series of administrative acts to bring the question
of conservation to the foreground of human consciousness, President Roosevelt
on February 16, 1909, requested the powers of the world to meet at The
Hague for the purpose of considering the conservation of the natural resources
of the entire globe.
Withdrawal of lands.
During President Roosevelt's administration, the Secretary of the Interior,
James R. Garfield, withdrew from private entry a large area of the public
domain, either permanently
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or for a time, until the lands withdrawn could be studied with reference
to their wisest utilization. The larger portion of the great forests which
still remained the property of the nation when Roosevelt became President-more
than 148,000,000 acres-was made a part of the national forests during his
administration. Also the coal lands of the West, both in the United States
and Alaska, were withdrawn from private entry until they could be studied
by the geological survey and a report made upon them as to their value
and as to methods of disposal. More than 80,000,000 acres altogether were
withdrawn by him for this purpose. About 1,500,000 acres in several states
along 29 streams were withdrawn with reference to withholding from private
entry the water power sites. Finally, 4,700,000 acres of phosphate lands
in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana were withdrawn from private entry until
they could be studied by the geological survey and appropriate laws made
in reference to their exploitation.
Thus, during President Roosevelt's administration, more than 234,000,000
acres of land were withdrawn from private entry, the greater portion of
which is to be permanently retained as the property of the nation.
President Roosevelt also recommended that the fee of all of the coal,
oil, and gas lands still remaining in the possession of the government
be retained permanently, and that the same be leased under proper regulations.
Service Conservation of President Roosevelt.
Concerning President Roosevelt, there has been much difference of opinion
in political matters. He has been severely criticized by many, warmly commended
by others, but his aggressive action for the conservation of our resources
has been commended by all parties alike. In the future I believe that what
he did to forward this movement and to bring it into the foreground of
the consciousness of the people will place him not only as one of the greatest
statesmen of this nation but one of the greatest statesmen of any nation
of any time.
Attitude Congress.
In marked contrast to the position of President Roosevelt in reference
to conservation was the attitude of the Sixtieth
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Congress. President Roosevelt asked an appropriation for the National
Conservation Commission; and Senator Knute Nelson, of Minnesota, introduced
an amendment to the sundry civil bill asking for an appropriation of $25,000
for the necessary rent, assistance, and traveling expenses of the commission.
This amendment went to the Senate committee on appropriations, of which
Senator Eugene Hale was and is chairman, but the amendment was lost, having
failed of favorable action in the committee. Thus an appropriation for
the Conservation Commission asked by President Roosevelt failed in the
Senate, and the commission was left without any funds. This was unfortunate
enough, but it would not have been fatal had the commission still retained
the authority to ask the heads of the scientific bureaus to have their
forces do work desired by the commission, which was appropriate and proper
for their respective bureaus to undertake; but in the House of Representatives
there was attached a clause to the sundry civil bill, which after the passage
of that act prevented all bureaus from doing any work for any commission,
council, board, or similar body, appointed by the President, without reference
to whether or not such work was appropriate for such bureaus to undertake.
Thus, so far as lay in its power, Congress made without avail the appointment
by the President of the National Conservation Commission.
This clause of the sundry civil bill was introduced by James A. Tawney,
of Minnesota, and its adoption was advocated by him. This congressman should
be held responsible to the people of the nation for so far as lay in his
power rendering without avail the appointment of the National Conservation
Commission.
Report contains inventory of resources.
As has already been pointed out, the first report of the National Conservation
Commission contains the only authentic statement as to the amounts of our
natural resources, the amounts which have been exhausted, and their probable
future life. The report was published as a Senate document in a small edition.
The popular edition of this volume, recommended by the commission, was
refused approval by the
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then committee on printing of the house, consisting of Charles P. Landis,
of Indiana, James Breck Perkins, of New York, and D. E. Finley, of South
Carolina. For thus preventing the people from gaining the advantage of
the results of the great work of the Conservation Commission they should
be held primarily responsible.
As yet the attitude of the Sixty-first Congress is undetermined. To
the present time (June 1, 1910) none of the Conservation measures recommended
by President Taft have been passed.
After the adoption of the Tawney clause and before the organization
of the Association next to be mentioned, the organization of the Conservation
movement was carried forward by the Joint Committee on Conservation, an
unofficial body established at the second conference of the governors.
Organization of National Conservation Association.
In the autumn of 1909 there was organized the National Conservation
Association. 1 This association is to be the center
of a great propaganda for conservation. It is hoped that all organizations
interested in special phases of the Conservation movement will become affiliated
with it. The association is to have a board of managers, consisting of
one representative of each state and territory; and each state is to have
a committee. It is the duty of any state committee and its member of the
board to develop the Conservation 1 The National
Conservation Association, organized in 1909, has the following officers:-
Honorary President, Charles W. Eliot, Cambridge, Mass.
President, Gifford Pinchot, Washington, D. C.
Vice President, Walter L. Fisher, Chicago, Ill.
Treasurer, Overton Price, Washington, D. C.
Secretary, Thomas R. Shipp.
Executive Committee
Gifford Pinchot, Chairman.
James R. Garfield, Cleveland, Ohio.
John F. Bass, Chicago, Ill.
Henry L. Stimson, New York.
Walter L. Fisher, Chicago, Ill.
Bernard N. Baker, Baltimore, Md.
Charles L. Pack, Lakewood, N. J.
John N. Teal, Portland, Oregon.
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movement in the state which they represent, and to be the channel of
communication between the local and national organizations.
The foregoing sketch of the rise of the Conservation movement shows
that it grew out of the work of scientific men. Until recently the movement
was not organized, and it was partial, that is, mainly confined to the
forests and arid and; it only became national when President Roosevelt
called the White House Conference in 1908.
Conservation fairly launched. Coperation
required for Conservation.
With the foundation of the National Conservation Association, the great
movement for the conservation of the natural resources of the United States
may be said to have been fairly launched. Already a large number of the
more intelligent people of the country are beginning to grasp its importance,
beginning to understand that upon conservation rests the possibility of
a numerous and well-nourished population in this country. But as yet the
great majority of the people have almost no knowledge of the movement.
It is comparatively easy to get a subject into the consciousness of the
cultivated group. It is enormously difficult to accomplish this work with
the millions. And the conservation of our resources can only be accomplished
by the coperation of the nation, the states, and the individuals. Therefore
there is before us a profound and wide campaign of education which must
begin at the universities, in national and state organizations, and must
extend from them through the secondary and primary schools to the whole
people. There is no other question before the nation of such fundamental
importance to the distant future of the country. Since it seems to me that
the universities should take part in the leadership in this movement for
the advancement of the nation as they have in others, this course of lectures
is given at Wisconsin.
Bringing an appreciation of the importance of conservation to the foreground
of human consciousness is a work which cannot be done by one man or one
organization in one year, or by many men and many organizations in many
years. It is a campaign of education which will extend
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through generations. But losses have already been so great that the
movement should be carried forward as rapidly as possible, especially in
preventing further wanton waste. This must be done if our descendants are
to have transmitted to them their heritage not too greatly depleted.
The natural resources may be divided into four divisions, Minerals,
Waters, Forests, and Soils. Each of these will be considered in order.
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