tions to be solved by the present generation. Indeed, as Presi dent Roosevelt put it, "the conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life.”1

This issue was first seriously brought to the attention of the general public by President Roosevelt in his numerous addresses; and a practical step toward the solution of the problem was taken by him in the appointment, in 1907, of the Inland Waterways Commission to investigate and recommend a full and comprehensive plan for the development and utilization of the water resources of the country. He took the second important step in calling a Conference of Governors at the White House on May 13-15, 1908.2 At that meeting of state executives, facts regarding our natural resources were presented by experts; methods of educating public opinion were considered; and many plans by which conservation could be best accomplished were suggested.' Soon after the adjournment of this Conference of Governors, President Roosevelt announced the appointment of a National Conservation Commission for the purpose of making a study of the general problem; and following the lead of the national government, many states have taken action toward the investigation and solution of the question of the conservation of their own natural resources.

2 For the recommendations of the conference, see Readings, p. 361.

3 The significance of this first Governors' Conference was not confined to the conservation movement. It was, perhaps, the beginning of a new development in our political institutions. At all events it was the first step in the organization of the House of Governors, which is now (1910) assuming institutional form. It provided a permanent organization by which the governors themselves can arrange for periodic meetings, and on the call of this organization a second conference was held in Washington, D.C., in January, 1910. This Governors' Conference is, of course, an extra-legal institution and has no power to take any official action binding upon any one. Yet it may have great influence on state legislative and executive policy. The governors exchange ideas on subjects which come up for solution in their respective commonwealths, and get the benefit of one another's experience. The meetings will tend to promote uniformity in state legislation and do away with the unnecessary and inconvenient diversity of state laws. As was said by Governor Hughes of New York, in a speech made before the second conference, the scope of these conferences may embrace three groups of questions: uniform laws, interstate comity, and interchange of state experience.

The Soil

The fundamental resource of the country is the soil. It was said by James J. Hill, in an address before the first Conference of Governors, that "nearly 36 per cent of our people are engaged directly in agriculture. But all the rest depend on it. In the last analysis, commerce, manufactures, our home market, every form of activity, run back to the bounty of the earth by which every worker, skilled and unskilled, must be fed, and by which his wages are ultimately paid."1

While we had at our disposal vast areas of virgin soil, we took it for granted that agriculture could take care of itself and that manufacturing alone needed our best energies and skill. During the pioneer days, the frontiersmen cleared away forests for farms, and after getting what they could out of the land, abandoned it, moved forward, and repeated the process. That the application of science to the abandoned areas would have renewed the bounty of the soil did not occur to the pioneers, and it was only natural that the refinements of agriculture should have been neglected amid the rough struggles of the frontier.

As the tide of land-hunting pioneers swept westward it left behind it neglected and abandoned farms. All throughout New England and the eastern states there are deserted farm-houses falling into ruin, and vast areas once under cultivation are being overgrown with scrub. The rough-and-ready single-cropping system, the careless provisions for fertilization, the maladjustment in connecting the country with town markets, and the enormous charges for freight and express (due in many instances to watered stocks and monopolies) are conspiring to turn whole states into wildernesses. Society and science must cooperate with private initiative in restoring these regions to fertility and productiveness.

It is not only the methods of tilling which are causing this decline in fertility. The soil is also being depleted by natural causes, the principal one of which is erosion, or the sweeping away of the fertile surface into streams by means of torrential rains and floods. It is estimated that 1,000,000,000 or more tons of richest soil matter are annually carried into the sea by our

1 Proceedings of a Conference of Governors, 1908, p. 72.

rivers. Millions of acres, particularly in the South, have been rendered bare and useless for agriculture largely by this process. One of the principal means of stopping this wastage is the conservation of forests which help to regulate the flow of water.?

The federal and state governments at present do little directly to aid in preserving and improving the fertility of the soil; but the experiments in advanced methods of cultivation carried on by the Department of Agriculture, the Experiment Stations, and state agricultural colleges, are doing much to show the farmers. how to make the best use of their land and at the same time to conserve it for the use of posterity. Science will become the servant of agriculture as well as of industry.

While lending this aid to improving the methods of agriculture, the federal government is widening the public domain by reclaiming arid and semi-arid lands through gigantic irrigation undertakings. The Newlands Act of June 17, 1902, authorized the Secretary of the Interior to undertake the work of reclamation on a large scale. The fund for the work consists of the proceeds from the sale of the public lands in certain states. The lands made available by irrigation are sold, in small tracts, to actual settlers, who pay the price in annual instalments, thus restoring to the reclamation fund the money that is laid out. Up to June 30, 1908, the sum of $50,661,549.27 had been paid into the fund from all sources.5

The work is done by the Reclamation Service, which is in the Department of the Interior. Reservoirs, drains, canals, etc., are constructed by the government, and from them the settlers can draw water by means of ditches to irrigate their farms. A large number of projects have been undertaken, some of them requiring engineering skill of a high order. One of the most interesting of these is the Shoshone project in Wyoming, which contemplates the erection of a dam over 300 feet high.' The first

1 Proceedings of a Conference of Governors, 1908, p. 78.

2 Readings, p. 365.

3 For the work of this important Department see Reinsch, Readings, pp. 401 ff.

4

For speeches in Congress on this act, see Readings, pp. 66, 371.

Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1909, p. 21.

Largely by contract.

"The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. XXXI, pp. 203-218.

six years of the reclamation work resulted in making 767,958 acres fit for settlement, out of which 424,549 acres were actually irrigated.1

Some of the states are also carrying on similar work. For example, Idaho has undertaken stupendous projects. It has constructed one of the largest irrigation canals in the world and rendered arable more than 300,000 acres of barren waste. It has entered into contracts for the construction of large storage reservoirs to control flood waters. Utah is financing a number of reclamation projects. Missouri and Florida are carrying on large drainage operations, while New Jersey is ditching and filling in marsh lands.

Mineral Resources

Among the most valuable of the natural resources and the most necessary in the present stage of civilization are the minerals. Coal and iron form the foundation of our industrial prosperity. In one respect, the minerals differ greatly in character from all other natural resources; they cannot be improved or renewed. This makes a proper use of them all the more imperative.

It has been estimated that our original heritage of coal was about 2,500,000,000,000 tons. Authorities differ on how long it will be before the supply is exhausted, the common prediction being about two hundred years. There is always a possibility, of course, that new and unexpected deposits will be discovered. Still, the great increase of consumption during the last few years,2 makes the problem of conserving the coal deposits for future generations an important one.

The needless waste of our coal supply is due principally to two causes. The first is the wasteful methods of mining, which leave from 40 per cent to 70 per cent of the fuel in the mines, a large part of it beyond recovery. The second cause is due to the imperfect methods of combustion. It is estimated that about 90 per cent of the potential energy of the coal goes to waste.3 Our second great mineral resource is iron. The present stock

1 Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1909, p. 24. 'Readings, p. 371.

These, of course, leave out of account the social wastes due to competition. See Reeve, The Cost of Competition.

of iron ore in the United States is reckoned at about 10,000,000,ooo tons. Mr. Andrew Carnegie has estimated that the known supply will be exhausted before 1940.1 Other estimates are not as pessimistic, it being generally agreed that the supply will last until the end of the century. Moreover, it is likely that additional ore will be discovered. Nevertheless, even looking at it from the most optimistic standpoint, the conservation of the supply of iron ore is a practical question, particularly when we bear in mind the fact that about 80 per cent of the known iron ore deposits in this country are controlled by the United States Steel Corporation.

Another important mineral resource is natural gas. An absolutely unnecessary waste of gas is found in uncontrolled wells and leaking pipe lines. About 1,000,000,000 cubic feet are lost daily in the United States through these and other causes. The legislature of Indiana has passed a statute prohibiting the waste of natural gas through negligence, and all gasproducing states should follow her example.

2

The national government can do nothing to conserve the mineral resources that are now in private hands, without modifying its traditional policy with regard to the sacredness of private rights, but an enormous amount of mineral land is found in the public domain, and this may be protected without coming into conflict with constitutional limitations. During the last few years, several measures have been initiated to safeguard public property in mineral lands.3 The first step is to withdraw these lands from entry and sale and properly classify them. The next problem is how to provide for their right use.

Of the various methods of reform suggested, perhaps the best, at least for the present, is the proposal that the government should cease to grant mineral lands in perpetuity, and, instead, lease them for terms of years at a proper rental, requiring the deposits to be worked in strict conformity with government regulations and under the supervision of official inspectors,

1

Proceedings of a Conference of Governors, 1908, p. 17.

2 During the great period of railroad construction many coal and iron lands were granted to railways. Enormous amounts have been sold to individuals at ridiculously low prices. Huge tracts have been obtained by fraud. Eight railway systems now control the hard coal fields.

3 Readings, p. 368.