Proceedings [of the] fourth National Conservation Congress [at] Indianapolis, October 1-4, 1912

by United States. National Conservation Congress

Address, “Human Efficiency”

Dr. Wallace—Mr. President, and Members of the Congress: It might not be amiss, before entering into a discussion of the subject proper, to recall the different subjects which have from year to year engaged the attention of the Conservation Congress, and to show how the choice of the subject for each different Congress was the natural and logical result of the discussion of the preceding Congress.

The first Congress was called, and the Congress itself was organized, as a forum in which the leading men of the Nation could discuss the problems raised by the Conservation Commission, appointed by Theodore Roosevelt at the suggestion of Gifford Pinchot, then holding the position of Chief Forester in the Department of Agriculture. His position as Forester enabled him to see the terrific waste going on in the management of our forests, and the various means by which the government forests were passing into the hands of individuals, subsequently to be wasted for private gain. He saw clearly that unless our forests were conserved and managed as are the forests of all other civilized nations, soil erosion would render future forest growth impossible, would fill our rivers with silt, dry up the streams in summer and convert them into raging torrents in winter, depriving us of water for irrigation, and diminishing in value the water power, or white coal, on which future generations must largely depend for power and transportation.

A forum was greatly needed in which the questions raised by this fearless idealist—to whom the Conservation of our resources for future generations is both wife and child—could be openly and fearlessly discussed by leaders and in the hearing of the American people. When the First Conservation Congress was called to meet in Seattle in 1909, naturally the main topic for discussion was the Conservation of the forests and of the water powers, which were then fast passing into the hands of great corporations.

By this time the public conscience was aroused. The people of the United States began to see clearly that we dare not go on in the future, looting and wasting our natural resources as we had done in the past. They began to realize that the generations of the unborn had rights in the oil, the coal and other minerals in that portion of the public domain that we had not as yet recklessly thrown away, or allowed to be stolen from us under forms of or in defiance of law. So the Second Conservation Congress was called in St. Paul, in 1910, as a forum in which the leading men of the nation could thresh out the problem as to whether these resources to which the American people at present held title should be administered by a Congress chosen by the people and speaking for the people, or whether they should be administered through an act of Congress by the several States in which the Government property happened to be located.

The historian of the future alone will be able to measure the beneficial results of the fierce conflict between those who would despoil these resources for private gain and those who would conserve them for future generations. We can, however, see some of the results in the change in the policy of our national administration, in the vigilant watch now maintained by the present Secretary of the Interior; by the success which crowned the efforts of Mr. Pinchot and others who kept constant watch over bills intended, by means of concealed jokers, to break down the fixed policy of the Government; and by the veto of the President of vicious bills which, notwithstanding the utmost vigilance, were enacted by the last Congress. This watch and guard over the heritage of the unborn could not have been maintained successfully, had it not been for the white light thrown upon the problem by the Second National Conservation Congress.

I was, unexpectedly to myself, chosen President of the Conservation Congress at the close of the St. Paul meeting; and with the consent and advice of my executive committee, in making out the program for the 1911 meeting in Kansas City, fixed the attention of the American people on the necessity for the Conservation of the fertility of the soil, and the development of a better social and family life among the tillers of the soil.

The time had come for the American people to understand that the rapid and regular advance in the cost of living was due mainly to the terrific waste of the fertility of the soil, that had been going on for more than a hundred years. It was time for the farmer to learn that he was not in a position to throw stones at the lumberman who had wasted our forests, or at the mine owner who is wasting one-third of the coal in the process of mining; that he, while a sharer in the cheapness of the products of forest and mine, had himself been mining the fertility of the soil, stored for his benefit through countless ages, and selling it at the bare cost of mining; and in doing so had built up cities the world over, which must cry for bread when the fertility of his soil became exhausted.

It is too early yet to measure the full results of this Kansas City Congress. This should be noted, however, that, whether the result of the discussions of this Congress or not, the people of the United States have shown an interest in agriculture and the maintenance of soil fertility which they had never shown before. Bankers, railroad officials, capitalists are beginning to see that unless the farmer receives encouragement and efficient aid, this nation will soon cease to be a factor in supplying other nations with food, and will gradually become a consuming instead of a producing country, so far as the products of the soil are concerned. We are beginning to see that unless a more satisfactory social life is established in the open country, the increasing disparity between rural and urban population must continue and the cost of living must go on increasing, and with it increasing discontent and social disturbance.

My successor and his executive committee, with their wide experience in practical affairs, saw clearly that if we are to restore fertility to our wasted soils, if we are to do anything worth while for the Conservation of our resources of any kind or character, there must be an increase in the efficiency of the individual. They therefore wisely chose the subject of “Vital Resources” as the main center around which discussion must revolve at the present Conservation Congress.