We look forward confidently to a future in which the practice of scientific forestry will become general throughout the United States, when our forest lands will be clearly defined and permanently maintained in productive growth, when waste lands will cease to play so large a part in our National statistics, when the production of the forests will cease to be so much less than the consumption of forest products, and when the National wealth will be contributed to largely each year from this source. But even with this hopeful outlook we cannot see that our work will ever be done, and we welcome the assistance which this Conservation Congress can give us.
[Signed] Edwin A. Start
Executive Secretary
REPORT OF THE AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION
The Committee on Conservation of National Animal Resources (the same being a sub-committee of the National Conservation Commission of the Federal Government) have the honor to report as follows:
The animal resources of the United States constitute a large proportion of its natural productive energy. This country has hundreds of millions of dollars invested in horses, mules, cattle, hogs, sheep, and chickens. These constitute natural resources which are producing a larger percentage of wealth and a larger proportionate return for capital invested than almost any one other resource. Furthermore, the actual means of sustaining life is more dependent on these resources than on all others combined, for aside from the food value of the cattle, hogs, sheep, and chickens, and also aside from the other products which are received from them, agricultural operations would be rendered largely inoperative if the assistance of the larger animals were withdrawn. In this way the products of the soil upon which man is so largely dependent for sustenance would be materially affected, and without the assistance of these animals the supply would diminish to the extent of actual starvation for vast numbers of the world's populace. Even if mechanical contrivances should replace the labor of beasts, the cost would be enormously increased; and the natural fertilizing products being removed, the productive value of the soil would also be progressively decreased.
From whatever point we look at this important question, the value of our animal resources is so great and so fundamental that the Nation may well give its best energies and most discriminating intelligence to their protection and conservation. It has been estimated that through the humane treatment and care of horses the average life of these useful creatures can be easily increased from 20 to 25 percent. This likewise means a proportionate increase in the results derived from their labor, which in the aggregate would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The same is also largely true of the increased value of other domestic animals as the result of humane and considerate treatment, which in all instances would greatly prolong their lives.
The American Humane Association has been greatly interested in promoting the more merciful treatment of range stock, which in the past have been largely left to shift for themselves during the cold, bleak winters of the Northwestern ranges. This has resulted in the death of vast numbers of livestock. A recent report of the Department of Agriculture indicates that over 1,000,000 domestic animals die in the United States each year from hunger and exposure.
Another department in which the humanitarian societies of the United States have been largely interested which bears directly on the conservation of a great natural resource, has been the protection of the fur seals. These interesting and valuable animals, through piratical efforts employed in their destruction, have become partially exterminated, and a great source of National wealth has been almost annihilated. From vast herds, numbering a great many hundreds of thousands, the seals have been reduced until their rookeries in the islands of the northern Pacific belonging to the United States have been almost depopulated. Friends of the Conservation policy have earnestly protested in Congress against this inhumane and economically unwise course, and during the last session legislation was passed and signed by President Taft, which would insure the ample protection of the seals. Grave fears are expressed at the present time lest this result should be endangered by unwise administrative measures which are threatened. I earnestly hope that the second National Conservation Congress will speak in no uncertain terms in regard to this important question, so that the seals may be restored once more to their original numbers and productive value.
This Committee will not undertake to present all the activities in which we have been interested which bear upon this subject, but content ourselves with showing the great importance of this particular phase of Conservation. We trust that this Committee will continue for another year, and that the results of this Congress will be felt in every portion of the United States.
Respectfully submitted,
[Signed] William O. Stillman, Chairman
M. Richard Muckle
Alfred Wagstaff
John Partridge
Samuel Weis
John L. Shortall
Guy Richardson
Committee