ests.

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.

[Illustration]
Copyright by Underwood and Underwood.
The President, Governors, and other leading
men at the National Resources Conference,
at the White House, May 13 to 15, 1908.

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