communication, some fifteen million miles of telegraph and telephone lines, enabling the people to talk with one another. Yet even that is not speedy enough, so we are using the wireless. And so along all lines of industry, we have developed at a tremendous rate. But it has been a one-sided development, and now we have come to look particularly at the other side-the public welfare, and we are trying to find out what is best, from the experience of all countries, so that the American people may do the best that can be done for the welfare of this country.

It has therefore come about, in connection with this one-sided development, that we have lost sight of that great subject which we have for consideration today-the conservation of human life. We have been too busy to think about it. We have jumped on and off street cars and railway trains; we have slipped on our waxed floors; we have met with all sorts of serious accidents in our fast automobiles and flying machines; yet we ask, "Why are these miners so careless as to kill themselves, and these railroad employes?" And we are just as bad as they are. So let us not talk about careless railway employes, or careless miners, but stop to think what we can do to help the entire situation. Let us ask ourselves the question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" and there is but one answer, and that is in the affirmative.

I want to call attention to the fact that we have in this country two great foundations of industry. We have always considered agriculture as the great foundation industry of the country, but we have another-mining. The savage did not need any mines. He only wants. a limited amount of material for clothing, and a large amount of material in the way of something to eat. He does not need the great modern appliances which we have today. When we drew up the Constitution of this country we did not think the mining industry of much importance, and it was not possible to anticipate the great complex social fabric which we have in the United States today. A man said to me the other day that he thought if Thomas Jefferson could see the things that we are asking of this great Federal Government, he would not know what to do. My own judgment is that he would advocate the doing by this Federal Government of all the things that this great American people demand that it do today. (Applause.) The trouble is that while. we were making this tremendous progress, all of the people were not keeping pace, and perhaps it is well that this is true, because if there was nobody to hold back we would not only progress too rapidly, but progress in too many one-sided ways.

We recognize, furthermore, that while agriculture has made tremendous strides, and in large measure because of the investigations conducted under the Federal Government, other branches of industry have made rapid strides, but they have been forced to one-sided development in order to keep pace. It needs, then, the great coöperating

influence of some great force like the Federal Government to help keep the industries from becoming one-sided.

The mining industry touches us on every hand, and today in a great hall like this, where you can find materials from every part of the world, you will find they came from the mine, or were manufactured through the agency of the products of the mine. We can not do anything on a large scale today without the aid of this great mining industry. During last March, the English people awakened to a realization of that fact. They did not consider mining as one of the great fundamental industries, but the stopping of the coal mines for four weeks stopped all the industries of the British, and they came to the conclusion that the very life of the nation was in danger by the cessation of coal mining.

Mining and Conservation should be linked very closely together. Men realize the fact that with agriculture, the resources increase year by year. We increase the fertility of the soil by taking the nitrogen from the air, and from that we get the crops, so that the wealth of the country based on agriculture is easily predicated. The mining industry is just the reverse. We started in this country with greater mineral resources than we will ever have again. Furthermore, in agriculture we have the healthiest vocation known, while mining is the most dangerous industry in the world.

Now, this mining industry has increased so rapidly that we have not been able to take care of many of the difficulties that have arisen, nor do we have a realization of how rapid that increase has been. We have increased in forty years from less than a ton to every man, woman and child, to, in the last year, six tons. Forty years ago a pound of iron, as compared with thirteen today for every man, woman and child. And so it has been with the great industries-they are increasing so much more rapidly than the population that it is hard to tell what has become of this increase, and one of the questions is, can this increase continue? Some of our great statesmen in Washington who have been fighting this Conservation movement, say it can not continue. The fact that the mining industry has nearly doubled every ten years, they say can not continue. But no man today would say that this country will not continue to grow, and as it grows this great mining industry will increase also. We are just entering upon our development. We are just beginning to export the products of our mines, so when we ask the question whether this great Nation will continue to grow, and this industry will increase, there is but one answer, and that is in the affirmative. We ask another question are these resources inexhaustible? And there is but one answer, and that is in the negative, because we are now beginning to see the end of some of these resources. Shall we curtail the development of an industry like this and not supply the needs of the people? Our politicians ask this and expect us to answer in the affirma

tive, but no conservationist answers it that way. We say, no, the needs increase and we must meet the needs.

What can we do to perpetuate the welfare of the country? There are but two things we can do, and they are fairly easy to do. Use more and more efficiently all the resources, and prevent unnecessary waste. Now, in connection with this wasteful use of our resources, you say, after all, is there any great waste? What can we do to stop it? Only a few years ago the State of Indiana thought its natural gas was gone, so it passed laws forbidding the waste of natural gas; the Supreme Court of the United States confirmed such an act in regard to coalafter the coal was gone. One of the Supreme Judges said that a man who owns a coal mine had a legal right to destroy it if he wished to. But in the State of New York one of the associate justices overruled the Supreme Justice, and in every case the Supreme Court of the United States, as well as the Supreme Court of the several States, have shown a desire to keep pace with the progress of this country in interpreting the Constitution of the United States for the permanent future welfare of the people of this country. (Applause.) There are a good many signs of improvement, not only in what the Federal and State Governments are doing, but in what private individuals are doing.

Only yesterday, I went through the great plant at Gary, and I found the United States Steel Corporation was using two million horse-power developed from gases from its own operations, which only a few years. ago was allowed to go to waste, and that power is not only operating all the machinery of that company, but is supplying the power for other industries in the immediate vicinity. I found that the slag coming from the furnaces, which in many great manufacturing sections of the country we see piled up in great, unsightly masses, is all being converted into cement, and that cement is being used by the people of this country. And so we find an interesting situation-that the steel being manufactured by that plant is likely soon to be a by-product, and not the main product for which the plant is operated.

And so it is when we watch the great industries of this country. Under this great spirit of Conservation individuals are meeting the Federal Government and State more than half way, and they are finding what is the greatest basis of permanent success-that it pays to conserve our resources. And when that great company does any mining for ore in the lake country, instead of burying the materials which they cannot use today, they are laying that material to one side, so that just as soon as it becomes useful it will be immediately available for preparation for that purpose.

Out of five hundred million tons of coal mined last year, we wasted, by leaving it underground, no less than two hundred million tons. Meanwhile, if we could have exported that coal to Central or South

America and brought back from these countries raw materials which we could use in manufacture, it would be something worth doing; but to waste it entirely is nothing more than a discredit to this nation. But what are we going to do about it? The coal operator cannot change the situation, because he is doing the best he can at the price he gets; the miner cannot change the situation, because he is doing the best he can at the price he is paid. It is not simply a question for chemists and engineers-it is a problem for statesmen, and the statesman is the man who must remedy the economie conditions.

To come to the main subject of the Conservation of life, the greatest loss of life we have in mines is in the coal mining industry. I want to say in connection with this, that a careful study of the situation for the past several years has led me to believe that the coal operator in the United States is just as humane and just as anxious to conserve the life of his men as the coal operator in any other known country. (Applause.) Furthermore, that while it is true that of the miners, less than half read the English language and 75 per cent. are non-English speaking and know little or nothing about the laws regulating the principles and purposes of a great country like this, yet they are no more careless in mining because of that fact than are the miners from England and Wales who come here after long experience in mining and knowing perfectly our language and customs. These men are up against a condition that they cannot remedy, and while I do not say that they are doing the best they can under the circumstances, I think they are more and more coming to do the best they can, and I believe we will have more and more effort on the part of both miners and operators to do what is right. We have developed so rapidly in the past hundred years that we have not stopped to think of human life, and we cannot expect these reforms to take place without any effort on our part. There is recognition on the part of both miners and operators, that I am my brother's keeper, and it is a most encouraging sign.

There are these two great reforms in connection with the mines of this country-safeguarding the lives of miners and improvement of conditions under which they labor, and the stopping of waste of our essential resources. The Federal Government is trying to get at the actual information, they are trying to conduct investigations in an impartial manner, and they want to bring about a condition acceptable to both miner and operator. We have suspicion on the part of the operator of the miner; and suspicion on the part of the miner of the operator; and suspicion on the part of other parties in reference to both. What we want to do is to have a condition in this country so that the miner and operator, coöperating with each other, can work together and bring about these great reforms that are needed.

This general welfare clause of the Constitution, which was regarded

as an agreement with the devil, is today our great saving clause for getting things done by the Federal Government. The Federal Government, Mr. President, has waked up long ago to what it ought to do for agriculture, and in the next few years it will conduct investigations far more extensive than today-it will submit remedies brought together from the experience of all mining countries of the world, and it will lead in this great movement for a general improvement of conditions. But after all, what may be done by the Federal Government will depend upon what is done by the Federal Congress. There is where we must do our work, to make them appreciate the difficulties of a great industry like this, and the correctness of this clause.

I want to say a word in behalf of these miners. As I said before, more than half of them cannot read the English language. Under the rules and regulations we have permitted these men to come into the United States, and when they come it is interesting to see how they appreciate becoming an American citizen. I talked to a Lithuanian who had only been in this country a few months, and I said, “Are you not very lonely?" and he said, "Yes, but I am an American." (Applause.)

These men are here, and we have done mighty little for them. We cannot wonder that they segregate in their rooms at night, after working in the mines all day, and read Socialistic literature which comes from their country. We do mighty little to encourage them to learn the English language; we do mighty little to encourage them to enter into the spirit of true America; we have neglected them all too long-and then we complain that they are not American citizens. I appeal to you as citizens of the United States and of the State of Indiana, to see that everything that is possible is done to make good citizens of these men. Get legislation under which they can work, and the safety problem will take care of itself. (Continued applause.)

President WHITE-The next subject for consideration is "The Prevention of Railroad Accidents," by Mr. Thomas H. Johnson, consulting engineer of the Pennsylvania Lines, West. I take pleasure in introducing Mr. Johnson.

(Applause.)

Mr. JOHNSON-In approaching this subject it will be well to get our viewpoint adjusted to a true perspective and just proportion. Accidents on railways which result in death or injury to persons, are all reported to State and National officials, and when the statistics for the year are compiled and published the total figures are startling, and suggest that the transportation business of the country is conducted at a fearful sacrifice of life and limb. It should be remembered, however, that in no other line of the Nation's activities are similar complete statisties available.