understanding of the physical needs of man himself insure the race at large improved health and longer life.

May I briefly indulge in a few common illustrations? The telegraph, the telephone, the automobile, steam and electric power save time and shorten distance. In that part of commerce relating to traffic we have caught the spirit of conservation. The railroad builder no longer takes the route of the least resistance in construction, but applies the geometric proposition that the straightest line is the shortest distance between two given points, works to that end, meets the difficulties of engineering, reduces gradients, and practically builds his road along the line of least resistance, conserves time, saves energy, increases efficiency and lessens rates.

The school books tell us of the "Seven Wonders" of the ancient world—the Pyramids, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and so on; all to gratify the vanity of kings and queens, not one for the advancement of civilization.

In a little more than two years the dream of four centuries will be realized the Panama Canal will be completed. The distance from the Occident to the Orient will be shortened seven thousand miles-the truly modern wonder in advancing civilization and practical conservation. (Applause.)

While the physical aspects of this mighty work, as they relate to the traffic and commerce of the world, stand out in bold relief, but little less, if any, in achievement, is the practical demonstration that scientific sanitary methods can clean the plague spots of the world and make them healthy and habitable for man.

Who can compute the saving of time and energy this mighty work will bestow on the generations to come. Long after the passions of this generation have ceased, history will record the names of the strong men who have brought to full consummation this great waterway, as true benefactors of mankind.

At this time, our public press is ecstatic over the great harvests of 1912 that promise such abounding prosperity. Some writers are so extravagant as to say that the bountiful yields from our soil make an poch in history. To speak of one crop only, the corn, or Indian maize crop, spreads over 108,000,000 acres, and is estimated to be 3,000,000,000 bushels. How enormous! At fifty cents a bushel, its money value would he $1,500,000,000, or $16.00 to every man, woman and child in the United States. Measured in bread, there would be enough to give to each of our 93,000,000 of people a five-cent loaf for more than 320 days, or nearly one full year. As gratifying as this is, the average yield is only twenty-seven bushels per acre; while it is shown that, by proper selection of seed, cultivation and fertilization of the soil, easily twice the yield could be produced, which would double the benefits enumerated.

How often do we pass a barren field, the soil too impoverished to grow wire grass, nettles, or thistles. The everyday farmer will tell you that a crop or two of clover will restore the necessary plant life to the soil of that field, and again make it blossom like the rose. He knows from practical observation and experience the cure, if he cannot scientifically trace the cause of the transformation.

Truly truth is stranger than fiction. Back of the restoration of a thousand barren fields restored to productiveness in the simply way named, lies one of the world's greatest romances in patient scientific investigation that will continue to bring untold benefits to mankind. You know the story of Professor Nobbe, of Forest Academy, Germany. He also knew that clover and other legumens of the plant family would restore fertility to the soil. But why? After long and exhaustive study, labor and experiment, he found that the clover family were nature's chemist of the soil; that by an invisible, intangible cord of attraction they drew from the inexhaustible reservoir of the air nitrogen so necessary to plant and animal life.

We are told that "nitrogen is what makes the muscles and brain of man; that it is the essential element of all elements in the growth of animals and plants, and, significantly enough, it is also the chief constituent of the gunpowder and other explosives with which the wars of the world are waged. The single discharge of a 13-inch gun liberates enough nitrogen to produce scores of bushels of wheat."

Some day, through this agency, man may turn his attention entirely from war to the production of food, and in that hour true conservation of life will have reached its triumph.

We are further told that four-fifths of the air we breath is nitrogen, and that four-fifths of the atmosphere around us is nitrogen, so that if mankind dies of nitrogen starvation, it will die with food everywhere in and about it.

So that, while the human race may be but from three to six months behind abject starvation, the fact begins to appear that through science "mankind has just begun to sound the world's capacity for food preduction and that it is practically limitless."

The proper conservation of the soil by the application of the resul's of scientific discovery means increased yields of all plant crops, with but little greater expenditure of energy. This would enable the producer of food and clothing to sell more pounds, bushels and yards at less cost, and still reap as great reward for his labor as at present. This would forestall the Malthusian doctrine that population increases faste than the means of subsistence and, still better, would help to solve the high cost of living that presses so sorely upon the millions throughou the world today. Man is a productive machine; so the more machines of the highest type the world possesses the better for the world.

This conservation movement that is so strongly taking hold of the minds of thinking men and women, is so big, so broad and so comprehensive that it covers every phase of human thought and activity in what is best and highest for the individual as well as organized society. It is education in the broadest sense.

The Golden Rule is not only a statement but a living principle. To teach that a just distribution of nature's gifts to each individual who is willing to earn and conserve his share is a recognition of that principle.

The City of Indianapolis esteems it a high honor to have this Congress with us. To all of its members, and especially to the distinguished. men from other lands who have come to give us their best thought upon the various questions affecting this great movement, we extend our most cordial welcome and greeting, and our deep appreciation of your

presence.

Our commercial organizations also cordially join in holding the door of welcome and hospitality open to you, and bespeak for your deliberations their kindest sympathy and deepest interest.

President WHITE-This is a proud day for the officers of this Congress, for its delegates from the different States, and for the friends of Conservation everywhere, to be welcomed so hospitably, not only for ourselves who are strangers within your gates, but generously because of your sympathy in the great cause for which we stand. The citizens of your great city are noted for their public spiit, for their broad culture, and as being always found in the van with the army of those of progressive ideas. It is very fitting that the State of Indiana should have this Congress within its borders because of the immense interest shown and all the valuable help given by its citizens in the conservation of all natural resources, especially of human life and soil fertility.

To become the best, to do the best for all in a community, we must cach develop the best within us, and must find our greatest reward in something for beyond the mere accumulation of dollars. Our community of interests recognizes a reciprocity of duty each to and for the other. Our title to the regard of our fellow men must come from our devotion to them and our love of humanity and its highest ideals, and not from selfish zeal in accumulating monetary wealth, which only represents the toil, the waste, and the necessities of human lives. This has been and is the age of commercialism. The measure of success has been gauged by the amount of money accumulated. In the language of Goldsmith, our country was in danger of descending to a condition "where wealth accumulates and men decay." But I believe a turning point has been reached; and that we are entering upon a new era, a more glorious conception of higher duties for mankind; so that it shall not be asked: "What hath he taken from others in the competitive struggle for exist

ence," but rather: "What hath he given to others of himself for their advancement and development?" He who lives only for himself and does not plant for those that are to come after him, lives in vain. I believe the time is near at hand when a man shall be regarded with pity and as very poor indeed, who has nothing but money selfishly gained for selfish use.

The Conservation Congress of the United States has a great field to occupy. Its labors are for the betterment of its citizens in every way. Its work is to seek for the best methods to do the greatest good to all for this and for future generations. And in this there is no partisan. politics; but it is such good national politics, that each party will strive only in seeking for the best methods for the common good.

Human life, with its possible attainments, is far beyond valuation in money. We should reverse the tables; and instead of human life being estimated in dollars, the dollar should be valued only for what it can do for greater humanity. Dr. Holmes, Director of the United States Bu reau of Mines, in illustrating waste of material resources, says that in producing one half billion tons of coal, we waste or leave underground one quarter of a billion tons. And then only eleven per cent of the energy in coal is utilized; nearly ninety per cent. is lost through ineffi ciency of boilers, engines and dynamos. How great a per cent. are we wasting of human life and human efficiency? We will have abundance of all the necessaries of life, and even of life itself, if we wisely save, wisely develop and protect, and wisely use. Human life is our greatest asset, and its waste is a permanent loss. The wealth of the nation is in its men, thrifty, honest, capable and patriotic men-in their moral and physical health, the foundation of their highest efficiency. The milestones of a nation's progress are recorded in the history of every generation. In India, the average duration of life is twenty-five years; in Sweden more than fifty years; in the State of Massachusetts (the State where most careful records have been taken) it is over forty-five years. Wherever sanitary and highest medical science has been applied, it has been found possible to increase the span of life. In Europe it is said to have doubled in three and a half centuries. The report from Massachusetts shows an increase of fourteen years in the past century. So this humanitarian cause is surely a most economic, worthy and profitable one. In figuring from the standpoint of capital, Prof. Mayo Smith estimates that men and women between fifteen and forty-five years of age are worth an average of one thousand dollars. But figuring from a human standpoint, they are worth all that there is, money being only one of the tools to work with in effecting exchange of commodities, and the products of brawn and brain. We want to increase the ratio of the value of man to the soil, of man to all and any of his products, of man to money, and to put man first all the time. (Applause.)

We will increase the fertility and productiveness of the soil and we will enlarge the scope and increase the efficiency of the man. We waste in production as well as in consumption. In agriculture we will say that we will make the soil produce so many bushels per acre per man. The man will be first in his wise application of labor and methods and of means to an end. The "limits of subsistence" under what political economists used to call their "law of diminishing returns" has no fear for the conservationist. The developing of human intelligence is enlarging the production of the soil. Irrigation, where possible, and where impossible the science of what is called dry farming brings increasing results. Old farms in Europe produce more than they did 300 years ago, and this will prove true with us, and there will be no starvation for the human race because of increasing population.

And so will it be with all other industries, occupations and profes sions. He will be greatest who accomplishes most for man. For the brotherhood of man was the world made and the fullness thereof. Such freedom as may benefit any individual and does not in any way work to the injury of others is natural justice to all. Competition shall be robbed of the "red tooth and the bloody claw," and co-operation and development for the good of all shall be the supreme object of all our efforts.

We will protect our watersheds by growing forests, and learn to control our floods, prevent soil erosion, and store the water, and convert its power into electricity, and from electricity produce light, heat and power in undiminishing quantity forever. In nearly every State there is daily flowing to waste power enough, if arrested and utilized on its way to the sea, to turn every wheel of industry and to move the traffic of commerce, and furnish light and heat for every city. It is said that the wheel does not turn with water that is past, but other wheels farther down the stream do, and the power is used again and again and finally pumped back by the sun to the mountains and plains to forever repeat the process of service to mankind. New discoveries are being made, and the use for by-products is being multiplied so that they are often found to be of greater use than the product from which they are derived. We must protect our forests by preventing forest fires. Government and State appropriations must be made sufficient for this purpose. In the report of the Conservation Commission to the President, it is stated that fifty million acres are burned over annually, and since 1870 there has been lost each year an average of fifty lives and fifty million dollars' worth of timber. The lumbermen's interests are to prevent fires and to stop waste; and they are anxious to co-operate with the State and with associations for this purpose, and are already doing so in many places. The true, saving features of forestry are becoming better understood, and better applied; and we will save our forests, and will grow trees, wherever necessary and profitable, the same as any other