REPORT OF THE AMERICAN CIVIC ASSOCIATION I have already had the honor of presenting some statement of Rhode Island's interest in the Conservation movement, and of the ways in which she proposes to demonstrate it. But I also bear messages from the American Civic Association and other organizations. Perhaps one might think, on first consideration, that there was nothing very closely related, or perhaps related at all, in the purposes of the Conservation Commission of the State of Rhode Island and those of the American Civic Association, the Providence Board of Trade, the Metropolitan Park Commission of Providence Plantations, the Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association, and the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Institute of Architects; yet I bring you greetings from all of these. I want to tell you that they are all working with all the enthusiasm there is in them for some phase or other of the mighty movement for Conservation. Some people have said-half contemptuously perhaps (I am afraid so)-that Conservation is made to cover about every kind of a movement there is on this great footstool, but perhaps the statement is about true so far as these movements are concerned with the preservation and development of any of the great assets of nature or artificial achievements of man that are necessary or useful to the well-being of our own or future generations. Whether we are considering the forests upon the mountain sides that control the floods and affect the farms and the water-powers and the navigable streams below, or are thinking how to plan and lay out and construct our towns and cities so that they shall most worthily and efficiently fulfill their two great purposes as places (1) to live happily in and (2) to work most successfully in, we find their principles overlapping and leading from one end of the line clear to the other. You cannot separate them, and it is not worth while to try. The interests of the American Civic Association, of course, are not restricted to any State or section. Its activities are Nation-wide. "For a Better and More Beautiful America" is its motto, and it believes that a more beautiful America is bound to be a better and more prosperous America. It believes also that the Conservation of beauty means the Conservation of patriotism; and its distinguished president has paraphrased a well-known utterance of Ex-Mayor McClellan to the effect that "The country healthy, the country wealthy, and the country wise, may excite satisfaction, complaisance, and pride; but it is the country beautiful that compels and retains the love of its citizens." It is the love of country that lights and keeps glowing the holy fire of patriotism, and this love is excited primarily by the beauty of the country and the environments of the citizens. The American Institute of Architects believes that when a thing is most usefully done it is most beatifully done. It believes that Conservation deals with two great departments closely related in human endeavor, and that you cannot divorce the necessity of itv planning from the development of the resources of nations. A properly planned structure, whether it be of a single building or of a whole city, with all its homes and shops an streets, means the Conservation of the people's efficiency through all the generations that shall ever come to dwell therein. Similarly, the park movement, as we see it scientifically promoted, is almost wholly a measure of Conservation. It is not, as the previous generation believed, primarily to tack on ornate luxuries to the urban fabric, but to preserve the necessary recreation places that would otherwise be obliterated, but without which the race of city-bred dwellers cannot survive. It is to safeguard human efficiency and happiness. The Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association, whose presi lent, Honorable J. Hampton Moore, has bidden me extend his greetings, calls for things that mean much Conservation of effort. Its project would remove much of the material burden of unnecessary cost. There is Conservation of vast energy and the saving of huge National burdens in the present eastern ambition for the fuller improvement of harbors and development of connecting inland waterways. Let me tell you how the improvement of the harbors related to the handling of at least 80 percent of the $1,500,000,000 worth of all our imports, for this is the proportion that comes into the eastern harbors of the Nation. It relates to the transportation of products of the eastern States worth over $14,000,000,000 a year-of 85 percent of all the cotton that the Nation raises, and 58 percent of all our manufactures; to the 765,000,000 tons of merchandise that has to be transported through these States in which more than 50 percent of all our people dwell, and then transferred in various ways for the equal benefit of the other 50 percent. No item in the cost of our existence is of more importance than that of transportation. Well, of course, the Board of Trade is interested in all these things, though it looks upon them primarily as they bear upon the up-building of a city. It believes that it is working to assist the logical development of a city of glorious possibilities where certain services to the Nation may best be performed. If there were not sound economic reasons for the up-building of a great city at any given place, it would be foolish and wicked to attempt by artificial means to talk it into being, or try to force it by the hothouse method of overheated air. But if you have the necessary natural assets and opportunities that but await intelligent handling, why here comes the need of Conservation as a vital obligation. [Signed] HENRY A. BARKER Delegate REPORT AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION No organization can more appropriately than the American Forestry Associa tion make its statement and its appeal to this Congress; for it is the first of our Conservation organizations. It has a past of nearly thirty years to which it can point with pride of real achievement; an active and efficient, though not a noisy, present; and a future of ever enlarging opportunity. In a very real sense we may say that the work of this Association, through years of much-misunderstood effort, under the able guidance of the great leaders of the American forestry movement, made this Congress possible; for it was through the study of forestry and its relation to the country that the whole problem of our National resources came to be understood. The man who has given the Conservation of natural resources its impetus, with the help of his distinguished chief, then President of the United States, was the recognized leader. the apostle and evangelist, of the forestry movement; and today no portion of our natural resources holds a more important place than the forests. They are inseparably linked with soils and waters, both of which depend on them in great measure; and as a product of the soil, nothing exceeds the forests in value and in necessity to human welfare. Forests, like agricultural crops, belong to the renewable class of products, and their maintenance involves much more complicated and permanent problems than the non-renewable products like metals, coal, oil, and gas. Therefore we conceive the field of our Association to be vital and lasting, and so broad, many-sided, and far-reaching as to amply justify the exist ence of an organization dedicated to the advancement of scientific forestry for the best utilization of our forest lands for all time. Our appeal is to the citizen who desires to promote the economic and moral welfare of the Nation, for moral welfare comes only through good economics and such management of natural resources as makes for prosperity; to the lumbermen and to all manufacturers who use forest products, for to them this is a subject that touches the permanence of their industries; to the educator who looks beyond mere culture and believes that our education must more and more fit men and women to cope with the complex problems of modern life. In this last connection we shall soon announce plans, recently set on foot, for giving practical and definite assistance to those teachers who wish to bring the fundamental principles of forestry into their work, but who do not know how. We shall try to show them how in a systematic and practical way. Our work is independent of that of the Government, but is conducted in close touch with it. As an independent body of citizens we can do and say what Government officials cannot do and say. Our program embodies: (1) An equitable system of taxation which shall not unduly burden the growing crop: (2) adequate protection against fire, which will reduce this greatest of forest perils to a minimum; (3) the practice of scientific management upon all existing forests; (4) the planting of all unoccupied lands which can be utilized more profitably for forestry than for any other purpose; and, (5) the whole to be brought about through harmonious adjustment of functions between the three classes of ownersNational, State, and private. We do not believe that either one of these agencies is to be relied on alone. Each has its place. I say this because our position in this regard is often misconceived. I may add (to correct another misapprehension) that we do not believe in putting under forest land more valuable for agriculture. Forestry and agriculture are not rivals. They go hand in hand. One specific object to which we have given much effort for several years is the establishment of National Forests on the great interstate water-sheds of the Northern and Southern Appalachians. The conditions, which are acute for the thickly populated East, can only be handled by the united action of the National and State governments and private owners. The central cores of the White Mountains and the Southern Appalachians clearly require National care and management. With this and cooperation of the States and private owners with the National Government, we can save a rare country of beauty, health, and productiveness from being made a depopulated waste. We begin to see the light. In the House of the last two Congresses we have passed a bill, after fighting to a finish the reactionary element which has controlled that body and throttled legislation framed in the public interest. In the Senate we have a strong working majority which can only be beaten, as in the Sixtieth and Sixty-first Congresses, by filibustering in the last hours of the session. If we are not cheated of our reward next winter we shall mark a new step in the progress of American forestry by making the National Forest system really National. The Association now has about 6600 members; it maintains an office in Washington, where a close watch is kept upon National legislation, and through its correspondents, upon State legislation. It provides lectures, issues bulletins on important subjects, conducts a correspondence bureau, and publishes a monthly magazine, American Forestry, which is contributed to by the best authorities in the country, and is the only popular magazine of its class of National scope. We enjoy the cordial cooperation of the U. S. Forest Service and of the various State forest bureaus. 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 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 WILLIAM O. STILLMAN, Chairman JOHN PARTRIDGE SAMUEL WEIS JOHN L. SHORTALL Committee REPORT OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS The Committee of the American Institute of Architects on the Conservation of Natural Resources has the honor to report as follows: A wide and increasingly active interest in the subject exists among the officers and members of the Institute. The Committee believes that few, if any, of the great National organizations touch the subject of Conservation at so many points, or are more vitally interested in its wise and efficient progress, or can be more directly helpful in the application of the principles of Conservation in a great series of important industries. The construction of modern buildings, either for residential or business purposes, involves the use in one form or another of practically the entire list of materials included under the general meaning of the term the "natural resources" of the country, excepting only agricultural land and foodstuffs; and in common with all other thinking citizens, the architects realize that the continued prosperity of the building interests is in the long run dependent on the wise use of these resources. Exact statistics of the great building industry of the country are not obtainable; but a somewhat extended inquiry recently made led to an approximate estimate of the amount of money expended upon buildings in the United States per annum at an average of not less than $1,000,000,000, practically all of which passes under the hands of the architects in the specifications of materials to be used and in certification as to quality and cost. Among the materials used are metals, including iron and its various products in rolled steel, sheet metal, pipe, castings, and machinery, with copper, lead, graphite, zinc, nickel, silver, and even gold; lumber in enormous quantities and of all kinds; clay products, such as brick, terra cotta, roofing tiles, drain tiles, floor tiles, and porcelain; stone, including granite, marble, limestone, sandstone, and other quarry products; cement, lime, sand, glass, oils, gums, hemp, bitumen, asphalt, asbestos, barytes, and many other minerals; woven cotton, linen, wool, and other fibres. There are also used coal and water-power, and above all that greatest of all resources of the Nation, the labor of Man, both skilled and unskilled. This but briefly suggests the variety and extent of the interests represented in modern building. Therefore the profession of architecture, represented by the American Institute of Architects, has a most real interest in this great topic, and can and does wield a very potent influence upon the use of the products of mine, quarry, factory, and field. It has been stated, with a large measure of truth, that if the architects will study the economic use of lumber and specify or permit the use of short lengths (such as 2-foot and 4-foot lengths as against 12-foot and 14-foot lengths) where such are structurally permissible, that a quarter of the lumber cut per annum could be saved without lessening the amount of lumber used in building. If the architects specify concrete to the exclusion of steel, the steel market is affected; if brick or clay products, the cement market is affected; if copper or sheet iron, or lead, or tile, or slate, or pitch, or even thatched straw, for roofing instead of shingles, the number of shingles used is correspondingly reduced. It is obvious that if the architects will substitute clay products or concrete or steel for lumber now used in building, no more effective method of conserving our lumber supply could be devised. Materials used in buildings are not necessarily lost to the future, however. On the contrary, a certain class of materials, such as steel and other metals, are thus preserved, though temporarily withdrawn from use. Who shall say that other needs and other customs of building of a future time will not be as different from ours as ours are from those of former times? Indeed it is not wholly fantastic to prophesy that the skyscrapers of today may become the iron mines of tomorrow. The architects are only indirectly employers of labor, but as such they can, more fairly and with less self-interest than any other class, observe the conditions under which labor in the building trades is employed. Your Committee believes that the great annual losses by reason of accidents to men engaged in the building trades are largely preventable; that laws governing the construction of scaffolding, hoisting apparatus, derricks, and other machinery used in quarrying or manufacturing and building, should be passed where they do not already exist, and should be rigorously enforced everywhere; that mechanics and laborers should be taught not to take unnecessary risks but should suffer their fair share of blame if they do, and that they should be encouraged by the public authorities in all reasonable demands for the opportunity to pursue their avocations without unnecessary hazard of life and limb. The architects believe in the Conservation of buildings once they are erected, and to this end that fire-proof construction should be adopted wherever possible. In all American cities today fire is a constant menace, and the annual loss from this cause both in life and property is appalling. The strict enforcement of wise building laws will largely prevent this loss; but some concession in taxation to those erecting fire-proof buildings might be found feasible, whereby a premium would be given to those owners of buildings who contribute to the greater safety of life and property by erecting fire-proof structures-or on the other hand an increase of taxation might be made on those erecting buildings which endanger the lives and property of their neighbors and whose flimsy structures make necessary the present large public expenditure for fire-department service in our cities. This Committee, in common with those who have from the beginning promoted the cause of Conservation, believes in the use of our natural resources, not in their abuse in their equitable distribution and development in the hands of the people or in the hands of the Government, not in locking them up in the hands of a few; and that if corporate capital can develop them better than individual capital, then that it should be so done only under restrictions that will safeguard the interests of the people and be subject to Governmental control and limitation, while at the same time giving the capital engaged absolute assurance of protection, security, and reasonable profit. This Committee believes that use does not mean waste or loss, nor does it mean that reckless spendthrift policy which would squander in a generation, or less, the vast natural resources of this Nation, or permit these resources to be monopolized. The American Institute of Architects is heartily in sympathy with the principles of the Conservation of our natural resources--and will do its part to advance those principles. [Signed] CASS GILBERT |