NATURAL RESOURCES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 199, 16 May 1908, Page 5

NATURAL RESOURCES.

A LIMIT EYEN IN AMERICA. MR. HOOSEVELT ON CONSERVATION. i RAPID EXHAUSTION. IT TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION —COFYETOH? Mew York, May 14. President Roosevelt lias opened at Washington a Conference of State Governors. Experts on tho national conservation of natural resources, Cabinet Ministers, members of Congress, and -justices of the Federal Supreme Court were.-also present. In his opening address tho President emphasised the rapid exhaustion of the natural resources of the country. Tho limit of unsettled land was in sight. Ha If "the timber had disappeared; tho end of the iron and coal was in sight; mineral oil and gas had gone. The natural waterways were neglected, and the soil. was impoverished by injudicious use. Both the nation and the States, declared tho President, ought to 'enforce a policy of conservation which would' preserve* soil, forest, and water power as. tho heritage of futuro generations. ought also to recognise it as a patriotic duty to ensuro the safety and continuance of tho nation by raising its citizens to the highest , pitch' of oxcellenco in private,. State, '' and. national lifo.

THE PRESIDENT'S WARNING. President Roosevelt has led the way in protesting against tho economic waste of the country's not illimilaW&'naitural XCsqurces. He has emphasised tho evils of deforestation, with its consequent denudation of hill sides and deterioration of lower lands liy irruption oE shingle. He t has also been largely instrumental in giving the country a Reclamation Act, wljicli seeks to anticipate the coming earth-hunger by providing for the irrigation of immense desert and semi-desert areas. The great work of the United States Government in this direction has .been vividly told by Dominion's American correspondent, who has indicated that the • complementary work of swamp drainage iV also to bo undertaken. Last, year President Roosevelt came down America's great waterway from. Keokuk to St. Louis, where he made a speech. Ho alluded to the fact that, while" he had often visited St. Louis by rail, this time.he had come by water —by tho great natural highway once so important, now. almost abandoned, which ho hoped the nation would see. not only restored to all its'fbntoer usefulness,/but given a far greater degree of usefulness to correspond with tho extraordinary growth in wealth and population of the Ifississipi Valley. . Ho. continued "From every standpoint it is desirable for the. nation to join 'in improving the greatest system of river highways within its borders, the highways of the Mississippi . and its great tributaries, such as the : Missouri andthe Ohio." Congestion on United' States railways has provided tho President with an additional plea for better utilisation of tho waterways.