Proceedings of the Second National Conservation Congress at Saint Paul Part 48

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 a.s.surance 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 Inst.i.tute 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] Ca.s.s GILBERT _Chairman_

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN PAPER AND PULP a.s.sOCIATION

As long ago as 1898 the officers of the American Paper and Pulp a.s.sociation, realizing the importance of maintaining a perpetual supply of pulpwood, devoted the annual meeting of that year princ.i.p.ally to a discussion of the science and practice of forestry, then almost unknown in the United States. At that meeting addresses were delivered by Doctor Fernow, then Chief of the Government Forestry Bureau, by Mr Gifford Pinchot, his successor, and by Mr Austin Carey, now connected with the Forestry Department of the State of New York. Mr Hugh J. Chisholm, then President of the a.s.sociation, in his annual message said:

"Those among us who have weighed the matter carefully are well aware that if we as a Nation are to take and permanently hold the foremost place in paper making, we must begin at once to husband our resources.

Fortunately, the science of forestry, until recently but little known and heeded less, is ready to point out the way, and we shall learn from three of the best authorities of the country, not only why we should, but how we may, put in practice the principles of forestry. I hope that everyone will go away resolved directly or indirectly to do what he can to secure a rational use of this mainstay of our business."

The att.i.tude of the a.s.sociation, in the past twelve years, has been to exert its influence in every way possible in the encouragement of forest Conservation. Every year resolutions have been adopted urging timber land owners in the paper industry to practice conservative methods; and at the same time attention has been called to the vital importance of preventing forest fires, and in more recent years the subject of taxation of timber lands has also received attention.

Not only has a universal sentiment in favor of Conservation been created in the industry, but practical results have been accomplished. It is not too much to say that our timber land owners, with possibly here and there an exception, have been for a number of years all conducting their operations so as not to impair the reproductive capacity of their lands.

In the first place, they have carefully studied their holdings, in many instances being a.s.sisted by the Forest Service at Washington; they have thus become enlightened as to how far cutting timber can go without jeopardizing the future. In the next place, they have voluntarily limited the size, or the diameter of trees, below which no cutting shall be done. They have very generally, although to just what extent cannot be definitely estimated, adopted the method of felling trees with the saw instead of the axe, and have in other ways sought to bring the waste down to a minimum. But perhaps in no way have they done better service than by encouraging legislation and the enforcement of it for the prevention of fires.

It is roughly estimated that the paper makers own in the United States about 5,000,000 acres, consisting mostly of spruce timber lands. While this is insufficient to afford a natural growth equal to the demands, the deficit is made up by purchases in the United States and by importations from Canada, and the use of other kinds of wood. There is still much more spruce cut for lumber than for pulpwood, but the paper makers are continually adding to their holdings, and there appears to be a readjustment of prices going on which is leading to the subst.i.tution of pulpwood production for lumber production.

The example set by paper makers is being followed by other timber land owners, so that we may confidently say that no timber lands of any moment are in any sense being denuded for the production of pulpwood.

Less than 2 percent of the consumption of wood in this country is domestic pulpwood, and with a continuation of the conservative methods now in vogue, there need be no fear of diminution of our forests by the paper industry. In fact the perpetuation of the industry in the United States depends largely on the perpetuation of the forests of the United States, so that the paper manufacturers have every incentive to maintain them. The use of hemlock and other kinds of wood for pulp making has greatly increased, thus tending to relieve any drain there might be on the supply of spruce. As most of the paper mills are dependent on water-power, the manufacturers have still further incentive to protect the water-sheds. The Forest Commissioner of Maine has stated--

"Since the advent of the pulp and paper industry in Maine, covering a period of less than twenty years, the system of handling our forest lands has been completely revolutionized. Prior to ten years ago, in cutting logs in the woods, it has been demonstrated by actual tests and measurements that only from 60 to 65 percent of the volume of the lumber trees actually cut was saved and utilized for lumber purposes, while since that period on account of the paper industry it has been demonstrated by later measurements and experiments that from 80 to 85 percent of the volume of lumber trees is actually utilized, and what is of far greater importance is the fact that crooked, seamy and defective trees, as well as all of the undersized trees formerly cut and destroyed in swamping and in making yards and landings are now utilized. * * *

Fully one-half of the whole territory of Maine has never as yet produced one single log for pulp and paper production. I refer to Saint John River drainage, where the same wanton system of lumbering, although possibly in a somewhat lesser degree, is being followed as was followed through the long period from 1860 to 1900. Were this territory fully developed for lumbering by means of proper railroad connections or water facilities, it is safe to a.s.sert that conservatively managed, as the paper companies are endeavoring to do today with the best knowledge obtainable, it would supply the entire demand for all the mills now located in Maine indefinitely."

In the State of New York all the paper makers who own lands in the Adirondacks have an a.s.sociation, including many other lumbermen, which has cooperated with the State authorities in securing legislation which would foster conservative cutting and the prevention of fires.

The International Paper Company, owning nearly a million acres of forest lands in New England, New York State, and elsewhere in the United States, has always conducted its operations with a view to the future supply. In eleven years this company has cut less than two-tenths of a cord per year per acre, which is believed to be less than the natural growth. Two years ago this company started a nursery in Vermont, and each year it has been putting in transplants in increasing quant.i.ties in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York State, supplementing its own supply by purchases of seedlings and transplants at home and abroad.

This replanting is being done on abandoned farms, pasture lands and burns. On their other holdings no replanting is necessary, as there is always sufficient growth left for reproduction. Some other companies have done replanting, but in general conservative cutting and protection from fire render extensive planting unnecessary.

The paper industry has acted on its own initiative, and while self-interest may have actuated it the result is none the less beneficial from the public point of view, and the policy is more apt to be followed permanently than if impractical law, attempting to make Conservation compulsory, were pa.s.sed.

[Signed] E. W. BACKUS _Delegate_

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL a.s.sOCIATION

The most important interest which this Nation has to guard is human life and health. The conservation of National vitality is fundamental to all plans for the conservation of property and material welfare. As the life is more than meat and the body more than raiment, so is the preservation of health and the avoidance of unnecessary sickness and death of far greater importance than any other interests. Realizing this, the American Medical a.s.sociation, the National organization of the American medical profession, has been in hearty sympathy with the Conservation movement from its inception. Composed of 52 State and Territorial a.s.sociations and 1997 local branches with over 70,000 members, this a.s.sociation has for years advocated the conservation of human life through the abolition of preventable diseases and the betterment of sanitary and hygienic conditions with a view to making the future work of the profession prevention rather than cure. For the accomplishment of these purposes it is today carrying out a number of important lines of work:

1--The American Medical a.s.sociation has, since its organization in 1847, labored constantly for the elevation of medical schools and of the standard of medical education. Especially during the last five years it has, through its Council on Medical Education, carried on a system of inspection of medical schools with the publication of reports thereon, which has materially raised the standard of medical education and has eliminated a considerable number of low-grade inst.i.tutions. It is obvious that any increase in efficiency of the medical profession of the present or of the future cannot but result in increased economy of health. The a.s.sociation is glad to report that medical education in the United States is today upon a higher plane than ever before, and that the public is coming more and more to realize the value of a thorough scientific training for those who undertake the care of the sick.

2--Through its publication, _The Journal of the American Medical a.s.sociation_, it is constantly laboring to improve the economic condition of the profession, recognizing as a general principle the fact that a poverty-stricken doctor is a dangerous doctor, both to the profession and to the community. The physician who is not able to procure proper instruments and drugs, or who through poverty cannot keep up with the progress of the profession or secure the necessary books and medical journals for his instruction, may and often does become an actual danger to his patients. Proper efforts on the part of the profession for its own material well-being will result in a better cla.s.s of physicians and consequently in better medical services to patients.

3--One of the most important activities of the a.s.sociation in the past five years has been the work of our Chemical Laboratory established for the investigation of pharmaceutical preparations offered to physicians for administration to patients, and for the a.n.a.lysis of so-called patent medicines sold directly to the public. This work has been carried on through the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry supported by the a.s.sociation, and has resulted in a much-needed reform in pharmaceutical products. Many preparations which were carelessly, ignorantly, or fraudulently compounded, as well as many others which were sold under false representations, have been investigated and the results published to the medical profession. Although much yet remains to be accomplished, the reform in pharmaceutical preparations has already resulted in an enormous amount of benefit to the people through the enlightenment and education of the profession on this important question. An investigation of "patent medicines" has also been carried on, and many of the preparations offered to the public have been shown, by chemical a.n.a.lysis, to be fraudulent; some are positively harmful, some are harmless but are not as represented; while extravagant, absurd, and impossible claims, false testimonials, and misleading advertis.e.m.e.nts, are common to many of these preparations. The a.s.sociation, by its work, has exposed many swindlers and fakirs, and as a result has earned their bitter antagonism.

4--In addition to investigating and exposing frauds in pharmaceutical preparations, the a.s.sociation has also established a bureau for the collection and preservation of material regarding medical frauds and fakes--including fraudulent "cures" for tuberculosis, cancer, paralysis, locomotor ataxia, and other diseases--which are advertised to the public through false representation, leading not only to an enormous loss to the people through money paid to the swindlers without any beneficial results, but also to great loss of life and economic loss through illness owing to the victims of these frauds being deprived of proper treatment. The a.s.sociation is cooperating with other organizations and with the proper authorities for the detection and punishment of these frauds and for the suppression of this most despicable kind of swindlers--those who prey upon the sick and, as a means of extorting a few dollars of blood money, take advantage of the natural desire of the sick or dying to recover health. It has been estimated by the National a.s.sociation for the Prevention of Tuberculosis that the money loss alone to the people of the United States through fake consumption cures amounts to $15,000,000 annually. Probably the loss to sufferers from cancer and other incurable diseases is as great. This robbery of the sick and helpless should no longer be tolerated in any civilized country.

5--The a.s.sociation has maintained a committee for the past four years on the prevention of ophthalmia neonatorum or blindness in infants due to gonorrheal infections, a preventable cause of a large percentage of existing blindness. The United States Census for the blind and deaf taken in 1900 states that 11 percent of the total number of blind lost their sight before the completion of the first year of life, and that in 25 percent the cause of blindness was due to this form of infection. The committee of the a.s.sociation has been laboring for four years past, and is still at work, endeavoring to educate the public so as to secure proper legislation for the prevention of this form of blindness.

6--Through its State and county branches, as well as through its official publications and its connection with State boards of health and other agencies, the a.s.sociation has been endeavoring to educate the public on the importance of better hygienic and sanitary conditions and laws, with special reference to pure food and water; proper ventilation of houses, stores, schools, factories, and work-shops; the prevention of avoidable accidents; the development of parks and playgrounds; and the avoidance of the evils of intemperance and excesses. Realizing the importance of this work and the inadequacy of existing methods for bringing practical instruction on sanitary and hygienic questions before the public, the a.s.sociation at its last annual session established a Council on Health and Public Instruction, the special function of which shall be to place before the people, through the public press, magazines, pamphlets, public meetings, addresses, moving pictures, and every other available means, the best information obtainable as to the preservation of life and the avoidance of disease. The significance and importance of this action on the part of the organized medical profession of the country can hardly be overestimated. It means that physicians as a cla.s.s have taken up seriously and systematically the prevention of disease and the education of the public as to how the elimination of avoidable diseases can be secured. With the cooperation of the newspapers and of the people many preventable diseases which have for centuries claimed a fixed toll of human life can be practically eliminated, and hundreds of thousands of lives saved each year.

7--While the a.s.sociation has labored for the enactment of any laws, either State or National, which were for the benefit of the public health, it stands particularly committed to legislation on three subjects. These are: (_a_) Adequate State laws insuring purity of the food supply, (_b_) such State laws as will increase the efficiency of State boards of health and enable them to combat and suppress unnecessary and controllable diseases, and (_c_) such legislation as will provide an adequate plan for the collection and preservation of vital statistics, in order that proper data for the study and prevention of diseases may be available. It is not to the credit of this country that in half of our States human beings are born and die without any legal recognition of the fact, that not even as much attention is paid to the birth of a human infant as is given to the birth of a race-horse, a pedigreed bull, a blooded dog, or even an Angora kitten. It is not to our credit as a civilized Nation that human beings die and are buried without any legal recognition or record being made of the cause or manner of their death. It is in no sense to our credit that in many communities diphtheria, scarlet fever, and cerebro-spinal meningitis decimate the infant population yet no one knows, nor is it anyone's business to find out, how many deaths result from these epidemics, or how many persons die from various diseases in the course of a year.

Proper birth registration lies at the basis of social organization, and has been so recognized for years by European nations, yet it does not exist today in this country. Vital statistics, showing the relative health, morbidity, and mortality of various sections, are of the utmost importance, since healthfulness is recognized as one of the best business a.s.sets which a town and county or a State can possess. Yet through lack of proper laws we have today death registration alone in only half of the Nation, and practically no registration of births whatever. This disgrace on our civilization, which is the wonder and amazement of European nations, should be at once removed by the pa.s.sage and enforcement of uniform laws in all of the States.

8--The following resolutions were adopted by the House of Delegates of the American Medical a.s.sociation, June 7, 1910:

"_Resolved_, That the principles of the Owen Bill, having for its object the creation of a National Department of Health, now pending in the Senate, and similar bills introduced in the House by Representatives Simmons, Creager, and Hanna, be, and are hereby, heartily approved by this a.s.sociation, and the cordial thanks of the medical profession of the United States, officially represented, are hereby tendered to Senator Robert L. Owen, Irving Fisher, and their co-workers for their able and unselfish efforts to conserve and promote the most important a.s.set of the Nation--the health and lives of its women, its children and its men--properly understood the greatest economic question now confronting our people.

"The members of this a.s.sociation stand for pure food, pure drugs, better doctors, the promotion of cleaner and healthier homes, and cleaner living for individuals, for the State and for the Nation. We believe this to be held as equally true by the reputable and informed physicians of all schools or systems of practice.

"We welcome the opposition of the venal cla.s.ses, long and profitably engaged in the manufacture of adulterated foods, habit-producing nostrums, and other impositions on the people, to the extent of hundreds of millions of dollars annually, and express our sympathy for the well-meaning men and women who have been misled and worked into hysterics by the monstrously wicked misrepresentations of a corrupt and noisy band of conspirators, who are being used as blind instruments to enable them to continue to defraud and debauch the American people.

"Medical science is advancing, especially on its life-saving side, with a rapidity unknown to any other branch of human knowledge. It is known of all men that our members in every community in the United States are unselfishly working day and night, instructing the people how to prevent tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and the other diseases from which physicians earn their livelihood. Therefore, we welcome and will wear as a badge of honor the slanders of these unholy interests and their hirelings."

The American Medical a.s.sociation, representing as it does the medical profession of the country, stands pledged and committed to any measure which will improve the public health and preserve the lives of our people. Believing as it does that health and life is our greatest National a.s.set, and that no nation is truly great whatever its material possessions that cannot boast of strong and healthy citizens, we ask the support and approval of the American public and of this Congress in the efforts which are being made for the preservation of human life.

[Signed] J. T. PRIESTLY, Des Moines F. F. WESBROOK, Minneapolis A. R. MITCh.e.l.l, Lincoln CHAS. S. SHELDON, Madison F. R. GREEN, Chicago _Committee_

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN RAILWAY ENGINEERING AND MAINTENANCE OF WAY a.s.sOCIATION

In October, 1908, the National Conservation Commission invited the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way a.s.sociation, in connection with other technical bodies of this country, to be represented at the Conference in Washington, and to a.s.sist the National Conservation Commission with suggestions concerning advisable lines of inquiry, nature of report to be made, and possibilities of accomplishment on the part of the Commission. Acting upon this invitation, the Board of Directors of the a.s.sociation appointed a Special Committee to cooperate with the Commission. This Committee consisted of eight members of the a.s.sociation, selected from widely separated sections of the country.

The a.s.sociation, through its Committee, was represented at the joint Conservation Conference held in Washington beginning December 8, 1908; and the Committee has been keeping in touch with the Conservation Commission through Mr Pinchot and the Secretary, Mr Thomas R. Shipp.

Several meetings of the Committee have been held, and in March, 1909, the Committee was addressed by Dr Joseph A. Holmes, of the Commission.

In March, 1909, the Committee, through its Chairman, requested Mr Pinchot to furnish, through cooperation with the Forest Service, suggestions as to the best methods to be pursued by the railroad companies for the prevention and control of forest fires, with statistics of the loss from such cause, and urged upon the Commission the importance of endeavoring to effect reduction in the tariff on cross-ties and in lumber rates, in order to make it possible for the railroad companies to import ties and save thereby the home supply. The cooperation of the Committee was offered with the forest-products laboratory at the University of Wisconsin, or with any of the National or State organizations.

On May 13, 1909, an elaborate report was transmitted to the Committee by the National Conservation Commission, through Secretary Shipp, containing valuable suggestions as to the possibilities of railroad companies a.s.sisting the work of Conservation by thorough methods of prevention and control of forest fires and the cultivation of timber for railroad purposes, by the use of sawed instead of hewed ties, the use of treated timber and the extension of the supply of creosote, and other features, many relating to timber resources. This report was transmitted by the Committee to the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way a.s.sociation, published by the a.s.sociation, and distributed throughout the country in one of its bulletins. Dealing directly, as it does, with those features of Conservation that affect the railroad companies and their patrons, and having a circulation among railroad officers covering the United States, as well as large portions of Canada and Mexico, the results should be exceedingly beneficial to the cause of Conservation.

In March of this year the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way a.s.sociation, recognizing the growing importance of the Conservation movement, established the Special Committee as one of the Standing Committees of the a.s.sociation, at the same time largely increasing its personnel and bringing into membership a number of prominent railroad officers of this country and Canada.

The work of the Committee has been divided into sub-committees for the purpose of specialization; these, with an outline for investigation are as follows:

_No. 1--Tree planting and general reforestation_

_a_--Extent of existing forests considered in connection with increase of growth and consumption

_b_--Judicious selection of tree varieties for planting, and locality and soil conditions considered; possibility of value from growth on cut-over land

_c_--Methods of planting and cultivation, with cost of same, considering possibilities from cut-over lands

_d_--Antic.i.p.ated results at maturity from trees so produced

_e_--Methods and costs of caring for and protecting existing forests