Show accompanying REPORTS OF THE conservation CONGRESS URGES NEEDED legislation document in a measure Is a de bense of the ret ring administrate Adminis trat on duty of the present generation to its descendants pointed out dobli actions of t zenshin urgent need for the development of the coun try a water power washington with the transmission ot the report of the national conservation commiss on and accompanying papers president roosevelt also sent a message to congress the following Is a corn synopsis 0 the document the president declares his entire con currence with the statements and con elusions of the report and proceeds it Is one of the most fundamentally important documents ever laid before the american people it contains the first in centory of its natural resources ever made by any nation in condensed form it presents a statement of our available cap tal in material resources which are the means of progress and calls atten alon to the essential conditions upon which the perpetuity uit safety and welfare of this nation now rest and must aldaya to rest the facts set forth in this report con st tute an imperative call to action the on they disclose demands that we neglecting tor a time it need be smaller and less vital questions sl ail concentrate an effective part of our attention upon the great material foundations of na dional existence progress and prosperity the flygt of all considerations Is the permanent welfare of our people and true moral welfare the highest form of welfare can not permanently exist save on a firm and lasting foundation of mate rial well being in this respect our situ atlon Is far from satisfactory after every poss ble allowance has been made and when ayery hopeful indication has been given its full weight the facts still give reason tor grave concern it would be un dorthy of our history and our in tell gence and d sa to our future to shut our eyes to these facts or at tempt to laugh them out of court the people dand w 11 rightly demand that the geat fundamental questions shall be given attention by their rep I 1 do not advise hasty or ill considered action on disputed points but I 1 do urge where the facts are known where the public interest ie clear that neiti er indifference and inertia nor ad verse private interests shall be allowed to stand in the way of the public good the great basic facts are already well known we know that our population is now add ng about one fifth to its numbers in ten years and that by the middle of the present century perhaps 1 0 americans and by its end very many millions n ore must be fed and clothed from the products of our so 1 we know now that our rivers can and should be made to serve our people ef in transportation but that the vast expenditures for our waterways have not resulted in maintaining much less in promoting inland navigation therefore let us take immediate steps to ascertain the reasons and to prepare and adopt a compres ensi e plan for inland waterway navigation that will result in giving the people the benefits tor which they have paid but which they have not yet received we know now that our for ests are fast disappearing that less than one fifth of them are being conserved and that no good purpose can be met by falling to provide the relatively small sums needed for the protection use and improvement of all forests still owned by the government and to enact laws to check the wasteful destruction of the for ests in private hands we know now that our mineral re bounces once exhausted are gone for ever and that the needless waste of them costs us hundreds of human lives and nearly a year therefore let us undertake without delay the in necessary before our people will be in position through state action or otherwise to put an end to huge loss and waste and conserve both our mineral resources and the lives of the men who take them from the earth this administration has achieved some thing it has sought but has not been able to achieve others it has doubtless made mistakes but all it hap done or attempted has been in the single consistent effort to se cure and enlarge tl e rights and of the men and women of the united states we are to con serve what Is good in our social tern and we are striving to vard this end when we endeavor to do away with what is bad success may be made too hard tor some if it is made too easy tor others the rewards of common industry and ahr ft may be too small if the rewards for other and on the whole less valuable ties are made too large and espee ably it the re bards for qualities which are really from the public standpoint able are perm eted to become too large our aim is so far as possible to provide such conditions that there shall be equality of opportunity where there is equality of energy aldel ty and intelligence there Is a reason able equality of opportunity the dis tr of rewards will take care of itself the unchecked existence of donop oly is incompatible ath equality ot opportunity tl e reason for the ex ercle of government control alver great monopolies s to equal ze opportunity we are fighting against privilege it was made unlawful for corporations to contribute money tor election ex in to abridge the power of special privilege at the polls rail road rate control is an attempt to se cure an equality ot opportunity tor all men affected by rail transportation and that means all of us the great anthracite coal str ice was settled and the pressing danger of a coal famine averted because we zed that the control of a public necessity in bolves a duty to the people and that public intervention in the affairs 0 a public service corporal cor on la neither to be resented as usurpation nor per bitted as a privilege by the corpora eions but on the contrary to be ac cepter as a duty and exercised as a right by the government in the in terest of all the people the efel eney ot the army and the navy has been increased so that our people may folio v in peace the great work or making pi a country a better place or americans to live in and our navy was sent round the world for the same ultimate purpose all the acts taken by the government during the last seven years and all the policies now being pursued by the government at tn as parts of a consistent whole the enactment of a pure food law was a recognition of the tact that the public welfare outweighs the right to private gain and that no man may poison tl e people for his private profit the employers liability bill lecog nihed tl e controlling tact that while the employer usually has at stake no more than his profit the stake of the employed a a living for himself and his family we are building the panama canal and this means that we are engaged in the giant engineering feat of all time we are striving to add in all ways to the habitat allty and beauty of our country we are striving to hold in the public lands the remaining supply ot coal tor the protection and benefit of all the people we have taken the first steps toward the conservation of our natural re sources and the betterment of coun try life and the improvement of our waterways we stand for the right of every child to a childhood free from grinding toll and to an education for the civic responsibility and decency of every citizen tor prudent foresight in public matters and for fair play in every relation of our national and economic life in international matters we apply a system of cipio macy which puts the obligations of international morality on a level with those that govern the actions of an honest genelen an in dealing faith his fellow men our own border we stand for truth and honesty in and in private life and we war stern ly against wrongdoers of every grade all these efforts are integral parts of the same attempt the attempt to enthrone justice and to secure freedom of opportunity to all of our citizens now and hereafter and to set the ultimate interest of all of us above the temporary interest of any individual class or group the nation its government and its resources exist first of all for the american citizen whatever his creed race or birthplace whether he be rich or poor educated or ignorant pro vided only that he Is a good citizen recognizing his obligations to the na alon for the rigl ts and opportunities which he owes to the nation the obligations and not the rights et citizenship increase in proportion to he increase of a man s wealth or power the time Is coming when a man will be judged not by what he has succeeded in getting tor himself from the common store but by how well he has done his duty as a citizen and by what the ordinary citizen has gained in freedom of opportunity be cause of his service tor the common good the highest value we know la that of the individual citizen and the highest justice is to give hi n fair play in the effort to realize the best there is in h m the tasks this nation has to do are great tasks they can only be done at all by our citizens acting to gether and they can be done best of all by the direct and simple applina alon of homely common sense the application of common sense to common problems for the common good under the guidance of the principles upon which this republic was based and by virtue of which it exists spells per for the nation civil and indus trial liberty tor its citizens and freedom of opportunity in the pursuit of happiness for the plain american for whom this nation was founded by whon it was preserved and through whom alone it can be perpetuated upon this platform larger than any party differences higher than class prejudice broader than any question of profit and loss there is room for every american who realizes that the common good stands farst accompanying the message are ex plantations pla nations and recommendations of work to be done tor the future good of the country the president says it is especially important that the develop ment ot water power should be guard ed with the utmost care both by the national government and by the state in order to protect the people against the 0 monopoly and to in sure to them a air share in the bene fits which will follow the development of this great asset which belongs to the people and should be controlled by them I 1 urge tl at provision be made for both protection and more rapid devel of the national forests other wise either the increasing use of these forests by the people must be checked or their protection against alre must be dangerously weakened if we compare the actual alre damage on sim liar areas on private and national for est lands during the past year the government alre patrol saved commer cial timber worth as much as the total cost of caring for all national forests at the present rate for about ten years I 1 especially commend to congress con gresa the facts presented by the commis slon as to the relation between for ests and stream flow in its bearing upon the importance of the forest lands in national ownership with out an understanding of this relation the conservation of both these natural resources auit largely fail tl e time has fully arrived for rec agn zing in the law the responsibility to the community the state and tha nation rests upon the private ownership of private lands the own ersh p of forest land Is a public trust the man aho vho would handle his forest as to cause erosion and to injure stream flow must be not only educated but he must be controlled in conci s on the president urges upon congress the desirability of maintain ng a national commiss on on the conservation of the resources of the country lie adds I 1 would also advise that an appropriation of at least 50 out be made to cover the ex benses or the aati onal conservation comm aslon tor necessary rent assist ance and traveling expenses th s 1 a very small sum I 1 know 0 no other way in which the appropriation of so small a sum would result in so large a benefit to the whole nation |