The Roots of the Conservation Movement, 1890–1919 81
This Congress could accomplish no
greater work beyond the stimulation of inter-
est in the development of irrigation than to
secure uniform water regulations in the States
and also uniform legislation affecting inter-
state waters.
Source: A. Richard Ballinger, interview with John L.
Mathews, Washington, D.C., quoted in John L. Mathews,
“Mr. Ballinger and the National Grab-Bag,” Hampton’s
Magazine, December 1909, in Richard A. Ballinger Papers,
Manuscript Collection of the University of Washington,
Seattle, microfilm roll 12. B. R.A. Ballinger , “Attitude
of the Administration toward the Reclamation of the
Arid Lands in the West,” remarks made at the National
Irrigation Congress, Spokane, WA, August 12, 1909, in
Richard A. Ballinger papers, microfilm roll 11.enormous loss in future development of irriga-
tion works, and I fear this is not fully appreci-
ated. It is for this reason that at times private
enterprises are disposed to contend that the
Government is obstructing their interests, while
from the larger view their interests are obstruct-
ing greater possibilities for larger areas of irriga-
ble land. I may mention here what has frequently
occurred to me as a source of advantage both to
the States and the Federal Government, and that
is the securing from the various States of uni-
form legislation in the matter of appropriation
of water and its beneficial use, and also legisla-
tion looking to the control and conservation of
all available water-power.
Document 70: Report of the National Conservation Commission (1909)
As a result of the Conference of Governors, convened by Roosevelt in 1908 to discuss the conservation and
appropriate use of natural resources, a National Conservation Commission was created. Gifford Pinchot
[see Document 73], who had encouraged Roosevelt to hold the conference, was appointed chairman of the
commission. The commission’s report emphasized the development of a program of “wise and beneficial uses”
of natural resources.
Unfortunately, Congress had failed to allocate adequate funding for the commission to make a thorough
study of the nation’s resources. That study had to wait until 1952 and the appointment of the President’s
Materials Policy Commission on Economic Growth and Resource Policy [see Document 89].The duty of man to man, on which the integ-
rity of nations must rest, is no higher than the
duty of each generation to the next; and the obli-
gation of the nation to each actual citizen is no
more sacred than the obligation to the citizen to
be, who, in turn must bear the nation’s duties
and responsibilities.
In this country, blessed with natural resources
in unsurpassed profusion, the sense of respon-
sibility to the future has been slow to awaken.
Beginning without appreciation of the measure
or the value of natural resources other than land
with water for commercial uses, our forefathers
pushed into the wilderness and, through a spirit
of enterprise which is the glory of the nation,
developed other great resources. Forests were
cleared away as obstacles to the use of the land;
iron and coal were discovered and developed,
though for years their presence added nothing
to the price of the land; and through the use of
native woods and metals and fuels, manufactur-
ing grew beyond all precedent, and the country
became a power among the nations of the world.
Gradually the timber growing on the ground
and the iron and coal within the ground came to
have a market value and were bought and sold as
sources of wealth. Meanwhile, vast holdings of
these resources were acquired by those of greater
foresight than their neighbors before it was gen-
erally realized that they possessed value in them-
selves; and in this way large interests, assuming
monopolistic proportions, grew up, with greater
enrichment to their holders than the world had
seen before, and with the motive of immediate