[The President of the United States created June 8, 1908, a National Conservation Commission of five members, with Gifford Pinchot as chairman, to inquire into the condition of the national resources. The final report of the Commission, made December 7, 1908, was a brief summary in about fourteen pages of the large body of information collected. The report was submitted to a Joint Conservation Conference meeting in Washington, December 10, 1908, and made up of governors of States, State Conservation Commissions, and representatives of numerous scientific and civic organizations. The Conference having heard the report and "having fully deliberated thereon," indorsed it "as a wise, just, and patriotic statement of the resources of the nation, of the thoughtless and profligate manner in which some of these resources have been and are being wasted, and of the urgent need for their conservation in the interests of this and future generations, to the end that the prosperity and perpetuity of the nation may be assured."

The report opens with a general statement of the causes arousing public interest in the subject. Omitting this and a number of the recommendations of legislation contained in the report, the following extract reproduces almost entire the remarkably compact statement of facts regarding our national resources at the time of the report. The complete report accompanied by Proceedings of the Joint Conservation Conference, and by numerous scientific papers (in all nearly 1800 pages) was published as Senate Document 676, for the 60th Congress, 2d session, Vols. 10, 11, 12.]

Minerals. The mineral production of the United States for 1907 exceeded $2,000,000,000, and contributed 65 per cent of the total freight traffic of the country. The waste in the extraction and treatment of mineral products during the same year was equivalent to more than $300,000,000.

The production for 1907 included 395,000,000 tons of bituminous and 85,000,000 tons of anthracite coal, 166,000,000 barrels of petroleum, 52,000,000 tons of iron ore, 2,500,000 tons of phosphate rock, and 869,000,000 pounds of copper. The values of other mineral products during the same year included clay products, $162,000,000; stone, $71,000,000; cement, $56,000,000; natural gas, $53,000,000; gold, $90,000,-000; silver, $37,000,000; lead $39,000,000; and zinc, $26,000,-000.

The available and easily accessible supplies of coal in the United States aggregate approximately 1,400,000,000,000 tons. At the present increasing rate of production this supply will be so depleted as to approach exhaustion before the middle of the next century.

The known supply of high-grade iron ores in the United States approximates 4,788,150,000 tons, which at the present increasing rate of consumption can not be expected to last beyond the middle of the present century. In addition to this, there are assumed to be 75,116,070,000 tons of lower grade iron ores which are not available for use under existing conditions.

The supply of stone, clay, cement, lime, sand, and salt is ample, while the stock of the precious metals and of copper, lead, zinc, sulphur, asphalt, graphite, quicksilver, mica, and the rare metals can not well be estimated, but is clearly exhaustible within one to three centuries unless unexpected deposits be found.

The known supply of petroleum is estimated at fifteen billion to twenty billion barrels, distributed through six separate fields having an aggregate area of 8,900 square miles. The production is rapidly increasing, while the wastes and the loss through misuse are enormous. The supply cannot be expected to last beyond the middle of the present century.

The known natural-gas fields aggregate an area of 9,000 square miles, distributed through twenty-two States. Of the total yield from these fields during 1907, 400,000,000,000 cubic feet, valued at $62,000,000, were utilized, while an equal quantity was allowed to escape into the air. The daily waste of natural gas - the most perfect known fuel - is over 1,000,000,000 cubic feet, or enough to supply every city in the United States of over 100,000 population.

Phosphate rock, used for fertilizer, represents the slow accumulation of organic matter during past ages. In most countries it is most scrupulously preserved; in this country it is extensively exported, and largely for this reason its production is increasing rapidly. The original supply cannot long withstand the increasing demand.

The consumption of nearly all our mineral products is increasing far more rapidly than our population. In many cases the waste is increasing more rapidly than the number of our people. In 1776 but a few dozen pounds of iron ore were in use by the average family; now our annual consumption of high-grade ore is over 1,200 pounds per capita. In 1812 no coal was used; now the consumption is over five tons and the waste nearly three tons per capita.

While the production is increasing enormously, the waste and loss in mining are diminishing. At the beginning of our mineral development the coal abandoned in the mine was two or three times the amount taken out and used. Now the mine waste averages little more than half the amount saved. The chief waste is in imperfect combustion in furnaces and fire boxes. Steam engines utilize on the average about 8 per cent of the thermal energy of the coal. Internal combustion engines utilize less than 20 per cent., and in electric lighting far less than 1 per cent of the thermal energy is rendered available.

With increasing industries new mineral resources become available from time to time. Some lignites and other low-grade coals are readily gasified and, through the development of internal-combustion engines, may be made to check the consumption of high-grade coals.

Peat is becoming important; it is estimated that 14,000,000,-000 tons are available in the United States. Its value is enhanced because of distribution through States generally remote from the fields of coal, oil, and natural gas.

The uses of all our mineral resources are interdependent. This is especially true of coal and iron, of which neither can be produced or used without aid from the other, and in the production or reduction of all other minerals both coal and iron are employed. The same standard minerals are necessary to the development of power, of which the use is increasing more rapidly than that of any other commodity.

The building operations of the country now aggregate about $1,000,000,000 per year. The direct and indirect losses from fire in the United States during 1907 approximated $450,000,-000, or one-half the cost of construction. Of this loss four-fifths, or an average of $1,000,000 per day, could be prevented, as shown by comparison with the standards of construction and fire losses in the larger European countries.

So far as the ores are taken from the mines and reduced to metals, these resources are capitalized; but after thus being changed to a more valuable form they should be so used as to reduce to a minimum the loss by rust, electrolytic action, and other wastes. . . .