After two years of discussion, the treaty was ratified by the Senate, February 25, 1907, and by the Dominican Congress, May 3. The terms were practically those which had been carried out by order of President Roosevelt. The United States, in a sense, became the trustee of Santo Domingo, and thus established a new relation between this country and the smaller republics of the western hemisphere. CHAPTER VII CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES [1906] Toward the close of the nineteenth century, attention was called to the fact by scientific men that the methods employed in the use of our soil, mines, forests, and water supply were extremely wasteful. During the previous decades the resources of the country were regarded as inexhaustible. As stated by President Roosevelt in 1907: "Hitherto as a nation we have tended to live with an eye single to the present, and have permitted the reckless waste and destruction of much of our national wealth." At the same time the call came for the conservation of our natural resources. The destruction of the forests first attracted attention. The first national reservation of forests was made in 1891, and in 1898 a marked advance was made by the establishment of a division of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture. Gifford Pinchot, as chief of the division, called attention of the people to the interdependence of the forests and the waterways. [Illustration: Large tree, several hundred feet tall and about twenty feet in diameter.] Grizzly Giant, Mariposa Grove, California, with a squad of cavalry at its base. [Illustration: Large tree, with a one lane road cut through the center.] Big tree "Wanona," showing the relative size of other conifers compared with big trees. Mariposa Grove. In 1906, after long effort, the famous Mariposa Grove of large trees in California was made a national reservation. During the same year a bill was passed by Congress providing for the preservation of Niagara Falls. Public opinion had been aroused by the campaign of the American Civic Association. Power companies had multiplied so rapidly that it seemed the whole volume of water was about to be used for commercial purposes and that the most famous object of natural scenery in the United States would be destroyed. In response to appeals from the people of the interior, President Roosevelt, March 14, 1907, appointed the Inland Waterways Commission. In his letter which created the commission he said: "The time has come for merging local projects and uses of the inland waters in a comprehensive plan designed for the benefit of the entire country. . . . I ask that the Inland Waterways Commission shall consider the relations of the streams to the use of all the great permanent natural resources and their conservation for the making and maintenance of prosperous homes."