The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1908-05-21
MEETING WAS
GREAT SUCCESS
RESOURCES CONFERENCE AT
WHITE HOUSE ENDS WITH
ADOPTION OF PLAN
FOR
ELL ENDORSES
MEETING.

ernors of the American Union ended
at Washington Friday. Like many OF
the important events of history, time
is needed TO reveal the epoch which
the President and the Governors be-
lieve has been made The accomplish
ments OF the conference which has
been at session at the White House
for three days can not be set forth
with mathematical precision. That
It's immediate results are more than
ample is the expression of President
Roosevelt, who brought it about,
and of the Governors who participant
ed
The printed record of the confer
ence, which will later be available TO
every American home, will be a COM
pilation of facts, startling in their
meaning, convincing in their univer-
act, and that the states and the Ma
ton must cooperate to the END that
to the whole people of the Nation
may accrue the lasting benefit of its
natural resources.
Besides the compilation of facts by
the experts and the freely expressed
opinion of the Governors, the con-
ference leaves as its permanent record
a thousand words of declaration"
Not a declaration of independence,
but a declaration of cooperation"
Perhaps greater in importance than
all else was the determination of the
Governors OF the states to perfect a
permanent organization whereby the
work begun this week may be carried
on n the future.
William Jennings Bryan was the
principal speaker at Fridays session
OF the conference, and he gave his
hearty approval of the work accom-
plished and undertaken by the Presi-
dent and the Governors.
In his address Mr.. Bryan acknowl-
edged his obligations to President
Roosevelt for the opportunity to par,
ticipate in an historic event of the
first magnitude The discussion al
ready had, he said, would help to de-
fine the proper sphere of national and
state control.
He said he was jealous of any en-
croachment on the rights of the state,
but it was entirely consistent with
his theory to believe that it was just
as imperative that the general Cow
eminent should discharge the duties
delegated TO it as it was that the
states should exercise the powers re-
served to them.
Mr. Bryan said we should not only
preserve the Nations resources for
future generations, but should see TO
it that these were not monopolized
by a few of the people and future
generations should not be fettered
with perpetual franchises Congress
he declared, should appropriate suffi-
cient money TO carry on investiga-
tions into the cause of diseases ma
tional in their scope as pointed out
by Mr.. Mitchell. Coal, iron, and tim
Der on the Tree list would tend to re-
duce the waste and exploitation Il
our own measures.
Irrigation was thoroughly justified,
Mr. Bryan continued, by the transfor-
nation of desert into field and gar
den, and state and nation could there
find legitimate field for activity.
Drainage of the swamps, too, was
legitimate, and no subject more fully
justified the attention given by the
conference than that of forestry The
field was so large, he said, and the
need for action so urgent that both
state and nation could exercise them
selves to the full without doing too
much. The national reservations al
ready made in the West, and the new
ones that ought to be made in the
White Mountains and the Appalach.
ian range could be administered SO as
to protect national interests without
interfering with the development of
the states in which they were located.