The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1908-03-07
cOuntry's Resources win Be
the Subject to be Considered
at the May Meeting.
OF GOVERNORS OF STATES
With the President Of the Unit
ed States at His Special
and Urgent Invitation.

WASHINGTON ID. T., Mar. T.
President Rooseveit's invitation to the
governors OF all the states and terri
tories to meet with him at the White
House IN May for discussion OF
methods and ways of conserving and
making best use Of the country's ma
tural resources has been accepted by
Governor Dawson OF West Virginia.
In accepting the Invitation the GOV
ernor says: H
Il am in receipt Of your letter con-
corning the meeting of the governors
OF the states with you at the White
House May 13. IA and 15, to confer
with you and others upon the impor-
tant question of conserving the natur-
al resources OF our country.
II beg to say that am In very
hearty accord with the purpose of
the meeting. and am glad indeed that
you have called this conference. Il
shall be present and bring with me
as suggested by you, three other cit
izens of this state.
West Virginia is very greatly in
terested in this matter. as there Is
great waste in this state of coal, oil.
natural gas. and timber
II beg to suggest that meeting
OF the Governors of the United States
will be beneficial in other respects"
The conference which Governor
Dawson win attend will be held in
the historic old east room of the
White House. and the opening session
and perhaps every session Will be
presided over by President Roosevelt
himself. The seating capacity of the
east room does not exceed 600 or 200
hundred, and this makes 1t necessary
to limit the attendance to the Covers
ors and the three delegates which
each will appoint, the cabinet, prob
ably the supreme court of the United
States the members of congress, the
members OF the Inland Waterways
Commission. and representatives Of
comparatively few national organlza-
tions which are peculiarly Interested
in the subject to be discussed.
Many societies and associations in
all parts of the United States are ask
ing that they be permitted to send
Representatives, but the lack of room
renders the granting of all these re-
quests impossible. but those in charge
of the arrangements viii accommo-
date as many such organizations rs
possible.
This will be the first time in the
history of the United States that the
chief executive of practically every
state have met in conference with the
chief executive OF the nation. 1t is
expect to be one of the most no
table and important conferences ever
held in the country. Great political
conferences have been held, but this
will have no politics in II. The gov
ernors have responded regardless of
politics. 1t will deal with questions
national in character, farIreaching in
their scope, yet of practical and di-
rect Importance to each and every
state. How to develop the country's
natural resources, use them, improve
them. and perpetuate them, will be
The central point toward which all
discussion Will be directed. There
Will be no program OF long scientific
papers. 1t will be strictly confer
ence, and a full and free exchange of
ideas among the governors and dele
gates.
Men whose special knowledge. along
! certain lines make them, to that ex-
tent, experts, will open each discus
sion, after which it will become a
free parliament for all. This idea of
naional action looking to the end
sought by this conference is not all
together new. Far seeing men have
long recognized the necessity of some
such course. The idea began to take
form when the President in his
jamestown speech, last May. declared
that "the conservation of our natural
resources and their proper use con-
stitute the fundamental problem
which underlies almost every other
problem Of our national life. Unless
we maintain an adequate material
4 DASlS IOT our NlNllAEtAAAOAAs NtAAAAibe
maintain the institutions in which we
take so great and so just pride"
on the presidential trip down the
Mississippi last fall, the Inland Wa
terways Commission. in letter to
the president. suggested conference
between the chief executive and the
executives OF all the states. This LETT
ter was delivered to President Roose-
Welt by clifford Pinchot. Chief For
ester Of the United States and mem
ber OF the commission, on the morn
= ing OF the day the President delivered
his Memphis speech. In that speech
he announced his purpose of calling
. the conference, and not long after his
return to washington he did so.
; The invitations sent to the govern
, ors have met with prompt and hearty
, acceptance. Practically every gov
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