New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1908-05-14
THE PRESIDENT TO THE GOTERNORS.

1t is not often that there is so weighty and
urgent an occasion as that which has this week
brought together at Washington the Governors
of nearly all the states of this union. 1t is not
often that any occasion brings together com
nany comnarahe with that in dignity, iniu
ence and potential efficiency. It is seldom, in
deed. that any gathering for any purpose is
greeted with d more pregnant and convincing
address than that which the President de-
livered 10 the assembled Governors and other
representative men yesterday. Dealing with
vast and complex subject 1t was grave and
exact: vet at the same time it made elo-
uuent appeal TO that sentiment which is not
incompatible with the hest poised Judgment.
Its effect upon those who listened to it must
have been profound. Upon the whole Amer
lean people before whom its text is laid today
it should have the effect additionally imputed
10 the oratiOns of a famous man of old, which
moved all hearers To go forth TO instant action
The unspoken text of the Presidents address
was that of Jacques Cartier We must respect
the future Upon the wise present use of our
natural resources depends their availability for
the future. and not merely for remote and
indefinite future. but for that which is so near
at hand that children born may live to
see it, We might, indeed. say it is the future
which is a part of the present for already, as
the President suggested. the effects of too
lavish expenditure of our natural powers are
felt There is pregnant suggestion in the re
minder that within the history of this republic
we have seen consumption of natural resources
change not only III degree hut also In kind.
The introduction of steam power for manu-
featuring and for tranSporta ton land and
sea the practical invention Of the whole science
art and industry of electricity. the making of
paper from wood and the almost Unreasonable
development of the printing trade-these and
other causes have led to utilization of mineral
and vpgeta bile resources which has been little
short of destruction. Every new invention has
increased in geomptrcal ratio the demand for
those raw materials which nature has placed
al our disposal and which, when depleted. only
the deliberate processes of nature can renew,
if they are renewable at all.
II is A wise and statesmanlike appeal which
the President makes for the conservation of
resources-that is not for the stopping or even
the slowing of our marvellous industrial prog
ress nor for the restriction or diminution Of-the
legitimate use of the materials and means
which are essential to it, hut for the avoid
ance of that waste which is sometimes actually
more consuming than use. and for some turning
of ingenious attention to ways and means for
SO cultivating our resources that use Of them
shall not exhaust them. That such consum-
nation as that at which he aims Is possible
there can be no doubt. If II should not be at
tanned the reproscb which would rest upon the
present would be commensurate bic with the dis
aster which would inevitably befall the future.
Nor should we overlook the practical sig
niicance of the character of the audience to
which the President Immediately addressed
himself 1t consisted chiefly of the Governors
of the states, as Governors of states. Pro-
foundly as the whole nation is interested in the
matter and considerably as the federal govern
ment nav concern itself in il, il is obvious
that the major part OF the work must be done
by the individual states. The President cited
two encouraging examples Of state action which
ought to be multiplied over and over again.
Nevertheless the states closely connected
and linked together and are SO mutually inter
dependent that well-designed concert OF plan
and action among them, in harmony with such
action as may properly be taken by the fed
eraI government is necessary to success. TO
such cooperation the present conference In
Washington. and particularly the Presidents