Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-05-13
The Resources" Conference.

Today's conference between the heads
of the state governments and leading
members OF the national administration
on the subject of preserving the country s
natural resources is one of the most eff
fective steps ever taken to arouse the
people of the United States to realize
their prodigality and their urgent duty to
themselves. We are young people won
derfully blessed with natural wealth and
rypically wasteful of our means. We have
been digging coal and cutting forests and
neglecting opportunities for the econom-
icaI use of power for so long that some
Americans have reached the point of be-
lief that the natural wealth is inexhaust-
ibie. Fortunately there are those who
are better acquainted with the supplies
and demands and the dangers and their
warnings have been uttered in time. If
the right line OF action is now entered
upon vigorously and tremendously In all
Quarters the mineral and timber and
power resources of the country will in a
few years be organized upon strictly
economic basis.
President RoOSevelts idea in calling the
governors Of the states to Washington for
this conference was to arrest the thought
of the country by conspicuous assem-
blage and an earnest discussion of the
question. In the persons of these forty state
executives virtually all the people of the
United States are present in Washington
today. These men represent the national
sentiment probably more clearly than
even the Congress in matters relating to
state welfare. which is, after all. popular
welfare. AS long as state boundaries are
maintained and state organizations exist
people will persist in the point Of view of
the commonwealth rather than of the
nation, and In most matters affecting or
binary relations they will vote for state
officials upon purely local questions.
But it is no longer true that there is a
lack Of community interest between the
residents of Maine and those of Texas.
The peoples of widely separated states
understand each other better than ever
before and appreciate the necessity of
working together in certain enterprises
as citizens Of the republic rather than
as citizens Of states. In this matter of
conserving the natural resources there
may be occasional issues involving state
questions. but in the main, thanks to the
broadly educational influence of news
paper discussion, the great majority of
people today recognize that only through
federal initiative. II not federal admins
tration. can these broad problems be
solved.
The subjcct is SO vast and complex
that this conference can probably only
result in movement toward organization
ard effective agitation. Some agreement
should be reached as to the probably eff
fective division OF responsibility between
the federal and state governments. Some
program of enactment to be secured from
Congress and legislatures should be
drawn.
Apart from the immediate work of the
resources conference this assemblage of
governors will have a beneficial effect in
broadening the acquaintance of the peo-
pies of the various states with one an
other. When the governors of Vermont
and Oklahoma, Florida and Oregon meet
and shake hands there is evidence that
this is in truth a united, progressive