Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-29
CONSERVATION WEEK
Great Meeting Opens Decem-
Der 8.
TAFT IS TO PRESIDE
Will Introduce President Roosevelt
to Distinguished Audience.
STATISTICS ARE ALL READY
Will Be Up to Congress to Act on
Opinions Of Big Men of
Nation.

RoOseVe Judge Taft and scores of other
strong men interested in the natural re-
sources Of the United States will get to-
gether as the big end of the flying wedge
that the President will launch at Congress
soon after it assemblies.
Information as to the natural resources
of the country has been accumulated
with view to preparedness for the great
meeting in the Belasco. Hundreds of
special Investigators in the several
branches of the government service have
been gathering data for months.
Inventory of Resources
Il is really an inventory of the natural
resources of the nation. 1t is the first
time that such an inventory has ever
been made in any country.
The meat of the whole Investigation will
be embodied in the report of the con-
servatIon commission to the President
He in turn will tell Congress what ought
TO be done a bout it.
What Congress will do, If anything, is
q question OF the future. But the com
mission and its allies have put in a lot
of hard work collecting the facts. Con-
sensus of opinion, however, is that some
thing Will have to be done to stop the
waste of natural wealth.
Governors of more than half the states
OF the Union have appointed special COM
missions on the subject. Through these
the country. a whole. is pretty thor
oughly keyed up for action.
The opening of the campaign will be in
the Belasco Theater. Mr.. Taft will pre-
side and introduce the President, who
will speak. Conferences of the governors
of the states Will follow and there will be
also the meeting of twenty-five or thirty
chairmen of state conservation commits
sions and others who have been working
in the conservation field.
The chairmen of the state commissions
will make their reports. These, together
with the detailed reports of the govern
ment specialists. will be condensed into
the final report of the chairman of the
Roosevelt.
1t will be on this report that the Presi-
dent will base his message to Congress.
Prominent Men Invited.
The theater meeting December s will be
notable affair. Not only will all the
governors be present, but there will be
guests of national prominence.
James ]. Hill. Andrew Carnegie and
John Mitchell have already signitied their
intention OF attending. w. j. Bryan has
been invited. but has not yet said whether
he could attend; chances are he will not.
The report of the conservation commits
sion has been an immense work. Few re-
ports of such magnitude has the govern
ment ever undertaken. 1t has been d.
vided into heads each under an expert,
and all the machinery of government has
been turned on to sweep together data.
Some idea of its scope can be given by
its chief divisions. These are waters,
lands, forests and, minerals
Each section has been intrusted to a
committee of twelve. all experts in the
field 10 which they were assigned. Reed
Smoot. w MCGEE, Overton Price Knute
Nelson and J. \. Holmes are some of the
chairmen and secretaries of the section.
They have had at their disposal all the
machinery of the government, the recla-
NATION service, the forest service, the
land Office, the geological survey the De-
partment of Agriculture and kindred bu-
reaus and departments which could either
furnish facts already collected or had
men 10 throw into the field and dig up
new facts and figures.
Other Meetings to Follow.
The meeting of the joint conservation
conference will be followed by other meet
ings of the same trend. but on special
lines. that will be no less important They
will be the rivers and harbors congress,
which will have an attendance of between
1000 and 4 coo. and the southern CONNER
cial congress- with Il membership of be-
tween 800 and 1900
This last will be especially devoted to
southern interests. 1t is expected to have
an important effect in the material aWak-
ening that is going on in the south There
has been great progress made in the last
few years In southern manufactures and
In commercial life in general. Business
men Of the south and of the country at
large. however. feel that the south has
not begun to take full advantage of its
great natural resources
Forests have been neglected or Ill
advisedly cut. Farm lands have not been
develope6 TO anything like the extent
they might. Waterways have been almost
totally neglected, instead of being de-
Velor-.i as they might well be 10 the
great advantage Of the section.
That there is still a trace of the sec
tional prejudice between the south and
the north, though this is fast dying out
is believed. and it is hoped that the
present meeting of southern and north
ern business men Will do much to efface
this line OF demarcation.
Conservation week is looked forward to
by It's promoters is one Of tho most i'm
portant epochs that the country has seen
1. rema.n ms only for Congress TO take &C
ton on the mass OF important informa-
ton about the nations resources that will
be presented to It.
Notable Men Interested.
Some idea OF the sort Of men and the
wide field they represent may be gather
ed from LIST Of the conservation COM
mission which IS itself only part Of the
joint conference.
These are: Clifford. Pinchot. chairman;
Thomas r. Shipp. secretary. Executive
committee, Clifford Pinchot, Theodore E.
Burton, Reed Smoot, knuie Nelson, John
Dalzen " J ,McGee Oyerton w Price
G.. w. Woodruff Joseph a Holmes
Waters Theodore T. Burton, Ohio.
chairman; Francis c. Newlands Nevada:
Jonathan p. Dolliver, Iowa; William
Warnee. NJ ssouri; John II. Bankhead.
Alabama; w J MCGEE. bureau OF soils
secretary: F. H Newell. reclamation
service; Clifford Pinchot. forest service;
Herbert Knox Smith. bureau OF corpora
lions: Joseph Z. Ransdell, Louisiana: G..
T. Swain Massa cEuSetts Institute of
TeoLno ogy: ". l. Marshall, brigadier
general l. 5. Army. chief Of engineers.
Foresrs-Reed Smooth. Utah, chairman;
Albert J. Beverage. Indiana: Charles F.
Scot. Kansas, Champ Clark. Missouri: J.
u. White. Missouri; Henry S Graves
Yale Fores' School; William Irvine, Wis
consln: Newton e. Blanchard. Louis ana
Charles l.. Pack, New Jersey; Irving
Fisher, Connecticut: Gustav II. Schwab
New York: Overton w. Price forest serv-
ice. secretary.
Lands-knute Nelson Minnesota, chair
man; Francis +. Warren, Wyoming
SwaSar Sueriey. Kentucky Herbert Par
sons. New York; n. 3. Broward, Florida.
James j. Hill, Minnesota George c. Par.
dee. Californ a; Charles Macdonald New
York: Murdo Mackenzie. Colorado: T. c.
Chamber in, University OF Chicago
Frank c. Cloudy Colorado George w