The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-10

Assoc m ths city of Washington this week win be gathered a group of men In a convention without parallel in the his tory of the United StateS--a convention that may possibly be as far-reaching in it's effects upon our children and our children's children, to the third and fourth generation, as was the Consti- tutional Convention in 17ss in It's eff fects upon us of the twentieth cen fnry.
 When. in 17ss, the individual States had accomplished their purpose in driving from the thirteen colonies ev- cry semblance of European authority, there fell to them a responsibility or organized control and development which had, during the years of the war never been fully recognized nor realized. There followed six years of indecision and of possible disruption, leading at last to a genuine union of the States, each for all and all for each.
 Our sparse population, fringed thin- Iy along the Atlantic coast and hem med in to the westward by 5000 miles of unconQuered territory, gave them selves up to the task of greater con- quest--the conquest of that which was theIrs. The problem, as they saw 1t in <2e early agricultural days of the Uni- ted States. was to clear the land as fast as possible of the glorious virgin forest, which stood at that time in the way of the growth of crops. So they eIashed and slaughtered. felled and burned, without any thought of there heinz a limit to their right of destruc- ton or a limit to the resources they were destroying.
 Our Fierce Ipdividualism.
 Then came the railroads. aiding in the distribution of human forces across the entire continent. each individual unit Interested in the keenest possible way in his own problem of clearing the land or getting out of the soil for his own particular and immediate ben eft, as much as possible of wealth, without regard to the general public or without regard to the children to come after him. In our all-conquer- tng impulse, co-ordinated with the mar vicious organizing capacity of the American mind. we have, in much less than 100 years. since the railroads came to our aid, conquered and de- etroyed so much of the natural re- sources of the United States that in- stead of their being limitless. they are now seen to be limited and instead of there being an eternal supply, 1t is now seen that, in the direction of timber alone, the next generation will face a famine. Not only in the matter of &imUer has needless destructionN gone zorward, but In relation to minerals. Tn relation to water powers. in relation 4o every natural resource that can be 1nferpreted Into human gain there has through a fierce individualism, been al most a total disregard of the social rights of our nation or of the later life eE our nation.
 Rights of the Unb0ra.
 Whatever petty criticism may be di- recfed against President Roosevelt be- cause of his impulsiveness and his bfusque mannerisms. there is no ques- flon regarding the sincerity of tho faan nor regarding his capacity of vis- ton. When he wrote the volumes "The Winning of the West" 1t now seems as though unconsciously he was preparing for useful participation In this very convention which he has called: for no one knows better than he the ruthless ness with which some of the West was won. At last through the magnificent mass of material gathered together by khe Inland Waterways Commission, up- AR whose report this conference of Governors has been called. he and al others of us have been placed In toucf for the first time authoritatively with the full seriousness of the problem anC with the need of immediate. strong. or. Eanized action.
 The participants in this convention