Lower coast gazette., 1910-12-03
The House OF Governors.

week in Frankfort and Louisville IS a nolanie
event and promises to do much Co0d in the
way of building up q feeling Of camaraderie be-
tween the states and by this increasing 1amlil-
arity with the wants of the various states as
compared and contrasted one with the other,
such LEGISLATION as IS desired can be more readi-
" secured by the greater knowledge of It's NJ
cessitv thus brought about. The common dis
position is to say that these meetings OF the
governors originated in 1903 with President
Roosevelt's invitation to them to meet in Wash
incton to consider the conservation Of our
natural resources. This meeting in 1903, how
ever, did not prevent our central or national
government from throwing away some OF It's
great natural resources in the Territory OF Alas
ka. In 1908 the first meeting was held in May
and an adjourned. or subsequent, meeting was
held in December. The next meeting was held
in Washington in 1910, during which session
President Taft delivered to them an address OF
welcome and indicated his desire to cooperate
with them and his appreciation of the excel
lence of The movement. The present meeting
in Kentucky, where Governor Wilson IS practl-
cally the host of the occasion is the third OF this
series.
The newspapers seem to have forgotten that
some fourteen years ago. on the Call OF G0V.
Fishback of Arkansas, the governors of the
southern states we're called to meet at Rich
mond, Virginia. where Gov. Kinney was then
presiding and these governors then gave serious
consideration to the efforts making everywhere
to insure the recovery Of the entire section from
the after effects of the civil war. The writer
of this article, while not governor, became a
member of that convention on the invitation OF
Gov. Murphy J. Foster and the debates there
had were extremely edifying and have had their
effect in bringing about that development which
we see everywhere IN the south at the present
time. This journal has referred previously to
the fact that Gov. Andrews of Massachusetts.
Gov. Curtin of Pennsylvania, Gov. Dennlson OF
Ohio, Gov. Yates Of Illinois and one or two
others whose names we do not now recall, made
the famous border state House of Governors
early in the evil war, when the federal union
was in it's sOrest straits and that House of Gov
ernors saved the federal union by the combined
efforts of all of the governors in advancing i'm
mense sums by the states and throwing vast
bodies of troops into the field. A House Of Gov
errors, without any power to carry on national
legislation, is one of the grandeSt ideas that has
been developed in this country in recent years.
AS we read the popular reports in our journals
it is suggested that by such congresses or con-
~ferences as these governors may have we can
bring about more uniform legislation through
out the entire country and thus finally perhaps
cast all of our people in one mould.
This we believe is where many people are
now erring in their judgment as to the value of
a House of Governors. 1t is certainly extreme
ly desirable that the governors of the various
states should have at least annual, and perhaps
more frequent conferences, thus learning the
peculiarities, the eXcellences, and the defects in
the legislation of each state and availing of such
knowledge, then in their own states do what
ever they think best in the way of inducing
fresh legislation. In a country reaching from
the tropics on the lower Rio Grande and South
ern Florida to the frozen hills Of Northern
Maine and North Dakota, it would seem simply
absurd to endeavor, to secure the same legisla-
Lfoil III all VI lucoc sdi yiHS pCoPleo. Ii ildlJ
and in England people living within a hundred
miles of each other, more particularly those en-
gagged in agriculture, have some difficulty in un-
derstar.ding each other, owing to their dialectal
differences. In the United States, and we shall
include Canada in this, a hundred millions of
people are so well educated and already so
familiar with each other all over this continent
that the one English language, with very slight
if any dialectal differences, is understood per-
fectly everywhere. We must, of course, exclude
Mexico from this, as that republic is not under
consideration. With a common language and a
common literature and common ethical codes,
our people are brought up with as nearly the
same hopes and aspirations in Dakota as in Lou
isiana, in Virginia as in California. We are in
that respect already one homogeneous people.
There is no reason, however, why we should en-
deavor to secure sumptuary avs alike in all the
states, or why we should endeavor to secure
anything like that which prevails in the ether
states of the Union. The Puritan from Boston
might be shocked at the open theatres in New
York or New Orleans on Sundays. Advocates
of prohibition in Kansas or Alabama might be