Evening star., 1925-07-04
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

The House of Governors in con-
ference has been heard from. The
first conference was due to an inspira-
tion which came to President Roose-
welt while he was making a trip down
the Mississippi River in 1907, as chief
guest of the Inland Waterways Com
mission. He announced his intention
to invite all the State governors to
the White House for the purpose of
considering ways and means OF de-
veloping the natural resources of the
country He invited also the presi-
dents of various important national
societies concerned in natural re-
sources 20 meet with the governors.
That first meeting occurred in the
east room of the White House May
13 to 15, 1908.
1T is doubtful" wrote President
Roosevelt in his autobiography,
whether, except in time of war, any
new idea of like importance has ever
been presented to a nation and &C
cepted by it with such effectiveness
and rapidity as was the case with
this conservation movement when 1t
was introduced by the conference of
governors The first result was the
unanimous declaration of the gov
ernors of all the States and Territories
upon the subject of conservation,
document which ought TO be hung In
every schoolhouse throughout the
land. A further result was the ap-
pointment of Sc State Conservation
Commissions and, on June 3, 1908, OF
the National Conservation Commits
sion"
This National Commission was in
structed to make an inventory of all
the natural resources of the Nation
the first inventory of the kind ever
made by any nation. 1t was com
pleted in six months, and, when Presi-
dent Roosevelt transmitted it to Con-
gress, he described 1t as 'one of the
most fundamentally important docu-
ments ever laid before the American
people"
Out of the first conservation con-
ference, growing from the confer
ence of governors, developed a North
American Conference on Conservation,
for which invitations were sent to
President DiaZ of Mexico and to the
governments of Newfoundland and
Canada; for, said the President, 1T
is evident that natural resources are
not limited by the boundary lines
which separate nations, and the need
for conserving them upon this con-
tinent is as wide as the area upon
which they exist"
x
That International North American
Conference, in February, 1909, request
ed Robert Bacon, Secretary of State,
to invite As nations to unite in send
ing delegates to conference to be
held at The Hague, with the view
to considering plans for an inventory
of the natural resources of the world,
and to devising a uniform scheme for
the expression of the results of such
inventory, to the end that there may
be a general understanding and ap-
probation of the worlds supply of
the material elements which underlie
the development of civilization and
welfare of the peoples of the earth. I"
Then without comment, President
Roosevelt records:
After 1 left the White House
the project lapsed.
While the immensity of the eco
nomics in a plan to inventory the
whole world lis indisputable and in
spring, international commercial ri
valries were all arrayed against in
voicing to their competitors the re-
spective resources of each other. For
business is war and competition is
the life of trade.
What has been the history of the
original idea back of the outgrowth
of the conservation of resources? The
House of Governors-haS it become a
third estate in the councils of the
Nation, functioning in guiding the in
terstate cooperation In dealing with
State matters under the limitations