30 



CONSERVATION 



material conditions that the best use of each 

 individual, when seen in its larger and 

 broader light, is the best use for us all. So 

 we are interested in the diffusion of the 

 knowledge which has been collected by this 

 Commission, and shall watch with great 

 pleasure its dissemination. 



We are interested in having what has 

 been collected here as data and statistics, 

 concerning our natural resources, carried 

 back to the individual, that it may enable 

 him in his own affairs and in public affairs, 

 whether of his county, city, State, or Na- 

 tion, to be fully informed, and to make 

 known his wishes and his interest, and that 

 his representatives in public affairs shall re- 

 flect these wishes and these interests or else 

 give way to others who will do so. 



The greatest work I can do as Governor 

 of Mississippi is to carry back to that State, 

 personally and through its educational and 

 State and county and other agencies, all 

 of the data that has been gathered here 

 for use and for the guidance of our per- 

 sonal business and official and political action 

 now and hereafter — and that is what I 

 propose to do. 



Coming down to where it affects us person- 

 ally, where the Governor, can be of aid, I 

 come from a State to which some allusion 

 was made in the reports yesterday in the 

 Southern Commercial Congress, where 

 three-fifths of the population are negroes 

 and two-fifths v^ite. It is a great agricul- 

 tural country. Our interests are agricul- 

 tural. Politically, there is nothing to say 

 except that we are more united than any 

 other State in the Union. When it comes 

 to our action on this question of conserva- 

 tion of our resources, I trust we will be as 

 unanimous. This matter is of interest to 

 each of us as citizens of our townships, 

 counties, cities and States, and our Nation. 

 Each will have its responsibilities and du- 

 ties, and we as citizens, all desire to get all 

 the benefit that each can bring in its appro- 

 priate sphere and province, so we are not 

 jealous of the Federal Government, at least 

 those of us who see it in the right light. 

 We are grateful to the Federal Government; 

 we are proud of our Government. We look 

 for its help in many lines in which the 

 State cannot or does not help, at least as 

 fully as the Federal Government does. As 

 an agricultural matter, you may ask in 

 what particular lines the Federal Govern- 

 ment has aided us. First, against the waters, 

 that through the improvident methods of 

 cultivation and deforestation have been 

 thrown upon us in such hurtful quantities 

 and qualities. The Government helps us 



Following Governor Noel's address, 

 the session was open for general dis- 

 cussion. Governor Ansell, of South 

 Carolina, opened the discussion with a 

 reference to the bill pending for the 



in order to help navigation, and whatever 

 affects navigation through its interstate 

 commerce affects the Federal Government, 

 and comes to our relief as it should do in 

 Louisana and Mississippi especially, being 

 two of the States on different sides of the 

 Mississippi River at its mouth, through which 

 all of these waters must finally be dis- 

 charged. The Government came to our re- 

 lief when the people of the Yazoo delta were 

 unable to establish levees of sufficient 

 strength to retain the waters. The Govern- 

 ment sent an engineer of great efficiency, 

 with a wide knowledge of conditions of 

 engineering and levee construction which 

 the Federal Government had obtained 

 through all the world and through its vari- 

 ous agencies, and which we ourselves did 

 not have. It furnished the most experienced 

 engineers and helped us to defray the ex- 

 penses. Then when we had the water cut 

 off, as we have had down there, the Gov- 

 ernment came to us again and gave us aid 

 through its engineers in matters of drain- 

 age, and now we have cut off from the 

 overflow of the Mississippi, the lands of 

 that State, many of which are now available 

 that were not theretofore of any use at 

 all. When we came to the question of lands 

 over which water stood an unnecessarily 

 long time, the Government came to us again, 

 and now the Government engineers are aid- 

 ing the State engineers in making a drain- 

 age map of that territory. 



The Federal Government, through its ex- 

 tended lines of activity, is doing for every 

 part of this country a great and beneficent 

 work. It is working along the lines to 

 which this Commission has been turning, 

 along the lines to which attention has been 

 directed through President Roosevelt calling 

 the Conservation Congress here last May; 

 and the work that has been done by him 

 since, and by his most able assistants here, 

 through our chairman of this meeting, is 

 the one with which we are all familiar. 

 They have directed study and attention and 

 thought to all of our natural resources, to 

 their distribution, to their value, and to 

 these agencies which were hurtful to us 

 and to the remedies by which they could 

 be relieved. 



In behalf of a Southern State, of a State 

 which, as I said, is united when it comes 

 to politics, we wish to acknowledge our 

 obligation, and gratefully we acknowledge it, 

 to the Federal Government and to these most 

 excellent and helpful officials for the serv- 

 ices they have rendered us, referring espe- 

 cially to our worthy President and the 

 chairman of this meeting. 



Southern Appalachian National For- 

 est. He spoke of the destructive floods 

 of last year and commented at length 

 upon the loss of soil caused by the 

 wash of the torrents, and the relation 



