THE CONSERVATION OF WORLD 



RESOURCES 



To Be Discussed at The Hague by Representatives of the Leading 

 Nations Next September — The Significance of Such a Conference, 

 the Need for It, and Some of the Subjects with which It Will 

 Probably Deal. 



By TREADWELL CLEVELAND, Jr. 



THE North American Conference 

 on the Conservation of Natural 

 Resources, which held its ses- 

 sions in Washington, February i8 to 

 22, was remarkable principally for two 

 results — the powerful stimulus which it 

 gave to the conservation movement in 

 the North American continent, and the 

 significant and unexpected expansion of 

 the movement to worldwide propor- 

 tions. The delegates to the conference 

 from Canada and Mexico entered heart- 

 ily into the spirit of international co- 

 operation, which was the direct object 

 of the conference. They pledged the 

 aid of their respective countries, con- 

 curring in the belief that all of the coun- 

 tries should profit by the results ob- 

 tained by any one of them, and that cer- 

 tain problems could be most satisfactor- 

 ily solved by united action. On the sec- 

 ond day of the conference, the delegates 

 of all three countries unanimously en- 

 dorsed by resolution the proposal ad- 

 vanced by the President and defined in 

 a statement by the Secretarv of State, 

 that there be held at The Hague, next 

 September, a conference on the world 

 resources and their conservation, to 

 which the forty-five nations which par- 

 ticipated in the last Peace Conference 

 would be invited to send representa- 

 tives. The proposal was incorporated 

 in the Declaration of Principles signed 

 by the Commissioners. 



Those who heard the President's ad- 

 dress of welcome realized that yir. 

 218 



Roosevelt had struck a new note. His 

 few words, carefully weighed and de- 

 liberately spoken, were pregnant with a 

 ])olitical philosophy to which the nations 

 are but now awakening, the philosophy 

 that, broadly speaking, the nations must 

 rise or fall together, and that therefore 

 the highest aim of diplomacy is to se- 

 cure not the conquest of rival powers, 

 but the uplifting and development of 

 neighbors bound together by common 

 aims. 



"The ablest man," said the President, 

 "will do best where his neighbors also 

 do well. It is just so with nations. 



* '■' * In international relations the 

 great feature of the growth of the last 

 century has been the gradual recogni- 

 tion of the fact that instead of its being; 

 normally the interest of one nation to 

 see another depressed, it is normally 

 the interest of each nation to see the 

 others elevated. * ■■'■ * This con- 

 ference represents one of the many steps 

 that have been taken in recent years 

 looking toward a harmonious coopera- 

 tion between the nations of the earth 

 for the common advancement of all. 



* * * I believe that the movement 

 that you this day initiate is one of the 

 utmost importance to this hemisphere 

 and may become of the utmost import- 

 ance to the world at large." 



The President then pointed out some 

 of the advantages which the North 

 American countries would gain in com- 



