1908 



THE GOVERNORS' CONFERENCE 



299 



tically the only fuel, and what lumber was 

 sawed was consumed locally, while the for- 

 ests were regarded chiefly as obstructions 

 to settlement and civilization. 



Such was the degree of progress to which 

 civilized mankind had attained when this 

 Nation began its career. It is almost im- 

 possible for us in this day to realize how 

 little our Revolutionary ancestors knew of 

 the great store of natural resources whose 

 discovery and use have been such vital fac- 

 tors in the growth and greatness of this 

 Nation, and how little they required to take 

 from this store in order to satisfy their 

 needs. 



Since then our knowledge and use of the 

 resources of the present territory of the 



Yet our fathers, though they knew so 

 little of the resources of the country, exer- 

 cised a wise forethought in reference there- 

 to. Washington clearly saw that the per- 

 petuity of the states could only be secured 

 by union, and that the only feasible basis of 

 union was an economic one ; in other words, 

 that it must be based upon the development 

 and use of their natural resources. Accord- 

 ingly, he helped to outline a scheme of com- 

 mercial development, and by his influence 

 an interstate waterways commission was 

 appointed by ^Maryland and Virginia. 



It met near where we are now meeting, in 

 Alexandria, adjourned to Mount Vernon, 

 and took up the consideration of interstate 

 commerce by the only means then avail- 



DESTRUCTION OF A WATERWAY 

 Formation of Silt Bar in a Navigable Stream 



United States have increased a hundred- 

 fold. Indeed, the growth of this Nation 

 by leaps and bounds makes one of the most 

 striking and important chapters in the his- 

 tory of the world. Its growth has been due 

 to the rapid development, and alas ! that it 

 should be said, to the rapid destruction, of 

 our natural resources. Nature has supplied 

 to us in the United States, and still sup- 

 plies to us, more kinds of resources in a 

 more lavish degree than has ever been the 

 case at any other time or with any other 

 people. Our position in the world has been 

 attained by the extent and thoroughness of 

 the control we have achieved over nature ; 

 but we are more, and not less, dependent 

 upon what she furnishes than at any pre- 

 vious time of history since the days of prim- 

 itive man. 



able, that of water. Further conferences 

 were arranged, first at Annapolis and then 

 at Philadelphia. It was in Philadelphia that 

 the representatives of all the states met for 

 what was in its original conception merely 

 a waterways conference ; but when they had 

 closed their deliberations the outcome was 

 the Constitution which made the states into 

 a Nation. (Applause.) 



The Constitution of the United States 

 thus grew in large part out of the necessity 

 for united action in the wise use of our 

 natural resources. The wise use of all of 

 our natural resources, which are our na- 

 tional resources as well, is the great mate- 

 lial question of to-day. I have asked you 

 to come together now because the enor- 

 mous consumption of these resources, and 

 the threat of imminent exhaustion of them, 



