EDITORIAL 



. „ , , It IS a peculiar fact, not 



A Notable • j u r 



-, r recognized by many ot 



Conference. ^111 j • 



those who have read in 



the daily papers news articles in re- 

 gard to the coming conference at the 

 White House, that never before in the 

 history of the United States has it 

 seemed advisable that the Nation's 

 Chief Executive call into convention 

 the Chief Executives of the several 

 States. No circumstance has seemed 

 so great ; no contingency has loomed 

 so gravely upon the horizon, as to 

 make it seem necessary for the Presi- 

 dent to call into consultation the Gov- 

 ernors of the States, for the purpose 

 of counseling with them as to the 

 means to be adopted to forestall 

 threatening disaster. 



Not even when the civil war im- 

 pended, and the country's very exis- 

 tence was menaced as it never was be- 

 fore, was such a council suggested. 

 With war clouds lowering, and the 

 grim mutterings of rebellion growing 

 louder and more threatening month 

 after month, and year after year, no 

 President conceived the idea of calling 

 together the different Governors, that 

 the disputed questions might be dis- 

 cussed as calmly as possible, in the 

 hope of finding, in a council of the 

 wise, a solution of the problems that 

 afterward were discussed with rifle 

 and cannon and washed out in tor- 

 rents of blood. 



But the thing that was not deemed 

 necessary, or that was not thought of 

 at all, when the Nation faced the pros- 

 pect of a bloody internecine strife, has 

 been considered vitally needful in a 

 time of peace ; and for months past 

 preparations have been making for 

 this, the first conference in the history 

 of the country at which the different 

 Governors will meet to consider, with 

 the countrv's President, and with the 

 ablest men now living, a problem so 

 grave that even a brothers' war is play 

 beside it. For surely the questions 

 and the problems having to do with 



and bearing upon the conservation 

 and proper use of our natural re- 

 sources are worthy to be ranked as of 

 the deepest importance to the people 

 of the land. 



The continued prosperity of a na- 

 tion depends absolutely upon the 

 proper use and the proper conservation 

 of that nation's natural resources. If 

 the resources are wasted, then will 

 the nation sooner or later become 

 bankrupt ; just as is assuredly the case 

 if the resources of an individual are 

 wasted, or permitted to escape their 

 fullest proper utilization. In the case 

 of either nation or individual, ulti- 

 mate bankruptcy is certain unless capi- 

 tal is husbanded ; and in the case of a 

 nation, the resources originally pro- 

 vided by nature are the capital. The 

 results accruing from proper utiliza- 

 tion of such resources are the interest 

 earnings of that capital ; and no na- 

 tion that ever existed can sustain a 

 continued impairment of its capital 

 without impairing its earnings. 



It is these facts, and the rapidly in- 

 creasing general appreciation of them, 

 that makes the coming conference at 

 the White House of such momentous 

 importance. Starting with a natural 

 equipment, in the way of timber, min- 

 eral and soil resources, of a richness 

 and diversity such as no other country 

 in the world's history could boast of, 

 we Americans have wasted our heri- 

 tage to a point where its ultimate ex- 

 tinction is a matter of years, unless 

 we face about and make a determined 

 and understanding start in the direc- 

 tion opposite to that in which we have 

 been traveling. And that the confer- 

 ence called by President Roosevelt will 

 result in a crystallization of public sen- 

 timent such as will make an about- 

 face easily possible is the belief of 

 those best informed as to the present 

 status of the nation's natural bank 

 account. 



The preliminary steps in educating 

 a people to the necessity for the adop- 



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