Vol. XIV 



MAY, 1908 



No. 5 



THE WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE 



I 



>■ 



Gathering of the Governors in May — Most Important Conference 



in Country's History — Problems to Be Considered 



— Makeup of the Assembly 



LIBRARY 

 NEW YORK 

 BOT 



/^N MAY 13, when President Roose- 

 ^^ velt calls to order the opening 

 session of the "Conference of Gov- 

 ernors," a new era in the history of 

 the country will have begun. In the 

 East Room of the White House, at 

 Washington, on that day, will assem- 

 ble the most dignified and the most 

 thoroughly representative gathering 

 of the nation's leading public men 

 ever brought together ; and upon the 

 results of their deliberations hangs the 

 weighty question of American supre- 

 macy in the fields of manufacture, ag- 

 riculture, mining, lumbering, and the 

 hundreds of kindred industries that 

 are dependent upon one or another of 

 the various natural resources of the 

 land. 



It is not putting it too strongly to 

 say that never in the country's history 

 has so important a convention been 

 held, and that never before have ques- 

 tions of equal gravity been discussed 

 in any national conference, either in 

 the United States or any other country 

 of the world. Questions that vit.'^Ily 

 affect every individual in the whole 



length and breadth of the land will 

 form the basis of the Conference's 

 discussions, and upon the results ob- 

 tained will depend, in large meas'.ire, 

 the prosperity of the present genera- 

 tion, and in vastly larger measure the 

 prosperity and happiness of the gen- 

 erations to come. 



The causes that have led to the call- 

 ing of this Conference by President 

 Roosevelt are too well known to re- 

 quire repetition. It is sufficient to say 

 that, having become seriously alarmed 

 over the continued destruction of the 

 country's standing timber, the waste 

 of coal, etc., in mining operations, the 

 annual recurrence of disastrous floods, 

 with their concomitants of tremendous 

 destruction of property and loss of 

 life, and the pressing importance of 

 finding ways to prevent such destruc- 

 tion, loss and waste, President Roose- 

 velt has called into consultation the 

 Governors of all the States, together 

 with three advisors to each Governor, 

 and representatives of the great na- 

 tional organizations whose continued 

 welfare and prosperity is gravely men- 



