334 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



June 



pay to-day, and yet are overwhelmingly for 

 the public interest, pay five or ten years 

 hence. 



"I i;e!ieve,. gentlemen, that you have it in 

 your power to put this great national work 

 where, twentv years hence, it will take care 

 of itself." (Applause.) 



Hon. Robert B. Glenn, Governor of 

 North Carolina, followed Dr. Hadley 

 with an address that wrought the 

 Conference up to a pitch of enthu- 

 siasm such as had not been reached 

 through the entire two days' sessions. 

 Governor Glenn's reference to the 

 bills pending in Congress, providing 

 for the establishment of a forest re- 

 serve in the Southern Appalachians, 

 w^ere punctuated with crashes of hand- 

 clapping that fairly rattled the chan- 

 deliers. He said : 



"Mr. -President, Governors, and gentle- 

 men of the Conference: In the language 

 of one of the greatest sages and statesmen 

 of this Union, Grover Cleveland (applause), 

 'a condition and not a theory confronts us 

 to-day.' We have heard from the very 

 able paper of the strong and patriotic Presi- 

 dent of the United States (great applause) 

 something as to our duty in conserving our 

 resources ; and we have heard from the 

 papers of Mr. Carnegie and Mr. Hill that 

 something must be done to preserve the nat- 

 ural resources of this great Union in which 

 we live. 



"Now, Mr. President, what has caused 

 the present condition? If you have listened 

 to the papers that have been read you have 

 learned that our forests are being denuded; 

 our water powers are becoming exhausted ; 

 our land is being washed away and made 

 worthless ; our harbors are filling up ; our 

 commerce is being paralyzed ; and some- 

 thing must be done to stop this waste, to 

 stop this extravagance and to bring forward 

 a remedy that will enable this great Nation 

 to go forward as it has never done in the 

 past. 



"What is the most serious of all these ter- 

 rible conditions confronting our people to- 

 day? I can answer almost in one word. 

 It is the failure of the people throughout 

 the states to protect the great forest re- 

 sources of the land in which we live. (Ap- 

 plause.) This is the source and cause of 

 all these other ills of which I have just 

 spoken. The people have been regardless of 

 the future, only living for the present, 

 thinking of themselves and not of their chil- 

 dren and their children's children that are 

 going to come after them, as all patriots 

 should think. Vandals are going into our 

 forests and denuding and destroying them, 

 and their hands must be stayed. Vandalism 



must be stopped; there must be an end to 

 this waste, or else there can be no hope for 

 our soil throughout the length and breadth 

 of this Nation. 



"For this existing condition there must be 

 some remedy; but where must this remedy 

 come from ? It must come alike from the 

 states and the Nation, state going hand in 

 hand with state, and the states joining with 

 the Nation. (Applause.) 



"Last night at a banquet given to the 

 Governors of this great Nation of ours 

 Speaker Cannon said the township com- 

 menced, then the county, then the state, and 

 then came a call upon the Nation for help 

 and succor. The townships of the various 

 states have already acted. We are cleaning 

 out our little creeks and rivers, stopping the 

 waste all we can by indictment and other- 

 wise ; we are trying to protect our resources 

 as best we can, but the great arm of the 

 Nation must be used to aid the people of 

 this great section in which we live. (Ap- 

 plause.) A state can control intra-state 

 commerce, but a state is powerless to con- 

 trol inter-state commerce. A state can con- 

 trol intra-state destruction, but a state is 

 powerless to control inter-state destruction. 

 Therefore we must have some means by 

 which we can be brought together, and by 

 which the Government and the states may 

 go hand in hand — to prevent the devasta- 

 tion and the destruction now going on. 



"There is a bill now pending in Congress 

 which would bring about this remedy (ap- 

 plause), and I say to the members of the 

 Senate and to the members of the House of 

 Representatives that if they will only pass 

 that bill every state government from Maine 

 to Texas and to the great Pacific Coast will 

 co-operate with this Government in bring- 

 ing about a condition of things that will 

 build up the great Nation in which we live 

 to-da3^ (Great applause.) 



"We have come before these men from 

 1899 up to the present time. Five or six 

 times, representing my state, have I been 

 here nnd knocked at the door of Congress, 

 asking for relief. Each time they said 'next 

 session,' and 'next session,' and 'next ses- 

 sion.' When is the next session to come, 

 Mr. President? (Laughter and applause.) 

 ^^'ill they wait until all the forests are de- 

 nuded, until all the rivers are dried up, un- 

 til commerce is paralyzed? Then we do 

 not want their help. We want it now, and 

 must have it. 



"I want to say to this great Convention 

 that it does seem to me that a resolution 

 ought to be passed by this Convention, in- 

 dorsed by every Governor of every state 

 present, calling upon this present Congress 

 to wait no longer, but even in the short ses- 

 sion yet remaining, to pass this bill_ that 

 means so much to the peace, happiness, 

 wealth, power and glory of this great Na- 

 tion in which we live. (Great applause.) 



"Vov Dei is calling for the preservation 

 of the forests for humanity's sake, for 



