368 



members of the Inland Waterways Commission will be present in order 

 to share with me the benefit of information and suggestion, and, if desired, 

 to set forth their provisional plans and conclusions. 



Facts, which I can not gainsay, force me to believe that the conservation 

 of our natural resources is the most w^eighty question now before the peo- 

 ple of the United States. If this is so, the proposed conference, which is 

 the first of its kind, wall be among the most important gatherings in our 

 history in its effect upon the welfare of all the people. 



I earnestly hope, my dear Governor, that you will find it possible to be 

 present. 



Sincerely yours, 



(Signed.) THEODORE ROOSEVELT,. 

 Hon. Walter F. Frear, 



Governor of Hawaii, 



Honolulu, Hawaii. 



ARBOR DAY. 



PROCLAMATION OF THE PRESIDENT TO THE SCHOOL CHIL- 

 DREN OF THE UNITED STATES. 



To the School Children of the United States : 



Arbor Day (which means simply "Tree Day") is no v.- observed in every 

 State in our Union — and mainly in the schools. At various times from 

 January to December, but chiefly in this month of April, you give a day or 

 part of a day to special exercises and perhaps to actual tree planting, Ji 

 recognition of the importance of trees to us as a nation, and of what 

 they yield in adornment, comfort, and useful products to the communities 

 in which you live. 



It is well that you should celebrate you Arbor Day thoughtfully, for 

 within your lifetime the Nation's need of trees will become serious. We 

 of an older generation can get along with what we have, though with 

 growing hardship ; but in your full manhood and womanhood you will want 

 wdiat nature so bountifully supplied and man so thoughtlessly destroyed ; 

 and because of that want you will reproach us, not for what we have 

 used, but for what we have wasted. 



For the nation as for the man or woman and the bov or girl, the road 

 to success is the right use of what we have and the improvement of 

 present opportunity. If you neglect to prepare yourselves now^ for the 

 duties and responsibilities which will fall upon you later, if you do not 

 learn the things w^hich you will need to know when your school days are 

 over, you will suffer the consequences. So any nation which in its youth 

 lives only for the day, reaps w^ithout sowing, and consumes without hus- 

 banding must expect the penalty of the prodigal, whose labor could with 

 difficulty find him the bare means of life. 



A people without children would face a hopeless future ; a country with- 

 out trees is almost as hopeless ; forests which are so used that they can 

 not renew themselves will soon vanish, and with them all their benefits. 

 A true forest is not merely a storehouse full of wood, but, as it were, a 

 factory of wood, and at the same time a reservoir of water. When you 

 help to preserve our forests or to plant new ones you are acting the part 

 of good citizens. The value of forestry deserves, therefore, to be taught 

 in the schools, which aim to make good citizens of you. If your Arbor 

 Day exercises help you to realize what benefits each one of you receives 

 from the forests, and how by your assistance these benefits may continue, 

 they will serve a good end. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



The White House, April 15, 1907. 



