NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONGRESS 



573 



He said that the withdrawal of Gov- 

 ernment lands from entry were only one 

 necessary step and should not be re- 

 garded as final : . 



"The idea should not be allowed to 

 spread," he declared, "that conservation is 

 the tying up of the natural resources by the 

 government for indefinite withholding: from 

 use and the remission to remote generations 

 to decide what ought to be done with these 

 means of promoting present general human 

 comfort and progress. For, if so, it is cer- 

 tain to arouse the greatest opposition to con- 

 servation as a cause, and if it were a correct 

 expression of the purpose of conservation- 

 ists it ought to arouse this opposition. 



''Real conservation involves wise, non- 

 wasteful use in the present generation, with 

 every possible means of preservation for 

 succeeding generations; and though the 

 problem to secure this end may be difficult, 

 the burden is on the present generation 

 promptly to solve it and not to run away 

 from it as cowards, lest in the attempt to 

 meet it we may make some mistake. As I 

 have said elsewhere, the problem is how to 

 save and how to utilize, how to conserve 

 and still develop ; for no sane person can 

 contend that it is for the common good that 

 nature's blessings should be stored only for 

 unborn generations. 



"I beg of you, therefore, in your delibera- 

 tions and in your informal discussions, when 

 men come forward to suggest evils that the 

 promotion of conservation is to remedy, that 

 you invite them to point out the specific 

 evils and the specific remedies; that you in 

 vite them to come down to details in order 



B. N, Baker, President of the Congress 



that their discussions may flow into channels 

 that shall be useful rather than into periods 

 that shall be eloquent and entertaining, with 

 out shedding real light on the subject. The 

 people should be shown exactly what is 

 needed in order that they make their repre- 

 sentatives in Congress and the state legisla- 

 ture do their intelligent bidding." 



THE GOVERNORS' SESSION 



At the afternon session on Monday 

 Senator Nelson was the first speaker, 

 his subject being the "Public Land 

 Laws of the United States." He made 

 an exhaustive and valuable review of 

 this complex subject. He referred to 

 Gifford Pinchot as the father of our 

 forestry system. On the vexed ques- 

 tion of control of water power sites, 

 after alluding to the difficulty arising 

 from divided jurisdiction, the senior 

 senator from Minnesota offered this 

 solution : 



"It seems to me but perhaps I may err 

 that the problem of developing and utilizing 

 water power in such cases can only be 

 properly solved by the co-operation of the 

 state and the federal government. The 

 one owning the power site and the other the 

 water in the stream, it strikes me that co- 

 operation in such a case is essential, and 



furnishes the only practical solution. And 

 some plan should be devised by which the 

 federal and state governments could act in 

 harmony and unison in such cases. Of 

 course, when the state owns both the water 

 and the power site, the problem is of a less 

 complex character, and is one exclusively for 

 the state to solve, except as to the question 

 of navigation. It may be added in this con- 

 nection that Congress at the last session 

 passed a general law to regulate the con- 

 struction of dams across navigable waters, 

 by which provision is made for protecting 

 the interests of the federal government in 

 such cases." 



The remainder of Monday afternoon 

 was turned over to the governors, Gov- 

 ernor Stubbs, of Kansas, presiding. The 

 Kansas executive is a personality, 

 abrupt, good-humored, aggressive, the 

 embodiment of insurgency, and an un- 

 qualified supporter of Theodore Roosc- 



