1 82 FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION April 



these are ex-President Grover Cleve- there will be an absence of set papers, 

 land, William Jennings Bryan, An- though in order to open the discus- 

 drew Carnegie, who will be able to sions, a few recognized authorities 

 discuss the ore supply and lake traf- will present brief descriptions of ex- 

 fic, James J. Hill, who is an authority isting facts and conditions. It is 

 on the relation of railroads and water hoped that plans may be so formu- 

 navigation, and John Mitchell, who lated that there will be immediate and 

 can contribute information on the coal concerted action on the part of the dif- 

 situation and the labor aspects of the ferent States toward the conservation 

 questions. of natural resources, the fundament- 

 ally vital problem, according to the 

 A Meeting to The President outlined President, before the people of the 



be Famous t j le SCO pe and purpose of United States to-day, 

 in History *, 



the conference in his in- 

 vitation to the Governors, published 



in FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION for De- ^"L In hls r waterways mes- 



cember last, and emphasized the im- Bills * f Februarv 26 the 



portance of the subject in the follow- President sounds the 



ing words: following warning note: 



..^, ., , Among these monopolies, as UK 



1 here is no other question now be- - , 



., XT .. ... report ot the ( ommisston points out, 



tore the Nation ot equal gravity with ... ., l 



., r ., r there i- no other which threatens, or 



the question of the conservation of our , , , , , 



natural resources; and it is the plain kl ~ f er 'teed. such intolerable 

 duty of us who, for the moment are ' llfe the 

 responsible, to take inventory of the P e P le as the consolidation of corn- 

 natural resources which have been ?* s controlling water power, j 

 handed down to us. to forecast the cal1 - vour . s P e u cial attention to the at 

 needs of the future, and so handle the '^'"l* /V-,, IX ? WCr , cor P ratlons ' 

 great sources of our prosperitv as not through bills introduced at the present 

 to destrov in advance all hope of the se / sion ' to esca P e from the possibility 

 prosperity of our descendants. * * * of government regulation in the m- 



"Facts, which I cannot gainsay, terests of the people These bill; arc 



force me to believe that conservation intended to enable the corporations to 



of our natural resources is the most take possession in perpetuity of N a - 



weighty question now before the peo- tlonal forest lands , for the Purposes ol 



pie of the United States. If this be their business, where and as the> 



so, the proposed conference, which is P lease > wh lllv without compensation 



the first of its kind, will be among the to the P ublic - Yet the effect of g rant ' 



most important gatherings in our his- in S such privileges, taken together 



tory in its effect upon the welfare of with rights already acquired under 



all our people." State laws, would be to give away 



properties of enormous value. 



ForaPrac- All the sessions of the Through lack of foresight we have 

 tical Work- conference will be held formed the habit of granting, without 

 mg Basis j n ^ hj^oj-jc pr as t compensation, extremely valuable 

 Room of the White House, where so rights amounting to monopolies on 

 many other important scenes in Amer- navigable streams and on the public 

 ican' history have been enacted ; and domain. The repurchase at great ex- 

 it is likely that President Roosevelt pense of water rights thus carelessly 

 will not only open the conference, but given away without return has al- 

 will preside'over all its deliberations. ready begun in the East, and before 



It will be a conference in the truest long will be necessary in the West 



sense of the word, with the single pur- also. Xo rights involving water 



pose of getting down to a practical power should be granted to any cor- 



working basis at once. To that end porations in perpetuity, but only for 



