1908 



THE GOVERNORS' CONFERENCE 



of the Nation ideas that were advo- 

 cated by men of science thirty years 

 ago. It was his optimistic opinion, 

 however, that no such waste as had 

 been alluded to by previous speakers 

 had existed in this country; or, if it 

 did exist, it was not really waste, but 

 the simple methods that, instinctively 

 adopted by the early settlers of the 

 country, had proven themselves in the 

 main correct. He said that the fact 

 that farms of the East have passed out 

 of cultivation is not necessarily an in- 

 dication that those farms have lost 

 their productive power, but, rather, 

 that they have been abandoned be- 

 cause of the opening up of broad- 

 er fields of usefulness in the regions 

 beyond the Mississippi and the Mis- 

 souri, and he said he believed that, 

 after all is said and done, the greatest 

 natural resources the country pos- 

 sesses is not its forests, its rivers, its 

 mines or its soil, but in the brains of 

 people. 



Hon. James R. Garfield, Secretary 

 of the Interior, was called upon for a 

 talk, and responded in a manner that 

 drew from the conferees repeated ex- 

 pressions of approval. 



Secretary Garfield said that it is 

 only within recent years that the Na- 

 tion has felt the need of extending, by 

 means other than those nature gave 

 us. the areas where men could build 

 homes. Such necessity, he said, has 

 now arisen ; lands that can be farmed, 

 if water for irrigation can be supplied, 

 ? t re being given this water, and the 

 cultivable area of the western states 

 is rapidly being enlarged, this enlarge- 

 ment necessarily tending to wipe out, 

 for some purposes, the boundaries be- 

 tween states. Such obliteration of 

 state lines does not, however, mean 

 that the states are going to lose any 

 of their inherent rights. 



Referring to the question of forest 

 reserves in the \Vest, Secretary Gar- 

 field said : 



"It has been suggested that in the West- 

 ern forest i that which has been at- 

 tempted by the Federal Government may 

 not be along the right line<. We do not for 

 a moment maintain that the final word has 



been said, that tin idi-al law has been pas 

 or that tli<- r<-i;ulaii' : 



improved. In regard to the V put 



by the Governor of Moi.'ana I lidi 

 something to thi- Mid the 



Federal Government charge in 

 reserves those people v. 

 forests; why should not the work in 

 reserves he paid for by ' 

 a whole, rather than by the impos 

 charges upon those who i 

 I will answer that question with another: 

 Why should a great resource, which 

 owned by the people at large, be used by 

 private interests, by somebody w!i" is I 

 ing only to his own benefit, and not the 

 benefit to the people of the whole country!" 

 (Applause.) That applies not only in the 

 forest reserves, so far as grazing is con- 

 cerned, but it applies equally well to the use 

 of the water powers of this country, (Ap- 

 plause), first, in the conservaion, and then 

 in the use of such water powers. (Ap- 

 plause.) 



"The people as a whole own these natural 

 resources and it is for them to determine 

 whether the resources shall be used for the 

 benefit of all, or be turned over to be used 

 without regulation for the benefit of who- 

 ever may happen first to get a foothold in 

 any special locality." (Applause.) 



Secretary Garfield said that as he 

 listened to the addresses, he had 

 reached the conclusion that the key- 

 note was practically the same through- 

 out that it was simply a question 

 to how we can best work out the prob- 

 lems that confront us. He stated that 

 his idea of conservation was the high- 

 est possible development, year by year, 

 to meet the needs of the country's 

 growing population; such develop- 

 ment to be for the people as a wh< 

 and not for the enrichment, by mon- 

 opolization, of individual or o>rp ir- 

 ate private interests. 



Professor lUirnett. dirictor of the 

 Nebraska Agriculture Experiment 

 Station, was the next >peaker. his ad- 

 dress deal ing with the lpu 



ervation, the exU-n-ion . ,f scien- 

 tific methods of cultivation, and the 

 determination.'.!" crops that may ]> 

 ably lie grown ini'ier what wiild or- 

 dinarily be considered unfavorable 

 conditions, lie made a : r the 



extension of agricultural . m in 



all of the states in order that tlu' na- 

 tural i' : he farm may be 

 built tip h intelligent handling 

 of the soil. 



