.\L 



389 



section of the country -hould. or can, 

 regard i's interest- as paramount: that 

 tin- interests of . -m- section arc tin- in- 

 terests of all. and that a recognition of 

 this principle i> oming and mu>t come 

 if the Xation is to work out the fullest 

 measure of material and spiritual pro 

 perity. Another distinctive note \va> 

 struck when it was declared that, 

 among the X at ion's resources must be 

 counted its scenic beauties. Xo part of 

 the country, it was declared has a right 

 to advance its own interests, be they 

 financial or otherwise, at the cost of de- 

 stn 'ying the beauty of any other section. 

 Xo section, indeed, has a right to ad- 

 vance its own interests at the cost of 

 destroying its own attractiveness. Penn- 

 sylvania has no right to make itself 

 wealthy by turning its hills into honey- 

 combed rabbit-warrens, and its valleys 

 into slag-heaps. Buffalo has no right 

 to make itself wealthy by turning Niag- 

 ara into a bare, dry precipice, hardly 

 moistened by a few trickling rivulets 

 that have escaped the tunnels of the 

 pi >wer plants ; and Chicago has no right 

 to build up for herself an inland water 

 commerce by turning back the tide of 

 the Lakes and leaving the harbors of 

 Detroit, Toledo, and other Lake cities 

 without water. The people of the West 

 have no right to ravish their forests as 

 those of the East have already been 

 ravished. The country has learned a 

 lesson from the experience of the East, 

 and it will not permit a repetition of 

 that experience in the only section of 

 the land where forests of any extent 

 remain. 



In this connection, the following edi- 

 torial expression from the I'rovidcnrr. 

 R. I.. Journal, is expressive of the sane 

 -eiitiment of the country a- regards 

 conservation, and is a iu-t estimate of 

 the ini|>ortancc of the newly-appointed 

 ('oinmission n the Conservation of 

 Xatural Resources. 



"The estimates "I tin- International Water- 

 way- Commission, composed of an Amer 

 ami a Canadian section, a- rrporird to the 

 Parliament at < >ttawa. do not threaten ob- 

 stacles to the development of the Chi' 

 drainage Canal into a navigable Mnani. This 

 will relievo the fear which has he. n 



pr.--.si-d on In-half of ports, other than Chi- 

 cago, mi thr (in-at Lake-. It is 1. that 

 with a diversion of water to the quantn 

 ten thousand feet a sec-ond Chi. mi- 

 tary necessities will he met for all time, and 

 the largest praeticahle waterway cr.-.v 

 while the lowering of the -nrfaee of tin- 

 Lakes will he only from fo-ir to six inehes, 

 which will create no t niharra-Miient to traf- 

 fic thereon. The (iovernment of tin I'nited 

 States vvill he urged to prohibit a greater di- 

 version for the canal. Fur power pnrp. 

 with the preservation of the scenic heanties 

 of Xiagara Falls the chief consideration, the 

 joint commission also proposes maximum 

 figures, declaring that 'it would be a sacri- 

 lege to grant privileges beyond the 

 mates. 



"The omission to provide in the Agricul- 

 tural hill, or elsewhere, for a continuation of 

 tine Joint Congressional Commission on In- 

 land Waterways will not be permitted to 

 embarrass the development of the series of 

 enterprises combined in the policy of con- 

 servation of natural resources to which the 

 President and the country have set their 

 faces. This neglect on the part of Congi 

 together with the failure of the Appalachian 

 Hill, reflected in a picayune fashion an oppo- 

 sition, not necessarily to the policy in the ab- 

 stract, but to details of it which threaten 

 special interests, or are disagreed to by cer- 

 tain local constituencies. Especially have the 

 .\lississippi River boomers of the Centre been 

 restless against the broad and conservative 

 program outlined by the Waterways Commis- 

 sion. They are disinclined to have their half- 

 billion dollar scheme delayed for incorp. 

 tion with like enterprises to constitute and 

 give a genuinely national scope t'> a single 

 magnificent policy. After careful assimila- 

 tion of all considerations the President took 

 his stand with the Commission and an- 

 nounced hi- \icws in his first tin- tin- 

 Sixtieth Congress. From that hour the Coin- 

 mission has been made uncomfortable. 

 Though not too rashly antagonistic on the 

 tloor. Congress was able, with an affectation 

 of contempt that itself was contemptible, to 



display its feilmgs |,\ cutting out the 



ing appropriation and all mention of the 

 Commission from its enactments. 



"The summons to the < iovcruors for the 

 May conference was undoubted!} 

 ical move in respect to this mo\e in C'lig- 

 as well as broadly rcll purpose to en- 



list stat( ration for the furtherance of 



the geni-r.il policy. That the meeting of the 



'Mouse of Governors' aroused a me. 



jealousy in th. MI was 



made manifest That tin- President niMrdrd 

 the situation as precarious ;in d aniicip 

 the action in repudiation f the Inland 

 Wateru ' -\\\\ by his 



tnat he would pcrsonalK 

 it that the Commission \\as not \\ t of 



I le has n >d ':nt pledge 



by requesting the members of the 



