EDITORIAL 



The Conservation Conference National Conservation Commission, it 



PK( >MISE of great and lasting good f rming the Section of Waters of the 

 is contained in the report of the new bodv - The remaining three di- 

 Joim Conservation Conference, and in visions are those of Forests, Minerals 

 the reports of the four sections into and Lan ds. Chief Forester Pinchot is 

 which the National Conservation Com- chairman of the Commission, and 

 mission is divided. Up to the present "homas R. Shipp is secretary. The 

 time the program of conservation of nrftt work of the Commission was the 

 natural resources has been chiefly edu- inventorying of the resources of the 

 rational. Most persons who take an country a task which occupied the 

 interest in the work have begun asking time of hundreds of able men during 

 what the Commission is likely to ac- the whole of last summer and fall, 

 o.mplish in practical results. Every- rhe result of these herculean labors- 

 <>ne is agreed upon the proposition that la bors performed, as the President 

 tin- conservation of the Nation's nat- sa >' s ' without thought of personal in- 

 ural resources is of the greatest and convenience or personal advancement 

 most vital importance to the welfare or profit is contained in the report to 

 of the country and to its continued pros- be submitted to President Roosevelt, 

 perity : but it' is equally true that people and which will be transmitted by him 

 believe it is time to do something more to Congress within a short time. It 

 than hold conventions and furnish news- is not wide of the mark to say that 

 paper and magazine material. The gen- never in the history of this or any other 

 eral public believes that those who are nation, has a statement so valuable been 

 behind the conservation movement compiled and prepared ; never in the 

 should presently give to the lawmakers world's history, perhaps, has any na- 

 some definite plan, at least, for begin- tion known with such definiteness just 

 ning the great work about which so where it stands with regard to natural 

 much has 1 RT1 , written and spoken, resources. No generalization ; no flights 

 The educational work of the conserva- f fancy ; no stupendous statement with 

 tion movement has gone forward with nothing tangible to back it up. Instead. 

 more enthusiasm and less interruption the facts are there, in dollars and 

 Miice the organization last June of cents the board feet of lumber, the 

 the National Conservation Commission tons f coal, the acres of land, the 

 than ever before. The establishment of horsepower of waters, the cubic feet 

 this commission was really a welding to- f natural gas, the barrels of oil all 

 gether of activities along several closely these are set forth, in figures and state- 

 inter related lines a new organization rnent. in the plainest of English, in the 

 of the broad and rather incoherent report of the Commission. It might 

 movement for inland waterways im- be sa i d that, even if the Commission 

 provement and conservation of natural does no single other act, its existence 



would be fully justified by the work it 

 has done during the months just past. 



Organization of the Commission ^ ^ % 



COLLO WING the conference of the Definite Work Ahead 



Governors at the White House npHIS report and the reports of the 

 President Roosevelt merged * four sections, were presented to 

 \\ aterways Commission, the Joint Conservation Conference, corn- 

 by him in March, 1907, into the posed of the members of the National 



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