THE NORTH AMERICAN CONSERVATION CONFERENCE 161 



THE PRESIDENT S ADDRESS 



Promptly at ten o'clock the guests 

 were ranged in a semi-circle, and the 

 President entered. In his address of 

 welcome he said : 



I wish to extend on behalf of the Amer- 

 ican people the heartiest welcome to the 

 representatives of Canada and Mexico who 

 are here present. I am sure I give expres- 

 sion to the feelings of my countrymen when 

 I say that nothing has augured better for 

 the development of this entire continent, on 

 the lines along which it should develop, than 

 this meeting. I appreciate the courtesy 

 which has been shown by the governments 

 of Great Britain and Canada, and of Mex- 

 ico, in sending you gentlemen here as rep- 

 resentatives. 



The members of our own National Con- 

 servation Commission and the experts who 

 prepared our inventory of national resources 

 are present and are at any time at the serv- 

 ice of you gentlemen, if you desire to hear 

 from them, and any information that they 

 have in their possession is at your disposal. 



Gentlemen, this conference represents one 

 of the many steps that have been taken of 

 recent years looking toward a harmonious 

 cooperation between the nations of the earth 

 for the common advancement of all. In 

 international relations the great feature of 

 the growth of the last century has been the 

 gradual recognition of the fact that instead 

 of its being normally to the interest of one 

 nation to see another depressed, it is nor- 

 mally to the interest of each nation to see 

 the others elevated. 



Fundamentally it is the same with na- 

 tions as it is with individuals. You will 

 find that, as a rule, the most prosperous 

 man is the man who lives in a prosperous 

 community; as a rule the man is prosperous 

 who has prosperous people to deal with, who 

 carries on his business with other prosper- 

 ous people, who has prosperous people round 

 about him. You know that of your own ex- 

 perience. You know that a poor locality is 

 just the locality where it is hardest for the 

 ablest type of man to do well. The ablest 

 man will do best where his neighbors also 

 do well. It is just so with us as nations. 

 In commercial relations the trade of one 

 nation is greatest not with the poor and 

 backward nation, but with the rich and pro- 

 gressive nation. 



Study the trade returns, and see where, 

 on the average, the best customers of any 

 nation are found. The best customers, on 

 the average, are the prosperous nations. 

 When one nation strides forward along the 

 path of civilization, as a rule that progress 

 f means the uplifting- of nations generally. 

 (I am speaking subject, as one always must, 

 to certain exceptions ; occasionally a nation 

 rises at the expense of another. What I say 

 does not apply to such cases.) 



The movement that you gentlemen are 

 beginning, the national cooperation for the 

 conservation of national and international 

 resources, marks another stage in the ad- 

 vance along these lines. Each nation will 

 be left absolutely free, of course, to exercise 

 its own wisdom in dealing with the. things 

 that concern itself, but it will be given the 

 chance to profit by the wisdom of other 

 nations, and I know of no nation or no indi- 

 vidual that cannot profit by the wisdom of 

 others. 



In addition, the opportunity will be given 

 to all of us to join together in doing the 

 work that can best be done in union, by all 

 or some of us, as compared with doing it 

 each one separately. With nations whose 

 boundaries march along a great extent of 

 land frontier, as with Canada, the United 

 States, and Mexico, there are necessarily 

 large tracts of land in which the welfare of 

 the people depends upon the action not only 

 of that country, but of the neighboring 

 country. 



This, of course, is especially true where 

 our streams are concerned. You cannot cut 

 down the forests on the headwaters of an 

 international stream without having it hurt 

 both nations. I am anxious to do all that in 

 me lies to help you gentlemen in getting our 

 several peoples to come together with the 

 idea of working in harmony for the com- 

 mon good, instead of working each to get 

 something at the expense of the other. Ulti- 

 mately each of us will profit immeasurably 

 if, instead of striving to advance by tramp- 

 ling down the other, each strives to advance 

 by joining with the other for the common 

 advancement. 



I welcome you in behalf of our people. I 

 think _ it is of good augury for the North 

 American continent that you should be here, 

 and I believe that the movement which you 

 this day initiate is one of the utmost im- 

 portance to this hemisphere, and may become 

 of the utmost importance to the world at 

 large. 



The Secretary of State then intro- 

 duced the Canadian and Mexican dele- 

 gates to the President. 



THE GENERAL SESSION 



The commissioners to the conference, 

 certain members of the Cabinet, several 

 members of the National Conservation 

 Commission and one or two others then 

 began the general session in the Diplo- 

 matic Room of the State Department. 

 Mr. Outerbridge, the commissioner 

 from Newfoundland, did not reach 

 Washington in time for this day's ses- 

 sion. 



