A CHAPTER OF CONSERVATION' HISTORY 



497 



venting the waste of soil, in preserving the 

 forests, in thrifty use of the mineral re- 

 sources of the country for the Nation as 

 a whole rather than merely for private 

 monopolies ; in working for the betterment 

 of the condition of the men and women who 

 live on the farms, then they will unstintedly 

 condemn the action of every man who is in 

 any way responsible for inserting this pro- 

 vision, and will support those members of 

 the legislative branch who opposed its adop- 

 tion. * * * 



The Republican platform last year said : 

 ''We endorse the movement inaugurated 

 by the administration for the conservation of 

 natural resources * * the obligation of 

 the future is more insistent and none will 

 result in greater blessings to posterity." The 

 Democratic platform said : "We repeat the 

 demand for internal development and for 

 the conservation of our natural resources, 

 the enforcement of which Mr. Roosevelt has 

 * * * sought." 



My successor, the President-elect, in a 

 letter to the Senate Committee on Appropri- 

 ations, asked for the continuance and sup- 

 port of the Conservation Commission. This 

 Conservation Commission was appointed at 

 the request of the governors of over forty 



states, and almost all of these states have 

 since appointed commissions to cooperate 

 with the National Commission. Nearly all 

 the great national organizations concerned 

 with natural resources have been heartily 

 cooperating with the Commission. 



With all these facts before it, the Con- 

 gress has refused to pass a law to continue 

 and provide for the Commission ; and it now 

 passes a law with the purpose of prevent- 

 ing the Executive from continuing the Com- 

 mission at all. * * * 



But I call the attention of those who are 

 responsible for putting in this provision to a 

 fundamental fact which is often ignored in 

 discussing and comparing the action of the 

 Executive and the action of the legislative 

 branches of the Government : Neither one 

 is responsible to the other. Each must act 

 as its wisdom dictates. But each is responsi- 

 ble to the people as a whole. It is for the 

 people to decide whether they are repre- 

 sented aright by any given servant ; and one 

 element in enabling them to reach a deci- 

 sion must be that public servant's record in 

 such a case as this. 



The reader may supply his own com- 

 ments. 



Tempe, Ariz., Showing How Irrigation Transforms the Desert 



