640 



CONSERVATION 



Representative Bartholdt, of Mis- 

 souri, has introduced a bill into Con- 

 gress providing for the issue by the 

 United States Government of bonds to 

 the amount of $500,000,000, the pro- 

 ceeds to be spent on this waterway and 

 other meritorious river projects. 



The Sixty-first Congress will be 

 asked to provide that the United States 

 Government construct a waterway from 

 the point at which Illinois stops to the 

 Gulf of Mexico. 



As at the Spokane meeting, here again 

 it will be observed that large bond is- 

 sues are called for. In his trip down the 

 river from St. Louis in 1907, President 

 Roosevelt declared to the seventeen 

 governors who accompanied him that 

 the United States should build this 

 waterway by issuing bonds, if neces- 

 sary. 



Economists have long distinguished 

 between loans for consumption and 

 loans for production. 



Loans of the former type, represented 

 by bonds issued for war, represent a 

 long-time burden upon the people. 



Loans of the second type, however, 

 illustrated by bond issues for reclama- 

 tion, drainage, forest conservation, 

 flood prevention and waterways devel- 

 opment, properly handled, represent, 

 not a burden, but an assistance to the 

 people. 



Still, as President Hill has just 

 pointed out, if the interest on a bond 

 issue almost equals the principal of an 

 adequate annual appropriation, the lat- 

 ter is much to be preferred. 



The New Orleans meeting is to be 

 attended by more than a hundred mem- 

 bers of Congress, fifteen United States 

 Senators, thirty governors, six foreign 

 ministers, and other representative men 

 from all sections of the country. 



Not only so, but the President of the 

 United States will also be present and 

 address the convention. 



Accompanied by numerous digni- 

 taries, he will go to St. Louis on Octo- 

 ber 25, and from that point descend the 

 river to New Orleans. 



The President will travel in the 

 steamboat Mississippi, which will be 



convoyed by some of the finest steam- 

 boats on the western rivers. 



In addition, the Navy Department has 

 ordered a flotilla of four large torpedo 

 boats to proceed to St. Louis and con- 

 voy the Presidential fleet down the river. 

 Moreover, the Department has directed 

 the armored cruisers Montana, North 

 Carolina, and New York to New Or- 

 leans, thence to proceed as far up the 

 river as practicable to meet the Presi- 

 dent. 



The presence of such vessels in the 

 river will furnish added proof, should 

 this be needed, of the magnificent pro- 

 portions of the "Father of Waters." 



Needless to say, New Orleans is mak- 

 ing every effort to render the occasion 

 a notable one. For the climate of the 

 Crescent City, the date chosen is ideal. 



In connection with the convention, 

 a. conservation meeting is to be held. 

 The exact date of this meeting, un- 

 fortunately, cannot as yet be announced. 

 The details will be handled by the New 

 Orleans Progressive Union. Invita- 

 tions are being issued by Secretary W. 

 F. Saunders, of the Waterway Associa- 

 tion. 



Speakers at the conservation confer- 

 ence will undoubtedly drive home the 

 fundamental truth, "No forests, no 

 waterways." 



& % & 

 The National Conservation Association 



ON SEPTEMBER 15 appeared the 

 announcement of the organiza- 

 tion of the National Conservation Asso- 

 ciation, with President Emeritus Charles 

 Wm. Eliot, of Harvard University, at 

 its head. 



The announcement is made by Mr. 

 Walter L. Fisher, president of the Con- 

 servation League of America, formed 

 something more than a year ago, with 

 headquarters at Chicago. 



The constitution of the new associa- 

 tion contains a declaration of principles 

 taken from principles adopted by the 

 Conference of Governors held at the 

 White House in May, 1908. 



From the press report of these, we 

 quote the following: 



The land should be so used that erosion 

 and soilwash shall cease; that arid and semi- 



