THE CONVENTION OF GOVERNORS 



The first conference of the Governors of the United States and Ter- 

 ritories was held at the White House, hi Washington, D. C., during 

 the three days beginning May 13, 1908. 



The East Room was prepared for the occasion, its severe simplicity 

 somewhat brightened by draperies of green velvet on the walls, about 

 the platform on which were seated the presiding officer, the speakers, 

 the Supreme Court, and the President's Cabinet. Two great maps, 

 the largest ever made by mechanical means, hung on the east wall. 

 One showed the timber resources of the United States, while the other 

 showed the mineral deposits. Between these maps was an arrange- 

 ment for illustrating the different phases of conservation by means of 

 superb transparencies. On the floor special chairs were arranged in 

 semi-circles for the Governors ; while to the rear and at the sides were 

 seats for the Governors' advisers and the guests. 



Practically all the states and territories were represented ; it was a 

 historic occasion ; nearly every speaker laid stress on the declaration 

 that the meeting was an epoch-making one, that from it would spring 

 an organization of the Governors that through its deliberations and 

 the weights of its opinions would exercise through the years to come a 

 tremendous influence over the destinies and the affairs of the nation. 



Some extracts from the most notable of the many addresses deliv- 

 ered at this famous conference will be appropriate here as a fitting 

 close to our handbook on Conservation. 



4*4 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MEETING 



The savage knows and confesses his dependence upon the forces of 

 nature. His whole life is circumscribed by the resource's of forest, 

 field, and stream. Indeed, he feels himself a part of nature, and 

 scarcely separates his fate from that of his surroundings. The game 

 of the prairie, the forest, and the river, the berries and herbs in their 

 season, and the living waters supply him with food and drink. With 

 the changing seasons he moves from place to place, pursuing plenty. 

 He winters in rude huts filled with smoke from fires of fallen wood, 

 hardly less at the mercy of the cold than are the hibernating animals. 

 In the spring he wakes with nature, and his summers are prosperous 

 and happy only as the wild crop of field and forest are plentiful. He 

 rises and lies down with the sun. He survives only as he observes 

 nature and fits himself to her ways. 



But as savagery gives place to civilization, man frees himself more 

 and more from those bonds which bound him so closely to nature. 

 Slowly and painfully at first, and then far more rapidly and easily, 

 he learns to control his material surroundings. He breaks the prairie 

 with the plow, makes the beasts of the field his servants, strikes the 

 pick into the mountain and the axe into the veteran of the forest. 

 He now no longer waits upon the seasons. He builds himself a house 

 against the cold and warms himself to the point of comfort in the 

 midst of the winter blast. Instead of passively accepting the wild 



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