THE  jHAWAIIAN 
F0RE6TER  I AGRICULTURIST 
Vol.  VI  FEBRUARY,  1909  No.  2 
NATIONAL  CONSERVATION  COMMISSION. 
After  the  conclusion  of  the  conference  of  the  Governors  at 
the  White  House  last  May,  President  Roosevelt  merged  the 
recently  created  Inland  Waterways  Commission  into  the  more 
comprehensive  National  Conservation  Commission,  of  which 
new  body  together  with  the  three  additional  divisions  of  Forests, 
Minerals  and  Lands,  the  division  of  Inland  Waterways  forms 
a component  part.  Of  this  important  Commission  the  Honor- 
able Gifford  Pinchot  was  appointed  chairman  and  the  colossal 
task  of  inventorying  the  national  resources  of  the  country  was 
immediately  undertaken.  The  result  of  these  exhaustive  labors 
is  embodied  in  the  report  of  the  Commission  which  will,  in  due 
time,  be  transmitted  by  the  President  to  Congress.  It  is  safe 
to  say  that  never  before  has  such  a definite  inventory  of  the 
natural  resources  of  a nation  been  compiled,  and  the  explicit 
and  comprehensive  character  of  the  data  which  have  been  tabu- 
lated will  rank  this  report  as  one  of  the  most  valuable  which 
have  been  compiled  in  the  history  of  the  nation. 
The  general  report  of  the  Commission  together  with  the  re- 
ports of  the  four  divisions  already  enumerated  were  presented 
before  a notable  audience  to  the  Joint  Conservation  conference 
held  in  Washington  on  December  8,  g and  10  last.  From  the 
proceedings  of  this  meeting  it  is  apparent  that  a definite  ad- 
vance has  been  tffade  in  the  history  of  Conservation,  and  that 
the  volume  of  discussion,  addresses  and  printed  articles  of  the 
last  few  years,  which  has  been  endeavoring  to  awaken  the 
national  conscience,  is  about  to  crystallize  into  action.  On 
all  sides  it  is  evident  that  the  merely  educational  programme 
of  the  movement  is  past  and  the  time  is  at  hand  when  the 
whole  nation,  irrespective  of  political  issues,  will  take  a bond 
of  fate  and  perpetuate  to  this  great  people  the  heritage  with 
which  it  has  been  endowed. 
