Page:Report of the Oregon Conservation Commission to the Governor (1908 - 1914).djvu/13



"The great natural resources supply the material basis upon which our civilization must continue to depend, and upon which the perpetuity of the nation itself rests. . . ."

"Even as each succeeding generation from the birth 0t the nation has performed its part in promoting the progress and development of the republic, so do we in this generation recognize it as a high duty to perform our part and this duty in large degree lies in the adoption of measures for the conservation of the natural wealth of the country. . . ."

"We declare our firm conviction that this conservation of our natural resources is a subject of transcendent importance, which should engage unremittingly the attention of the Nation, the States, and the people in earnest co-operation. . . ."

"Sources of national wealth exist for the bcnefit of the people, and monopoly thereof should not be tolerated,"

''—From the "Declaration" of the Governors of the States and Territories mode at the Washington Conference, May, 1908."''

The way was prepared for the conservation movement now organized for the nation and for the several states by the work of the national Reclamation and the Forestry Services, but later and more directly by the investigations of the Inland Waterways Commission. The time was ripe for the inception of the conservation movement when in September, 1907. the President of the nation in company with the executives of many of the states proceeded down our greatest natural waterway to a "Deep Waterway Convention" at Memphis, October 1907. The circumstances attending that procession on the Mississippi naturally yielded the suggestions from which was realized the conception at the basis of this movement. It was thus born of the spirit of progress and the perception of the necessary co-ordination of all the plans and activities for the most effective and most permanent national development.

The Conference of the Governors of the States and