Page:Report of the Oregon Conservation Commission to the Governor (1908 - 1914).djvu/17

Rh are open. Topographical surveys, investigations of water supply, and a timber census, each so essential for conservation work can be hastened by joining with the national government.

The conservation movement thus means a getting together into the best working co-operation for cumulative results of the States best thought, the institutions and agencies of development of the State. It affords a basis and purpose for co-operation not only within the State, but of state with state, and of the states with the Nation, It will thus tend to do away with friction and conflict of interests between the states and relieve the national government from a fatal overburdening and become the salvation of our federal system.

Oregon's part in this movement has been commendable. The Oregon Conservation Commission was one of the earliest appointments made and among the first to organize for work. Its second meeting was held on July 9th for the purpose of outlining its work, in conference with James R. Garfield, Secretary of the Interior, and F. H. Newell, Director of the U. S. Reclamation Service, and since has been diligently at work through its various committees.

It is most fortunate for the people of Oregon that this movement has taken hold of our national thought while this State is still young and its resources largely intact. Conservation thought and activity in Oregon, therefore, can concern themselves not so much with a struggle to recover lost ground, as with the more inspiring work of conserving and developing ample resources and building thereon a state of a noble type.

With the aim of conservation distinctively characterizing our State policies, the work of all public agencies in the State will be toned up to highest efficiency. The Legislature administrative agencies, teachers, in the common schools, and instructors and investigators in the higher institutions will have a larger and more inspiring field of labor. They will feel themselves co-workers in state-building, This intelligent and active co-operation within the State will not be confined to public institutions and public servants alone, Chambers of commerce, boards of trade, commercial clubs and development leagues would be brought into more clearly recognized co-operation. In a word, all voluntary associations will share in the inspiration.