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you here in person and to participate in your deliberations, because he is in hearty sympathy with the movement for the conservation of the country's natural resources. From the high character and public spirit of the delegates to this meeting, it is believed that your deliberations will have an important influence in advancing the great cause which has brought you together. Where all are agreed upon the importance to the country's welfare of the objects aimed at here, the calm, sound, dispassionate common sense of Americans may be confidently relief upon to find a sure and safe way to attain them.

Ladies and Gentlemen, at the request and in behalf of the Governor of the State of Washington, I bid you welcome to the State. (Applause.)

HON. J. F. MILLER, MAYOR OF SEATTLE, ON BEHALF OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE ALASKA-YUKON

PACIFIC EXPOSITION.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:

There is a peculiar appropriateness in the meeting of this Congress in the young and vigorous city of Seattle, so far away from the center of population of this great nation, one of the youngest of the sisterhood of States, one of the youngest cities in this great nation. To those of you who are strangers to this city, I may say that we are now in our thirty-eighth year of organized municipal government. The great City of New York on the Atlantic seaboard was two hundred and seven years attaining the population this city has today. Those who looked at their geography saw on this shore of Puget Sound the outpost of the nation. Today we have this great North Land of ours. We hold as our neighbor the great district and territory of Alaska, as large

as all east of the Mississippi River northward to Ohio. This country of Puget Sound is perhaps endowed by nature with a richness unequalled in the nation. No doubt we are sometimes wasteful, but the day is coming, is rapidly approaching, when we shall husband our resources here the same as east of the Cascade Mountains.

On behalf of our citizens I extend to you a most cordial greeting. On behalf of the officers of the Exposition, President Chilberg and his able corps, I also extend to you a hearty welcome. This Exposition, my fellow countrymen, was not planned with selfish interests for Seattle alone; it was planned for the entire Pacific seaboard, the islands of the sea, the Orient and the great North Land. We expect great benefits to come from this for the people of the Pacific Coast. In time the people of this nation may know that the Pacific seaboard is greater than the Atlantic, and while we may never have more than six representatives in the Hall of Congress to voice the people of the Pacific against eighteen from the Atlantic, we hope that in the high integrity of their citizenship and their patriotism these six or seven will be equal to eight or twelve from the Atlantic. (Applause.)

This Exposition, planned and set on foot by the citizens of our community, was made possible by the generous aid and encouragement of the people of the neighboring States and even as far back east as the grand old State of New York. These have all helped to make this Exposition the success which it now is and great credit is due to them as well as to our own people. I thank you. (Applause.)

MR. JOEL SHOMAKER, CHAIRMAN OF THE WASHINGTON CONSERVATION COMMISSION.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:

On behalf of the Washington State Conservation Commission, appointed by the Governor of the State, I desire to extend to you the right hand of fellowship, to bid you welcome to the Evergreen State, and to ask for your assistance in formulating a plan to carry on the great fundamental principle of national conservation.

I do not intend to make a speech; that is not what I came here for, but for the purpose of greeting all of you people and extending to you our welcome on behalf of the State Commission.

to come.

This First National Conservation Congress marks an epoch in the history of the world. The record of it will be handed down to posterity, to our sons, grandsons, and those The movement is not in any sense a political organization; it is an organization by the people, for the people, and of the people. It is an organization which, though it has hung back in the past, is now coming to the front. You remember that when I was a boy, when you were a girl, the mother, that sainted patron, taught us the principles of conservation; she who rocked the cradle that rules. the world watched over us day and night to conserve the energy within us; to make of us noble men and women fit to be American citizens. God bless the mothers of the land. For centuries these noble spirits have worked to develop the fundamental principles of conservation individually and now, today, after a long time, we are beginning to get together to organize for the purpose of putting in practice the principles of conservation born within us. When we got our first nickel's worth of candy and mother said: "Leave

some for tomorrow, it may make you sick;" and when father said: "Don't eat all those apples; leave some for tomorrow, because Cousin Johnnie is coming," there were the fundamental principles of conservation. After we got a little older our fathers and grandfathers said to us: "Lay up something for a rainy day." The principles of conservation have been taught from father to son, from teacher to pupil, from the preacher to the student, throughout the ages; but never until the present time has there been an established organization for the purpose of promulgating them.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, this is not a political gathering in any sense of the word. You members of the State Conservation Commissions know that we invited you to attend this meeting for the purpose of planning an educational campaign, to spread the principles of conservation, the right use of natural resources. We have asked you to come here: we look upon you as broadminded, liberal American citizens, and although it has been published and heralded through the country that it was to be a political convention, I wish to urge you, if you have any political preferences, not to express them here. We are here to solve these problems of conservation in a peaceful manner, without any partisan bias, or personal feelings, or personalities of any shape, form, or fashion. Please bear in mind that this is not a convention of officialdom, but a congress of the people met together for the purpose of considering subjects for the best interests of the people, and that it must act in harmony.

I thank you for your attention. I did not intend to make a speech. (Applause.)

RESPONSE TO WELCOME.

MR. E. H. LIBBY, PRESIDENT WASHINGTON CONSERVATION

COMMISSION.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I thank you all for your cordial words of welcome to our delegates, and to myself as the representative of the Washington State Conservation Association. We have come from thirty-seven States to confer together in the cause of conservation. We have come as private citizens. We have among us some noted experts in the work of conservation whose duties lie in the Government service, but these have come not as Government officials, but solely as private citizens, like the rest of us.

The Washington Conservation Association is purely a popular society. It has no State affiliations, except that the membership is bounded by the State. It has no official recognition except that high officials recognize us because of the work that they believe we are doing and that we may be able to do for the people. As far as lawmakers go, we can, at best, only be advisors; but if we organize and educate ourselves in the principles of conservation; if we have not only a Washington Association of people devoted to the cause of conservation, but also associations in every State: and if these associations are filled with the broad national principles of conservation, then the lawmakers will hold their ears close to the ground. They want our co-operation; they want our views. Of course they do; they are our servants, although sometimes we have to remind them of it by our mandate. So, as Mr. Shomaker well said, being of the people, by the people, and for the people, we are here to discuss no differences among individuals, departments of State, or officials. In the intention of the body that invited you to be present, we are here purely to discuss measures

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