Section 3. The officers shall serve for one year, or until their successors are elected and qualify.

ARTICLE 5—COMMITTEES AND BOARDS.

Section 1. An executive committee of seven, in addition to which the president of the National Conservation Association and all ex-presidents of the Congress shall be members, ex officio, shall be appointed by the president during each regular annual session to act for the ensuing year; its membership shall be drawn from different states, and not more than one of the appointed members shall be from any one state. The executive committee shall act for the Congress and shall be empowered to initiate action and meet emergencies. It shall report to each regular annual session.

Section 2. A board of managers shall be created in each city in which the next ensuing session of the Congress is to be held, preferably by leading organizations of citizens. The board of managers shall have power to raise and expend funds, to incur obligations of its own responsibility, to appoint subordinate boards and committees, all with the approval of the executive committee of the Congress. It shall report to the executive committee at least two days before the opening of the ensuing session, and at such other times as the Congress or the executive committee may direct.

Section 3. An advisory board, consisting of one person from each national organization having a conservation committee, shall be created to serve during that Congress and during the interval before the next succeeding Congress. The board shall report to and coöperate with the executive committee.

Section 4. A committee on credentials shall be appointed, consisting of five (5) members, by the president of the Congress not later than on the second day of each session of the Congress. It shall determine all questions raised by delegates as to representation, and shall report to the Congress from time to time as required by the president of the Congress.

Section 5. A committee on resolutions shall be created for each annual meeting of the Congress. A chairman shall be appointed by the president. One member of the committee shall be selected by each state represented in the Congress. The committee shall report to the Congress not later than the morning of the last day of each annual meeting.

Section 6. Permanent committees, consisting of five members each, on each of the following five divisions of conservation: forests, waters. lands, minerals and vital resources, shall be appointed by the president of the Congress. The committee on vital resources is to consist of six subordinate committees as follows: food, homes, child life, education, civics (including wild life, domesticated animals, and cultivated plants). These committees shall, during the intervals between the annual meetings of the Congress, inquire into these respective subjects and prepare

reports to be submitted on the request of the executive committee, and render such other assistance to the Congress as the executive committee may direct.

Section 7. By direction of the Congress, standing and special committees may be appointed by the president.

Section 8. The president shall be a member, ex officio, of every committee of the Congress.

ARTICLE 6-ARRANGEMENTS FOR SESSIONS.

Section 1. The program for the session of each annual meeting of the Congress, including a list of speakers, shall be arranged by the executive committee. The entire program, including allotments of time to speakers and hours for daily sessions and all other arrangements concerning the program, shall be made by the executive committee.

Section 2. Unless otherwise ordered, the rules adopted for the guidance of the preceding Congress shall continue in force.

ARTICLE 7-MEMBERSHIP.

Section 1. The personnel of the National Conservation Congress shall be as follows:

OFFICERS AND DELEGATES.

Officers of the National Conservation Congress.

Fifteen delegates appointed by the governor of each state and territory.

Five delegates appointed by the mayor of each city with a population of 25,000 or more.

Two delegates appointed by the mayor of each city with a population of less than 25,000.

Two delegates appointed by each board of county commissioners. Five delegates appointed by each national organization concerned in the work of conservation.

Five delegates appointed by each state or interstate organization concerned in the work of conservation.

Three delegates appointed by each chamber of commerce, board of trade, commercial club, or other local organization concerned in the work of conservation.

Two delegates appointed by each state, or other university, or college, and by each agricultural college, or experiment station.

HONORARY MEMBERS.

The President of the United States.

The Vice-President of the United States.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The Cabinet.

The United States Senate and House of Representatives.
The Supreme Court of the United States.
The representatives of foreign countries.

The governors of the states and territories.

The lieutenant-governors of the states and territories.

The speakers of state houses of representatives.

The state officers.

The mayors of cities.

The county commissioners.

The presidents of state and other universities and colleges.

The officers and members of the National Conservation Association. The officers and members of the National Conservation Commission. The officers and members of the state conservation commissions and associations.

ARTICLE 8-DELEGATIONS AND STATE OFFICERS.

Section 1. The several delegates from each state in attendance at any Congress shall assemble at the earliest practicable time and organize by choosing a chairman and a secretary. These delegates, when approved by the committee on credentials, shall constitute the delegation from that state.

ARTICLE 9-VOTING.

Section 1. Each member of the Congress shall be entitled to one vote on all actions taken viva voce.

Section 2. A division or call of states may be demanded on any action, by a state delegation. On division, each delegate shall be entitled to one vote; provided (1) that no state shall have more than twenty votes; and provided (2) that when a state is represented by less than ten delegates, said delegates may cast ten votes for each state.

Section 3. The term "state" as used herein is to be construed to mean either state, territory, or insular possession.

ARTICLE 10-AMENDMENTS.

This Constitution may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the Congress during any regular session, provided notice of the proposed amendment has been given from the Chair not less than one day or more than two days preceding; or by unanimous vote without such notice.

OF THE

THIRD NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONGRESS.

The third National Conservation Congress, made up of delegates from all sections and nearly every state and territory of the United States, met at the call of a great moral issue, now in session assembled in the city of Kansas City and State of Missouri, does hereby adopt and solemnly declare the following platform of opinion and conclusion concerning the inherent rights of the people of the United States:

Heartily accepting the spirit and intent of the Constitution and adhering to the principles laid down by Washington and Lincoln, we declare our conviction that we live under a government of the people, by the people, and for the people; and we repudiate any and all special or local interests or platforms or policies in conflict with the inherent rights. and sovereign will of our people.

Recognizing the natural resources of the country as the prime bases of property and opportunity, we hold the rights of the people in these resources to be natural and inherent, and justly inalienable and indefeasible; and we insist that the resources should and shall be developed, used, and conserved in ways consistent both with current welfare and with the perpetuity of our people.

We commend the efficient work of the federal forest service, and particularly urge upon Congress the need for more liberal financial provision for protection of the national forests from fire, and the desirability of making the army available without delay whenever needed to supplement such protection.

We also appreciate the forestry progress being made by many states, believing it not only the function, but the duty of the state to safeguard its forest resources by liberal appropriation for fire prevention; by acquisition and conservative management of state-owned forest lands; by encouraging the practice of private forestry on timber lands and wood lots in every way, especially through reform in forest taxation; and by providing for the educational work necessary to secure all these ends.

We commend the increasing effort at better forest management and protection by timber owners themselves, and urge upon all such the study and emulation of the several cooperative systems for this pur

pose.

We urge the coöperation of public and private educational authorities in instilling the principles of forest economics in the minds of the young of today, who will be the doers of tomorrow.

We are in sympathy with the policy of establishing public parks. to be used for the benefit of the people forever, including localities of

scenic, scientific or historic interest, by states and by the National Government, and we cite as an example the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, one of the wonders of the world; we recommend this policy to obviate the danger of such national heirlooms being held permanently in private ownership and subordinated to private interest rather than the public good.

Recognizing the 900,000,000 acres of well-watered arable land in this country as the chief source of food and clothing for our people, we hold that these lands should be guarded as a natural heritage to be kept in sacred trust for our children and our children's children; that they should be safe-guarded from loss through natural agencies and negligent or thriftless use; that they should be protected from monopoly and private or corporate rapacity; that they should be so cultivated and improved that they may pass to each coming generation with increased fertility and productivity; and that they should forever be used as sites for homes in which the strength and spirit of the Nation may be conserved for the general welfare of mankind.

Approving the withdrawal of public lands pending classification, and the separation of surface rights from mineral, forests, and water rights, including water-power sites, we recommend legislation for the classification and leasing for grazing purposes all unreserved lands suitable chiefly for this purpose, subject to the rights of homesteaders and settlers, or the acquisition thereof under the land laws of the United States; and we hold that arid and non-irrigable public grazing lands should be administered by the Government in the interest of small stockmen and homeseekers until they have passed into the possession of actual settlers.

We favor the repeal of the commutation clause of the Homestead Law, and the disallowance of homestead entries on land chiefly valuable for its timber at time of filing.

We hold that mineral deposits underlying public lands should be transferred to private ownership only by long-time leases wth revaluation at stated periods, such leases to be in amounts and subject to such regulations as to prevent monopoly and needless waste; and that in case of doubt as to the availability of such mineral deposits, or while they are waiting exploitation, surface rights to the land should be transferred by lease only under such conditions as to promote development and protect public interest.

Since all successful conservation effort must follow ascertained fact, we agree (1) that there should be in each commonwealth an active conservation commission or equivalent organization; and (2) that such commission should use, and strive ever to coordinate, all agencies, state or national, which have for their object the discovery of exact data and the ascertainment of scientific information in reference to all natural resources and conditions in each of the several states and in the country at large.

We hold that phosphate deposits underlying the public lands should