ject so vital to the Territory. After the meeting, fifty women enrolled as members. Since that first meeting until April 17, the message has been carried personally to sixty teachers and eight hundred school children, the result being that in Honolulu alone, the membership has grown to about three hundred individual members. A Conservation Club formed in the Normal School of the two higher classes which came into the Woman's National Rivers and Harbors Congress as an organization and had planned active work for the summer, namely, to commence to reforest a picturesque old landmark, Punch-Bowl. The local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution have come into the organization, and to show their interest they have offered a prize to the two high schools for the best essay on Conservation. Besides this personal work in Honolulu, a written message was sent to every teacher in the whole Territory of Hawaii. In Hilo, situated on the island famous for the active volcano, the women have formed a large local branch, and are doing splendid work.

To bring this matter educationally among the women of the Islands, there have been instituted quarterly meetings, at which papers are read by women who have acquainted themselves with their chosen subjects, thus giving others the benefit of their study.

During the last year while this work has been going on in far away Hawaii, active work has been going on throughout the Nation. A recent report by Mrs. Tomkies, the National President, shows that the Woman's National Rivers and Harbors Congress, organized less than fourteen months ago with seven members, has grown to a strength of over twenty thousand.

The work of the Congress is largely educational in character, through clubs, schools, and in general, to build up public sentiment. To give a comprehensive idea of the

ideals and objects for which this Congress stands, one cannot do better than to read the platform adopted by the Congress at the meeting held last winter in Washington.

To the women here present, to the women of the City of Seattle and the State of Washington, I bring the greetings of the Woman's National Rivers and Harbors Congress, with the earnest hope that you will become members of the organization, and as such create a public sentiment for all that conservation means.

We women in America can be the strong factor not only in adding to our Nation's present prosperity, but in handing down to our children's children, a land rich in beauty. in agriculture, and in commerce, a land in which is destined to be found the highest human expression of mental and spiritual power. (Applause.)

MISS GILLETTE, of New York, then made the following motion, which was unanimously adopted, with the exception of the last paragraph:

I make a motion that the ladies in attendance to this the First National Congress of Conservation, having learned through the illustrated address of Mr. Finley, of New York, of the conditions and terrible slaughter and suffering caused the families of the birds and fur-bearing animals of America, just to satisfy an unexplainable whim of our sex, to falsely adorn ourselves, that we, as a body, take a standing vote pledging ourselves, mentally, to do all within our power to teach our children and children's children to love all birds of the earth.

Also to teach them to care for and to protect the nests and young of all said birds; also to pledge ourselves not to wear and to discourage the wearing of all birds or any portion of birds for personal decoration and gratification, ex

cept the feathers which are shed, such as the ostrich feathers and those of the bardyard fowl.

Also that the gentlemen of the First National Conservation Congress pledge themselves to exert their authority by prohibiting their sweethearts, wives and daughters from wearing any adornment of feathers except the ostrich feathers and the feathers of the domestic fowls which have been killed for food.

The following paper was then read:

WASTE IN LUMBER MANUFACTURE.

HON. J. B. WHITE, OF KANSAS CITY, REPRESENTING THE NATIONAL LUMBER MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION.

To uselessly destroy or permit to be destroyed something of value, is to commit waste. To save and conserve, is the opposite of wasting.

If the article or commodity manufactured is rendered more valuable than the cost of the labor expended upon the raw material, and there is a market for the product, then the margin between cost and value is a legitimate profit to capital for the risks and hazards of business, and the wise man of affairs saves and conserves. Unless some profit will acrue from saving, there is no inducement to save; nay. there would be no opportunity for saving, no way in which to conserve. I speak as a lumberman. If the manufacturer of lumber sells everything he can find market for or that he can by any human ingenuity provide a market for, he cannot be accused of ruthless waste in leaving in the woods, or sending to the burner as refuse, that which has no commercial value. The fact that it would have commercial value as kindling wood, or for other purposes if shipped to the large cities, does not change the situation if the cost of transportation is greater than the market value. I

was led to believe in conservation as a saving principle, because I saw the great need of it in my own business. In the cutting and sawing of logs, there was and is an unavoidable waste, which I was powerless to prevent, and in endeavoring to prevent it I committed a greater waste, which, however, because of the principle involved, gave me back some compensation, in the satisfaction that I was working along right lines that would eventually bring good results. It came in this way: My company was manufacturing yellow pine lumber, and because of there being no market for the lower grades every manufacturer was obliged to leave his top logs, those that were limby and knotty, in the woods to rot or be burned by forest fires.

I decided to try manufacturing No. 3 boards from a portion of these logs, as I had previously done with white pine. This was in 1890, and they netted me that year from $1.50 per M to $3.35 per M, and the bringing them from the woods, sawing, stacking and shipping, cost me a loss of from $3.75 to $5.50 per M. My Board of Directors protested, but I justified myself by the belief that I would create a market for this cheap lumber, and I did; in two years we got cost. In 1897 I put a still lower grade, a No. 4 board on the market, and the first year got only $2.00 per M for it. But in a few years I got the price up to 50 cents above cost. I then made lath and shingles out of yellow pine slabs and refuse, and in every conceivable way tried to market all waste.

At the last meeting of the National Manufacturers' Association a resolution was passed favoring the cutting and creating a market for short lengths in siding, flooring, and other items that have to be cut by the carpenter in the erection of a building. At present only lengths of 10, 12, 14 and 16 feet are merchantable, and hence there is waste in not being able to market short and odd lengths. We believe this important matter will soon be corrected.

The retail dealer is not interested in the hard work of trying to make his customers take these lengths, by trying to convince them that they are just as convenient. It is far easier for him to refuse to buy any except the lengths that have long been the standard. The lumbermen are anxious to conserve. It is manifestly to his financial interest for every manufacturer to save and market everything that he can make a profit on, or even in many cases get out on without actual loss.

Conservation, like charity, should begin at home. We are a nation of extravagant consumers. Gross wastefulness appears to accompany American prosperity, and its prodigality is in evidence in nearly every home. When a man builds a home he finds that in a house costing him $2500 the lumber bill amounts to about 20 per cent, or at most, 25 per cent of the total cost, or from $500 to $600, and the saving by taking lower grades for many places would not save him over $100, and he takes the most expensive grades, although for many purposes no better. Unless economy is practiced by the builder of the home, and with the farm buildings, there is no market for the lower grades, and conservation cannot be made a success in forest and mill. Wise economy or frugality is an indispensable aid to conservation. Use cheaper goods and lower grades, where they will do just as well for the purpose. The good housewife does not wear her best gown in the kitchen, nor the farmer wear his Sunday clothes at work in the field, yet it is a fact generally that he wants the best lumber at lowest price for cheapest purposes. This is largely due to the freight, which is always a great part, and frequently the greater part of the cost, being just as much on low grade as on the better grades. Yesterday the speaker from Pennsylvania, Mr. Farquhar, advocated free lumber as a means of forest conservation. I do not wish to revive a question