tricity and cheap power furnished by these corporate institutions. And let me say to you, you heard the statements made by Governor Hay, of my State, as to the accomplishments of the Railway Commission in regard to the railway companies. In my State, the State Railroad Commission fixes the proper rate, and that ends it (applause). Our objection to the movement is this: We are not fanatics; we have conserved beyond the possibility of any human. agency, State and National governments; we have conserved the people's rights, so that when they need protection of the law it is vested in our Constitution, and all the people have to do is to rise up and enforce it (renewed commotion). That is why we do not wish to surrender those powers to the National Government, or to the discretion of any man.

Take the power proposition which has been mentioned by the Gentleman: Neither the State of Washington, the Board of State Land Commissioners (of which Board I have the honor to be chairman), nor the members of the State Tax Commission had anything to do with the taking of a site by the Hanford Irrigation and Power Company-not a thing. Let me tell you what it was. On Columbia River, some 40 to 60 miles above Kennewick, is what is known as Priest Rapids. The War Department of the United States Government is supposed to control Columbia River. It is navigable for all sorts of crafts both below and above Priest Rapids. By virtue of an act of the Legislature of 1905, the State of Washington conferred upon the Reclamation Service of the United States express authority to appropriate, for its own purposes and the purpose of irrigation, all the waters of Columbia River and every other stream in the State. The Reclamation Service, in compliance with that act, filed upon the waters of Columbia River at Priest Rapids, and, in one particular year, filed an express relinquishment and abandonment of that project. They stated, in cold type, that they would never undertake it. And what next? They consented, in writing, that the Hanford Irrigation Company might have and enjoy it. The Hanford Company went to the War Department of the United States, and obtained a permit to build a concrete dam in Columbia River at Priest Rapids to assist irrigation, and the War Department consented; and outside of that the Hanford Irrigation and Power Company has acquired nothing whatever from the State of Washington. But supposing that the Hanford Irrigation and Power Company is using the waters of the State of Washington for irrigation and power purposes-whenever the people of the State of Washington are convinced that the Hanford Irrigation and Power Company is charging an unjust or unreasonable price for power, or for water for irrigation, or for the annual maintenance fee, thank God we have it vested in the Constitution of the State of Washington that the people can fix the price. That is our style of Conservation, and that is why we object to Federal control. I represent the people of the State of Washington

(laughter), and I don't care who says to the contrary, and I am proud to oppose the surrendering of absolute control by the people in favor of the discretion of any man.

Mr E. H. FOURT (of Wyoming)—Mr Chairman, it is now very late. I was not able to attend this morning and submit a report or an address. I will present this report, and move the Congress that it be printed in the record as a report from Wyoming.

The Chairman-The paper will be received, if there is no objection. (The paper was handed to the Secretary.)

Mr B. A. FOWLER (of Arizona)—In answer to the call for Arizona, I want to say that at present Arizona is a Territory. One year from now, at the next Conservation Congress, we hope that Arizona will be a State (applause), and that at that time we will make a State report of which you will not be ashamed. (Applause)

Mr G. M. HUNT (of the District of Columbia)-Mr Chairman: I simply want to announce the fact that the District of Columbia is on the map (applause). Lots and lots of folks are under the impression that the District of Columbia only exists from the second Tuesday after the first Monday in December until Congress adjourns (laughter); but, on the contrary, the District of Columbia is on the map 365 days in the year. Further than that, we have a Chamber of Commerce that is working 24 hours a day during that 365 days. Still further, this Chamber of Commerce has authorized and directed me to present an invitation to this National Conservation Congress to hold its next annual session in the District of Columbia. Washington, D. C., is the capital of the Nation; it is your home; it is your capital; you have helped to make it what it is, and it is time that you should get there and see how we have spent your money. The Far West has been converted to Conservation, and with the setting of tomorrow's sun the Middle West will have been converted; and we feel that we of the East need conversion, and we want you to come to Washington in 1911 and convert us. I thank you. (Applause)

Mr HENRY A. BARKER (of Rhode Island)-I think, at this late hour, it is not right to take very much time of the Congress. I take pleasure in filing the report of the Conservation Commission of the State of Rhode Island.

About three weeks ago the Legislature of Rhode Island established the Conservation Commission on a new and more efficient basis than that which previously existed. Of course I might spend a great deal of time in telling you that Rhode Island, like every other State that we have heard from so far, is by far the grandest and most splendid of all the States of the Nation (laughter and applause); but I think, under the circumstances, I will confine myself to reading the last paragraph of the report, I will file in order to show you the position Rhode Island occupies in certain matters. "Rhode Island has awakened to vital things, but even if it had only an indirect interest in Conservation it would still feel that it owed its moral influence to the

country as a whole, and that it is not a selfish little 2-cent Republic all by its lonesome, but a part of a great Nation that prefers to be governed from Washington"-I mean Washington, D. C. (laughter)— "rather than from Wall Street. It prefers to belong to a Nation whose prosperity and power and glory need the cooperation and loyalty of every one of its citizens." I thank you. (Applause)

The CHAIRMAN: It has just been called to my attention that several Delegates who have spoken for their States have not handed in their names; they will be privileged to hand their names and addresses, with the remarks that they have made, to the Secretary.

Professor I. C. WHITE (of West Virginia)-West Virginia has been overlooked; it is on the map. I will not take much of your time, Gentlemen; only enough to say that West Virginia has so far fought a losing game on the question of Conservation with reference to our oil and gas resources. The great corporations have wasted natural gas in West Virginia to the value of from $200,000,000 to $300,000,000, and this is still going on at the rate of a quarter of million of cubic feet daily. Our late Governor Dawson appointed a Commission on Conservation, and it made an able report; but the legislators, who are largely controlled by the corporations, have taken no notice of it whatever. The only thing actually done in the way of Conservation was the establishment of a State game and fire warden, who has some power in the way of stopping the forest fires-thanks to one great Conservationist, Mr Gifford Pinchot (applause), through whose great influence we have made some advance in the preservation of our natural resources. And the State of West Virginia also owes a debt of gratitude to Dr Joseph A. Holmes, whom the President recently appointed Director of the Bureau of Mines; at his instance an expert was sent from the great laboratory at Pittsburg to the mines of West Virginia to investigate the causes of mine explosions-through whom we learned that the dust of the mines would explode, and that expert sacrificed his life in a West Virginia mine. The former method of mining has now been entirely abolished, and during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1910, out of the sixty or seventy thousand miners of West Virginia not a single human life has been lost as the result of dust explosion (applause). And now that Dr Holmes is at the head. of that great bureau (placed there against the wishes of some of the members of the cabinet of President Taft), we are sure that other discoveries in certain lines will be made in West Virginia for the conservation of human life. (Applause)

Mr E. L. WORSHAM (of Georgia)—Mr Chairman, I want to report that Georgia, too, is on the map. I am not going to take your time in an attempt to make a speech or even a report. There are a number of problems I wanted to discuss, but in view of the fact that I know all of you have had more Conservation than you can digest in one evening, I forbear. I do want to say, however, that the West and the Northwest are not the only sections of the country which

are interested in Conservation. Coming from one of the oldest States of the Union (one of the original thirteen) I can say that there is a greater demand for systematic Conservation in our section of the country than there is in any other. We can appreciate the value of Conservation. Nature has been exceedingly kind to this section of the country in the distribution of natural resources. Georgia was originally the chief gold-producing State of the Union. She still has rich mineral resources. She has water-power enough to run all the mills in the Southern States and then have some to spare. I can appreciate thoroughly what the water-power proposition means, because we are up against that same proposition now, wherein the large corporations are trying to gobble up the water-power sites: and that is one of the main problems of Conservation which confronts the people of Georgia today and will be fought before the State Legislature; and I want to assure you, right now, that we are going to depend upon the National Government for aid in propositions of this kind. (Applause)

We are interested in Conservation, but our time is too valuable to be wasted in the discussion of States' rights, because our people fought out that question forty-five years ago (applause). My father spent four long years fighting on that problem, and we consider that it has been solved to the satisfaction of the great majority (applause).

I want to endorse what Mr Pinchot said this morning in behalf of the work which the women have done for Conservation. I don't know how it is in the North; but with us the women are the moulders of sentiment, and they have been fighting in this movement for a number of years (applause). We are going to hold a Southern Conservation Congress in Atlanta on October 7 and 8 (applause). That movement is backed by 25,000 women in the State of Georgia, by the various women's clubs, by the press, and by all the leading citizens. If there are any factions, they have not made their appearance as yet. We are going to make that Congress a success. We plead for your cooperation, because we need all the help we can get. (Applause) A number of telegrams were read.

The CHAIRMAN-If there is nothing further before us—

Mr BENJAMIN MARTIN, JR.-Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: The hour is growing late, and it is my pleasure to rise for the purpose of offering a motion to adjourn; but before making that motion, as a Delegate from Oklahoma, and speaking for the other Delegates, I wish to thank the good people of Minnesota, and more especially the people of the Twin Cities, for the delightful manner in which they have entertained us. As we return to our homes, we do so with the most pleasant memories of our visit to this great metropolis. One great inspiration to me, and to most of the Delegates, has been the attendance of ladies at the various sessions. Now, without further comment, I move that this Congress adjourn sine die.

Chairman WHITE-Without objection, the Congress will stand adjourned; it is adjourned.

LAWS THAT SHOULD BE PASSED

FRANCIS G. NEWLANDS

Senior Senator From Nevada

Regretting my inability to address the Conservation Congress personally on the subject assigned to me, I submit my views briefly by telegraph.

Conservation legislation necessarily involves harmonious action by fortyseven sovereigns, the Nation and the States, each acting within its jurisdiction. As the legislative bodies cannot confer together, it is necessary that there should be some intermediate organization which will bring about team work. There should be a National Commission and State commissions which can act together, as well as separately, in recommending needed legislation. A reactionary Congress disregarded Roosevelt's recommendations on this subject, but the progressive sentiment of the country will not brook further resistance; and the bill for the appointment by the President of a National Conservation Commission composed of publicists and experts in civil, hydraulic, and electric engineering, in arid and swamp land reclamation, in transportation, and in mining and lumbering, reported by the Senate Conservation Committee at the last session, should surely pass. With Roosevelt as chairman, and Garfield, Pinchot, Newell, and the Chief of Engineers of the Army as members of this Commission, we would have the men who in practical administration have become more thoroughly informed regarding the natural resources of this country than any others.

As to the land laws: It is evident that for years large portions of the public domain have been gradually drifting into private and monopolistic ownership under antiquated and misfit land laws utterly unadapted to existing economic conditions, and therefore stimulating fraud in their evasion and perversion. Legislators outside of the public land States have taken little interest in the subject, relying mainly upon the States involved to suggest legislation. Had the Senators and Representatives from the public land States counseled together continuously, patiently, and tolerantly regarding the land laws, as they did regarding the Reclamation Act, the confusion and scandal and the prosecutions of the past six years would have been lessened, and a wise solution of needed legislation would have been evolved and accepted by the country. At the next session of Congress such a council of western Senators and Representatives should be held, and the present deadlock of conflicting views ended. In shaping laws regarding the public lands the central idea should be a rational development, without monopoly or waste; the establishment of individual homes upon the agricultural lands; the utilization of the forests and the coal, iron, and oil deposits under conditions that will enlist the aid of needed capital without monopolistic exaction or excessive prices; and the improvement of our waterways, regardless of State lines, so as to promote every use to which civilization can put them, and in that connection secure team work on the part of the various services, National and State, engaged upon them, as well as the cooperation of the Nation and the States, each within its appropriate jurisdiction in the work to be done and the expenditures to be made.

Until comprehensive plans are developed, the Nation should not part permanently with the title to any lands suited for the development of water-power, the promotion of navigation, or the establishment of transfer facilities and sites, but should hold the National properties in such shape that they may be utilized in the working out of comprehensive plans involving the union of National and State powers. In forming these plans it should be borne in mind that the Nation holds the public domain, not for National profit, but in trust for the population, present and future, of the public land States which welcome immigration from other States whose surplus population there finds a resting place. The money realized either from sale or rentals should therefore be applied to the schools, roads, reclamation projects, and other public development of the States in which the lands are located.

The ultimate purpose of the laws should be to gradually substitute State sovereignty for National sovereignity in the direction and control of this great