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Show SECOND CONFERENCE OF GOVERNORS GOV-ERNORS IN WASHINGTON. The much talkcd-of inventory of the Nation's resources is now practically prac-tically completed. To consider the material it has brought together the National Conservation Commission has just announced its first full mcct- ing for Tuesday, December 1, in Washington. At that meeting the I first steps will be taken toward put ting into tangible shape the results of the six months' hard work on taking stock of the country's waters, forests, for-ests, lands, and minerals. One week later, after the Commis- sion has gone over the inventory, it will hold a joint meeting in Washington Washing-ton with the Governors of the States and Territories, or their representatives. representa-tives. At this meeting the inventory I will be further discussed and the rc- , port which the President has rcqucst- Icd the Commission to make to him by January 1, will be formulated. With less than six months in which to make the inventory, the four branches into which the Commission is divided, aided by the co-operation of the Government departments, have brought together what is probably the imost useful collection of facts about the material things on which national industry and progress are l)ascd that has ever been assembled at one time. 1 Reports presenting these facts and pointing out their significance have j been prepared. These reports, sum marized and indexed, will be submitted submit-ted to the Commission at its coming ijeetjng. t , , 'AU'through-thc summer general in- tcrcst in the work and object of the Conservation Commission has been growing. The public is now well lasted on a subject of which only a few specialists had knowledge at the time of the Conference of Governors and experts at the White House, in May. The Governors carried the. spirit of the conference home with them to their own people, and have kept things moving ever since by appointing State Commissions to study local problems, by writing and speaking upon the subject sub-ject of conservation, and by keeping in close and helpful touch with the National Commission. They arc ready to take part in the approaching joint meeting. The bare announcement-that announcement-that it had been set for December 8 resulted in a number of acceptances before the formal invitation of the Commission .had even got into the mails. When the conservation movement was started, specific information about the actual state of our resources was partly wanting, partly inaccessible. Certain facts were broadly known. It was at least unquestionable that our resources had been wastcfully used, and that some of them, notably the mines, were sure in time to be completely com-pletely exhausted, while others, for example the forests, could still be kept perpetually useful by right management. man-agement. The first work was to get the facts, to show exactly what the situation was and how it could be improved im-proved by measures that would work. Without an inventory of the resources which should show the present condition con-dition of the resources and the way to develop them to the best advantage, advant-age, conservation was in danger of staying up in the air. But the work is now practically done. The facts arc there, in dollars and -cents, tons of coal, board feet of timber, acre-feet and horse-power of water, acres of land. And the possible pos-sible reform measures have been wcighcth. The final report to the President will be the necessary supplement sup-plement to the addressed at the White House Conference. The note of these addresses was a note of warning. warn-ing. The report is expected to show that the warning must be heeded if the exhaustion of natural resources is not, one day, to impoverish the nation, na-tion, and it will also undoubtedly biring out.hojv the country's resources 1 ' i 1 . 1 ., can be developed so as to last the longest possible time and serve the greatest good of the people. |