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Show WESTERN STATES IfiUST BE UNITED Boise, Idaho, Aug. 1. In his opening open-ing address at the annual meeting of the Association of Western Governors, Gov-ernors, which convened hero today, Governor Edwin L. Morris of Montana, Mon-tana, president of the association, explained ex-plained the purposes of the organization, organi-zation, which was formed as a dlroct result of the -eastorn tour of the wostern governors last year. Governor Gov-ernor Norrls spoke In part as follows: fol-lows: "The states comprising tho west are more directly and extensively Interested In-terested In national legislation than are the older, settled commonwealths. This comes from the fact that nearly all of the public domain and natural nat-ural resources incident thereto arc located in the west, and these states have Interests In common that aro not common to their eastern sisters. "Tho public lands and resources arc administered by federal officers under laws enacted by congress. Washington Is somo distance away, tho department chiefs do not always al-ways understand our conditions, and congress comes slowly. "Thoso who do not understand or appreciate our necessities and our responsibilities are in the majority In the councils of the nation. We can not hope to change that majority, but we may by united and concortcd effort ef-fort Jn some moasure make up for tho lack of numbcra and check or prevent legislation Inimical to western west-ern Interests. 'It Is a western theory that all benefits ben-efits of natural resources belong to the people of the stato where they aro situated. The theory of nationalists national-ists is that such benefits aro the property prop-erty of all the people of the 'nation. Tho majority sentiment seems to bo on the side of tho nationalists." Governor Norrls then said that pending the results of efforts to chango this sentiment it was the duty of the western states to prove by wise legislation their ability to caro for natural resources now under un-der their jurisdiction. "The rejatlon of the states, one to another," he continued, "aro many and Important and merit most careful care-ful attention. The uniformity of laws among the states Is constantly becoming be-coming more necessary. Commercial enterprises are often located In several sev-eral states and the diversity of the laws encountered leads to endless confusion and unnecessarily hampers legitimate business. "It has been conservatively estimated esti-mated that more than two-thirds of the western resources aro as yet undeveloped. un-developed. There are numberless people seeking homos and there is unlimited capital for Investment The reason why homesteaders In large numbers havo not sought the west and the unlimited capital referred to has not been Invested in western enterprises enter-prises Is that western opportunities are not fully realized In the populous and money centers, Published statistics sta-tistics Is tho medium wheroby this tendency may be changed and tho giving of necessary publicity cannot be undertaken or performed by one Btate alone." lo |