Part 2

_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.

RESOLUTIONS 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 coöperative systems for this purpose.

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 with 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 coördinate, 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 be safe-guarded for the American people by appropriate legislation, and that export of phosphates and other natural and manufactured fertilizing material should be limited and regulated by law.

Realizing that the productivity of our soil depends on water supply; that one of the chief losses to the farm is destructive soil erosion; that the freshets and floods due to storm and thaw waters are destructive of property and even of life; and knowing through experience in this and other countries that the waste and destruction due to unregulated run-off are largely susceptible to control by appropriate agricultural methods, we hold that the aim of every farmer should be to make his farm take care of the water naturally reaching it; we also hold that allowing ordinary storm waters to carry silt and sand from farms into neighboring streams and rivers works a public injury which may be prevented by appropriate legislation.

Realizing that the strength of the Nation will ever lie in the multiplication of homes on the land up to its full capacity, we approve the successful efforts of the Federal Government to provide for such homes through irrigation of the more arid portions of the country; we endorse and commend the Reclamation Service, and urge its continuance with such increased means as may be found needful; and we urge the immediate extension of the same policy to the drainage of swamp and overflow lands, to be carried forward so far as appropriate through coöperation between state and federal agencies.

We recommend the early opening of the coal fields and other resources of Alaska belonging to the people of the United States, for industrial and commercial purposes, on a system of leasing, national ownership to be retained pending such development of that portion of our territory as to permit the creation of states within its area; and as a means of promoting industry and commerce in Alaska we approve the construction of necessary highways, railways, and terminal facilities by the National Government.

Realizing that the prosperity of the country and its suitability for homes must always depend largely on transportation facilities, we recommend extension of the good roads movement until every community is provided with safe and easy ways to schools, churches and markets; and in developing the necessary road systems, we favor coöperation between townships, counties, states, and the federal government in such manner as to secure the greatest benefits to the entire country at the minimum cost.

Realizing that the current cost of railway transportation is apparently exorbitant, amounting to about $2,750,000,000 annually, equivalent to a tax of $150 per family (or one-third the cost of living) or an impost of over $5 on each acre of improved land in the United States, we urge on the Federal Government appraisal of railway property and such investigation and supervision of railway business as will insure protection of the public interests; and to this end we recommend enlargement of the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

As a means of reducing the cost of living and promoting the general welfare, we favor the establishment of a parcels post.

Realizing that products of the soil on which our people depend for food and clothing are sometimes diverted from the most direct lines leading from producer to consumer for speculative purposes, and that they are made the basis for gambling transactions, we hold that all dealing in futures and gambling operations involving foodstuffs and materials for clothing are a public injury, and recommend investigation of the matter by authority of the Federal Congress; and in case our judgment is sustained by such investigation, we demand the enactment of law by the Federal Congress prohibiting the sale of these necessaries of life by men or interests who do not own them at the time of such sale, under penalties including imprisonment at least for any second offense.

Since noxious insects and plants, including weeds, are a source of public injury, we urge appropriate state and federal legislation tending to their extermination; and we commend the development of that public spirit finding expression from time to time in communities and states in crusades against insect and plant pests in the public interest.

Recognizing in coöperative enterprises an effective means of conserving human energy and increasing the efficiency of our soils in feeding our people cheaply, and thereby affording means for the development of equal opportunity for all, we approve and commend such coöperative organization among our producers and consumers as will tend to promote economy and prevent waste in handling the necessaries of life.

Realizing that the interests of our citizens, our states, and our Nation are identical, and impressed by the success which has attended coöperation between state institutions and the Federal Government, we favor continuation and extension of such coöperation as a highly efficient means of promoting the general welfare.

Impressed by immeasurable benefits derived by our people from the work of the United States Department of Agriculture in promoting the use and conservation of our soil and its products, we endorse and commend that department; we strongly urge on Congress increased appropriation for its necessary work; and we recommend the enactment of such state and federal legislation as will enable the state colleges of agriculture and experiment stations to maintain in every agricultural county a capable field demonstrator to aid farmers in practical application of newly acquired agricultural knowledge.

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 coördinate 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.

Recognizing the waters of the country as a great national resource, we approve and endorse the opinion that all the waters belong to all the people, and hold that they should be administered in the interests of all the people.

Realizing that all parts of each drainage basin are related and interdependent, we hold that each stream should be regarded and treated as a unit from its source to its mouth; and since the waters are essentially mobile and transitory and are generally interstate, we hold that in all cases of divided or doubtful jurisdiction the waters should be administered by coöperation between state and federal agencies.

Recognizing the interdependence of the various uses of the waters of the country, we hold that the primary uses are for domestic supply and for agriculture through irrigation or otherwise, and that the uses for navigation and for power, in which water is not consumed, are secondary; and we commend the modern view that each use of the waters should be made with reference to all other uses for the public welfare in accordance with the principle of the greatest good to the greatest number for the longest time.

Viewing adequate and economical transportation facilities as among the means of conservation, and realizing that the growth of the country has exceeded the development of transportation facilities, we approve the prompt adoption of a comprehensive plan for developing navigation throughout the rivers and lakes of the United States, proceeding in the order of their magnitude and commercial importance.

Recognizing the vast economic benefits to the people of water power derived largely from interstate and source streams no less than from navigable rivers, we favor public control of water power development; we deny the right of state or federal governments to continue alienating or conveying water by granting franchises for the use thereof in perpetuity; and we demand that the use of water rights be permitted only for limited periods, with just compensation in the interests of the people.

We demand the maintenance of a federal commission empowered to deal with all uses of the waters and to coördinate these uses for the public welfare in coöperation with similar commissions or other agencies maintained by the states.

We recognize the great service that has been, and can be, rendered in the conservation of our mineral resources, by developing and mining in large units with adequate capital, and approve the encouragement of such development under proper regulation.

We heartily approve of the work of the United States Government in improving sanitary conditions and in lowering the death rates of Cuba, the Philippine Islands, and the Canal Zone. We are especially pleased that in 1911 the National Government, through its wise provisions for the maneuver division of the United States Army operating in western Texas, demonstrated that the achievements in health and life security found possible in Cuba, the Philippine Islands, and the Canal Zone, are possible with Americans on American soil. We therefore call on our municipal, state, and national governments, to accomplish these same results for the people of the United States.

Our National Government in the Canal Zone of Panama has demonstrated that Caucasians, properly directed, can work in the tropics without loss of efficiency, and we express our opinion that this is one of the monumental discoveries of the age.

The Hook Worm Commission is demonstrating another possibility in increasing efficiency; and we endorse the efforts of this commission, and all other efforts, governmental and extra-governmental, for increasing human efficiency through promotion of physical welfare, and call on our governments—municipal, state, and national—to increase their activities along these lines.

We favor a child welfare bureau under, and as a part of, each municipal and state government.

Inasmuch as nearly all the states and most of the cities have health departments as coördinate branches of administrative work, we endorse the plan of bringing together as a department of health the various human health activities of the United States Government as a coördinate branch of its administrative work, divorced from the impediment of being a part of other administrative work of entirely different character and conducted for entirely different purposes; this in order that the efficiency of the service may be increased to a point in some degree commensurate with its importance.

We protest against the present neglect of health, life security, and work for physical efficiency by the municipal, state and national governments, and we ask that they be given that study and care that have proven so broad an economy in the case of live stock and farm crops.

We are of opinion that municipal, state, and national governments should pass proper laws, and provide proper means of enforcement of such laws that there may be prevented, (1) blindness, (2) birth accidents, (3) infant mortality, (4) labor by immature children, (5) communicable diseases of children, (6) occupational diseases, (7) occupational accidents, and especially mine and transportation accidents, (8) communicable diseases of adults, (9) bad ventilation, and (10) physical inefficiency.