and properly develop. This demands federal and state officers who shall be true to their trust, trying as their plain duty, to guard the interests of the county, state or nation for which they work and receive pay. Mr. Gifford Pinchot was a public servant of this type. He was guided by a strong sense of patriotic duty, a thing not possessed by all. Such a virtue is subject to severe criticism by those with whom its operation interferes. Much of the talk by states' rights advocates has a selfish bearing. some cases it is perfectly valid.

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Underlying all of this political discussion, is a line of practical conservation of vast importance. Its largest field is in the states. It is concerned with the proper development of the state. It demands less wastful methods and the fullest possible development. It does not stand for the locking up of resources or withholding them from development except when and where it becomes necessary thereby to protect the general good of the people against sharp practice and selfish interests whether weak or strong.

One of the first purposes of conservation in the state is to make an inventory of the resources. This to serve as a basis of development. In Nebraska we propose to determine the extent of our stone, clay, sand, water power and soils of various types. Following this investigation will come the study of problems connected with the development of these resources. Among these studies and developments are those of the dry, sandy, wet and rough lands; also those of forestation, fruit raising, soil erosion, crop rotation, etc., all of economic importance. The matter of gathering reliable information relative to the conditions affecting the operation of the various industries and the publication of the same through lectures and state reports is no small task.

So the subject state conservation starts with the natural resources, such as soil and water, and extends through the development of these along proper lines to the questions of social and educational matters of the state. It stands for good seeds in cropping, pure breeds of farm animals, and for efficient citizens. To cover this demand the Conservation Commission has outlined a large field of inquiry and study. The aim will be to learn the facts of each problem and to make them known without attempting to overdraw or misrepresent any of the conditions whether favorable or unfavorable.

The natural conditions in our state warrant a fuller development of manufacturing and transportation industries to supplement the agriculture, however, but few realize this fact. We have been too content with raising wheat and hogs and shipping them to markets in other states, not realizing the importance of developing home markets. The need for closer co-operation between country and town in this all-round development of the state is just beginning to be understood. The next step should be the putting into practice of that which we know to be best for the largest number.

The work of the commission is made known by lectures before schools,

teachers' associations, chautauquas, county fairs, state fairs and commercial clubs. Reports are made before the annual meetings of the Conservation and State Development Congress. Committees of the commission and those of the congress work in harmony, the commission standing for study and research and the congress being an open forum for the free discussion of Nebraska's development problems.

I will briefly outline the work of the second annual congress, which was by many called the best meeting of the kind ever held in the state. The attendance was large. The discussions showed the need for development along broad, unselfish lines.

THE SECOND ANNUAL CONSERVATION AND STATE DEVELOPMENT CONGRESS.

At this year's congress, held February 23 and 24, 1911, the program was divided into general sessions in the forenoon and evening, and five section programs in the afternoons. The sections discussions were under the heads, 1, Minerals and Waters; 2, The Lands; 3, Vital Resources; 4, Industrial and Commercial; 5, The Woman's Club Department.

Officers elected for the ensuing congress are: D. V. Stevens, president; W. G. Whitmore, vice-president; W. R. Mellor, secretary; G. E. Condra, chairman of the executive committee, composed of the officers of the gencral association and the chairman of the five sections. Officers for the sections are:

Section I-Minerals and Waters: Prof. E. H. Barbour, chairman; the state engineer, secretary.

Section II.-The Lands. G. E. Condra, chairman; C. W. Pugsley, secretary.

Section III.—Vital Resources. Geo. Coupland, President; Dr. R. H. Wolcott, secretary.

Section IV.-Industrial and Commercial. H. M. Bushnell, president; W. A. Campbell, secretary.

Section V.-Woman's Club Department. Mrs. W. G. Whitmore, president; Mrs. G. E. Condra, secretary; Mrs. G. J. Phelps, chairman of executive committee.

The congress convened in the Lincoln City Auditorium. At the first session addresses were made by the president, Gov. C. H. Aldrich and Dr. C. E. Bessey. These were followed by brief responses from delegates.

ADDRESS BY GOVERNOR C. H. ALDRICH.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I have no set speech to invite your attention to this morning, consequently, no rounded periods. I am simply snatching a few minutes of time away from the place where I ought to be at this moment to come here in recognition of your attendance, as chief executive. I am profoundly glad to witness the good feeling and general interest that prevails here this morning in all of the important subjects that are necessary

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to the upbuilding and development of the great state of Nebraska. am glad to see the great common carriers of our state, the railroads, here represented, smiling with the farmers. Time was when the railroad man didn't think that the farmer ought to live, and the farmers thought that the railroad man, and the railroads, cught to do business for nothing. Today we have come to realize that these railroads are absolutely necessary to materialy develop this state, and that they are essential to our comforts and luxuries; and the railroads recognize that the more pros perous and the more thrifty these farmers the greater will be the dividends. So we each have a mission to perform, and each must perform it with the help of the other. We have out here a common destiny, and to work out this destiny we must go hand in hand throughout this journey of life and either succeed or fall together.

In the position which I happen to be occupying at the present time in the state, I am a representative of no special interest. I am here as an advocate of the general development, both from a human and a material standpoint, of all the things that ought to be brought forward at this time in our state. There came up the other day a question which it seems to me is important in the state of Nebraska as well as in every state in this Union. It is the problem of the conservation of the human rights that is, that we should look at this conservation problem from a human standpoint. In other words, are the children of the generation now coming up being as properly looked after in this state by the state authorities, by the people in general, as well as they should be? For instance, I had a committee of the legislature on finance and ways and means the other day in my office talking with them on the importance of furnishing a library for the great state institutions. I called the atten tion of that committee to the fact that down at the Girls' Industrial Home at Geneva, where I had been a few days before, I found 140 girls that were practically without a library; that they have no opportunities for general reading and information. Contrary to my expectation when I went down there, instead of finding these girls looking dissipated, wayward, uncouth and untractable I found them cheery, happy, cleanly and well-contented. So far as general appearances were concerned I found them looking like the average high-school girl; that, as a general thing, they were not sent there for the bad things they had done but to be taken away from bad surroundings; sometimes, vicious parents, debauched and demoralized. So the state of Nebraska should to a larger extent help in the solution of this important problem. The proposition will be difficult, for the tendency of every session of the legislature here and in other states is, when it comes to doing everything that will build up and make the highest type of citizenship, to refrain from voting adequate funds for this purpose. Isn't that strange?

Those girls ought to have access to the best reading there is to be had anywhere, but they are deprived of it. So we find similar conditions in the Boys' Industrial Home at Kearney. There are 175 boys without

the benefit of a library. If we would look at some of these problems that confront us from a human standpoint and commence taking care of the embryo citizen from the beginning it seems to me that we would be practically starting at the right source. Now, there never has been so much attention paid to the development of the individual being nor so much recognized of the mission of the individual in the life of this nation as there is at the present time, because, if you notice, every time we have a state or national association of this character, it is for the welfare of the individual and the future of the country. It is because we are builded upon the theory that each individual citizen of this state and nation will be of the style of architecture and quality that the Architect is himself; consequently, it is of vast importance both from a material and spiritual standpoint to see to it that we have young men and young women coming on in this state who are receiving the right kind of moral and mental training. So, I say, that down in this penitentiary, the state of Nebraska could do no better thing than to invest several thousand dollars in a library that would give to these people the opportunity to get abreast with the times so that they may know what is going on in the world, that they may be informed and have opportunity to read these industrial problems that are presented for solution in the state.

I hope that this congress will look into this matter. You can do a great thing for the state of Nebraska toward passing some resolution in favor of the purchase and use of such books well selected under the supervision and direction of the Nebraska Public Library Commission. You could do a great work to the state of Nebraska and probably help get through the legislature an appropriation for a library that can be used by the inmates of the penitentiary and other institutions. It is well known that if these boys and girls had the right kind of books put be fore them, selected with the view of their particular tastes and dispositions that we know, they have, that a good general, moral uplift could be developed in these institutions.

I was talking with Doctor Cornell, the health commissioner in Omaha, and he told me that the great percentage of mortality in infantile life was due to the milk supply that comes largely from the country. There is another important problem of conservation that presents itself for solution. This could be prevented in a large measure if we had an appropriation in our legislature large enough to put a force of experts out through the state examining these various conditions and the general milk supply before it came in for consumption. A great work of conservation could be done along this line it seems to me, in saving the infantile and the future citizen life of this state. These are some of the important propositions which occur to me from a human standpoint that this Congress should take up and resolute upon; discuss and try to build up a public sentiment for the maintenance of the Pure Food Commission. This pure food law has only been in existence since 1907. It seems to me that we would spend at least as much for the promotion of pure food

and sanitation for people as we are under the experiments of hog cholera. We overlook the spiritual things of this life altogether too much. We overlook conditions that dwarf and blight the children of the present home and the children in these institutions. We are becoming entirely too material. We are experimenting upon crops, seeds and the productivity and fertility of the soil. That is a very good thing, but we can and ought to do other things too.

I do not wish to be confined to any one-sided proposition. Our state should be developed in an all-round way and in all of its departments. You hear it often said in Nebraska that we have nothing but an agricultural state; that there is nothing here but agriculture. My friends, the manufactured products of this state are nearly equal in value to the farm productions. We have an agricultural state second to none in the Union, and these agricultural products are only about equal to the manufactured products; yet, if we would turn that same indomitable energy, skill and foresight into certain manufactures in the various towns and cities of the state we would soon have one of the greatest manufacturing states in the Union. We should do more than raise wheat, hogs and cattle and ship them out of the state.

I was in consultation with Mrs. McMurphy, one of the pure food inspectors, the other day. She read to me an article she had been called upon to write. In the course of the discussion of certain things she made the statement that of the billion eggs that were marketed, from 30 to 50 per cent of them were destroyed, becoming of no value as a food product. I asked, what is the cause of it? She replied, negligence in taking care of the eggs at the time they are laid; they become filthy and dirty. She went into detail and said: "All of this could be prevented if we had enough pure food inspectors to get out into the state and inspect these things and show the people that it is absolutely a matter of dollars and cents to them to keep the nests clean." So here is another problem, and we could go on indefinitely, but I have not the time now to do so, and I feel a little diffident about it, because on all of these matters that I have suggested I know there are eminent authorities and experts right here to talk to you before this congress adjourns.

There is one other thing I want to suggest and that is the subject of good roads. It is one of the settled propositions in this state that everybody is for good roads, ready to talk it and help build them. We have the sentiment clearly established in this state for good roads, and before we get through with this proposition there will be developed a central idea, a system for construction and maintenance. The reason we have made slow progress is because everybody had an idea of how a good road ought to be built; there has been no definite system and organization. You cannot carry on any great business without having a scientific organization behind it; without some one central thought in its development. We have come to the solution of the problem of good roads, but there ought to be a closer and more general relation between the cities