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Theodore Roosevelt. Typed Letter Signed as President, to Murdo Mackenzie. The White House, Washington, June 8, 1908. 5 pp. 8” x 10.5”. 

Inventory# 21409 $16,000

Complete Transcript:  
                                                                  The White House  Washington 
                                                                                            June 8, 1908
My dear Mr. Mackenzie:

                The recent Conference of Governors in the White House confirmed and strengthened in the minds of our people the conviction that our natural resources are being consumed, wasted, and destroyed at a rate which threatens them with exhaustion, it was demonstrated that the inevitable result of our present course toward these resources, if we should persist in following it, would ultimately be the impoverishment of our people. The Governors present adopted unanimously a Declaration reciting the necessity for a more careful conservation of the foundations of our national prosperity, and recommending a more effective cooperation to this end among the States and between the States and the Nation. A copy of this Declaration is enclosed.
                One of the most useful among the many useful recommendations in the admirable Declaration of the Governors relates to the creation of State commissions on the conservation of resources, to cooperate with a Federal Commission. This action of the Governors cannot be disregarded. It is obviously the duty of the Federal Government to accept this invitation to cooperate with the States in order to conserve the natural resources of our whole country. It is no less clearly the duty of the President to lay before the Federal Congress information as to the state of the Union in relation to the natural resources, and to recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. In order to make [2] such recommendations the President must procure the necessary information. Accordingly, I have decided to appoint a Commission to inquire into and advise me as to the condition of our natural resources, and to cooperate with other bodies created for a similar purpose by the States. 
                 The Inland Waterways Commission, appointed March 14, 1907, which suggested the Conference of Governors, was asked to consider the other natural resources related to our inland waterways, and it has done so. But the two subjects together have grown too large to be dealt with by the original body. The creation of a Commission on the Conservation of Natural Resources will thus promote the special work for which the Inland Waterways Commission was created, and for which it has just been continued and enlarged, by enabling it to concentrate on its principal task.
                 The Commission on the Conservation of Natural Resources will be organized in four sections to consider the four great classes of water resources, forest resources, resources of the land, and mineral resources. I am asking the members of the Inland Waterways Commission to form the Section of Waters of the National Conservation Commission. In view of the lateness of the season and the difficulty of assembling the members of the Sections as[sic] this time, a Chairman and a Secretary for each Section have been designated, and the Chairmen and Secretaries of the Sections will act as the Executive Committee, with a chairman who will also be Chairman of the entire Commission, I earnestly hope that you will consent to act as a member of the Commission, in common with the following gentlemen:

 Waters.

Hon. Theodore E. Burton, Ohio, Chairman
Senator Wm. B. Allison, Iowa
Senator Francis G. Newlands, Nevada
Senator William Warner, Missouri
Senator John H. Bankhead, Alabama [3]
Mr. W.J. McGee, Bureau of Soils, Secretary
Mr. F.H. Newell, Reclamation Service
Mr. Gifford Pinchot, Forest Service
Mr. Herbert Knox Smith, Bureau of Corporations
Hon. Joseph E. Ransdell, Louisiana
Prof. George F. Swain, Institute of Technology, Massachusetts
The Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army

Forests.

Senator Reed Smoot, Utah, Chairman
Senator Albert J. Beveridge, Indiana
Senator Charles A. Culberson, Texas
Hon. Charles F. Scott, Kansas
Hon. Champ Clark, Missouri
Prof. Henry S. Graves, Yale Forest School, Conn.
Mr. William Irvine, Wisconsin
Ex-Governor Newton C. Blanchard, Louisiana
Mr. Charles L. Pack, New Jersey
Mr. Gustav Schwab, National Council of Commerce, New York
Mr. Overton W. Price, Forest Service, Secretary
Mr. J.B. White, Missouri

Lands.

Senator Knute Nelson, Minnesota, Chairman
Senator Francis E. Warren, Wyoming
Hon. John Sharp Williams, Mississippi
Hon. Swagar Sherley, Kentucky
Hon. Herber Parsons, New York
Ex-Governor N.B. Broward, Florida
Mr. James J. Hill, Minnesota
Ex-Governor George C. Pardee, California
Mr. Charles McDonald, Am. Society of Civil Engineers, New York
Mr. Murdo Mackenzie, Colorado
Mr. Frank C. Goudy, Colorado
Mr. George W. Woodruff, Interior Department, Secretary

Minerals.

Hon. John Dalzell, Pennsylvania, Chairman
Senator Joseph M. Dixon, Montana
Senator Frank P. Flint, California
Senator Lee S. Overman, North Carolina
Hon. Philo Hall, South Dakota
Hon. James L. Slayden, Texas
Mr. Andrew Carnegie, New York
Prof. Charles R. Van Hise, Wisconsin
Mr. John Mitchell, Illinois
Mr. John Hays Hammond, Massachusetts
Dr. Irving Fisher, Yale University, Conn.
Mr. Joseph A. Holmes, Geological Survey, Secretary [4]

Executive Committee

Mr. Gifford Pinchot, Chairman
Hon. Theodore E. Burton
Senator Reed Smoot
Senator Knute Nelson
Hon. John Dalzell
Mr. W.J. McGee
Mr. Overton W. Price
Mr. G.W. Woodruff
Mr. Joseph A. Holmes

                               One of the principal objects of the Federal Commission on the Conservation of Natural Resources will be to cooperate with corresponding commissions or other agencies appointed on behalf of the States, and it is hoped that the Governors and their appointees will join with the Federal Commission in working out and developing a plan whereby the needs of the Nation as a whole and of each State and Territory may be equitably met.
                             The work of the Commission should be conditioned upon keeping ever in mind the great fact that the life of the Nation depends absolutely on the material resources, which have already made the Nation great. Our object is to conserve the foundations of our prosperity. We intend to use these resources; but to so use them as to conserve them. No effort should be made to limit the wise and proper development and application of these resources; every effort should be made to prevent destruction, to reduce waste, and to distribute the enjoyment of our natural wealth in such a way as to promote the greatest good of the greatest number for the longest time.
                           The Commission must keep in mind the further fact that all the natural resources are so related that their use may be, and should be, coordinated. Thus, the development of water transportation, which requires less iron and less coal than rail transportation, will reduce the draft on mineral resources; the judicious development of forests will not only supply fuel and [5] structural material but increase the navigability of streams, and so promote water transportation; and the control of streams will reduce soil erosion, and permit American farms to increase in fertility and productiveness, and so continue to feed the country and maintain an healthy and beneficial foreign commerce. The proper coordination of the use of our resources is a prime requisite for continued national prosperity.
                             The recent Conference of the Governors, of the men who are the direct sponsors for the wellbeing of the States, was notable in many respects; in none more than in this, that the dignity, the autonomy, and yet the interdependence and mutual dependence of the several States were all emphasized and brought into clear relief, as rarely before in our history. There is no break between the interests of State and Nation; these interests are essentially one. Hearty cooperation between the state and the national agencies is essential to the permanent welfare of the people. You, on behalf of the Federal Government, will do your part to bring about this cooperation.
                           In order to make available to the National Conservation Commission all the information and assist[a]nce which it may desire from the Federal Departments, I shall issue an Executive Order directing them to give such help as the Commission may need.
                          The next session of Congress will end of March 4, 1909. Accordingly, I should be glad to have at least a preliminary report from the Commission not later than January 1st of next year.
                                          Sincerely Yours,
                                          Theodore Roosevelt

Mr. Murdo Mackenzie

Historical Background: 
In 1907, President Roosevelt and his friend and ally, conservationist Gifford Pinchot, created an Inland Waterways Commission charged with preparing “a comprehensive plan for the improvement and control of the river systems of the United States.” One of its duties was inspecting the nation’s major rivers and lakes. On one such trip, on the Mississippi River, Roosevelt and Pinchot announced plans to organize the first governors’ conference on resource conservation at the White House.

Roosevelt occupies a unique position in American environmental history, straddling the two competing philosophies of preservation and conservation. Preservation, simply put, is the protection of wildlife, wild lands and historic places – it only applies to specific places such as national parks, monuments, and wildlife refuges. Preservationists believe that commercial activities should be prohibited on such lands. Conservationists advocated a broader role for the national government in managing water, soil, mineral, and timber resources, regulating use on federal lands, some set aside as national forests, but also studying land use patterns and cooperating with industry interest groups. 

Roosevelt urged and achieved great advances on both fronts. He was friends with Gifford Pinchot, whom he appointed Chief Forester in the new Forest Service, and scholar W.J. McGee. And he visited and hiked with John Muir, the visionary Sierra Club founder and preservationist. Under Roosevelt, the first bird protection preserve was established at Pelican Island, Florida; similarly the Antiquities Act protected sites of historical and archaeological interest. He created 194 million acres for national parks and preserves, more than all of his predecessors combined. He also created 42 million acres of national forest land, to be overseen by Pinchot’s new Forest Service. 

This document illustrates Roosevelt’s conservationist philosophy. He believed that wiser resource use was necessary for the long-term growth and security of the United States.

On November 11, 1907, Roosevelt signed forty-six copies of a letter inviting state and territorial governors to a national conservation conference. “It seems to me time for the country to take account of its natural resources … and to enquire how long they are likely to last.” On May 12, 1908, the conference convened, with such dignitaries as Chief Justice Melville Fuller, House Speaker Joseph Cannon, Andrew Carnegie, and William Jennings Bryan in attendance. For four days, experts spoke and politicians listened. The conferees agreed to empower the president to establish a National Conservation Commission, chaired by Gifford Pinchot, to compile a complete inventory of the nation’s natural resources.

As noted by historian Samuel Hays, the National Conservation Commission published its findings in 1909, as per Roosevelt’s instructions. There were some surprises – the Forest Committee revealed that annual timber cutting exceeded annual growth of timber by 250%. However, when Roosevelt left office in early 1909, Congress became less interested in conservation, and Pinchot became involved in the controversy that rocked William H. Taft’s administration – Taft eventually (Roosevelt felt, wrongfully) fired him. The momentum for conservation transferred to the states, with many forming their own commissions. The system of national forests, and the development of the idea that the federal government was uniquely qualified to study and manage land use, constituted a vital legacy from Roosevelt’s pioneering policies.

Murdo MacKenzie (1850-1939) was born in Scotland, developed the Scottish-based Matador Land and Cattle Company, and then emigrated to Colorado in 1885. He became a powerful spokesman for the cattle industry, founded the American Stock Growers Association, testified before Congress in advocacy of the Hepburn Act of 1906, which regulated railroad rates for Midwestern ranchers, joined the National Conservation Commission, and later managed the Brazil Land, Cattle, and Packing Company.

Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946) – a Yale graduate from Connecticut, Pinchot studied at the French National School of Forestry. He later endowed the influential Yale School of Forestry and did much to introduce and publicize forestry as a profession, and conservation as a philosophy. He was a progressive Republican in the mold of his mentor, President Theodore Roosevelt, who named him Chief Forester upon the creation of the U.S. Forest Service. After being fired by President Taft, Roosevelt’s successor, Pinchot went on to become a powerful Depression-era governor of Pennsylvania.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), a fervent nationalist, environmentalist, and reformer. He was the Republican leader of the New York Legislature in 1884 and president of the New York Police Board in 1895-1897, where he fought administrative corruption. Roosevelt organized and led a regiment, “Roosevelt’s Rough Riders,” in Cuba, in the Spanish-American War. He used his newfound celebrity to win election as governor of New York (1898-1900) and then sought and earned nomination as vice president under William McKinley. In 1901, he became president on the assassination of McKinley and was re-elected in 1904. He insisted on a strong navy, civil service reform, and federal regulation of trusts, monopolies, and meatpackers. Roosevelt declined to run again in 1908, instead throwing his support behind William Howard Taft, but he decided to run as a third-party candidate against Taft in 1912 because he was disappointed in his performance.

References: 
Hays, Samuel. Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency. Cambridge, Mass., 1959.
Morris. Edmund. Theodore Rex. New York, 2001.