healthfulness, and habitability of our country should be preserved and
increased; that the sources of national wealth exist for the benefit of
the people, and that monopoly thereof should not be tolerated." It was
recommended that the States should establish conservation commissions to
co-operate with one another and with a similar national commission.
On June 8, 1908, the first national conservation commission was created
by President Roosevelt. Its forty-nine members were men well known in
politics, in the industries, and scientific work. Gifford Pinchot was
chairman of this commission which submitted its first report at a
conference in Washington, December 8-10, 1908. The delegates consisted