The Exposition originated in Washington last February, when a number of the leading spirits of Conservation met in that city and there was formed an Advisory Board composed of the gentlemen whose names I desire to read to you:
Gifford Pinchot, President National Conservation Association, Chairman; Don Carlos Ellis, in charge Educational Co-operation, United States Forest Service, Secretary; Philander P. Claxton, United States Commissioner of Education; Miss Julia C. Lathrop, Chief of the Children’s Bureau, United States Department of Commerce and Labor; Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, Director of the Bureau of Foods, Sanitation, and Health, of Good Housekeeping Magazine; W. J. McGee, Soil Water Expert, United States Department of Agriculture; Senator Duncan U. Fletcher of Florida, President Southern Commercial Congress; Logan W. Page, Director United States Office of Public Roads; Bradford Knapp, in charge Farmers Co-operative Demonstration Work, United States Department of Agriculture; Jos. A. Holmes, Director United Bureau of Mines; Representative Joseph E. Ransdell of Louisiana, President National Rivers and Harbors Congress; Senator Luke Lea of Tennessee; Charles S. Barrett, President Farmers’ Educational and Co-operative Union.
These various members of the Advisory Board are to represent, in the formation of plans for the Exposition, the various departments of Conservation in which they are acknowledged leaders. They have instructed me, as Secretary of this Advisory Board, to read to the delegates the following letters:
September 23, 1912.
To the Delegates of the Fourth National Conservation Congress, Indianapolis, Indiana:
We, the undersigned members of the Advisory Board of the National Conservation Exposition, take this means of laying before you an outline of the plans and purposes of the Exposition and of respectfully recommending the adoption of the resolutions which will be introduced at this Congress endorsing the National Conservation Exposition.
This Exposition is to be held at Knoxville, Tennessee, in September and October of 1913. It is an outgrowth of the Appalachian Exposition, which has been held at Knoxville for the past two years. Knoxville was chosen as the location of the National Conservation Exposition because the Southern States are in great need of education concerning the proper handling of their great natural wealth; because Knoxville, while in the South, is readily accessible to the entire East; because the State in which it lies is in the transition zone between North and South and has more States bordering upon it than any other State in the Nation, and all the bordering States are southern; because the city is in the center of the region where the National Government is establishing new National Forests and carrying on other lines of work in Conservation to a greater extent than in any other region; and because of the city’s preparedness in being willing to turn over to the National Conservation Exposition Company the excellent buildings and grounds which had been acquired for the Appalachian Exposition Company and to raise sufficient additional capital besides. A bill has been introduced in Congress providing for a government building and exhibit at the Exposition, and the Committee to which it was referred has given assurances of a favorable report for a quarter of a million dollars.
The purpose of the Appalachian Exposition was to aid in the development of the Southern Appalachian Region. The new Exposition is a national, not a local project. Its work is to promote the preservation and development of the different forms of natural wealth of the entire country. Its special field, however, is to be the Southern States. The Exposition comes at a time when these States are in the midst of a great awakening. It is to be devoted in an especial manner to assist in this awakening and in directing the course of this awakening toward genuine, permanent progress and highest efficiency. The purposes are parallel with the magnificent undertakings of the National Conservation Congress. The means only are different. To every part of the Nation the Congress is sending its message. The Exposition invites the people of the Nation to view the tangible results and possibilities of Conservation on display. All fields of the Conservation work will be represented, forests, waters, lands, minerals, fish and game, and human efficiency including health, child welfare, education, home economics, good roads, and country life improvement. The Exposition is to be held at a time when special efforts are to be made by such agencies as the southern railroads and the Southern Commercial Congress to direct the tide of passenger traffic through the South. During the same period the city of Mobile, Alabama, is to entertain the Fifth Annual Convention of the Southern Commercial Congress and to hold its celebration of the opening of the Panama Canal, and plans are being made to direct southern travelers of those two months through both Mobile and Knoxville.
Expositions of the past have been commemorative and historical. They have celebrated and glorified past achievements. The field of the new Exposition is the future. It is to tell the progress which we are to make in the coming years, which we are to enjoy ourselves and to hand down to our children. It will be prophetic of the development which is to come and of the permanent enrichment of the country and its people. In the words of the late and beloved Dr. W. J. McGee, “The change thus wrought in the exposition idea is fundamental; the old exposition looked backward, the new looks forward; the old exposition was solely material, the new is essentially moral; the old was a proud boast of achievement, the new a signpost to progress and an assurance of perpetuity. The expositions of the past were as songs of achievement at the end of a good day’s work, the new may well be as living and tangible promises of a still more glorious tomorrow foreordained by the wise action of today.”
GIFFORD PINCHOT, Chairman.