Conservation of water powers: Presidents address

The conference of governors, which assembled at the White House, in May, 1908, in response to an invitation extended by President Roosevelt, focused the attention of the American people upon a subject which all recognize as one of fundamental national importance and one which appeals to the engineering profession with all the force which comes from special knowledge. True conservation of our natural resources means wise utilization of those resources without unnecessary waste. Such utilization of materials used in construction and of energy is the primary and essential business of the engineer. Since the days of Smeaton and of Watt, the engineer has been building the lighthouses of material prosperity and releasing and directing for the common welfare, those vast forces of nature imprisoned and overlooked for centuries but now utilized on a scale which dwarfs the physical powers of man to insignificance.