Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1908 — Big Convention at Washington. [ARTICLE]

Big Convention at Washington.

Washington, D. C., Dec. 1. — Congressmen from all over the land are arriving in Washington today and several formal and informal conferences are in progress. By the last of the week, the gathering of the legislative clans will be practically

complete. Aside from the solons, many influential men are assembling in the

capital city to take part in the many big conventions scheduled for this week and next. The first of there meetings, beginning tomorrow, will be that of the National Conservation Commission, organizd as a reesult of

the conference called by President Roosevelt last spring. Addresses by President Roosevelt and the presi-dent-elect are expected.

The commission is divided intp four classes. A committee of thirteen is In charge of the improvement of streams. Another committee of like number has the care of the forests. Still another committee of thirteen has the direction of efforts to prevent the waste of land. The fourth committee has charge of mineral resources. That is devoting itself now to the more economical mining of coal. The Southern Commercial Congress is expected to bring from 1,000 to 1,500 business men from the south to this city. The south has need of river and harbor improvements, and the meeting of southern business men is expected to develop into as much of a waterway discussion as the gathering of the River and Harbor Congress, of which Representative Ransdell, of Louisiana, is president. That congress is to meet here on Dec. 11, 12 and 13. But before it comes the Country Life Commission. That will be on Dec. 8, and it will be an adjunct of the Conservation Congre.s from which it sprang. That is what has been facetiously referred to as the Uplift Commission which, at the behest of President Roosevelt, is to take the American farmer by the scuff of the neck and hoist him to a higher level.

The River and Harbor Congress is the body that will produce the most Interesting situation. The advocates of the Lake-to-the-Gulf Deep Waterway think the congress should make a definite indorsement of that project Hitherto the congress had held that its ol ject should te merely to create a sentiment throughout the country which would warrant congress in passing an annual river and harbor appropriation bill of $50,000,000. There are other projects that look just as good to their proponents as the Lake-to-the-Gulf plan, wherefore it seems probable that that proposal will provok§ debate.