Proceedings of the third National Conservation Congress at Kansas City, Missouri, September 25, 26 and 27, 1911

"Proceedings of the third National Conservation Congress at Kansas City,…. is a collection of conference proceedings written in the early 20th century. It documents the National Conservation Congress’s organization and debates as public officials, scientists, reformers, and civic leaders press for policies on forests, lands, waters, minerals, agriculture, public health, and infrastructure. The focus is the Progressive Era conservation agenda, blending resource stewardship with social welfare, education, and effective governance. The opening of the volume presents officer and committee rosters, a constitution defining the Congress’s purpose and governance, and a sweeping platform of resolutions: stronger forest protection, public land and mineral leasing to prevent monopoly and waste, basin-wide water policy and navigation development, reclamation and drainage, good roads, rail regulation and parcels post, curbs on grain “futures” gambling, pest control, producer–consumer cooperation, federal–state coordination, support for the Department of Agriculture and rural education, national parks, public health and a federal health department, sewage and waste reform, wildlife and fisheries protection, and a national fire-loss study. The first session then records an invocation and civic welcomes: Kansas City’s mayor ties conservation to urban franchises and public health; the Commercial Club president argues for Missouri River navigation to conserve transport energy; Missouri’s governor highlights the state’s vast but underused resources and urges river control and swamp reclamation; and President Henry Wallace thanks the hosts and frames the Congress around opposing population drifts (farm-to-city and back-to-the-land), tracing causes in mechanization and industrial consolidation, warning against “soil mining,” and calling for better farming, stronger rural schools and churches, and conservation of both land and country life.