l Forests should be given away for nothing, and practically
without question, to the first comer. This ancient custom ran right
athwart the newly enunciated principle that public property should not
pass into private possession without being paid for, and that permanent
grants, except for home-making, should not be made. The Forest Service
now began to apply this principle to the water powers in the National
Forests, granting permission for the development and use of such power
for limited periods only and requiring payment for the privilege. This
was the beginning of a general water power policy which, in the course
of time, commended itself to public approval; but it was long before
it ceased to be opposed by the private interests that wanted these rich
resources for their own undisputed use.

Out of the forest movement grew the conservation movement in its broader
sense. In the fall of 1907 Roosevelt made a trip down the Mississippi
River with the definite purpose of drawing general attention to the
subject of the development of the national inland waterways. Seven
months before, he had established the Inland Waterways Commission and
had directed it to "consider the relations of the streams to the use of
all the great permanent natural resources and their conservation for the
making and maintenance of permanent homes." During the trip a letter was
prepared by a group of men interested in the conservation movement
and was presented to him, asking him to summon a conference on the
conservation of natural resources. At a great meeting held at Memphis,
Tennessee, Roosevelt publicly announced his intention of calling such a
conference.

In May of the following year the conference was held in the East Room
of the White House. There were assembled there the President, the
Vice-President, seven Cabinet members, the Supreme Court Justices, the
Governors of thirty-four States and representatives of the other twelve,
the Governors of all the Territories, including Alaska, Hawaii, and
Porto Rico, the President of the Board of Commissioners of the District
of Columbia, representatives of sixty-eight national societies, four
special guests, William Jennings Bryan, James J. Hill, Andrew Carnegie,
and John Mitchell, forty-eight general guests, and the members of the
Inland Waterways Commission. The object of the conference was stated by
the President in these words: "It seems to me time for the country to
take account of its natura