No.

NATIONAL CONSERVATION EXPOSITION, KNOXVILLE,

TENN.

DECEMBER 17, 1912.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. CULLOP, from the Committee on Industrial Arts and Expositions, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 26190.]

The Committee on Industrial Arts and Expositions, having had under consideration the bill (H. R. 26190) to provide for participation by the Government of the United States in the National Conservation Exposition to be held at Knoxville, Tenn., in the fall of 1913, report the same back with the recommendation that it be amended as follows, and that as amended it do pass:

After period, in line 19, on page 2, insert the following: "That the President of the United States be, and is hereby, authorized to invite the nations of the world to send delegates to an international convention at said exposition to discuss the natural resources of the world and their distribution through commerce."

This committee, having conducted a hearing of the officers of the National Conservation Exposition, and having sent a subcommittee to Knoxville and to the exposition grounds to investigate the scope and purpose of the exposition and the intent and ability of the exposition company to hold an exposition of the size and kind proposed, is of the opinion that the exposition merits approval and participation by the Government of the United States; that it furnishes to the Government an exceptionally good opportunity of laying before the people of the United States, and particularly the Southern States, in a visible and tangible manner, the results of its educational investigations along many important lines; and that the appropriation provided in this bill is the smallest upon which the executive departments of the Government can make exhibits adequate and appropriate to the nature and scope of the exposition.

Both the committee and the exposition authorities feel it in keeping with the tenets of conservation, which this project is designed to foster, that the Government building be made a permanent one, and

it is so provided in the bill, with the purpose that after the close of the exposition it can be used as permanent quarters by some of the executive departments engaged in work in eastern Tennessee.

The purposes of the exposition are to promote the introduction of modern, scientific methods of agriculture; the improvement of forest conditions for the preservation of timber supply, the regulation of stream flow for power and navigation, the diminution of floods and droughts, and the protection of domestic water supply; the improvement of the condition and value of wood lots upon farms; the development of navigable waterways; the drainage of swamp areas; more economic methods of production and utilization of mineral wealth; the protection of wild animal and bird life; and the increasing of human efficiency through such agencies as the reduction of disease and disease-inducing agencies, the abolition of child labor, the elimination of impure food and drugs, the protection of life in mines and factories, educational development, the introduction of domestic economy and vocational training in schools, rural life improvement, and good roads. In brief, the exposition will be designed to promote such a development of our natural resources as will make them permanent sources of wealth.

The plans of the exposition are being directed by experts of national reputation in the various subjects named, and the character of exhibits along the various lines is under their control. They constitute the national advisory board of the exposition, and are as follows: Gifford Pinchot, president National Conservation Association, chairman.

Don Carlos Ellis, in charge educational cooperation, United States Forestry 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, former Chief Chemist of the United States. Senator Duncan U. Fletcher, president Southern Commercial Congress.

Logan W. Page, Director United States Office of Public Roads.
Mrs. Mary H. Able, editor and expert of Home Economics.

Bradford Knapp, in charge farmers' cooperative demonstration work, United States Department of Agriculture.

Joseph A. Holmes, Director United States 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' Education and Cooperative Union.

The business management of the exposition is being handled by a local board of directors at Knoxville, composed of leading business men of widely acknowledged high character and ability, and they have associated with them in the management of the exposition members of the faculty of the University of Tennessee and of other educational institutions in the South.

Knoxville has already conducted in the past two years, on the site of the National Conservation Exposition grounds, two most creditable expositions, local to the southern Appalachian region. These were held entirely independent of outside aid, and their char

acter was such as to establish the ability of the people of Knoxville to handle the larger project. The National Conservation Exposition Co. has taken over the grounds and buildings of the former exposition, together with a 20-year lease of the park, including free electric light and power, for all purposes of the exposition, and proposes to hold the National Conservation Exposition upon these grounds in the fall of each year for as many years as the project proves practicable, showing each year the development of the work in conserving our natural resources to that time. Several new buildings are being provided, of which the first is already under construction.

The character of the exposition is to be entirely educational. It is not local either to Tennessee or to the Appalachian region. It is to be national in scope, but to have special reference to the 16 Southern States. Knoxville is well situated for the purposes of this exposition. It lies immediately within the region in which the National Government is establishing national forests; it is in the transition zone between North and South; the State in which it lies is touched by nine other States; and it is in the direct line of travel between the North and the South, and is therefore readily accessible to the entire East.

Resolutions indorsing the National Conservation Exposition and participation in it by the Government have been adopted by the National Conservation Association, the National Conservation Congress, the Woman's National Rivers and Harbors Congress, the Southern Commercial Congress, and the Southern Newspaper Publishers' Association.