LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 October Rare Books & Manuscripts #675  / 

30460

Theodore Roosevelt Historic Typed Letter Signed

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:4,000.00 USD Estimated At:8,000.00 - 12,000.00 USD
Theodore Roosevelt Historic Typed Letter Signed
<B>Theodore Roosevelt Historic Typed Letter Signed</B></I> “<I>Theodore Roosevelt</B></I>” as President, five pages, 8” x 10.5”. The White House, Washington, June 8, 1908. To Mr. Murdo Mackenzie. On June 8, 1908, in accordance with a declaration adopted unanimously in May by the Conference of Governors meeting in the White House, President Roosevelt created the National Conservation Commission comprised of four Sections (Waters, Forests, Lands, Minerals) with 12 members each. In this letter, Roosevelt asks Mackenzie to “<I>consent to act as a member of the Commission , in common with the following gentlemen:</B></I>” Listed are the 48 members divided into four sections; Mackenzie is already listed as a member of the Lands section. Other members include twelve U.S. Senators, ten House members, three former Governors, conservationist Gifford Pinchot (named Commission chairman), and philanthropists Andrew Carnegie and John Hays Hammond. Murdo Mackenzie was president of the American National Livestock Association and one of Roosevelt's staunch western supporters. He later went to South America and managed the Brazil Land, Cattle and Packing Company; TR stayed with him during his River of Doubt exploration in 1913.<BR><BR>A magnificent, historically significant letter presenting Roosevelt's reasons for conserving our natural resources, still an important issue almost 100 years later. In part, “<I>The recent Conference of Governors in the White House confirmed and strengthened in the minds of our people the conviction that our natural resources are being consumed, wasted, and destroyed at a rate which threatens our present course toward these resources, if we should persist in following it, would ultimately be the impoverishment of our people…The Commission on the Conservation of Natural Resources will be organized in four sections to consider the four great classes of water resources, forest resources, resources of the land, and mineral resources…The work of the Commission should be conditioned upon keeping ever in mind the great fact that the life of the nation depends absolutely on the material resources, which have already made the Nation great. Our object is to conserve the foundations of our prosperity. We intend to use these resources; but to so use them as to conserve them. No effort should be made to limit the wise and proper development and application of these resources; every effort should be made to prevent destruction, to reduce waste, and to distribute the enjoyment of our natural wealth in such a way as to promote the greatest good of the greatest number for the longest time…</B></I>” Soiling at the top margin of each page with paper clip indentations (paper clip present) and stains in the upper blank margin of the first page. Boldly signed in full by Roosevelt (4.5” long signature!), undoubtedly America's greatest conservation president, who, in addition to creating the National Conservation Commission, designated 150 National Forests, the first 51 Federal Bird Reservations, five National Parks, the first 18 National Monuments, the first four National Game Preserves, and the first 21 Reclamation Projects during his 7-1/2 years in office. Altogether, he provided federal protection for almost 230 million acres, a land area equal to that of all the East coast states from Maine to Florida!<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Flat Material, Small (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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