Greeting to the North American Wildlife Conference.

To the North American Wildlife Conference:

I regret my inability to extend a personal welcome to you or to participate personally in your discussion. Because this is impossible, I have asked Secretary Wallace to convey my best wishes for a most successful and profitable meeting.

It has long been my feeling that there has been a lack of full and complete realization on the part of the public of our wildlife plight, or the urgency of it, and of the many social and economic values that wildlife has for our people. This, and the firm belief in the ability of the American people to face facts, to analyze problems, and to work out a program which might remedy the situation, impelled me to call the North American Wildlife Conference.

Our present wildlife situation is more than a local one. It is national and international. I sincerely hope that with the help of good neighbors to the north and south of us, your Conference will unite upon a common purpose and a common program.

You have been told that this Conference is an open forum; that it is entirely autonomous; that its future is subject to its own decisions. This is as it should be, for it makes it possible for you as representatives of thousands of wildlife organizations with millions of interested and zealous members to make effective progress in restoring and conserving the vanishing wildlife resources of a continent.