- January 31, 1929 – JSA (24 Front Street? to Governor Roosevelt (Albany) cc. Mrs. Dreier, Miss Catherine Potter, R.D. Moot, Irving Langmuir, R.R. Lewis, GE, Ted Dreier
A memorandum… ON CONSERVATION
Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt
Albany, New York
Dear Governor:
This is a brief memorandum of our conversation with you in your office on Tuesday last (Jan. 29th). We were:
Mrs. H. Edward Dreier, President, New York Women’s City Club
Miss Catherine Potter – Chairman of Committee on Recreation – New York City Club
Mr. R. D. Moot – Attorney, Schenectady
Dr. Irving Langmuir – President, American Chemical Society; Pres. State Board of Planning
Mr. R.R. Lewis, General Electric Company
Mr. Theodore Dreier, Gen. Electric Co.
All present unofficially and as private citizens
We feel that there are some very big things to be done in Conservation, and in any way that we can we want to help do them, but we have got to have somebody with whom we can cooperate, or we don’t get anywhere. We find it impossible to get any cooperation now.
There are 3 things we want you to do:
- Appoint a New Commissioner who is
- In sympathy with Art. 7 Sec. & as it now stands
- An outdoor man familiar with the situation and strong enough to meet the attacks of the numerous commercial interests.
- A man with the vision and ability to formulate an adequate plan for the Adirondack Park and to undertake its execution.
- Have a plan made for the Adirondack Park and for the purchase of land.
- Ask the Land Board not to approve any further purchases of land within the forest preserve until a study has been made to see what lands it is imperative to get first.
For example, the shores of lakes, the kind of land most suitable for Park purposes, are advancing tremendously in value and if not bought now can only be obtained later at tremendous expense if at all. The most conspicuous example of this is the eastern side of Lake George, but there are literally dozens of small lakes surrounded by a thin band of private property.