wherein the
Federal Governments could not act because of Constitutional limitation.
The plan proposed, so simple that it would require no Constitutional
amendment to put it into effect, was the organization of the House of
Governors.

More than thirty Governors responded in cordial approval of the plan.
Eight months later, October, 1907, President Roosevelt invited the
State Executives to a conference at Washington in May, 1908. The writer
pointed out at that time what seemed an intrinsic weakness of the
convention, that it could have little practical result, because it
would be, after all, only a conference, where the Federal Government,
by its limitations, was powerless to carry the findings of the
conference into effect, and the Governors, acting not as a co-operative
body, but as individuals, would be equally powerless in effecting
uniform legislation. It was a conference of conflicting powers.

The Governors were then urged to meet upon their own initiative, as a
body of peers, working out by united State action those problems where
United States action had for more than a century proved powerless. At
the close of the Roosevelt conference the Governors, at an adjourned
meeting, appointed a committee to arrange time and place for a session
of the Governors in a body of their own, independently of the
President. This movement differentiated the proposed meeting absolutely
from that with the President in every fundamental. It essentially
became more than a conference; it meant a deliberative body of the
Governors uniting to initiate, to inspire, and to influence uniform
laws. The committee then named, consisting of three members, later
increased to five, set the dates January 18, 19, and 20, 1910, for the
first session of the Governors as a separate body.

WILLIAM G. JORDAN[1]

[Footnote 1: Reproduced from _The Craftsman_ of October, 1910, by
permission of Gustav Stickley.]

When a new idea or a new institution confronts the world it must answer
all challenges, show its credentials, specify its claims for
usefulness, and prove its promise by its performance. As an idea the
House of Governors has won the cordial approval of the American press
and public; as an institution it must now justify this confidence. To
grasp fully its powers and possibilities requires a clear, definite
understanding of its spirit, scope, plan, and purpose, and its attitude
toward the Federal Government.

The House of Governors is a un