Proceedings Of Meeting And World Conference On Mineral Resources – Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Celebration And World Conference On Mineral Resources

AT the meeting of the Board of Directors in March 1945, plans were discussed for a special General Meeting to commemorate, in an appropriate way, the founding of the Institute at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1871. It was decided that seventy-five years of growth, progress, and achievement; of service to the profession, to the mineral industry in all its branches, and to society at large should be fittingly celebrated. Harvey S. Mudd, then President of the Institute, was authorized to appoint a General Committee on Arrangements as well as necessary working committees. On June 6, 1946, Louis S. Cates, as President, at a special meeting of the Pennsylvania-Anthracite Section at Wilkes-Barre, officially announced plans or a three-day meeting to be held at The Waldorf-Astoria, in New York City, September 16-18, 1946. Four major sessions to be addressed by eminent speakers had been-planned in some detail to constitute a "World Conference on Mineral Resources." The U. S. Department of State had dispatched a 1500-word airgram to all its diplomatic posts giving worldwide publicity to the scope and importance of the meeting; and formal invitations had been issued to more than 150 institutions in 40 foreign countries to send official delegates. These included scientific and engineering societies, educational institutions, and sundry government agencies connected with the mineral industry. However, about a month later it was found necessary to postpone the celebration. The reason was an unforeseen expansion in the requirements of the United Nations for hotel living space in New York to accommodate delegates to the meeting scheduled to start September 3; and, of course, U.N. delegates would be given priority. It was decided to postpone the Celebration-conference to the week beginning March 17, 1947; t6 devote the first three days primarily to the Celebration; and to follow it with the technical sessions, committee meetings, and other functions, that are regular features of the Annual Meeting. To accommodate the combined "show" it would be necessary to hold some of the Annual Meeting sessions at another hotel;