THE APPALACHIAN^ WHITE MOUNTAIN 



HEARING 



THE public hearing on Senate bill 

 4825, which was passed by the 

 Senate toward the close of the 

 last session of Congress, was granted by 

 the House Committee on Agriculture on 

 December 9th, at which time before a 

 C|Uorum of the Committee, Chairman 

 Scott presiding, there appeared in advo- 

 cacy of the measure a large delegation 

 from New England and the South, unit- 

 ing in an earnest and forceful presenta- 

 tion of the merits of the project and the 

 urgency of prompt action thereon. 



The delegation was headed by Gov- 

 ernor Guild of Massachusetts as the 

 distinguished chairman (the Governor 

 coming to Washington solely for this 

 purpose), and was made up of states- 

 men scientists, engineers, representa- 

 tives of National organizations, com- 

 mercial bodies, etc.. representing the 

 National demand that the establishment 

 of this forest area was essential to the 

 welfare of .the Nation and that further 

 delay was unnecessary and deplorable to 

 the la.st degree. 



Chairman Scott, who had recently 

 returned from a week's visit to the 

 Southern Applachians called the Com- 

 mittee to order at 10:30 and briefly out- 

 lined the points he desired covered. 

 The principal one being the relation 

 of the forests to "regulation of stream 

 flow of navigable rivers," his state- 

 ment being that the opinion given by 

 the House Judiciary Committee last 

 winter had confined the constitutional 

 bounds of purchase of forest lands by 

 the Government to such areas as could 

 be "clearly shown" to l)c of aid to navi- 

 gation. 



A number of resolutions from cham- 

 bers of commerce and similar bodies — 

 a i)articularly strong one passed the pre- 

 vious day by the Southern Commercial 

 Congress — voicing some sixty organiza- 

 102 



tions in fifteen States, were then pre- 

 sented. Governor Guild then opening 

 with a lucid, clean-cut and patriotic pre- 

 sentation of the matter, saying that the 

 delay had already menaced the Nation 

 from many standpoints ; that the public 

 health was involved ; that the forests 

 were rapidly disappearing ; that water 

 supply, water power and navigation 

 were seriously afifected in both sections. 

 He urged immediate action by the 

 Committee as a patriotic duty, closing 

 with a beautiful allusion to the fact that 

 the advocates of the measure were ap- 

 pearing under the same flag as that first 

 flown by the Continental troops when 

 Washington took command, the flag 

 first flown by the American Navy was a 

 white flag bearing on its field a pine 

 tree ! 



The venerable and beloved Edward 

 Everett Hale, chaplain of the Senate, 

 spoke feelingly of the forests of the 

 White Mountains now and their con- 

 tra.st with conditions when as a boy 

 he had helped to survey them, and able 

 and forceful addresses were made by 

 ex-Governor Pardee of California, 

 Hon. D. A. Tompkins, of Charlotte, N. 

 C, president of Appalachian National 

 Eorest Association, Representative Cur- 

 rier, and others. 



The "Stream Regulation" side was 

 well presented by Dr. C. E. Van Hise 

 of the University of Wisconsin, Prof, 

 (ieorge F. Swain of the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology, Mr. W. S. Lee 

 of the Southern Power Co., and Mr. 

 C. C. Goodrich, and other phases 

 taken up in some detail by earnest and 

 well informed men. the Committee ad- 

 journing at 4 : 30. after agreeing to 

 incorporate the matter presented in the 

 ])revious hearings as a ])art of the day's 

 proceedings. 



