APPALACHIAN LEGISLATION KILLED 



-175 



to understand not only the old age pen- 

 sion movement in Great Britain, but 

 the studied endeavor to provide em- 

 ployment for the unemployed ; re- 

 forestation on a large scale being one 

 of the plans suggested. 



That a connection exists in the 

 United States between unemployment 

 and the forest question was shown by 

 Doctor Rothrock at the annual meeting, 

 •when he stated that "Hard times have 

 a good deal to do with the problem of 

 forest fires over the country this year ;" 

 that he knew "one place where there 

 were hundreds of men lying idle, and 

 all they had to do to earn 20 cents 

 an hour was to apply the torch," and 

 that he had "seen mobs voluntarily 

 thrusting themselves upon the fire 

 wardens * * * and while putting out 

 the fire with one hand, they would pick 

 up a fire-brand with the other, and 

 throw it back over their heads. They 

 were working by the hour, and did not 

 want the fire suppressed." 



This raises the question whether un- 

 employment is not more than a mere 

 individual question, of interest simply 

 to the man out of work. Such a man, 

 while deprived of opportunity to main- 



tain himself and dependents, is obvious- 

 ly maintained, in one form or another, 

 while he lives at all, by the community. 

 Yet the community is deprived of the 

 service he might render it in return 

 while, in addition, he is tempted to the 

 commission of crime to relieve his in- 

 tolerable lot. When his crime takes the 

 form indicated by Doctor Rothrock — 

 not the mere stealing of food for a 

 destitute family, or of a ride to a field 

 of possible employment — but the whole- 

 sale destruction of valuable property, 

 and of interests probably even more 

 valuable dependent upon that property, 

 and this, that he may earn a paltry 

 wage, the question arises. Is not wide- 

 spread unemployment a problem prop- 

 erly demanding the attention of gov- 

 ernments, local, municipal, state or Na- 

 tional ? 



To this question, the English people 

 are coming to give a more and more 

 strongly affirmative answer. "The pub- 

 lic safety is the supreme law," and un- 

 employment can reach the point, if it 

 has not already reached it in Europe 

 and America, where it directly concerns 

 the public safety. 



APPALACHIAN LEGISLATION KILLED 



AFTER a long and determined effort on 

 the part of the friends of Appalachian 

 forest legislation in the House Commit- 

 tee on Agriculture, a bill popularly known as 

 the Weeks bill, from its principal author, Hon. 

 John W. Weeks of Massachusetts, was fayor- 

 ably reported as an amendment to the bill sent 

 down by the Senate at the close of the last 

 session. The report in favor of the Weeks 

 bill was signed by eleven members of the 

 Committee. Five members, including the 

 chairman of the Committee, Mr. Scott of 

 Kansas, signed a minority report in opposi- 

 tion to the bill, and there were two other 

 individual minority reports. The bill came 

 . up in the House on Monday, March i, under 

 suspension of the rules, and passed, after a 

 spirited debate of two hours, by a vote of 

 157 to 147. The majority was not large, but 

 it was obtained against the combined opposi- 

 tion of both the Republican and Democratic 

 organizations, and was a distinct victory for 

 Mr. Weeks, and Mr. Currier of New Hamp- 

 shire, Mr. Lever of South Carolina, Mr. 



Lamb of Virginia, Mr. Cocks of New York, 

 Mr. Cole of Ohio, and of the others who 

 supported them in securing its passage. The 

 bill went into the Senate the same afternoon; 

 but the Senate, through the opposition of 

 Senator Teller of Colorado, Senator Hey- 

 burn of Idaho, and other senators from 

 the Rocky Mountain states, refused to allow 

 it to be sent into conference, insisting upon 

 the right of the Senate to discuss it from 

 the floor. This, in view of the pressure of 

 business and the few hours that remained 

 of the session, prevented the passage of the 

 bill. It is a very great misfortune both 

 for the White Mountains and Southern Ap- 

 palachians that the earnest work of the last 

 few years should have failed when so near 

 achievement, and that it should be in the 

 power of two or three men to nullify the 

 plainly expressed will of the majority of the 

 members in both Houses of Congress and 

 of the great body of the people of the 

 country. 



