748 



CONSERVATION 



pessimists, but are the sober words of 

 warning of students and engineers and 

 scientists who know, and who have 

 testified to their knowledge of condi- 

 tions before Congressional committees 

 time and time again in language as ear- 

 nest and unmistakable as this. 



It is likewise a sober statement of 

 fact, that, should the Appalachian for- 

 est disappear, as it must and will if 

 some action be not taken by the Na- 

 tion, the very life of the South is at 

 stake — its prevision and patriotism a 

 sham, its civilization a misnomer. 



Is it an unreasonable thing that we 

 are asking of the Government? The 

 Government's ability to do it is unques- 

 tioned ; it is spending millions in irri- 

 gating western arid lands ; it owns and 

 is splendidly handling and conserving 

 172,000,000 acres of western forest 

 lands ; it is spending millions in river 

 and harbor improvement ; it is main- 

 taining many agencies for the better- 

 ment of the Nation, and is wisely do- 

 ing all these things. 



Is not the Appalachian project in the 

 same class — nay, is it not even more 

 important than some of them, in the 

 light of conditions that can only be de- 

 scribed as critical? 



This thing must be done now. Do- 

 ing it now means that the National 

 Government shall lead in a work that 

 requires national leadership, a leader- 

 ship that will finally compel the states 

 to act in respect to the wide field cov- 

 ered by their duty to the forest ques- 

 tion. 



To-day, no southern state has an acre 

 in state forests ; no southern state is 

 making a serious effort to get one, but, 

 when the states have an adequate dem- 

 onstration and object-lesson of this 

 size, that forest conservation is sane 

 and possible and profitable, surely all 

 the states must finally resolve to have 

 state forest areas under competent for- 

 esters ; must enact adequate fire laws ; 

 must properly tax forest lands, and 

 must do such other things as are neces- 

 sary to the perpetuation of the South's 

 large and enormously valuable timber 

 area now in the hands and under the 

 sole control of individual owners bent 

 on cutting them ! 



Whether the cost of this to the Na- 

 tional Government be five millions or 

 more matters little, for it can be wisely 

 spent as a national investment, yield- 

 ing satisfactory yearly financial returns, 

 quite regardless of the actual benefits 

 to the South and to the Nation that can- 

 not be measured in dollars and cents. 



Dollars spent now mean the avoid- 

 ance of hundreds of dollars later in 

 costly reforestation plans such as 

 France has undertaken ; each day of 

 delay makes the problem more difficult, 

 more expensive — the situation more 

 critical, the menace more alarming ! 



It being a thing that the Nation must 

 finally do as a matter of self-protection, 

 if no higher motive actuates it, it should 

 do it nozv, and it can be brought about. 

 if the South acts, and makes its influ- 

 ence felt. 



In the last Congress there was taken, 

 on March i, a vote on the Weeks-Lever 

 forestry bill, a comprehensive and wise 

 measure, general in form, providing for 

 the purchase by the Government of for- 

 est areas at the headwaters of navi- 

 gable streams. 



This bill did not specifically name the 

 Appalachian or White Mountain proj- 

 ects, but it was generally understood 

 that the bill was framed primarily in 

 the interests of these two great national 

 reserves, as being the most urgently 

 needed areas in the way of water pro- 

 tection. 



Of the many measures presented in 

 Congress in the ten years of attempted 

 legislation on this question, the Weeks- 

 Lever bill was not only the best and 

 most comprehensive, but it alone, of the 

 several Appalachian bills, came to an 

 issue on the floor of the House. It 

 passed the House by a vote of 157 to 

 147, but (because of lack of time) failed 

 in the Senate. 



How did the South vote on a matter 

 of such vital concern to itself? This 

 is the record : The fourteen southern 

 states— Maryland to Texas, including 

 Arkansas — had 119 votes. They were 

 cast as follows : For the measure, 53 ; 

 against the measure, 36 ; not voting, 30. 



Thirty-six southern men actively 

 against the project — some of them sav- 



