THE APPALACHIAN FORESTS 



73 



3. The separate states in which for- 

 est reserves are proposed should pay for 

 them out of their respective state treas- 

 uries. 



The answer to this statement is that, 

 with the exception of New York, and 

 one of two others, the states separately 

 cannot afford it. 



One of the most needed of these re- 

 serves is in the state of New Hamp- 

 shire, about the headwaters of many of 

 the great rivers of New England, al- 

 ready shrunken in volume, already dam- 

 aged as a result of the neglect by a Na- 

 tional Government that has been lavish 

 in its expenditures to save woods and 

 water-power and water supply for the 

 states beyond the Mississippi. The lit- 

 tle state of New Hampshire cannot af- 

 ford, with her small population and 

 rocky soil, to buy and manage such a 

 reserve. 



The Nation, however, out of taxes, 

 to which New Hampshire contributes, 

 has maintained National Forest Re- 

 serves of 25,605,700 acres for the rich 

 state of California alone, and last year 

 added 2,364,483 acres to the National 

 Forest Reserves located in that state. 



If it be said that these forests are part 

 of the National domain, it may be an- 

 swered: Was it not the whole Nation 

 that paid for the National domain ? 



California and her citizens receive the 

 direct benefit of these forests. New 

 England does not. It was not Cali- 

 fornia alone that paid the bills of the 

 war with Mexico. The support in Cali- 

 fornia, led by one of her governors, 

 of Appalachian reserves shows that 

 Californians themselves appreciate that 

 such a course is not merely generous, 

 but just. 



There are altogether 194,505,325 acres 

 of National Forest Reserve. They are 

 cared for by fifteen hundred National 

 Forest officers. The total National ap- 

 propriation for last year was $3,908,- 

 249.32. These forests yield a revenue, 

 and though these reserves were pro- 

 vided at the cost of all the states, the 

 distribution to the states, one-quarter 

 of all the gross revenues of the National 

 Forest Reserve, goes only to the states 

 in which these existing forest reserves 



are located. The amount handed over 

 by the National Government to such 

 state treasuries last year was $444,379. 



The states and territories in which 

 there are now National Forest Reserves 

 are Arizona, .Arkansas, California, Col- 

 orado, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Michi- 

 gan, jNIinnesota, Montana, Nebraska, 

 Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, 

 Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, 

 Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. 



Not one state of the old thirteen that 

 fought the Revolution is benefited di- 

 rectly by these reserves — not one state 

 that helped to pay for the Louisiana 

 Purchase is directly benefited by these 

 reserves — not one state that fought the 

 war of 1812 is benefited directly by these 

 reserves — not one state taxed to pay the 

 bill for the cession of Florida by Spain 

 is benefited directly by these reserves. 



Yet none of these states, now neg- 

 lected in this respect by Congress, 

 grudges the present expenditure or re- 

 grets the treasure of blood as well as 

 money so freely given in the past. 

 Nor would this comparison now be 

 made were it not for the claim that the 

 separate states, not the Nation, should 

 now pay for new reserves. 



No existing National Forest Reserve 

 has been accjuired and paid for, none 

 is even now exclusively maintained, by 

 the people of any state or states directly 

 benefited by it. 



The forest reserves in Wyoming and 

 Oregon are in the very strip of land 

 granted by the King of England to the 

 colonists of Massachusetts Bay. The 

 claim of England to them was drowned 

 in the blood of Lexington and Bunker 

 Hill and the states themselves exist to- 

 day as Wyoming and Oregon in part 

 because Massachusetts relinquished her 

 claim to these lands and give them to 

 the Nation. 



Washington is American and not 

 Canadian because a Massachusetts sea 

 captain beat Vancouver on a voyage of 

 discovery and named the Columbia 

 River after his ship. Idaho and Ore- 

 gon, Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas 

 and Oklahoma and the National domain 

 and forest reserves therein were not 



