NEW YC 



30TANK 

 QARI 



Vol. XVI 



MARCH, iQio 



No. 3 



THE BATTLE FOR THE WEEKS BILL 



AX( )'rHER milestone was jiassed 

 ill the long- march toward a trulv 

 national forest ]X)licy onWedne^- 

 da\-. I'ehruarv 23, when a hearing- was 

 given ])efore the Ihrnse Committee on 

 Agrienltnre on the bill for the crea- 

 tion of national forests, known as the 

 W'eelss Hill, and iM)pularly as the Ap- 

 l)alachian Poorest 1)111. Xo attem])t was 

 made, as in former years, to secnre a 

 large attendance at this hearing, or to 

 make a popular demonstration. I 'or 

 three years this had been d'jiie. and 

 the convictions of the peo; Ic and the 

 organizations of the country are well 

 established, and equally well known. 

 This hearing was devoterl ])rinci])ally 

 to the examination of three exjiert wit- 

 nesses, and it is no reflection upon earlier 

 hearings to say that the case has never 

 had a stronger presentation. The ses- 

 sions opened in the niorning and wi're 

 continued in the afternoon, and there 

 was a good attendance of the commit- 

 tee at both sessions. Since the opinion 

 of the Judiciary Committee of the 

 House of Representatives two years 

 ago has made it necessary to consider 

 this question with reference to its bear- 

 ing upon the navigability of .streams, 

 the testimonv was concentrated mainly 

 upon that poiU. and peculiar interest 

 was given to the discussion coming 

 from distinguished scientists who have 

 thoroughh- studied the (piestion with 

 which the\' were dealing, in view f)f 

 ^ the fact that these nien u'laiiimously 

 O^ controverted the co'iclusi ns of the re- 



])ort recently made and widely circu- 

 lated b\- Willis L. Afoore. chief of the 

 \\\'ather lUireau. The three experts 

 who a])peared were George F. Swain, 

 |)rofessor of civil engineering. Har- 

 vard University; L. C. Glenn, pro- 

 fessor of geology, \'anderbilt Univer- 

 sity, and I^rof. Filibert Roth, the head 

 of the Forest School of 'he University 

 of Michigan. Thus, with an engineer, 

 a geologist, and a forester, all of whom 

 stand ill the frst rank of their i)ro- 

 fessions, the case had a broad and able 

 consideration. Mr. Moore's conten- 

 tion that "forests should be preserved 

 for themselves alore, or not at all," and 

 again that "the run-off of our rivers is 

 not materiallv atTected by any other 

 factor than the ]M"ecipitation,'" was de- 

 clared b}- the three gentlemen named 

 to be not substantiated, and some of 

 his conclusions were said to be ridicu- 

 lous. 



Charles F. Scott, of Kansas, chair- 

 man of the committee, ])resided, and 

 the case was opened for those who ap- 

 peared in behalf of the bill by Frank 

 D. Currier, representative from New 

 Hampshire. Mr. Currier introduced 

 Andrew J. Peters, representative from 

 the eleventh Massachusetts district, 

 one of the r)Oston districts. Mr. Peters 

 voiced the intense public interest of 

 ?\ew I'jigland in this matter, naming a 

 long list of business and other organ- 

 izations which have endorsed and are 

 urging the passage of the bill. He de- 

 clared that Xew England has paid h^r 



133 



