1908 



PROTECTION FOR AMERICAN INDUSTRY 



219 



in the Southern Appalachians amounts 

 to 2,700,000 horsepower, which at an 

 annual rental of $20 per horsepower 

 would amount to something over 

 $50,000,000 of revenue per year. If 

 Congress had done its duty and passed 

 this bill when it was introduced some 

 ten or twelve years ago, and had ac- 

 quired these lands in the Southern Ap- 

 palachian and in the White Alountain 

 ranges, the Government would have 

 been saved millions upon millions of 

 dollars ; and the longer we delay the 

 more the destruction goes on, and the 

 more in the end will we be called 

 upon to appropriate out of the Fed- 

 eral treasury. The time is now ; this 

 is the accepted moment. The lumber 

 industry is in a pretty bad way, I am 

 informed. Great lumber companies 

 are willing to sell their cut-over lands 

 very cheaply ; they are willing to sell 

 a great deal of their virgin timber 

 rather cheaply, much more cheaply 

 than they would twelve months ago ; 

 and if we are to act, now is the time 

 to begin. 



I am glad to see this large represen- 

 tative gathering of people here, and I 

 want to ask you to come over to-mor- 

 row to the Committee on Agriculture, 

 of which committee I happen to be a 

 member. I want you to come in such 

 numbers, and pack in there so thickly 

 that when you breathe you will burst 

 the walls of the building. I want you 

 to let that committee know that there 

 is a strong, wholesome sentiment be- 

 hind this proposition. Heretofore we 

 have been told that there was no real 

 sentiment behind it ; that there was 

 nothing more behind it than the 

 theory of a few dreamers. We have 

 been told that the Federal Govern- 

 ment surely is not going into the busi- 

 ness of buying scenery. We want the 

 business men of this country to go be- 

 fore the committee to-morrow and im- 

 press upon the committee that this is 

 no scenery proposition, but that it is a 

 business proposition pure and simple. 

 We are said to have a business ad- 

 ministration up there in the House, 

 but sometimes the folks there, when 

 they don't want to do a thing, find it 



convenient to have an attack of con- 

 stitutional tight colic. I want you to 

 go before that committee and give 

 them a preventive for this dread dis- 

 ease. 



I feel, my friends, that if we could 

 get that bill out of the committee it 

 would pass. Surely, when the Senate 

 of the United States has passed the 

 bill so many times without any serious 

 objection; when the Committee on 

 Agriculture, last year, without any in- 

 formation on the subject before it ex- 

 cept some comparatively meager data, 

 passed it unanimously, surely that 

 committee, with this full report that 

 the Forest Service has made, which 

 emphasizes the need of this legislation, 

 will act this year. A committee which 

 passed the bill last year, with prac- 

 tically no information about it, surely 

 ought to pass it this time ; and if the 

 committee does not pass it this time 

 there will -be an inclination in the 

 breasts of some of us to inquire, why 

 it does not pass it. 



I am glad that you are here. I 

 want the committee, and I want the 

 House of Representatives, to know- 

 that there is a sentiment behind this 

 proposition; that there is a strong 

 sentiment behind it. I want them to 

 know that they have some constitu- 

 ents at home who are watching them. 

 It is a pretty good idea for the public 

 to keep its eyes on members of Con- 

 gress. I am glad you are here, and I 

 want the Congress to know that the 

 ballot box down there in South Caro- 

 lina has been heard from, and the ones 

 in North Carolina, and in West Vir- 

 ginia, and in Pennsylvania, and in 

 New York, and throughout the New 

 England States ; and that the returns 

 show that the country is overwhelm- 

 ingly in favor of this proposition. 



I believe that when the committee 

 understands this proposition, I believe 

 that when Congress understands this 

 proposition, they will both be very 

 much in the position of the parrot that 

 the country parson owned. This parson 

 bought a parrot that had a habit of 

 using cuss words. When the parson's 

 friends would come to call on him he 



