342 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



June 



Mr. W. S. Harvey, of Philadelphia, 

 designated as representative *of the 

 American Forestry /Vssociation by the 

 Association's president, Hon. James 

 Wilson, spoke on behalf of the Amer- 

 ican Forestry Association, the Com- 

 mittee on Forestry and Irrigation of 

 the National Board of Trade, and the 

 State of Pennsylvania. He paid a 

 deserved tribute to Mr. Wilson and 

 Mr. Pinchot, stating that he has 

 drawn his inspiration for the protec- 

 tion and intelligent use of the forests 

 and waterways from these two men. 



He stated that the Forestry and Ir- 

 rigation Committee of the National 

 Board of Trade in January, 1906, 

 made a report to Congress embodying 

 information gathered by the Commit- 

 tee from the General Land Office. 

 The Committee was advocating the 

 repeal of the Timber and Stone Act. 



He said that under this act 5,000,- 

 000 acres of the most valuable timber 

 land belonging to the United States 

 was sold from 1901 to 1906 at the 

 rate of $2.50 an acre, and that thus, 

 for $13,000,000, the United States 

 parted with lands actually worth more 

 than $100,000,000. The law that 

 made this possible, he said, the Nation- 

 al Board of Trade and the American 

 Forestry Association has been trying 

 to have repealed, but so far little head- 

 way has been made. 



Mr. Harvey said that the State of 

 Pennsylvania has acquired for State 

 forest reserves 900,000 acres of land, 

 and the State is planting this year 

 400,000 white pine seedlings. In the 

 state reserves, Mr. Harvey said, sani- 

 tariums for the use of sufferers from 

 tuberculosis were being established, 

 the State having last year appropri- 

 ated $600,000 for such sanitariums. 

 This he called special attention to as 

 an admirable feature of the work that 

 is being done by Pennsylvania. 



Mr. Harvey read a copy of a dis- 

 patch sent on the 5th of May to 

 Speaker Cannon — "a cannon,' ' he 

 said, "that many of us wish might be 

 spiked." — in regard to the forestry 

 question : 



"Forest reserves of the South and East 

 are vital for the preservation and perpetu- 

 ation of our waterways, for transportation 

 and protection of cheap power, and essential 

 to the extension of foreign trade, if we are 

 to maintain the American wage level in 

 competition with other manufacturing na- 

 tions. The Leever Bill, I believe, is consist- 

 ent with the Constitutional requirements of 

 the House Judiciary Committee, and satis- 

 factory to the friends of waterways and 

 forests. Will you not exert your influence 

 and power at this psychological time for 

 a wise and perpetually beneficent cause that 

 is earnestly advocated by more than fifty 

 million Americans?" 



The country, he said, knows what 

 course Speaker Cannon chose to take. 



He commented on the development 

 of water power in the south and east 

 that will be made possible by the es- 

 tablishment of national forests in the 

 southern states and in the New Eng- 

 land regions, saying that in the south- 

 ern states alone development of the 

 maximum possible water power 

 would ainount to a saving tc the peo- 

 ple of the Southern ^Appalachian and 

 tributary regions of $45,000,000 an- 

 nually. He urged that Congress be 

 petitioned so frequently and forcibly 

 that it would be obliged to listen to 

 the voice of the people in behalf of 

 the preservation, conservation, and 

 utilization of the country's great na- 

 tural resources. 



Governor Burke, of North Dakota, 

 and Mr. W. G. Jones, of Texas, 

 contributed to the general discussion, 

 and at 5.25 o'clock P. M., on motion 

 of Governor Noel, the session ad- 

 journed. 



Following adjournment, and in 

 pursuance of the suggestion made by 

 Governor Folk, a number of the Gov- 

 ernors met to take preliminary steps 

 toward perfecting a permanent organ- 

 ization. About twenty Governors 

 took part in this preliminary meeting, 

 and before the meeting came to a 

 close, "The House of Governors" had 

 been launched. A meeting to be held 

 in the coming autumn, either at St. 

 Louis, or Chicago, was decided upon ; 

 Governor Swanson of Virginia, and 

 Governor Willson of Kentucky, were 

 chosen as the neucleus of an executive 



