10 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



of that large outlet sewer. The principle is precisely the same in the St. 

 Francis i)i'oblem — and so it is in all other interstate swamps. 



How can the matter be adjusted under two separate jurisdictions? Some 

 one may say that the States can unite for the common purpose and to carry 

 out the work under mutual agreement. Possibly this may be done; but we 

 have yet to see a successful example of it. There are many w^ho believe, as 

 a result of observation of interstate matters, that the logical and wise way 

 and the only surely successful one is the intervention of a common authority. 

 And what is the established common authority as between states in this 

 country? It is the Federal Government. 



I believe most thoroughly in providing every orderly safeguard that may 

 be necessary to preserve the integrity of local government. There can be no 

 virtue in any proposition that would needlessly deprive any locality or any 

 State of its perogatives and transfer them to the nation. On the other hand, 

 it appears to be a matter of simple logic and plain common sense that where 

 the established requirements of an artifically divided jurisdiction in any place 

 are inevitably opposed to the fundamental laws of nature that require com- 

 mon jurisdiction in that place, the requirements of the former must give 

 way to the necessities of the latter in so far as may be necessary to accom- 

 plish the ultimate purpose. The simple fact is that we have in the drainage 

 of interstate swamps a condition into which our much revered governmental 

 precedents will not fit. We are confronting a new problem which requires 

 the adjustment of our governmental ideas. It is a testimonial of our progress 

 and an indication of our economic needs that we are so confronted, and it is 

 inconceivable that the American people will fail to adjust themselves to any 

 condition that forces itself upon them as a result of their enterprise and 

 foresight. 



FEDERAL CONTROL IS NECESSARY 



But the national aspects of swamp reclamation are not confined to those 

 of engineering necessities. Other aspects of economic necessity are truly 

 Federal in fact, if not in law. Moreover, these aspects are by no means 

 confined to interstate swamps. Seventy-four million acres of swamp land 

 lying in almost every State in the Union constitute of themselves a sufficiently 

 important issue to make them a matter of general welfare. 



First and foremost, our swamps are the greatest single menace that now 

 remains to public health. This Republic has from its beginning and in com- 

 mon with the rest of the world been subject to an enormous drain by reason 

 of disease. Men of science have pursued these diseases, and, by hazardous 

 labor, have brought out of obscurity fact after fact concerning them and the 

 means of their prevention. Some diseases have not yet been run to earth 

 but others are fully exposed, and we are reaping the benefits of the informa- 

 tion. Swamj) lands harbor the agents by which at least two destructive 

 diseases are spread abroad. ^lalaria and yellow fever are transmitted by the 

 mosquito, and in no other way. Time at my disposal does not admit of a 

 discussion of the mosquito agency in these two diseases and it will be suffi- 



