THE WEEKS LAW CONFERENCE 



1005 



been fully cunvinced of the wisdom and necessity of this 

 program. Some of them labored for years for its inau- 

 guration. They have watched with deep interest and 

 gratification the results secured under the Weeks Law, 

 and their representatives are here now to assure the Sec- 

 retary of Agriculture of their continued interest and to 

 urge that the program be carried forward without inter- 

 ruption and on a scale commensurate with its impor- 

 tance. A further object of the conference is to con- 

 sider ways and means of working effectively towards 

 that end. 



As the officer of the Government most largely respon- 

 sible under the law for carrying forward this program, 

 we desire to suggest to the Secretary of Agriculture that 

 if it meets with his approval he urge upon the President 

 and Congress the importance of this program and a con- 

 tinuation of the appropriation of funds necessary to 

 carry it on. Our hope is that the Secretary may discuss 

 the matter in his annual report and recommend a con- 

 tinuation of appropriations, as recommended by the 

 National Forest Reservation Commission in its annual 

 report, at the rate of $2,000,000 a year for an additional 

 period of five years and also that he will include in his 

 estimates to Congress for the fiscal year 1917 an item of 

 $3,000,000 as a first installment of this appropriation. 



The program of purchases should go on without inter- 

 ruption for the following principal reasons : 



1. Congress has begun the policy. It did so only after 

 long consideration and discussion and after obtaining 

 convincing proof of its necessity. Under the authority 

 obtained, and the appropriations, a good start has been 

 made. An effective procedure has been worked out. A 

 force of experts has been trained. The machine which 

 has been created for the work and which under the law 

 is somewhat complicated is in motion. 



2. It would be a great loss to have the program inter- 

 rupted. The force which it took two or three years at 

 the start to get together and train would be lost so that 

 when the work is taken up again a new force would have 

 to be gotten together and trained. Touch would be lost 

 with the land owners, and with it that intimate informa- 

 tion as to titles, surveys and values which is now making 

 the work go forward effectively. 



3. The wisdom of the Secretary of Agriculture has 

 been shown in limiting at the start purchases to certain 

 specific areas of great importance But the purchases 

 are not complete in any of these areas and undoubtedly 

 cannot be made so with the appropriation alreadv made. 

 If the purchases should stop now the Government would 

 be put to too high a cost for protecting and administering 

 its lands on account of intervening private lands. Fur- 

 thermore, the work would not have gone far enough to 

 accomplish the purpose which the legislation was in- 

 tended to accomplish. 



4. This program is of too great importance to be car- 

 ried on intermittently. It is of the utmost national im- 

 portance that the mountain watersheds be protected so 

 that the streams may be capable of the highest develop- 

 ment; so that the soils shall not be washed from the 

 mountain sides nor the property of persons or com- 

 munities ruined or damaged by floods which could in 

 part be restrained ; so that the river valley soils may not 

 be destroyed as a result of the floods and debris from 

 the mountains. 



5. Finally, the continuation of this program is urged 

 as a matter of economy. It is believed that it will cost 



less to carry it on than not to do so. Carried on it will 

 mean an expenditure of $2,000,000 per year, with some 

 three or four hundred thousand acres of mountain timber 

 lands passing each year into the hands of the Govern- 

 ment to be developed for timber production and to be 

 utilized in many useful ways by the public. In this case 

 at any time in the future the property will be worth more 

 than the cost. If the program is not carried on the result 

 will be the certain deterioration of these lands by fire and 

 by unwise timber-cutting and tillage, the loss of at least 

 a portion of the soils and likewise a loss in the naviga- 

 bility, power possibilities, and purity of the streams, 

 increasing damage by floods to cities, communities, and 

 persons along the rivers, and also to river valley soils. 

 And after all this loss has been sustained (and it will 

 certainly amount to more than the cost of these lands), 

 the necessity will still e.xist for the Federal Government 

 to handle the situation, and the cost of doing so then will 

 be greater than it is now. 



Members of the delegation at a meeting after the con- 

 ference appointed as a committee to direct the activities 

 of the co-operating organizations toward securing the 

 desired appropriation the following: Dr. Henry Sturgis 

 S. Drinker, president of the American Forestry Associa- 

 tion; Percival Sheldon Ridsdale, secretary of the Amer- 

 ican Forestry Association, and Philip W. Ayres, forester 

 of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire 

 Forests, and gave the committee power to appoint others 

 to assist in the work. 



The organizations represented and the delegates attend- 

 ing were : 



The American Forestry Association, Washington, D. C., 

 Dr. Henry S. Drinker, president, and president of 

 Lehigh University, South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 

 and P. S. Ridsdale, executive secretary, of Washington. 



Massachusetts Forestry Association, Boston, Mass., Har- 

 ris A. Reynolds, secretary, and Allen Chamberlain, of 

 Boston. 



Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, 

 Boston, Mass., Philip W. Ayres, forester. 



North Carolina Forestry Association, Chapel Hill, N. C, 

 Hugh MacRae, Wilmington. N. C. 



Appalachian Mountain Club, Boston, Mass., Hon. 

 Harvey N. Shepard, of Boston. 



Appalachian Park Association, Ashcville, N. C, George 

 S. Powell, secretary. 



Knoxville Board of Commerce, Knoxville, Tenn., W. Isl. 

 Goodman, Knoxville. 



New Hampshire State Board of Trade, Concord, N. H., 

 Geo. B. Leighton, Dublin, of the State Forestry Com- 

 mission. 



\\^estern New England Chamber of Commerce. Spring- 

 field, Mass., Frank M. West, of Springfield, Mass. 



Pennsylvania Forestry Association, Philadelphia, Pa., 

 Herbert Welsh, Philadelphia. 



Connecticut Valley Waterways, Association, Springfield, 

 Mass., Ashton E. Hemphill, Holyoke, Mass. 



Southern Commercial Congress, Washington, D. C, Dr. 

 Clarence L Owens, managing director, Washington, 

 D. C. ■ 



New Haven Chamber of Commerce, by Charles E. Jolin, 

 New Haven, Conn. 



