42 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



the whole National Forest enterprise, are urged. The proposal 

 that the properties be turned over in their entirety to the several 

 States has a waning support and no longer needs to be taken 

 seriously. On the other hand, efforts frequently are made to secure 

 the abolition of individual Forests. Proposals to do away with 

 the Forests in Alaska still find strong advocates. As pointed out in 

 my last report, such action would be unwise and unfortunate. Action 

 of this sort, however, can be met squarely on its merits, for the 

 question of abolishing a National Forest raises a clear-cut issue 

 which the public can not misunderstand. 



A more serious danger to the National Forest system lies in the 

 repeated efforts to open them to the action of some general land 

 grant or to the laws applicable to the unreserved public domain. 

 Each year there are introduced in Congress numerous proposals de- 

 signed to open the Forests, or portions of them, to private acquisi- 

 tion or to disposition of one kind or another. One measure of this 

 character passed both Houses of Congress during the last session 

 and failed to become law only through the Presidential veto. It 

 proposed to open the Forests to the acquisition of lands by any in- 

 corporated city or town for park and cemetery purposes and to coun- 

 ties for park purposes. Every public purpose of the proposed measure 

 can be realized under existing law. So serious would be the effect 

 of such a measure that, if enacted, undoubtedly it would be necessary 

 within a few years actually to abandon a number of important For- 

 ests. In his veto message, after explaining that the measure was en- 

 tirely unnecessary and would have unfortunate public consequences, 

 the President said: 



But the most serious objection to the bill is that it subjects the 

 National Forests to disposition under a general grant. At the 

 very time while provision is being made for purchase by the 

 Government of forested lands in the East for the protection of 

 watersheds, it is proposed to permit similar lands in the West 

 to be permanently alienated. I would respectfully urge that it 

 is unwise to permit alienation of the National Forests under 

 general legislation of this sort. If the process of piecemeal dis- 

 tribution is begun, independently of any oversight or control 

 of the National Government, there is manifest danger that the 

 Forests will be so disintegrated as to make their efficient admin- 

 istration impossible and the purposes for which they were estab- 

 lished unattainable. Against such a process the National Forests 

 should be carefully protected. 



