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SILERS BALD ON TENNESSEE-NORTH CAROLINA LINE FROM MIRY RIDGE 



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l^ll The ISSationdl Appalachian Park 



By Henry H. Gibsox 



A law was passed by the Congress of the United States and ap- 

 proved by the President on March 1, 1911, creating a National Forest 

 BeseTvatiou Commission, and authorizing the acquisition of lands on 

 the watersheds of navigable streams, for the purpose of conserving 

 tlieir navigability. The act under which this commission is enacted is 

 based on constitutional ground, the power of the federal government 

 to regulate commerce and protect the navigability of streams. Un- 

 ^.leniably the members of the House and Senate, with notably few ex- 

 ceptions, did not realize what a great piece of legislation they were 

 putting on the statute books, and equally certain is the fact that this 

 law will go down into the history of nations as a monument to Ameri- 

 can legislative sagacity paralleled only by the Panama Canal, and 

 possibly not even by this monumental undertaking. Let not Congress 

 therefore be accused of knowing what it was about, for it didn't; 

 but the fulfillment of the enactment means the fruition of public 

 sentiment, originally inspired by Grover Cleveland, and latterly 

 strongly urged by Theodore Eoosevelt, Gifford Pinchot and other 

 notable conservationists, looking to the perpetuation of a considerable 

 portion of the magnificent forests of the eastern section of the United 



States, the protection of the sources of many of the great rivers of 

 the country and the maintenance of the natural beauty of a vast and 

 salubrious mountain region, convenient of access to the majority of 

 centers of population. 



Under the bill, the Secretary of Agriculture is directed to examine, 

 locate and recommend to the commission for purchase sufficient lands 

 as in his judgment may be necessary to the regulation of the flow 

 of navigable streams, and is authorized to purchase in the name of the 

 United States such lands as are approved by the National Forest 

 Reservation Commission, at the price fixed by this body. The com- 

 mission consists of the Secretaries of War, Interior and Agriculture, 

 Senators Gallinger of New Hampshire and Smith of Maryland, and 

 Representatives Hawley of Oregon and Lee of Georgia. 



The general purpose of the law is to secure the maintenance of a 

 perpetual growth of forests on the watersheds of navigable streams 

 where such growth will materially aid in preventing floods, in im- 

 proving low waters, in preventing erosion of steep slopes and the 

 silting up of the river channels, thereby increasing the flow of water 

 for navigation. While the improvement of the flow of navigable 



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