OUR FOREST RESERVE. I7I 



Crete plan of compromise was soon laid before the whole delegation, 

 with the suggestion that the Morris bill might be amended to con- 

 form thereto. 



Meanwhile, the people of Cass Lake had sent a delegate to the 

 Twin Cities to secure their support of the original Morris bill, but 

 encountered there an opposition, for which the federation and their 

 statement issued in the January Courant was largely responsible. 

 They returned convinced that a compromise was necessary and soon 

 after went to Washington, where they were of great assistance in 

 bringing it about, by merely indicating their willingness to accept 

 one. Mr. Pinchot's name had been frequently mentioned, and the 

 Minnesota congressmen looked him up and consulted him about 

 the practicability of modifying the lumbering operations success- 

 fully. Mr. Morris exerted himself to bring the delegation and rep- 

 resentatives of the various interests together to, as he said, thresh 

 it out. This meeting was finally held on Thursday, Jan. 23rd, with 

 all but two of the Minnesota members present, and lasted four 

 hours. Mr. Pinchot was present and proved to be the key to the 

 situation, for while the members differed among themselves, they 

 were all willing to turn the bill over to him to amend. This was 

 done, and the amended bill as drawn up by him and Mr. Morris in 

 conference received the united support of the delegation and was 

 passed. I say, received the united support of the delegation — appar- 

 ently so — but whether the lumber interests feared the possibility of 

 undue interference with business methods as a result of forestry 

 rules or preferred a system with less rigid inspection of their work 

 or really considered that sealed bids were such a serious objection as 

 to warrant them in killing the bill, they made this latter a plea for an 

 opposition that came very near to defeating the measure. It was 

 rescued on a bare technicality and passed in the last two days of the 

 session, in spite of and not by the aid of the lumber interests. 



Bearing in mind the women's platform, we note that the law 

 provides : 



First : That the agricultural lands be thrown open, this being 

 an unaltered part of the Nelson law, which law was amended by the 

 present law. 



Second : The timber upon the pine land is to be cut and used 

 under regulations made by the forester of the Department of Agri- 

 culture. The pine land to the extent of 225,000 acres, including 

 some agricultural land, is created a forest reserve in his charge, 

 with abundant provisions for reservation of seed trees, protection 

 from fire and other necessary regulations. 



Third : The islands in Cass and Leech lakes, certain specified 

 points and, in addition, ten sections of land are to be reserved as 

 parks, and the timber left untouched. These ten sections can be 

 selected anywhere on the lake shores or in other places where the 

 scenery should be preserved and its beauty saved from destruction. 

 The selection is to be made by the Bureau of Forestry. 



The work of selecting the forestry lands and park sites is be- 

 ing pushed to completion at the present time as fast as the compli- 



