FOREST ADMINISTRATION UNDER THE MORRIS BILL. 1 57 



Morris bill, or at least that part of it relating to the forest ad- 

 ministration, which comes about because the Indians are being 

 excited. One of the lumbermen is making them believe they are 

 being taken advantage of. The Morris bill provides that five 

 per cent be left for resetting purposes, and the Indians are 

 anxious to know whether they are to be paid for this. The bill 

 provides that 200,000 acres of non-agricultural land shall be set 

 aside for a forest reserve, and the Indians are asking whether 

 they are going to be paid for this. The Indians are almost being 

 persuaded that the lumberman is their friend and the forester 

 their enemy. This is a peculiar situation. Of course, the friends 

 of forestry desire to see the Indians paid. The payment will be 

 provided, but it seems to me tfie State Forestry Association 

 should put itself on record as asking that that part of the Morris 

 bill be now attended to by our representative in. congress, and I 

 hope Mr. Chapman will introduce a resolution asking that justice 

 be done in this matter. (Applause.) 



Mr. H. H. Chapman : This bill and the situation which has 

 arisen in the endeavor to administer the law arose from the ne- 

 cessity of passing the law in the way in which it was passed. Our 

 representative at Washington had to pass that bill. The pressure 

 was so strong that they had to compromise on the present form 

 of the law which gave the state a forest reserve with trees enough 

 on it to insure pine springing up from the seed if the Forestry 

 Bureau had charge of the cutting. We got this much. The pine 

 from the tops, the pine after the logs are removed, must be 

 burned at a time when the fire would be the least liable to extend 

 itself, and this provision and the necessity which the lumbermen 

 are under of burning these pine tops and needles, and the con- 

 sequent expense to the lumbermen, makes them very desirous to 

 defeat the bill and do away with the expense. The expense of 

 the administration of the Forestry Bureau is not one-half as great 

 as the lumbermen try to make it appear, and it can be done with 

 great economy, but owing to the attack which the lumbermen 

 are making upon the bill the administration of the law is being 

 delayed through a technicality which every one of the legislators 

 acknowledge existed at that time, and that is that the Indian Bu- 

 reau is entitled to five per cent as payment for the land. Really 

 they get more than if the old Nelson law had been carried out, 

 as they would not have been paid this five per cent under the old 

 Nelson law which they are now to receive, but legally they are 

 entitled to it. The lumbermen do not care to have the Indian 

 paid for this, but they want to defeat the entire measure. 



