FOREST RESERVES IN IDAHO. 61 



less important in its bearing upon the matter is the present system 

 of establishing reserves. None are recommended without the most 

 careful examination and consideration of all points. Temporary 

 withdrawals pending such examination may include unsuitable land 

 and give color to hasty protests, but the permanent lines are drawn to 

 exclude practically all agricultural areas, and the remainder is 

 restored to the public domain. The examinations are thorough and 

 by men intimately familiar with western conditions. 



I will state at this point that the Shoshone Reserve and the 

 Kootenai Reserve have not yet been recommended. ^Withdrawals 

 have been made. Careful examination is being made, but the perma- 

 nent lines have not yet been drawn. Care will be taken, so that the 

 best interests of the State and of every industry will be promoted 

 when these reserves are established. 



To sum up, the Government makes forest reserves for no other pur- 

 pose than to protect and manage them, at its own expense, for the 

 benefit of the State and its home builders. It is anxious to do this 

 acceptably to the present and future population. The occasional 

 friction is nearly always due to misunderstanding of either the objects 

 or the regulations of the reserves. Mistakes can not always be 

 avoided by either side, nor can systems or officers be perfect, but 

 improvement will be faster if the peo2)le will cooperate and if critics 

 will devote their energies to correcting errors instead of trying to 

 abolish any system for the protection of Idaho's resources. 



In conclusion, and as I stated in the beginning, the present national 

 policy in regard to irrigation and forest reservations is not the crea- 

 tion of President Roosevelt and his Administration. This policy 

 has been established by the Senators and Representatives from the 

 Western States after years of concentrated effort. They fought the 

 creation of forest reserves during all administrations, from Cleveland 

 down to the Administration of Roosevelt, because the reservations 

 were set aside without proper investigation, and the administration 

 of the reserves was carried on loosely and by incompetent and broken- 

 down local politicians in the field, to the injury of our section. All 

 defects and abominations of the system Avere discussed in public 

 debates on the floor of Congress until they have been removed. The 

 western Representatives pointed out not only the faults, but sug- 

 gested the manner in which these reserves should be administered for 

 the benefit of the West. These suggestions were gradually adopted, 

 one by one the abuses were done away with, and to-day forest 

 I'eserves are administered by the present Administration for the sole 

 jnirpose of conferring the greatest benefit on the communities in 

 which the respective reserves are situated. This policy is now fixed, 

 and it is the policy, as I have said before, which has been established 

 b}^ the united efforts of the Senators and Representatives in Congress 

 from the section of country affected. 



Politics has never at any time divided the western Representatives 

 in their policy on irrigation and forest reserves. They stood unitedly 

 against the powerful influences which were brought to bear to alloAV 

 the Xational Government to lease our lands. Unitedly they success- 

 fully combated the attemj^t to turn all of the public lands over to 

 the respective States and Territories with the proviso that these 

 States and Territories woufd reclaim them, and unitedly they framed 

 the present nati'onal irrigation law, under the provisions of which the 



