FOREST LANDS FOB THE PROTECTION OF WATERSHEDS. 7 



Governor GUILD. Yes; the reserves, as you know. In addition to 

 the state forest reserves, I should say we have great systems of parks 

 in Massachusetts which also include forests. The various municipali- 

 ties in Massachusetts are planting trees. Our highway commission in 

 Massachusetts plant trees along every one of our Massachusetts state 

 highways. This I am quoting merely to show the good faith in the 

 demand for national action, that we are prepared to supplement your 

 efforts, gentlemen, and that we do feel that the various States in 

 which these forest reserves are located ought not to be asked to pay 

 for them from the limited means of their own state treasuries. I 

 appear as representing one of the Commonwealths which is to have 

 no national forest reserve within its borders, but which will gladly 

 contribute its share of the national revenue to establish forest re- 

 serves, not according to political lines, where forest reserves are 

 needed. [Applause.] 



I have quoted already the national character of this movement and 

 the support that has arisen behind it all over the nation. I might 

 close with, perhaps, a bit of sentiment, a coincidence if you please, 

 which, nevertheless, is rather interesting. When the United States 

 first gathered together for its war for independence, the first flag of 

 any army from the united colonies, the flag under which Washington 

 took command of the Continental troops under the old elm tree at 

 Cambridge, was a white flag with a pine tree; it was the first flag of 

 the United States Army. When the first American fleet was char- 

 tered by George Washington at the siege of Boston, with Commo- 

 dore John Hardy and a little fleet of fishing schooners, they flew a 

 white flag with a pine tree, and the same motto, "An appeal to 

 heaven." The first flag of the United States Army, the first flag of 

 the United States Navy, under which they began the battle for na- 

 tional existence, was the flag of the liberty tree, the flag of the pine 

 tree. We come before vou in peace, as they went forward in war, 

 under the same sign, for the preservation of national health and 

 national wealth, and we ask for the preservation of forests, not in the 

 interest of any one State, not in the interest of any section, but in the 

 interest of the entire American people. [Great applause.] 



Mr. POLLARD. Governor, I do not know whether you have ever had 

 occasion to look over House bill 22238, which is a bill I introduced on 

 this subject. I just wanted to ask you this question. I think the 

 committee are all agreed that the object for which you gentlemen are 

 contending is a good one. I do not believe this committee needs any 

 evidence to convince it that something ought to be done. What we 

 want to know is the method, the means to the end, not the feasibility 

 of the end itself. It occurred to me, and I have embodied the idea in 

 this bill, that the Federal Government might, without the necessity 

 of purchasing these tracts of land, supervise the forests and accom- 

 plish the same end through the cooperation of the States, as you have 

 suggested, and evade the necessity of the purchase of the lands out- 

 right. What little investigation I have given to the subject, and I 

 think the same holds true with some of the other members of the 

 committee, has convinced me that if we enter into this matter, it is 

 not a question of the purchase of 5,000,000 acres of land in the south- 

 ern Appalachians or perhaps 600,000 acres in the White Mountains, 

 but ultimately it means the purchase of from 65,000,000 to 75,000,000 

 acres of land in the southern Appalachians and perhaps 3,000,000 in 



