FOREST LANDS FOB THE PROTECTION OF WATERSHEDS. 5 



This movement, sir, I need scarcely say, is not of a sectional or 

 local character. The President of the United States, in his address 

 yesterday, declared that the one specific thing that must be done, and 

 done now, for the conservation of our national resources, was the 

 passage of this act for the preservation of the Appalachian forests. 

 He even publicly advocated, if necessary, the issue of bonds by the 

 United States for that purpose, and in that declaration *he was sec- 

 onded by the gentleman who, if not the President-elect, is at least the 

 President elected, Hon. William H. Taft. I suppose it may not be 

 out of place for me to call the attention of the committee, and not in 

 any spirit of controversy and not in any sectional spirit, to another 

 fact. The city of Boston, the capital of the Commonwealth which I 

 have the honor to represent, is the second port of import in the United 

 States, furnishing, with the exception of New York, the largest rev- 

 enue from customs to the United States Government. New England, 

 Massachusetts, is delighted to have the National Government take up 

 national development. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, though 

 we have not one square yard of arid soil which needs irrigation in our 

 Commonwealth and have made no petition to the National Govern- 

 ment for irrigation, yet sent its delegates to the National Irrigation 

 Congress in New Mexico, to show that the New England States and 

 the Atlantic seaboard are quite as much interested in providing water 

 for the arid lands in the West as we are in providing water for the 

 mills and streams in the East. We do not border on the Mississippi 

 Valley or on the Ohio River, but we are heartily in accord with the 

 movement for deeper waterways for the Central West, and our dele- 

 gates have taken their part in the deliberations for that great purpose. 

 We shall hope to show you here to-day that the interest which is taken 

 in this movement and the support for it do not come alone from the 

 sections which are to be benefited. The support for it comes from all 

 over the United States, from the West as well as from the East, from 

 the South as well as from the North, and I take particular pleasure ir 

 calling the attention of this committee to the fact that I believe that 

 this is the first occasion where the governor of South Carolina and the 

 governor of Massachusetts, have appeared hand in hand together 

 before the National Congress to ask for something for the common 

 welfare of the United States. [Applause.] 



The effect of the shortage of water supply caused by the cutting 

 of the trees at the head waters of the streams we shall try to show 

 you has been wide-reaching. The diminution of water power in- 

 creases the cost of production to our manufacturers, it increases the 

 prices of our products, not only of cotton cloths, but particularly of 

 paper, of which New England, as you know, is the center. It has 

 added to the cost of the production of garden truck and the products 

 of the farm. Finally, I shall endeavor to show you that lack of 

 attention to these forests and the consequent low water in the streams 

 has materially contributed to the spread of disease. The water 

 sinking in the streams causes a deposit of sewage along the banks, 

 and from that springs the dread plagues of typhoid fever and diphthe- 

 ria, and certainly it is for the general welfare to prevent the death 

 of citizens of the United States by pestilence in time of peace, as well 

 as preserving the equipment of soldiers in time of war. 



Something has been said in regard to the extent to which the 

 various Commonwealths might be expected to cooperate with the 



