FOKEST LANDS FOR THE PROTECTION OF WATERSHEDS. 57 



Government by the Federal Government in the case of the weakness 

 or the unwillingness of the State of that resource without which we 

 can not live, not only for its commercial importance, but for its in- 

 fluence on our lives, our morals, our health, and the welfare of the 

 country in which we live. 



i 



STATEMENT OF MR. C. J. H. WOODBURY, SECRETARY OF THE 

 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COTTON MANUFACTURERS. 



Mr. WOODBTJRY. Mr. Chairman, at the last hearing I appeared be- 

 fore you with a committee of our association, which includes all of 

 the principal cotton mills from the Atlantic States, excepting Florida, 

 and also Alabama and Mississippi. These twelve thousand and odd 

 men in executive positions in the cotton mills, operate over 20,000,000 

 spindles, with a capital, with the subsidiary bleachers and dye works, 

 of something like $750,000,000. They are viewing with apprehension 

 this terrible peril of the waste by flood, and they instructed me to 

 come here and express their sincere wish that you would take some 

 action along the line of these hearings, of which you have had many 

 particulars, and therefore on account of the shortness of the time I 

 will omit going into those particulars, stating that these cotton manu- 

 facturers in the several States have done all that they could .in the 

 matter of the State reserves, town reserves, and some corporations 

 are planting great numbers of trees, two of them 30,000 apiece to my 

 knowledge, on the lands which they happen to control on their water- 

 sheds, and that is all I have to oner, on account of the shortness of 

 the time. The feeling is in favor of this project on the part of these 

 manufacturers, whose work has been held up by the freshets and 

 droughts, which have also shut off not merely the operation of the 

 manufacturing but probably its capital, and also that of the thou- 

 sands and thousands of the help which they employ. The question 

 is regarded as an exceedingly serious one, and one that is growing in 

 regard to what I believe to be the greatest single industry in this 

 country. 



STATEMENT OF MR. A. W. BUTLER, OF ROCKLAND, ME., REPRE- 

 SENTING GOVERNOR WILLIAM T. COBB. 



Mr. BUTLER. I come here at the request of Governor Cobb, as he 

 was detained by official business in -Maine. I know that the governor 

 is much interested in this measure. I find that there is a large con- 

 stituency in Maine that are interested in it and believe in immediate 

 action, so far as it is possible or so far as it may be possible for imme- 

 diate favorable consideration. We not only feel interested for these 

 particular localities, but for the general effect upon our States, in 

 which we believe there should be a wider an.d larger supervision of 

 the forests and the general resources. I have talked with two men 

 to-day from Maine who are interested and engaged in the lumber 

 business in Maine, and they expressed to me very earnestly their de- 

 sire and wish that this measure should be adopted, and that no fur- 

 ther delay than was possible to take immediate action should be had, 

 because our physical conditions are changing. Our forests are being 

 cut off and our water supply diminished. It is my own view *nd my 

 earnest wish, and I think I represent a large constituency, that yoi 

 will take favorable action upon this subject. 



