VIEWS OF MB. HAWLEY. 



In addition to joining in the dissent of the minority and commending 

 its vigorous presentation of the matter, 1 desire to add the following 

 observations: 



This bill provides for the acquisition of lands anywhere in the 

 United States for the establishment of new forest reserves or national 

 forests. These lands are to be acquired from the present private 

 owners upon the recommendation of a commission, as provided in the 

 bill. It is stated that the purpose of such acquisitions is to preserve 

 and improve the navigability of navigable rivers, apparently following 

 the opinion of the Committee on the Judiciary of the House, as 

 expressed in House Report No. 1514 of this Congress. It is inferred 

 that if the policy proposed in the bill is carried out, under the terms 

 and by the means therein set forth, that in due time extremes of high 

 and low water in navigable rivers will be regulated, and the hindrance 

 to navigation due to the deposit of silt will be controlled. The vital 

 question at this point is, " Will this be the result?" If not, then the 

 theory on which the bill is based fails, and its justification also fails, 

 under report No. 1514, referred to above. Upon this relation between 

 the proposed control and navigation or stream flow the authorities 

 disagree, as set forth at length in the proceeding opinion of the 

 minority. And no agreement exists as to where the necessary lands 

 lie or as to what is their nature. 



The bill also provides that for the same purposes the Government 

 may administer private forest lands adjacent to the lands in the pro- 

 posed new reserves, for a term of years, upon agreement with the 

 owners. There is little evidence to show whether few or many owners 

 of forest lands will so agree, and in my judgment not many will accept 

 the terms proposed. If they do not, the amount of land necessary to 

 be acquired by the National Government in order to carry out the 

 policy in the bill will be increased and add largely to the appropria- 

 tions required. 



It is proposed to appropriate from the revenues of existing forest 

 reserves $1,000,000 for the first year, and $2,000,000 annually there- 

 after for a period of nine years, in all $19,000,000. In view of the 

 large areas it is proposed to control, this amount must be regarded 

 rather as an experimental appropriation than as a sum adequate to 

 accomplish the purposes of the bill. The report of the Secretary of 

 Agriculture, made in compliance with the provision in the agricultural 

 appropriation bill, approved March 4, 1907, which directed him to 

 make an investigation of this question (see S. Doc. 91, 60th Cong., 1st 

 sess.), on pages 30, 31, and 32, says: 



AREA AND LOCATION OF LANDS NEEDING PROTECTION. 



In order to determine the extent of the lands primarily available for forests in the 

 Southern Appalachian and White Mountain regions, a reconnaissance survey has 

 been made, as a result of which the accompanying maps have been prepared. Maps 

 I and II show for the two regions the lands to be classed as distinctly mountainous 

 and nonagricultural. 



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