110 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



the government in these reservations is limited only by 

 the constitution. 



Attorney-General Knox, one of the clearest-headed 

 lawyers that has ever administered the Department of 

 Justice, has recently considered the subjects of the na- 

 tional power over the public lands and forest reserves, 

 and his opinion is to the effect that Congress can, even 

 within the limits of a state, legislate and make regulations 

 by which animal life may be protected in the people's 

 forests. This opinion of the attorney-general will be a 

 landmark in the history of protective legislation, for as 

 Congress is given the power, it should not and will not 

 fail to exercise it. 



As stated in the opinion of the attorney general, we 

 need not ask the governor or any legislature of any state 

 what we will do in those reservations. But we make a 

 concession here. We give the President power to enlarge 

 the existing purposes of these reservations, so as to make 

 some of them fish and game preserves as well, but not to 

 do this unless the governor of the state shall consent. 

 After that consent has been given this control of the na- 

 tional government will be exercised, but not until then. 

 When the gentleman stated that we were turning over the 

 control to the governor of a state, he does not compre- 

 hend the scope of the bill, or perhaps has been unfortun- 

 ate in his expression. 



Now let me answer the other part of the gentleman's 

 question, because it was a dual question. Under exist- 

 ing laws the President of the United States can take any 

 public forest land in the United States and create a forest 

 reserve out of it. The majority of the committee on pub- 

 lic lands, recognizing the fact that some of these bound- 

 aries had been very unsatisfactory, and that friction had 

 thereby arisen in some of the states in regard to forest 

 boundaries, have suggested the propriety of placing the 



