ADDRESSES OF MAJOR LACEY 115 



come in bills on subjects that I did not agree with him 

 upon that appropriated more money in a single year than 

 this whole Bureau of Forestry would consume in ten 

 years ; but it was his judgment and the House followed it, 

 and I accepted his judgment. But when it comes to mat- 

 ters of legislation we have the President of the United 

 States asking for this bill in his annual message and we 

 have the Department of the Interior approving and asking 

 for it. We have a bill that has for its purpose the preser- 

 vation and conservation and administration of our forests. 



Whatever expense may attend this work will be con- 

 tributed by the American people and appropriated by the 

 Congress of the United States, and the revenues from 

 the forests will finally more than pay the expenses. These 

 forest reserves will become an asset instead of a liability. 

 Today the administration of forestry in the Philippine 

 Islands is one of the principal sources of revenue there, 

 and that forestry work is administered under the Spanish 

 law, which has been reenacted, with some modifications, 

 by the Philippine Commission. Under prudent and prop- 

 er management our forests will become sources of rev- 

 enue over and above all possible expense in their man- 

 agement. 



Without these forests in our western mountains the 

 desolation of the mountains of Palestine and southern 

 Italy will be soon duplicated in the United States. We 

 must learn from the mistakes of others. North Carolina 

 is asking to have her hills again restored to a forest state, 

 so as to bless and fertilize the valleys below. Let us 

 move in time in the arid regions of our western domain. 



