14 REPORT OF FORESTRY BUREAU, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



Part of these licenses expire in six months; the remainder in one 

 year from date of issue. Under the Spanish administration an aver- 

 age of 1,000 licenses were issued each year by the forestry bureau. 



Where an applicant employs a number of the people of a thinly 

 populated district, and where he shows that he can cut all that should 

 properly be cut for the present needs in that district, other licenses 

 for that particular limited area are not granted. Up to the present 

 time this has worked without objection. The licenses granted so far 

 cover but a veiy small part of the forest area of the islands. Vast 

 areas of virgin forest throughout the islands are practically untouched 

 and will not be entered for some time to come, owing to the lack of 

 roads, driveways, scarcity of labor, and means of transportation. 



A cable dispatch from Washington, D. C., was received early in 

 March giving notice of the passage of what is known as the Spooner 

 amendment. This law provides "that no sale or lease or other dispo- 

 sition of the public lands or the timber thereon or the mining rights 

 therein shall be made." 



Orders were given the forestry bureau to grant no more licenses to 

 cut timber on public lands. Several weeks later a copy of the opinion 

 of the law officer of the Division of Insular Affairs, giving the War 

 Department's construction of the Spooner amendment, was received, 

 and the forestry bureau notified that "such provisions of said General 

 Orders, No. 92', as are intended to protect and preserve the interests 

 of the United States in said forests are in harmony with said enact- 

 ment and not affected thereby." 



The opinion stated: 



This enactment permits the President of the United States to grant such temporary 

 privileges as are ' ' clearly necessary for the immediate government of the islands and 

 indispensable for the interest of the people thereof." 



The licenses granted have never been in excess of the immediate and 

 imperative needs of the islands, and the cutting under these licenses in 

 the islands has never been equal to the necessities of the people, and 

 has not been sufficient to bring down the price of timber to what it 

 formerly was. The cutting nowhere in the islands has been equal to 

 what would have been selected by the scientific forester whose princi- 

 pal object was the betterment of forest conditions. 



Owing to a lack of facilities for logging and sawing, it was found 

 impossible to supply the United States military forces in the islands 

 with the timber necessary for the construction of storerooms for sup- 

 plies, and barracks for troops, timbers for bridges, and other public 

 works immediately necessary for the care of the troops. Several 

 million feet of American timber were imported to supplement the 

 native timber brought to market. The United States Government 

 utilized at least 50 per cent of the native timber brought to market in* 

 the Philippines. The merchants used a large part of the remaining 

 50 per cent for new buildings, additions, etc., leaving the private 

 householders but a small and ridiculously inadequate supply for the 

 repair of their homes. The number of homes destroyed in the Philip- 

 pines during the insurrection will never be even approximate^ known, 

 and it will be j^ears before the supply of native wood will meet even 

 the absolutely necessary demand of the native residents. 



