78 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



of Massachusetts. By right of his prior discovery, Oregon and Washington 

 are under the Stars aiid Stripes and not the I 'nion Jack. The Columbia River 

 was named not from "Columbia the gem of the ocean," nor for Christopher 

 Columbus, but for that New England ship, the ship Columbia. As the capes 

 at her mouth were named "Cape Hancock" and "Cape Adams," as the very 

 Indians in calling every white man "Boston man," testify who it was that 

 made Oregon and Washington, not Canadian, but American. We ask of the 

 new states of the west and of the northwest common justice for the older 

 states, south and north, that have made not only the existing national forests 

 but the very existence of these newer states themselves a splendid factor in 

 the common history of our common country. 



We had a splendid result of our work last year in the passage of the 

 Weeks bill. Too much cannot be said in praise of the tact, the persistence, the 

 courage and ability of Congressman Weeks in putting through this measure. 

 You know, also, that it is to come up on the 15th day of February 

 in the Senate, the House bill having been substituted for the Senate bill. 

 All we need to get this legislation is to get one vote on that day. As usual, 

 our enemies, from motives which I will not discuss, are making their real 

 attack in the old, familiar way, not upon the merits of the measure, but by 

 indirection. They have amendments which they will offer, pretending that 

 they mean to increase the benefit. Do not be deceived! Every amendment 

 offered to that bill as it stands is really a move for delay, the intention being 

 to prevent an immediate vote on the bill, and to throw the bill back to a 

 committee of conference between the houses. With only two weeks between 

 the vote on the 15th of February and the dissolution of Congress, it would 

 thus be easy to kill the bill, quietly to stifle it in committee, as you have seen 

 it stifled again and again before by certain influences and interests in the 

 United States that thrive not by sunshine or publicity in their methods. 



So, the work of this association, the practical work of this minute and 

 from this minute to the very day, and every hour of every day until that vote 

 is taken, is to see that no amendment of any kind is made to that bill ; that 

 when that vote comes on the 15th of February our bill is passed absolutely 

 unaltered and unamended ; that every amendment is voted down and the bill 

 passed. Then for the first time we may see the east and south treated with 

 the same generosity with which the nation has treated the west; then shall 

 we see the first strong step for the preservation of the timber, of the climate, of 

 the water supply, of the water power, of the soil, and with the preservation 

 of the soil, the preservation of the people, through the whole Appalachian 

 slope, from the Canada line to the Gulf of Mexico. 



If the preservation of the trees were justifiable on no other ground, surely 

 it would be well to conserve the forests as places of refuge, where the jangling 

 nerves of our feverish American life could be soothed and smoothed and 

 brought again into subjection, where excitement could be charmed away by 

 the green shade and the shadows and the restfulness that Mother Nature 

 spreads around beneath the sheltering forest's shade. 



American life is hot and hectic, and needs at times to flee the crowded 

 )narket place and the shrieking streets, where modern life incessantly 

 assaults the nerves of hearing and sight. Surely we need to seek asylum 

 where we may in quietness and in great silences feel the influence of things 

 that are not material, the things that appeal to our better natures and restore 

 to our lives that calmness of spirit on which, not on hysteria, the greatness of 

 a people is builded. 



Not without reason is respect for trees almost the oldest instinct that 

 is in us. Our daily life, even now, is punctured by a constant reminder of the 



