302 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



watershed at the source of navigable 

 rivers is a negligible factor in the main- 

 tenance of such navigability, ignore? 

 the testimony of the able and compe- 

 tent engineers who have appeared be- 

 fore the committee in behalf of the 

 Weeks bill, ignores the discussion of 

 the Milan navigation congress of 1905, 

 the facts regarding which were laid be- 

 fore the committee in c.rtciiso ; ignores 

 even the testimony ol one of their own 

 star witnesses. Colonel Bixby, of the 

 TJnitecl States Engineering Corps. Colo- 

 nel Bixby testified before the commit- 

 tee: "The net result of that discussion 

 has been up to the present time among 

 all the technical men, the engineering 

 fraternity : It is a draw-off as to whether 

 forests affect navigation at all. There 

 are some who think they do and there 

 are some who think they do not. There 

 are isolated cases where it is quite ap- 

 parent to some people that there is a 

 local benefit, and there are also isolated 

 cases where it is equally apparent that 

 there is not. So far, up to the present 

 day, every meeting of technical men, 

 every meeting of engineers all over 

 Europe, as well as in the United States, 

 has resulted in a drawn game as to 

 whether the forests did affect naviga- 

 tion or whether they did not." 



In the face of this, the minority coolly 

 make the statement above referred to. 

 This is also in the face of the addi- 

 tional fact that the committee has had 

 before it the official expression on this 

 matter of the American Society of Civil 

 Engineers and the American Institute 

 of Electrical Engineers, representing 

 about 10,000 engineers in this country, 

 and this expression stands counter to 

 that of the army engineers whose testi- 

 mony the minority cite with such favor. 

 This certainly puts the Engineer Corps 

 in an unpleasant position. The armv 

 engineers are gentlemen and officers of 

 intelligence and professional compe- 

 tence. How do they like being made to 

 appear as assuming to be the sole au- 

 thorities in professional matters? We 

 cannot believe that Colonel Chittenden, 

 Colonel Bixby, Major Cavanaugh, Cap- 

 tain Johnston, or anv other officer of 

 the corps, would willingly be put in 



such a light. And then it has been 

 shown that even in the corps there i? 

 a difference of opinion. 



The attempt of the minority to make 

 it appear that the advocates of the 

 theory of forest regulation are imprac- 

 ticable theorists and men of no expe- 

 rience is an unworthy one and shows 

 that the minority know that they are 

 advocating a bad cause and dare not 

 recognize the truth. The men who 

 have testified in favor of the Weeks 

 bill are practical men of wide experi- 

 ence. Swain and Lee and Schoen and 

 Van Hise and Roth and Glenn and 

 others who have testified on the same 

 side, are as competent as any who have 

 been put on against the bill. Have any 

 been found on the side of the opposi- 

 tion except the army engineers, whose 

 testimony contains many admissions 

 and qualifications which the minority 

 do not dare to use, and the chief of the 

 Weather Bureau, whose competence in 

 this particular field has been shown to 

 be simply nil ? 



Xote in contrast the fulsome com- 

 ments of the minority upon their own 

 witnesses. Colonel Bixby stated in re- 

 gard to his own experience : 'T have 

 not, of course, been specially at work 

 on that branch of the service of for- 

 estry. My knowledge of it comes sim- 

 ply in connection with my own study 

 of river and harbor improvements on 

 which I have been engaged in active 

 practice in charge of districts ever since 

 1884. I have a little theoretical knowl- 

 edge of the subject, because several 

 years prior to that time I went abroad 

 to study and went to the French Na- 

 tional School of Bridges and High- 

 ways and through their entire course." 



In view of these facts, as stated by 

 Colonel Bixby, is the minority justified 

 in saying: "If anybody in the United 

 States, or indeed in the whole world, 

 is entitled to speak with authority upon 

 the fundamental proposition of the bill 

 under consideration, it is Colonel Bixby, 

 for the testimony before the Committee 

 on Agriculture shows that for more 

 than thirty years he has studied the 

 question of forestation as relating to 

 ^treamflow and has read every impor- 



