THE APPALACHIAN WORK 



BY WM. L. HALL 



OP THE FOREST SERVICE 



CHE Forest Service is now practically getting into the routine part of 

 the Appalachian work, and I think this year's appropriation will run 

 over one million dollars. If it should turn out that purchases are to be 

 made in the White Mountain region the Forest Service itself would be in a 

 position to report upon the land. It has examined it to the extent of a 

 hundred thousand acres or so, at a valuation of perhaps from six to eight 

 hundred thousand dollars. 



Should it turn out that we cannot purchase lands in the White Mountains 

 this year, then we expect that we will complete examinations in the Southern 

 Appalachians, enough to consume the appropriation of two million dollars 

 which is available for this present year; so that, in any case, we believe it 

 will be possible to use the money which Congress has put into our hands. 



When this proposition was under consideration for the ten or twelve years 

 it was before Congress, it was pointed out by those who thought it was unwise 

 that, if this law were passed, we would encounter all kinds of difficulties. 

 It was said, in fact, that it was a scheme of the land grabber ; it was a scheme 

 of the speculator, and that when we actually got into the work of acquiring 

 land we would find that the speculator had gone in advance of us and had 

 gathered in the lands, and would turn them over to the Government only at 

 a great profit. We have not found that to be true. In a few cases locally, 

 we have found that men have gathered in considerable bodies of land, ex- 

 pecting, possibly, that the Government would come in as a purchaser eventually. 



That has not been hard to deal with. Generally, we have found the land 

 owners have not discounted the action of the Government at all, and are ready 

 to deal with us on a frank and businesslike basis. 



The passage of this law, however, did in a measure set acting a certain 

 class of men, men who were very anxious to become closely acquainted with 

 the |11,000,000, and they have attempted to operate in various ways. Some 

 of them have attempted to impersonate Government officials in filing their 

 options on land; others have attempted to get options in their own names 

 with the idea, of course, of making a good profit; others are endeavoring to 

 show that, as agents, they can save the Government: a great deal of money, 

 and also obtain enormous prices for the owners of the land. But, with a 

 stiff backbone against all that sort of thing, we are able to make progress, 

 and we shall undoubtedly be able to make progress, and carry out effectively 

 the law as it was the intention that it should be carried out, and as it was 

 the expectation of the entire country that it should be carried out in a rea- 

 sonable and businesslike way, doing justice alike to the land-owners who 

 have land to sell and to the whole people whose money was to be used for 

 the purchase of those lands, and only at a reasonable price. 



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