AMERICAN FOREST CONGRESS 57 



of the land policy of the United States is, as it by right 

 ought to be, directed to the upbuilding of the home- 

 maker. The one sure test of all public land legislation 

 should be: Does it help to make and keep prosperous 

 homes? If it does, the legislation is good. If it does 

 not, the legislation is bad. 



"Certain of our land laws, however beneficent their 

 purposes, have been twisted into an improper use, so 

 that there have grown up abuses under them by which 

 they tend to create a class of men who, under one color 

 and another, obtain large tracts of soil for speculative 

 purposes, or to rent out to others." 



Two bills are pending in Congress to-day, the pas- 

 sage of which will prove a distinct gain to American 

 forestry. They are little understood, probably, by 

 the American people as a whole, yet it is doubtful if 

 there are any pending before Congress fraught with 

 greater import to the nation. One has passed the 

 House and the other one has passed the Senate. The 

 former bill consolidates the entire government forest 

 work, now badly divided and cut up among different 

 bureaus and divisions, into one bureau under the De- 

 partment of Agriculture.* It has the unanimous sup- 

 port and approval of various officials, the heads of 

 departments and the Executive. It should promptly 

 become a law and the country should then stand by 

 its Bureau of Forestry with such support as is neces- 

 sary to carry out its forestry plans in the broadest and 

 most comprehensive manner, for by doing so it will 

 conserve greatly its own wealth. 



The other measure has likewise the unqualified sup- 

 port of the President, all forest officials and heads of 

 departments. It passed the Senate without a dissent- 



*This bill has since passed Congress and was signed by 

 President Roosevelt, February i, 1905. 



