4i8 Proceedings of the 



miles wide — an average of about thirty miles. The 

 importance of securing it by the National Government 

 is of great vital interest to this Congress. This Con- 

 gress is to consider economic questions from a practical 

 point of view. The Southern States have more than 

 $200,000,000 invested now in cotton mills. These cot- 

 ton mills are in a large measure dependent upon water 

 power. The taking of the forest cover from the 

 Appalachian Mountains will largely destroy the oppor- 

 tunity nature has given the South to grow and increase 

 in wealth and prosperity, which it is doing and which 

 in the future it will to a greater degree than any other 

 section of our country. Some of you may not be aware 

 of the fact that the head waters of all of the rivers 

 that I shall name are in this Appalachian range : The 

 Potomac, the James, the Shenandoah, the Roanoke, 

 the Dan, the Catawba, the Yadkin, the Broad, the 

 Santee and the Savannah on the east. On the west we 

 have the Cumberland, the French Broad, the New, the 

 Tennessee, the Kanawha, and the Ohio. The names 

 of these rivers should impress us with the significance 

 and the importance of providing a forest reservation 

 in the Appalachian territory in the Middle East. Res- 

 olutions were passed by the American Cotton Manu- 

 facturers' Association in convention in the city of 

 Washington on the 12th day of May, 1904, as follows: 

 "Whereas, we recognize a great source of danger to 

 our water powers in the indiscriminate cutting of 

 timber at the headwaters of our streams ; and whereas, 

 this opinion is confirmed by uniform experience in 

 other countries, where drastic remedies have been 

 successfully applied; and whereas, our future as a 

 manufacturing nation is largely dependent upon cheap 

 power secured from^ our rivers and streams; and 

 whereas, owing to the great improvements being made 



