52 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



plj, by selling the land thus in unlimited amounts, was clearly pointed 

 out in both houses of Congress. Representative Holman was particu- 

 larly apprehensive on this point ; in fact, in his fear of lumber monop- 

 olies he failed to appreciate the advantages of large units in the 

 lumber industry, and thus failed to foresee clearly the line of develop- 

 ment which that industry was going to follow in succeeding decades. 

 "I may be told," he said, "that this wealth, which may be monopolized, 

 consisting in boundless regions of timbered lands, will not be made 

 available unless these lands are sold in large tracts. I do not think, 

 however, that the argument can be sustained. It is very possible for 

 these lands to be held in smaller quantities and still be made available 

 by the energy of the single citizen. This policy would make no great 

 fortunes. It would give capital no opportunity to rapidly multiply 

 itself; but it would do what is infinitely better, it would give multi- 

 tudes of men an opportunity by their own labor to improve their 

 fortunes." Just what kind of a lumber business Holman had in mind 

 here, it would be rather difficult to say, but it certainly was not what 

 we now recognize as the most efficient type of lumbering operations. 



Perhaps the most advanced stand yet taken in Congress on the con- 

 servation question, was that of Senator Boutwell of Massachusetts. 

 Senator Boutwell offered an amendment to the Clayton bill, providing 

 for the appraisal and sale of the timber without the land, at not less 

 than appraised value, in tracts of not over 320 acres. The timber was 

 to be removed within three years, and no one was to get a second 

 assignment until he had exhausted his first 320 acres. A small amount 

 of each species of timber was to be left standing on each plot, and all 

 live oak and red cedar was to be reserved unless opened to exploita- 

 tion by special order of the President. Thus, as early as 1876, at 

 least one man in Congress had grasped clearly the principle which 

 was later to govern our forest policy — sale of the timber with a 

 reservation of the land. 



In his defense of his amendment. Senator Boutwell used some argu- 

 ments which sound very much like other conservation arguments of 

 the period, but some of his ideas sounded unusual depths of economic 

 philosophy for his time. "It is perhaps too early in the life of the 

 country," he said, in closing his speech before the Senate, "to suggest 

 that in two particulars we are moving in that clear path which is 



