THE PERIOD FROM 1878 TO 1891 107 



APPROPRIATIONS FOR TIMBER PROTECTION 

 Perhaps in no way, however, was a conservation tendency more 

 ^plainly shown than in the appropriations made for protecting the 

 rpublic timber lands. In 1878, it will be recalled, Congress increased 

 [the appropriation from $5000 to $25,000. In 1879, the amount was 

 [further raised to $40,000; in 1882, to $75,000, and in 1890, to 

 5100,000, in addition to large sums already mentioned for preventing 

 Fraudulent entries. These appropriations, with several extra deficiency 

 ippropriations, enabled the Land Office to greatly increase its work- 

 ing force. In 1878, there were only eleven special agents working to 

 )rotect the timber lands, while in 1885, there were twenty- three, and 

 ^n 1890, fifty-five.^'" 



The steadily increasing appropriations for the protection of 

 timber lands do not indicate a conservation power in Congress grow- 

 ing with the same rapidity or the same steadiness. This is proved, not 

 ^only by the passage of the Act of 1880, above described, and by the 

 extension of the Free Timber and Timber and Stone acts previously 

 liscussed, but by other considerations as well. In the first place, the 

 Jundry Civil Bill, in which these appropriations were made, always 

 foriginated in the Committee on Appropriations, and in this committee 

 ithe more populous eastern states were much better represented than 

 &n the Committee on Public Lands, which controlled so much land and 

 timber legislation. Furthermore, the Sundry Civil Bill always included 

 a great number of items, and was usually passed hurriedly, in the last 

 days of the session, so that amendment was more difficult than in 

 ordinary legislation. It was in the Senate that least favor was usually 

 shown conservation measures, and the Senate was not quite free to 

 block an appropriation bill. Thus, in the Committee on Appropria- 

 tions an increase for timber protection had a fair chance of getting 

 into the bill, and, once there, had a fair chance of remaining, even in 

 a Congress which would have promptly eliminated any ordinary 

 conservation measure. 



The second consideration limiting the significance to be attached to 

 these increasing appropriations, is the fact that government appro- 

 priations for most other purposes were also increasing rapidly. Be- 



^'^^ Report, Land Office, 1878, 122: Report, Sec. of Int., 1885, 233: Report, Land 

 Office, 1890, 80. 



