THE PERIOD FROM 1878 TO 1891 115 



laws, had been vexing Congress for a decade ; and a determined effort 

 was being made to effect some kind of a revision. Late in the second 

 session of the fifty-first Congress, a conference committee of the two 

 houses was appointed to adjust differences on one of these general 

 revision bills, and Secretary of the Interior Noble, who had been influ- 

 enced by Fernow and Bowers, and perhaps by other members of the 

 American Forestry Association, asked this committee to insert a rider 

 authorizing the President to establish reserves/" 



Fortunately this conference committee was composed of men most 

 of whom were at least not predisposed to fight such a measure. Of 

 the Senate conferees, Plumb of Kansas was mainly interested in other 

 kinds of public lands, but, coming from a prairie state, he understood 



187 H. R. 7254; 51 Cong. 1 sess. In crediting Secretary Noble with the intro- 

 duction of this forest reserve section, the writer is following the usual account 

 of the matter. Recently, however. Senator Pettigrew has advanced the claim that it 

 was he, and not Noble, who should be credited with this action; that Noble had 

 nothing to do with it. In spite of this claim, and in spite of the fact that the writer 

 is unable to secure absolute proof to back up his belief, he nevertheless adheres to 

 his opinion that Secretary Noble should receive the credit. Several considerations 

 point to such a conclusion. In the first place. Secretary Noble repeatedly asserted 

 that it was he who had inserted that section. He told Mr. Bowers of New Haven 

 that he had done it; and in at least one public speech he spoke of his "official 

 action" in connection with the forest reserve section. Most other writers of the 

 time also seemed to assume that Noble had been responsible. Fernow, writing in 

 1897, spoke of him as the author. 



During all this time, apparently, Pettigrew made no claim to the authorship of 

 the section; and, when President Cleveland established a number of preserves in 

 1896, it was Pettigrew who led the forces that called for their suspension. There is 

 some evidence that Pettigrew was not unfriendly to the reservation policy previous 

 to 1897, but in that year, as will be shown in the following chapter, he did every- 

 thing possible to secure the suspension of the reserves Cleveland had created; and 

 some things he said in Congress indicate that he really favored entire abolition of 

 the reserves, although, by securing the passage of the act in 1897, he did a great 

 service for conservation. 



On this question, the following letter from Dr. Fernow seems pertinent: "To 

 me it seems strange that Pettigrew should persistently have kept in the dark that 

 I never knew of his interest even in the subject. Nor has Mr. Bowers any such 

 recollection. My memory is, that at the time the story was current, Mr. Noble 

 declared at midnight of March 3, in the Conference Committee, that he would not 

 let the President sign the bill (for abolishing the timber claim legislation) unless 

 the Reservation clause was inserted. Since these things happen behind closed doors, 

 only someone present can tell what happened. Secretary Noble or one of the con- 

 ferees. All we, that is. Bowers and myself, can claim is that we had educated Noble 

 up to the point." (Proceedings, Am. Forestry Assoc, 1893, 36 et seq.: Science, 

 Mar. 26, 1897, 490.) 



