128 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



tion of bridges, schoolhouses, and other public uses ; while settlers in 

 the forest reserves were allowed free pasture in the reserves. Provision 

 was made that any entryman or settler included within a forest reserve 

 might have his property appraised and paid for by the Secretary of 

 the Interior, or he might relinquish his claim and select another tract 

 outside, which should be patented to him, regardless of the status of 

 his claim within the reserve. Some of these provisions seem exceedingly 

 generous, but the bill passed the Senate without amendment and with- 

 out comment. Perhaps fortunately, the House never had an oppor- 

 tunity to vote on the substitute. 



Thus the three sessions of the fifty-third Congress closed without 

 anything having been accomplished for the protection of the forest 

 reserves. On the second day of the fifty-fourth Congress, however, 

 H. R. 119 was given its accustomed place on the House calendar,^^ 

 but was given no attention for over six months. Finally, on June 10 

 of the following year, it passed the House with almost no comment, 

 but never emerged from the Senate Committee on Public Lands. 

 McRae's attempts thus ended in failure. Legislation for the forest 

 reserves was destined to come in a somewhat different manner.^*' 



THE COMMISSION OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, AND 

 CLEVELAND'S PROCLAMATIONS OF FEBRUARY 22, 1897 



The American Forestry Association had been active from the very 

 first in its efforts to secure forest protection, and finally the executive 

 committee of that association asked the Secretary of the Interior, 

 Hoke Smith, to call upon the National Academy of Sciences for a 

 commission of experts to make a careful study of the entire forestry 

 question. About this time, the Century Magazine published an edi- 

 torial also calling for such a commission, and the editor, R. W. John- 

 son, even personally requested Secretary Smith to ask the National 

 Academy for a commission of investigation. In response to these 

 requests, or prompted by other influences, Secretary Smith wrote to 



19 Bills were also introduced by Senators Teller of Colorado, Allen of 

 Mississippi, and Dubois of Idaho, and by Representative Johnson of California; 

 but no results accrued from any of them. It is difficult to explain the introduction 

 of such a bill by Senator Teller, for, at least in later years, he was one of the most 

 radical opponents of the forest reserve policy. (S. 914, S. 2118, S. 2946, H. R. 9143; 

 54 Cong. 1 sess.: Proceedings, Am. Forestry Assoc, 1896, 40, 47.) 



20 Cong. Bee, June 10, 1896, 6410, 6411. 



