I FOREST RESERVES IN THE EAST 217 



outh — Massachusetts and Connecticut. The southern Appalachian 

 •eserve was likewise too big a proposition for any single state, and 

 t was clearly impossible to get the states to combine in such a way 

 hat the expense could be shared according to benefits/® 



If the protection of these forests had been assumed to benefit mainly 

 by the preservation of the timber, the prevention of forest fires and 

 the stimulation of the summer resort business, there would have been 

 much justice in leaving it to the states; but as far as the proposition 

 rested on the theory of stream conservation, it seemed more properly 

 a Federal function. At any rate, it was perfectly clear that if the 

 forests were to be conserved, the Federal government must take 

 charge. 



INFLUENCES FAVORING ITS PASSAGE 



Various influences favored the passage of the bill. In the first place, 

 many of the influential government officials favored it. President Taft 

 approved of the proposal, just as McKinley and Roosevelt had ap- 

 proved of similar proposals before ; and of course Secretary of Agri- 

 culture James Wilson and most of the officials in the Forest Service 

 and in the Geological Survey were favorably disposed. 



Many influential organizations throughout the country registered 

 their approval of forest reserves in the Appalachian and White moun- 

 tains. Among these organizations were the following: the Adirondack 

 Murray Memorial Association, the American Civic League, the 

 American Cotton Manufacturers' Association, the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, the American Forestry Associa- 

 tion, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the American 

 Mutual Newspaper Association, the American Paper and Pulp Asso- 

 ciation, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Appalachian 

 National Forest Association, the American Association for the Pre- 

 servation of the Adirondacks, the Daughters of the American Revo- 

 lution, the Eastern States Retail Lumber Dealers' Association, the 

 Irrigation Congresses of 1907, 1908, 1909, and 1910, the Massachu- 

 setts Forestry Association, the Merchants' Association of New York, 

 the National Association of Carriage Builders, the National Asso- 

 ciation of Manufacturers, the National Association of Box Manu- 



49 S. Report 459; 60 Cong. 1 sess., pt. 2, 7. 



