126 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



for the purchase of forest lands in the White Moun- 

 tains and the Southern Appalachians. Until that 

 date, National Forests were confined to lands al- 

 ready in possession of the nation. 



The first move toward this end was made in 

 1899 when the Appalachian National Park Associa- 

 tion was organized in Asheville, North Carolina. 

 The following year this Association together with 

 the Appalachian Mountain Club, the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, and the 

 American Forestry Association memorialized Con- 

 gress, and Senator Pritchard of North Carolina se- 

 cured a small appropriation for investigation. His 

 bill to appropriate five million dollars for Appala- 

 chian reserves, together with several which followed, 

 failed. A considerable series of bills appropriating 

 for reserves in both the White Mountains and 

 Southern Appalachians also failed, due principally to 

 the opposition of Speaker Cannon in the House and 

 western anti-conservationists. But Roosevelt vig- 

 orously approved, Missouri, Minnesota, Texas and 

 New York wanted National Forests of their own, 

 and the bill introduced by Representative John W. 

 Weeks of Massachusetts in 1909 finally passed the 

 House in 1911 by a vote of 130 to 1 1 1, and the Sen- 

 ate by a vote of 57 to 9. 



The bill's stated purpose was to conserve the 

 flow of navigable streams by protecting their sources ; 

 this because doubt existed whether appropriations to 

 buy forest lands for lumber conservation were con- 



