FORESTRY MOVEMENT IN UNITED STATES. 405 



A storm of indignation broke out in Congress 

 over the precipitate action of the President, the 

 repeal of the entire forest reservation policy was 

 demanded by the Western senators and represen- 

 tatives, who felt insulted by the lack of consid- 

 eration, and the laboriously achieved first step 

 threatened to be lost. A compromise was, how- 

 ever, effected. 



The sundry civil appropriation bill passed June 4, 

 1897 (see Senate Doc. No. 102), set aside only the 

 proclamations of February 22, 1897, suspending the 

 reservations which were made upon the recommenda- 

 tion of the committee of the academy until March i, 

 1898, presumably to give time for the adjustment 

 of private claims and to more carefully delimit the 

 reservations. For this purpose an appropriation 

 of 1^150,000 to survey the reservations under the 

 supervision of the Director of the Geological Sur- 

 vey was made. The provisos attached to this ap- 

 propriation embody the most important forestry 

 legislation thus far enacted by Congress. These 

 provisos had been in the main formulated in the 

 above-cited bill known as the McRae Bill, which 

 was passed by the House of Representatives and 

 the Senate of the Fifty-third Congress — without, 

 however, becoming a law; and again had passed 

 the House in the Fifty-fourth Congress, it being 

 the legislation advocated by the American For- 

 estry Association as a first step toward a more 

 elaborate forest administration of the public tim- 



