4o6 Proceedings ot the 



and the sand from the hills, washing them down and 

 destroying the old brooks. 



Now this is one of the unpleasant features of the 

 denuded timber lands of the Eastern States. I see 

 here before me representatives from every State and 

 Territory in the Union, because this question has be- 

 come a national one and has gone into the homes of the 

 people. It is not too late to save some of the great 

 Appalachian forests of North and South Carolina. It 

 is not too late to save the valleys of many the Eastern 

 States from that destruction which followed the denu- 

 dation of the forests of France when the hilltops were 

 carried down into the valleys and the rich alluvial 

 plains absolutely buried with sand and gravel. It is 

 not yet too late, although many a fertile field has been 

 destroyed. 



I can look at this from an impartial standpoint, with- 

 out prejudice, living in a country that has no forests, 

 that never had them, that never will have any great 

 forests; where we have a climate in which there is 

 always rain enough to grow a crop and drought enough 

 to dry it for harvest; where all we need in the world 

 is to be let alone. 



I did not come here to talk to you this morning. I 

 sat down in the audience simply because I wanted to 

 touch elbows with those who are carrying this crusade 

 in favor of the forests into every part of the United 

 States ; but I am glad to have this opportunity to look 

 these earnest people in the face and to bid them God- 

 speed and good cheer. There is no nation in the world 

 that has been so extravagant, that has been such a 

 spendthrift of its natural resources as the American 

 nation. We tap a gas field, set it on fire and advertise 

 for everybody to come and see it burn up — a gas field 

 that it took countless millions of ages to store under the 



