be solved quickly, an(i on broader lines than those along 

 which State action could be looked for. 



Organized effort for Federal ownership began in 190 1. It 

 was set on foot partly by residents of Massachusetts, who 

 realized that the interests affected were not limited to New 

 Hampshire. Two years later, the first bills providing for the 

 purchase of lands in the White Mountains were introduced 

 in Congress. But the plan at first found small favor. 

 Forestry as a national undertaking was still in its early 

 infancy, if indeed it could fairly be said to have been born. 

 Some sixty-two million acres of "forest reserves" had been 

 created in the West, but plans for putting their resources to 

 good use had not been devised and only the most rudimentary 

 administrative provision for their care had been made. 

 In short, they were reserves in every sense of the word — 

 Government property metaphorically placarded ''Keep Out!" 

 and locally unpopular as obstacles in the path of economic 

 progress. The expenditure of Federal funds to buy eastern 

 forest lands was regarded askance, as a proposal to embark 

 on a new and dangerous policy involving both the use of public 

 funds for local and uncertain benefits and the extension of 

 government into a field of activity which it should not enter. 

 Political orthodoxy was shocked at the thought of what might 

 happen if national ownership and management of this form 

 of property were to begin. 



Year after year the legislation was brought forward only 

 to be defeated. It was soon combined, however, with the 

 proposal for similar legislation in the southern Appalachians 

 which had arisen independently still earlier. As the movement 

 for Federal action gained strength, opposition was based largely 

 on the ground that the bills were unconstitutional. But in the 

 end the rising tide of public sentiment carried the law through 

 — the so-called Weeks Law. By limiting the purchases to 

 lands necessary to the regulation of the flow of navigable 

 streams and providing for a determination of the fact that 

 national control of the lands to be purchased would promote 

 or protect navigation, the question of constitutionality was 

 successfully met. 



15 



