US Presidency
1910

The control to be exercised over private owners in their treatment of the forests which they own is a matter for state and not national regulation, because there is nothing in the Constitution that authorizes the Federal Government to exercise any control over forests within a State, unless the forests are owned in a proprietary way by the Federal Government. It has been proposed, and a bill for the purpose passed the Lower House in the last Congress, that the National Government appropriate a certain amount each year out of the receipts from the forestry business of the Government to institute reforestation at the sources of certain navigable streams, to be selected by the Geological Survey, with a view to determining the practicability of thus improving and protecting the streams for federal purposes. I think a moderate expenditure for each year for this purpose, for a period of five or ten years, would be of the utmost benefit in the development of our forestry system. I come now to the improvement of the inland waterways.