The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-12-07

tions, before any forest reserve is created.
 I have repeatedly called attention to the confusion which exists in Govern ment forest matters because the Work is scattered among three independanE organizations. The United States is the only one of the great nations in which the forest work of the Government IS not concentrated under one department in eonsonance with the plainest dle- tates of good administration and com mon sense. The present arrangement IS bad from every point of view. Mercy to mention it is to prove that IS should be terminated at once. As I have re- peatedly recommended, all forest work of the Government should be coneen- trated in the Department of Agrlcul- ture, where the larger part Of that work is already done, where practically all of the trained foresters of the Gov ernment are employed, where chiefly in Washington there is comprehensive first-hand knowledge of the problems of the reserves acquired on the ground, where all problems relating to growth from the soil are already gathered, and where all the science auxiliary to for estry are at hand for prompt and effct- i've cooperation. These reasons are de- cisive in themselves, but it should De added that the great organizations of citizens whose interests are affected by the forests reserves, such as the National Live Stock Assocation, the National Wool Growers Association, the American Mining Congress, the National Irrigation Congress. and the National Board of Trade, have uni- formly, emphatically, and most of them repeatedly, expressed theselves in favor of placing all Government forest work in the Department of Agriculture be- cause of the peculiar adaptation of that Department for it. It is true, also, that the forest services of nearly all the great nations of the world are un- der the respective departments of agri- culture while in but two of the smaller nations and in one colony are they un- der the department of the interior. This is the result of long and varied experience and agrees fully with the re- quirements of good administration in our own case.
 The creation of forest service in the Department of Agriculture will have for it's important results:
 First. A better handling of all forest work, because it will De under q single head, and because the vast and indis- pel1sable experience of the Department in all matters pertaining to the forest reserves, to forestry in general, and to other forms of production from the soil, will be easily and rapidly accessi- ble.
 Second. The reserves themselves, be- iEg handled from the point of view of the man in the field, instead of the man in the office, will be more easily and more widely useful to the people of the West than has been the case hitherto.
 Third. Within a comparatively short time the reserves will become self-sup- porting. This is important, because continually and rapidly increasing ap- propriations will be necessary for the proper care of this exceedingly impor- tant interest of the Nation, and they can and should be offset by returns from the National forests. Under simi- lar circumstances the forest possessions of other great nations form an irnpor- tant source of revenue to their govern- ments.
 Every administrative officer concern- ed is convinced of the necessity for the proposed consolidation of forest work in the Department of Agricul- ture, and I myself have urged it more than once in former messages. Again I commend 1t to the early and Adorable consideration of the Congress. The in- terests of the Nation at large and of the West in particular have suffered greatly because of the delay.
 Public Lands.
 l call the attention of the congress to the report and recommendation of the commission on the public lands for Warded by me to the second session of the present congress. The commission has prosecuted it's Investigations ac- lively during the past season, and a second report is now in an advanced stage of preparation.
 Game Preserves.
 In connection with the work of the forest reserves I desire again to urge upon the congress the importance of authorizing the president to set aside certain portions of these reserves or other public lands as game refuges for the preservation of the bison, the wa pita and other large beasts once Sc abundant in our woods and mountains and on our great plains and now tend ing toward extinction. Every support should be given to the authorities of the Yellowstone Park in their success ful efforts at preserving the large crea- lures therein; and at very little expense portions of the public domain in other regions which are wholly unsuited to agricultural settlement could be simi- larly utilized. We owe it to future generations to keep alive the noble and beautiful creatures which by their presence add such distinctive character to the American wilderness. The limits of the Yellowstone Park should be ex- tended southwards. The Canyon of the Colorado should be made national park; and the national park system should include the Yosemite and as many as possible of the groves of giant trees in California
 Pensions.
 The veterans of the civil war have a claim upon the nation such as no other I,a5-, oe c,,,, o;+i1apes ,,o.anao rti.,s :, A.,