Bisbee daily review., 1905-02-12

other parts of the southwest. In several cities are large establishments filled with all sorts of plumber. Car loads are shipped eastward every few weeks. Enormous quantities have been shipped to Europe and sold. The shelves of public and private museums in this and other countries have been stocked with articles of more or less archaeological and ethnological value which have been picked up among the ruins. Several big dealers send out expeditions regularly to replenish their supplies. Parties of college students and other amateur scientists make annual tours of investigation, and have brought home vast quanti- ties of relics. And professional arch aeologists are constantly making ex- cavations for the purpose of securing collections and studying antiquities, without regard to the damage they do or the interests of other students who may enter the field for the same purpose hereafter. Enormous de- struction has been done; many i'm protaIt ruins of prehistoric ages have been entirely obliterated. Temples, dwellings. Notifications and other structures which were in a fairly good state of preservation have been de- stroyed by dynamite merely to obtain curios to sell in the market. and so rapid has the destruction been that. unless something is done, within a few years more the remains of prehistoric races and the Spanish occupations c. the southwest will be practically de stroyed.
 To prevent such a calamity ana 10 preserve and protect the tangible evi- dences of the peoples who have occu- pied the soil of the United States in past ages several bills have been in- troduced into Congress, and four or five have already been passed placing conspicuous ruins like the Casa Grande of Arizona, the cliff dwellings in the conyon del Murto and the Can yon del Chelly, and the natural ob jects like the petrified forest and the Navajo church under the care of the Secretary of the Interior. Recently the American Archaeological Institute, the Anthropological Association and other organizations have united to se- cure the passage of a general law for the preservation of all antiquities. There were some differences of opin- ion as to the regulations and there was considerable jealousy and rivalry between prominent museums and or ganiZations. Some of the advocates of the measure wanted to give the Smithsonian Institution exclusive jurisdiction over the antiquities be- loning to the government, while others desired to arrange for equal rights to be enjoyed by all scientific societies under the direction and authority of the Secretary of the Interior. A harmonious understanding of their ri val interests was reached, however, at conference of representative of the societies and museums mostly inter ested in the subject, who recently ap peared before the committee on public lands and submitted a substitute draft of law which is satisfactory tC all concerned. The committee has accepted the substitute Representa- ltive Lacey has reported it to the House of Representatives and promis
 es to call it up for action at an early
 date. No opposition is expected.
 The bill places ali historic and pre-
 historic ruins, monuments, archaeolo
 gical objects and other antiquities ol the public lands, wherever they ma.
 be, under the care of the Secretary o the Interior, who shall withdraw iron
 entry the sections upon which the,
 are located and preserve and protec
 them from despoliation.