The Lamar register., 1909-03-03
HARD FIGHT ON
FORESTRY BILL
SENATE VOTES DOWN PROPOSED
100000 ADDITION TO THE
APPROPRIATION.
OTHER CHANGES LOST
STRONG INDICTMENT OF FoRE6-
TRY BUREAU SYSTEM BY
SENATOR TELLER.

Washington-After a debate which
occupied practically the entire legisla-
tive day in the Senate, the opponents
of the national forestry administration
succeeded Friday night in defeating
the Senate committee amendment to
the House bill adding 100000 to the
amount allowed by the House.
An amendment offered by Hepburn
directing the Secretary of Agriculture
TIC restore to entry and eliminate from
the reserves all untimbered land in
Idaho. was promptly accepted by Sen
ator Warren, who was in charge of
the bill. and who suggested including
all the states in the provision. The
amendment was lost when point of
order was raised against 1t by Flint of
California.
Senator Warren also accepted for
the committee an amendment offered
by Senator Dixon to pay so per cent
of the forest receipts to the states
containing the reserves, but this was
lost, Senator Teller making a point of
order against it, Teller insisted that
all of the receipts should go to the
states, and said that when he left the
Senate and commenced practicins law
he proposed to test the forest regula-
lions and rules in the courts.
During the discussion, Senator Tel
Ter called attention to, the denuncia-
tons made against men who have cut
timber on the public lands in mining
districts. He declared the timber had
been cut legally and had yielded the
government in precious mineral many
times the value of the timber. He
said he had drafted and procured the
passage of the act of 1878, which al
lowed the people of the West to do
what they had been doing without
any law in the cutting of timber on
public land for mining camps.
The men who swept these hills
bare of timber" he said, were not
public robbers. but they acted in ac-
cordance with statutes and they re-
turned to the government much more
than the timber was worth. There
has been no wilful destruction of tim
Der in Colorado. The people of that
state are more interested in the con
servation of their timber than any
people outside the state could posi-
bly, be-
Condemning the forestry bureau sys-
TEN. Mr.. Teller said, If ''Pinchots plan
had been applied to Colorado during
the days of its development that state
would still be the home of the coyote.
the panther and the bear" The sys
TEN, he said, was destroying the pros
poets for settlement in the future
demonstration, he said. had been
failure in Colorado. The farmers raise
more timber in that state than is rails
ed by the forest bureau.
Il would rather" he declared, "have
an American home and an American
family than to have forest as big as
all outof-doors. | do not believe there
is moral or any other claim upon me
to postpone the use of what nature has
given me-"
Mr.. Teller insisted that the predic-
tons concerning the exhaustion of che
coal supply are far from correct. Colo
RADIO alone, he said, could supply the
world with coal for $50 to 200 years.
Mr.. Smoot defended the service. de-
claring that the cost of all lectures be-
fore various societies last year had
been only s5.O22. The lectures he re-
garded as entirely justified.
Every time" he said, information
is given about frightening the life of
railroad tie, the American people are
benefited
Mr.. Smoot took up cases cited in
the Senate to show injustice and in so
doing became involved in a contro-
versy with Senators Clark, Carter and
others.
Mr.. Smoot said the forestry service
fire patrol system had saved $4,000
900 worth of timber.
Senator Clark (Wyoming) declared
that Mr.. Shoots system of estimating
fire losses was faIlacious. as it was
based on the idea that fire once
started would burn until extinguished
by a forester, whereas many of the
fires even in the reserves are stopped
by settlers.
Senator Flint California; asserted
that in his state alone the losses in
the past year from forest fires would
have amounted to 100000. 900 IL il had
not been for the exertion of the for
esters.