Arizona republican., 1911-03-02
AN ASSAULT
 ON FORESTS Western Senators Attack
 the Appropriation ARE PARTIALLY SUCCESSFUL
They Secure a Prohibition of the Expenditure of Any Sum Upon Forests Whose
 Production Falls Below a Given Volume Per Acre.

Washington, March l-Senator Hey burn Of Idaho made futile attempt to- day in the senate to reduce the annual expenditures for the maintenance of the national forest reserves from more than five million dollars to one million dollars by introducing an amendment to the agricultural bill and brought down on his head the wrath of the friends of the forest service. wno said
 ne was trying to kill a settled policy of the government
 The question arose in connection with the consideration Of the. agricuI- tural appropriation bill The amend ment was defeated 50 tO Ig
 This amendment comes from an open,-frank and avOwed enemy Of the fixed policy of the United States" de- clared Senator Root of New York
 'Gpon the proposal of a single enemy of settled policy of the government We are asked to take this step. There has been no report of a committee in support of it; it was without recom- mendation. and l protest against it."
 Several senators said they thought the forest service was too costly and that the appropriations ought to be reduced, but that the amendment of fered by MT. Heyburn went too far Among these were Messrs. Bcrah of Idaho and Gallinger Of New Hampshire.
 To these suggestions Mir. Hepburn said he proposed to follow the amend ment with another proposition. which. if adopted. would eliminate at least a third of the forest reserves.
 References was made by Senator Flint of California 10 the disastrous forest fires Of last year. He said the appropriation ought to be increased so that the secretary Of agriculture might continue the building of trails and fire breaks. Attention was also called 10 the fact that il costs more than S2,O00.- 000 to pay salaries and rentals in the city of Washington for the forest serv- ice.
 Mir Heyburn said the Washington expense was wasted unless it were pro Vided to fight fires by wireless tele graph, which he said would be just as feasible as some of the methods that have been used. He thought the one million dollars he proposed to have ex- pended would be sufficient for the building of trails MT. Hepburn said that under various guises congress k apprOpriating almost $S.O0O.OO0 annual ly for the protection of forests. He charged the foresters with using the reserves for their own benefit. He al- legged that they profit by collecting bounties for killing wild animals"
 They create the reserves. prevent others from hunting. kill the game themselves, and collect from tile state. They have a private snap" he said.
 Senator Clark of wyoming denounced the forestry system in warm terms and in doing SO he warned the eastern sen ators that the time would come when they would rue the day they had pro- cured the establishment of reserves in the White mountains and the southern Appalachians.
 He said the western people had been forced to accept the reserves against their will with the result that they were prevented from developing the re sources of the country. Speaking of the foresters, MT. Hepburn said that they were recruited from the eastern states.
 After the defeat of the amendment proposing to decrease the appropria- tions for forest protection, Mir. Hey burn offered another proposition to prohibit the expenditure of any part of the forest service appropriation upon forests growing less than four thousand feet of merchantable lumber to the acre in contiguous areas Of l60 acres. He said the amendment would eliminate more than one third of the forest fe- serves.
 Speaking in support of this amend ment MT. Clark said that under the existing policy. men are living in west ern states as tenants of the govern ment'"
 He served notice that when another hill is presented to the senate the gov ernment will have to show some reason for the expenditure of such vast sums as are being poured into the forests. Under the policy of the government, Mir. Clark said, "a commercial proposi- ton" was being made of the western states The committee of the whole finally accepted the amendment Among the various amendments adopted was an appropriation of $20.O00 to assist in caring for starving elk in the Jackson Hole country of Wyoming.