The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-02
HEPBURN ATTACKS
 FOREST RESERVES
Would Reduce Federal For
 est Expenditure
CHARGES BIG GRAFT
Senator Says Foresters Are Recruited East Through Political Influence and Work Notorious | Graft System

Washington. March 1.-Senator Hey
 burn of Idaho tonight made a <utile
 attempt In the Senate to reduce the
 annual expenditure for the maintenance
 of the national forestry reserves from
 more than s5.o0O.oo to s1,oo0,0oo ty
 the introduction of an amendment to
 the agricultural bill and brought down
 upon his head the wrath of friends
 of the forest service who declared he
 was trying to kill settled policy of the government.
 The question arose in connection with the consideration of the agricultural appropriation bill. The amendment was
 defeated, 10 to 50.
 Several senators said they thought the forest service was too costly and the appropriations olAht to be reduced but the amendment offered by Mir. Hey burn went too far. To these sugges. tions Mir Hepburn answered he pro-
 posed to follow the amendment with another proposition which, If adopted,
 would eliminate a third of the forest service.
 Reference was made by Senator Flint of California to the disastrous forest fires of the last year and he declared
 the appropriation ought to be increased rather than decreased, so that the Sec retary of Agriculture might go on building trails and firebrakes. Some attention was also directed to the fact that it costs more than S2,00O,000 to
 pay salaries and rentals In the city of Washington for the forest service. Ar ha Wacbir pf y- pense was wasted unless it was proposed to fight fires by wireless telegraphy, which he declared would be Just as feasible as some of the methods that have been used. He thought the s1,0Oo,0o0 he proposed to have expended would be suf- flcient for the making of trails. During his general criticism of the for est service MT Hepburn said that in one way and another Congress Is appropriat- l ing almost sS.0O0,oo0 annually for the bro | lection of the forests. He charged the | foresters with using the reserves for their l own benefit.
 | He alleged that they profit by collecting hounties for killink wild animals, They create the reserves. prevent others from hunting. kill the game themselves and then collect from the state. They have q private snap he said.
 Senator Clark of Wyoming denounced the forestry system in warm terms and in doing so warned the eastern senator : that the time would come when they would regret the day they had procured the establishment of reserves in the
 White mountains and the southern Appn- lachans.
 He said the western people had been forced to accept the reserves against ,Iai, a,;lI xxttl tho hot
 prevented from developing the resources
 of the country.
 Mir Overman of North Carolina made some inquiries concerning the national
 nurseries. Replying Senator Nelson un-
 aertook to tell about the forestry nur- series in Alaska and elecited loud burst
 of laughter by relating that when he was boy he had worked in a nursery
 where" he said, i've did a little graft
 ing
 In the same connection MT. Heyburn
 said the tree seeds used in the nurseries
 were obtained largely through robbing the nests of squirrels He said he knew
 of 45 bushels gathered from that source. Speaking of the foresters MT. Hepburn declared they were recruited from the eastern states.
 They are suckers, rafters," he con- tinued. and defining grafters. said:
 "The grafter is not the man who pokes
 his hand into a till and takes out what he gets hold of: he is the man who attached himself to some other mans property and draws it away from him."
 After the defeat of the amendment pro- posing to decrease the appropriation for forest preservation. MT. Hepburn offered another proposition to prohibit the ex-
 penditure of any part of the forest ser vice appropriation upon forests growing less than 1000 feet. board measure. of
 merchantable lumber per acre in con- tiguous areas of l60 acres. He said tae effect of the amendment would be to eliminate more than one-third of the for
 est reserves.
 Speaking in support of this amendment
 MT. Clark said tha under the existing
 policy men are living in western states
 as tenants of the government" He served notice that when another bill is presented to the Senate the government
 would have to show some reason for tho expenditure of such vast sums as are
 being poured into the forests. Under the
 policy of the government Mir. Clark said
 "a commercial proposition" was being
 made of the western states. The com
 mittee of the whole finally adopted tie amendment.
 Among the various amendments adopt
 ed was one appropriating s20,Oo0 to assist in caring for surplus elk In the Jackson
 hill country of Wyoming The bin was
 then passed without a roll cal.