The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1913-05-07
LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE.
Synopsis Of the Address .! the Hon.
A. F. Lever, at the Meeting Of the
American Forestry Association.

American fore8tTy ASSoSidt:on'
.ur. Chairman and Gentleman: To
conserve something is to preserve it
for posterity, and man who cannot
live beyord his own life is not living
at all, and that, to my mind, is the
keyn te end the fundamental idea of
this whole conversation movement.
When l came to Congress about IL
years ago as mere boy I was struck
with that idea and fell under the spell
of the leadership of the men in Wash
ington who had consecrated their lives
to the proposition of conserving to
the American people the great forests
of this country. was so much i'm
pressed with that idea that l was one
of the authors Of what is now known
as the Weeks bill, taking over the
mountain ranges of the New England
and Southern States and. conserving
them to the American publ.
THE NOTION 8 FORESTS.
We have an erea of something like
10000, 900 acres in the national forests.
That is larger than the State of South
Carolina. What We shall do with it,
how We shall deal with it, whether we
shall turn.it over to private interests to
be exploited and used, or whether we
shall conserve it for the American peo-
pie for all times are questions that the
the next Congress will decide. We
are entering upon a new aGministra-
ton. For more than 10 years the op-
position party has had control Of the
government. I think it only fair to say
with respect to fol estry at least, that
through the energy, activity and the
alertness of the agricultural commit
tee your program of conservatism has
been fairly we'll carried out.
What will be the policy of the Dem
ocratic party in the Senate and House
in the next Congress with reference
to this great policy of conservation,
not only the conservation of the for
ests that we now have, but the Prob
lens of the conservation Ct the world
and of the earth and of the ever
great questions that enter into Amer
ican lire, is { question tnat might we'll
be considered by bouy of as intelli-
gent men as is gathered here tonight.
do not know what is in store for us,
but hope, as matter of promotion,
to be the chairman of the committee
on agriculture in the next Congress.
O! measure my words when I say them,
that if 1 am chairman of the com
mittee on agriculture and an attempt
should be made to directly Or indi-
rsctly, secretly or in the open to stop
this great movement for the preserva-
ton of the American forests for the
American people, that shall be con-
strained as chairman of that commit
tee to 60 back few years and canon
ize that kind of proposition. In such
an effort I believe that I state the will
of the unanimous opinion of the
members of the committee on agricul-
ture. We are spending something like
S., 900, 900 annually in the matter Of
forest preservation and in study of
tim Der and all Of is related subjects.
The agricultural committee is not 60
ing to be parsimonious next year. We
are going to see to it that no insidious
effort to steer us away from the cor
rect attitude shall succeed.
Personally, perhaps, l go fnrther
than some Of my associates on the
committee on agriculture. I not only
stand for the preservation Of the Amer
lean forests for the American people
in the broadest sense of the word, but
I stand for the preservation IF the
American waters for the American
people.