The Republican journal., 1914-06-04

| righteousness has SnOulQeFeQ arms. IL
| is a great fight; there are many wars;
but we are winning, and to the Grand
Army of the Republic we acknowledge
our indebtedness.
! Government to Secure Van
!. derbilt Forest.
/, WASHINGTON, D. c. June l, 1914 The ma
| tional forest reservation commission has
just approved the purchase of the Pisgah
: forest from the estate of the late George
w. Vanderbilt, at an average price of
five dollars an acre. The tract consists
of &c, 700 acres and the total cost is
therefore $433, 500. The price paid is
less than the average for other tracts
already acquired, although the Pisgah
forest has been developed by its former
owner into one of the best forest prop
critics in the country.
This is the second time that the COM
mission has had the purchase of this
tract under consideration. Once before,
during Mr.. Vanderbilt's lifetime, the
| question of it's purchase was taken up,
but the commission did not deem it ad-
visable to purchase it at that time.
The tract includes portions of Transyl-
| vania, Henderson, Buncombe and Hay
ward counties in North Carolina. 1t
covers the entire eastern slope and por-
tons of the northern and western slopes
of the Pisgah range, one of the most
prominent of the southern Appalachians.
! Its forest influences for the most part
tributaries Of the French Broad river
| which unites with the Holstein river at
| Knoxville, Tennessee, to form the Ten
nessee river.
MRS. VANDERBILT MAKES OFFER.
| Mrs. Vanderbilt offered the tract at
much lower figure than that at which it
was held by her husband, and her letter
to the secretary of agriculture, one of
! the members of the commission, gives
! her reasons for making the tender of
the Pisgah forest to the government.
Mrs. Vanderbilt's letter follows:
May l, 1914.
The Honorable, the Secretary of Agri-
culture, Washington, D. c.
| Sir: | now confront the question of
what disposal l shall make of Pisgah
| forest, which, under the terms of my
!, late husbands will, has passed to me
without qualification or condition. This
letter constitutes my formal offer for
the sale of Pisgah forest to the govern
ment for National Forest purposes.
Should the government fail to acquire
it. | must dispose of Plsgah Forest in
some other way. hope earnestly that,
in view of the terms of my offer, no such
contingency may arise.
| Mr.. Vanderbilt was the first of the
large forest owners in America to adopt
the practice of forestry. He has con-
served Pisgah forest from the time he
bought it up to his death, period of
nearly twenty-five years, under the firm
conviction that every forest owner owes
it to those who follow him to hand down
his forest property to them unimpared
by wasteful use. I keenly sympathize
with his belief that the private owner
ship of forest land is a public trust, and
l probably realize more keenly than any
one else can do how firm was his resolve
never to permit injury to the permanent
value and usefulness of Pisgah forest.
l wish earnestly to make such DISPOSE
ton of Pisgah forest as will maintain in
the fullest and most permanent way its
national value as an object lesson in
forestry, as well as its wonderful beauty
and charm; and realize. that its owner
ship by the nation will alone make its
preservation permanent and certain.
I hovyo dooidod m a To q
large a contribution as can, in order to
hel D bring this result about. offer
Pisgah forest at total price over two
hundred thousand dollars below that on
the basis of which negotiations were
entered into with the government befol e
my husbands death, my offer to the
government Of Pisgah Forest now being
at price of five dollars per acre.
! l make this contribution towards the
public ownership of Pisgah forest with
the earnest hope that in this. way l may
help to perpetuate my husbands pioneer
work in forest conservation, and to in
sure the protection and the use and en-
ioyment of Pisgah forest as National
Forest, by the American people for all
time.
In the event that my offer is accepted,
l shall be glad for the government to as
sumo control of Pisgah forest as soon as
lit may desire. In the same event, it
, would be source of very keen gratifica-
ition to me if the tract retained, as q
National Forest, the title of ''Pisgah
Forest, I" which my late husband gays it.
Il Very truly yours,
Il (Signed) EDITH S. VANDERBILT.
GOVERNMENT WILL CONTINUE NAME.
In accordance with Mrs. Vanderbilt