The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1918-07-04

nlght and these HlSh DiONS' 80
| Johnson encouraging reports from their
re spective counties.
A Few Extracts
The following are a few extracts made
rom the speech that lasted an hour and
hirty-fve minutes and held the un'
| hvided attention Of the audience from
s.art to finish,
Discussing the first plank OF his plat
! form. the conservation OF the timber
! Judge Johnson said:
The first plank in my platform IS one
ahich ought to appeal to any man VINO
las any sense at all, or any reasoning
! faculties You know, my friends the
I timber in this country is being destroy
| d by the millions of feet every day
! here are thousands and hundreds OF
| thousands Of men and boys employed
! telling the timber, and in removing
from the forests to the mills by means
Of skidders; there are millions and
| 5illions of little trees destroyed and
wasted.
Did you know that statistics sho"
that within Is years from now there
/ will not be one merchantable pine tree
standing in South Mississippi? Do you
/ -salize what that means to your coun-
try? Do you realize that without TIM
Der in this country, South Mississippi
will perish that your people cant sur
! vive unless the timber is here to give
employment to the people and to tur-
| nish them with lumber with which to
build their homes and public lnstl-
I tutions? Do you know that at the rate
! timber is now being cut your boys ana
my boys, Is years from now, cant buy
| lumber with which to build home!
| Oh. when l look at the little fellows
around me, and when l see all this TIM
Der which has passed into the hands OF
Just a few people, and those people have
moved away. and the timber is being
manufactured into lumber, and the lum'
Der is being converted into money, and
The money is being sent to the great
.netropolises and deposited, and no good
is coming to US in the way OF taxation
no help of any sort coming to the pee
pie of my section of the ate---knowln9
that within 20 years from now there
will be nothing with which to build orr
homes and our public institutions pay
rolls will be gone the sawmills will
nave quit humming in this country, and
there will be nothing left for the people
of this section---I say to you that unless
something is done within the next few
years, it will be too late.
Create Federal Commission.
'"You say, Johnson what do you pro-
pose to do? That's good scheme, we
want you to do something; what do you
propose to do?
I'll tell you what propose to do, l
| shall advocate the creation Of federal
commission, whose duty it shall be to
| famillarize themselves with the timber
in the country and to report to Con
eress, giving in detail an estimate OF the
small trees and OF the large trees, the
number OF acres of land that are timber
ed, and the number of acres that are not
timbered, and let Congress- through com
mittees, or otherwise get all the facts
and write statute that will prevent the
cutting OF timber on these great bodies
of so-called syndicate land, say from 8
to 10 inches in diameter and to penalize
them when they violate the law. Well
you say, how are you going to do 1t!
| I'll tell you how to do it. l shall advo-
the sawmill companies to make report
every day. or weekly, or twice a week,
or semi-monthly, just as Congress thinks
! best after hearing all the facts and if
! they report that they have cut so many
small trees they shall he penalized for
doing it. Oh, you say, Judge johnson,
we ought to re-forest You can't do
that IN this country. That's been de-
monstrated by the New Orleans and
Northeastern Railroad; they tried to
raise trees. They planted them here
20 years ago, and they're not much
| larger now than they were the day they
were planted. They stand on their right
of way to testify for themselves. You
can't do that you've got to preserve
what God Almighty and what nature
has put here, and the only way you can
stop it is to stop the reckless cutting
and wasting of this timber. III under
take to do that, my friends if l 60 to
Congress as your servant
For Rivers and Harbors.
Nov, my friends, l am in favor Of
large and liberal appropriations for
rivers and harbors. l realize that we
are near the gateway to the Panama
canal, and if we improve Gulfport
Pascagoula and all those ports on the