The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-02-01
Press Comment
A New Forestry Measure

What has come to be known as the
Smell bill. relating to forestries, intro
duced into the federal congress by
Representative Smell of New York,
and supported by a number of influ
entail agencies throughout the coun-
try, is worthy of careful study in the
west. 1t purposes to carry out q pol
icy, used in federal-state road con-
struction and advocated in educational
and health matters, of joining the in
diyidual state with the federal gov
eminent in fifty-fifty appropriations.
Whether or not this policy is wise in
the abstract, without reference to the
question Immediately at issue, is too
early to state with definiteness; in
fact the country has not been suffi-
GENTLY informed or stirred to its i'm
portance to render a verdict just yet.
This bill, that has been in,dorsed by
the Western Forestry and Conserva-
ton association, the National Lumber
Manufacturers association, the Ameri-
can Newspaper Publishers associa-
ton and the Association of Wood Us
ing Industries, is intended to take the
place of one prepared by Clifford Pin
chot Roosevelt's forester and conser-
vationist, and introduced by Senator
Capper. Section two of the Smell bill
requires: THAT in no case other than
for preliminary Investigations shall
the amount expended by the federal
government in any state during any
fiscal year under the foregoing section
providing for reforestation and for
est protection) exceed the amount ex-
pended by the state for the same pur-
poses during the same fiscal year, in
Guiding the expenditures OF forest
owners required by state law, and the
secretary of agriculture is authorized
ITO withhold cooperation. in whole or
in part, from states which do not COM
ply in legislation or in administration
practice with such requirements as
shall be established in accordance
with section one of this act.
"In the cooperation extended to tho
several states due consideration shall
be given to the protection of the wa
tersheds of navigable streams, but
such cooperation may, in the discre-
ton of the secretary of agriculture,
be extended to any forest lands within
the cooperating states"
The aim of the measure as set forth
in the preamble is to provide forest
protection in cooperation with the
sta ties and other agencies, to require
reforestation of denuded lands and to
make surveys regarding available sup
plies and of the possible requirements
in timber for years to come. Some
thing over seventy million dollars fed
eral appropriations are provided in the
Smell measure divided over a five-year
period.
Authorization is given to the secre-
taries of the interior and of the agri-
cultural departments to make ex-
changes of land in the interest of for
est conservation and provision is
made to secure other lands that are
considered primarily of value for for
est cultivation.
There are states and states; states,
which like this one, have half their
territory included in national forest
reserves and states which are free or
almost free from federal landlordism.
Ought the forest reserve states to be
placed on the same footing as the
other states in respect to state appro-
priations for forest reproduction and
preservation?
The west is as deeply interested in
forest conservation as the east and
undoubtedly is willing to make as
many concessions for this purpose as
the other sections of the country that
disposed of their public lands long ago,
before federal conservation was coin
ed. but the west, naturally, does not
care to accept too heavy an obliga-
ton. At first blush the fifty fifty"
principle contained in the Smell bill
may appear enticing, but is it not pos
sible that in time it may go hard
with a state, which has had much
of it's territory and potential wealth
taken from it by federal law and re-,
strictive rulings, to keep up it's end
with the bullying treasury of a CEN
tralzed federal government?
The Pinchot- Capper measure is
purely federalistic in conscnance with
the Pinchot ideas regarding forest
conserva tion.-Rocky Mountain News.