Show nrrn iirrn flC I SEES NEED Ur SAVING FORESTS I President Taft Is in Favor of Forming Two Great Reserves I POINT OF LEGALITY RAISED I I I Wrangle Over the Question of Federal or State JurisdictionNeed of Leaders to Push Admin I 1st ration Measures I Washington President Taft Is glv I lug his support to the most recent bill Introduced Into congress to provide for creating a great forest reservation In the Southern Appalachians and another I an-other smaller reservation In tho White mountains of Now Hampshire Tho president thinks that there Is nothing In the constitution of the United States which forbids the federal government gov-ernment from taking over the ownership owner-ship of forests which lie within tho borders of sovereign states The president apparently bases his belief In tho constitutionality of federal fed-eral ownership of state forests In tho law which gives tho general government govern-ment supervision over navigable streams The presidents belief is and he Is said to havo the support of his lawyer cabinet in tho contention that the government has a right to control those things which keep a stream navIgable nav-igable and among them the experts say the forests stand llrst and foremost fore-most When a heavy rainfall comes In forest covered land the roots of the troop and tho trees themselves check tho distribution of the water so that It cotes down the sides of tho mountain shed slowly t mid as a result re-sult tho streams are kept at a normal nor-mal depth If the forests aro cleared away tho water runs off all at once and flood conditions ensue to bo followed fol-lowed by periods of drought Representative Weeks of Massachusetts Massachu-setts Introduced the bill which provides pro-vides for a forest leservatlon In Virginia Vir-ginia North and South Carolina and In New Hampshire President Roosevelt Roose-velt tried In evory way that mental and physical energy suggested to get congress to sanction these forest reservations res-ervations but Mr Roosevelt failed and the present president Is willing to attempt something that his predecessor prede-cessor confessed he could not do and he has hopes to succeed where another an-other could not succeed Either Feast or Famine There are thousands of acres of virgin forests left In the Southern Appalachian Ap-palachian country Timber cutting however in places It Is charged has been so reckless that tho mills situated situat-ed along tho streams fed by tho waters wa-ters of tho mountains are compelled at times to shut down because of alternate al-ternate Hood and drought conditions It Is a caso of a water feast or a water wa-ter famine for a large part of the time The friends of the Weeks bill arc maintaining that streams now navigable navi-gable will be useless for purposes of commerce unless there Is n stop put to tho work of denuding the forests The representatives In congress from the states affected by the forest preservation pres-ervation bill aro practically united In supporting the measure Nearly nil of these representatives from tho states of Virginia North and South Carolina are Democrats and they are with the administration in its wish to create a forest preserve A few of the southern south-ern Democrats are In opposition and they give as a reason that the federal t government will be Invading the rights of the states if it takes over the forests Both sentimental and business considerations con-siderations are to be found In the attempt at-tempt to save the forests on the White mountains of New Hampshire The scenery of the great New Eng land summer resort Is said to bo threatened with destruction Moreover More-over tho water flow In the streams which provides many New England mills with power the friends of the Weeks bill maintain is endangered Sentiment and business seems to have come together In partnership to preserve pre-serve the forests President Taft seems to approve of the partnership Want Men to Push Bills President Taft Is having hard work to find individual leaders i in congress who are willing to stand as sponsors and champions for great legislative measures which he has Introduced The leaders It is said have promised party support for the legislation but what tho president wants Is some man of force In the party counsels to stand forth as a chieftain on the floor to direct the destinies of the bills which be wants to have nassed Take the measure for amendments to the interstate commerce law for instance In the house of representatives representa-tives Mr Townsend of Michigan i Is tho sponsor for this bill He has been sponsor for other bills along similar lines In tho past Mr Townsend san s-an able man but he is a subordinate member of tho committee on interstate i Inter-state and foreign commerce to which the bill has been sent for consideration considera-tion Tho representative who by precedent and custom ought to introduce intro-duce tho measuio and stand as Its sponsor through the trials and trlbu laitru + + t of debate Is Representative Jan j R Mann of Illinois who M the chairman 1 tha committee on interstate Inter-state and lurulgn commerce and mist a chairman IB of course the moot Influential In-fluential member of tile committee It seems natural however that Mr Mann to whom the president naturally natural-ly i would look for first aid should prefer pre-fer to stand aloof because ho has prepared pre-pared I an Interstate commerce measure meas-ure of his own which differs In n good many respects from that which Mr Taft has caused to bo Introduced Mr Manns bill for Instance does not provide for a commerce court for speedy judgment on cases that may come to It through the Interstate commerce com-merce commission by the process of appeal It Is believed that tho committee which has the administration bill In Its i keeping will report it favorably and will fall to report tho Mann bill This means that the committee must override Its chairman which Is a most unusual and not altogether comfortable com-fortable proceeding Mr Townsend will champion the presidents bill on tho t floor but who will be his lieutenant lieuten-ant It Is hard to tell for no one of the chief men of the party thus far has done any volunteering In time senate Mr Elkins has Introduced I Intro-duced the presidents Interstate commerce com-merce amendment measure The West Virginia senator Is the chairman of the senate committee on Interstate commerce and lie Is the proper person per-son to Introduce the bill and to guide its destinies but not oven Mr Klklns friends will claim that he Is In any sense n debater or a skillful hand In piloting legislation through the shoal waters and the rocks of trouble which frequently are found In tho senatorial sea Postal Savings Bank Bill In tho house tho postal savings bank bill has no great company of friends I among the leaders The bill Is in the pontonice committee and naturally ReprescntatUe Weeks vho 11 the committees chairman should be Its sponsor on tho floor of the house but the chances are that Representative Foss of Illinois will undertake to do tho work that the president wishes to have done Mr Foss for years has been tho chairman of the house committee com-mittee on naval affairs and when he undertakes the pilotage of tho postal savings bank bill he will bo somewhat out of his clement + The presidents conservation iec ommendatlons are likely to lack out aad out champions In both house and senate The bills when prepared and Introduced probably will go through because they seem to bo Immensely popular with the country but for some reason or other they do not seem to be at all popular with the Republican Re-publican leaders The Republican members of tho committee on public lands do not seem to care to stand sponsor for Mr Tnfts measures for conservation Who It Is that will take up the work no one can say but the Democrats say that a good many Republicans Re-publicans are losing a fine chance for popularity with the country and to secure se-cure reelection for themselves by this holding back at a time when the president presi-dent needs strong friends willing to stand in tho open and to fight for him and not to be content merely to express ex-press a willingness that the legislation legisla-tion should go through Tariff Very Much to the Front After a long hard hot weather weath-er session of congress which ended end-ed in the passage of the Payne Aldrich tariff bill it Is likely that most persons thought the tariff would be practically a dead Issue Very likely like-ly the majority of the Republicans lathe la-the house and senate thought that it would be but it now seems certain that the tariff is to raise Its warlike front again in the campaign preceding next Novembers election and that It may be formidable enough to frighten most of the other Issues out of tho field The leaders in congress recognize the power of the tariff as a continued trouble maker Representatives of the two schools of tariff thought are preparing pre-paring for the fight that they know Is to come The Democrats are going to present the action of the Republican Repub-lican congress as a high protection act which was unjustifiable and the Republicans are going to defend it as the best tariff bill ever passed Some few of the Republicans however how-ever those who belong in what Is known as the insurgent camp have spoken their minds so freely In opposition oppo-sition to some of the tariff schedules that they probably will bo contented to forego any attempt at a defense of that which previously they In part have denounced Both houses of congress have the privilege of printing pretty much anything that they choose as n public document to that it can bo franked through the malls Ono of the results re-sults of this privilege Is that both Democrat and Republican campaign documents are sent out at the peoples peo-ples expense In connection with the tariff matter It may be said that Senator Sena-tor Thomas Carter of Montana a regular Republican has succeeded In having printed President Tafts Wlnona speech and this pronouncement pronounce-ment of the president will go to many of the voters of the land as a public document In his Winona speech Mr Taft said that tho tariff bill passed by congress at Its August session was the best tariff bill the Republican party ever enacted into law It must not be supposed that the Republicans are having everything their own way in tho matter of ieach Ing the country with campaign mate rial printed at public expense Tho Democrats havo tho same privilege that the Republicans have and it Is very seldom that anyone enters objection objec-tion to the printing of a document for In tho senate It Is a case of turn about h fair play and If one senator should object another senator also would object ob-ject when tho chance canto to got t M1 GEORGE CLINTON I I |