condition of admission to the Union, could the State later drop this clause from its constitution? 15. Resolved that all parts of the Constitution apply to the dependencies. Defend the negative and cite your authority. 16. Prepare a report on the Government of the Panama Canal Zone. I. PROBLEMS-NATURALIZATION Resolved that Congress should have the authority over naturalization. Defend the affirmative. 2. A Chinese who has lived in the country seven years asks your advice as to how he should become naturalized. What would you tell him? 3. An Italian who has been here four years asks you what steps he shall take to become naturalized. What would be your advice? 4. Richard Roe is born of American parents residing in Paris. What determines his citizenship? PROBLEMS-IMPLIED POWERS 1. Explain the doctrine of implied powers of Congress and give several examples. 2. Where does Congress get the authority to establish and maintain the naval academy at Annapolis? 3. Give Chief Justice Marshall's view of the implied powers. 4. State which of the following laws, if passed by Congress, would be constitutional and the parts of the constitution upon which the law could be based: (a) Creating an agricultural college in Lincoln, Nebraska. 5. (b) In Washington, D. C. (c) A mining college in Alaska (d) Requiring the teaching of industrial subjects in all public schools. (e) Establishing a special school for postal carriers. (f) Forbidding the manufacture of dangerous explosives in any part of the United States. (g) Limiting the hours of labor in all industries. (h) Providing for the purchase and operation by the government of all railways in the United States. Can Congress grant its legislative power to the States? To the President? To the interstate commerce commission? Explain and cite the constitution. 6. The tariff law of 1890 authorized the President to suspend certain articles from the free list and impose a duty on those articles when coming from any country which imposed unequal or unreasonable duties on products of the United States. Was this constitutional? Reasons. CHAPTER XIV THE NATIONAL CONSERVATION POLICY Rise of a National Policy.-No country enjoys a greater diversity and abundance of natural resources than are possessed by the United States. The history of our people has been chiefly that of the conquest and subjugation of Nature. Until quite recently this natural wealth has been looked upon as practically unlimited. Our government policy has been simple,-to throw open the public lands to immediate settlement and encourage the settlers to exploit them to the full. As successful as this policy has been in making our country the wealthiest of nations, it was appropriate only to the stage of colonization. The settlers regarded forests, rivers, and other physical features chiefly as obstacles to be removed or overcome and it was hard to realize their value in the future economic progress of the country; so the forests were cut away, the farms were planted year after year to the same crop without fertilizer, the coal and mineral deposits were exploited with prodigal waste. Labor was costly and natural resources cheap. To save resources at the expense of labor would have been ruinous in the early settlement and development of our country, so that the main effort of our people has been to develop labor-saving machinery rather than the means of saving coal or timber or land or ore. The European who visits us is accustomed at home to seeing cheap labor with costly materials. The effort in Europe is to save such materials even at the expense of employing more labor. Our European visitor therefore regards us as the most extravagant of nations. As our conditions gradually change and the waste of resources brings us nearer to the danger point, the need for a national policy of conservation arises. No individual or association of individuals can save the natural resources from exhaustion. This must be done by the National and State Governments acting in harmony to protect the supply for future generations and to insure the proper and economic use of our natural wealth to-day. Conservation became a national problem during the administration of Mr. Roosevelt, and largely through his efforts and those of Mr. Gifford Pinchot, who was at that time the head of the Forestry Bureau. In October, 1907, a meeting of the Inland Waterways Commission was held at which the President presided, on board the steamer McKenzie, on the Mississippi River, and it was there decided to call a conference on the general subject of conservation of the nation's resources. Accordingly the President issued invitations to the Governors of the States and Territories to meet at the White House in May, 1908, together with the members of Congress, and other delegates from the States and from national organizations. This Conference of Governors marks the formal beginning of a definite movement to conserve our resources. man. The National Conservation Commission.-The White House Conference led to the appointment by the President of the National Conservation Commission, of which Mr. Pinchot was made chairThis body was composed of about 50 members, and was divided into four sections: Waters, Forests, Lands and Minerals. The commission first made an inventory of our natural resources, and had its report ready for the second joint conference on conservation, held at Washington in December, 1908, by which conference it was endorsed. The three volumes of this report constitute a most remarkable census of our natural wealth, and the work of the commission has brought the whole problem of conservation into the fore-front of national politics. The Forests. Our forests now cover 550,000,000 acres, or about one-fourth of the United States. The original forests covered not less than 850,000,000 acres. The lumber industry began in the northeast, and has moved gradually westward and southward. Washington is now the principal lumber-producing State, with Louisiana second. Although only about 30% of our original forest area has been cut or destroyed, this portion represents the most valuable parts of our timber supply, especially in the north and east. The commercial supply of every kind of timber, except in the Pacific forests, has been seriously reduced, so that the price of lumber has been steadily rising.1 At the present rate of consumption, many of our most important woods are threatened with exhaustion within the next thirty or fifty years. We are now taking from our forests each year, not counting the loss by fire, three and one-half times their annual growth. Besides this there is a large amount wasted.2 Important steps towards a national policy have been taken in the creation first, of national forests, and second, of the Forest Service, 1 Yellow pine costs 65% more at the mill than it did in 1900; Douglas fir costs 63% more; and white pine 53% more. White pine is so nearly used up that the lumber sawed from it in the Lake States has fallen off 77% since 1890, and since 1900 over 45% in the whole country. 2 Since 1870 forest fires have each year destroyed an average of $50,000,000 worth of lumber. Taking together the loss by fire, waste and destruction from other causes it appears that from 1,000 feet of standing timber taken from the forests, only 320 feet of lumber is obtained. But in addition to its effect on the wood supply the forest problem has a wide reaching influence on the river-flow, and thereby affects the questions of water power development, the improvement of internal waterways, reclamation of arid and swamp lands, the prevention of floods, and the preservation of the soil. Scientific forestry is a comparatively recent art, which has only been applied to a limited extent in America but it is estimated that with modern methods we should produce a constant timber supply beyond our present needs, and with it conserve the usefulness of our streams for irrigation, water supply, navigation and power. Under proper management our forests should yield over four times as much as they do now. and its activities. Inasmuch as the public lands of the United States contain vast areas of valuable forests, Congress has passed laws providing for the withdrawal of forest lands from public entry, and their reservation as national forest reserves. Briefly these laws are as follows: Act of 1891.-This act gave the President of the United States authority to set aside by public proclamation, any part of the public lands covered with timber or undergrowth, as public reservations. Act of 1907.-Congress enacted that such forest reserves should be known as National Forests. Act of 1907.-This law declared that no more forest reserves should be created in the States of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, or Wyoming, except by act of Congress. Wher President Roosevelt saw that Congress was about to pass this law, he immediately issued proclamations laying aside 32 separate reserves, containing 17,000,000 acres of forests, in the six States enumerated in the Act, and thus rendered the Act practically void. The report shows the area of "national forests" in the United States proper as about 168,000,000 acres. There were also about 27,000,000 acres in Alaska reserved, and a few thousand acres in Porto Rico.1 Some of the States have begun to make reservations of forest lands. New York State has set aside as State forest reserves 1,600,000 acres, and in 1908, planted about 1,100,000 spruce and pine trees. Pennsylvania has reserved 900,000 acres, and is planting 400,000 trees each year. The Pennsylvania tax law is regarded as a model in this respect. It provides for a very low rate on such private forest lands as are submitted to State supervision, with a moderate tax on timber, which is not collected until the timber is cut. Oregon, Washington, California and Minnesota also own large forest areas. The Forest Service.-The national forest service is a bureau in the department of agriculture, under the direction of a forester and 1 National Forest Areas by States and Territories. Arizona. Washington.. 12,000,000 Besides the national forests, the Federal Government owns over 10,000,000 acres of forest lands in the Indian Reservations, and 2,500,000 acres in National Parks. The total amount owned by the Government represents about 1/3 of the total stand of merchantable timber in the country. Scientific forestry is being practiced on 70% of this area, and is being extended to all public owned forests. Less than one per cent of the forests privately owned are being managed scientifically. Generally speaking, the more valuable timber is on land owned by private individuals and corporations. a number of assistants. It is divided into branches controlling operation and lands, silviculture and products, grazing, products, laboratory, and acquisition of lands. There are 163 reserves or national forests as they are now called, in order to avoid the impression that all forest lands are withdrawn from use. These are divided into six districts with a district forester and a staff of subordinates in each. The total number of employés is about 4,000, of whom slightly over 700 are employed in administrative laboratory and clerical work. The remainder who are rangers, assistant rangers, guards and wardens, are distributed throughout the forest tracts. Under the direction of Mr. Gifford Pinchot and Mr. Henry S. Graves this service has been made one of the most efficient in the government. The care and administration of the National Forests is its chief work but it also co-operates with the State bureaus. The purposes followed by the bureau are: protection against fire and depredations; the harvesting of mature timber; the maintenance and betterment of a growing crop of timber; the protection of the water supply; utilization of the forage crop; betterment of range conditions; establishment of better means of communication through the forests. Fire Prevention.-The National Forests are protected against fire by a system of fire patrol. Combined with this are such measures as brush burning, fire lines, back firing, the construction of roads, trails, and telephone lines, and the use of lookout and observation towers. The most important feature is the patrol system. Rangers are stationed at convenient intervals throughout the forests. Their hardships and self-sacrifices deserve the admiration of the public. They enforce the laws against building fires in the forests, and keep a lookout for flames, to extinguish any which may spread. When a conflagation breaks out, they receive assistance from rangers in other districts. Many of the States have systems of patrol, or provide for fire-fighting by annual appropriations. Private owners have also formed co-operative fire-fighting associations. The national bureau often co-operates with these associations and with the State wardens. The increasing efficiency of the Federal service is well shown by the fact that as it has been enlarged and extended, the proportion of the public forests burned each year has steadily decreased. The area that each ranger has 1 The principal causes of forest fires are sparks from locomotives, carelessness of campers, and lightning. All experience shows that damage by forest fires is practically preventable. The most important principle in the prevention of fires, is to maintain such a complete patrol that fires may be extinguished in their early stages, rather than to try to fight them after they are well started. The cost of maintaining an efficient patrol is small, compared with the annual loss from fires. It is estimated that the $50,000,000 annual loss in the United States could be practically prevented by the annual expenditure of $10,000,000. Less than 1% of the private forest lands are now patrolled. It is considered even more important to prevent fires in regions where the forests have been cut and where only underbrush exists, because fires on such lands are apt to prevent re-forestation. |