U. S. FORESTRY LEGISLATION

Hon. John W. Weeks, United States Representative form the twelfth Massachusetts district, spoke in the Union last evening on "Forestry Legislation and the White Mountain Bill".

Mr. Weeks said that the question of our forests, like all great governmental problems, has taken a long while to arouse the interest of the people. Last June a forestry bill finally passed Congress and set us well on the way toward catching up with forest policies in other countries, where the forests are made to pay a very appreciable annual return. We have needed this legislation for a long time, for we have been using each year two and a half times as much forest produce as the forests are annually producing, and are thus rapidly reducing our forest reserve. The forestry bill provides that the states must meet the national government half-way, in order that the drain on the national treasury may not be too great, and that $2,000,000 a year for six years may be used in buying lands for forests. If at the end of that time the plan is unsatisfactory it will be dropped, but it is the firm belief of men interested in the work that it will proceed uninterrupted.