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Mr. DALE, from the Committee on Commerce, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 11435]

The Committee on Commerce, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 11435) granting the consent of Congress to the city of Rockford, Ill., to construct a bridge across the Rock River at Broadway in the city of Rockford, Winnebago County, State of Illinois, having considered the same, report favorably thereon, and recommend that the bill do pass without amendment.

The bill has the approval of the Departments of War and Agriculture, as will appear by the annexed House Report No. 1178, which is made a part of this report.

[House Report No. 1178, Seventy-first Congress, second session]

The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 11435) granting the consent of Congress to the city of Rockford, Ill., to construct a bridge across the Rock River at Broadway in the city of Rockford, Winnebago County, State of Illinois, having considered and amended the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it pass.

Amend the bill as follows:

Line 4, after the words "operate a" insert "free highway".
Line 8, after the word "Act" insert the word "entitled".

The bill has the approval of the War and Agriculture Departments, as will appear by the letters attached.

WAR DEPARTMENT, April 12, 1930.

Respectfully returned to the chairman Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives.

So far as the interests committed to this department are concerned, I know of no objection to the favorable consideration of the accompanying bill (H. R. 11435, 71st Cong., 2d sess.) granting the consent of Congress to the city of Rockford, Ill., to construct a bridge across the Rock River at Broadway, in the city of Rockford, Winnebago County, State of Illinois. F. TRUBEE DAVIS, Acting Secretary of War.

Hon. JAMES S. PARKER,

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
Washington, D. C., April 14, 1930.

Chairman Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce,

House of Representatives.

DEAR MR. PARKER: Careful consideration has been given to the bill H. R. 11435, transmitted with your letter of April 8 with request for a report thereon and such views relative thereto as the department might desire to communicate. This bill would authorize the city of Rockford, Ill., to construct, maintain, and operate a bridge and approaches thereto across the Rock River, at Broadway, in the city of Rockford. A route on the system of Federal-aid highways approved for Illinois passes through Rockford and would cross the Rock River at some point therein, possibly at the point proposed for the construction of this bridge. The authorization which the bill would grant would be to the city of Rockford and is without objection so far as this department is concerned.

Sincerely,

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MAY 26 (calendar day, MAY 27), 1930.—Ordered to be printed

Mr. McNARY, from the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany S. 35941

The Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, to whom was referred the bill (S. 3594) authorizing appropriations for the construction and maintenance of improvements necessary for protection of the national forests from fire, and for other purposes, having considered the same, report thereon with the recommendation that the bill do pass.

There follows a lengthy report from the Forest Service explaining the purpose of the legislation, which has the approval of the Department of Agriculture.

Hon. CHARLES L. MCNARY,

United States Senate.

MARCH 11, 1930.

DEAR SENATOR MCNARY: In reply to your request for a report on S. 3594 it may be said that the construction of the improvements authorized by this bill would greatly increase the effectiveness of the protection, afforded the national forests from destruction by fire and would facilitate the management of the grazing resource. In order to simplify the discussion of this bill, the following comparison is given, showing the amounts appropriated in the fiscal year 1930, the amounts included in the appropriation act for 1931 as it passed the House, and the amounts included in S. 3594 for the two general classes of improvements:

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It is recognized by everyone familiar with the situation that the national forests are poorly equipped with permanent improvements such as simple roads, trails, telephone lines, fire lanes, lookout towers and observatories, cabins for firemen, etc., needed for fire-control purposes. S. 3594 would authorize appro

priations which would enable necessary protective improvements to be made under a businesslike program. The present slow rate of progress in completing the urgently needed protective improvements on the national forests can not be justified on any ground of ultimate saving or orderly management of the entire national forest enterprise. The total amount required is small in proportion to the enormous values at stake. No business organization under similar conditions would hesitate to make the investment necessary to protect its property The urgency of the situation has been recognized by the Bureau of the Budget and the House of Representatives and a substantial increase granted in the fiscal year 1931. S. 3594 would set up a reasonable financial plan for making an investment in protective improvements which are essential if basic natural resources for which the Federal Government is responsible are to be properly cared for.

The $200,000 authorized by this bill for range improvements is only a portion of the increase in grazing fees which stockmen will be required to pay annually by 1931 for the use of national-forest ranges. creased grazing fees and also in the interest of better administration of the grazing As a part of this program of inranges, it is highly desirable that the construction and maintenance of the improvements necessary for the proper utilization of the forage crop be undertaken by the owner of the land. The amount included in the 1931 appropriation bill as it passed the House is $100,000. Stockmen have cooperated to the best of their ability, but since the cost of urgently needed new improvements is $1,700,000 the progress being made is seriously inadequate and stockmen should now be relieved of the burden which they have been carrying.

As now worded, the bill authorizes cooperation with the Biological Survey for the eradication and control of range destroying rodents on the national forests. The Biological Survey is a bureau in the Department of Agriculture, and for that reason the authorization for cooperation is unnecessary. both the Biological Survey and the Forest Service are engaged in eradicating At the present time rodents from national forest ranges. inclusion of the reference to rodent control in this bill would bar the Biological A question has arisen as to whether the Survey from using its appropriations in eradicating rodents from the national forests. It is therefore suggested that the words "and in cooperation with the Biological Survey, or otherwise, for the eradication and control of range destroying rodents on the national forests" be eliminated from the bill.

There is attached a memorandum prepared in the Forest Service which discusses the need for protection and range improvements in greater detail.

Sincerely yours,

ARTHUR M. HYDE, Secretary.

Referred to the Bureau of the Budget, as required by Budget Circular No. 49, and under date of March 8, 1930, the department was advised by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget that the program of expenditures for the purposes named in S. 3594 would not be in conflict with the financial program of the President if it were amended so as to authorize the appropriation of amounts not to exceed the amounts specified.

Memorandum to accompany report on S. 3594.

FEBRUARY 21, 1930.

This bill authorizes an enlarged program of construction of two broad classes of improvements, i. e., protection improvements and range improvements. The discussion which follows will be subdivided by these two headings.

PROTECTION IMPROVEMENTS

The amounts carried for this purpose in the 1930 appropriation act, the appropriation bill for 1931 as it passed the House and in S. 3594, are given below:

1930 appropriation act.. 1931 appropriation bill.. S. 3594.

$360, 000 2, 191, 000 4, 300, 000

The kinds of improvements included under this heading are as follows: Singletrack roads, trails, telephone lines, lookout towers and observatories, fire breaks, cabins for firemen, barns, pastures, pasture fences, etc. The existence or absence of improvements of the classes listed above have a direct bearing upon the effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of the Forest Service fire-control organization. Since these improvements are of such great importance to the fire-control organi

zation of the Forest Service it will be noted that the paragraphs which follow deal with the difficulties now encountered in giving adequate protection from fire to the national forests.

The national forests, when created over 20 years ago, were wild undeveloped areas. During this period of nearly a quarter of a century important lines of development have gone forward. Areas more suitable for agriculture than for timber production have been passed to private ownership under the forest homestead act. Under the Weeks law of 1911 and subsequent acts, a broad national program of Federal ownership of timber-producing and watershed lands has been laid down, and purchase and organization of vital areas is proceeding with increasing momentum. In the McNary-McSweeney Act a basic law has been enacted which provides for a broad program of forest research. Policies and practices covering the complex problems arising in the correlated administration of all the resources of the national forests have reached a high state of development. Although practically no aid was to be had from experience in other continents, the technic of fire control under American conditions has been advanced to a point where the organization and personnel on the national forests may fairly be said to be equal to the task of protecting these great national properties which incidentally have increased enormously in their commercial value since they were set aside for timber production and water conservation.

It is necessary to realize how far the construction of protective improvements has fallen behind these other developments. Although the creation of the national forests was authorized by the act of June 4, 1897, and most of these forests have been under Federal management for over 20 years, it is necessary to say that in many instances they still lack the most rudimentary improvements necessary for their protection. With respect to their protection from fire the national forests may be compared to a city which has a fire chief and some firemen and engines but in which only a few water mains have been laid.

During the early years of the national forests this condition was not so serious as now. Industrial use of the national forests was in its infancy in those early years and the fire danger proportionately less on that account. Visitors to the national forests numbered 23,000,000 in 1928, but in 1917, when our first estimate was made, the number was placed at 3,100,000 and this latter figure was the result of a large percentage of increase over still earlier years. This contrast between relatively light use of the national forests in the early years and the enormously heavier use of to-day is reflected in a corresponding difference in fire danger in the early and later stages of national forest history. Moreover, serious as were the fire losses in the early years, the enterprise of protecting American timberlands from fire was in a pioneering stage and knowledge as to the quantity and type of structures needed was lacking. There was a time when the Forest Service was not prepared to use widely any large improvement fund.

These conditions no longer exist. The Forest Service is prepared to proceed with the construction of needed improvements as rapidly as the funds are made available, and get full value for every dollar expended. Years of experience and study by protection experts under Federal, State, and private employment have developed a body of exact knowledge as to the type and quantity of improvements which are essential to effective forest protection. Reasonably satisfactory protection is an accomplished fact on a majority of the national forests, and although 20 years ago the public was skeptical as to the feasibility of effective protection of timberland, it now recognizes that it can be done when the necessary steps are taken to that end. The chief remaining step required on an important minority of the national forests is to make an additional investment in protective improvements, which would be relatively small when compared to the values at stake and the amounts expended for personnel, and particularly the amounts expended for suppression of fires after they have grown large and extremely difficult to handle. The campaign against man-caused fires which is regularly pushed vigorously on the national forests needs to be supplemented by tangible evidence of sincerity and determination on the part of the Federal Government. In a businesslike way, those improvements should be provided which are essential to suppression of lightning fires and man-caused fires which start despite the best efforts which can be made to prevent carelessness, accident, and malicious incendiarism. The need for such a program is emphasized by a number of factors among which are the more frequent occurrence during recent years of climatic conditions extremely favorable to the rapid and destructive spread of fires and the enormous increase in the number of people using the National Forests for industrial and recreational purposes.

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