have found very satisfactory, as we have been able to depend on shipments arriving on schedule. Discontinuance of the line will mean diverting a good part of the tonnage moving via Baltimore and Hampton Roads to other ports, particularly Montreal, whose inland freight rates are the same. H. W. Butler & Bro., Winchester, Va. (exporters, apples): Last apple season we shipped something over 20,000 barrels of apples from Winchester to Baltimore over this line at a saving of approximately 17 cents per barrel in freight. * * * This year so far we have shipped over 12,000 barrels and expect to go over the 20,000-barrel mark by the end of the shipping season. We can deliver apples from our packing house and cold storage in Winchester to the Mail Line within 5 hours whereas it takes from 2 to 3 days to deliver to the boats in New York. * * * It is a great saving in dollars and cents in the year's operation. Thomas W. Mathews, Winchester, Va. (exporters, fruit): * * * Result to the fruit men will be that they will be compelled to ship through New York and so have to pay a higher freight rate, that is to say if they can persuade their customers to pay the higher price. It seems to me that it is the duty of the Government to help, not to hinder the business of the country. Martinsburg Fruit Exchange, Martinsburg, W. Va. (exporters, fruit): Growers and shippers in this four-State apple belt over the period this line has operated have built up a large volume of export business to Europe via the port of Baltimore and this line with saving of time and expense over shipments via New York. * * * Any decision of the Commission that would adversely affect the Baltimore Mail or impair or curtail its service would be a serious blow to our growers. The increased expense of diverting this business to another port would have to be paid by the growers who have been fighting desperately for a number of years to realize the cost of production. * ship to us. * * * * * * Peat Import Corporation, New York City (importers, peat moss): Since Baltimore Mail started operations this company has been a steady customer. Since 1934 to date we have shipped approximately 486,000 bales. If this service is discontinued it will work a tremendous hardWe bring peat moss into Baltimore, Norfolk, and Newport News for shipment into the central Middle West and the immediate adjoining Southern States. * * * It is of prime importance to our business that we have a service so that we can take care of orders received from the Middle West and Southern States. If this service is discontinued we will lose a large volume of business and will find it difficult to explain the situation to our inland customers. * * Brandeis Geldschmidt & Co., Ltd., New York City: We have very often found ourselves in the past where we would have lost business if it were not for the Baltimore Mail sailings as they are the only line that actually adheres to their schedule. We have been consistent shippers both east- and west-bound ever since the inception of the service and we know they are indispensable. H. H. Robertson Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. (exporters, building products): Discontinuance of the service would work a hardship on us as we have been using the line between Baltimore and London, Havre, and Hamburg since its inception. As our competitors are located along the eastern seaboard, we are forced to use the port of Baltimore on account of the freight-rate differential. We get just as good service from the Baltimore Mail as we would through the port of New York. Prior to establishment of this service our customers in Great Britain, France, and Germany specified movement via vessels of their own registry. It was only because of shipping through Baltimore at the freight differential that they agreed to having shipments move via the Mail Line. Alexander Schmidt, Indianapolis, Ind. (exporters, importers): Since this line has been established we have made it a point, as an importer and exporter, to divert probably 95 percent of our business to this company, first with the thought of supporting the American merchant marine, but, secondly, and more important, it was the very best service for export and import. All of our foreign connections, either in Hamburg, London, Havre, and Southampton, are instructed to ship only via Baltimore Mail Line steamers. Twice in the last few years I have used these steamers also for passenger service and found them entirely satisfactory. Should this line be discontinued it would cripple decidedly all such exporters and importers who have used this fast, superior service for the export or import of their merchandise. Some of my German customers quite frequently induce the German Devisen Department to permit shipments to come forward on steamers of the Mail Line on account of the fast service. * * * China American Tobacco Co., Rocky Mount, N. C. (exporters, tobacco): If this service is discontinued, it reduces the opportunity of shipping in American vessels by quick service. Consolidated Distributors, Inc., Paw Paw, W. Va. (exporters, fruit): Refusal of Maritime Commission to reconsider Baltimore Mail matter will be a serious blow to apple export business already heavily ridden with tariffs, quotas, etc. Chas. M. Struven & Co., Baltimore (exporters of animal and poultry feeds): The Baltimore Mail Steamship Co. means a great deal to Baltimore and Baltimore shippers, as well as to the large territory for which Baltimore is the convenient and natural outlet for exports. * * * Cessation of operations would undoubtedly put shippers of fish meal and fish oil out of competition in foreign countries. Samuel Shapiro & Co., Inc., Baltimore (forwarders): * Denial of the line's application for subsidy would unquestionably damage Baltimore's standing as a port. Exporters and importers thoroughly realize that Baltimore is a port of economy. * * * to discontinue the Baltimore Mail Line would virtually cripple the port and hamper progress in the present enjoyment of foreign trade. * * Our own individual experience goes back 24 years. Our company has individually spent thousands of dollars to advertise Baltimore's advantages at home and abroad. * We are not interested in developing business via Montreal. which port is a direct competitor, but we are interested in retaining what Baltimore already has. * * * * Nash Motors, Kenosha, Wis. (exporters, automobiles): * We have made considerable use of the Baltimore Mail in the past and we feel it would be highly advisable to maintain this very important shipping service. * * * Its discontinuance would be a great mistake and would work an extreme hardship on firms shipping to London, Havre, and Hamburg. Midwestern exporters have an inland freight saving on shipments moved through Baltimore as compared with New York. A. C. Monk & Co., Farmville, N. C. (exporters, tobacco): The regular service which the Baltimore Mail has maintained for years has helped the tobacco exporters to face and fight strong competition on foreign markets. Woodford Spears & Sons, Paris, Ky. (exporters, seeds): * Discontinuance of the Baltimore Mail would be quite detrimental to our export business and to that of the entire Kentucky bluegrass-seed industry. Facilities of this line enable the Kentucky seed dealers to make European deliveries comparable with those effected by seed dealers located on the Atlantic seaboard. Fred L. Glaize, Jr., Winchester, Va. (exporter, fruit): Savings offered by this line due to the low inland freight is essential to our economic stability. * * * We alone export thousands of barrels of apples annually and the savings on the freight as well as the time frequently mean the difference between profit and loss. о 75TH CONGRESS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 3d Session { REPORT No. 2363 PROVIDING FOR THE ADDITION OF CERTAIN LANDS TO THE BLACK HILLS NATIONAL FOREST IN THE STATE OF WYOMING MAY 17, 1938.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. GREEVER, from the Committee on the Public Lands, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany S. 3416] The Committee on the Public Lands, to whom was referred the bill (S. 3416) providing for the addition of certain lands to the Black Hills National Forest in the State of Wyoming, after careful consideration, report favorably thereon with the recommendation that the bill do pass the House without amendment. The Senate report on this legislation, incorporating the favorable reports of the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior, is herein below set forth in full and made a part of this report [S. Rept. No. 1706, 75th Cong., 3d sess.] The Committee on Public Lands and Surveys, to whom was referred the bill (S. 3416) to provide for the addition of certain lands to the Black Hills National Forest, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with a recommendation that it do pass amended as follows: Page 2, line 4, insert at the beginning of the line the words "north half, southwest quarter". Page 2, line 19, insert a comma after the words "southeast quarter" in the description of the lands in T. 51 N., R. 63 W. In the reports received from the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture, in the first instance the first reported that it had no objection to the proposed measure; in the second it is stated that enaction of the bill will be in the public interest. The letters follow as a part of this report: Hon. ALVA B. ADAMS, APRIL 20, 1938. United States Senate. Chairman, Committee on Public Lands and Surveys, DEAR SENATOR ADAMS: This will acknowledge receipt of your request of April 11 for a report on S. 3416, a bill providing for the addition of certain lands to the Black Hills National Forest in the State of Wyoming. The measure would authorize the addition of the public lands to the Black Hills National Forest and would permit the acquisition of the privately owned lands by exchange under the provisions of the act entitled "An act to consolidate national forest lands," approved March 20, 1922 (42 Stat. 465), as amended. The areas described consist of foothills lands adjoining the western boundary of the Bear Lodge unit of the Black Hills National Forest and constitute a logical part of the area now within the national forest. By the provision of the bill, 95,000 acres of land would be added to this division of the national forest, about 10,000 acres consisting of public domain, approximately 4,000 acres being State-owned and some 80,000 acres being held in private ownership. The watershed value of the area is of great importance. The Belle Fourche irrigation project, serving an area of 62,000 acres, is within this watershed, 90 percent of this project's reservoir drainage being from lands described in the bill and from the adjoining Bear Lodge unit of the national forest. The reservoir's storage capacity is 203,000 acre-feet. The silting from this area has been so great in the past as to require frequent and costly dredging of the reservoir. The utilmate drainage of this area is into the Missouri River and contributes its proportionate share to the silting of that stream. About 55,500 acres of the watershed supports commercial timber, cut-over lands and woodland, about 30,000 acres consist of intermingled brush and grass lands and about 7,500 acres are under some form of cultivation. The timber and brush lands under consideration constitute a serious fire hazard to the adjoining national forest because they do not receive adequate protection. Their inclusion within the national forest would permit the extension of Forest Service standards of fire prevention to them, thus safeguarding these lands and the adjoining national forest and preventing a waste of public resources. Public sentiment is reported to be largely in favor of national forest administration of the area, some of the larger individual owners being ready to negotiate exchanges of private lands for Government lands in order to consolidate holdings. The addition of the area to the national forest would expedite such exchanges. The immediate additional cost for general administration of the Black Hills National Forest would be comparatively low, since the area is an integral part of the existing unit and only a small part of it is public domain. However, as additional acreage is acquired through the application of the General Exchange Act of March 20, 1922, as amended, supplemental funds will be needed. It is estimated that the annual cost for general administration as a part of the existing national forest should not exceed 4 cents per acre. The annual revenue from the sale of timber and from grazing fees should exceed the cost for general administration. Certain corrections in the bill, as introduced, are necessary to correct minor errors in the description, consequently the following amendments are recommended: Page 2, at the beginning of line 4, after the word "and" insert "north half, southwest quarter". Page 2, line 10, insert the following: "T. 53 N., R. 63 W., north half section 5, section 6, and the northwest quarter of section 7". Page 2, line 19, after the words "southeast quarter" insert a comma. In view of the foregoing considerations it is the judgment of this Department that the enactment of the proposed legislation with the recommended amendments thereto will be in the public interest. In view of the request of the committee for an immediate report, there has not been sufficient time for the Department to ascertain through the Budget Bureau the relationship of this legislation or of the Department's report to the program of the President. MY DEAR SENATOR ADAMS: I have received the request of your committee for a report on S. 3416, providing for the addition of certain lands to the Black Hills National Forest in the State of Wyoming. The lands described, amounting to nearly 97,000 acres, adjoin the national forest and the greater portion is within 5 miles of its boundaries. Under the provisions of the act of February 15, 1927 (44 Stat., pt. 2, 1099), the nonpublic lands within this 5-mile limit are subject to the national forest consolidation law of March 20, 1922 (42 Stat. 465), as amended, which permits the private owners to exchange their lands within the area for an equal value of national forest timber or land in the State, the reconveyed lands to become a part of the national forest. The privately owned lands in the small area described in the bill outside the 5mile limit would also become subject to the exchange law under the provisions of section 2 of the bill. The public lands involved amount to approximately 9,900 acres, of which 2,120 acres are included in a withdrawal made on the recommendation of the Secretary of Agriculture for classification and pending legislation to add them to the national forest. Of the public lands not within this withdrawal 720 acres are embraced in grazing leases issued under section 15 of the grazing law as amended, 840 acres in unperfected homestead entries, and the remainder in the withdrawal made by the Executive order of November 26, 1934, as amended, for classification and other purposes. There has been received a report of a field examination of the area made at the direction of this Department for use in reporting on the bill. The investigation discloses that while there are some areas of open grazing land and small areas under cultivation the land is mostly rough and timbered, or with potential timber values. The lands involved are not within any proposed or existing national park or monument or any proposed extension of such a reservation. In view therefore of the character of the land and the fact that the greater part is already within a forest exchange area, this Department will interpose no objection to the addition of the public lands to the national forest in the manner proposed. I am not advised as to the necessity for the exchange legislation which is primarily a question for consideration by the Secretary of Agriculture. It would appear that the description of the lands in T. 54 N., R. 63 W., is intended to include all the lands outside the national forest, but certain tracts in section 33 in that township are omitted. It is accordingly recommended that the bill be amended by inserting at the beginning of line 4, page 2, the words "north half and southwest quarter." A comma should also be inserted in line 19, page 2, after the words "southeast quarter" in the description of the lands in T. 51 N., R. 63 W. The Bureau of the Budget, in response to a request from this Department, has advised that it has no objection to the presentation of this report. Sincerely yours, HAROLD L. ICKES, О |