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Amendments nos. 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, and 142, relating to appropriations from the gasoline tax fund: Appropriates $251,000 for personal services, as proposed by the Senate, instead of $243,280, as proposed by the House; provides for "per diem services" from miscellaneous street appropriations, as proposed by the House, instead of "personal services", as proposed by the Senate; appropriates $126,600 for trees and parkings, and $150,000 for assessment and permit work under the permit system; as proposed by the House, inserts $24,200 for the paving of Western Avenue, and $6,000 for the paving of Elder Street, as proposed by the Senate; appropriates $200,000, as proposed by the Senate, instead of $175,000, as proposed by the House, for the construction of curbs and gutters; appropriates $450,000 for the surfacing and resurfacing of pavements, instead of $400,000, as proposed by the House and $475,000, as proposed by the Senate; appropriates $54,540, for the construction and maintenance of bridges; restores the language inserted by the House and eliminated by the Senate, providing for snow and ice removal and, in the same paragraph, appropriates $900,000 for the repair of streets, as proposed by the Senate, instead of $800,000, as proposed by the House, strikes out the item inserted by the Senate appropriating $325,000 for beginning construction of the Pennsylvania Avenue Bridge; provides that appropriations for the purchase of land for widening streets, etc., shall remain available until June 30, 1939; and eliminates the appropriation for the purchase and installation of traffic lights, which has been provided for under amendment no. 26.

Amendments nos. 143, 144, 145, 146, and 147, relating to the water department: Appropriates $540,000 for the Washington Aqueduct, as proposed by the Senate, instead of $470,000, as proposed by the House; appropriates $367,800 for maintenance of the water department distribution system, instead of $366,000 as proposed by the House and $372,300 as proposed by the Senate; and authorizes the Treasurer of the United States to invest certain funds of the District of Columbia, as proposed by the Senate.

Amendment no. 148: Eliminates the provision of the House requiring that per-diem employees be paid only for time actually worked, as proposed by the Senate.

Amendment no. 149: Restores the provision of the House prohibiting the reallocation of the positions of employees and raises the limitation of $2,000 fixed in the House bill to $2,600.

Amendment no. 150: Restores the limitation on the issuance of congressional tags, as provided in the House bill.

The committee of conference report in disagreement the following amendments of the Senate:

Amendment no. 9: Relating to the appropriation for the auditor's

office.

Amendments nos. 21, 22, and 23: Relating to appropriations for the Minimum Wage Board:

Amendments nos. 34 and 35: Relating to advertising in newspapers. Amendments nos. 55 and 56: Relating to health and physical education teachers and the appropriation for teachers and librarians in the public schools.

Amendments nos. 76 and 78: Relating to the appropriation for the Banneker Junior High School.

Amendment no. 87: Relating to the transfer of certain hospitals to the health department.

Amendment no. 90: Relating to the appropriation for personal services, Gallinger Municipal Hospital.

Amendment no. 92: Relating to the appropriation for construction of a health center.

Amendments nos. 95 and 96: Relating to the appointment of a marshal for the Court of Appeals.

Amendment no. 112: Relating to the appropriation for the Columbia Polytechnic Institute.

Amendments nos. 113 and 114: Relating to the appropriation for the relief of the poor.

Amendment no. 119: Authorizing the purchase of supplies and services by the National Capital Park and Planning Commission without advertising when such purchase does not exceed $50.

Amendment no. 132: Relating to the purchase of a municipal asphalt plant.

Amendments nos. 133 and 134: Relating to the replacement of Chain Bridge.

Amendment no. 141: Correcting a total.

Amendment no. 151: Authorizing that credit be allowed in the accounts of the District of Columbia for certain disbursements made from the appropriation "Refund of erroneously paid taxes, District of Columbia."

Ross A. COLLINS,

MILLARD F. Caldwell,
JOE STARNES,

Managers on the part of the House.

O

ADD CERTAIN LANDS TO THE COLUMBIA NATIONAL FOREST, WASH.

JUNE 28, 1937.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. HILL of Washington, from the Committee on the Public Lands, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 3866]

The Committee on the Public Lands, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 3866) to add certain lands to the Columbia National Forest in the State of Washington, after careful consideration, report favorably thereon with the recommendation that the bill do pass with the following amendment:

Page 2, line 7, after the word "range", strike out "5" and insert "4". The reports of the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture on this legislation are hereinbelow set forth in full. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Washington, June 7, 1937.

Hon. RENÉ L. DEROUEN,

Chairman, Committee on the Public Lands,

House of Representatives.

MY DEAR MR. DEROUEN: I have received your request for a report on H. R. 3866, to add certain lands to the Columbia National Forest in the State of Washington.

Similar legislation was introduced in the Seventy-fourth Congress in S. 2694, on which this Department submitted a favorable report dated May 16, 1935.

The bill would add to the national forest, subject to any valid existing claim or entry, all the lands of the United States within the therein-described area, and would extend the provisions of the national forest consolidation law of March 20, 1922 (42 Stat. 465), as amended, over all other lands within such area.

The lands described in the bill, aggregating 89,620 acres, adjoin the national forest on the west and have largely passed out of Government ownership under the public-land laws. The area is within the indemnity limits of the grant to the Northern Pacific Railway Co., and nearly 28,500 acres thereof have been patented to that company. The public lands are scattered tracts amounting to about 1,960 acres, 520 acres of which are embraced in pending railroad selections and 40 acres in an administrative site withdrawal for the use of the Forest Service, Department of Agriculture. All the public lands in Washington and certain other States are withdrawn under the Executive order of February 5, 1935, as amended, for classification and pending a determination of the most useful purpose to which such lands may be put.

The information available in this Department indicates that the lands as a whole are timbered, although the character and amount of the timber present are not known.

It is observed that a part of the land description in the bill is repeated and it would appear that the description intended in line 7, page 2, is "range 4 east" instead of "range 5 east."

I am not advised as to the necessity for the legislation. In view, however, of the small amount of public lands involved, the general character of the area, and its position with relation to the national-forest boundary, this Department will interpose no objection to its enactment.

In response to a request from this Department, the Bureau of the Budget advises that it has no objection to the presentation of this report.

Sincerely yours,

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Hon. RENÉ DEROUEN,

Chairman, Committee on the Public Lands,

House of Representatives.

DEAR MR. DEROUEN: Your communication of May 5 is received requesting a report by this Department on H. R 3866, a bill, "To add certain lands to the Columbia National Forest in the State of Washington."

The bill is identical with S. 2694 of the Seventy-fourth Congress and S. 559 of the present Congress, upon which this Department made a favorable report to the Senate committee.

The measure relates to an area of timberland of about 89,500 acres lying along the lower mountain slopes just west of the Columbia National Forest. All of it except about 1,080 acres has been passed to private ownership and most of the valuable timber species have been removed. The land is valuable principally for timber production and is an integral part of the timber-producing lands in the national forest lying immediately above it on the watersheds.

Subsequent to the removal of the valuable timber this type of land usually reseeds naturally from the scattered seed trees left by the loggers. All of the area was once satisfactorily restocked but disastrous fires have occurred until now only about one-half of this area supports a sufficient stand of good growing stock.

To maintain the land in a productive condition it must be protected from fire. State and private agencies are unable to give the area adequate fire protection, consequently the valuable national forest lands adjacent and above on the watersheds are constantly menaced by fires originating on this area. In 1929, 34,000 acres of national forest lands were burned as a result of a fire which originated on these lands 4 miles from the nearest Government land and which was not aggressively suppressed while still small.

The situation is not uncommon in the Western States. The lower reaches and more accessible portions of many natural logging units were patented prior to the creation of the national forests. The patented lands were stripped of their valuable timber stands and the operations moved on. Some of the owners continued to pay their taxes, many did not, and the State and counties have acquired extensive areas through tax delinquency. In the area covered by this bill over one-third of the land has reverted to the public through this process. Government ownership and management, correlated with adjacent national forest lands, is undoubtedly the ultimate solution.

The area is a portion of a watershed upon which there has been constructed an 81⁄2-million-dollar hydroelectric plant. Watershed protection is, therefore, important.

The owners of the private lands and the State are agreed that the area should become a part of the Government's holdings.

The major effect of the legislation would be to extend the provisions of the Forest Exchange Act of March 20, 1922 (U. S. C., title 16, secs. 486-487), to these forest-growing lands; in other words, it would make it possible, if such action seemed to be in the public interest, to exchange national forest timber or lands within the State of Washington for privately owned lands of equal value and found to be chiefly valuable for the production of timber. Lands thus acquired would become a part of the Columbia National Forest.

Acquisition of the entire area by the Government will mean an ultimate increase in administration and protection costs of from $5,000 to $8,000 per year. Since acquisition of the area will no doubt extend over a period of years, the

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