or more, face value: Provided further, That no claim for the redemption of or allowance for stamps shall be allowed unless presented within four years after the purchase of such stamps from the Government: And provided further, That internal-revenue stamps affixed to packages of tobacco, snuff, cigars, or cigarettes which, after removal from factory or customhouse for consumption or sale, the manu facturer or importer withdraws from the market, may, under regulations prescribed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, be redeemed if claim therefor is presented by the manufacturer or importer, within two years from the dates of cancellation of said stamps irrespective of the date of their purchase.

TO EXTEND THE ROAD SYSTEMS IN NATIONAL PARKS

JUNE 21, 1930.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. LEAVITT, from the Committee on the Public Lands, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 12404]

The Committee on the Public Lands, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 12404) to amend the act of April 9, 1924, so as to provide for national park approaches, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it do pass with the following amend

ments:

Page 2, line 7, after the word "on", insert the words "or leading to". Page 2, line 13, strike out the word "such" and insert in lieu thereof the words "any one".

The purpose of this measure is to so amend the national parks road act as to bring about the construction of adequate connections between the highway systems of the various national parks and the Federal-aid highway systems outside the national parks. The national parks are largely surrounded by rough, mountainous, and sparsely settled or unsettled country. Special provision must be made for extending the road systems of the parks outward to connect with the road systems of the States and the Federal Government. Otherwise the making of these connections will not keep pace with the needs and demands of the traveling public and with the more rapid building of roads outside of the parks under recent legislation. H. R. 8000 to accomplish this purpose was introduced January 6, 1930. It called for a 3-year program of $5,000,000 per annum. The bill now being reported was introduced to replace H. R. 8000 following a conference, and it extends the program to five years at $3,000,000 per annum. It also delays the date of beginning to July 1, 1931.

A recent statement by the acting director of the National Park Service contains the following discussion of the need of this measure:

Public Law No. 90, approved April 7, 1930, provides for speeding up the Federal road-building program, authorizations for appropriations for Federal aid being increased for the fiscal years 1931, 1932, and 1933, from $75,000,000 to $125,HR-71-2-VOL 4-73

000,000. By Public Law No. 179, approved May 5, the authorization for appropriations for construction of national-forest roads and trails was increased from $7,500,000 to $12,500,000 for the same 3-year period. The annual appropriations for construction of roads and trails in national parks are now on the basis of $5,000,000 annually.

At present, although the national parks are the great lodestones of travel to the West, no provision is made for speeding up construction of national-park approach roads whose primary value is to carry this national park travel. In connection with forest roads which are of primary importance to the States, counties, or communities, provision in law is made for their construction within, adjoining, or adjacent to the national forests. The annual road and trail appropriations for the national parks and monuments are limited to construction of roads and trails within these areas.

At this time only two park approach roads are on the Federal aid 7 per cent system. These roads are the Cody east entrance and the Moran south entrance approaches to Yellowstone National Park. Both are through national forests. However, it will be some years before Federal aid or forest highway funds can be made available for their reconstruction. A number of park approach roads through national forests are eligible for reconstruction with forest highway funds available for allocation to forest community roads but with many other community roads of primary importance to the State, counties, or communities most of these important park approaches will not be scheduled for improvement for many years. Also many park approach roads are partly on the public domain and, not being on a State road system or on the Federal aid 7 per cent system, the only funds available for their improvement are those the counties can afford to allot. Few, if any, of the counties which must be depended upon to finance improve ment of important park approach roads are in a position to extend such aid.

The National Park Service is now rapidly improving the roads within the national parks along the latest approved types of construction and from a business standpoint it would appear essential to provide for financing the construction of the necessary approach roads in order that the maximum usefulness of the park roads may be had and enjoyed. H. R. 12404 provides a means whereby the improvement of the park approach roads may be accomplished and their construction materially speeded up.

The memorandum from which quotations are above made contains a recommendation for the enactment of the bill with two minor amendments, which are adopted. While the Budget advises against enacting the proposed legislation "at this time," the committee has thought best to follow its own belief and that of the National Park Service that the legislation is necessary as soon as the plan for construction can be put into effect. There is a widespread interest in the measure, and it is hoped that the situation will have become such that it can be enacted at least during the second session of the Seventyfirst Congress, and the work started on July 1, 1931. Only by such action will it be certain that the people of this Nation visiting their national parks shall have means of entrance by sufficient roads of a character equal to the Federal system by which they reach the locality.

The National Park Service furnishes two summaries with its favorable report, covering the need of approaches which could be wholly or partially supplied under this measure. The total is beyond the authorization of this bill by nearly $5,000,000, but it is expected that a part of the needed roads will be built as parts of the forest highway system and under the Colton-Oddie law for roads across public lands, as well as by State cooperation. In so far as the needs coincide duplication should be avoided, and it is possible that an even greater mileage will thus be accomplished. However, it is vital that the building of these approaches go forward at once and in step with the increased road program, so that completion shall be reasonably identi cal in time.

The summary by national parks furnished by the National Park Service is as follows:

The present law as amended would then read:

AN ACT Authorizing the construction, reconstruction, and improvement of roads and trails, inclusive of necessary bridges, in the national parks and monuments under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Interior, in his administration of the National Park Service, is hereby authorized to construct, reconstruct, and improve roads and trails, inclusive of necessary bridges, in the national parks and monuments under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior. SEC. 2. That for such purposes, including the making of necessary surveys and plans, there is hereby authorized to be appropriated out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the following sums, to be available until expended: The sum of $2,500,000 for the fiscal years ending June 30, 1924, and June 30, 1925; the sum of $2,500,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1926; and the sum of $2,500,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1927.

SEC. 3. That the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to reserve from distribution to the several States, in addition to the 10 per centum authorized by section 5 of the act of November 10, 1921 (Forty-second Statutes at Large, page 213), not exceeding 5 per centum of the material, equipment, and supplies hereafter received from the Secretary of War, and to transfer said material, equipment, and supplies to the Secretary of the Interior for use in constructing, reconstructing, improving, and maintaining roads and trails in the national parks and monuments: Provided, That no charge shall be made for such transfer except such sums as may be agreed upon as being reasonable charges for freight, handling, and conditioning for efficient use.

SEC. 4. Whenever the Secretary of the Interior shall determine it to be in the public interest he may designate as national-park approach roads and as supplementary parts of the highway systems of any of the national parks roads whose

primary value is to carry national-park travel and which lead across lands wholly or partly owned by the Government of the United States and which will connect the highways within a national park with a convenient point on or leading to the Federal 7 per centum highway system: Provided, That such approach roads so designated shall be limited to not to exceed sixty miles in length between a park gateway and the nearest convenient 7 per centum system road; or, if such approach road is now on the 7 per centum system, it shall be limited to not to exceed thirty miles: Provided further, That not to exceed forty miles of any one approach road shall be designated in any one county.

SEC. 5. The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to construct, reconstruct, and improve such national-park approach roads so designated, inclusive of necessary bridges, and to enter into agreements for the maintenance thereof with State or county authorities, or to maintain them when otherwise necessary; and there is hereby authorized to be appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the following sums, to be expended for the purposes of this act: The sum of $3,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1982; the sum of $8,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1933; the sum of $8,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1934; the sum of $3,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1935; the sum of $3,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1986: Provided, That under agreement with the Secretary of the Interior the Secretary of Agriculture may carry out any or all of the provisions of this section.

SEC. 6. Whenever any such approach road is proposed under the terms of this act across or within any national forest the Secretary of the Interior shall secure the approval of the Secretary of Agriculture before construction shall begin.