Excerpt transcribed from "Southern Forestry Delegates Are Welcomed To Asheville By Mayor Ranking and Governor Locke Craig," Asheville Citizen Times, 12 July 1916.

The governor, who was greeted with applause, referred to the fact that he welcomed those who formed the original park association in 1896. "It was in that year, I remember, because Marion Butler was United States senator then, and he had not been senator before that term—nor since," he added as an afterthought. "However, Mr. Butler showed an interest in furthering the cause. I believe this is the only good thing I have ever said about him," the governor added amid laughter.

"At that time," said the governor, "the great body of the forest in this section was standing, only the large trees being taken, but later when timber became more valuable scarcely anything was too small to be spared," and he described tracts cut over as if by a giant reaper. Behind was left a ruin of debris and the inevitably came fierce fires that leaped 150 feet and destroyed even the root in the ground. I do not blame the lumbermen," said the governor, "because as a business matter they seek to get all they can from the woods, and we must be prepared to pay them if we ask that they do less. The mountain forests serve two purposes; to supply timber and conserve water sources. The Almighty provided a natural reservoir here to provide an equable supply, a uniform flow in dry weather, but man is destroying this natural reservoir with its carpet of green far superior to the artificial storage dams the power companies are buildings.

"We are allowing these God-given resources to be wasted, and the people, through the law, should put its hand on this industry and say it shall be conducted only in a way which shall not injure the public weal. These forests do not belong solely to the man who holds a deed to them—in a larger sense they belong to the people—to the world present and future. Compensation should, of course, be fairly given to those who will suffer pecuniary loss by such regulation." The governor expressed the hope that the congress would recommend practical methods of regulating timbering by law.