EDITORIAL 



THE POLLUTION OF RIVERS AND HARBORS 



OF THE evil and uncivilized things done by our modern civilization there 

 are few that have so little excuse as the pollution of streams and coast 

 waters with sewage. Hardly a river that has large cities near its banks 

 runs pure and uncoutaminated. Many of them are a stench in the nostrils 

 and an offence to men when they should carry health, pleasure and beauty in 

 their course. 



Undoubtedly the rapid growth of urban population makes the disposal 

 of sewage a problem of some difficulty, but if modern chemistry and physics 

 are unable to solve it, sanitary science is a failure. 



Filth and slime where cleanliness and purity should be ; sources of disease 

 in an element that should be a powerful aid to health ; an offence to the senses 

 when they should find joy and satisfaction — that is the condition today of 

 many of the rivers in thickly settled portions of the country and of some 

 of our harbors. 



New York harbor is offensive at certain times of year because of careless 

 disposal of the enormous quantities of garbage and also of the emptying of 

 sewers into its waters. Gorged with the waste of the city, the harbor has at 

 last refused to take care of the accumulation and conditions threaten the 

 welfare of the metropolis. 



The Merrimac River, receiving year after year the mill waste and com- 

 munal sewage from the cities along its banks, has become polluted beyond the 

 point of safety, not to mention comfort. Yet here is a stream that is fed by 

 waters of exceptional purity, following a course that would maintain that 

 purity if human intelligence would give attention to its protection. 



We stand very much in need of careful study of our streams and their 

 relation to the life along their banks, a study that shall be scientific, compre- 

 hensive and practical. When our river systems are thus studied we shall come 

 to know these water courses as a great gift of nature to be guarded and 

 improved, not insulted and defiled. In this protection and improvement, the 

 part played by the forest will be recognized and forests, properly located 

 upon the watersheds, will be recognized as a part of the system, just as they 

 now are on the watersheds of the well-regulated municipal water supplies. 



GETTING AT WORK 



QATURALLY, in view of the great and widespread public interest in the 

 Appalachian forests and the long struggle to secure national legislation 

 looking toward their preservation, the working of that legislation now 

 that it is on the statute books is watched with intense interest by many people 

 in many states. The Forest Service, as soon as it became evident that the 

 Weeks bill would probably become a law made ready an eflScient field and oflBce 

 force to do its part in carrying out the law and work was begup immediately 



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