EDITORIAL 



Edward Everett Hale 



AGAIN, "a prince and a great man 

 is fallen in Israel." Another na- 

 tional figure — "the Tolstoi of America" 

 — has gone from us. One of the 

 cluster of great New England 

 names, including Wendell Phillips, 

 William Lloyd Garrison, Ralph Waldo 

 Emerson, Webster, Holmes. Lowell, 

 Longfellow, Sumner, Whittier, Free- 

 man Clarke, Phillips Brooks, and 

 Thomas Wentworth Higginson, he was 

 almost "the last leaf upon the tree." 



While, considering his advanced age 

 of eighty-seven years, the death of 

 Edward Everett Hale should not per- 

 haps have been such, it was, neverthe- 

 less, a surprise to the country. 



The public press abounds with stories 

 of his life, and commendations of his 

 multiplied services to humanity. Fuller 

 mention may be made in a later issue 

 of Conservation. Here it is in order 

 to say that he was for years an active 

 worker in the cause of forestrv and con- 

 servation — the patriarch of the move- 

 ment. No face was more familiar 

 at the meetings of the American For- 

 estry Association, nor at hearings be- 

 fore congressional committees ; and no 

 words were listened to with more con- 

 sideration than his, as he told of the 

 great pine trees, tall and beautiful in 

 the days when North America was dis- 

 covered — trees under which as a boy 

 he had slept, but which in recent years 

 had been swept away, their places now 

 being supplied with sumac and black- 

 berry bushes. Of such a sight he would 

 say, "It makes a man cry to see it !" 



At the last two annual meetings of the 

 American Forestry Association Doctor 

 Hale was present and spoke with tre- 

 mendous energy and earnestness for the 

 forestry movement and especially for 

 the Appalachian measure. 

 430 



In the very heart of the White ]\Ioun- 

 tains of New Hampshire, where he 

 loved to summer, a large mountain 

 has, in recent years, been named for 

 him. 



To many of our readers the following 

 quotation, from the Springfield Repub- 

 lican, will appeal as peculiarly appro- 

 priate and suggestive : 



"His presence will never be forgotten 

 by any one who had seen and listened 

 to him in the last thirty years at least, 

 as he grew old and the great head with 

 its mane of brown hair, his deeply 

 lined countenance, his slightly stooping 

 shoulders and his large aspect as a per- 

 sonality impressed every one. A man 

 of simpler, sweeter, honester manner 

 will never be seen in pulpit, in as- 

 sembly, or on the street. No one will 

 forget him who has lived in his day." 



And the following telegram from 

 President Taft to the Hale household 

 is one in which many will be glad to 

 join : 



"Mrs. Taft and I extend to your our 

 heartfelt sympathy in your great sor- 

 row, and deeply regret the loss which 

 the whole community suffers in the 

 death of such an upholder and stanch 

 advocate of sweetness and light, the lib- 

 eral but truly religious spirit. Christian 

 charity and tolerance, the brotherhood 

 of man, and the fatherhood of God." 



Jg )^ )« 



Forestry a Germ of the Conservation 

 Movement 



THE "Proceedings of the Conference 

 of Governors of the United States" 

 (White House, May 13-15, 1908) has 

 recently appeared. It begins with a 

 statement of the "origin and plan of 

 the Conference." Following are the 

 opening paragraphs : 



"The idea of conserving the Nation's 



