62 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



The Fight for the Public Domain 



In speaking of the vast value of our ex- 

 isting public domain and the struggle now 

 waged by private interests to seize it, the 

 Boston Journal says : 



"Nobody is to-day willing to venture a 

 guess at the marketable value of the vast 

 domain still owned by Uncle Sam. But the 

 figures will be available in a comparatively 

 short time, and they will be startling, run- 

 ning, without question, far into the billions. 

 Instead of the public domain being well- 

 nigh exhausted; instead of there being little 

 left save the frozen tundras of Alaska, the 

 deserts of the Southwest, and the moun- 

 tain rocks of the continental spine, it will 

 be shown that there is still an arable area 

 which will in time sustain millions, with 

 mineral, forest, and metal reserves to main- 

 tain a tremendous industrial system." 



The Journal next points out the eflForts 

 made by President Roosevelt to save this 

 domain for the people, and then continues : 



"During the last two years there have 

 been withdrawals from entry of about 

 3,000,000 acres of oil and gas lands; these 

 coming down to as recently *as a fortnight 

 ago. 



"All the withdrawals are made pending 

 legislation. Whether they will be continued 

 indefinitely, or indeed can be, in the event 

 that legislation fails, is a question of de- 

 cided interest and vast importance. The ad- 

 vocates of conservation, fearing the answer 

 to this question, are especially anxious that 

 necessary amendments to the laws be se- 

 cured this winter. The President and Secre- 

 tary Ballinger will both state the necessities, 

 in this regard, very forcibly in their annual 

 communications to Congress. In Congress, 

 just as the stake is shown to be immense, 

 so will the opposition of private interests be 

 intensified. These are highly organized. It 

 is freely charged that they will have in Wash- 

 ington this winter one of the most expensive 

 and influential lobbies that has ever de- 

 scended on the Capital, determined to pre- 

 vent legislation which will interfere with 

 great projects for the further transference of 

 the public domain to private and corporate 

 control. 



"In short, it is considered certain that 

 the great struggle for the last of the public 

 domain will see its real beginning at the 

 coming session, and that the time will come, 

 in the future, when it will be recalled as 

 the most determined fight, for the greatest 

 prize, that was ever controlled by action of 

 the National Legislature." 



^ )>i '^ 



"Let the Future Take Care of Itself" 



The conservation policy to which the na- 

 tional administration is cotnmitted is opposed 

 by a class of men who are under the illu- 

 sion that the protection of public interests 

 in coal and forest lands and water-power 

 involves a sentimental sacrifice of the present 

 to the future. 



Senator Heyburn, of Idaho, represents this 

 class. He wants powerful monopolies in his 

 state, and does not hesitate to say that it is 

 only through the rapid rise of monopolies . 

 that a new country can be developed so that 

 the present generation can enjoy life. 



While admitting that this policy may entail 

 a disadvantage to future generations, he 

 thinks that they should be left to take care 

 of themselves. 



This theory of Senator Heyburn, which 

 was acted upon by thousands of people be- 

 fore anybody had the hardihood to frame it, 

 is not merely morally offensive — it is eco- 

 nomically unsound. 



The actual effect of the establishment of 

 monopolies is not the sacrifice of the future 

 to the present; it is the sacrifice of the mass 

 of the people to a class. A feverish activity 

 is set up by the offer of huge privileges to 

 those who can first lay hands on thein. 



But a privilege is at bottom simply a taxing 

 power lodged in private hands. 



The advantage to general civilization is 

 wholly illusory. 



The gain of the privileged few is the loss of 

 the multitude. — Los Angeles (Cal.) Exam- 

 iner. 



)^ «« 5^ 



Attacking the Forestry Policy 



A good example of the kind of attack that 

 is being made upon Forester Pinchot and the 

 forestry policy of the National Government 

 is afforded by the following editorial that 

 appears in a Denver newspaper that has been 

 a leader in the campaign against this depart- 

 ment of the Federal Government : 



pike's pe.\k forestry 



"Upon the summit of Pike's Peak the peer- 

 less Pinchot has established a forest nursery- 

 It is to be as nifty a nursery as Government 

 money can furnish, and that is probably a 

 good deal. Up there in the sky, where 

 the chill wind blows, he will plant the little 

 trees, all in neat little rows, and guard 'em 

 as they stand on their cunning little toes, in 

 the Pike's Peak Pinchot Garden. 



Tell you what, it takes a head to think 

 up a scheme Like that. And we don't want 

 to hear any carping criticism about timber 

 lines and things. The laws of the United 

 States have never held the Glorious Gifford 

 as yet, and shall the laws of nature say him 

 nay? Perish the thought. Let no skeptic 

 scoff at this most marvelous of attempts to 

 reforest the Rockies. It is true that sev- 

 eral thousand feet lower than the site of the 

 Pinchot nursery a lodge pole pine takes 135 

 years to grow a six-inch stick. But that doesn't 

 matter at all. Mr. Pinchot is a dynamic 

 geographer, or something of that sort, and 

 he takes a broader view. The Pike's Peak 

 nursery may not be much as a forest — but 

 think what an adorable success it is as an 

 advertisement !" 



So much for sarcasm and innuendo. Now 

 for the facts, which appear in a news item 



