EDITORIAL 



305 



Why, then, take any risks? Because 

 some doubt, shall we save a few mil- 

 lions now and risk the loss of many 

 millions later? Other nations have had 

 the experience. Shall we fail to profit 

 by what Germany, France, and Italy 

 have learned and paid for, simply be- 

 cause able men who have guarded the 

 lower reaches of our rivers do not be- 

 lieve they are affected by the waters 

 that come from higher up on the water- 

 sheds? 



Shall we follow the advice of the 

 eminent engineer who suggests the cul- 

 tivation of clover on the side of the 

 Appalachian Mountains as a better re- 

 strainer of floods than the forests? His 

 engineering ability is not open to ques- 

 tion, but he has certainly not followed 

 the plough, or he is not familiar with 

 the Appalachian mountainsides. 



No, let us make our domain secure 

 again all possible contingencies and 

 take no chances on doubtful, negative 

 theories. 



«? i^ J>i 



It Makes a Difference Where the Appropriation 

 Goes 



WE LEARN from a Salt Lake pa- 

 per that Congressman Joseph 

 Howell of Utah has assured his con- 

 stituents that he will use his influence 

 in securing the passage of the $13,- 

 000,000 reclamation bond bill, and that 

 it will be supported by the representa- 

 tives from all the other states having 

 arid regions. Mr. Howell is one of 

 the members of the House Committee 

 on Agriculture who is consistent in his 

 opposition to the Appalachian forest 

 project. It seems that his views of the 

 necessity of economy do not extend to 

 projects affecting the state of Utah. We 

 earnestly commend for Mr. Howell's 

 consideration a broader national view. 

 We wish he might be led to see that 

 there are needs of the eastern states 

 which are a responsibility of the nation 

 just as much as the needs of the west- 

 ern states, and that eastern senators 

 and congressmen will be unwilling for- 

 ever to support measures for the im- 

 provement and development of the 



west when their western colleagues re- 

 fuse such support to measures equally 

 necessary for the maintenance of the 

 welfare and prosperity of the east. 



We do not wish in saying this to be 

 understood as threatening retaliation or 

 as wishing to raise a sectional issue. 

 The opposite is true. We stand for 

 the broadest nationality. The interests 

 advocated by this magazine are the in- 

 terests of the east, the west, the north, 

 and the south, and it has no prefer- 

 ence between them. We are simply 

 calling attention to the national injus- 

 tice involved in the attitude of some 

 of the western men who are absorbed 

 in securing all that they can for their 

 own section without any regard to the 

 needs of the rest of the country. 



&' «r' 5^' 



Our Commonwealths' Neglected Opportunities 



IN THE Denver Post we find an ar- 

 ticle commenting on a paper read 

 before the Colorado Conservation Com- 

 mission which makes a point so appli- 

 cable in all parts of the United States 

 and so well stated that we quote it here. 

 The paper urged greater activity and 

 larger initiative on the part of the west- 

 ern states in the conservation of their 

 own natural resources. The Post re- 

 marks that the defect of this argument 

 is that it has been presented after the 

 adjudication of the cause, and then goes 

 on to say: 



Mr. Gauss is not as a voice calling in the 

 wilderness; he is sounding the charge after 

 the surrender. In the matter of scientific 

 conservation the western states — as we 

 pointed out on this page a year ago — have 

 "slept on their rights," and their opportuni- 

 ties. Colorado could have constructed the 

 Gunnison tunnel: but Colorado relinquished 

 that to the national government. Colorado 

 could have inaugurated and organized an ef- 

 ficient forest service ; but Colorado failed 

 in that also. Colorado could have so amended 

 its constitution that its revenues would have 

 been equal to support adequately its own in- 

 stitutions of public education, for example ; 

 but there again we failed to take due advan- 

 tage of our occasions. It is a problem in 

 human nature, in the limitations of human 

 activity, that we are here confronted by. 

 rather than a doctrine of governmental ma- 

 chinerv; and this country is no longer a con- 



