3o6 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



geries of independent commonwealths united 

 by a common agreement for limited purposes, 

 but a cohering nation, in which it seems prob- 

 able as time evolves new conditions, that 

 the importance of the states, as states under 

 the original conception, will diminish, and 

 the nation become ''more and more." We do 

 not claim that as an ideal finality; but it 

 seems to us to be the only conclusion de- 

 ducible from the logic of history. 



What is true of Colorado and of 

 other western states is true Hkewise of 

 the eastern states. It has often, for 

 instance, been urged against the claims 

 of the White Mountains for preserva- 

 tion at the hands of the nation that New 

 Hampshire might easily have preserved 

 the White Mountain forests herself and 

 thereby added to the wealth of the 

 state. This is entirely true, but years 



ago, when the questions of forestry and 

 conservation had not come to the front 

 as they have now. New Hampshire 

 parted with her title to the mountains, 

 and the situation that confronts us now 

 is the situation that has been created 

 by later conditions of ownership and 

 business. It is no use now to claim that 

 New Hampshire couM have done this ; 

 the time for that has gone by. It has 

 now become a problem which must be 

 taken in hand by a greater power than 

 New Hampshire, and this is only one 

 illustration of the many that might be 

 given. The Post is perfectly correct in 

 its position and the fact that it states 

 is only an illustration of a way in which 

 our system of semi-independent com- 

 monwealths fails at critical points. 



