EDITORIAL 



547 



Manufacturers' Association and the 

 Western Forestry and Conservation As- 

 sociation, the President of the United 

 States wired the Assistant Secretary of 

 War to direct commanding officers of 

 army posts, upon application by the 

 Forest Service, to lend every assistance 

 possible in the suppression of fires. Ac- 

 tion was immediately taken by the Serv- 

 ice to avail itself of this general op- 

 portunity to secure the cooperation of 

 troops. By August 13, some 2,000 men 

 in the employ of the Service were being 

 assisted along the fire-fighting lines by 

 sixteen companies of soldiers where the 

 worst fires were blazing, namely, in sev- 

 eral of the national forests of Idaho and 

 Montana and in the Blackfeet Indian 

 Reservation. The Secretary of the In- 

 terior also took steps to secure the aid 

 of the Forest Service in fighting fires on 

 the Glacier National Park, which, like 

 the other national parks, is under the 

 jurisdiction of the Department of the 

 Interior. 



Thus, all available machiner}- was 

 promptly set in motion to save the pub- 

 lic timber. At this writing, however, it 

 is doubtful whether the greater fires 

 are yet under control. Enough is al- 

 ready known about the situation in the 

 forests to make it certain that they have 

 sufifered more heavily than at any time 

 since they were placed under the juris- 

 diction of the Forest Service. The vast 

 extent of the public property involved 

 may be seen from a single instance. In 

 one forest in Montana there was threat- 

 ened 400,000,000 feet of timber in a 

 mass, the market value of which was 

 $4 a thousand on the stump. The ex- 

 pense of fighting fires on the people's 

 property, as this is written, can hardly 

 be less than $15,000 a day. No one can 

 really conceive the damage that is being 

 done to the future forest in the injury 

 and destruction of young growth. 



Fire is not a mysterious enemy. By 

 the proper means it can be met and con- 

 quered, and indeed largely held back 

 from the invasion of the forest. The 

 best methods of prevention are known 

 and efifectual. The weakness in the sit- 

 uation is lack of men and money for 



adequate protection. Surely, t.ie national 

 forests ought not to be exposed to such 

 losses by a penurious polig;^.- which leaves 

 a mere handful of men to patrol and 

 protect the large areas that are repeat- 

 edly placed in danger. Not to speak of 

 economic waste, duty to the public, re- 

 spect for the good name of the Nation, 

 require that Congress, without further 

 delay or argument, should give funds 

 enough to keep the national forests at 

 all times fully manned. 



^ t^ ^ 



Mr, Roosevelt and the English Song Birds 



TN The Outlook for August, Mr.Theo- 

 1 dore Roosevelt writes of English 

 song birds and their songs with as much 

 obvious zest and discrimination as if to 

 see and hear them had been one of the 

 main objects of his visit to England. 

 One day, between the funeral of King 

 Edward and the Guildhall speech, he 

 found or made the time, amidst official, 

 social, and academic honors and oppor- 

 tunities that would have bewildered a 

 head less sound and flattered a man 

 less sincere, he stole awav into the fields 

 and woods with a delightful and learned 

 companion, and there made first-hand 

 acquaintance with the singing birds 

 which till then had been his friends only 

 in familiar books. And now, while still, 

 as always, very fully occupied, and at 

 the same time playing a public role that 

 calls constantly forr great tact and wis- 

 dom, he once more finds or makes the 

 time to tell American readers of this 

 naturalist's excursion. 



Altogether apart from the charm and 

 value of the Outlook article as a contri- 

 bution to bird-lore, this characteristic 

 episode of Mr. Roosevelt's days in Eng- 

 land carries a stimulus and a challenge. 

 Is any one of us more engrossed with 

 large afifairs, or weighted with graver 

 responsibilities, than was Mr. Roose- 

 velt when he dropped for half a day out 

 of the insistent world and barkened 

 eagerly to the notes of the nightingale, 

 the cuckoo, and the English robin? We 

 take both our business and ourselves too 

 seriously. Our sense of proportion is 



