EDITORIAL 



THE belief of the Germans in the 

 necessity for conservation of the 

 forests is evidently inherited by 

 Germans and their descendants 

 in this country, for we find, in an ad- 

 dress by Leo Stem, an officer of the Na- 

 tional German American Alliance, de- 

 livered at Milwaukee in November, this 

 paragraph : — 



"At every one of its meetings the 

 National German American Alliance 

 has heard the subject of forestry dis- 

 cussed by experts, and it has year after 

 year adopted strong resolutions by 

 unanimous vote in support of forest 

 preservation and reforestation. On this 

 question the Wisconsin alliance, which 

 represents 50,000 citizens of the State, 

 stands shoulder to shoulder with the 

 national body." 



It is gratifying to know that this 

 statement was made before the members 

 of the Wisconsin joint legislative com- 

 mittee on forestry, and it should give the 

 members of this committee food for 



thought. Even if some of them, as is 

 doubtless true, have no knowledge of 

 the forest needs of the state, even if 

 they have an ingrained dislike for 

 anything that savors of conservation, 

 they cannot overlook the fact that some 

 50,000 voters of the state feel regarding 

 forest conservation as Mr. Stern says 

 they do. We opine that there is no 

 member of the Wisconsin legislature so 

 heedless of his own political future as to 

 fail to give some consideration to the 

 wishes of 50,000 voters. There are 

 also many other thousands of voters of 

 Wisconsin who are not members of the 

 National German American Alliance 

 and who feel just as strongly regarding 

 the preservation of the state forests as 

 do the aforementioned 50,000. 



What great good might be done the 

 cause if many other organizations would 

 also, year after year, pass strong 

 resolutions in support of forest preserva- 

 tion and reforestation. 



TEXAS has joined the several 

 other states which are demand- 

 ing from their Legislatures, which 

 meet early in the year, the 

 passage of a law creating a state 

 department of forestry and the em- 

 ployment of a non-political state 

 forester who shall be supplied with a 

 sufficient appropriation to do satis- 

 factory work. It is significant that the 

 demand for such a forestry law came 

 first from the lumbermen of the state. 

 This is an evidence of the value of 

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publicity in the cause of forest conserva- 

 tion. Not so many years ago it was 

 practically impossible to find any num- 

 ber of lumbermen favoring the conserva- 

 tion of the forests. Now a large per- 

 centage of them realize the absolute 

 necessity of it, and many of them are 

 among the most enthusiastic members 

 of the American Forestry Association 

 and various other organizations devoted 

 to securing the perpetuation of the 

 forests. 



