i9o8 EDITORIAL 



II 



puts at more than $100,000,000. Con- otherwise she could not, as an undi- 



trolling and utilizing our waters would vided nation, have survived to her 



enable us to save this sum and pro- present prodigious age. Yet few 



duce annually a five-fold greater value, would argue that her*' progress has 



Rivers, instead of running wild, brought her to approximate national 



may be controlled almost like city perfection, and the hope that she may 



water. Such control, however, neces- even yet approach such a state is 



sitates National action and a compre- dampened by inquirv into the facts of 



hensive plan in which the conserva- her economic life, 



tion of forests upon slopes is essential. In northern China, especially, the 



Thus the forest question underlies mountains, from base to summit, have 



and largely dominates not only the been swept as bare of forests as are 



question of wood, in all its forms, but our city pavements. In consequence, 



the questions of irrigation, drainage, they have been gashed and gullied by 



soil_ conservation and the control and fierce torrents. Floods have devastated 



utilization of our inland waters. the valleys. Wood has become so rare 



To say that the logical end of this ^^ ^° ^e confined largely to the making 

 policy of destruction is public disaster °^ coffins, for which purpose it is 

 is to speak within bounds. A philoso- borne on human backs down rugged 

 pher has declared that "No nation slopes and defiles in journeys of some- 

 ever outlived its religion." However times ten days or two weeks. Fagots 

 this may be, it is self evident that no ^°^ ^"^^ ^^^ a luxury of the rich, 

 nation can outlive its natural re- Grass, dug up by the roots from re- 

 sources. Again, it is a matter of his- "^°^^ mountains, and stubble raked 

 tory and observation that some nations ^'^^" ^J°"^ harvested fields, constitute 

 have sadly depleted their resources, ^^^ ^^^^^ forms of fuel. Farming is 

 with serious consequences to them- *^°"^ °" mountain sides on which soil, 

 selves. The Mediterranean lands are brought^ by flood waters or human 

 cases in point. The governor of a bands, is held in terraces by stone 

 Roman province was expected to ^^^^^^s, laboriously constructed. Rivers 

 amass a fortune in a few, brief years. ^^ ^^y ""^ summer. Areas of their 

 His method involved the most bare- p"^pty beds are then fenced in. Soil 

 faced and brutal exploitation of both ^^ caught in these when the river is 

 the people and the lands which were ^"^^ again and, on the recession of the 

 thrown to him as so much spoil of water, is tilled. 



conquest. With him, the present was Little wonder that such a land is 



everything ; the future, nothing. the prey of famine, that the traveler 



passes through successive villages abso- 

 rr • The lesson taujrbt hv ^"^ely ^lestitute of human inhabitants; 

 Utopia ru- 5 ^ , taught by and that, even in the more favored re- 

 vs. China ,^„^-^^f^-^^^^^ be learned i^ns, the parent, upon the birth of a 



these days of TvoluTonph^Ch^^ 'Zt .^'f' '"^"^"-^'i ''^^'^^ 



are prone to assume that ?fmf on7y ,f ^'^l' *° ^^°T '' °"^"§^h^' P' ^^^^^ 



coupled with industry, will bear us Js flm^.^ '"" """"^ ^' '^' "'"' 



a Nation, forward irresistibly toward t ^f \ur..^ u u , 



a state closely approximating the ideal ^ Let those who have hugged to 



We habitually look at the past through ^^"^^^^^^^.the delusion that time 



the large end of the telescope and at ftv"on'r^"f i^"'^ "^-^f "'^ ^^'^^- 



the future, through the small end We '7 O" Present hues, will inevitably 



do not reflect that a crescendo move- d^T'a'rr.iT^ T '" 'T^'^ P"^^" 



ment may be followed by a diminu- t \i 1 ""^ f^'"^'^ warnings 



endo. uiminu as those, for example, of the Presi- 



D 4. 1 1 ^ r^, ■ -TT *^^"t, in his last message, are but the 



But look at China. Unquestionably, wailings of Cassandra, look at Ch na 



she has been great and powerful; —and think. "k at ^nina 



