358 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



June 



private corporations of vast tracts of 

 timber or mineral lands. This is in- 

 dicated in the paragraph quoted above, 

 and the sentiment expressed therein 

 is fairly representative of the opinions 

 of a good majority of Western men. 

 It is also a fact that the bulk of oppo- 

 sition to the establishment by the Fed- 

 eral Government of National Forests 

 is in the far West. Forest conserva- 

 tion has its friends — and excellent 

 ones, too — in that part of the country 

 lying west of the Missouri River ; but 

 the bitter, vituperative and strenuous 

 opposition to the Government's pro- 

 gram comes also from that section. 

 It is true, too, that propositions that 

 have been made in the past for th? 

 several states to do their own worl: in 

 establishing forest reserves and re- 

 erves of mineral lands — these to be 

 held in perpetuo for the benefit of the 

 whole people, and to be taken from the 

 lands owned by the states and lying 

 within their own, borders — have like- 

 wise met with strong opposition ; so 

 strong, in fact, that no 'serious at- 

 tempt has ever been made to put such 

 a program into effect. 



Now, what remedy do our protest- 

 ing friends propose? So far we have 

 failed to see or hear of any. All that 

 has as yet come to our attention is a 

 continuous performance of protest 

 against everything. Protest against 

 the segregation under individual or 

 corporate ownership of tremendous 

 tracts of timber and mineral lands ; 

 protest against the broadening of the 

 National Forest scheme; protest 

 against the establishment of a state 

 scheme for forest and mineral re- 

 serves. And, with all the protest, not 

 even the suggestion of a remedy. Does 

 it not occur to these protestors that, if 

 they have no remedy to offer, it ill be- 

 comes them to rail continuously 

 against existing conditions? 



There is no room for doubt that if 

 the sentiment of the voting public in 



any or all of the Western states were 

 to be vigorously expressed the states 

 would be forced to enact legislation 

 looking toward the preservation and 

 conservation of the natural resources 

 upon or within the lands owned by 

 such states. It requires only the ex- 

 pression of a crystallized public sen- 

 timent to secure the adoption of any 

 legislation desired ; and the fact that 

 no such crystallization has taken place, 

 and the added fact that proposals to 

 this end have been bitterly opposed, 

 would seem to indicate that the pub- 

 lic — that is, the voting public — of the 

 states in question does not want such 

 legislation. 



It is an equally patent fact, if one is 

 to judge by expressions of individual 

 and collective opinion and the edi- 

 torial utterances of the newspapers,, 

 that many people of the far West op- 

 pose the Nationalization of forests, 

 etc. Nobody denies the right of the 

 Government to set aside National For- 

 ests when the land so set aside is Gov- 

 ernment land ; nevertheless, the oppo- 

 sition to the establishment of National 

 Forests continues vociferously, and it 

 is the strongest in the far Western 

 states. There is hardly room for 

 doubt, either, that if the Western 

 states would undertake the work of 

 preserving the remaining forests and 

 caring for them in a wise manner, 

 safeguarding them against exploita- 

 tion and conserving the timber within 

 them for the fullest possible use, the 

 National Government would have lit- 

 tle to do there along the line of for- 

 est conservation. But the states will 

 not do this ; the objectors within the 

 states are as strongly opposed to such 

 steps as they are to the plan of Na- 

 tional Forests. They offer no sub- 

 stitute plan ; therefore it would seem 

 "to a man up a tree" as if they had 

 only themselves to blame for the other 

 aggressions and abuses which so 

 arouse their ire. 



