658 



CONSERVATION 



of many harvests of trees from these 

 lands which are fitted only for timber 

 culture. I have very vivid memories 

 of the cut-over lands of Michigan, and 

 that is a state where a faulty policy 

 of heavy taxation led the landowners 

 to strip their lands of the valuable 

 pine and then abandon the barren hills 

 and plains to the state. The most 

 practical precaution against over-cut- 

 ting on private lands would seem to be 

 the automatic restriction which is be- 

 ing advocated here in Maine : namely, 

 the method of taxing what is cut rather 

 than what is left. The other part of 

 the problem, however, presents a more 

 urgent need than any scheme of pro- 

 tection of these timber lands from the 

 greed of private owners and that is the 

 necessity of safeguarding these lands 

 from utter devastation by fire. Here 

 lies the opportunity of the executive 

 officials of the state for I deem it their 

 duty to be as progressive and far- 

 sighted as the state judges. This is no 

 time to fall back behind precedent, 

 nor to stand pat upon past procedure. 

 There are exigencies that create and 

 justify new methods of protecting the 

 public interest. Our supreme bench 

 is quoted by trade and commercial jour- 

 nals as far as the Pacific coast — do we 

 wish it said that our judiciary consti- 

 tute our only guardians of the public 

 interest? Is there or is there not a law 

 requiring efficient spark arrestors on 

 locomotives? If such a law is on the 

 statute books, why is it not enforced by 

 those appointed to execute the laws of 

 the state? Or are they awaiting resub- 

 mission of this statute also ? 



It will be written down to the credit 

 of the Roosevelt administration that 

 the federal officials have been aroused 

 to a new appreciation of their obliga- 

 tions, not to this or that great interest, 

 but to the public at large. The bureau 

 officer at the center of government no 

 longer complacently takes the Vander- 

 biltian view of public service ; he 

 gets busy in the performance of his 

 whole duty as a servant of the people. 

 This reform has been accomplished by 

 placing before the whole departmental 

 service the true aim and purpose of 



government : namely, that of securing 

 for every citizen all his rights and privi- 

 leges. There is nothing new in this 

 idea, but its manifestation has not yet 

 become common enough, and the 

 Roosevelt idea of stirring up public 

 officials might well go beyond federal 

 circles. 



As a fellow servant of the people 

 then, I would urge the state officials to 

 meet the present emergency with the 

 sole purpose of protectng the public 

 interest at stake. Both executive and 

 legislative branches must approach this 

 forest problem not from the standpoint 

 of the railroad companies, nor that of 

 timberland proprietors, nor that of the 

 pulp or lumberrmill owners, though we 

 may agree that all these classes deserve 

 much consideration, nor from that of 

 any other special interests, but from the 

 viewpoint of the whole people, whom 

 alone you represent. Burn off the for- 

 ests of the state, dry up its rivers, lay 

 waste its land, and it will be not the 

 timberland owners or the great manu- 

 facturing corporations, but the people 

 at large who will suffer most and, as I 

 understand it, that is the principle set 

 forth in the supreme court opinion that 

 we do well to quote, to consider, and 

 to act upon. 



I am not satisfied that the idea now 

 current as to the status of the wild 

 lands of the state as regards trespass 

 is correct. The right of the public to 

 hunt over the lands in private owner- 

 ship is a question I will leave to the 

 students of the 'law, but I would chal- 

 lenge the right of the public to build 

 fires upon these lands. I cannot be- 

 lieve that the common law grants to a 

 landowner the ri""ht to make anv use 

 of his own land that will endanger the 

 property of his neighbor, and the gen- 

 eral public should hardly expect any 

 privileges that do not belong to the 

 owner himself. Those who have in 

 charge the execution of our state laws 

 in protection of these wild lands may 

 well at a time of exigency like the 

 present prohibit the building of fires by 

 those who wish to traverse the timber 

 lands. Should such a prohibition inter- 

 fere with their hunting, their loss con- 



