120 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



March 



of conserving our forests. In a word, 

 we are, by the power of steam, pur- 

 suing the course travelled on foot and 

 in ox-cart by the ancient nations- — • 

 the course that leads directly to na- 

 tional impoverishment, decay and sen- 

 ilitv. 



Individual Now the question arises. 

 or State - What can we do about 

 it? Shall wedlock to in- 

 dividuals for salvation? If so, we are 

 met by the current political economy 

 which teaches that "business is busi- 

 ness," that "sentiment" has no place 

 in it, and that each must look out for 

 his own interests, whatever happens 

 to the interests cf his neighbor or the 

 public. And business, of course, with 

 rare exceptions^ is quick to take this 

 cue. The result is forest slaughter, 

 with the desolation that follows in its 

 train. 



Suppose, next, we look to the 

 States: Can they solve the problem? 

 As frequently brought out, the indi- 

 vidual State is helpless ; the cause fre- 

 quently occurring in one State and 

 the effect in another. If, as has been 

 suggested occasionally, groups of 

 States endeavor to solve such a prob- 

 lem we encounter, first, the fact that 

 groups of States have no central, co- 

 ordinating head: no legislative, no 

 executive, and no judicial powers. 

 Groups as groups are helpless. Again, 

 groups of States are forbidden to take 

 action. The National constitution, in 

 clause I, of Section X, of Article i, 

 declares, in terms, "No State shall 

 enter into, any treaty, alliance, or con- 

 federation ;" while clause 3 of the 

 same section provides : "No State 

 shall, without the consent of Congress 

 * * * enter into any agreement or 

 compact with another State." In the 

 face of language like this, will the 

 man with an acute constitutional con- 

 science ask the States to act jointly in 

 such a matter? 



Further, as Governor Glenn re- 

 minded Speaker Cannon in the hear- 

 ing before the latter official last win- 

 ter, certain States once attempted 



group action in a matter which they 

 conceived to be of common concern to 

 themselves. Since that time, this 

 method of action has been even less 

 popular than before. 



If this were a case in which the 

 States were jealous of their powers 

 and were insisting that such action as 

 is taken should be taken by them- 

 selves, the matter would be different. 

 On the other hand, almost all the 

 States involved have, through their 

 legislatures, already acted, conceding 

 to the Government full powers in the 

 premises. 



If the 

 Nation is 

 Impotent 



Suppose, now, the Na- 

 tional Congress is con- 

 stitutionally inhibited 

 from proceeding; where do we stand? 

 With individuals injuring, rather than 

 improving the situation ; with States 

 individually helpless and, in groups, 

 destitute of organized agencies and 

 twice-over specifically forbidden by 

 by the National constitution to pro- 

 ceed, the American people are help- 

 less. They may sit idly and watch the 

 foundations dug from under their Na- 

 tional structure, their resources dissi- 

 pated and their Eden gradually trans- 

 formed into a desert, but they cannot 

 act in their own defense. That "self- 

 defense" which is "the first law of na- 

 ture" they may not even attempt. The 

 "public safety" which, in Rome, was 

 "the supreme law" counts for nothing 

 with them. Can it be believed, for a 

 moment, that an intelligent people 

 ever intended thus to bind themselves, 

 hand and foot, with a bit of writing, 

 and, in fact, actually did so? 



On the contrary, it was precisely 

 that the American people might escape 

 the condition of .impotence and help- 

 lessness in which the}'' found them- 

 selves under the Articles of Confeder- 

 ation that they authorized the calling 

 of the constitutional convention of 

 1787. And this body, itself, that it 

 might deliver the country from this 

 same condition of constitutional bond- 

 age, deliberately violated its own in- 

 structions, namely to amend the Arti- 



