1908 



EDITORIAL 



179 



even patience, upon such a measure as 

 the Appalachian-White Mountain Bill. 

 The Secretary of the American For- 

 estry Association has addressed a let- 

 ter to Hon. John J. Jenkins, chairman 

 of the House Committee on Judiciary, 

 reminding him of his promise made at 

 the hearing before that committee on 

 February 27 that the measure would 

 be promptly considered, and asking 

 him when a report could be expected. 

 The Chairman replies he cannot tell. 



Pessimism A correspondent writes : 



«nr^♦■y^;o^» "I do not believe any as- 

 Uptimism ... .../-, 



sociation or mdividual 



can do anything toward the protection 

 of the forests. They are bound to go, 

 in this country, even down to the rail- 

 road ties and prop timbers. Assess- 

 ments are so high that no one can 

 afford to hold them to grow up into 

 timber again. I have no sympathy 

 with the movement at all." 



Over against this should be put the 

 speech made by Speaker Cannon be- 

 fore the National Wholesale Lumber 

 Dealers' Association in Washington 

 on the 1 2th. 



]\Ir. Cannon declared himself to be 

 "an optimist." He ridiculed the idea 

 that our forests are facing destruction. 

 He scorned the notion that special ef- 

 fort should be made to conserve our 

 natural resources. He sneered at 

 "men who make reputation in public 

 life, in departmental life, in legislative 

 life, by denouncing the criminal waste- 

 fulness touching the destruction of the 

 forests," and added: ' 'T sometimes 

 hear them talk; I sometimes wonder 

 how much they know." 



He described his early pioneer life 

 in Wabash County, Indiana, when it 

 was necessary to clear the forests to 

 provide land for farming: and then 

 inquired: "Is there a man here * * * 

 who would put us back to fifty 

 years ago, when there was nothing 

 but the wild beasts and the adventur- 

 ous pioneer to be found in that vast 

 domain known as the Northwest Ter- 

 ritory, that would turn the hands back 

 upon the dial fifty or sixty years 

 ago?" 



He exclaimed sarcastically: "What 

 is to become of posterity^ Oh, the 

 natural resources are being destroyed ! 

 In forty or fifty years we are to freeze 

 to death because there is no more coal 

 and there will be no more lumber, no 

 more timber. Burning the candle at 

 both ends ! I suppose we ought to 

 freeze now, that fifty years from now 

 they may have something to warm 

 them." He expressed his faith that 

 the Caucasian race would find some 

 way to meet conditions which may 

 arise, and declared that he was not 

 "losing sleep." 



In closing, he thought it "neces- 

 sary" for lumbermen "to pursue a dif- 

 ferent policy toward the preservation 

 of your holdings in the forest ; that in- 

 stead of cutting it clean, you should 

 be more careful about the cutting." 

 But added : "You will do it because 

 it is to your interest to do it, and that 

 is greater than anything else. It is 

 greater than law." 



Between the pessimism of our cor- 

 respondent and the "optimism" of 

 Speaker Cannon, the reader may take 

 his choice. The chief difference be- 

 tween the two is that the latter is in 

 the place of power. He sees no oc- 

 casion for anxiety, and no ground for 

 action by the community through its 

 agency called government. For such 

 slight corrections as may be necessary, 

 he relies wholly upon cold-blooded 

 self-interest and unregulated individ- 

 ual initiative. In so far as this speech 

 is an index, his political economy is 

 that of a hundred years age, as voiced 

 by David Ricardo : Laisse:: fairc, each 

 for himself, self-interest the grand 

 automatic regulator of our whole in- 

 dustrial mechanism ! Is it any won- 

 der the Appalachian bill finds rocks in 

 the channel through which it must 

 travel ? 



"After us the deluge !" 



"I suppose we ought to freeze now, 

 that fifty years from now they may 

 have something to warm them." 



The world has not yet forgotten the 

 speech of Louis XV. to Pompadour. 

 Perhaps this speech of Speaker Can- 

 non's may also prove historic. 



