VARIOUS NATIONAL SOCIETIES. 149 



Now, gentlemen, we wish to learn, and after we have had the pleasure of 

 hearing your addresses we hope to have such a fund of knowledge and infor- 

 mation that we can enlighten our friends. 



We doubt not but that your aims are noble, and for the future welfare of our 

 country, and full of patriotism, and that one of the prime objects of your 

 organization is to ask that each State have laws regulating our forests; but 

 many interests within our State will object to too stringent a law, or say that 

 the State should not interfere with their interests. 



Gentlemen, it was a question like this that brought forth the words of that 

 noble son of liberty, Sir W. Jones, who said: 



What constitutes a State ? 



Not high raised battlements or labored mound, 



Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned, 



Not bays and broad armed ports 



Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride, 



Not starr'd and spangled courts 



Where low browed baseness wafts perfume of pride, 



No ! men, high minded men, with powers of far above 



Dull brutes endued in forest brake or den, 



As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude. 



Men, who their duties know, 



But know their rights, and knowing dare maintain, 



Prevent the long aimed blow 



And crush the tyrants while they rend the chain. 



These constitute a State. 



We think this Forestry Congress composed of just such men and your pur- 

 poses are the greatest good for the greatest number. 



Many years ago in our pilgrimage across the plains we traveled for 300 miles 

 and only saw one single tree, but now how changed. 



Plantations on many sides and with each annual Arbor Day the plains will 

 soon be gone. The pioneers see little as it was, and the few that are spared 

 meet to-day. This is their annual celebration. I honor the pioneers, the pil- 

 grims; it was they that made it safe and possible for others to follow. They 

 made the trails and prospected our mountains, laid off our cities and called for 

 all people to come and enjoy the fullness of our land and mines. They dedi- 

 cated Denver, the City of the Plains. I think this Forestry Congress should 

 ask a rededication and name it the Forest City, for we have now more trees 

 within our corporate limits than any other city of its population in the Union. 



Secretary Fernow, in reply, apologized for the absence of Hon. Warren Hig- 

 ley, the president of the Congress, and made a short speech of thanks for the 

 welcome which the delegates and members had received. He said: "You of the 

 West must pardon us easterners if we still consider you in the far West. But 

 anyone who has made the journey from New York across the plains and then 

 has suddenly come upon this beautiful home of an enlightened and cultured 

 people, the distance seems as naught. His sympathies are stirred and he feels 

 that here he is still a member of this great country." 



THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Mr. Fernow then read the address of Hon. Warren Higley of New York, 

 president of the society, from which the following are extracts: 



Ladies and Gentlemen: — I congratulate you on meeting here under the 

 shadow of the rugged Kockies and on the border of the Great American Desert 



