October 10, 1915. 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



13 



ation shall be made at the coming session of Congress, the field force 

 must bo dismissed and it can never be collected again. If the work 

 is thus dropped now, though it be resumed two years hence, a new 

 force of surveyors and examiners will have to be organized for the 

 peculiar work, and much- delay and extra expense wUl result. 



There appears to be no organized opposition to the proposition of 

 carrying on the work and providing the money for it. The danger of 

 failure, if there is any danger, lies in lack of concerted effort on the 

 part of those most interested, that is, the people in the mountain 

 region between Maine and Georgia. 



A Concrete Example 



Ax EXAMPLE MAY BE SEEN in some of the interior valleys 

 of Alaska of what happens to government timber when the 

 government gives it no protection. Extensive tracts, fairly well 

 wooded, lie outside the boundaries of the forest reserves. Though 

 this land is as much government i)roperty as are the national forests, 

 it has no such protection as they. Rangers, guards, and supervisors 

 are assigned to the duty of taking care of the national forests, but 

 they do' not go outside to look after other public land. The result 

 is that while the organized forests are guarded against fire, the tracts 

 outside are abandoned to their fate. 



Chief Forester Graves recently returned from an examination of 

 the wild lands of Alaska, and his report of the rate at which the 

 timber of the interior is burning shows the urgent necessitj' of taking 

 measures at the earliest possible date to lessen the destruction by fire. 

 If that is not done the time is near when it will be useless to take 

 steps of any kind, for the timber will be gone. Hundreds of thou- 

 sands of acres are burned every year. 



Mr. Graves will place the matter before Congress at the next ses- 

 sion and ask that the timber of the interior be given protection. 

 The necessity for doing so will doubtless appeal to the members of 

 Congress; for it is well known that the development of Alaska 

 depends largely upon the timber supply. 



In spite of the lesson to be learned from conditions in Alaska. 

 and in spite of lessons which ought to have been learned from 

 similar conditions in many other places in the past, the fight against 

 national forests is not yet ended. It is not so open and determined 

 as it was a few years ago, but the government's forest policy still 

 has many and powerful enemies. They are largely in that class 

 which would like -to get hold of the resources that lie within the 

 boundaries of the reserves and are no longer subject to private 

 exploitation. 



The government owns only one-fifth of the timberland in the 

 United States proper, but it owns practically all of that in Alaska, 

 and if Uncle Sam expects ever to take control of that in the far 

 north, now is the time to do it while there is something worth taking. 



Better Living Conditions 



COMPARE TODAY AVITH TAVENTY YEARS AGO about saw 

 mills and logging camps and note the difference in the living 

 conditions of the men. The contrast could be made more striking by 

 going back more than twenty years, but that term is long enough to 

 drive the point. The -workman who can remember the damp, uniept 

 bunkiiou^es of that date; the screenless windows of the eating shed 

 and the flies which swarmed like locusts in Egypt,; the well whence 

 the drinking water came, often placed to catch most of the surface 

 drainage; the almost total lack of means or facilities for caring for 

 the sick or injured, and the absence of nearly everything connected 

 with healthful and helpful recreation and amusement — the workman 

 who can remember those conditions wOl not be apt to hang his harp 

 on a willow tree and weep for the good old days that are gone. 



In scarcely any industry is improvement in conditions affecting the 

 men more noticeably than in lumbering. Sanitary regulations are 

 .•arried out in a scientific way. Camps may be cheap but they are 

 generally clean. Circulation of pure air is permitted to work miracles 

 in the bunkhouses, and the rules and regulations in most of the 

 camps attend to such small details as sweeping without stirring up 

 more dust than is necessary. It is not customary now to find men 



sleeping in piles of straw on damp floors. It is not customary for 

 a man to eat with one hand and fight flies with the other in an 

 up-to-date lumber camp. The drinking water for such a camp does 

 not come from a well or spring at the foot of the hill below the horse 

 stable. 



In most lumber regions the state exercises more or less control 

 over the sanitation of camps. Proprietors are not permitted to main- 

 tain premises which are dangerous to the health of the men; but it is 

 fortunate that most large companies do not wait for the state health 

 officers to remin<l them of their duty. They do not need to be told 

 that a dirty camp is a poor investment. 



Efforts to better the condition of the men do not stop with what 

 the health officers and the companies bring about in the way ot 

 cleaner camjis and better board. A great work has been done by the 

 Young Men'.s Christian Association, and by other similar societies, 

 to provide mental recreation and improvement for the men. Reading 

 rooms have been built and provided with books and magazines; there 

 are lectures now and then, and sermons occasionally for those who 

 care to listen; there ai-e games and amusements; there are baths and 

 gymnasiums. 



The value of work of that kind among the men is well understood 

 by the business heads of the companies. They may not care much 

 about the religious side of it, but they know there is more work in a 

 man who spends his evenings in the reading room, bath, or lecture 

 room than if he spent it drinking and gambling. At the Forest 

 Products Exposition, nearly two years ago in the Coliseum, Chicago, 

 there were numerous models and pictures of reading rooms and as- 

 sembly halls in lumber camps in all parts of the country, and a large 

 part of the halls were built and donated by the lumber companies 

 and were turned over to the management of the Yoimg Men's 

 Christian Association or to some similar organization. This furnishes 

 proof of tlie value which business men place on work of that kind 

 among men in a camp. 



Some of the large lumber camps are arranged not only for con- 

 venience, but with an eye to beauty. They look nice, clean, artistic, 

 and comfortable, and men working in such environments naturally 

 feel themselves on a higher level than if squatting around in shanties 

 reeking with squalor. 



A forest is one of the best places for making a camp. The sur- 

 roundings are usually far ahead of a mining camp on a barren hill- 

 side or a manufacturing community where huts are crowded together 

 in ugly rows. The air in the woods is usually pure, the water is gen- 

 erally good, there is enough room for all, and desirable living con- 

 ditions are nearly always within reach of all. 



Warning by Weather Prophets 



WOODSMEN IN THE NORTHERN COUNTRY will feel an 

 interest in a recent prophecy published in Europe on the 

 authority of scientists who announce that the coming winter will 

 be one of unusual severity. The prediction is based on the observa- 

 tion of natural phenomena. It is noted that field mice began ex- 

 cavating burrows for their winter nest a fuU month earlier than 

 is their custom, and weather experts say this is an unfailing sign 

 of an early, long, and severe winter. Migratory birds have begun 

 their journeys southward some weeks before the usual time, and that 

 is declared to foretell the approach of a severe winter. The shells 

 on nuts and the peelings on fruit are uncommonly thick this season 

 and that sign is declared to point to great time of frost. 



The weather has turned cold over Europe much earlier than is 

 usual. Snow has already fallen on most of the high mountain ranges, 

 and winter conditions already prevail among the Alps. 



Some persons take no stock in weather prophets and place no 

 confidence in signs and portends; nevertheless, the military authori- 

 ties in Europe have thought enough of the matter to consider the 

 predictions with careful attention. The continuance of the war 

 through the winter, though the weather should be as mild as last 

 winter was, means the death or maiming of tens of thousands of 

 soldiers by frost alone. Should the cold be uncommonly severe, 

 death and suffering will be greatly increased. 



