Current Literature. 89 



liberal and hearty co-operation between the State and those fed- 

 eral agencies engaged in gathering physical data on the State's 

 natural resources and in the dissemination of the information 

 so gathered. The subjects dealt with are: forests, land and 

 stream surveys, good roads, water transportation and water laws. 

 We can touch only on the first of these. 



Oregon is supposed to have one-fifth of the merchantable tim- 

 ber in the United States. Of this, one-third is in the National 

 Forests, the other two-thirds mostly in private hands, the State 

 owning little. But as the Commissioners point out : "The interest 

 of the average citizen in forest protection and use is affected 

 very little by the passage of title to forest land ; the owner gets 

 only the stumpage, which is a small part of the value; the people 

 get everything else. Forest wealth is community wealth." 



Yet, as a result of Oregon's apathy toward forest preservation, 

 one and three-quarters billion feet of timber were burned in 1910. 

 This, if saved for manufacture, would have brought 23 million 

 dollars into the State. The reason for such tremendous destruc- 

 tion is that there is no machinery for actual protection. The 

 only protection given, outside of the Federal protection of the 

 National Forests, is the more or less co-operative patrol by pri- 

 vate timber owners. There is a State Board of Forestry which 

 works with an appropriation of $250 a year and which has no 

 machinery for active work ( !). The forest laws, in the opinion 

 of the Commissioners, "amount to giving in legal language the 

 State's gracious permission to its forests to take care of them- 

 selves." 



Hence, the immediate appointment of a State Forester with 

 wide powers is urged, and a liberal appropriation for patrol 

 service. The building up of a large state fire organization is not 

 favored, but rather the encouraging and aiding of local action by 

 those whose own interest insures the maximum efficiency with 

 the least state machinery, the State taking charge of the situation 

 only where this form of relief cannot be obtained. Otherwise the 

 State has no forest service and "the forester's entire time is 

 occupied by fire work which he can do no better than others and 

 he has no opportunity to do the things which he alone can do." 



It is encouraging to come across a commission which so thor- 

 oughly lives up to the limit of its duties and presents the actual 

 conditions so plainly and forcibly. J. H. W. 



