THE NATIONAL AND MINNESOTA S FOREST RESERVE. 329 



THE NATIONAL AND MINNESOTA'S FOREST RESERVE 



MRS. LYDIA PHILLIPS WILLIAMS, MINNEAPOLIS. 



Mr. President and members of the Forestry Association : 

 "Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war/' 

 In the annals of forestry, 1905 shall wear her crown of oak 

 and laurel, for conservative forestry has captured the public ear 

 of the country. The Forestry Congress whose delegates paid 

 their respects, on New Year's Day, in Washington, to the chief- 

 est forester and greatest hero of peace in all the land, Pres. 

 Roosevelt, marks a change in the history of forestry and was 

 epoch making — as we recall the personnel of that convention and 

 the inspiring address of the President in which he said: 



"The great significance of this congress comes from the fact 

 that henceforth the movement for the conservative use of the 

 forest is to come mainly from within, not from without ; from the 

 men who are actively interested in the use of the forest in one 

 way or another even more than from those whose interest is 

 philanthropic and general. The difference means to a large ex- 

 tent the difference between mere agitation and actual execution, 

 between the hope of accomplishment and the thing done." 



Yes, as we recall the thrill of hope that alternated with a 

 pang of pain as the French ambassador touched with his Damas- 

 cus blade the tender spot of America's wasteful methods in con- 

 trast with France's conservative policy, which had even said to the 

 sands of the sea "thus far shall thou come and no farther," and the 

 band struck up "The Marseillaise," we confess to being in the 

 temper of Edward Everett Hale, whose sentiment bubbled over 

 at the congress and he exclaimed: "Mr. Chairman, I should be 

 glad to speak for twelve minutes or twelve hours, anywhere and 

 any time, to anybody interested in forestry. I used to visit a 

 forest in New Hampshire in 1841 where stood beautiful pine 

 trees through whose branches the wind soughed when Columbus 

 discovered America and whose trunks still bore King George's 

 mark upon them — the broad arrow of the English. I went up 

 to this same region two years ago, and all my beautiful pine 

 trees were gone, and in their place was nothing but sumac and 

 blackberry bushes. 



"Now, we are asking congress to preserve the forests for 

 fifty square miles in that region. I desire that my boy's boy's 

 boy's girls, two centuries hence, shall see such trees as I saw in 

 1841."" 



