174 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. : 
capital could make fortunes, as is their intent, out of the timber now 
growing there. Some men make money even by highway robbery; but 
such men are of no use to the world. If that timber belt is destroyed, a 
generation of the near future will see the business centers of the north 
depopulated and the great streams of ourcommercedriedup. I maintain 
that this government should be held to its first principles—a government 
of the people, for the people, and not a plutocracy to protect and enrich 
a few at thegexpense of the many. I know the members of the Forestry 
Association will do their best to save the forest from ruin, and I am with 
you first, last and all the time.” , 
Aside from the fruit benefits of the reserve mentioned by Mr. Harris, a 
summary of it all is this: Our headwaters will be economized to feed our 
lakes and rivers and wells, our annual floods largely forestalled, our peo- 
ple protected against the terrible winds of the frozen pole, our atmosphere 
made more humid to grow our food plants, damaging frosts largely neu- 
tralized, the rigors of our climate mitigated and rendered more healthful, 
and all our industries quickened into new and continuous activity for the 
people and the people’s people of the twentieth century. 
This society understands and well appreciates all these benefits. Then 
must the State Horticultural Society come to the rescue. When L. B. 
Hodges, the first secretary of the Forestry Association died, the cause lan- 
guished; but this society, like a true sister, took forestry under her fos- 
tering care and saved it from breaking down under the ‘‘grippe” of public 
indifference. When the Forestry Association seemed to be on its ‘‘last 
legs,” C. L. Smith, my immediate predecessor, rekindled a spark of the 
old time life, and then, too, when certain ‘‘soul sleepers” refused to fur- 
nish fuel. The present administration of the Forestry Association occu- 
pies the ground for which the veterans of forestry fought, and now that 
the battle engaging its patriotic courage is getting up to a white heat, the 
association appeals to her horticultural sisters to take the front again, 
both societies side by side in this grand fight; and the appeal will not be 
in vain. 
DISCUSSION. 
Mr. Barrett: Now in conclusion let me say one word further. 
At our forestry meeting yesterday, which was a splendid wide- 
awake one, there was present the chief spirit of the opposition, 
Mr. S. A. Thompson, of Duluth, the secretary of the chamber 
of commerce of that city. Notwithstanding the fact that he had 
done all in his power to defeat the motion, we treated him with 
marked courtesy, which neutralized all his combativeness. He 
made a very able speech that covered the ground admirably 
from his side of the house, and we went so far as to make Mr. 
Thompson a member of the executive committee. Next Mon- 
day we are to prepare an address to the people of this state, 
and I would like at this time to lay this statement before the 
society for consideration. I do not ask you to accept it now, 
because it needs some little attention given it by a committee. 
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