Our Forest Reservations 
will not of itself preserve either the timber or the 
game on them. The various national parks are 
watched and patrolled by Federal troops, but even 
for them no provisions of law exist by which those 
who violate the regulations laid down for their care 
may be punished. The forest reservations are abso- 
lutely unprotected. Although set aside by presiden- 
tial proclamation, they are without government and 
without guards. Timber-thieves may still strip the 
mountain-sides of the growing trees, and poachers 
may still kill the game without fear of punishment. 
This should not be so. If it was worth while 
to establish these reservations, it is worth while 
to protect them. A general law providing for the 
adequate guarding of all such national possessions 
should be enacted by Congress, and wherever it 
may be necessary such Federal laws should be 
supplemented by laws of the States in which the 
reservations lie. The timber and the game ought 
to be made the absolute property of the govern- 
ment, and it should be constituted a punishable 
offense to appropriate such property within the 
limits of the reservation. The game and the timber 
on a reservation should be regarded as government 
property, just as are the mules and the cordwood 
at an army post. If it is a crime to take the latter, 
it should be a crime to plunder a forest reservation. 
The national parks and forest reservations which 
already are, or by proper protection may become, 
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