60 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY 



trolled by two nations, neither of 

 which can injure it without violating 

 the rights of the other, and who should 

 look on it, not as their private prop- 

 ertj' but as held in trust for the bene- 

 fit of the world. Its vast and easily 

 convertible water power has tempted 

 many private interests to exploit it on 

 the plea that so much power is going 

 to waste, on the assumption that any 

 force that does not turn wheels and 

 produce dividends is lost. They would 

 thus deprive the world of one of its 

 rarest possessions for the commercial 

 gain of a few. 



The depletion of Niagara would 

 greatly endanger the enormous com- 

 merce of Lake Erie and the Detroit 

 River. The lowering of these waters 

 one inch means the loss to their 

 freighters, which load to the limits of 

 existing depths, of about $10,000,000 

 annually. These existing depths in 

 the harbors and waterways have only 

 been attained by dredging at great ex- 

 pense by the Federal Government. 

 Thus, for enriching of those few rich 

 who would destroy Niagara, the world 

 must contribute its marvelous spectacle, 

 the shipping interests of the Lakes a 

 huge revenue, and the Federal Govern- 

 ment its great outlays in harbor con- 

 struction. 



The plea is made that if New York 

 State does not use the power, Canada 

 will, thus diverting industries from 

 ourselves to a rival. But Canada is 

 able to use less than one-third of the 

 power she produces from the Falls, 

 the rest being exported to the United 

 States. The exportation can be limit- 

 ed by the President under the Treaty 

 with Canada, and the situation thus 

 controlled. 



The United States would not feel 

 the gain of using Niagara power any 

 more than she feels the loss of leaving 

 it to do Nature's work, and she should 



guard it as a private person might a 

 rare painting or statue, as a thing too 

 rare to be replaced, too precious to be 

 injured, and too necessary to be dis- 

 pensed with. 



NATIONAL FORESTS 



The A. S. L. A. believes that the num- 

 ber and, in some cases, the extent of our 

 National Forests should be increased by 

 the reservation of areas suited to Nation- 

 al Forests, for at least the next genera- 

 tion, (and particularly where they pro- 

 tect the water supply), and not suited to 

 other uses ; and approves the policy of 

 the Forest Service in recognizing the 

 dominant scenic or recreational value of 

 certain areas in National Forests which, 

 because of their location or character, 

 cannot better be created National Parks, 

 without at this time expressing any opin- 

 ion as to the proper administrative con- 

 trol of such areas. 



COMMENTARY 



It is hardly necessary to enlarge on 

 the economic value of forests in these 

 days of rapidly waning timber supply, 

 or on the obvious fact that no one but 

 the Government can go into the busi- 

 ness on a large scale of raising crops 

 that take one or more generations to 

 mature. It is less generally under- 

 stood that the forests exercise an im- 

 portant influence on climate and soil 

 fertility by causing a more even dis- 

 tribution of rainfall, and by absorption 

 of water in the forest floor, mitigating 

 and perhaps at times preventing floods 

 and freshets which wash the most fer- 

 tile parts of the soil into the streams. 



It will thus be clear that, as private- 

 ly owned forests become exhausted, 

 not only must the country depend for 

 its future supply of home grown tim- 

 ber to a great extent on the National 

 Forests, but that the fertility and 



