EDITORIAL 619 



exhausted, and that two hundred patrolmen guarding lands assessed at 

 $45,000,000 had been laid otf. 



In a letter calling attention to existing conditions one paper manufacturer 

 who had eleven thousand acres of timber growing which he had been handling 

 conservatively is quoted as saying that he did not propose to hold timber land 

 just to have the timber burned from lack of protection. 



It is apparent that the exhaustion so early in the season of so large a 

 fund, larger than has hitherto been available, calls for explanation. If the 

 national government is to assist in this work it must know that the money 

 is wisely and economically expended and that it is not wasted in a futile effort 

 that will be practically suspended at a critical time. 



Commissioner Mace issued a statement on the 19th of August in which he 

 said that the situation was kept well in hand until the third and fourth of 

 July, when the extraordinary conditions produced by and following the hot 

 wave brought disaster. The statement continues : 



"Realizing the danger the patrol force was increased and the already efficient 

 patrol was, in some case, doubled. Nothing in the line of prevention was lacking and 

 notwithstanding the department had retained the best men who had followed the work 

 in former years, the worst fires occurred in the sections controlled and looked after by 

 the men who had been connected with the State's forest service since 1903 when the 

 first law was put into effect. 



"The disaster was no fault, however, of the men, as the best service cannot cope 

 against the elements which were decidedly against all that was oeing done, the cause 

 assigned to some of the worst fires being lightning. It is hard to make many believe 

 that forest fires are caused from such a source but there is plenty of evidence in the 

 recent fires that lightning was the cause. 



"The extremely hot weather, and the winds on some of the days the fires were at 

 their height, drove the flames and sparks in all directions, causing many fires at the 

 same time. Hundreds of men were called on and responded making an expense ot 

 from $2,000 to $3,000 a day continuing at this rate from 10 to 15 days. 



"It was this immense expense covering the cost of fighting the fire added already 

 to the unusually large force of patrolmen that so quickly exhausted the funds." 



It is further stated that the expenses up to July 1 were unusually large, 

 but ''that with any kind of average w^eather and conditions the forest pro- 

 tection w^ork could be carried on until the end of the season." In view of 

 the statements quoted we are surprised to find the commissioner estimating 

 the damage caused by the fires at only |200,000, a much lower figure than others 

 have estimated and one hardly consistent with his description of the magni- 

 tude of the fires. 



Two points are suggested by consideration of the situation in Maine. The 

 first is that Maine has not yet placed its forest commissionership outside of 

 politics, a thing which must be done to secure a permanently capable adminis- 

 tration. The second is that with this vast forest interest to protect the state, 

 if it can be shown that the ])resent expenditure has been well administered 

 and the fund was really inadequate, should provide an emergency fund that 

 could be drawn upon whenever extraordinary conditions, such as are claimed 

 by Commissioner Mace to have arisen this year, occur, to the end that vigilance 

 need not be relaxed during the whole period of fire danger. This is a vital 

 matter in which no state can afford to be niggardly. 



