EDITORIAL 495 



possible for the eminent statesmen from quate acount of the present situation 



Ohio and Nevada to attach amendments in the state, while individually they do 



to the bill that will throw it into con- credit to the writers and their instruc- 



ference if they are accepted by the Sen- tors as well written and thoughtful bits 



ate, and then, with only two weeks re- of exposition and argument. Most of 



maining of the session, the conference the salient points are well brought out, 



and the succeeding discussion could be and enforced with good sense and in 



prolonged until it would once again be good English. The extent to which the 



too late to enact the bill. Indiana forests have been exploited in 



We ask the senators who support this the past, the chief present problem- 

 bill to guard against such a disaster, that of planting, and the value of the 

 for it would be nothing less. We ask farm woodlot as part of the well- 

 President Taft to throw the weight of balanced use of agricultural land are 

 his influence to secure the prompt accurately and convincingly indicated, 

 passage of this bill, most vital, most There is no more productive soil in 

 immediately necessary of all conserva- which to sow the seed of sound think- 

 tion measures, and the only one for ing upon forest economics than that of- 

 which the east has asked. fered in the public schools of the coun- 



The delay this year means a heavy try. For a lifetime the pioneers of for- 



loss, especially in the White Mountains, estry have been expending immense 



Any further delay, in view of the well- stores of energy in converting adult 



known facts, would be a crime. minds, educated in days when indiffer- 



There is a strong feeling among many ence to the forest, an over-sensitive 



people who know the legislative ways sense of private rights, and the tradi- 



of Washington that there is no inten- tions of half a dozen generations were 



tion of passing this bill ; that enough is stubborn counter-tendencies. In over- 



to be done at each session to pacify coming these tendencies there has been 



troublesome constituencies, and that the great waste of effort ; the minds of 



measure, having been used as a football grown men and women responded but 



between the houses, will be allowed to slowly and incompletely. Meantime, 



quietly "fall through the slats" at each the forces that make for forest waste 



session. Expressions of this opinion remained in full swing; the speculative 



have come to us from so many sources view of forest investments, encouraged 



that we believe it may be well for sena- by experience of quick and rewarding 



tors and representatives to know that it profits, even augmented the speed and 



exists. The country is impatient of magnified the scale of the exploiting 



anything that looks like unfair play, process. It became more and more evi- 



and the football game has been played, dent that a change for the better could 



with this bill for the leather, as often be brought about only by s'howing the 



as it is safe to play it. The next game financial advantages of permanent for- 



must be a fair one in which votes count, est management-, on the one hand, and 



by rousing and guiding civic responsi- 



% V* % bility, on the other. The required means 



were a sound education in the principles 



Prize Essays in Forestry Q forestry and a moral enlightenment 



.,.,,,-, i , i as to the responsibility of the state for 



[TOUR pupils in the high schools and , ir *u 



H L i rr j- the general welfare; m other words, 



township schools of Indiana recently ^ g^, t of well considere( j 



carried off as many prizes for essays forest ^ iyate &nd bHc The 



on the subject of Forestry in Indiana. foundations for these policies are to be 



The winners were Myrl Ellen Simmons, laid most effectively in the schools, 



of Union City; Olive O. Shideler, of where forestry has become at once a 



Attica; Garfield V. Cox, of Fairmount, cultural study and a department of 



and David Erwin, of Fort Wayne. Col- civics. The Indiana school essays are, 



lectively, the essays give a fairly ade- therefore, not only thoroughly worth 

 5 



