EDITORIAL 



Results of the Conservation Congress 



IT IS now possible to gauge with ac- 

 curacy the impression which the 

 Second National Conservation Cong- 

 ress has made upon the people. 



First and foremost, the country was 

 much pleased that the President had 

 prepared for this occasion what must 

 be regarded as in many respects one of 

 his best addresses. None of his speeches 

 has received more widespread editorial 

 approval. 



Second, Gifford Pinchot has the well- 

 merited gratification of realizing that 

 the movement which he orginated and 

 developed with such brilliant talent, and 

 which he has fought for with such 

 ardor and self-sacrifice, has won. Con- 

 servation has taken hold of the nation, 

 or, perhaps more exactly, the nation 

 has taken hold of conservation. 



The gist of the proceedings, as well 

 as the platform in which the prevailing 

 opinions of the Congress were crystal- 

 ized, has been cordially approved. The 

 people understand more clearly than 

 ever before both the objects sought and 

 the measures by which they can best be 

 accomplished. They want the work of 

 conservation carried forward. It is 

 unlikely that the enemies of the move- 

 ment, no matter by what indirection of 

 attack, will again be able to cloud the 

 issue which has been placed so clearly 

 before the country, or to fool more 

 than some of the people even part of the 

 time. 



Furthermore, as was anticipated, the 

 Congress marked the transition to the 

 third stage of the movement, by laying 

 down more definitely the practical lines 

 along which future action should pro- 

 ceed. It is in respect to this that the 

 resolutions are particularly admirable. 



No doubt, a larger freedom of discus- 

 sion would have been advantageous. 

 Many delegates whose views would 



have added much to the meatiness of 

 the proceedings found no hearing, and 

 this caused not a little disappointment 

 to those who would gladly have heard 

 them. The overcrowding of the pro- 

 gram was in part responsible, and a 

 similar mistake can be avoided at future 

 congresses. 



After the Fires Are Out 



THE fire situation on the National 

 Forests is again normal. While 

 some fires are burning, the conflagra- 

 tion is past and no fires are now beyond 

 control. 



It is still too soon to attempt to state 

 the severe losses in terms of areas and 

 amounts of timber. Enough is known, 

 however, to drive home the lesson of 

 the worst fire season which the Forest 

 Service has yet had to cope with. Mr. 

 Pinchot has stated this lesson in vigor- 

 ous terms. The need of ready access 

 to all parts of the forests has been dem- 

 onstrated with overwhelming force. 

 The need of more men to patrol the 

 forests and to fight fires has been made 

 unmistakably clear. Both of these needs 

 were known in advance, and funds to 

 supply them were asked of Congress. 

 Upon those Congressmen who opposed 

 adequate appropriations for permanent 

 improvement work and equipment in 

 the forests, and for enlarging the protec- 

 tive force, falls the responsibility for 

 most if not all of the destruction of the 

 public timber. 



Incidentally, the hardships and finan- 

 cial losses of many of the fire-fighters 

 point to the need of an emergency fund 

 for the relief of Government employes 

 injured and thrown out of employment 

 in the protective service. Bitterly hard 

 work, in many cases heroic work, was 

 clone by those who fought the fires 

 through those terrific August days and 



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