604 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



the Black Hills, South Dakota, during 

 the past season, in which 1,500 acres 

 were reforested by seeding. It is ex- 

 pected that the resulcs of the decision 

 will be of the utmost importance in con- 

 nection with the recovery of damages 

 for injury done to young growth by 

 the fires which are so frequently set by 

 sparks from railroads in many parts of 

 the country. Railroads will doubtless 

 come to realize that they will save 

 money by taking proper precautions to 

 prevent such fires in the first place. 



In line with this decision is the recent 

 settlement of a case against the Bur- 

 lington Railroad Company for damages 

 caused by fires in the Galena district of 

 the Black Hills. By this settlement the 

 United States receives the full amount 

 of the estimated damages, part of which 

 was for injury to 300 acres of reproduc- 

 tion valued at $6.66 per acre. 



The Louisiana Constitutional Amendment 



j\ jOVEMBER 8 the people of Louis- 

 1 i iana will vote on an amendment 

 to Article 229 of the state constitu- 

 tion upon the adoption of which de- 

 pends the validity of a provision en- 

 acted at the last session of the legisla- 

 ture to raise a fund for carrying into 

 effect the general forestry law. The 

 general law provides for a license tax 

 on timber of three-quarters of a cent 

 per thousand feet. The revenue from 

 this tax, which will amount to about 

 $25,000 a year, will be used to defray 

 the cost of protecting the forests of the 

 state from fire. In 1902 a similar meas- 

 ure was passed, but the courts subse- 

 quently held it to be unconstitutional. 

 The proposed amendment was framed 

 for the purpose of overcoming this ob- 

 stacle. It is as follows : 



Those engaged in the business of severing 

 natural resources, as timber or minerals, from 

 the soil of water, whether they thereafter 

 convert them by manufacturing or not, may 

 also be rendered liable for a license tax, but 

 in this case the amount to be collected may 

 either be graduated or fixed, according to 

 the quantity or value of the product at the 

 place where it is severed. 



Louisiana has taken the lead of the 

 states in the enactment of conservation 

 laws. The timber revenue tax which 

 may be collected if this amendment is 

 adopted is new in this country and is 

 one of the most progressive measures 

 thus far covered by state legislation. 

 The lumbermen of the state, who will 

 pay the tax, favored the passage of the 

 law under which it will be collected. 

 There appears to be every reason why 

 the amendment should be adopted, and 

 none why it should not. 



A Lost Leader 



THE conservation movement needs 

 all its leaders. It can ill afford to 

 lose any of those men who by pre- 

 eminent knowledge and ability are best 

 fitted to be its trusted tacticians and 

 generals. For this reason there is cause 

 for keen regret that Prof. Thomas 

 Chrowder Chamberlin has seen fit to 

 surrender his commission in the midst of 

 the campaign, if indeed he has not quite 

 gone the length of engaging himself 

 in the service of the enemy. It may 

 not yet be too late for Professor Cham- 

 berlin to reconsider what must, we feel 

 sure, appear to his more deliberate judg- 

 ment a rash step. He is respectfully in- 

 vited to reconsider his action. 



Professor Chamberlin asserts that "in 

 their fundamental ' nature, the prob- 

 lems of conservation and the problems 

 of possession are distinct questions, each 

 to be solved in its own way and on 

 its own basis. They center in separate 

 fields. The conservation of natural re- 

 sources centers in the scientific and the 

 technical ; the right of ownership and 

 the most desirable form of ownership 

 center in the political and sociological." 

 Since this is so, runs the argument, "it 

 can only be a careless lapse into con- 

 fusion of thought, or else a wilful per- 

 version of what is legitimate in the art 

 of persuasion, for an advocate of po- 

 litical or sociological measures to glide 

 without a note of warning from a con- 

 servational premise which commands 

 universal assent to a political conclu- 



