CONSERVATION 



721 



this nation 200 years from now. In 

 the ordering of Providence, when a tre- 

 mendous crisis comes there is always a 

 man to meet it. This time it was Gifford 

 Pinchot, by education one of the best 

 foresters the world has produced. A 

 man of means, he is not hampered in 

 his work. He is ready to sacrifice thou- 

 sands for the future. He might have 

 made judicious investments in the great 

 west he knew so well, so he could have 

 become a billionaire. He might have 

 taken his chances in an unguarded 

 moment and captured forests, water 

 powers, and coal lands. No man since 

 the days of Robert Morris, who fur- 

 nished the sinews of war for Washing- 

 ton and then died in a debtors' prison, 

 has done more or made greater sacri- 

 fices than Mr. Pinchot. Though for the 

 present he has lost his position, he is 

 yet a king, independent of throne or 

 crown. Few men have shown such a 

 fearless persistence in the face of the 

 most determined opposition. There 

 were thousands of men who had pet 

 plans for the future. They wished to 

 put their hands on the nation's wealth. 

 Little cared they for the future. Cat- 

 tle men and sheep men, who for years 

 had been allowed to ruin young forests 

 and destroy pastures by over-grazing, 

 rose in arms. And what a clamor they 

 raised ! 



There were no ways of fighting fires. 

 The cattle men wanted fires. Some of 

 the cowboys had it worked down to a 

 fine art. Here was a tract they wanted 

 burned. They might be caught. One 

 takes a magnifying glass and sets it so 

 the focused rays next day would light 

 on dry leaves and other combustibles. 

 The sun does its work, and the innocent 

 cowboy proves an alibi, for he is fifty 

 miles away. I met a range rider in the 

 Rockies and had a long talk with him. 

 He would say to stock owners : "You 

 can put only so many head on this 

 range, and you must pay for it." "Not 

 much," was the answer. "We have had 

 this range, and we are going to have 

 it." He would tell them: "I represent 

 the United States government. You 

 cannot afford to have a war with qo,- 

 000,000 people." Often his life was 



threatened. All manner of trumped-up 

 charges were sent on to Washington, 

 and sometimes he had to face fire both 

 front and rear. But those heroic men, 

 like the mounted police of Canada, have 

 convinced the ranchmen there is a law 

 in the land, and it must be obeyed. 



In a terrible time like this, when most 

 of our northwestern forests are tinder- 

 boxes, what could be done without our 

 range riders and their system of fight- 

 ing fires? Sometimes they are at it for 

 forty-eight hours without a let-up. One 

 man found two of them lying on the 

 ground in the deep sleep of utter ex- 

 haustion. They lay as they had fallen, 

 and the ants were running over them. 

 Perhaps these men take a little relaxa- 

 tion, and then the cry goes up: "See 

 those lazy fellows, and the waste in the 

 Forest Service." No figuring, you un- 

 derstand, of the waste of the fires and 

 the ax. All manner of abuse was heaped 

 on the chief forester, but there was a 

 vision before him, a vision of ruin and 

 desolation, and he wrote, talked, and 

 pleaded, till the tide turned and a great 

 victory was won. A crisis came, and 

 issues involving hundreds of millions. 

 The forester broke a piece of red tape, 

 and he must go. No matter that he, 

 stands for a great principle. No mat- 

 ter that he has given his means and his 

 life to a great cause. "Just look at 

 that piece of red tape ! Can't you see 

 it is broken?" But, thank God, the na- 

 tion is fully aroused and our forestry 

 system is established. 



You can readily see the clashing of 

 interests. Leading men in our Pacific 

 coast cities want the bars thrown down. 

 The future may care for itself. They 

 want the coal to be dug, and the water 

 powers to be exploited, and flocks and 

 herds to have free range. It all makes 

 business, and they want business now. 

 There never yet was a national park 

 laid out or a national forest made but 

 what there was a tremendous protest 

 from this source. When the govern- 

 ment made a national forest in-ar Cass 

 I .,-ike, Minn., a howl long and deep went 

 ii]). When we tried to have a park in 

 the Wet Mountain Valley, and could 

 have "<>t a bill through Congress for 



