272 



THE FORESTER. 



November, 



tions formed within the reserve have been 

 settled on. From most of the land the 

 forest was cut about thirty years ago when 

 the Union Pacific was constructed. A fire 

 also burned over the region at that time. 

 Only the small amount of old timber which 

 remains is merchantable. In the rest of 

 the reserve reproduction has been but slow 

 and scanty. It is of great importance that 

 this new growth should not be left without 

 protection. 



& 



The Struggle for The "Struggle for Water 

 Water in the in the West is the title of 

 West - an article in the November 



Atlantic, in which Mr. William E. Smythe 

 considers the importance of having the 

 water supplies treated as public property 

 and saved from the selfish enterprise of 

 private interests. Mr. Smythe begins by 

 saying : 



"Mount Union in Wyoming might be 

 called the Mother of Civilization in the 

 western half continent where water is 

 King. The melting snows of this peak in 

 the Wind River Range, south of Yellow- 

 stone Park, give birth to three rivers which, 

 in the course of their long journeys to the 

 sea, control the industrial character of a 

 region which will ultimately be the home 

 of more people than any nation of Europe, 

 and probably of twice as many people as 

 now dwell within the United States. These 

 rivers are the Missouri, the Columbia, and 

 the Colorado. The first waters the eastern 

 slope of the Rocky Mountains, including 

 the Great Plains; the second, all of Idaho, 

 much of Montana and the larger portions 

 of Washington and Oregon, which consti- 

 tute the Pacific Northwest ; the third, the 

 Intermountain Region of Wyoming, Utah 

 and Colorado, and of those parts of Ari- 

 zona and California that make the extreme 

 Southwest. 



" In striking contrast to the familial- 

 conditions of the East, it may be said that 

 upon the fate of these precious waters 

 h:mgs the destiny of many millions of peo- 

 ple who shall live in vast districts now 

 mostly vacant and undeveloped, but cer- 

 tain in future to support a complex and 

 far reaching economic life. By no possi- 

 bility can these future millions escape the 



dominating influence of these three great 

 rivers and their systems of tributaries. It 

 is not merely that the arid land cannot sup- 

 port human life without irrigation, and 

 that the extent of this industry is, there- 

 fore, the necessary measure of settlement. 

 The more important fact is that upon the 

 manner of control under which irrigation 

 shall do its work depends the industrial, 

 social and political character of the insti- 

 tutions to be erected upon this indispensa- 

 ble foundation. The people will be bond, 

 or free, tenants or proprietors ; will coop- 

 erate in the orderly development and equit- 

 able distribution of the first necessity of 



J 



their existence, or clash in the greedy 

 struggle for its exclusive possession ; will 

 prosper or languish, create high conditions 

 of social life, or lapse into semi-barbarism, 

 in sure response to the manner in which 

 the water supply is owned and adminis- 

 tered. In the future life of the immense 

 region which constitutes the true field for 

 American expansion and domestic colo- 

 nization, questions of tariff and currency 

 and foreign dominion are as nothing com- 

 pared to the overshadowing importance of 

 the struggle for water and the social and 

 economic problems to which it is insep- 

 arably related. 



" The history of Eastern settlement and 

 the experience of English-speaking men in 

 other lands furnish little light for this prob- 

 lem of the West. It ^is a new question 

 for our race and country, but its impor- 

 tance to the future of our civilization can- 

 not be exaggerated, nor can it be longer 

 ignored." 



Sharing in the importance of this ques- 

 tion is the problem of saving from waste 

 and deterioration the forests on the moun- 

 tains whence the waters of these rivers 

 flow. Wherever questions of irrigation 

 and of forest preservation have any signifi- 

 cance they mingle and are inseparable. 



Later when speaking of the Irrigation 

 Congress Mr. Symthe reminds us of the 

 work of the American Forestry Associa- 

 tion. " Its (the Irrigation Congress's) 

 most difficult task is to show the American 

 people that there are distinctly two spheres 

 of action. One of these the Western 

 States must manage for themselves. They 



