"ANOTHER NATIONAL BLUNDER.' 



NOTE. It is not often that we are able to give our readers something on forestry along 

 humorous lines. Therefore we take unusual pleasure in reprinting the following 

 communication which recently appeared in The Rocky Mountain j\~eu'S, of Denver. 

 We reproduce it as a sample of one kind of opposition to the federal government's forest 

 reserve policy, and as a further argument in favor of establishing more reserves. 



There are many pretenders, but here we have the real champion of personal liberty. He 

 shakes George III until one hears the ancient bones rattle. Science, scientists, and the federal 

 government are taken by their several necks and tossed into space. The President is advised, 

 an ex-President goaded, and the " eastern dude " is broiled and served with sauce piquante by 

 this defender of the people's rights. 



The "defy " is made, and it is indeed an inspiring sight, with Mattes well to the front and 

 center, in the full glare of a self-directed lime-light, waving on high the Magna Charta, and 

 with the spirit of '76 burning hot within his veins that famous old brand unadulterated, 

 and in this case reinforced by the buzz-saw. Now will the federal government tremble, and 

 purchase peace by permitting the wild-cat sawmill tree access to the remaining timber on the 

 public domain. The way has been pointed. Here is the rally cry for freedom and free 

 timber. EDITOR. 



To the Editor of The -Rocky Mountain News : 



The timber question is as old as 

 English history, and it is a continual 

 struggle of human nature against the 

 tyrannies, castes, and fads that civili- 

 zation is so prone to breed. The blun- 

 dering tyrannies of the English kings 

 became so unendurable that a special 

 amendment of the Magna Charta abol- 

 ished their forest reserves and forbade 

 their re-creation. The timber question 

 also figured in the revolution; the lum- 

 bermen were forbidden to ship their pro- 

 ducts from one colony to another and the 

 pine tree was the first emblem of Ameri- 

 can liberty the Pine Tree flag. That 

 was a very serious national blunder for 

 Great Britain. The forest is still the 

 home of freedom and its fruits are the 

 perpetual nourishment of the people's 

 rights. 



We are well acquainted eastern peo- 

 ple are with a class of beings, the off- 

 spring of suddenly acquired wealth , hav- 

 ing little ability and less love for work, 

 but a great tendency to ape aristocracy. 

 Idle from their youth, in order to kill 

 time they took to travel, and, unlike the 

 tramp who wanders over his own coun- 

 try, they wandered abroad. The great 

 works of civilization had little of interest 

 for them, and their apish instincts led 

 them to the woods. Here they found 

 their heart's delight great tracts of 

 timber owned by royalty and nobility, 

 abounding in game, and the vulgar, com- 

 mon people entirely excluded. 



Upon their return a great cry was 



raised, lamenting the gradual disappear- 

 ance of our forests and game. It had 

 little effect, for the Anglo-Saxon had 

 come here, not to protect the wilderness 

 against civilization, but to transform it 

 into a garden. The common people very 

 naturally refused to listen to their be- 

 hest to vacate the country and abandon 

 their high vocation. 



They wandered forth again and fell 

 in with the Khedive in his Egyptian 

 deserts, who, unable to distinguish be- 

 tween cause and effect, was planting 

 trees to make rain. They hurried home 

 and, enlisting science on their side, 

 raised another wail for the preservation 

 of the forests, and Congress heeded them 

 to the extent of allowing them a fourth 

 of the public domain to cultivate rain 

 on the Great American Desert. The 

 timber-culture act was a very harmless 

 blunder, as harmless as it was fruitless, 

 and when the rainmaker and the news- 

 paper sharps showed Congress the ab- 

 surdity of the law it was very sensibly 

 repealed. 



Then a new pretext was devised. 

 Congress was induced to protect the 

 natural forests that remained in order 

 to preserve our rivers ; the forest re- 

 serve was invented. Invented ? No ! 

 The ancient English forest laws were 

 merely transplanted to free American 

 soil ; and what a history they are mak- 

 ing for themselves, and what trouble 

 they stir up. 



Can you stop the sun in his course ? 

 Can you turn back the star of empire ?' 



(258) 



