1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



177 



have been clouded and our magnificent 

 mountains obscured by a mantle of 

 smoke. Thousands and thousands of 

 dollars of school property have been 

 destroyed, not to mention the millions 

 of dollars of private property, by that 

 demon the forest fire ; and the only 

 effort made has been the passage, in 

 1903, of a fire protection act that 

 constitutes the county officials fire 

 wardens, without funds, without ad- 

 equate compensation, without power 

 to enforce the provisions of the 

 law. How long would a great bus- 

 iness organization of over twenty de- 

 partments exist that had no guiding 

 and responsible head ? 



What was made every one's business 

 became no one's business. If county 

 commissioners wished, they did noth- 

 ing; after the first year few of them 

 moved a hand. Some county attor- 

 neys refused to prosecute open viola- 

 tors of the law. 



In the State of Oregon, where the 

 legislators of that state sold their 

 school land trust for the traditional 

 "mess of pottage," or at a price of 

 $1.25 to $2.50 per acre, the governor 

 of that state, in his annual message, 

 having in the previous session vetoed 

 a forest fire bill, stated that, since the 

 state owned practically no lands, he 

 would not vote one cent to protect the 

 timber lands of private owners. Is 

 that the attitude of a sane man? Is 

 that the attitude in cities? Do they 

 not employ firemen and all conceivable 

 precautions and appliances to prevent 

 the destruction of private property? 



In the State of Washington the best 

 estimates show that there is still stand- 

 ing about 175,000,000,000 feet of tim- 

 ber. If this timber was logged to-day 

 the stumpage would be worth about $i 

 per i.ooo, or $175,000,000. This is 

 the return the private land owner 

 would receive if it was placed on the 

 market to-day ; but see what the people 

 would get from this : 



Labor for logging, average $4 per 1,000 $7oo,ooo,ooo 

 Labor for sawing into lumber, aver- 



a ge $3 per 1,000 525,000,000 



For transportation to markets of 



world, $7.50 per 1,000 1,212,500,000 



Where, then, is the interest in this 

 timber? Only 7 per cent in the land 

 owner, 93 per cent in the people for 

 its logging, manufacture and convey- 

 ance to market. 



The following is a comparative 

 statement of the importance of the 

 chief industries of the state as shown 

 by the annual production of each (the 

 figures are from the United States 

 Census Report) : 



COMPARISON OF WASHINGTON INDUS- 

 TRIES, CENSUS OF 1900. 



Total value of food and kindred pro- 

 ducts $19,904,566 



Total value of all farm products 29,618,455 



Value of all iron and steel manufac- 

 tures 2,592,946 



Value of all metal and metallic pro- 

 ducts, other than iron and steel 4,867,672 



Value of Washington fisheries for 1890. 934,940 



Total value of lumber and lumber pro- 

 ducts . . .- 32,400,258 



In the session of 1903 the legislature 

 devoted to the protection and advance- 

 ment of these different industries the 

 following amounts : 



FISHERIES. 



Fish Commissioner's office $24,000 



Fish Hatchery Fund 122,865 



$146,865 

 AGRICULTURE. 



Grain Inspectors $5,600 



Horticulture Commission ,. 10,000 



State Dairy and Food Commission . . . 6,600 



State Agricultural College 158,000 



Grain Inspection Fund 35,000 



MINING. 



$2l7,200 



Coal Mine Inspector $4,250 



Commissioner 1,800 



Total $2,437,500,000 



$6,050 



These appropriations were neces- 

 sary and were to the interests of the 

 whole people. The state owns vast 

 bodies of farm lands, but it does not 

 own title to the fish or to any miner- 

 als, as such lands are reserved by the 

 United States ; but it owns $10,000,000 

 to $15,000,000 worth of timber, which 

 in ten years will be worth double these 

 figures. Yet it did not appropriate one 

 dollar to protect it from fire when it is 

 a well-known fact that each year large 

 tracts of state timber are destroyed. 

 Scattered as they are in every town- 

 ship, there is no forest fire of any con- 

 sequence that does not reach state tim- 

 ber, and in several localities where se- 

 lections have been made, great bodies 



