1908 



EDITORIAL 



185 



ures two dollars and fifty cent-. 



Beside the values transferred by this 

 legislation from public to private own- 

 ership, such payments are, of course, 

 but as the crumbs which fell from 

 Dives' table and were granted as char- 

 ity to the beggar at his door. 



The 

 Danger 



Thus far these bills have 

 lain in committees. How 

 long, however, they may 

 thus slumber, no one, outside the lead- 

 ers, probably knows. It is but nec- 

 essary to focus public attention upon 

 them to make the average congress- 

 man as shy of them as of the plums 

 and prequisites of which Mr. Dooley so 

 effectively writes. Until, however, the 

 appearance of the President's message 

 above quoted the public knew little or 

 nothing about these bills. Exactly 

 there lies the danger in such legisla- 

 tion. It slumbers quietly in a pigeon 

 hole until the opportune moment ar- 

 rives, and then, with many members 

 absent, others preoccupied, and still 

 others lacking information, it goes 

 through the chute with a lot of other 

 legislation and is entered upon the 

 statute books. Even now, there is a 

 possibility that some of the more vi- 

 cious clauses in these bills may be at- 

 tached as riders to the agricultural ap- 

 propriation bill, and thus forced 

 through. 



_ It is conceded that the 



A Conces- r ., 



s j on power of the Secretary 



to revoke licenses in his 

 discretion might possibly, in hypo- 

 thetical cases, work hardship. In the 

 Agricultural Appropriation Bill, there- 

 for, the following concession is made 

 (page 24, lines-2-5) : "Hereafter, per- 

 mits for power plants within National 

 forests may be made irrevocable ex- 

 cept for breach of condition, for such 

 term, not exceeding fifty years, as the 

 Secretary of Agriculture may by regu- 

 lation prescribe." It is hoped that 

 every friend of the National Forests, 

 whether within or without Congress, 

 may be alert to see that the conces- 

 sions to private interests go no fur- 

 ther than this. 



Another The President has just 



Message sent ano tj ler message to 



Congress. At the risk 

 of delaying the presses, attention must 

 be called to some of its featun -. He 

 says: 



"I am of the opinion, however, that 

 one change in the tariff could, with 

 advantage, be made forthwith. Our 

 forests need every protection, and one 

 method of protecting them would be to 

 put upon the free list wood pulp, with 

 a corresponding reduction upon paper 

 made from wood pulp, when they come 

 from any country that does not put an 

 export duty upon them." 



FORESTRY AND IRRI<, \ i i< >x delights 

 to record this blow at the paper trust. 

 While no tariff tinkering, or modifica- 

 tion either up or down, will, without 

 public ownership and administration, 

 solve the forest question, the tariff 

 upon wood pulp and paper made there- 

 from is an anomaly and abuse which 

 should long since have beea corrected. 



The following regarding waterways 

 will meet the full approval of our 

 readers : 



"Ample provision should be made 

 for a permanent Waterways Commis- 

 sion, with whatever power is required 

 to make it effective. The reasonable 

 expectation of the people will not be 

 met unless the Congress provides at 

 this session for the beginning and 

 prosecution of the actual work of wa- 

 terways improvement and control. 



For this Nation, at a time when ils 

 railroads cannot handle the traffic 

 thrown upon them, to permit its va<t 

 network of inland waterwavp to lie 

 idle is as preposterous as for China to 

 leave her coal unmined. The sinister 

 influences which have prevented the 

 utilization of our inland waterwa\ 3 

 were made clear in the recent prelim- 

 inary report of the Inland Waterways 

 Commission and the presidential nu 

 sage accompanying it. T.il;-' American 

 timberland owners in respect of wood 

 pulp, railroad managers, of course, 

 wanted no more competition than was 

 inevitable. Hence, the Commission 

 points out. they set themselves to kill 



