I 9 o8 KDITORIAI. 



tion of a revolutionary course of con- And the hand is waved in a h 



duct arc always the most difficult ; once embracing sweep, 



well Carted on its way, the course of There are trees, to be sure lots 



an educational propaganda, that roots them. But of what 



in human necessity, is comparatively the woods and count the hickor 



easy. The preliminary steps the the white oaks, the black walnuts, the 



primary grades, as it were are the white walnuts, the elms, and other 



ones in which endless tact, exhaust- hardwood trees. It will n< >t require 



less patience, and a deep and broad much counting. Even of the a-h 



understanding are prime requisites, there are few specimens left : and rock 



The propaganda of conservation has maple is practically g> There 



been carried on for years, with more are woods, to be sure, but what are 



or less success, in this country; every they? Soft maple, dogwood, fras 



succeeding year a larger number of and bushes of various kind- not even 



thinking men and women have been a poplar in a five mile wall; through 



brought to see the absolute necessity the "plenty-of-wood" the uninformed 



for a program of retrenchment as re- take in in their sweeping gestures. 



gards natural resources. And now North, and east, and south, and 



the time has come for a conference west, the condition is the same. The 



such as the one to be held in Washing- pines are almost gone ; red cedar is 



ton during the early part of May. as scarce and as valuable as mahogany. 



The whole reading population of almost; and about all that is left is 

 the country is more or less familiar beech and soft maple equally worth- 

 with recent events that have led up less for lumber and the undergrowth 

 to the calling of this convention of that gives the appearance of dense for- 

 the Governors, their advisors, and the estation to the hillsides. And there- 

 country's leading men this national, right there is the explanation of 

 unofficial conference of public officials, high lumber prices that confront those 

 sitting in the capital of the Nation, who would build their homes 

 with the Nation's Chief Executive as little or no pine or poplar, little or 

 chairman. Truly unique, this gather- elm or ash. little or no oak. rock- 

 ing; and truly great must have been maple or walnut, how cnn one expect 

 the crisis that has brought it about, to avoid high priced This nnirh for 



the purely materialistic, selfish - : 



w H Americans have long the forest question. 



w H ' been known as a prac- Soil erosion, another phase of this 



tical people a nation all-embracing problem, comes 

 of men of business sagacity, with deforestation, as -urely as rain comes 

 an eye out for the main chance. This from the clouds. Deforested 

 being true, is it not amazing when mistakcnlv put under cultivation. 

 one considers the indifference of plowed, harrowed and left free to 

 Americans, business men, professional throw their soil into the noare-t water- 

 men, farmers and men in every walk courses how much, in the aggregate, 

 of life, in regard to the absolutely vital do these ta' the nation'* wealth 

 questions now confronting the coun- in a year's time" Ask the men who 

 try? How slight is the realization work the dredges that arc constantly 

 that is, the really popular realization in operation in the harbor- the 

 of the extent to which deforestation. Atlantic seaboard; ask the men w' 

 with all its evil consequences, has been task it is to dear the channels by which 

 pushed in this country ! It is common the Mi--i--ippi flow* into the Gulf. 

 to hear one of these uninformed men \ billion tns a year. <>\ the ni'>*t fer- 

 say, when fores! cmi-ervation or re- tile soil from the farm* of the M<V 

 forestation is under discussion : \Ycst. waste* it-elf in the wat 



"Bah! All talk! \Yhy. we have the Gulf M Mexico enough to make 



plenty of trees; look at them!" a blanket a foot deep 'he en' 



