250 FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION May 



State of Illinois. Millions of dollars The question is syllogis- 



Inter-relation . J ,?,, 



wasting every year, because the prac- O f phases tic > lt: runs tnus : ^ ne 



tical American can not see the neces country needs a system 



sity of caring for the forested uplands of waterways, in order that the strain 



he already has, and the further neces- on the railroads, and the country's 



sity for reforesting such uplands and mineral resources, may be relieved ; 



slopes as have already been scourged to make sure and permanent such a 



and skinned with the ax and the cross- waterways system, forested hillsides and 



cut saw. mountain crests are necessary. Forest 



There are plenty of men yet active conservation and intelligent reforest- 

 in daily life who can recall the time ation mean an equable flow of rivers, 

 when freighting on the Wabash River an equable distribution of surplus 

 was a regular occupation for scores waters, a lessening of the constant 

 of men. Strings of flatboats, and strain upon the country's transpor- 

 heavy barges, propelled by steamers, tation facilities, a lessening of the 

 worked on the Wabash as far up as steady drain upon the coal and iron 

 Lafayette, Indiana; and their working mine-, and a steadily increasing tim- 

 season ran practically through the ber supply, as well as a means of pre- 

 year. Today, one may see, occasion- venting soil erosion and the conse- 

 ally, a little stermvheeler, pushing a quent appalling drain upun the farm 

 -ingle barge, carrying corn or coal as fertility of the land. And the answer 

 far up as Terre Haute over one htm- to the whole question equals a good 

 dred miles, by river, below Lafayette, business proposition a sound, safe 

 And it is only during high water in the and increasingly valuable investment, 

 spring that even this is to be seen These are a few of the things that 

 These boats used to run to Cairo, make the coming White House Con- 

 Louisville or Cincinnati : but they have ference the most momentous conven- 

 not made such trips in a good many tion that has been held in the history 

 years. Because the Wabash has no of the country. To find correct answers 

 longer a permanent channel the chan- to the big questions that are to be dis- 

 nel that used to be is filled up with silt cussed at this Conference will mean 

 and sand, with logs and with gravel more to the country now. next year, 

 bars, until what used to be a water- and the years to come than all the 

 way is now merely a drain, filled and questions of tariff, of political expedi- 

 overflowed for miles on either side ency, of world-relations, that could 

 .hiring the flood periods, and reduced be discussed in a century. Are the 

 in size to a creek through the rest of American people practical enough to 

 the year. see and to realize fully the importance 



The expense of dredging and caring of these problems, and the importance 

 for the channels of the Ohio, Missis- of finding solutions for them? Are 

 sippi, Miami, Kanawha and a few the American people practical enough 

 other Middle West rivers, and of to see the value present and future- 

 dredging the harbors and streams of of the investment they are called on to 

 the Atlantic seaboard, is more, in a make? Or are they willing to go 

 single year, than the whole sum that ahead, checking against their capital 

 would be required to make the north- while discounting the interest on that 

 ern crest of the Appalachians the capital, until at some not distant day. 

 White Mountains a National Forest, the nation awakes to the fact that it is 

 Government, municipal, state and prr bankrupt, so far as natural re- 

 vate expenditures for such dredging sources are concerned? 

 amount to a sum so stupenduous that. 



with the money so expended in five The Appala- False reports regarding 



years, the crest of the Appalachians, chian Bill the action by the House 



from Maine to the Carolinas, could be Committee on Judiciary 



made into a National Forest. on the Appalachian-White Mountain 



