EDITORIAL 



The Forest Fires 



ALM< >ST without interruption the 

 repm- <>f forest tires continue to 

 occupy the columns of the daily news- 

 papers. \Yhen the final reports for the 

 year 1908 are received and the figures 

 tabulated, it will he found that never 

 in the nation's history have forest fire- 

 been so numerous, or their consequence- 

 so disastrous as in the \ ear now draw- 

 ing to a close. Xo sooner have the 

 fires died out in one region than they 

 have sprung up in another. The fires 

 in the far West and Northwest are ex- 

 tinguished and immediately we read re- 

 ports of forest conflagrations farther 

 east. The ravaging flames in Minne- 

 sota, Wisconsin and Michigan burn 

 themselves out and Maine takes up the 

 story. Back again to the Adirondacks 

 and the White Mountains; then the tel- 

 egraph tells us of the wasting of Penn- 

 sylvania's scanty forests, and before the 

 smoke has pased away, the scene shifts 

 again to Michigan. Maryland and Xew 

 Jersey also suffer, and the Xational Cap- 

 ital itself is shrouded in a pall of smoke 

 from burning forests within fifty miles 

 of the Washington Monument. 



'.'=' ', 

 Thirty Years' Fire Damage 



WITH IX the last thirty years, and 

 not including the fatalities for 

 1908, 1,956 people have perished in for- 

 e-t fires or fires caused by burning for- 

 ests. Up to the time of writing, the 

 death list for 1908 totals 296, as re- 

 ported by the newspapers, or about 

 seventy-two human lives per year 

 1' '-t in the flames of burning forests and 

 the conflagrations arising from them. 



In 1891 the Division of Forestry col- 

 lected authentic records of 12.000.000 

 acres burned over in a single year. The 

 value of the timber destroyed that year 

 was estimated at $50,000,000. The of- 

 ficial census of 1880 estimated the area 



burned per year as io.ooo,ooo acre-. 

 While now the acreage of f >re-t burned 

 over every year is undoubtedly -mailer, 

 the loss i- not decreased, but is even 

 greater, because the value of sttimpage 

 has increased since iSSn at lea-t live 

 times, and it i-, therefore, oiilv IK-' 

 sarv to burn 2.000,000 acres annuallv to 



, 



cause the same amount of loss. 



Estimate Not Excessive 



G a few examples of individ- 

 ual fires, it will be seen that the 

 Census Hnreaii and Forest Service es- 

 timates of fire loss are not at all exag- 

 gerated. For instance, in 1894. the 

 Ilinckley fire in Minnesota burned over 

 an area of 250 square miles, killed 418 

 people, and destroyed $750000 worth 

 of property, this being entirely apart 

 from the vast amount of timber and 

 lumber that was burned. In 1902 a 

 fire on the dividing line between Wash- 

 ington and Oregon destroyed property 

 amounting in value to $12,000.000. 



During the whole of the month of 

 September, thi^ year, forest fire- raged 

 in northeastern Minnesota. The towns 

 of Hibbing and Chisholm. which wen- 

 in the paths of these fires, were prac- 

 tically wiped out. and the total !<>--. as 

 conservatively figured, amounted to 

 nearly Sioooo.ooo. The town of Chi 

 holm alone suffered a 1<> to property. 

 stocks of merchandise, and other items 

 of direct loss, amounting to arxmt 

 $I,50O,OOO. 



The fires that are raging in northern 

 Michigan at this writing have already 

 caused losses estimated at anywhere 

 from $1.500000 to $3.000.000. accord- 

 ing to tine newspaper reports. One of 

 the appalling features of thi- great 

 Michigan fire wa- the derailment and 

 destruction of a train loaded with fugi- 

 tives from the fire districts. The train. 

 speeding over a track hemmed in on 



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