438 



CONSERVATION 



majority, dispensed with their "pater" 

 and taken charge of their own affairs, 

 it is as absurd to speak of their joint 

 activities as "paternal" as it would be 

 so to speak of the joint activities of a 

 group of brothers who have gone into 

 partnership. Antiquated terms often die 

 hard. The term in question is no ex- 

 ception. Let all intelligent people, how- 

 ever, recognize that in the United States 

 its day is past, and hasten to lay it 

 finall awa to rest. 



Responsibility for Forests 



IN AN editorial on June u, the New 

 York Press endorses a statement 

 from the Engineering News that the 

 "deforestation of this country cannot 

 be adequately checked by the estab- 

 lishment of forest reserves by the Fed- 

 eral Government and the various states/' 

 "Public reserves," it declares, "and the 

 Government encouragement of forest 

 cultivation must be supplemented by 

 the efforts of hundreds of thousands of 

 individuals." 



This declaration is in line with one 

 made by Secretary Wilson at the last 

 annual meeting of the American For- 

 estry Association. As will be recalled, 

 Secretary Wilson on that occasion said : 

 "The American people can do a great 

 many things without Congress ; a very 

 great many things." He then pro- 

 ceeded to urge individuals, associations 

 and corporations to do their utmost to- 

 ward conserving existing forests and 

 establishing new ones. "Let us not," 

 he said, "sit down and make faces at 

 Congress because they will not buy 

 these Appalachian and White Mountain 

 ranges. It does not prevent as- 



sociations of men from taking hold and 



planting trees. It does not prevent the 

 farmer from providing a legacy for the 

 next generation by planting trees on the 

 land that will not grow grasses or 

 grains, but will grow trees." 



Continuing, the editorial writer in 

 the Neiv York Press strikes a different 

 note and says, "It has got to the pass 

 now in this country that a man who 

 plants a tree has a claim to be consid- 

 ered a public benefactor, while the man 

 who wantonly destroys one is a public 

 enemy. 



"Individual responsibility for the pres- 

 ervation of the forests of the Nation 

 has not been sufficiently impressed upon 

 the public at large. There is needed in 

 this respect not only a 'campaign of ed- 

 ucation,' but a campaign of repression. 

 Those great forest fires which every 

 year, from Maine to Texas and from 

 Seattle to Florida, sweep away vast 

 <'-iantities of precious timber are gen- 

 erally the result of the actions of the 

 careless, the mischievous, or the crim- 

 inal. Surely, the forests are as worthy 

 of protection as the game of the coun- 

 try, and guardians of the forest as nec- 

 essary officers as game wardens ; surely 

 it is the duty of both state and Federal 

 governments to see to it that adequate 

 penalties are provided for the punish- 

 ment of those who, through careless- 

 ness or wantonness, start forest fires." 

 Self-preservation is the first law of 

 nature ; likewise it is the first law of na- 

 tions ; and national life, like individual 

 life, rests upon an economic base. If 

 governments may not, by adequate pains 

 and penalties, protect the foundations 

 which underlie their very existence and 

 that of the individuals who compose 

 them, we may well inquire, "Why gov- 

 ernment at all?" 



BACK NUMBERS WANTED 



The office of CONSERVATION desires a few copies of the issues for May and 

 September, 1899; January, February, and March, 1907, and November, 1908, for 

 which it will pay twenty cents each. 



Any having available copies will oblige by advising this office. 



