NEWS AND NOTES 



443 



every tree will be cut and that the ground 

 will be bare. It means, on the other hand, 

 that year by year the people of the country 

 are cutting more timber than the forest 

 grows, and that within a comparatively 

 short time the continued loss wall have so 

 reduced the forest that it will be difficult 

 and expensive to obtain timber of useful 

 size in sufficient quantity. 



Fire Waste Through Carelessness 



Mr. C. M. Goddard, president of the Na- 

 tional Fire Protection Association, says, in 

 the Insurance Neivs, of Philadelphia : 



"A cigarette thrown into a bale of cotton, 

 loss $30,000; using a highly inflammable fluid 

 for cleaning by open flame artificial light, 

 loss $150,000; improperly set hot-air furnace, 

 loss two lives and $75,000; sparks from a 

 locomotive near a wood-working plant, loss 

 $750.000; smoking cigarettes while spreading 

 rags, loss $13,000,000. 



"All of these instances occurred within less 

 than a year and within a circle of 100 miles 

 radius. Fires are carelessly started in the 

 woods, and for weeks this fall our forests 

 were burning at the rate of a million dollars 

 a day. 



"Our average annual fire loss for the past 

 six years has been $250,000,000, and it is a 

 conservative statement that fifty per cent, of 

 this loss, or $750,000,000 during the six years, 

 was due to easily preventable causes ; that is, 

 carelessness. 



"We are not only the most careless, but 

 the most reckless nation on earth, we live 

 for the present, rather than for the future. 

 We tolerate conditions, in our goodnatured 

 way, that would not be allowed in Great 

 Britain, Germany, or France. To this char- 

 acteristic of the American people is due the 

 fact that we lead the world in the loss of life 

 and property from carelessness, for it is a 

 regrettable fact that the large majority of 

 our so-called accidents are due to misman- 

 agement or blunders." 



He states that the National Fire Protec- 

 tion Association is endeavoring to correct 

 this evil by means of an educational campaign 

 and adds : 



"Why should we allow the manufacture 

 and sale of the parlor-match, which is known 

 to annually destroy millions of property and 

 over 500 lives in this country, when the use 

 of properly made safety-matches would pre- 

 vent this loss ? 



"Of what use is it to 'conserve our natural 

 resources,' about which so much is being 

 said and done, if we make no effort to con- 

 serve our created resources that is, our nat- 

 ural resources after we have spent time and 

 labor on them to fit them for our use? 



"I believe there is no more important prob- 

 lem before this nation to-day than that of 



reducing our annual fire loss, which is nearly 

 ten times that of other civilized nations. 



"Fifty per cent, of the fire waste in this 

 country is due to carelessness." 



Needless Work Is Waste 



Says the San Francisco Chronicle: 

 "The conservation movement has not as- 

 sumed a very radical form. In order for it 

 to achieve a real success it will have to ham- 

 mer into the minds of the American people, 

 and, for that matter, the minds of the peo- 

 ple of other countries, that there is much 

 waste which is disguised by the appearance 

 of gain. It is as wasteful to burn coal to 

 carry cotton to be manufactured in coun- 

 tries where the textiles are not used as it is 

 to burn it to no end at all. Manufactures 

 should be conducted as near as possible to 

 the source of the supply of the raw mate- 

 rial and power, and to the people who will 

 consume the finished product." 



Two Projects in Eastern Oregon 



Says the Portland (Oreg.) Journal: 



"Surveyors and engineers have been or- 

 dered into the field to complete surveys and 

 estimates for the Malheur government irri- 

 gation project. A surveying party is being 

 formed at Boise by F. E. Weymouth, super- 

 vising engineer of this reclamation district. 

 Secretary of Interior Ballinger has an- 

 nounced that he wishes the survey hastened 

 sufficiently to permit his personal inspec- 

 tion and investigation when he comes West 

 in June, at which time he will visit the proj- 

 ect. He has signified his purpose of complet- 

 ing the work at once. 



"The protest filed by private interests 

 against the building of the Government proj- 

 ect was heard in Washington, at which time 

 Secretary Ballinger stated it was the policy 

 of the Government not to interfere with pri- 

 vate projects, provided private interests can 

 show they are financially able to complete 

 the work. 



"He also stated that before the Govern- 

 ment would concede that private parties have 

 an interest in the Malheur project, they 

 must show decisively they can complete it 

 and at a reasonable cost, and that the people 

 want a private project. 



"It is now possible that two projects may 

 be built, the Owyhee project, covering lands 

 on the Owyhee River and crossing into 

 Idaho territory, to be built by private inter- 

 ests ; and the Malheur project, covering the 

 Malheur and Willow River lands surround- 

 ing Weiser, Vale, and Ontario, to be built 

 by the Government. The Reclamation De- 

 partment has not signified its intention of 

 abandoning the Malheur project in defer- 

 ence to private interests, but it may allow 

 private interests to build the neighboring 



