NEWS AND NOTES 



Conserving Human Resources 



A certain brilliant literary and society 

 woman, well known in Washington, and 

 formerly president of the General Federa- 

 tion of Women's Clubs, maintains that the 

 Nation's children are as well worth "con- 

 serving" as the forests, waterfalls, or other 

 natural resources, and that much less atten- 

 tion is paid to them. 



She made this statement in rejecting the 

 offer of a Representative in Congress from 

 Colorado to resign in her favor, saying she 

 did not wish to sit in Congress; but, if there, 

 she would make it her chief business to pro- 

 mote legislation for the children of the coun- 

 try. She requested the Representative to do 

 like work, and promised him the support of 

 every woman's club in the Union. 



Bad Forest Fires 



On September 14 a bad forest fire was 

 reported on the San Gabriel National Forest, 

 in the canyons of the Sierra Madre Moun- 

 tains back of Mount Wilson. 



North along the uplands of the San Fer- 

 nando Valley, two great fires lit up the giant 

 mountains and forests fell crashing in the 

 flames as they swept over the foothills. In 

 Chatsworth Park district the live oaks with- 

 ered in the touch of the smothering fire and 

 smoke that ate over acres of scrub and 

 pasture land. 



From Ventura and the Santa Barbara 

 Reserve came word of forest fires raging in 

 the wilderness of the almost inaccessible 

 mountains. 



Ringed as by gigantic beacons, lay the 

 beautiful Los Angeles and San Gabriel val- 

 leys, while in the fire zone men battled with 

 the flames until early dawn. 



Fires were also reported from the Soledad 

 Canyon in the Santa Barbara Reserve on the 

 side of the Mojave Desert. 



Glavis to Publish the Facts 



Seattle, Wash., Sept- 20. L. R. Glavis, who 

 was dismissed as chief of the Seattle Field 

 Division of the United States Land Office 

 because of charges made against chief of- 

 ficers of the Interior Department, has written 

 a letter to President Taft, as follows : 

 "The President. 



"Sir: I have laid before you all the essen- 

 tial facts in my possession regarding the of- 

 ficial conduct of certain cases by the Depart- 

 ment of the Interior concerning coal lands in 

 Alaska. As chief of field division, directly 

 concerned, and because of the tremendous 

 values involved, I felt my personal responsi- 

 bility most keenly. 



"The evidence indicated that a great syn- 

 dicate is trying to secure a monopoly of this 

 coal, in direct violation of the law. Ulti- 



mately, I felt myself obliged to appeal to you 

 over the heads of my superior officers in 

 order to bring about the enforcement of the 

 law, which in a measure would conserve 

 these coal lands to the people at large. T 

 deemed it my duty to submit the facts to 

 you, and I cannot regret my action. 



"Since there may be now even greater dan- 

 ger that the title of these coal lands will be 

 fraudulently secured by the syndicate, it is 

 no less my duty to my country to make pub- 

 lic the facts in my possession concerning 

 which I firmly believe that you have been 

 misled. This I shall do in the near future 

 with a full sense of the seriousness of my 

 action and with deep and abiding respect for 

 your great office. 



"Respectfully, L. R. GLAVIS/' 



The West in Earnest 



William H. Taft has been in the Presi- 

 dential office for. a long enough period of 

 time to give the country some general idea 

 of what he intends to do, and how he in- 

 tends to do it. Congress has been in ses- 

 sion, engaged in passing a tariff bill, which, 

 in its final analysis, has not been accept- 

 able to the Central West. Richard A. 

 Ballinger, his Secretary of the Interior, has 

 been engaged in a controversy for several 

 weeks with Gifford Pinchot, Chief Forester, 

 over the general issue of conservation, with 

 particular reference to the administration of 

 the public-land laws with respect to water- 

 power sites, coal lands, and reclamation proj- 

 ects. All of these subjects are of vital and 

 even political interest in the Far West. It is 

 manifest, therefore, that both of these sec- 

 tions of the country are not to be "jollied" 

 out of their opinion on these serious ques- 

 tions. New York Post. 



The Future of Man in America 



Ex-Governor Pardee of California said at 

 Spokane : 



"Wealth is too often used in this country 

 to-day to take from the people their political 

 rights, turn their representatives into chat- 

 tels and doers of the wishes of those who 

 desire to oppress the people by taking from 

 them their natural resources. No one in this 

 country who reads and thinks doubts that 

 some governors, legislators, Congressmen, 

 Senators, and judges have prostituted the of- 

 fices to which they were elected by the votes 

 of the people. There are those who desire 

 to monopolize the water-power of our rivers, 

 who are eager to grab our forests, and who 

 desire to seize our coal lands, to use all 

 for their private aggrandizement to the detri- 

 ment of the people. 



"Is there any sound reason why the public 

 should not regulate the natural resources? 

 Is there any real reason why the Government 

 should turn back to 'public entry' one single 



