EDITORIAL 



777 



If not, how does he choose between 

 the splendid forests which the Ap- 

 palachian legislation will ensure'and the 

 wreck which its failure must necessitate ? 



Again, as is well known, Old-world 

 countries, long indifferent to govern- 

 ment ownership or control of forests, 

 were at last driven to it, but after fear- 

 ful loss. 



Years ago, the United States Senate 

 informed the country that the price of 

 Appalachian lands was rising like that 

 of the Sibylline books. Now the fact 

 is indisputable. 



When the Southern Appalachian Park 

 bill was first introduced into Congress 

 large areas of uncut timbered lands of 

 average quality could be bought for 

 from $i to $3 per acre. 



Now the Secretary of Agriculture, in 

 his report on the Southern Appalachian 

 and White Mountain watersheds, telU 

 us that "even cut-over lands with no 

 prospect of a timber crop inside of ten 

 or twenty years will cost as much now 

 as virgin lands ready for the saw would 

 have cost eight years ago." 



Such already is the price our pro- 

 crastination has cost. How much higher 

 shall we, by further procrastination, 

 permit that price to rise? 



The Glavis Case 



THE expected has happened. Mr. 

 L. R. Glavis has stated his case. 



The statement is a strong one : strong 

 in what it says and in what it omits ; 

 strong in its self-restraint. 



To attempt to brush such a paper 

 aside as "a tissue of falsehoods" and a- 

 "shreds of suspicion" is vain. 



As well might King John have at- 

 tempted to brush aside the document 

 handed him by the barons at Runny- 

 mede. As well might King George 

 have dropped the Declaration of Inde- 

 pendence into the wastebasket. or with 

 equal profit might the present House 

 of Lords flout the Lloyd-George budget. 



Nor will it avail to quote "the Presi- 

 dent's" letter as a final rebuttal. 



The suspicion is too widespread that 

 the President had very little to do with 

 that letter. It bears too manv earmarks 



of another office, and its phraseology 

 and arguments are too familiar to those 

 who have discussed the subject with 

 another highly interested official. 



The country now demands the facts. 

 They should come from no biased or in- 

 terested source. And, as a generation 

 ago, the motto should be, "Let no guilty 

 man escape." 



It is said that a well-known Senator 

 will call for all the papers in the case. 



This report is encouraging. But it 

 must be remembered that there are in- 

 vestigations and investigations. 



The object of an "investigation" is 

 sometimes to find the truth and some- 

 times, apparently, to conceal it. 



In a matter of such gravity, no pains 

 should be spared to protect the country 

 against a "whitewash." 



For it must be remembered, and 

 never forgotten, that it is the country's 

 interests which, in this matter, weigh 

 most heavily. 



An official here or there, or a sub- 

 ordinate more or less, are not, in and 

 of themselves, the issues at stake. 



Officials come and go, but the people's 

 interests are permanent. The vital 

 question is, "Are these interests being 

 conserved or betrayed ?" 



And it is this question which renders 

 important the incontinent removal of 

 Glavis. 



Suppose Glavis were right. What ef- 

 fect must his discharge, without benefit 

 of clergy, have upon the public service ? 

 And suppose he were not right in his 

 conclusions, but were right in his im- 

 pulses and desires and nobody, appar- 

 ently, denies the latter what then? 



Here we have a public servant con- 

 vinced that important public interests 

 are imperiled. He endeavors to pro- 

 tect them and is thwarted at every turn. 

 Finally he makes the supreme effort, 

 and, acting on high advice, lays the 

 facts before the highest official au- 

 thority. For his pains, he is discharged 

 by telegraph. 



How, in the light of this case, may 

 other public servants be expected to 

 govern their actions? 



A citizen applies for admission to 

 the public service. 



