FIRE DAMAGE SMALL 



643 



the readiness with which people will 

 respond to suggestions that are exceed- 

 ingly definite and somewhat flattering 

 in assuming their influence is valuable, 

 and the effect of this home endorse- 

 ment not only in passing a measure but 

 also in keeping it unchanged. One of 

 the greatest perils of a forest bill is 

 that it may be modified to make the 

 resultant system a political machine. In 

 dealing personally with members who 

 attempt this, you are almost helpless if 

 they make it a condition of their sup- 

 port. It is very different when they 

 are obliged to offend constituents by 

 defying their specific requests. 



There are, of course, many additional 

 devices to be employed. Wholesale and 

 banking houses may be induced to re- 

 quest help for your bill as a personal 

 favor of all their out of town connec- 



tions. Friendly newspapers may use 

 editorials to be clipped and sent each 

 legislator. \Ye once successfully killed 

 a charge that a fire appropriation would 

 benefit timber owners at the expense of 

 the farmer by having placed on every 

 member's desk a cartoon of a settler's 

 house being destroyed by fire, sur- 

 rounded by reproductions of dozens of 

 actual clippings all describing loss of 

 life or property by settlers, and bearing 

 the legend "to vote against the fire bill 

 is to vote for this." I cannot review 

 all such devices, but the summing up is 

 this: Do not rely on eleventh-hour lob- 

 bying with a busy legislature. Give 

 your measure the earliest and widest 

 explanation and systematize to the last 

 degree getting the effectively applied en- 

 dorsement of every man, woman and 

 child you can reach. 



FIRE DAMAGE SMALL 



has been less fire damage 

 timber in the Northwest this 

 than any previous year since 

 the Western Forestry and Conservation 

 Association has been organized, accord- 

 ing to a statement by A. L. Flewelling, 

 president of that organization. This 

 year, he says, the fire loss has been 

 practically nothing, in June there were 

 a few fires on the coast, but in the 

 Inland Empire, Montana and Oregon 

 the damage has been almost nothing. 

 Continuing, Mr. Flewelling said : 



"The fact that the summer season 

 has been a moist one is, of course, one 

 of the principal reasons. There are, 

 however, three other reasons that may 

 help to explain the condition of affairs 

 this year. The patrol system and or- 

 ganization of the timber protective as- 

 sociations have been perfected to a de- 

 gree never attained before. Most of 



the railroads have adopted oil fuel, do- 

 ing away with the locomotive spark as 

 a fire cause. The campaign of educa- 

 tion that the association has been carry- 

 ing on for years is beginning to bear 

 fruit. 



"Settlers and campers are exercising 

 more care in leaving fires and are more 

 ready to co-operate with the lumber- 

 men in reporting them." The cost of 

 the patrol service maintained this year 

 has ranged from 2 to 3 cents per acre 

 in north Idaho. Mr. Flewelling said: 

 "A year ago the average assessment 

 was 3 cents, while in I!H<>, the year of 

 the big fires, the cost ranged from I '.' 

 to 15 cents per acre. This year m-i 

 of the patrol forces h:;\-e been used in 

 building telephone line-. These lines 

 and lookout stations have been estab- 

 lished in sections never reached be- 

 fore." 



/-. C. PEGG APPOINTED. 



Mr Ernest C. Pegy has been appointed instructor in forestry at tit.- I'uirersity <>t Mis- 

 souri M'r Pegg was graduated from If abash College and from the )"<;/,- Forest School in 

 1911 'with high honors. Since graduation he has been in the employ of the U. 

 Service, with headquarters on 'the .femes .\\itional Forest, Arizona. 



