558 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



NATIONAL PROTECTION 



We have been witnesses to the ne- 

 cessity for national legislation protect- 

 ing our forests, our coal fields, our 

 waterfalls, and our migratory birds. 

 These valuable assets of the nation were 

 being rapidly acquired by a fortunate 

 few who were turning them to their 

 own personal profit at the expense of 

 those who had lagged in their protec- 

 tion. It has ever been true that what is 

 every man's property belongs to him 

 who gets it. And when those acquisi- 

 tively inclined are struggling for their 

 own personal advantage, we have found 



and are not the property of any one 

 State. Nor should the people of any 

 one commonwealth enjoy the unre- 

 stricted privilege to destroy them. 

 Much less should a few people on our 

 seaboard, near the mouth of those 

 bodies of water which these fish enter, 

 who by reason of their location are in 

 places convenient to wage a warfare of 

 destruction, have the right to selfishly 

 and inequitably preempt this wealth of 

 the sea to the deprivation and loss of 

 those situated inland on these same 

 bodies of water. 



But this is identicallv what the fish- 



CATCHING SALMON BY THE THOUSAND. 



SEINING SPAWNING SALMON ON THE M'CLOUD RIVER, CALIFORNIA, AT THE BAIRD STATION. STEAM POWER HAS 



NOW REPLACED THE HAND WINDLASS. 



that the rights of the majority are 

 usually overlooked. 



Our marine fishes such as the herring, 

 the shad, the tuna, the sturgeon, the 

 salmon, etc., are migratory fishes. They 

 enter our bays, rivers and interior 

 waters for the purpose of spawning, 

 and after having performed that impor- 

 tant function, return to the ocean. They 

 do not remain permanently in one State 



ing population of many of our coast 

 States is doing ! 



We have ever crowned the heights 

 of infamy with the figure of him who 

 filches from the poor. Our food fish 

 are the food par excellence of the poor. 

 What expression then shall we use to 

 characterize the laxity which is result- 

 ing in the dissipation of this immensely 

 valuable food resource? 



