THE AMERICAN FORESTS 175 



guided pluck, perseverance, and ingenuity, but 

 straight right won its way, and now that park is 

 appreciated. So we confidently believe it will be 

 with our great national parks and forest reserva- 

 tions. There will be a period of indifference on the 

 part of the rich, sleepy with wealth, and of the toil- 

 ing millions, sleepy with poverty, most of whom 

 never saw a forest; a period of screaming protest 

 and objection from the plunderers, who are as 

 unconscionable and enterprising as Satan. But 

 light is surely coming, and the friends of destruc- 

 tion will preach and bewail in vain. 



The United States Government has always been 

 proud of the welcome it has extended to good men 

 of every nation, seeking freedom and homes and 

 bread. Let them be welcomed still as nature wel- 

 comes them, to the woods as well as to the prairies 

 and plains. No place is too good for good men, 

 and still there is room. They are invited to heaven, 

 and may well be allowed in America. Every place 

 is made better by them. Let them be as free to 

 pick gold and gems from the hills, to cut and hew, 

 dig and plant, for homes and bread, as the birds 

 are to pick berries from the wild bushes, and moss 

 and leaves for nests. The ground will be glad to 

 feed them, and the pines will come down from the 

 mountains for their homes as willingly as the cedars 

 came from Lebanon for Solomon's temple. Nor 

 will the woods be the worse for this use, or their 



