THREE-QUARTERS OF THE WAY 107 



answered. Many of these objections are best over- 

 come through voluntary cooperation between the 

 government authorities and private owners or 

 owners' associations. Each puts up part of the cost 

 and the work is divided. In California, Washing- 

 ton and Oregon the lumbermen are subscribing an- 

 nually from their own pockets close to a million 

 dollars and handing over the money to government 

 officials for fire protection work. In such eastern 

 states as New York and Pennsylvania, where the 

 very acuteness of a timber shortage has led to an 

 appreciation of the paramount importance of pro- 

 tecting the few trees that remain, a similar spirit of 

 cooperation has been manifest. 



Prohibition Is difficult to enforce because a con- 

 siderable portion of the public does not want it. 

 Only when the public wants forest fire protection 

 will it be thoroughly effective. The best protective 

 measures, therefore, will come not as complicated 

 and unenforclble legislation imposed from above, 

 but, originating In the small communities, will be 

 passed on to the state, and from the state to the na- 

 tional government. The crux of the whole matter 

 lies in education, In bringing the people to under- 

 stand what the continuance of the country's lumber 

 and wood supply means to each and everyone of 

 them; in teaching the farmer the value of his own 



