REPORT 1914 11 



CONCLUSION 



In stating my views as to the ways in which improvements 

 can be made in our organization and w r ork I do not want to be 

 understood as criticising or condemning anyone connected with 

 our association or those who assisted us in performing the colos- 

 sal tasks and in solving the difficult problems which each day 

 and almost every hour brought us. 



Never were men more loyal in their self sacrificing devotion 

 to duty and it would be impossible for human endurance to be 

 pushed beyond what some of our men suffered and bore heroically 

 and cheerfully. 



At this distance one gets a' truer perspective on such matters, 

 however, and the salient and important features stand out clearer 

 and sharper than when one is so close to his problems and condi- 

 tions that >a multiplicity of annoying details cloud the more im- 

 portant issues. For this reason I feel justified in touching on 

 those things with regard to which I feel that changes of policy 

 or plans of campaign may be made to advantage in the future. 



I have nothing but words of praise for the men who had 

 charge of our field forces and operations. 



In the report of our Chief Fire Warden, Mr. Mallory, you 

 have been given a condensed account of the actual field operations 

 of the season. It has been my aim to give you my views and ideas 

 on the season's operations from an entirely different viewpoint 

 and to touch on those matters not properly coming within the 

 scope of our Chief Fire Warden's report. 



While our losses have been immense and our expenses stag- 

 gering, my recollection of these details is overshadowed by the 

 picture my memory constantly recalls of the trains of flat cars, 

 as they pulled out of Bovill 'that August evening, bearing the 

 women and children with their pitifully small bundles and sur- 

 rounded by what few little possessions they could catch up as 

 they fled from their burning homes. 



This picture, with its lurid background, constantly rises 

 between me and all considerations of our own financial losses. We 

 know that some lost everything they had those things that made 

 homes for them of what may have looked to some of us like mere 

 shacks but who can say, or even surmise, what other or deeper 

 or more far-reaching effect that holacaust of fire may have had 

 on some of those babies and children and women ? 



In the last analysis the destruction of the homes and cherished 

 keepsakes of those "unfortunate refugees was a far greater^ loss 

 than that suffered by the State, the corporation or the individual 

 whose timber was burned. 



Respectfully, 



A. W. LAIRD, President. 



