OUR NEXT GREAT CAMPAIGN 



FOR ten years a great task has steadily been drawing 

 nearer and nearer. Today we may say that it has ar- 

 rived. It is the conversion of many large areas of our 

 national forests into national game preserves, for the sav- 

 ing of the remnant of wild life, and the increase of game 

 to a basis of economic value. 



Ten years ago, when the national forest idea was fighting 

 for its life, and meeting bitter opposition from many kinds 

 of people who wished to despoil the public domain for their 

 own benefit, no one in Congress or out of Congress dared 

 to speak above a whisper in mentioning the idea of national 

 forest game preserves. We distinctly remember being cau- 

 tioned by President Roosevelt against stirring up that sub- 

 ject prematurely. 



For all that, however, many persons have recognized the 

 desirability of a radical step in the direction indicated. A 

 number of bills have been introduced in Congress to create 

 game preserves in national forests, but thus far no success 

 has been attained by any of them, save in a few isolated 

 and exceptional cases. 



But the lapse of time brings many changes ; and some of 

 them come swiftly. Today the American people are awake 

 more thoroughly than ever before regarding the dangers 

 to wild life, and the necessity for prompt action to reverse 

 and improve existing conditions. Any man in the western 

 third of the United States who does not know that the wild 

 game is very rapidly and alarmingly disappearing from 

 nearly all our national forests is to be pitied for his igno- 

 rance. And any man who thinks that game is destined to 

 survive in those forests unless put on a far different basis 

 from that it now occupies, is to be pitied for his lack of 

 judgment and foresight. 



