24 USE OF THE NATIONAI. FORESTS. 



and drought. Here, again, it is considered that valuable 

 rights which belong to all the people and are protected 

 at Government expense should not be given away free of 

 charge when they are sought for commercial use. It 

 would seem doubly unwise to do this when the corpora- 

 tions which are benefited show a tendency to form great 

 monopolies. So a reasonable charge is made for the 

 value received. The charge is not made for the water, 

 but for the conservation of the water. 



Playgrounds. — Quite incidentally, also, the National 

 Forests serve a good purpose as great playgrounds for 

 the people. They are used more or less every year by 

 campers, hunters, fishermen, and thousands of pleasure 

 seekers from the near-by towns. They are great recrea- 

 tion grounds for a very large part of the people of the 

 West, and their value in this respect is well worth 

 considering. 



Game. — The Forest officers are often appointed as 

 State and Territorial game wardens, to protect the game 

 under State and Territorial laws. As a consequence 

 game is usually more abundant and better looked after 

 within the National Forests than outside of them. 

 Although the services of Forest officers in this respect 

 are wholly incidental to their other work, because they 

 are acting for the States and Territories and not as 

 Federal officials, much good has been accomplished, and 

 the ai;rangement has met with general approval. The 

 people want the game preserved. In many cases it 

 means a good money return to the locality concerned. 



