CHAPTER V. 39 



Without enemies and with nothing but friends forestry ought to 

 have a progress and place in this community held by it nowhere else. 

 The policy of Southern California is perfectly clear. We must pre- 

 serve our forests. Without hostile interests, with no great combines 

 of vested right to do a wrong against a rational forest management, we 

 have only to make these facts clear to the federal authorities and to 

 overcome the inertia of official routine to succeed in our work. The 

 cost need not be large for such management. Less money than was 

 spent last year in putting out fires by the Federal government could 

 have entirely prevented any serious forest fires that season. The sys- 

 tem of permit and patrol will do it. The beauty of our country is no 

 negligible quantity. We hold in Southern California something in cli- 

 mate as near perfection as humanity can hope for on earth. Not only 

 do we offer cities of refuge from the relentless frost king to the winter 

 frozen world, but we also offer the unique condition of delightful 

 refuges from the fiery breath of the desert and the long fatiguing heats 

 of the Interior. It is estimated that climate tourists spend about ten 

 million dollars a year in Southern California. To these people the 

 beauties of California are no small part of the charm that attracts. 

 Let us assume that the conditions now present on some spurs of our 

 Sierras and due to fire were general to all the ranges. Then we should 

 have hill, Sierra and peak an arid desolation showing a blackened face 

 to the sun. Compare this with brush covered mountains with the 

 canyons lovely and picturesque and the higher districts well forested 

 with spruce, pine and fir. For beauty alone and beauty considered 

 only as a commercial asset we should put an end to the folly of forest 

 tires. 



