EDITOR'S CORNER. 



SUBSCRIPTION RECEIPTS FOR 3 YEARS 

 AND 5 MONTHS. 



Read the 



January 

 February 

 March 

 April . 

 May . 

 June . 

 July . 

 August 

 September 

 October . . 

 November 

 December 



deadly 



1895. 

 $379 

 256 

 300 

 342 

 292 



307 

 345 

 306 



498 

 438 

 556 

 652 



parallel 



1896. 



$723 



693 



1,049 



645 

 902 



770 

 563 

 601 



95i 

 969 



1,054 

 1,853 



columns: 



1900. 



$3,205 



2,151 

 1,919 



i,570 



i,377 



971 



854 



1,262 



1,464 

 1,842 

 2,060 

 4,742 



1901. 



?3,903 

 3,267 



3,710 



2,760 



2,303 



$4,671 io,773 23,741 



Figures don't mean anything unless 

 supported by proofs. Especially circula- 

 tion figures. My proofs are always ready 

 for any advertiser who may see fit to call 

 here or send his expert. Subscription lists, 

 printer's bills, post-office receipts and 

 News Company's orders. These are the 

 kind of proofs I offer. Walk in, gentle- 

 men. The door is never locked. 



A NATION OF DESTROYERS. 



I am in receipt of a letter from an old 

 friend, in which he says: 



"The most destructive creature on God's 

 green earth wears trousers and cooks his 

 food. All the rest of animated nature com- 

 bined can not hold a match to him, who, 

 when he can not find blood enough to 

 spill in the dumb creation, goes to battle 

 with his own kind." 



Man's destructive tendencies are not 

 limited to the spilling of blood, nor to the 

 taking of life. The rate at which the 

 forests of this country are being destroyed 

 is such as to alarm every thinking man 

 and woman. It takes 30 years to raise a 

 tree and 30 minutes to cut it down and 

 destroy it; yet thousands of men are em- 

 ployed every working day in the year, 

 sweeping away the giants of the forest. 



In Germany a man is not allowed to cut 

 a tree, even on his own land, without a 

 written permit from the Government; and 

 this permit stipulates that for every tree he 

 cuts down he must plant another. If he 

 cuts off all the trees from an acre of land, 

 he must plant an acre of trees elsewhere. 

 Yet here in America lumber companies, 

 railway companies, pulp makers and char- 

 coal burners send armies of men into the 

 forests, armed with axes and saws, with 

 orders to cut down every tree that is avail- 



able for their various purposes. After the 

 trees are cut down and the trunks hauled 

 away, the tops are left to furnish fuel for 

 the next forest fire that comes along. 

 And it is sure to come sooner or later. 

 It burns into the earth and kills all the 

 young timber that was left between the 

 stumps of the other trees. And our Gov- 

 ernment takes no note of the destruction. 



We are a nation of destroyers. We use 

 the product of the forests to build houses, 

 railways, bridges and to make paper. We 

 tunnel the earth and burn up the coal we 

 find within, for fuel and for motive power. 

 We bore into the earth for oil and gas, 

 which are consumed for light, heat and 

 power. We make no effort to restrict the 

 flow of these. We are not in the least 

 economical in their use. The man who 

 drills an oil well and gets a flow of less 

 than 1,000 barrels a day is disappointed. 

 But be the force great or small he pipes 

 it into tanks, and straightway sends his 

 men elsewhere to bore another hole. 



The supply of coal, oil and gas is lim- 

 ited. The formation thereof has ceased. 

 What are future generations to do after 

 the present supply is exhausted. The coal 

 barons, the oil barons and the gas barons 

 care nothing for the future. All they seek 

 is to fill their money vaults. In the lan- 

 guage of a modern Croesus, "To hell with 

 future generations." 



Our forests could be reproduced if we 

 would. The area of them could be in- 

 creased indefinitely. You can raise trees 

 as easily as you can raise corn, only it 

 takes longer. Then all the more necessity 

 of beginning early to plant, to conserve 

 and to cultivate, 



The x United States Government is doing 

 some good work in this direction, but not 

 half so much as it should. Certain State 

 governments have taken some steps to- 

 ward the protection of forests, but none 

 have done half so much as they should. 

 Unless greater precautions are taken in the 

 near future to check the destruction of 

 the natural resources of this continent, it 

 will in time become as desolate and as 

 impossible of human life as is the desert 

 of Sahara. And the timber barons, the 

 coal barons, the oil barons and the gas 

 barons of this generation will be respon- 

 sible. 



SAM FULLERTON'S GOOD WORK. 

 Sam Fullerton, of St. Paul, is again in 

 harness as executive officer of the Minne- 

 sota State Game and Fish Commission, 

 and is making a great deal of trouble for 

 law breakers. Two of his deputies, Mur- 



68 



