Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-03-26
SOUTHERN GEORGIA.
Forestry. Immigration and the
Railroad COmmissiOn-LetGer srOIn
Col. Carey w. Say les.
Wagcross Reporter.

WaycrOss Reporter
BRUNSWICK, GA March {, 1881
Judge joseph Tllnadn, Editor Waycross Re
Your favor Of the % instant received, and
has caused me serious and earnest thought
on the su jscts therein mentioned.
am much pleased to know that you are
prepared to devote your talent and your
paper to the development and prosperity Of
Southern Georgia, and bid you God-speed
In the noble work.
1t is wide field you have entered and a
great work you have undertaken, but It is a
work that must at once present itself to
every intelligent and rejecting mind as one
of vital Importance to the material interests
of this section OF the State, especially to the
landed and railroad interests of the pine
lands.
have not been an idle spectator of the
rapid denudation or our pine forests by the
lumber and turpentine Industries. Nor has
the consequent prospective barronness and
poverty of Southern Georgia escaped my
solicitude. For long time the subject
has engaged my attention, and last year
had in mind and purpose plans identical
with those mentioned in your letter, but
was deferred from attempting to carry them
out by circumstances l need not mention
here. A number of feeble efforts have been
udut To mdbuIC pun III cIblfb OPERATION
similar plans for advertising the country,
inducing immigration and rescuing the
neglected denuded areas of the pine belt,
but either the time had not come, the
efforts were too feeble, or those most
interested could not be awakened to
the magnitude of the subject or the
necessity for action. Now, however, we are
brought face to face with the danger that
threatens us in the near future, and the time
is ripe for active, energetic, combined effort,
on the part of land owners, mill men, tur-
pentine farmers, railroad companies and all
classes, for the Inauguration of the enter
prise you so earnestly and graphically refer
to. l am the more inclined to reply at
length to your fiattering communication and
to award you such aid as my brain and pen
can give, from the recollection Of our
long friendly relations, and the fact that you
are a pioneer in the cause and now occupy
position to bring it to the front and give
1t prominence, character and success.
The pine tree has no poSterity-his ira
ditions afford no example OF reproduction
In kind, and history furnishes no satisfac-
tory Intelligence Of MS origin. Cut him
down and he is gone forever. His place can
be reoccupied, but it must be by an alien
better and more useful, maybe, but still an
alien. Nearly all the trees known to for
estrY can be reproduced, but the pine never;
and yet mankind throughout all civilization
is engaged in perpetual industrial war
upon his domain, and million axes are to-
day at his base. His doom is sealed. Shall
we supply his place or shall we leave his
grounds to the scorching sun and vast
ing winds? One or two of the Western
States have made forestry the subject
of legislation, and premiums, in the
shape of remission Of taxes, are awarded to
those who plant and grow trees. Our
premiums should take the form of induce
ments to immigrants. Invite them, offer
them facilities, make provision for them on
the soil They will come, they will plant,
they will prosper, and the forest will rise up
again under their touch. You are quite
correct In saying that the demand for our
yellow pine lumber will. in a few years,
sweep away the broad forests of South
Georgia, and leave twenty thousand fquare
miles of the States territory denuded, bar
rem and almost worthless, if steps be not
taken at once to induce immigration, en-
courage soil-tilling and foster forest grow
ing.
The lands from which these grand CID
monarchs OF the forests are being so ruth
lessly cut away by the wants of the world
are highly productive and capable of sus-
tanning a very dense population. These
denuded lands will produce all the cereals,
including rice, are most generous in their
yield OF sugar cane and many of the
valuable grasses and succulents, while their
reward for labor in root crops is simply
prodigal. They are easily reduced to cult.
vation, need but little fertilizing for the
first three or four years, always repay
generous feeding, while the timber spared
by the millman's axe as unfit for merchanta-
BILE lumber, is ample for fencing, firewoOd
and building till forests of oak can be
grown to maturity.
The native population is inadequate to oc-
cupy, cultivate or utilize, Ia any profitable
way the vast areas SO stripped of the timber
and they are consequently left to natures
slow process of scrub development The
owners have no time or inclination TO plant
them, and they are held as comparatively
valueless. They buy for the lumber or the
rosin the trees will yield, and when these
sources of profit are exhausted they remit
them to the lowest rated lands on the tax
digest and let them rest in idleness and SOM,
bre silence. | entertain some half-tormed
ideas as TO the mode and manner of pre-
senting this important question to those di-
rectly concerned and to the people of the
outside world.
Here the writer proceeds to give some
ideas as to the methods of giving form and
pressure to his views.
The railroads, particularly the Savannah,
Florida and Western, are vitality interested
in some such scheme as this, and their in
telligent managers cannot fail to see the
Importance OF seconding your efforts and
aiding you materially In the undertaking. |
regret that the length of my letter precludes
the propriety OF additional observations,
and l must beg your pardon for craving
your patience to this extent; but must not
overlook your remarks relative to the Rail-
road Commission and its extraordinary
powers.
From the first | have entertained the
greatest apprehensions as to the policy of
deleGating to one, two or three men, how
ever capable, pure and upright they NAV be.
such powers and responsibilities as are
claimed to be conferred by the act creating
the present Railroad Commission of Geor-
gia. Surely it was not the intention of the
Legislature to clothe the Commissioners
with legislative and unrestricted powers
to take charge of the railroads and man
age them without ever consulting their
officers or stockholders. Il was too
great risk for wise and virtUous Legislators
to have imposed upon their constituents. |
was in Atlanta during the discussion OF the
measure in the Legislature, and 1t occurred
to me that the most ultra advocates of the
bill desired and intended only to create a
power to arbitrate and adjust differences and
conflicts between antagonizing railroad COM
panies, and between complaining communi-
ties and railroad companies charged with
oppression duQ OleCTlmlnaJlOQ, ana to reQu-
late or prohibit the pooling system. am
not prepared to say that the Commissioners
have transcribed the powers granted
in that remarkable legislative enact
ment, or that they have usurped
powers not delegated to them, but
they have certainly gone far beyond what
was really purposed by the Legislature, and
are at this moment threatening the CON-
mon interests of all the people with greater
evils than ever befell them from monopoly
or discrimination.
The act should be so explained, modified
and guarded as to protect the interests of
railroads, as well as the people, against mis-
takes, caprice, prejudice and arbitrary pow
er, or else repealed altogether ; and am not
clear in my own mind that the best interests
of Georgia do not demand the latter, and
the transfer of the ten thousand dollars now
paid to the Commission to fund for bring
ing immigrants to the State.
| have the honor to be, very truly, your
obedient servant, CAREY w. Styles.
SnNG OF THE NWAWE