St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-11-16
FOREST ORATORY.
Address by the Hon. Carl Schurz
at the American Forestry Oon-

Address by the Hon. Carl Schurz
at the American Forestry Oon-
gress.
1t gives me great pleasure to congrat-
ulate the forestry congress on the noble
work il has undertaken. / am heart and
soul with them, There is reas, il for
great apprehension as to the fate OF our
forests. | know we are looked upon by
many as amiable sentimentalists, who
have fallen in love with things green
and the trees. The destruction OF the
forests of the country will be The muir
der of its future and its progress.
This is no figure of speech; mean
what say. Know there are people
who turn up their noses and smile when
we point out the lands of the East,
whose countries are barren wastes and
their peoples in misery. They turn up
the nose when we point out Spain, once
strong, Industrious. prOsperO S. now
naked and struggling. But, they say.
what do 1e Americans care about what
is abroad? The laws of nature are the
same everywhere, and there never has
been people or country SO great or
prosperous as to ignore the laws of
nature.
My heart sickens when / see the de-
struction going on in America, and
which has been going on for genera
tiOns. Who destroys? Not the lumber
man who cuts for his personal use and
gain, but the lumberman who wastes as
much, the settler or miner who devas-
tates whole mOuntain-SldeS for few
sticks; wastefulness of the tourist,
the timber thieves, the hunter
and the mining proSpectOr, VIE. building
his campfire, set in flames thousands
Of f.F mil n fnrpSfc
to destruction and devastation, and pub
ic opinion looking on with stOlid indif-
ference while this cruel. disgraceful.
barbarOus spendthrftneSS is going on.
1t is government reckless of the future
of the country which will permit it.
When, twelve years ago, came into
Office as secretary of the interior, l
saw the public lands, and upon them
the remnants of the nObleSt for
ests the world had ever seen. l saw
the forests public property. | saw the
timber thieves not stealing single trees,
but whole forests: mills working in full
blast without single timber that be-
longed to them. l saw lively export
trade. employing scores and hundreds
of vessels. every one loaded with TIM
Der taken from public LANDS, the people
of the United States stopped by few
robbers.
said that timber robbing was not
legitimate business of the country, and
kilograms and letters came pouring iii
on me, and congressman beSieged me
and abused me for interfering with
legitimate business! There / stood,
solitary and alone, without friend to
back me, aud when l went be-
fore congress. as l did. you ought
to have witnessed the sneers about
the outlandish ideas of the foreigner"
''They might fit some picayunish prln-
cipaIity," they said. But we might
learn some good from these same little
German municipalities. l travelled last
year over the same land had seen in
my boyhood days, lands that were
waste. What did l see now? Waving
pine forests.
The laws / proposed came to nothing.
Congress was deaf; deaf were the pe0-
pie. OF the two. Preservation and Res
toration, the former deserves the most
pressing notice. or the words will come
'.Ioo late" 1t seems to me the
policy of the government should
he wherever the forests cover
-the headwaters of great rivers,
the government should keep possession.
If the possession is gone, then regain it.
Look at the valleys of the Hudson and
Mohawk-already the flow of these
rivers is diminished from 20 to 30 per
cent. If the destruction of the forests
continues twenty-five years longer, the
United States will be as completely
stripped as Asia Minor.