Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-02-25
The Defense of National Property.

Editors Garden and Forest.
The great obstacle III the way of eff
fective action for saving the forests on
understanding of the situation and of
what it requires on the part of the peo-
pie of this country. The problem is
specific, limited and particular. The
matter is not merely topic for leisure
discussion and contemplation. One of
the most important possessions Of the
nation is in imm inent danger of extinc-
ton. An exigenoy now demands imme-
date and effective action, and the only
alternative is ruin.
The plan presented in this journal three
weeks ago, and to which we now recuF,
requires the immediate withdrawal from
sale of all the public lands in the noun
tain forest regions of the Pacific and
Central states, and the employment of
the army Of the United States to protect
these forests from injury and spoliation
until permanent policy for their care
and preservation can be put in operation.
An emergency confronts US, and the
employment Of the army for this work of
national defense is necessity. If one of
our great seaboaFd cities were demolished
by foreign foe, the loss to the nation
would be far less than that which would
result from the destruction of the forests
on the lands now belonging to the nation.
Or, if hundreds of millions were exacted
as the price of escape from bombardment
and obliterating flame, the subtraction
from the national wealth which this
would require would be trivial compared
with the permanent extinction of the
very springs and sources of national
wealth and revenue which would be
caused by the destruction of these forests.
The overwhelming and unanswerable
argument for the adoption of this plan,
and for the employment of the nation g
army for the defense of the nation IS
property, is the fact that it is the only
method which can be made efficient
and successful. 1t is obvious that so
much time would be required to pre-
pare any other administrative ma
chinery and put it in opera
ton, that the forests would be
extinct before the completion of an
elaborate arrangement for their defense.
But here is the best available machinery
for the protection of this invaluable ma
tional property ready to our hands in the
thorough organization and intelligent
efficiency of the army of the United
SUITES us OIHCSTS are superior m6L WHO
have been trained at the expense of tine
nation, and they are already in its paid
service. There is not at present any
other service so important assathis in
which the army can be employed.
As for the official or government work
in forestry in this country, nothing could
be attempted that would SO strongly tend
to vitalize and popularize it, as the sue
cess of the scheme which we have pro-
posed Official persons often justly com
plain that they are not sustained in their
work, as they should be, by public
interest and sentiment. There is no
other way in which intelligent and pub
lic-spirited citizens Gun so efficiently
cooperate with all that isyital in the
forestry work of the national government,
as by urging the adoption of the plan we
have presented-the Immediate with
drawal from sale of all the public lands
in the mountain forest region of the
West, and the employment of the United
States army to guard these forests until
plan for their permanent administration
has been completed.