St. Paul daily globe., 1895-11-30


cares. "A great deal has been done
by the setting aside of the forest re-
serves now in existence. But thateis
scarcely beginning. While the 4
extension of these reserves is desira-
BILE and pressing, if we are to prevent
the drying up of our lakes and rivers
and the rendering uninhabitable of
large. tracts of now fertile country,
there is no practical sense in creating.
reservations which are not reserved.s
The acts Of congress, making this teri
ritory public property, are not fe-5
spected. There is no force in exist-
ence, and no authority to create any,
whose business it should be to pro-
tect the reservations against the dep
relations of timber thieves, individ-s
ual or corporate. A mere act of con-
gress, drawing line around hum
dreds of square miles Of territory.
forbidding it's alienation and making
it forest reserve, is of no account if
private parties are allowed to fell
timber and carry it away without re- 4
Straint. That is what happens, and
will happen, until we have a forestry
service adequate to protect the TIM
ber on these reserves from spoliation.
1t is admitted by all who are familiar
with the conditions of the forest re-
gions of the United States, that the
area of these reservations should be
extended greatly and their number
multiplied. Before this is done,
however, congress ought to abso-
lutely forbid the issue of permits to
cut timber on the public domain, and
to create a forestry division, officered
and manned by experts, to see that
the nations preserves are protected
from depredations, petty or great.
The third object of interest in Sec
retary Smiths report is the condition
of the Pacific railroads and their
debt to the United States. The sit
udllOI 10 dpOul DIS Odu DIS IL COulu DG.
Congress after congress has ap-
preached the question in the spirit of
the demagogue. There has been one
party lobbying for some bill whose
practical effects would be to release
the railroad corporations from their
debt. Another party has proposed
some method Of enforcing collection
so radical and impracticable that it's
adoption would have been almost
Between these two extremes moder-
ate men have found themselves un-
able to choose. So nothing has been
done, and we are now approaching
the time when the government must
take some action or face the prospect
of losing the greater part if not the
whole of it's claim by reorganiza-
ton under foreclosure of prior lien.
Secretary Smith inclines toward rec
ommending the government to as
sumo the whole responsibility, take
up the first mortgage bonds on the
cent interest on the whole amount of
the first and second mortgages, as an
inducement to some syndicate Of cap
italists to operate the roads as a COM
bined system. ''it3
His idea is that the present f1nan-
cial condition of the properties prom
ises ability to pay 8 per cent interest,
leaving something over and above
for the managers of the concern.
This might be true if the problem
were as simple as he represents it;
but the Pacific roads are encumbered
with vast mass of indebtedness, all
of which is to be taken into account.
Moreover, it is almost an unheard-of
thing for any corporation to be 50
managed by private hands as to
show net earnings when there is
government guarantee Of interest on
it's bonds. We have had enough of
the guarantee business to last us for
all time. To bring within the scope
of that policy the first mortgage
bonds on the Pacific roads, with
which the government has now no
connection,i is astep at which congress
should hesitate. Nooneis quite ready
to say, as yet, what ought to be done.
1t is certain, however, that action
to meet, or it will be too late to do
anything at all. We may hope that
the urgent nature of the emergency
will persuade the two houses to ap-
proach the problem this time in
spirit of craftsmanship, and to ig-
more, in dealing with it, the dema-
gogue on one side and the lobbyist on
the other. The report Of Secretary
Smith, taken altogether, is excep-
tionally interesting, because it deals
with questions Of public policy
which, although non-political in their
nature, are Of the deepest concern to
the nation.
WHAT IS THE GOOD OF 1T?
The action of the treasury de-
partment in Offering to pay express
charges upon gold forwarded to it
in exchange for legal tenders or 9TH