Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1904-08-27
MR.. PINCHOT'S RAINBOW

Clifford Pinchot has once again given
voice to his one solitary and, to his way
of thinking, unanswerable argument in
favor of the creation of more forest re-
nerves, to-wit: he is convinced they
are, or should be, good thing and of
benefit to all concerned.
The good forester, with his usual
modesty, which, by the way, is only
manifest on this one isolated point, re-
Trains from stating by what process of
reasoning he arrived at that very desir-
able state of mind. True, he reiterates
the silly contention that the fire patrol
protects the forests from fire, and as a
elincher he relates that while coming
down Lake Occur d'Aiene on his way to
Wallace he counted Is fires" a condi=
ton Of affairs which, according to this
simple man, would be impossible within
the sacred limits of a forest reserve
being apparently oblivious of the fact
that disasterous forest fires are raging
in almost every reserve from Montana
to the Pacific coast, and according to
press reports most of the fires seem to
have originated on the reserves which
are now devastating the adjacent terri
tory thereto.
The Bitter Root reserve is burning
merrily in half dozen widely separated
localities, despite the reserves fire
department" and even the presence of
the superintendent. 1t may be added
here that this fact is not noted in any
spirit of censure toward that gentleman
or his rangers, for it is recognized that
as a factor for the protection of the
forests from fire they figure about as
effectively as they would as lightning
conductors, or as a preventative of
| measles, or cyclone, or Mr.. Pinchot' s
vagaries, or any other visitation of
Providence against which human agency
is not expected to prevail
In the course of the good forester
amiable wanderings (the Idaho Press
says ne is charming conversationalist)
he tries to show, with his usual unhappy
luck, the benefits to be derived by the
mining industry from the forest reserve;
cit prevents the application of the
timber and stone act" by which the
wicked lumber companies would secure
and ship out of the state the timber
needed in the mining industry, and of
fers to the miner the very questionable
alternative of securing his timber from
reserve officials at a price of course,
which in itself is not so Objectionable,
but subject to certain rules, the appli-
cation of which rests largely, if not
wholly, upon the honesty and intelli
gence of some local official who, it i:
reasonable to suppose, will owe his
position to political preferment, anc
who will be in an ideal position to secure
contributions for the ''masheen'
from an already intolerably blackmailet
industry.
Nor is this wholly imaginary cast
supposed for the sake of argument, a.
we of the Bitter Root reserve were
taught in the early days of the reserve
and to which purpose the much vauntet
forest. reserve" idea owes its exis
tence, primarily at least, is the yer,
nearly unanimous opinion of the well
informed westerner. OF course thi
paper does not accuse Mr.. Pinchot O
being possessed by this spirit; he il
merely an impractical visionary. A,
an instance, in an effort to refute tn,
statement that forest reserves operat,
to the detrimeiit of prospecting, Mr.
Pinchot quotes the law of June d, 1897
which, he says, governs forest reserves
We quote: Nor shall anything hereil
prohibit any person from entering upol
any such forest reservations, for al
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